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If his rival had his eyes on a new acquisition, Michael’s territory would be encroached.
There was no fence he could secure to protect what he considered he should have some kind of claim on.
I am not jealous, he reminded himself. Bailey’s always done what she wanted to do, and nothing’s going to change that now.
He blew out a breath, glared at the cowboys, stiffened his shoulders and got in the truck cab. Gunner King had always been a burr in his sock, only he couldn’t pick him out and throw him away like a burr. Looked like he planned on sticking to Bailey like a burr.
Michael’s blood pressure soared. There was no hope for it. He was going to have to do something.
He had to match his rival for slickness and stickiness.
Maybe the cowboys were right. After all, they were a study in slick and burr sticky! If he needed a crash course in charm to keep Gunner from stealing his woman, then Michael had three good-luck charms riding in his truck bed right now. Maybe all it took was playing on Bailey’s sympathetic, warm nature to lure her to his side.
He opened the small window that separated the cab from the truck bed. “Hey.”
“What?” They craned their necks to see him.
“I don’t think Bailey working in Gunner’s home would be the best thing for her.”
“Eh?” Chili cocked his head.
“I was thinking maybe there was a better way she could spend her time.” He eyed them, taking note of their interest. “After all her family’s done for you, I know you wouldn’t want Bailey’s situation taken advantage of by the Kings or anyone else. Maybe ya’ll could come up with something and sort of suggest it to me.”
The three studies in slick and sticky grinned. “You just let us be your suggestion box, boss,” Chili informed him. “But you gotta promise to go along with our ideas. If you butt heads with us at every turn…well, Gunner’s gonna make his move.”
Michael hesitated, wondering just what he was getting himself into.
“Ya snooze, ya lose, boss,” Fred told him.
“He’s got a point,” Curly chimed in, “you gotta admit you’re kinda short on sensitivity to the garden-variety female.”
“You ain’t had much practice,” Fred said more forthrightly. “You’re kinda like a grumpy ol’ mule. Got the stuff, but ain’t quite sure what to do with it.”
“All right, all right,” Michael interrupted swiftly so he wouldn’t have to hear any more about his failings. There was only so much a man could take before he lost his nerve! Bailey was no garden-variety female—she was a wildflower that would require significant patience and wooing unless he wanted her growing in Gunner’s garden two fences away from him. “No guts, no glory. The suggestion box is open.”
They waited expectantly.
“And not resistant to your ideas,” he said, relenting.
Chili grinned. “You just leave everything to us.”
Michael nodded and closed the window. “I’m just doing her the same favor I’d do for anyone the King machinery was about to flatten,” he muttered as he started the ignition. “Somebody’s got to save that headstrong little woman from herself!”
Chapter Four
“Now, then,” Chili said, giving Michael’s dark suit a final brush across the shoulders, “you just drive over to the Dixon house and surprise that little gal by picking her and her brood up for church.” The fence-sitters had converged on him with Plan A as he was eating breakfast, before he’d even had time to gulp enough coffee to wake up good.
Michael shook his head. “I don’t know that this is such a good idea. Bailey and I have never gone anywhere together, much less church.” Something about these three advising him to go to church with a woman struck his suspicion nerve very hard. He never went to church. Whatever he had to say to the Lord he said on his property amongst the trees and the stillness. Saying it in front of a bunch of people didn’t mean the Lord’s ears were open any further to him.
But the townsfolks’ ears and eyes would be wide open if he appeared with Bailey Dixon. There were two types of couples who paired up for church—good friends comfortable celebrating the Sabbath with each other, often seen in Fallen’s Baptist church with its social congregation, and those affianced or about to be who attended church to start their marriage out on the right foot. He’d noted the Fallen Methodists tended to do a lot of that.
He was neither Baptist nor Methodist, nor much of anything that required a commitment. And he wasn’t friends with Bailey, nor trying to start a relationship with her aligned on the straight and narrow path. It was too late for that, he supposed.
He’d have to go to the Catholic church with Bailey, and that was enough to make him nervous. Bailey and her six siblings—thankfully she had felt condoms were necessary for the relationship they’d shared. The Rodeo Queen had been right about one thing—the Dixon family was like a very full cup, which runneth over and spilled down the table leg and flooded a good-size room. He wondered if there was a sermon in that.
He just hoped five-year-old Baby didn’t bring her lamb to church. Surely Bailey made her leave her pet at home. Sheep turds in the nice Lincoln town car his father had owned were likely to turn his stomach this early in the morning.
“Michael, I know you’re not eager about this,” Fred said, carefully standing off the toes that still pained him from last night’s putting debacle. “This is the only day you have before Bailey starts work for Gunner, so it’s an opportune time to make your move and make yourself look good. Bailey’s going to drag those young ’uns to church, and you just think about them shivering in that rattletrap metal truck bed she totes that family around in when they could be warm in your car with its heater and cushioned seats. The inch of snow we had last night isn’t going to stop Bailey from seeing those kids get proper churchin’.”
Michael sighed, and it was an unwilling sound of resignation. “Couldn’t I just drop them off and pick them up?”
“No!” Curly stated emphatically. “You know, Michael, it’s not going to kill you to spend an hour with the top of your head being reviewed by the Lord.”
“Why aren’t you going, then?” Michael demanded.
“We ain’t in the trouble with Bailey that you are.” Chili crossed his arms. “You’re the one who wants to save her from herself. Taking her to church is the best way I can think of to start the process—and you get the jump on Gunner. She may start work for him tomorrow, but she’ll have been to church with you today.”
It might not be the proper thought, but he’d much rather Bailey be in bed with him tonight. Still, he couldn’t say that to the cowboys—they were in their fatherly capacity, which they’d adopted as of last night’s agreement to save Bailey.
“Guess I wouldn’t want those kids to freeze to death.” He jammed on a black felt hat, which matched his formal suit, clothes he hadn’t worn since his father’s funeral. He felt stiff and out of place in these duds, and the sensation was sure to increase in the next few moments.
He warmed up the car, then backed down the driveway and headed to Bailey’s. Leaving the roomy car running, he strode up the bent-in-the-middle porch and stabbed the doorbell impatiently.
Baby opened the door, her little lamb at her side. Michael held back an inward groan. “Where’s Bailey, Baby?”
“Upstairs.” Baby put her finger in her mouth, which Michael thought couldn’t be all that sanitary considering the beast beside her. But she was dressed for church, just as the cowboys had predicted.
Brad appeared in a suit that was frayed at the cuffs and shoes that were wafer-thin in the sole. Michael felt slightly ashamed of his dude’s suit he’d just been thinking ill thoughts over. It was nicer than anything anyone in this house owned, and it didn’t matter that he felt like the Grim Reaper in it. He should be more appreciative of what he was able to buy. This family was up to their eyeballs in trying to pay off the tax man.
“Come in, Michael. How can we help you?” Brad asked.
That gave Michael a start. How can they help me—and then he realized that it was always his family or the cowboys who went to the Dixon house for one thing or another. Not once had they come to the wealthy Wade holding for assistance of any kind. The thought was humbling, and slightly embarrassing. “I thought to offer your family a ride to church,” he said gruffly.
“You don’t go to our church.” Brad looked at Michael curiously.
“Won’t hurt me to go once to any church.” Michael instinctively stiffened as four more children grouped around him, all dressed in hand-me-down clothing. “Got the car warming. What do you say?”
“It’s up to Bailey.” Brad shifted the burden of decision-making to his sister, jerking his head toward the stairs. “I’ll ask her.”
Bailey appeared at the top of the stairs at that moment. “Michael? I thought I heard your voice.”
She walked down, and he felt more nervous than he had at his first high school dance. She was plainly startled to see him, and her blond brows arched over large blue eyes. The tiny freckles he thought so sassy lightly sprinkled her nose. And that glorious hair he loved fell shiny and bright as new gold to her waist, without a hint of curl in it.
She was so sexy she made his knees feel like they might start knocking together. He tried to smile, but his hands were trembling and he was afraid she’d notice, so the smile slipped away. Having never asked Bailey to go anywhere with him, this was one tough assignment the cowboys had sent him on.
“Thought I’d take your crew to church. It’s mighty cold outside.”
“You needn’t have worried about us.” She looked at him steadily, a light scent of soap carrying from her skin. “We’ll manage.”
So true to this stubborn woman’s nature not to accept anything from anyone. How had Gunner managed with such ease? By not stepping on her pride. He cleared his throat. “It’s been a while since I’ve been to church,” he said softly, his eyes on hers. “Wouldn’t mind sitting with friends.”
She smiled, happiness crinkling the corners of her eyes and lifting the sides of her beautiful lips. “Well, if you can handle sitting in church with my crowd, then we’ll be happy to accept your offer.”
He nodded, but his insides were singing with joy. Gunner didn’t have anything on him for slick and burr sticky! He’d get it all figured out soon enough; practice made perfect, and he might even start to enjoy his new role as Bailey’s protector.
BAILEY HAD TO FIGHT giggles all through the hour-long service. Michael had no idea what he’d gotten himself into with his generous offer! She hoped he had a patron saint keeping watch on him, because during the last fifty-five minutes, his lap had been a continual seat for one Dixon child or the other. The nine-year-old, Beth, was too big to sit in his lap so she settled for sitting beside him, proudly helping him find where he should be reading in the church booklet or the hymnal. Brad stared straight ahead, but Bailey had seen the sides of his mouth twitching. The big cowboy from the Wade ranch could handle steers, but he had his hands full with little people.
Bailey closed her eyes, the smile erased from her lips. He’d really be bowled over if he knew a tiny person was on the way, one that would bear his features in some fashion. Her insides went cold. She couldn’t refuse his request to sit with friends, as he’d put it, knowing how uncomfortable he’d be in a church by himself. His father had been more likely to have a pact with the devil than peace with the Lord, and that was true even before his wife left him. Before they separated, the Wades didn’t attend church with their only child. Mrs. Wade had once confided to a town gossip that she didn’t reckon she could sit beside her husband for an hour anywhere without getting into an argument.
Bailey pressed her lips together. No, she would never have turned Michael away, knowing how miserable he’d be forcing himself to walk inside a church alone and sit there for an hour the subject of scrutiny. Afterward, single women would take advantage of the opportunity to flirt with him and cozy up to the Wade fortune. Like a deer tentatively making its way from the cover of woods, he’d be a prime target in the clearing for manhunters.
But she was going to have to figure out a way eventually to inform him that they were far more than friends.
They were soon-to-be parents.
WHEN THE HOUR was over, Michael breathed a huge sigh of victory. He’d made it! Only one crayon had rolled under the pew—rescued—one child’s shoe clattered loudly to the floor—rescued—and one bulletin had fluttered from a child’s hand to the floor in front of the altar. Rescued, by the kindly priest, who smiled at him and the passel of kids who insisted on sitting in his lap. Why did the Dixons have to sit in the front row, in front of the entire congregation and the choir and the religious personnel? Though they didn’t make a peep, the children were like a shifting landscape, never still except during the sermon.
That still had him amazed.
And only one bathroom break had been required—Bailey’s, to his astonishment. She hadn’t looked well when she hurried suddenly to the back of the church. Her skin had taken on a pasty look, pronounced by the bright sunlight streaming through the stained glass. Maybe she wasn’t getting good food to eat.
He could fix that.
Outside the church, as they all crammed into his Lincoln—had he ever thought this car was roomy?—he said, “Let me take everyone to the pancake house as my way of thanks.”
He slid his gaze to Bailey, who stared over Baby, planted firmly between them. Brad sat in the back, the extra children packed on and around him and breaking the law for seat-belt safety, no doubt. Some kids were double-belted, some perched on his lap, but Brad seemed oblivious to the crowding.
Michael admired his patience. Bailey was shaking her head to his offer, and he was afraid he’d lose his.
“You need not treat us for such a simple thing as going to church together. We’ve already had the enjoyment of your car, and that’s enough,” she said firmly.
But he’d heard the gasps from the back seat. The children likely hadn’t been out to eat in their entire lives. A pancake house was temptation beyond belief. “Please, Bailey,” he murmured, “let me do something small for the children.”
“It’s not small!” she replied under her breath. “Feeding all of us will cost a fortune, and we don’t have any way of splitting the tab with you.”
He saw the steel in her posture. But he was determined to have his way on this, now that he’d heard the delight from the too-well-mannered children who wouldn’t dare erupt in pleas, but who were no doubt hoping he’d somehow change Bailey’s mind.
“Bailey.” He made his voice low and pleading.
“You wouldn’t enjoy a meal with this bunch.” She turned her head and looked out the window. “Thank you, but no.”
Her stiff spine said clearly, We’re not a charity case.
Surely she knew he didn’t feel that way. There had to be something else making her dig in and refuse to share a few five-pancake stacks at Miss Nary’s Pancakes and Dairy. “I have good table manners,” he told her.
“Michael!” A smile tried to edge her lips, but she refused it.
“A man can’t always eat alone. It’s bad for the digestion,” he said, his voice innocent.
“Michael.” Her eyes turned soft and slightly worried. “Stop. Please.”
Between them, Baby was still as a pebble. She clutched her ragged doll to her breathlessly. Michael could almost feel the energy of her hope radiate straight inside his soul, and the children in the back seat listening avidly.
“Guess I could go home and scrounge something to eat by myself,” he complained pathetically and without shame.
“Maybe you could eat leftover peach pie.” Bailey’s gaze stayed relentlessly on his.
So she was jealous! That’s why she wouldn’t accept his offer. Well, he could fix that, too. “I sent it over to Gunner’s. I am a thoughtful neighbor.” His expression turned pitiful. “But I haven’t been to the grocery in two weeks, and a man gets tired of canned soup three meals a day—”
“All right,” Bailey interrupted. “I shouldn’t reward your underhanded tactics, but…did you really send Deenie over to Gunner’s?” She stared at him with hopeful eyes.
“Yes. He needed some glitter in his life, and I did not.” He started the car. “Let’s go get some pancakes.”
The back seat exploded with noisy happiness. Michael smiled. He liked being the hero. He liked getting Bailey to give in. The indirect approach definitely worked with her.
He wondered how he could manage to keep her from going to Gunner’s in the morning. Michael had sent Deenie and her peach pie to his rival; it seemed unnecessarily neighborly to hand over Bailey, too.
Maybe all this indirect approach was the right way to find out why Bailey had suddenly ceased her nighttime visits to his bed. He glanced at her, but she was fussing with Baby’s hair. Bailey still looked kind of peaked, which worried him. Her usually sparkly blue eyes seemed dimmed and tired. Maybe it was a womanly thing, a monthly function bothering her in some way.
Maybe she needed to go to the doctor, but couldn’t because she didn’t have the money!
Michael felt ill suddenly. If she needed to see a doctor, he’d carry her kicking and screaming and pay the bill himself. Maybe he should just directly ask Bailey why she’d quit coming around.
There was a time to be direct and a time to sidestep. He missed Bailey in his bed—and maybe he’d just best say so. Clear up any miscommunication on that matter they might have had.
Perhaps it would be even better to endure a month of Sundays hauling her flock to church.
Anything—including sticky pancakes with the numerous Dixon children—to get her upstairs and under the sheets with him again.
BAILEY KNEW it was a bad idea to go to the pancake house. It wasn’t the tab alone that bothered her; it was knowing that she probably wouldn’t be able to hold her stomach down. She’d had to leave during the service and hurry to the rest room. In all her life, she’d never been ill like this. It was like a flu she couldn’t get over. At Gunner’s she’d gotten sick from the aroma of sausage links and tacos, similar to the rich aromas in a pancake house. But she’d heard the gasps of joy over Michael’s invitation—and there’d been no way she could deprive her siblings of such a treat.
She prayed for just one hour of calm sea.
“Howdy!” Deenie’s father came to stand by their table with a big smile, eyeing their group with interest. “Brad, you’ve got yourself quite a gathering this morning.”
“I do, Dan.” Brad grinned at the man and motioned to a seat. “Sit down and join us for a cup of coffee.”
“I’ll do that. Deenie, grab a chair and sit yourself down so I can bend Brad’s ear.”
The momentarily calm sea rose in Bailey’s stomach, threatening to pitch as Deenie looked down on all of them. She slid into the empty seat between Michael and Brad, staying far away from Bailey and the children.
“How’s the collection coming along?” Dan Day asked.
“Fine, fine.” Brad nodded and stirred his tea. “I’ll be ready for the show. I think you’ll be pleased.”
“Show? What show?” Deenie halted her ogling of Michael and stared at her father. “Daddy, you’re not doing a show for him, are you? You said you never backed starving artists, only ones with real talent.” She sent a dismissive look around the table at the motley clan.
“Brad has real talent, Deenie.” Her father lowered his brows at her. “You’d be surprised at his work.”
