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“Bradley? Is he still here?”

“He is.”

“Why? Didn’t you tell him it’s over between you?”

“Lord, but you are so obnoxious. Do you want a blueberry muffin? They’re fresh from this morning.”

Linc grinned. “Perhaps I am, but I want to know why you didn’t tell him.”

“I never said I didn’t tell him. The truth is I did tell him.”

“What did you say?” He nodded toward the muffins and said, “Give me two.”

“I said I couldn’t marry him.”

“And what did he say?”

“How is any of this your business?”

Linc blinked in confusion. “He said that?”

Abby laughed. “If you must know, he asked, ‘Why?’”

“And you told him about us?”

“I told him I couldn’t marry him because I didn’t love him.”

“And you never said anything about us?”

“There is no us. I told you before I’m going back east once my mother gets married.” She nodded toward the two muffins. “You want butter on those?”

“Abby, I’m not completely well. Don’t make me come from a sick bed to follow you back to New York.”

She frowned. “You should take a nap. You need to regain your strength.”

“Don’t change the subject.”

“What subject?”

“Why didn’t you tell him about us?”

“I might have had there been an ‘us’.”

“So now what? You’re being a wise guy?”

Her gaze narrowed. “You’d better get back to bed. You’re talking gibberish.”

“I’m telling you that I love you, and you’re not going anywhere.”

“You hardly know me; of course, you don’t love me.”

“Don’t tell me what I feel. I love you, and I know you love me.”

“I don’t,” she insisted.

“You do,” he countered.

“Fine, now go back to bed,” she said with a careless shrug.

“Only if you come with me.”

Her eyes widened with fear as she watched his skin grow pasty white. “Can’t you make it up the stairs? I’ll get your brother.”

“I can make it.”

Linc stood. A moment later, he found himself coming from a faint sprawled upon the kitchen floor, his head in Abby’s lap. “Jesus, what the hell?”

“You fainted. I told you you weren’t strong enough to get out if bed.”

“I’d be happy to stay in bed if you’d join me.”

Linc turned toward the sound of laughter as his brother Jeb reached under him and brought him into his arms. “The next time the lady says ‘Stay in bed’, you’d best listen. I ain’t got the time to carry you around. Besides, you ain’t light, you know.”

For a lady who claimed she didn’t care, Abby certainly had enough to say about the way the man carried his brother. “Watch out! Don’t hit his head. God, you almost walked into the wall. Pay attention to what you’re doing.”

“You sound just like your mother, little lady. I’m thinkin’ you’d best get yourself your own man to bother. One snotty woman is enough for me.”

Linc grinned as those words quieted her. She shot her soon to be step-father a nasty look as he left the room.

“If he thinks I’m going to thank him after that remark, he’d best think again.”

“You did sound a little like her, you know,” Linc teased.

Abby’s gaze narrowed. “He almost hit your head into the wall. Next time, I promise you, I won’t say a word. I’ll just let him bash your brains out.”

Abby moved to storm out the door but relented at Linc’s weak, “Wait, please, don’t go.”

Instantly, she was beside the bed again. “What? What’s the matter? Are you all right?”

“Marry me, Abby, please?”

“Oh God, I didn’t want this.”

“I know, but you can’t help it any more than I can.”

“All right, let’s talk about this reasonably. What are you going to do for a living?”

“I take it you wouldn’t be happy if I were a sheriff.”

“You’d be taking that right.”

“All right. We’ll buy a ranch. Anything you want will be fine with me.”

“Right, so you can complain about how I forced you to—”

“I swear it doesn’t matter. Only you matter. Only having you matters. I don’t care if I have to pick cotton. As long as I have you, I’ll be happy.”

“Are you sure?” she asked, her doubt quite a bit lessened in strength but still in evidence.

“Very sure.”

“All right.”

“All right what?”

“All right, I love you,” she finally admitted.

Linc grinned. “Damn, I knew my little sick act would work.”

Abby gasped.

“No, don’t hit me. I was only teasing.”

Abby sat at his side. “You truly are a beast.”

“I love you.”

Abby played with the dark hair that came over his white bandage. “I can’t imagine why, but I suppose, I love you, too.”

“And you’re going to marry me?”

Abby only shrugged, unwilling to see this man gloat.

“There are things a lady could do to prove she loves her man.”

Abby chuckled a low, knowing sound. “Like getting him a cup of tea?”

Linc suddenly came up to lean on one elbow. “I just thought of something.”

“What?”

He threw back his covers and said, “Help me get dressed.”

“Lay down. You’re not going anywhere.”

“If you’re not marrying Bradley and told him as much, why is he still here?”

Abby shrugged. “Maybe he likes my mother.”

Linc gave her a hard look. “Where is he every day? What’s he doing with himself?”

“How should I know? He has business here, I think.”

“Does he? What kind of business?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, what does he do for a living?

“He works with investments. Railroads, land development, mining, that kind of thing.”

“Railroad and mining? And he just happens to have some sort of business out here?”

“What are you getting at?”

“Just thinking. How long is he gone during the day?”

She shrugged. “A few hours.”

“And you never wondered where he went?”

“Linc, you’re talking in circles. Why would I wonder something like that?”

“Let’s take a look at his room.”

“You can’t do that. What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking that if the lady I was to marry suddenly said she no longer wanted to marry me, I wouldn’t be sticking around. Why is he?”

She pressed against his shoulders, pushing him back to the bed. “You can’t get up again. Damn you. You’re going to fall on your face.”

“Get my brother.”

“Only if you promise—”

“Fine, I promise. Now, get him.”

“If I come back here and find you—”

“Just get him. Hurry up.”

Moments later, Jeb stood beside Linc’s bed. A few words were exchanged and Jeb nodded, at his brother’s urging, “Take a look.”

“Abby, take my gun and keep watch,” Linc urged.

“What am I going to do with it? Do you think I could shoot him, just because he came back to his room?”

“Fine, just hurry, Jeb.”

Moments later, Jeb reentered Linc’s room with a packet of papers in his hand. He handed a paper to Linc and said, “Says there he’s the president of a company that has holdings in mining all around this area. Appears there’s bit of gold in these parts, and Bradley’s company apparently wants it. Says he’s made offers for the land, but they were refused.”

“The ranchers?” Linc asked. “The ones that were burnt out?”

Jeb nodded. “Look at the map. I think those ranches were on some prime land.”

“Oh my God,” Abby groaned. Her weakened knees forced her to sit at Linc’s side. “And I almost married him.”

“No, you didn’t. You’re marrying me.”

Jeb grinned as he turned toward the door. “I’m going to get the sheriff. I think we’ll wait downstairs for your fiancé and leave you two to fight that out.”

“Wait! What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to arrest Bradley and charge him with the crimes he’s committed against the ranchers in this area. Even if you wanted to, there’s no way you can marry him, at least not for the next ten or twenty years.” Just before he left the room, he added, while nodding toward his brother. “Take it easy on him, Abby. He’s a sick man.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” she returned almost to herself.”

Linc chuckled a low wicked sound. “I need you down here. I need you to tell me you love me.”

“You’re pathetic. You want my sympathy?”

“I’ll take anything I can get.”

Abby lay at his side above the covers. She hadn’t a doubt her mother would be up here in a few minutes. All Jeb needed to do was tell Lilly what Linc had said about Abby marrying him, and she’d would want to know for sure. Abby leaned her head on her raised hand and looked down at his pitiful expression. “What am I going to do with you?”

“Should I show you?”

“You beast.”

“Tell me you’re going to marry me.”

“I should marry you. It would serve you right. Then I could make you suffer every day of your life, just for being an obnoxious beast.”

Linc laughed and hugged her tightly to him. “Your mother’s going to be here in a second.”

“I know.”

“So what are you going to tell her?”

“I’m going to tell her that I love her soon-to-be brother-in-law. And we’ll probably be married within a few weeks.”

“People will start to talk.”

“Why?”

“First, my brother Jack then Jeb and now me. That’s odd, don’t you think?”

“I think most people will be happy to know there are only three brothers. The ladies around here couldn’t take any more.”

About the Author

Patricia Pellicane lives with her husband on Long Island in New York. Her six children live in neighboring towns as do most of her fifteen grandchildren.  Her favorite hobby is reading. Patricia insists her ideas for stories come while doing dishes. “Could anything be more boring? It’s nearly impossible to keep your mind from wandering.” In a recent interview she was asked. How hard or easy is it for you to write? Patricia returned with, “Someone once wrote. ‘Writing is easy. All you have to do is put a sheet of paper in a typewriter and stare at it until blood forms on your forehead’.  Sometimes writing is exactly like that. And other times it’s a wondrous happening where words flow from mind to fingers to computer screen almost without conscious thought. It doesn’t matter which way it works for you. Once a writer begins the journey, they’re hooked. It’s a drug and you can’t stop looking for that next story, that next high.”