Lone Star Wedding (8 page)

Hannah, Adrienne and Angie all leaned forward in their seats, intent upon Rosita's tale. “The new filly and Madisha were grazing peacefully, when another horse, beautiful but fierce and mean, approached at a gallop. The horse reared up as if in a rage, kicking Madisha and the filly, biting them, inflicting terrible pain. Madisha and the filly tried to get away, but the evil horse was more cunning and swift. Suddenly a horrible screech split the air. A huge bird of prey, part condor, part monster, I think, descended upon all three horses. There was a terrible scream, and then only silence. The meadow was empty. All three horses were gone, a single trail of blood the only evidence that they had been there at all.”

Adrienne uttered the Lord's name, which prompted Rosita to make the sign of the cross.

“Sorry. I think I prefer my cousin's ghost.”

“What do you think it means?” Angie asked.

Rosita shook her head. “I do not know, but it is not good.”

Hannah placed her hand over her racing heart. It did little to alleviate the fear and dread the dream had instilled deep in her chest.

Adrienne said, “I'd planned to give you everything to make the chicken-fried steak wonderful, but I intended to leave out my own personal, private ingredient. Goodness gracious. After the night you had, I think I'll give you the secret ingredient, too.”

Rosita perked up considerably. “There is a secret ingredient?”

Reaching into her bright purple purse, Adrienne pulled
out a recipe card. Rosita studied it carefully. “Batter-fried steak? How can this be good for a man's heart?”

“Who's to say what's bad for a man's heart?” Adrienne replied. “I guarantee this is good for a man's soul. Y'all serve a mixed-green salad the size of an ice-cream scoop with it and people will think they're eating healthy.”

Rosita nodded knowingly. Adrienne and Hannah rose to leave.
“Gracias,”
Rosita said, her color returning. “And the secret ingredient?”

Hannah smiled, and Adrienne strolled across the room and whispered something in Rosita's ear. Rosita's eyes widened.

Adrienne said, “If that doesn't do the trick, I'll ask Gerard to come here and prepare his own tureen of duck for Ryan. It's to die for. He does a mean stuffed lobster, too.”

“You make this for your man and then you make wedding plans,” Rosita exclaimed.

“I don't have a man. Besides, Hannah's the wedding planner,” Adrienne answered. “She's also the one who's recently been thoroughly kissed.”

“Ah, yes, I saw Hannah and Señor Malone on the garden path.”

Suddenly, Hannah felt like a deer trapped in headlights. Releasing a long, audible breath, she didn't see any reason to explain that whatever might have been between her and Parker was over. Besides, after that fiasco with him in her apartment a few days ago, she doubted she would ever see him again.

“Actually,” Rosita said, “I see romance in the near future for both of you.”

Hannah was even with the doorway, Adrienne close behind. “You see a prince charming for little ole me?” Adrienne said, laughing.

“Not charming, and not young, I think. Cunning like a fox, with teeth as sharp as a wolf's.”

“What do you mean, not young? How ‘not young'?” Adrienne asked.

“You will see.”

“You're telling me I'm going to fall in love with a cunning,
older
man with sharp teeth?”

“
Sí,
and a sharp mind. Similar to Hannah's suitor. A pair. A matched set.”

Adrienne gasped. Hannah couldn't even do that. She was too busy stopping in her tracks as she came face-to-face with Parker Malone.

T
he sound of that prenuptial agreement hitting the bottom of the wastebasket was still ringing in Parker's ears as he walked into the foyer. At the same time, Hannah entered the room from the opposite side. Both froze in stunned tableau.

Parker was the first to recover. Ryan squeezed past him with little trouble, but there seemed to be a bottleneck in the doorway behind Hannah. Adrienne Blakely, Rosita Perez and another young woman Parker hadn't met ran into Hannah from behind, shoving her unceremoniously forward.

Toward him.

Her chin came up a fraction, her shoulders a good deal more. She took a quick, sharp breath, maintaining a cool reserve even in her obvious surprise. She was angry at him. Fine. Parker had intended to remain aloof anyway. After all, he was the one who'd had the door slammed in his face. As far as he was concerned, that gave him a hell of a lot more right to be angry than her. He stared at her boldly, challenging her to make something of it.

There was a slight scuffle behind her, and then a sultry voice with a distinctly Southern drawl filled the foyer. “If y'all are right, and there really is romance in my immediate future, I could use some of that antacid you mentioned earlier, Rosita.”

Rosita smiled, looking much better than she had when
Parker had arrived an hour ago. Adrienne's smile slid away the instant she noticed him. Evidently, Hannah had told her friend about the way his date with Hannah had ended.

Turning his attention back to Hannah, he was beginning to question his timing. How often could one man run into one woman? And how long could the strained silence stretch between them?

“Hannah, my dear, there you are.” Ryan strode to the center of the foyer and took one of Hannah's hands. “Your mother is in the stables with the new filly.”

“That's nice, Ryan.”

Parker thought she seemed distracted, which proved that she wasn't as unaware of him as she wanted him to believe. It didn't, however, change her cool reserve.

“I know she would love to see you,” Ryan was saying. “Why don't you go out and say hello?”

Parker gave everyone in the room a quick glance. Rosita was speaking in hushed undertones to a young woman wearing an apron. Adrienne seemed to have recovered from her initial surprise and was watching
him
closely. As far as he knew, Hannah hadn't looked at him since that first moment when she'd entered the foyer. She was giving him the old cold shoulder.

He could handle that. In fact, he could top it. After all, he was…

Intrigued.

The hell he was.

An unwelcome tension settled over him. Intrigue such as that could only lead to complications. And complications such as that would be confusing. And there was no place in his life for confusion. He told himself he wasn't intrigued. And he meant it. He was…

Attracted.

Damn. That was worse. His mouth set in annoyance at his sudden change in body temperature.

Ryan was still talking. Raking a hand through his hair, Parker admitted that it was a good thing nobody had left the responsibility of carrying the conversation up to
him.

“Why don't you go out to the stables and say hello?” Ryan said to Hannah.

“In these shoes?”

Although she cleared her throat and pretended not to be affected, Parker would bet the law practice that she recognized the excuse as the serious mistake that it was, because it drew attention to her feet. He would have to be a fool not to take advantage of the golden opportunity she'd given him.

No fool, Parker let his gaze take a slow dip down her body. She was wearing a simple short-sleeved shirt tucked into camel-colored slacks. Lightweight and pleated, the material draped elegantly over her legs, delineating the shape of one thigh, the narrow little ridge of her knee, and the slender bones in her ankles. She was right about the shoes. Smooth leather numbers with open toes and clunky heels weren't exactly the kinds of footwear suited for trudging through barnyards.

He wondered if she ever wore jeans and tennis shoes. He rarely did. Chinos or khakis and last year's loafers were his casual attire. Still, he wondered what Hannah wore for fun. Fleetingly, he wondered what she did for fun.

Obviously she didn't get into casual sex. His mouth set in annoyance all over again.

“I'd love to, Ryan, really I would,” she said. “But I'm afraid I can't. I rode out here with Adrienne.”

Ryan's attention swung to the eccentric blonde. Parker followed suit. Noting her attire for the first time, he nearly did a double take. A leather skirt in July?

She tucked her chin-length blond hair behind her ear and chewed on one bright pink fingernail. “Hannah's right,” she said. “As much as we would love to stay and visit with y'all's new horse, my chef is expecting me back at the restaurant shortly.”

Ryan smiled disarmingly. Adrienne stopped chewing on her fingernail and began twirling a lock of hair, her blue eyes going wide. Parker wondered if he was the only one who knew it was an act.

“Parker,” Ryan said, “you're going straight back to the city, aren't you?”

Parker felt his eyes narrow. “I'd planned to, yes.”

“Perfect,” Ryan said, turning his attention back to Adrienne. “You can return to your restaurant immediately, and Hannah can ride back to San Antonio with Parker after she's said hello to Lily.”

Adrienne glanced from Ryan to Hannah then back to Ryan.

Ryan had the audacity to wink at her. “Don't worry,” he said. “Hannah will be in good hands.”

“So I've heard.”

It was Ryan's turn to grin. Turning to Hannah, he said, “Do you trust Parker, my dear?”

She looked at Parker grudgingly. “I suppose.”

Ryan slapped his hands together, as if it was all settled. The next thing Parker knew, Rosita was seeing Adrienne out through the kitchen. He and Hannah had little choice but to follow Ryan out another door, around the beautifully kept courtyard on the opposite side of the house, to the driveway where Parker's car was parked.

The sun was hot, the air heavy with humidity. Cattle lowed far in the distance. Other than the low buzz of a bee nearby, the only sound Hannah heard was the soft scuffle of three pairs of shoes on the flagstone walkway. The barns
were nearly half a mile away, the stables only slightly closer. Wondering how she'd gotten herself into this, she glanced at Parker. He was stone-faced.

Waving as Adrienne drove past her on her way down the long, curving driveway, Hannah was sure Ryan noticed his divorce attorney's discomfiture. Instead of commenting on it, Ryan stopped at the edge of the driveway and said, “This is where I will bid you goodbye.”

“You aren't coming?” she asked.

“I'm afraid I can't,” Ryan explained. “I'm expecting an important phone call. You two go ahead. Take this driveway to the stables. Oh, and Hannah? Your mother spoke with Maria over the telephone last night. I'm sure she would like to tell you about it.”

He turned on his heel and disappeared inside the house. And Hannah and Parker were alone. They stared at each other for several seconds. Crossing her arms and tapping one foot, she said, “We've just been effectively manipulated.”

Parker made a derisive snort.

“I don't mind the fact that Ryan's shrewd,” she said. “It's the conniving part that gets to me.”

Parker knew the feeling. Damn, he felt the way he did when an opposing attorney produced an incriminating slip of evidence on a case Parker had believed was open and shut. Shaking his head, he said, “Ryan Fortune didn't acquire his billions playing the lottery.”

He strode to the passenger door of his dusty red car. “You might as well get in. Like you said, it would be a hell of a walk in those shoes.”

She clamped her mouth shut and got in.

 

Hannah remained aloof during the short drive to the stables. She was a reasonable woman, and she had good
reason for her cool reserve. She spoke when spoken to, answering Parker's questions with a word or two, but she added nothing to his attempt at conversation. Her stoicism brought back her sense of control.

She'd done a lot of thinking after he'd left her apartment the other night…okay, after she'd pushed him from it. Parker Malone elicited strong feelings, some good, some bad. The fact was, she reacted to him. He brought out the best and the worst in her. Take his smiles, for instance. They warmed her, and made her smile in return. Then there was his intelligence. She didn't always agree with the things he said, but when it came right down to it, he made her think. And his kisses. What they did to her was pretty incredible. Whoa. She decided then and there that she wouldn't think about Parker's kisses. Instead, she concentrated on his opinions. He was very stubborn about his views. He saw the world as black and white, marriage and divorce, a beginning and an end. She doubted forever was even in his vocabulary. That was the bottom line. That was why she couldn't give in to all the positive things about him, all the favorable reactions she had to those positive things. That was why she opened the door and got out of the car before Parker had shut off the engine. Sadly, Parker Malone was too big a risk to her heart.

A couple of the cowboys who worked for Ryan tipped their hats as she strode past them in the stable. “You must be Lily's daughter,” one of them said.

A genuine smile, the first in several minutes, lit her face. “Do you know where my mother is?” she asked.

The cowboy motioned to a doorway on the far wall. “She's in the east corral with the new horse.”

Hannah thanked the young hired hand. Being careful where she walked, she went in search of her mother.

As it turned out, she wouldn't have needed directions. All she had to do was follow the sound of Lily's voice.

“There, there. That's it,” Lily murmured to the baby horse. “You're a dainty little thing, aren't you?”

Hannah raised her eyebrows at that. Dainty? The tip of the black filly's head already reached Lily's shoulder, which she bunted in a way that most definitely was not dainty.

“Hi, Mom.”

Lily's face shone when she turned. “Hannah. Hello. Where's Adrienne?”

“She already left for town.”

Her mother raised her exotically arched eyebrows. “How will you get back to San Antonio?”

“Parker has agreed to drive me.”

“Parker?”

“It was Ryan's idea.”

Lily chuckled. “That sounds like Ryan. What do you think of my new baby?”

“She's very…energetic.”

“She just hasn't learned her manners, yet. I'm glad you're here. It's time I came up with a name for her. Any ideas?”

Hannah cocked her head to one side, strolling out into the corral. The horse was dark black, like the mare hovering nearby. Her coat was shiny, her legs long and thin. Hannah knew there was a huge segment of the population who had a passion for horses. Her mother was one of them. For a time, Maria had been wild about the creatures, but as with so many of Maria's hobbies, it had been a passing phase.

Hannah studied the foal. The only names she could think of were names she'd heard on the news or in the movies. Flicka, Black Beauty, High Stepper, Possum, Morning
Glory. Since this particular filly was black, Midnight seemed fitting, although more than a little trite. “What have you considered and discarded so far?” she asked.

Lily rubbed the filly's knobby head. “With that white mark in the middle of her forehead, an obvious name would be Lily. But I simply can't name her after me. I've considered Lilith, it means ‘of the night,' and Leila, which means ‘dark as night,' and Lisha, ‘darkness before midnight.' But she's too pretty to be named after darkness.”

Hannah shrugged one shoulder, and cautiously held out a hand to stroke the animal's short mane. “Linda is the Spanish word for pretty.”

“A horse named Linda?” Lily asked.

Hannah grinned. “You'll come up with something, Mom. In the meantime, she's lucky to have so much love and attention.”

Mother and daughter both paused. Their gazes met, and they both grinned. “Lucky,” Lily said. “Why, that's perfect, especially since lately I feel like the luckiest woman alive. Look here, Lucky. Atta girl. What do you think? Are you feeling lucky today?”

The filly batted her inch-long eye lashes flirtatiously. For a moment she reminded Hannah of Maria. “Mom? Ryan said you talked to Maria last night.”

“Thank goodness I finally reached her.”

“How is she?”

“She sounded good,” Lily said, her fingers slipping into the back pockets of her jeans, her eyes delving into Hannah's. “Better than she has in a long time.”

Lily's relief was evident in every feature. Her brown eyes shone with affection, not worry, her smile was soft-looking and serene. Hannah heaved a heartfelt sigh. Maria had always been plagued with dark moods. She was easily bored and easily angered. Lily used to say her youngest
child was like the girl in the nursery rhyme who had a little curl in the middle of her forehead. When she was good, she was really very good, but when she was bad, she was horrid. Hannah smiled at the memory. On her good days, Maria had been such fun. And on her bad days…well. Hannah had spent more time worrying about her younger sister than about everyone else in the family combined.

“Is Maria seeing anyone?” she asked her mother.

For a while now Hannah had suspected that her sister was involved with a married man. What other explanation could there be for her obsessive desire for privacy and seclusion?

“I don't know, dear, but she's agreed to come to the ranch for a visit. Ryan suggested we make it a celebration. We're both hoping it will allay Maria's fears and reservations about him.”

“I think that's a good idea, Mom.”

“You'll come, won't you?”

“You know I will.”