Fortune's June Bride (Mills & Boon Cherish) (The Fortunes of Texas: Cowboy Country, Book 6) (13 page)

With his boots on.

* * *

The rest of the week passed in a similar vein, leaving Aurora in a constant haze of delight. Fortunately, the soap bar had successfully done its job on the zipper that first night after she and Galen had finally stumbled, exhausted, from the laundry room. She’d gotten out of the dress and mended the fraying satin alongside the zipper using the thread and needle from the sewing kit he’d unearthed from a drawer.

Between the two of them, in the mornings they managed to take care of their more critical ranch chores, then perform four shows a day at Cowboy Country with Galen making his “authenticity consultant” rounds between each, and fall into Galen’s king-size bed at night in a greedy tangle of arms and legs.

By the time Sunday rolled around and they were able to sleep until seven—a nearly unheard-of hour—Aurora knew she’d never been happier in her life.

She just hoped that this time, her happiness didn’t have an expiration date.

“Come on, missy.” Galen sauntered through the back door of his kitchen where she’d been cleaning up after the eggs and biscuits she’d fixed for breakfast, and plopped the straw cowboy hat he was carrying on her head. “Horses are saddled and day’s already wasting.”

She thumbed back the hat, grinning at him. Not surprisingly, Galen was holding true to his suggestion earlier that week that they go to Hollow Springs. “You shouldn’t have showered with me after we finished the chores if you were worried about wasting time.” She draped the damp dish towel over the side of the sink and handed him the plastic-wrapped sandwiches she’d made to take with them, along with an oversize thermos of lemonade.

“All a matter of priorities.” He led the way out the back door and they walked across to the pen where he’d saddled up two quarter horses while she’d been cleaning up from breakfast. He tucked the sandwiches in one saddlebag and the thermos in the other. Then he handed her the reins for the pretty bay. “You can take Esther here. She’s better behaved than Pepper.” He patted the rump of the buckskin crowding next to him, nudging the pushy gelding away. “You need help getting up?”

“Esther.” Aurora tsked. “Such an unromantic name for such a pretty girl.” She ran her hand down the horse’s glossy red coat. “And I’ve been getting myself on and off horses my whole life.” To prove it, she tucked the toe of her tennis shoe in the stirrup and nimbly pushed herself up into the saddle.

He automatically checked the stirrup length, adjusting them up a few notches. “What
should
I have named her? Juliet?” He tucked her toe back in the stirrup. “Better?”

She stood up, testing. Riding in flat-soled shoes was never a good idea, even for an experienced rider, but they were heading to Hollow Springs. She was wearing an ancient swimsuit under her cutoffs, and T-shirt and boots would have just been too hot.

Even Galen was wearing tennis shoes, along with cargo shorts that hung off his hips in a very distracting way. The only thing he hadn’t eschewed was his cowboy hat, though today it was a tan Resistol rather than his usual black Stetson. He took Pepper’s reins and led him on foot out of the pen, waiting until Aurora and Esther came through before pushing the pen gate shut. Then he easily swung into the saddle and Aurora had to stifle a purely female sigh of appreciation.

It was something to realize she’d had to get to the age of thirty before she could fully appreciate the beauty of a man on a horse.

Or maybe it was just
this
man.

Out of habit, she started to reach for her watch locket and the ring that still hung beside it, but she’d left it on the nightstand in his bedroom. The watch was old. Not the least bit waterproof, and after they spent at least an hour on horseback just to get to the springs, she fully intended on getting wet.

Galen took the lead, heading away from the highway and across his land, which stretched out flat and open beyond the barn. Eventually, they’d cross onto his folks’ property, then hers, and after that, they’d follow one of the county riding trails meandering around Horseback Hollow until they reached the springs.

If the horses were poky, it would be a few hours before they got there. If they weren’t, they’d make it in half the time.

Either way, she was happy with the creak of saddle leather, the warmth of horseflesh and the smell of summer grass in the air. Mostly, she was happy watching the easy way Galen sat his horse.

He’d said the only thing he’d ever wanted to be was a rancher. And even though he was only plodding across the land on a pleasure ride, she still could see how natural that choice was. For Galen, horses and cattle and all that went with them were exactly who he was.

She squeezed her knees slightly and Esther picked up the pace until she drew even with him and Pepper. “Race?”

His teeth flashed. “You’ve never ridden Esther. You don’t know what she’s capable of.”

“She’s one of your ranch horses,” she returned. “I’m pretty sure I have an idea.” Without waiting for him to agree, she lightly pressed her heels and she felt Esther’s immediate reaction as her muscles gathered together before she launched forward.

Exhilarated, Aurora sank down in the saddle, clamping one hand on top of her head to keep the hat from blowing off, and laughed as she flew across the countryside on the back of the beautiful horse.

The sight of Aurora’s red hair flying out behind her as she leaned low over Esther’s back nearly took Galen’s breath away.

Like everything else she did, Aurora threw herself into it, body and soul.

Pepper was prancing around, anxious as hell to chase after them. He was ten years younger than Esther and full of eager pride. “All right, pal,” Galen murmured, and let the horse do what nature intended.

It took only a few minutes, and they were drawing even with Aurora, who sent him that whole-body smile that never failed to make him feel good inside.

And then they just rode.

* * *

It was late in the afternoon by the time they finally reversed the trip and started back after spending hours lazing around the swimming hole.

Predictably, the place had been packed, mostly with teenagers who reminded them both of days long past. Aurora could have passed for one of them, as she’d flitted in and out of the water in a faded green one-piece that showed off her slender, fit figure.

Galen had spent less time in the water than she had, more content to sprawl on the bank and watch the young bucks try to flirt with her even more than they were flirting with the girls their own age.

They’d climbed the red rocks above the waterfall, though she’d drawn the line at jumping down into the swimming hole below like some of the more foolhardy kids were doing. Like he and Mark used to do. They devoured the roast beef sandwiches she’d made, guzzled the gallon of lemonade and felt their skin get red from the sun.

All in all, it was one of the most perfect days Galen could ever remember having.

As they rode back, Aurora seemed content to rock along in her saddle as the horses picked their way across the rough dirt trail. When they got to one fork in particular, though, she pulled up on the reins.

Pepper stopped, too, and Galen folded his wrists over his pommel and eyed Aurora.

The right fork took them toward their spreads.

The left would take them toward the back side of the cemetery, which was accessible by car from the highway on the other side.

Her nose was pink from too much sun and her hair was a mess of tangles hanging loose around her shoulders. And the way she was looking left made him hurt inside.

“When’s the last time you went there?”

She finally looked back at him. “His funeral.” Her lips twisted at the surprise he couldn’t hide. “I know. Horrible of me.”

He shook his head. “Wasn’t thinking that at all.” He waited a beat. “You want to go there now?”

She hesitated. “I don’t know.” She chewed her lip. Then her eyes met his. “How can you be sure?”

He didn’t have to ask what she meant. “Your brother wasn’t suicidal, Aurora. It was an accident. A terrible, rotten accident that would never have happened if Mark had had the sense not to get behind the wheel.”

She plucked the stitching on her pommel. “I went off to college. He didn’t.”

He knew where she was going, and felt a knot in his chest. “He was accepted to A&M same as I was.”

“And he didn’t go because of the money.”

He silently apologized to the friend he’d once had. But Mark was gone. And Aurora was very much here. “He got a better scholarship than I did.”

Her eyes widened. “What?”

“He didn’t take it because he didn’t
want
to go,” he said evenly. “He’d only applied in the first place to make your parents happy. I was there when he opened the letter. We were eighteen years old. He made me promise never to tell anyone what he turned down.” Mark had even burned the scholarship letter to make certain it wasn’t seen by anyone.

Her eyes reddened. “Did my parents know?”

“He obviously never told them, or you wouldn’t be thinking what you’ve been thinking all this time.” He sighed. “After he died, there was never a right time to. They were devastated enough without learning that he could have gone to school like they’d wanted.” He willed her not to look away from him. “When you went off to UCLA, you weren’t stealing an opportunity from him, Aurora. You didn’t take anything from him by going off to live your own life.”

She blinked hard and a tear slid down her cheek. “College was a dream of mine. Why would he turn down that opportunity for himself?”

“There never was any explaining your brother,” he murmured. “I should have told you before now.”

She sniffed, finally looking away and swiping a hand over her cheek. “So why didn’t you?”

“Because I wasn’t sure breaking an old promise to him wasn’t just going to cause more hurt.” He’d also been busy lately working on not falling for the man’s little sister. A woman who, for as long as he could remember, had yearned for something other than the kind of life that was in Galen’s DNA.

She absorbed that. “Knowing he had a chance like that and—” She broke off and shook her head. “It would have broken my parents’ hearts even more.” She laid a loose rein against the left side of Esther’s neck and the horse obediently headed toward the right fork, and away from the cemetery.

Galen stifled a sigh. Just because he figured she needed to visit her brother’s grave if only to finally vent her anger or confusion or sadness didn’t mean it was the right thing for her. Only she could decide that for herself.

So he nudged Pepper along after her and they rode back to his place in silence. When they reached the barn, she slid off Esther’s back and replaced the bridle with a halter before unsaddling her. He knew offering to do it for her wouldn’t be welcomed, so he focused on doing the same with Pepper. When she pulled the saddle clear, though, he silently took it from her, carrying both into the tack room, hanging everything over the racks there before wiping a cloth over the saddles. Then he grabbed the bucket of grooming tools and rejoined her outside the barn at the wash rack, where she was already hosing the sweat from Esther’s coat. When she was finished, she handed him the hose and used the scraper from the bucket to remove the water.

“You’re a love, aren’t you,” she murmured as she sluiced water from the horse’s back. Esther looked blissful.

Pepper, not so much. He wasn’t quite the fan of water that Esther was, though he had calmed down some about it since Galen had bought him at auction a few years back. He could have made shorter work of hosing him down, but there didn’t seem to be much rush, and it was uncommonly peaceful working alongside each other.

Eventually they finished, though, and he turned them out to pasture with his three other ranch horses. “Thinking about hiring one of Quinn’s nephews to help out around here.”

They were hanging with their arms over the wood rails overlooking the pasture, and she lifted her eyebrows. “Jess’s oldest?”

He nodded. Quinn’s sister had a passel of kids. All boys except for a baby girl born about the same time as Quinn and Amelia’s Clementine Rose. “Jason can use the money and I can use the help.”

She’d rested her chin on her folded arms and she turned her cheek to look at him. “How old is he?”

“Sixteen. Just got his driver’s license, and Quinn says Jess is tearing her hair out over it. He’s got more energy than she knows what to do with.” Unlike Quinn, Jess and her husband, Mac, were high school teachers. “I thought he could burn some of it off learning how to throw hay bales instead of baseballs.”

She smiled slightly. “Sounds like—” She broke off at the toot of a car horn that made them both jerk around to look back toward the house, where a gleaming black SUV had pulled up next to his dusty pickup truck. “Well, crud on a cracker,” she muttered.

Galen sighed, watching the dark-haired Roselyn St. James climb out of the SUV and wave her hand at them. “My thoughts exactly.”

Chapter Eleven

A
urora watched Roselyn open the rear door of the SUV, and a moment later, her two dark-haired children were on the ground, short legs pumping as they immediately made a break for it. “What could she possibly be doing here now?”

“Don’t know, but I want those kids staying in sight.” He set off to intercept them before they even thought about getting too close to the barn, which Aurora knew wasn’t the least bit childproof.

Sighing, she pushed her hands in her front pockets and headed toward Roselyn. At least she hadn’t appeared with Anthony in tow. From the corner of her eye, she saw Galen grab the twins by their hands and redirect them back toward their mother and safer regions again, and something inside her squeezed at the sight.

Then Roselyn reached her with her typical kiss-kiss hello. “I’ve been calling you all afternoon,” she said brightly.

“We were out.” She found her gaze straying to Galen again. If he ever
did
become a father—

Her wayward thought screeched to a halt.

He’d made it more than plain that he wasn’t one for weddin’ and beddin’, so there was no point in fantasizing about things that weren’t.

She looked back at Roselyn. “Why were you calling?”

“To chat, of course.”

Aurora rubbed her nose that, after the copious amounts of sun she’d had that day, was likely to be peeling before long. “Roselyn, what is going on?” She was tired of pretense. “You didn’t indulge in idle chatting when we were nineteen years old. Why are you pretending now that we’re long-lost best friends when you know nothing could be further from the truth?”

The other woman looked wounded. So sincerely wounded that Aurora’s conscience nipped at her heels.

Then she remembered that Roselyn was an actress. A decent one at that, and Aurora mentally kicked the nipper to the curb.

“That was a long time ago,” Roselyn said after a moment. “You’ve obviously moved on. Eloping and all.” She waved her fingers toward Galen and the twins. They’d stopped off because one of the tots had squatted down to pluck the yellow heads off the dandelions growing through the grass. “Haven’t you?”

Aurora nearly chewed off the tip of her tongue. But she nodded. “I figured you would have left town by now,” she added. Wished, more like, but despite everything, she couldn’t bring herself to be so brutally honest. Particularly when she was lying about being married to Galen in the first place.

Roselyn brushed at her arm, left bare by the bright red minidress she wore. “Mr. Moore just got to town. He hasn’t had a chance to meet with Anthony yet.”

“In other words, you’ve been stuck in Vicker’s Corners for more than a week now?”

“Anthony’s had a lot of meetings.” Roselyn’s lips twisted a little. “There’s nothing to
do
here! How do you stand it?”

Aurora’s gaze strayed to Galen again. He was crouching down, helping the other twin find her share of dandelions as well, letting her drop them into his upturned cowboy hat. “I stand it just fine,” she murmured.

“But you wanted so much more out of life,” Roselyn said. “I might not remember everything, but I remember that. You wanted to act.” Her lips twisted. “I wanted to be a star.” She was watching her children, also. “Men turn everything upside down.”

Aurora couldn’t really disagree. “I’m sure most men would say that about women.”

“How democratic of you.” She was silent for a moment. “Anthony’s having an affair.”

Aurora blinked at the bald pronouncement. “Roselyn.” She opened her mouth again, but nothing came. For the first time, she noticed the tight lines around the other woman’s eyes. Lines that no amount of acting could produce. “I...I’m so sorry.”

“I don’t know why.” Roselyn hadn’t turned her eyes away from her twins. “He had an affair with me while he was with
you
. You hated me for it.” She lifted her shoulder. “I never thought the shoe would be on the other foot.” She tugged at the side of her dress. “But then I never thought I’d be a whale all over again. All I’m doing is getting fatter and aging and you—” She swept her hand out. “You don’t look any different at all.”

“My mirror wouldn’t agree. And you’re not a whale,” Aurora chided. “You’re pregnant.” She didn’t know what to make of this woman. Or the compassion swamping her.

She brushed her hands down the sides of her shorts. She was dusty from the ride and felt positively crinkly. Which was nothing compared to being betrayed by the man whom you should be able to trust most in the world.

She looked Galen’s way again.

He was sitting right down on the grass now with one of the twins on his lap while the other one rained dandelions on top of his head. Then he looked her way, a ruefully indulgent look on his face.

And she knew in that moment that whatever did or didn’t happen between them, she was still going to love him forever.

She folded her arm around Roselyn’s rigidly held shoulders. “Come inside,” she said quietly. “Sit down. Toni and Tiffani will be fine with Galen for a while.”

Roselyn didn’t protest. But she did lean awkwardly over and pull off her high wedge-heeled sandals. “My ankles keep swelling,” she said thickly.

Aurora sighed a little. “Then why wear shoes like that, Ros?”

“Because Anthony likes them.” She was holding them by the leather straps and suddenly tossed them on the ground and walked with Aurora barefoot across the grass to the porch.

Inside the kitchen, she sat wearily on one of the chairs at the table and Aurora pushed a second one close. “Put up your feet.” Then she filled two glasses with ice and the sun tea that she’d left in the window that morning. She added a slice of lemon to each and set one in front of Roselyn. “It’s not decaf,” she warned. “So if you want something else, say so.”

Roselyn shook her head and sipped at the tea.

“Now.” Aurora sat down opposite her. “How do you know he’s having an affair?”

“Because he hasn’t touched me since—” She gestured at her swollen belly.

Aurora circled her hand around the glass. She obviously had no personal experience in marital matters. “Did you ask him? Catch him?”

“He’s smarter than that,” Roselyn dismissed, sounding more like her usual self. “And no, I didn’t ask him. What’s the point when the truth is so obvious?” She didn’t look at Aurora. “I thought it was with you.”

Aurora sat up straight.
“Me!”

“In the last six months, he’s made three trips to Texas without me. He’s
claimed
it’s because he’s looking for a job. Which is pretty hard to believe, considering he never liked anything about Texas.” Her dark eyes flickered up to pin Aurora. “Except you.”

“Roselyn, I haven’t seen Anthony since we were in college.”

“So I insisted on coming with him this time.” Roselyn went on as if Aurora hadn’t spoken. “I decided I was going to see for myself. It was easy enough to find you since Anthony’s kept track all these years.” She ignored the start Aurora gave. “Only once I tracked you down at Cowboy Country, I learn you’re wallowing in newlywed bliss. There’s no way you’d have changed so much that
you’d
be having an affair with one person and marrying another.”

Aurora supposed there was some sort of compliment in there. And given Roselyn’s suspicion, she gave up the thought of coming clean about her and Galen. Heaven only knew what the other woman would think if she learned there was no “newlywed” involved at all. And despite Roselyn’s behavior in the past, Aurora had no desire to upset a pregnant woman.

“Maybe he really
is
looking for a job,” she suggested, instead. “Isn’t that what the interview with Moore Entertainment is all about?”

Roselyn’s lips compressed. She nodded, almost unwillingly, it seemed.

“Have you
talked
to him about it?”

“About the fact that he’s obviously sleeping with someone other than me?” She made another face. “Clearly you don’t understand how humiliating this is.”

Aurora held her tongue on that score. “You were wrong about me,” she said. “Maybe you’re wrong about him. He hasn’t, uh, hasn’t left you. Has he?”

“Of course not.” Roselyn looked even more insulted. “He might not want
me
anymore, but he certainly wants our children.”

“Is this the real reason you canceled out on dinner the other night? Because you’d decided I wasn’t a...a threat?” The very thought of it would have been laughable if it weren’t so sad.

Roselyn didn’t answer. Possibly because the phone on the wall took that exact moment to ring shrilly.

Aurora stared stupidly at it.

“Aren’t you going to answer?”

She smiled weakly and plucked the phone off the hook. “Hello?”

There was a brief pause. Then a woman’s voice. “This is Galen’s mother. Is he around?”

She felt her cheeks heat as if she’d been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. “Hi, Jeanne Marie,” she greeted. “It’s Aurora.” Only Roselyn’s presence edited off the McElroy that she very nearly added. “Galen’s outside at the moment. I can get him for you, though, if you want to hold on a second.”

“Aurora!” There was no mistaking the woman’s surprise though she didn’t come right out and ask
what
she was doing answering her son’s telephone. “No, don’t interrupt him. Just let him know I called.”

“I will.”

“Thank you, dear.” Jeanne Marie’s voice was warm. And then the line went dead and Aurora hung up the phone.

“Galen’s mom,” she told Roselyn, feeling hideously awkward.

“In-laws.” Roselyn’s voice clearly said she was not a fan of them. She put her feet on the floor and pushed herself off her chair. In just the week since that first kiss-kiss at Cowboy Country, her belly seemed to have gotten more prominent. Holding a hand to the small of her back, she went to the window over the sink and looked out.

Then she turned around. “I should go. Anthony thinks I’ve taken the twins back to see the piglets at Cowboy Country’s petting zoo. If they’re not chattering about it when they see him, he’ll know I didn’t.”

“Just ask him, Roselyn.”

The suggestion only earned her a pitying look. “Because he’s likely to tell me the truth? You really are naive, aren’t you?” She went to the phone and quickly wrote out a number on the pad there. “That’s my agent’s personal number in New York,” she said, not looking at Aurora. “She’s a shark and she’s good. You decide you want more than this place, call her. Stage work. Soaps. Commercials. Whatever you’re after, she’ll get you there. Tell her I sent you.” Then she took a final sip of her tea and walked toward the mudroom.

Aurora followed her out, feeling wholly bemused and more than a little helpless. “You’re still staying at the B and B in Vicker’s Corners?”

Roselyn nodded and headed down the steps. “Godforsaken little place that it is, it’s still better than anything else around this area. At least until that hotel finally gets built at Cowboy Country. Toni. Tiffi.” Roselyn called her toddlers, who were lying on their backs looking up at the clouds with Galen almost exactly the way Aurora could remember doing with Mark when she was little. “Time to go,” Roselyn said as she picked up her shoes.

Galen rolled to his feet and the little girls did, too. He dumped several dandelion heads out of his hat and put it back on his head before walking with the twins over to Roselyn and Aurora.

She could see the questions in his eyes that she also knew he wouldn’t voice until Roselyn was gone. “Your mom just called.”

Consternation joined the questions.

“Come on.” Roselyn held out her hands for her daughters. “Let’s go see the piglets.”

The prospect clearly excited them more than dandelions. They nearly fell over their feet running toward the SUV, bypassing their mama’s hands altogether.

Aurora followed, lifting the twins up into the back seat so Roselyn wouldn’t have to. “Roselyn.” She couldn’t believe what she was inviting. “Stay in touch, okay? Let me know how you’re doing.”

Roselyn climbed awkwardly behind the wheel and tossed her shoes onto the passenger seat. “You’re too nice for your own good, Aurora. Someday that’ll be your downfall.”

“I’d like to think it would be the opposite.” She stepped back from the vehicle when Roselyn started the engine, and returned the twins’ enthusiastic waves as she drove off.

Galen tucked one of the dandelions behind her ear. “So what was that all about?”

Aurora told him about Roselyn’s suspicions. “I never thought I’d feel sorry for her, but—” She broke off and shook her head, looking up at him. “I was going to tell her the truth about us, but I didn’t want to upset her any more than she already was.”

“Ever occur to you that she and her husband probably deserve each other?”

Aurora hugged her arms around her waist, trying not to wonder what she’d need to do to deserve Galen.

For real.

“I think she’s really in love with him.” Then she didn’t want to talk about Roselyn and Anthony any longer. “Sorry I answered your phone. It was just ringing, and it would have looked odd for me not to.”

He shrugged. “Not a big deal.” He hooked his fingers through her empty belt loops and tugged her close. “Like her or not, Roselyn’s got some cute little girls.”

“Mmm-hmm. They certainly appeared to be quick fans of yours.” Which made them smart three-year-olds in her book. She flicked a yellow dandelion petal off his shoulder, then slid her arms around his waist, glad that he didn’t know what a mess of gelatin she’d turned to on the inside. “Don’t you ever think about having any of your own?”

“Nope.” He lowered his head and nipped at her bottom lip. “Wanna get nekkid?”

His immediate dismissal of the notion of children wasn’t a shock. More a confirmation of what she’d already told herself. She made herself find a smile, though. “There is a
world
of difference between being naked and being nekkid.”

“I know.” His smile was lazy. “Naked is just being unclothed. Nekkid is being unclothed and up to mischief.” He waited a beat. “So?”

He wasn’t going to suddenly fall in love with her and start spouting hearts and roses and proposals. She knew that. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to grab every moment with him that she could.