Three Reasons To Wed

Marissa had a wonderful afternoon with the girls. She took them to see Aunt Violet at the hospital and stayed for a while, then afterward they all got their nails painted at the beauty salon in town before going to the Muffin Box café for a shared plate of home-style sweet potato fries followed by pear-and-pecan-flavored mini cupcakes and vanilla bean milk shakes.

By the time she pulled up outside the ranch house, it was five minutes to four. Grady came out onto the porch, wearing jeans and a T-shirt that showed off his well-defined physique. He was broad in the shoulders and narrow in the hips and waist and well muscled. Not the kind of muscles from a gym as her ex-husband had boasted about...but from his years of working the ranch. From repairing fences and hauling hay bales and rounding up cattle on horseback. There was something so elementally masculine about him it was impossible to ignore. And the purely female part of her that registered an attractive man was on the radar was quickly on full alert, even if it was Grady. She’d have to be a rock not to notice he was attractive.

“Daddy!”

Milly was out of the car and up the steps in a flash, holding out her sparkly fingernails as if they were the greatest of treasures. She watched as Grady crouched down and examined Milly’s nails and then ruffled her hair. Breanna was a little more subdued, but still happy to share the day’s events with her father. She took out the girls’ pink and purple backpacks, grabbed her own handbag and walked toward the steps. The girls were now inside and Grady stood alone on the porch. There was such scorching concentration in his stare she could barely handle meeting his gaze.

“I take it a good day was had by all?” he asked as he came down the steps and held out his hand to take the bags.

“Yes,” she replied, suddenly breathless.

“Including you?”

She nodded. “Including me. They were very well behaved, even after I plied them with sugary food and drinks.”

His expression narrowed for a moment and then he grinned. “I don’t believe that for a second.”

She shrugged. “I took them to the Muffin Box, so it was a healthy alternative. We had healthy cupcakes and soy milk shakes. I see that the O’Sullivans bought the place from the original owners.”

“Yeah,” he replied and swung the backpacks over his shoulder. “Too much competition for the café they had added to the pub, so they bought them out. Now they have the monopoly in town.”

“Shrewd.” She crossed her arms. “I guess they’re happy about the towns merging?”

“They haven’t any reason to complain. They own the biggest hotel in town and bought most of the commercial real estate on the Riverbend side of the bridge. A bigger, more economically viable town means more money in their pockets.”

“I gather the relationship between you and them hasn’t changed?”

She knew Liz’s family hadn’t really approved of Grady. He was a rancher, a cowboy, and they had wanted their only and beloved daughter to go to college. But Liz had been adamant. She had wanted to stay in the small town and become a rancher’s wife. The O’Sullivans were old money from Riverbend, and as well as Liz they had three sons. One who ran the hotel and pub in town, another who was a doctor in Sioux Falls and the third who was a music producer in LA. It didn’t matter that Grady’s ranch was one of the largest and most successful in the county. They had wanted a certain life for their daughter, and since Liz’s death their resentment had amplified. Marissa admired Grady’s resilience, though, as he still ensured the girls spent time with Liz’s parents and siblings.

“No,” he said after a moment. “But I don’t get so worked up about it these days.”

“I’m not sure why they didn’t approve of you. Liz said it was because they wanted her to go to college, but she was never all that interested in hitting the books. She liked to be outside, in her garden or riding her horse.”

“Yes,” he said, shifting on his feet. “She sure did look good in the saddle.”

Marissa smiled. “I used to envy the way she could ride like that...sort of fearless.” She crossed her arms. “Now I’m back for good, I should probably learn how to ride. Maybe I can trade some babysitting duties for lessons?”

His gaze widened. “You want me to teach you to ride?”

“Why not? You’re pretty good on a horse, right?”

His mouth creased at the sides. “I do all right.”

“And until you replace Mrs. Cain, you probably need all the help you can get in the babysitting department, right?”

“I guess so.”

“You get a complimentary sitter and I get to learn a new skill. I’d like to be able to go riding with the girls. They were telling me today how much they love their ponies.” She noticed he was watching her intently, and she wondered if she’d said something she shouldn’t have. It was impossible to tell with Grady. “Unless you’d prefer I didn’t. I mean, I know that was something Liz used to do with them and if you think I’m overstepping my—”

“I think they’d like it very much,” he said, cutting her off.

She nodded. “Okay. Although, I’ll probably end up landing on my behind. I’ve never been all that athletic. Liz used to beat my socks off in track in high school.”

“Yeah, she was quite the athlete. But if it’s any consolation, she used to envy your long blond hair.”

“My hair?”

He reached out unexpectedly and touched her hair for a second, twirling a few strands around his fingers, then quickly snapped his hand back, as if he’d come into contact with a hot poker. The mood between them seemed to shift on some kind of invisible axis. And even though there was a breeze, Marissa turned warm all over. It stunned her that he had that effect on her—and it made her want to run. But she stayed where she was and sucked in a breath.

“She always wanted straight hair.”

Marissa remembered Liz’s mass of fiery red curls fondly. Once, when they were teens, they had tried to iron it straight. She still remembered Aunt Violet’s despair at finding them in the bathroom, water running everywhere as they tried to douse Liz’s smoldering locks underneath the faucet.

“Her hair was beautiful,” Marissa said.

“I know that,” he said and smiled fractionally. “She was beautiful inside and out.”

There was pain and longing in his voice, and Marissa’s heart constricted. “I still miss Liz every day.”

“Me, too,” he said.

Marissa’s throat tightened. They’d talked about Liz many times during the past two and a half years, and yet she still felt the emotion rise up. It would always be like that. Liz was one of a kind. And her one true friend in the whole world.

“She was so...grounded. So sensible. Exactly the friend I needed as a teenager growing up. My mother had just died and since I never knew my dad... I guess that’s why I was drawn to her. Her life was so different from mine, and yet we became firm friends. I guess she seemed to have this picture-perfect family.”

“Nothing is perfect. Her parents put a lot of pressure on her. I think that’s why she...” His words trailed and he grinned ruefully. “You know.”

“Rebelled and married you? But she adored you.”

“It was mutual. She made loving easy.”

Marissa’s heart tightened. She’d longed for that kind of love. She’d never seen it firsthand until Liz and Grady had gotten together and married. Her mother had raised her alone until Marissa was twelve, and Aunt Violet had never married. Her father, whom she only knew was some random cowboy who’d drifted through town, was never mentioned. Whenever she’d asked Violet, her aunt had told her to leave the past where it belonged. When she’d married Simon, Marissa believed she’d found the kind of love and family she was looking for—until he betrayed her with another woman.

Shaking off the memories, she focused on Grady. “I know she did. Liz had a great capacity for love...and a big heart.”

“A weak heart, as it turned out,” he said soberly.

Marissa nodded. The car accident that had landed Liz in the hospital was a result of a virus that had caused a massive heart attack. At just twenty-nine, she died three days later from a second attack. Six weeks after the birth of her third child, with her husband and family at her side.

“I’ll always marvel at her strength that day,” Marissa said quietly. “She knew... She knew she was so very ill, and she still made the time to talk to me and Aunt Violet. The last thing she told me was about you.”

One brow rose. “It was?”

“Yes. She asked me to make sure you weren’t sad all the time.”

“Well, I’m not,” he said and smiled. “The girls make that impossible.”

“I know. And they adore you. You’re a good dad.”