The Rancher and His Unexpected Daughter (23 page)

“Well, then, why are you acting as if I've gone over to the enemy?”

“You've got it all wrong. I think you're making the worst mistake of your life, if you don't marry him.”

Janet's mouth dropped open. “What?”

“I know why you're turning him down, though. It's not because of all that stuff about Lone Wolf and the land.”

“Of course it is,” Janet insisted.

“It is not. Not really. He told you that stuff didn't matter to him anyway. You're saying no because of your own stupid pride.”

The accusation stung, not because it was unjustified, but because somewhere deep inside it rang all too true. “I don't have any idea what you're talking about,” she said stiffly.

“Oh, puh-leeze!” Jenny retorted. “When you left Daddy, you swore you'd show him you could stand on your own two feet. You're afraid if he hears you're marrying some rich guy, he'll think you've sold out.”

Before Janet could gather her wits to react to that, Jenny went on.

“Do you think it even matters to him what we're doing?” she said with adolescent bitterness. “He never calls. He never comes to see us. The only time you hear anything at all is when he sends a child support check. I think you'd tear that up, if you could.”

It was true. Only the awareness that the money belonged to Jenny kept her from doing just that. Every cent was in an account in her daughter's name, meant for her college education.

“So what's your point?”

“Just that you're afraid if you marry anyone, much less a guy like Harlan Adams, Daddy will see it as an admission that you couldn't make it on your own. Like he really cares,” she said with more of that angry sarcasm Janet had never heard before.

Feeling both bemused and under attack, she asked carefully, “Do you want me to marry Harlan?”

“I want you to be happy, Mom. It's all I ever wanted. And Harlan's a pretty cool guy. I knew that the minute he caught me after I stole his truck. He didn't freak out, like some guys would have. I've been pretty rotten sometimes since and he hasn't hated me for that, either.”

She shrugged. “Maybe I was testing him, to see if he'd be like Daddy and abandon me just because I wasn't behaving suitably.” The last was said in precisely her father's judgmental tone.

Janet sighed heavily. At last the reason behind Jenny's behavior for the past few months was coming clear. She'd lost her father, even when her behavior had been exemplary. She'd been testing, not just Harlan, but before that, Janet herself, to see if they
would abandon her at the first sign of trouble. Now her gaze was fixed anxiously on Janet's face. “So, will you at least think about it?”

“I'll think about it,” she promised.

She did little else for the next twenty-four hours. By morning, she thought she had figured out a way to prove to Harlan that it was him—and him alone—she loved.

W
hen Harlan turned up to take Janet to lunch the next day, he sensed right away that something had changed. He couldn't tell exactly what it was, just a bit more color in her cheeks, maybe a glint of confidence in her eyes.

“I have some papers here for you to sign,” she said when he walked through the door.

He frowned at her businesslike tone. Was she about to get into the land ownership issue, after all? Had she found some blasted loophole she hadn't admitted to the last time they'd talked?

“What sort of papers?” he asked suspiciously.

“It's a legal agreement.”

His wariness doubled. “Who are you representing?”

“Myself.”

His heart slammed against his ribs. So it was about the land.

“Suing me, are you?” he asked, keeping his voice light, when he wanted to lay into her at the top of his
lungs for spoiling everything, for not trusting him to do what was right.

Her mouth curved into a sensuous smile that made his heart go still. If that smile had anything to do with a land deal, he'd eat his hat. But what, then?

“You'd love that, wouldn't you?” she taunted. “You're never one to back down from a good fight.”

“Gets the juices flowing, that's for sure.” He reached for the papers and began to read. His eyes widened at the first line. “A prenuptial agreement? What the hell is this for?”

“It's an agreement between you and me, before marriage, guaranteeing that I won't take a dime of your money if the marriage ever breaks up.”

“Like hell!” he exploded, too furious to even think about the fact that she was apparently agreeing to marry him. He didn't like the terms she had in mind. He didn't like `em one damned bit! “I'm not going into a marriage thinking about how it's going to end. The day you and I get married it will be forever, Janet Runningbear, not one of those blasted things where one of us skedaddles at the first hint of trouble.”

To his astonishment, she chuckled. “I had a feeling you were going to say something like that, so I made a few alterations from the traditional prenup agreement. Perhaps you should read the details.”

He was about to rip it to shreds when a phrase caught his eye. Something about guaranteeing that White Pines would remain with his sons.

“What's this?” he asked.

“Just putting what's right in writing,” she said. “I want to be sure there's never a doubt in your mind
about why I'm marrying you. Read the rest. See how it suits you.”

The next paragraph legalized his adoption of Jenny as his daughter. He couldn't have been more flabbergasted if they'd let him win at poker. He searched Janet's face for proof that this wasn't some sort of diabolical hoax.

“She's sure about this?” he asked, not able to control the hint of wonder in his voice.

“She and I talked it over this morning. It's what she wants. She wants to be your daughter.” Her gaze caught his. “If you'll have her.”

Tears stung his eyes. “It would make me proud to have her call me daddy. Your ex-husband, though, he won't mind?”

“He'll have to be consulted, of course, but I don't see why he would, especially if it would let him off the hook with the child support he sends so grudgingly.”

He couldn't believe that everything was finally coming together just the way he'd imagined. He cupped Janet's face in his hands. “You're dead serious about this? You're not going to back out of this on me, are you?”

She shook her head. “Not a chance.”

“You know we're going to be butting heads every now and then. That's just the way of marriage.”

“So I've heard. Your daughters-in-law have informed me what it's like to be married to a stubborn Adams.”

“Traitors,” he muttered, but he was smiling. He knew he owed the three of them for making Janet take a second look at his proposal and forcing her to shed
her conscience of that secret she'd been keeping. He had a feeling he might owe Jenny, too. She'd promised to intercede in his behalf and it looked as if she had.

He studied Janet intently, not quite able to believe that she was almost his. She was so beautiful she took his breath away. He'd be counting his blessings till the day he died.

“How soon?” he asked.

“How soon what?”

“When can we get married? You want a big to-do or can we sneak off and keep it from those brats of mine?”

“It doesn't have to be big, but I want those wonderful children and grandchildren of yours to be there. We're going to start this off as a family,” she insisted. “No more secrets. Understood?”

“Don't look at me with those big brown eyes of yours,” he accused. “I'm not the one who was hiding what I was up to. You knew from day one what I wanted from you.”

She grinned and looped her arms around his neck. “And what was that?”

“This,” he said, and settled his mouth over hers. He ran his tongue along the seam of her lips until they parted. The taste of her was sweet as peppermints and far, far more intoxicating.

“If you hadn't said yes soon,” he declared when his breathing was finally even again, “I'd have had to kidnap you and haul you off to some justice of the peace.”

“And what if I still hadn't been willing?”

“I'd have used all of my considerable influence to see that the ceremony came off anyway,” he declared, liking the immediate flare of temper in her eyes.

“You can't expect to bully me into giving you your way, Harlan Adams.”

“Who's talking about bullying?” he said, closing a hand gently over her breast and teasing the nipple until he could feel it harden even through the silk blouse and the lacy bra he knew was underneath. “There are other ways to tame a skittish filly.”

His expression sobered then. “I love you, Janet Runningbear. I'll make you happy. For all my teasing and taunting, you can count on that as a solemn promise.”

“I love you, too, Harlan.” The smile she turned on him then was radiant. A bride's smile. “It ought to be downright fascinating, don't you think?”

“What?”

“Our marriage.”

He grinned back at her. “I'm counting on it.”

* * *

Janet stood at the back of the church barely a week later and fussed with her white antique lace dress. “Are you sure I look okay?” she asked Jenny for the thousandth time.

“You look beautiful, Mom. Every hair is in place,” she added, anticipating Janet's next question. She twirled in her own dark rose dress. “How about me? Do I look grown-up?”

“Too grown-up,” Janet declared, wondering where the time had flown.

It seemed only yesterday that her daughter had been small enough to rock to sleep in her arms. And
yet she wouldn't go back for anything. Jenny was going to make her proud one day. She was bright, spirited and intrepid. With Harlan as a father, she could be anything she chose to be.

Lone Wolf would have been satisfied with how far his descendants had come and how far they would continue to go, she thought. Perhaps she had fulfilled her promise to him, after all.

“Isn't it time yet?” Jenny asked. “What's taking so long?”

“Blame me,” Harlan said from the doorway to the church, taking them both by surprise.

“Harlan,” Janet protested. “You shouldn't be back here. It's bad luck.”

“You and I have one last detail to settle before you walk down the aisle,” he said, pulling a thick packet of papers from his pocket and handing them to her.

Janet regarded him warily. “What's this?”

“It's one of those prenuptial things you seem to like so much. I ripped up yours,” he said, handing her the shreds of paper as proof. “I set out a few terms of my own.”

Janet allowed the remains of her prenuptial agreement to filter through her fingers, then took Harlan's papers with a hand that trembled. She wasn't sure what last-minute fears might have driven him to clarify the status of things between them in writing.

“Read it,” Harlan insisted, putting an arm around Jenny's shoulders and giving her a squeeze as Janet began to scan the familiar legal language.

She'd read no more than a clause or two before her gaze shot up to meet his. “This isn't a prenuptial agreement at all. It's a will.”

“I knew a fine lawyer like you would see that right off,” he taunted.

“You're putting Jenny into your will as one of the heirs to White Pines?” she whispered, incredulous.

“She'll be my daughter,” he said firmly. “She's entitled to her share, not just as my daughter, but as a descendant of Lone Wolf's.”

Tears welled up in Janet's eyes. “The land should belong to your sons. They were raised on it.”

“‘Just putting what's right in writing',” he insisted, quoting her. “If things had gone differently a hundred years ago, maybe you'd have been raised on this land. Maybe Jenny would have been born here. I just see that paper as bringing things full circle.”

“She'll probably put a shopping mall on it,” Janet threatened.

Harlan winced, but stood firm. “That'll be her choice,” he said, gazing fondly at Jenny, who was staring at the two of them in stunned silence. “Thanks to you, she has a good head on her shoulders and good, decent values. She'll make us both proud.”

Oblivious to wedding day conventions, which had already been shot to blazes anyway, Janet threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. “Oh, Harlan, I do love you.”

He grinned. “It's a darn good thing, `cause there's no way you'd get out of this church today without saying ‘I do'. I can't wait to walk down that aisle in there, so the whole world will know how proud I am to be your husband.”

“Even if I don't change my name from Runningbear to Adams?”

He winced. “Even then,” he conceded. “You've worked hard to be who you are. I guess you've earned the right to call yourself whatever you want, as long as it's me you come home to at night.”

“Count on it,” she said softly, then took his hand. “Since we've already made a mishmash of tradition, how about walking down that aisle with me to stand before the preacher?”

“Mom!” Jenny protested with a wail. “What about me?”

Janet grinned. “You can still go first. You'll probably have to revive the organist. She won't know what's going on.”

“That's exactly why I'm so anxious to get started on this marriage,” Harlan declared, winking at Jenny. “With your mom around, there's no telling what'll happen next. I expect there will be surprises in store for all of us.”

* * *

The ceremony wasn't nearly as tospy-turvy as their arrival for it, Harlan reflected late that night while Janet was changing into some fancy negligee he was going to take pleasure in stripping right back off.

He let his mind wander over the days and weeks since she'd come into his life and counted each minute among his blessings. He was so engrossed in his memories, he never heard a thing as she apparently managed to sneak up behind him and circle her arms around him.