Hawk's Way: Rebels: The Temporary Groom

CHAPTER TWO

CHERRY HAD FELT SAFE and secure in Billy Stonecreek’s arms, that is, until he made his insane suggestion. She lifted her head from Billy’s shoulder and stared at him wide-eyed. “What did you say?”

“Don’t reject the idea before you hear me out.”

“I’m listening.” In fact, Cherry was fascinated.

He focused his dark-eyed gaze on her, pinning her in place. “The older lady who’s been taking care of my kids is quitting on Monday. How would you like to work for me? The job comes with room and board.” He smiled. “In fact, I’m including room and board because I can’t afford to pay much.”

“You’re offering me a job?”

“And a place to live. I could be at home evenings to watch the girls while you go to night school over the summer and earn your high school diploma. What do you say?”

Cherry edged herself off Billy’s lap, wondering how he had coaxed her into remaining there so long. Perversely, she missed the warmth of his embrace once it was gone. She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around the yards of pale green chiffon.

“Cherry?”

Her first reaction was to say yes. His offer was the simple solution to all her problems. She wouldn’t have to go home. She wouldn’t have to face her parents with the truth.

But she hadn’t lived with Zach and Rebecca Whitelaw for four years and not learned how they felt about certain subjects. “My dad would never allow it.”

“A minute ago you were going to run away from home. How is this different?”

“You obviously don’t know Zach Whitelaw very well,” she said with a rueful twist of her lips. “If he knew I was working so close, he’d expect me to live at home.”

“Not if you were indispensible to me.”

“Would I be?” she asked, intrigued.

“I can’t manage the ranch and my six-year-old twin daughters all by myself. I’m up and working before dawn. Somebody has to make sure Annie and Raejean get dressed for school and feed them breakfast and be there when they get off the school bus in the afternoon.” Billy shrugged. “You need a place to stay. I need help in a hurry. It’s a match made in heaven.”

Cherry shook her head. “It wouldn’t work.”

“Why not?”

“Can I be blunt?”

Billy smiled, and her stomach did a queer flip-flop. “By all means,” he said.

“It’s bad enough that you’re single—”

“I wouldn’t need the help if I had a wife,” Billy interrupted.

Cherry frowned him into silence. “You’re a widower. I’m only eighteen. It’s a toss-up which of us has the worse reputation for getting into trouble. Can you imagine what people would say—about us—if I moved in with you?” Cherry’s lips curled in an impish grin. “Eyebrows would hit hairlines all over the county.”

Billy shook his head and laughed. “I hadn’t thought about what people would think. We’re two of a kind, all right.” His features sobered. “Just not the right kind.”

Cherry laid her hand on his arm in comfort. “I know what you’re feeling, Billy.”

“I doubt it.”

Cherry felt bereft as he pulled free. He was wrong. She understood exactly what he was feeling. The words spilled out before she could stop them.

“Nobody wants anything to do with you, because you’re different,” she said in a quiet voice that carried in the dark. “To prove it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks, you break their rules. When they look down their noses at you, you spit in their eyes. And all the time, your heart is aching. Because you want them to like you. And respect you. But they don’t.”

Billy eyed her speculatively. “I guess you do understand.”

For a moment Cherry thought he was going to put his arm around her. But he didn’t.

She turned to stare at the pond, so he wouldn’t see how much she regretted his decision to keep his distance. “I’ve always hated being different,” she said. “I was always taller than everyone else, thanks to my giant of a father, Big Mike Murphy.” When she was a child, her father’s size had always made her feel safe. But he hadn’t kept her safe. He had let her be stolen away from him.

“And I don’t know another person with hair as godawful fire-engine red as mine. I have Big Mike to thank for that, too.” Cherry noticed Billy didn’t contradict her evaluation of her hair.

“And your mother?” Billy asked. “What did you get from her?”

“Nothing, so far as I can tell,” Cherry said curtly. “She walked out on Big Mike when I was five. That’s when he started drinking. Eventually someone reported to social services that he was leaving me alone at night. They took me away from him when I was eight. He fell from a high scaffolding at work the next week and was killed. I think he wanted to die. I was in and out of the system for six years before the Whitelaws took me in.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It doesn’t matter now.”

“Doesn’t it?” Billy asked.

Cherry shrugged. “It’s in the past. You learn to protect yourself.”

“Yeah,” Billy said. “You do.”

Billy had inherited his six-foot-four height and dark brown eyes from his Scots father. His straight black hair and burnished skin came from his Comanche mother. They had been killed in a car wreck when he was ten. He had developed his rebellious streak in a series of foster homes that treated him like he was less than human because he wasn’t all white.

He opened his mouth to share his common experiences with Cherry and closed it again. It was really none of her business.

“Too bad you aren’t looking for a wife,” Cherry mused. “That would solve your problem. But I guess after what happened, you don’t want to get married again.”

“No, I don’t,” Billy said flatly.

“I certainly wasn’t volunteering for the job,” Cherry retorted. Everyone knew Billy Stonecreek had made his first wife so unhappy she had killed herself. At least, that was the story Penelope Trask had been spreading. On the other hand, Billy Stonecreek had been nothing but nice to her. She couldn’t help wondering whether Billy was really as villainous as his mother-in-law had painted him.

They sat in silence. Cherry wished there was some way she could have helped Billy. But she knew Zach Whitelaw too well to believe he would allow his daughter to move in with a single man—even if she was his housekeeper. Not that Zach could have stopped her if she wanted to do it. But knowing Zach, he would find a way to make sure Billy changed his mind about needing her. And she didn’t want to cause that kind of trouble for anybody.

“Having you come to work for me wouldn’t really solve my biggest problem, anyway,” Billy said, picking up the beer can again.

Cherry took it out of his hand, set it down, and asked, “What problem is that?”

He hesitated so long she wasn’t sure he was going to speak. At last he said, “My former mother-in-law is taking me to court to try and get custody of my daughters. Penelope says I’m not a fit parent. She’s determined to take Raejean and Annie away from me.”

“Oh, no!” It was Cherry’s worst nightmare come to life. She had suffered terribly when she had been taken from her father as a child. “You can’t let her do that! Kids belong with their parents.”

Cherry was passionate about the subject. She had often wondered where her birth mother was and why she had walked away and left Cherry and Big Mike behind. Cherry had died inside when the social worker came to take her away, and she realized she was never going to see Big Mike again. It was outrageous to think someone could go to court and wrench two little girls away from their natural father.

“You’ve got to stop Mrs. Trask!” Cherry said. “You can’t let her take your kids!”

“I’m not letting her do anything!” Billy cried in frustration. His hands clenched into fists. “But I’m not sure I can stop her. Over the past year I haven’t exactly been a model citizen. And I haven’t been able to keep a steady housekeeper. Especially once Penelope fills their ears with wild stories about me.”

Billy made an angry sound in his throat. “If Laura hadn’t died… Having a wife would certainly make my case as a responsible parent stronger in court.”

“Isn’t there somebody you could marry?”

“What woman would want a half-breed, with a ready-made family of half-breed kids?” Billy said bitterly.

Cherry gasped. “You talk like there’s something wrong with you because you’re part Comanche. I’m sure you have lots of redeeming qualities.”

Billy eyed her sideways. “Like what?”

“I don’t know. I’m sure there must be some.” She paused and asked, “Aren’t there?”

Billy snorted. “I’ve been in jail for fighting three times over the past year.”

Cherry met his gaze evenly and said, “Nobody says you have to fight.”

“True,” Billy conceded. “But sometimes…”

“Sometimes you feel like if you don’t hit something you’ll explode?”

Billy nodded. “Yeah.”

“I’ve felt that way sometimes myself.”

“You’re a girl,” Billy protested. “Girls don’t—”

“What makes you think girls don’t get angry?” Cherry interrupted.

“I guess I never really thought much about it. What do you do when you feel like that?”

“Cause mischief,” Cherry admitted with a grin. Her grin faded as she said, “Think, Billy. Isn’t there some woman you could ask to marry you?”

Billy shook his head. “I haven’t gone out much since Laura died. When I haven’t been working on the ranch, I’ve spent my time with Raejean and Annie. Besides, I don’t know too many women around here who’d think I was much of a catch.”

Cherry sat silently beside Billy. Her heart went out to his two daughters. She knew what was coming for them. She felt genuinely sorry for them. For the first time in a long time she regretted her past behavior, because it meant she couldn’t be a help to them.

“I wish we’d met sooner. And that I had less of a reputation for being a troublemaker,” Cherry said. “If things were different, I might volunteer to help you out. But I’m not the kind of person you’d want as a mother for your kids.”

Billy’s head jerked around, and he stared intently at her.

Cherry was a little frightened by the fierce look on his face. “Billy? What are you thinking?”

“Why not?” he muttered. “Why the hell not?”

“Why not what?”

“Why can’t you marry me?” Billy said.

Cherry clutched at her torn bodice as she surged to her feet. “You can’t be serious!”

Billy rose and grabbed her by the shoulders, which was all that kept her from running. “More serious than I’ve ever been in my life. My kids’ lives depend on me making the right choices now.”

“And you think marriage to me is the right choice?” Cherry asked incredulously. “We’re practically strangers! I barely know you. You don’t know me at all.”

“I know plenty about you. You understand what it feels like to be different. What it feels like to lose your parents. What it feels like to need a parent’s love. You’d be good for my kids. And you could really help me out.”

“Why me?”

“I’m desperate,” Billy said. “I thought you were, too.”

Cherry grimaced. Why else would a man choose her except because he was desperate? And why else would a woman accept such a proposal, unless she were desperate, too?

“Are you ready to go home and face your parents and tell them you got expelled and that you aren’t going to graduate?” Billy demanded.

“When you put it that way, I… No. But marriage? That seems like such a big step. Make that a huge step.”

“It doesn’t have to be a real marriage. It can be strictly a business arrangement. We can stay married long enough for you to finish the high school credits you need and maybe take some courses at the junior college. When you figure out what you want to do with the rest of your life, we could go our separate ways.”

“Couldn’t I just be your housekeeper?”

Billy shook his head. “You’ve said yourself why that wouldn’t work.”

“But marriage is so…permanent.”

“It would be if it were for real. Ours wouldn’t be.”

“Are you suggesting we tell people we’re married but not really go through with it?”

He considered a moment. “No, we’d have to get married, and as far as I’m concerned, the sooner the better.”

Cherry’s heart bounced around inside her like a frightened rabbit. She pressed a fistful of chiffon hard against her chest, as though she could hold her heart still, but it kept right on jumping. “You want to get married right away? This week?”

“As soon as we can. We could fly to Las Vegas tonight.”

“Fly?”

“I’ve got a pilot’s license. We can charter a small private plane for the trip. Would you mind?”

“I guess not,” Cherry said, overwhelmed by the speed at which things were moving.

“The more I think about it, the more I like the whole idea. Getting married would certainly spike Penelope’s guns.”

Cherry gnawed on her lower lip. “If you’re looking for someone who’d be an asset in court, maybe you ought to reconsider taking me as your wife. My reputation’s almost as bad as yours.”

“You’re a Whitelaw,” Billy said. “That means something around this part of Texas.”

“An adopted Whitelaw,” Cherry reminded him. “And I’m not so sure my parents wouldn’t change their minds if they had the chance.”

Billy smiled. “I think we can make this arrangement work for both of us. How about it, Cherry? Will you marry me?”

If Cherry had been anybody except who she was, she would have said no. Any rational person would have. It didn’t make sense to marry a virtual stranger, one who had reportedly made his previous wife miserable. But Cherry wasn’t thinking about Billy or even about herself. She was thinking about his two innocent little girls. If marrying Billy would give them a better chance of staying with their father, she really didn’t think she had any other choice.

“All right, Billy,” she said. “I’ll marry you.”

Billy gave a whoop of joy, swept her up into his arms, and whirled her in a dizzying circle, sending chiffon flying around her.

“Put me down, Billy,” she said, laughing.

He immediately set her on her feet. When she swayed dizzily, he reached out to steady her.

The feel of his strong, callused hands on her bare shoulders sent an unexpected quiver skittering down her spine. She knew she ought to step away, but Billy’s dark eyes held her spellbound.

“Okay now?” he asked, his voice rasping over her.

“I’m fine.” She shivered, belying her words.

“You must be getting chilly.” He slipped an arm around her shoulder that was warm and supportive…and possessive.

She shivered again as he began walking her toward his pickup. Only this time she realized it had nothing to do with the cold.

As Billy held open the pickup door she said as casually as she could, “This will be a marriage in name only, right?”

He closed the door behind her, slid over the hood, got into the cab, and started the pickup before he answered, “That’s right.”

She gave a gusty sigh of relief as the engine roared to life. “Good.”

“We don’t even have to sleep in the same bed,” Billy said as he headed back toward the main road. “You can have the room my housekeeper will be vacating. If I feel the urge for some feminine comfort, I can get what I need from a woman in town.”

“Wait a minute,” Cherry said. “I don’t think I’m going to want my husband satisfying his lustful urges in town.”

“I won’t really be your husband,” Billy reminded her.

“As far as my parents and neighbors and friends are concerned, you will be.”

Billy eyed her cautiously. “What do you suggest?”

“Couldn’t you just…not do it.”

“I’m a man, not a monk,” Billy said.

Cherry pursed her lips thoughtfully. “Then I suppose I’d rather you come to me than go to some other woman.”

“This is starting to sound like a real marriage,” Billy said suspiciously. “I was looking for a temporary solution to both our problems.”

“Oh, you don’t have to worry about me falling in love with you or anything,” Cherry reassured him. “I don’t believe in happily-ever-after.”

“You don’t?”

Cherry shook her head. “Except for the Whitelaws, I’ve never met any married couples who really loved each other. But I can see where it would be unfair to expect you to give up sex for who knows how long. Only, if you don’t mind, I’d rather we had a chance to get to know each other a little better before…you know…”

“Maybe this marriage thing isn’t such a good idea, after all,” Billy said. “You’re just a kid, and—”

“I may be only eighteen,” Cherry interrupted, “but I’ve lived a lifetime since my father died. You don’t have to worry about me. I’ve been in and out of a dozen foster homes. I’ve spent time in juvenile detention. I’ve survived the past four years in a house with seven other adopted brothers and sisters. I’ve come through it all with a pretty good idea of what I want from life. I’m plenty old enough to know exactly what I’m doing.”

“I doubt that,” Billy said. Maybe if he hadn’t been so panicked at the thought of losing Annie and Raejean, he would have taken more time to think the matter over. But marriage to Cherry Whitelaw would solve so many problems all at once, he accepted her statement at face value.

“All right, Cherry. We’ll do this your way. I won’t go looking for comfort in town, and you’ll provide for my needs at home.”

“After we get to know one another,” Cherry qualified.

“After we get to know one another,” Billy agreed.

He turned onto the main highway and headed for the airport. “Will your parents worry if you don’t show up at home tonight?”

“It’s prom night. I was supposed to be staying out all night with some friends of mine and have breakfast with them tomorrow. In fact, if you’ll stop by my friend’s house, I’ve got an overnight bag there with a change of clothes.”

“Good. That’ll leave us about twelve hours to get to Las Vegas and tie the knot before we have to face your parents.”

Cherry pictured that meeting in her mind. Good grief, she thought. The fur is going to fly.

CHAPTER THREE

THE WEDDING CHAPEL in Las Vegas was brightly lit, even at 3:00 a.m. To Cherry’s amazement, they weren’t the only couple getting married at such an ungodly hour. She and Billy had to wait ten minutes for an elderly couple to complete their vows before it was their turn. The longer they waited, the more second thoughts she had. What had she been thinking? Zach was going to be furious. Rebecca was going to cry.

The image she conjured of two identical cherubic six-year-old faces was all that kept her from running for a phone to call Zach and Rebecca to come get her. She tried to recall what Billy’s twins looked like from the last time she had seen them at church. All she could remember were large dark eyes—like Billy’s, she realized now—in small, round faces.

What qualities had they gotten from their mother? Cherry tried to remember how Laura Trask had looked the few times she had seen her. Did the twins have delicate noses like hers? Determined chins? Bowed lips? Had they remained petite like their mother, or become tall and raw-boned like their father?

“If you keep chewing on your lip like that, you’re going to gnaw it right off.”

Startled, Cherry let go of her lower lip and turned to find Billy behind her.

“Here,” he said, handing her a bouquet of gardenias. “I got them from a vendor out in front of the chapel. I thought you might like to carry some flowers.”

“Thank you, Billy.” Cherry took the bouquet with a hand that shook. “I guess I’m a little nervous.”

“Me, too,” he admitted.

Cherry wished he would smile. He didn’t.

“The bouquet was a lovely thought.” She raised it to her nose and sniffed. And sneezed. And sneezed again. “I must be—achoo!”

“Allergic,” Billy finished, the smile appearing as he retrieved the bouquet from her and set it on an empty folding chair. “Forget the flowers. There are blooms enough in your cheeks for me.”

“You mean the freckles,” Cherry said, covering her cheeks with her hands. “I know they’re awful, but—”

Billy took her hands in his and kissed her gently on each cheek. “They’re tasty bits of brown sugar. Didn’t anyone ever tell you that?”

Cherry froze as a memory of long ago came to mind. She was sitting on Big Mike’s lap at the supper table. He was alternately taking bites of vanilla ice cream and giving her ice-cold kisses across her nose and cheeks, making yummy sounds in his throat and saying, “Your freckles sure taste sweet, baby.”

Her throat tightened with emotion, and she looked up, half expecting to see Big Mike standing in front of her.

But it was Billy, his brow furrowed as his dark eyes took in the pallor beneath her freckles. “Are you all right? You look like you’re about to faint.”

Cherry stiffened knees that were threatening to buckle. “I’ve never fainted in my life. I don’t expect to start now.”

“Are you folks ready?” the minister asked.

“Last chance to back out,” Billy whispered to Cherry.

The sound tickled her ear, but she managed to stifle the inappropriate giggle that sought voice. This ridiculous wedding ceremony was serious business. “I’m not backing out. But if you’ve changed your mind—”

“I haven’t,” Billy interrupted her.

He tightened his grip on one of her hands and released the other, leading her down the aisle to the makeshift pulpit at the front of the room.

Throughout the ceremony, Cherry kept repeating two things over and over.

Those little girls need me. And, This is the last time I’ll be disappointing Zach and Rebecca. Once I’m married, I won’t be their responsibility anymore.

She was concentrating so hard on convincing herself she was doing the right thing that she had to be prompted to respond when the time came. “Cherry?”