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Oh, yeah, one look at her and he’d gone from PO’d to thinking it might not be so bad to spend some time with her. As long as he kept everything light and friendly and aboveboard. What harm could it do to escort her here and there? he’d asked himself. And the answer he’d come up with was: no harm at all. A few days of enjoying her company and making Matt happy, then they’d go their separate ways.
For a while he’d thought he was pulling that off, too. He’d just been having fun, looking forward to meeting Kate at breakfast every morning and filling the rest of the day and evening with gambling or sight-seeing or shopping or taking in a show together.
Then little things had begun to strike him.
Like how sweet she could be. How nice. Like how much more fun he had when he was with her than when he wasn’t. Like the fact that she had the most terrific laugh that came out sounding like wind chimes and turned her from terrific looking to stunning and made a sparkle come into her eyes that could light up a whole room.
And then it was New Year’s Eve.
His and Matt’s birthdays.
And there he’d been, with his best friend and his best friend’s family, with Kate, having one of the best times he’d ever had. Which had included a record number of toasts with plenty of champagne—not his drink of choice but it had been poured like water that night. And the result of everything put together was that he’d gotten carried away.
Okay, so taking Matt’s sister to a wedding chapel and marrying her on the spur of the moment probably qualified as more than just getting carried away.
But that’s where the insanity part had kicked in again.
By then he’d been aware that he was attracted to Kate. But maybe not how much. And if she’d been another woman he would have just tried coaxing her into spending the night with him.
But she hadn’t been another woman. She was Kate. Sweet Kate. Matt’s little sister. And a virgin.
Brady still didn’t know how she’d arrived at twenty-nine years old with her virginity intact. Or why. But when she’d confided in him that she was a virgin, he’d known he couldn’t just make love to her because they’d both been so inclined. There had to be more to it than that. It had to be special. It had to be ceremonious.
And what had his liquor-soaked brain come up with?
Marriage. They should get married….
Brady stood under the pelting spray of the showerhead and let it beat down on his face as if it might wash away the stupidity in that reasoning from two months ago.
But it didn’t help. What else but stupid could you call marrying your best friend’s virgin sister and then taking her to bed?
Monumentally stupid.
Especially when that sister woke up the next morning feeling about it the way Kate had.
What a rude awakening that had been!
Before he’d so much as thought about what they’d done, she’d been out of bed, frantic and ordering him to rectify it.
Sure he agreed what they’d done had been dumb. But did she have to be so appalled? So outraged? So downright repulsed?
His pride hadn’t just taken another strike, it had taken a full body blow—and then a knee to the groin when she’d gone on to let him know she was so horrified by having married him and slept with him, that he had to promise never to tell her brothers.
Of course, telling her brothers was not high on his top-ten list of things to do, either. But again, it wasn’t an ego booster to know the extent to which Kate was disgusted by the whole situation.
That was about when he’d decided he wanted to kick himself for having fooled around with her in the first place. For having put his friendship with Matt in jeopardy. For not having seen ahead of time that Kate wasn’t anywhere near as attracted to him as he’d been to her.
And rebruised pride or no rebruised pride, Brady hadn’t been left with a doubt in his mind that the best thing for everyone was to do exactly what Kate had ordered him to do just before she’d run out of the room as if she couldn’t stand to spend another minute with him—dissolve the marriage.
Which was what he had contacted a lawyer for the very next day.
So now, as soon as she signed the papers and they filed them, it would finally be over and they could put it behind them. Once and for all.
Finished with his shower, Brady got out of the stall and wrapped a towel around his waist. Then he used another towel to clear the mirror to shave.
As he did, he couldn’t help wondering if, when he could put this fiasco behind him, he would also be able to get Kate McDermot off his mind.
Because that’s where she had been for the past two months. Stubbornly, continuously, vividly on his mind. No matter what he tried to do to dislodge her.
But would some simple paperwork accomplish that? Especially when seeing her again had done what it had done to him?
Even surrounded by her family and at a distance, he’d still felt her presence the very instant she’d walked into the living room. It had been as if the temperature had suddenly risen. As if everything were brighter. As if all the colors around him were more vivid.
And that was before he’d so much as glanced at her.
Then he’d looked up and seen her for the first time since New Year’s morning, and he’d been struck all over again by how beautiful she was in that quietly understated way of hers. With those sparkling green eyes and that wildly curly honey-brown hair shot through with streaks of gold, and those tender lips he remembered kissing until they’d grown puffy….
Damn if he hadn’t wanted to walk away from the rest of her family and go to her, take her in his arms, kiss her again the way he had that night….
Brady nicked himself with his razor, drawing blood.
“That’s what you get for thinking those kinds of things,” he told himself as he tore a corner from a tissue and pressed it to the wound.
And why the hell was he thinking about this now?
He’d already made one huge mistake with that woman and she’d let him know what she thought of him for it.
So what good did it do to be wallowing in this damn attraction to her?
No good, that’s what.
“So shake it off,” he ordered.
And that’s exactly what he was going to do.
Even though a part of him was itching to do something entirely different. To do a little courting. A little charming. A little wooing…
But that was the stupid, crazy part of him.
Because if there was one thing he’d learned in the past year—and learned the hard way—it was that no amount of tenacity or persistence, no amount of wooing or wining and dining or gift giving, could change a woman’s feelings once she’d decided she didn’t want him.
And Kate McDermot had made it more than clear the morning after their wedding that she didn’t want him. Or anything to do with him.
So he was here to visit Matt, to look at some property, to get the divorce papers signed, and that was it.
And if Kate McDermot could still rock his world just by walking into a room? Too bad.
He wasn’t giving in to the attraction. He wasn’t letting it put him in any position where he could be dealt another emotional body blow the way Claudia had done.
And if he and Kate had had one incredible night together? Obviously it hadn’t been as incredible for her as it had been for him.
So that one night was all they were ever going to have together. Because he just didn’t need any more grief.
And that’s all there was to it.
Chapter Three
“Go on in with your company,” Junebug Brimley told Kate, making a shooing motion with her hands in the direction of the door that led from the kitchen to the dining room.
Junebug was the McDermots’ housekeeper. All six feet, three hundred pounds of her.
“I want to help,” Kate informed her, trying to do what she’d decided to do to get through dinner that evening—make herself as scarce as possible by staying in the kitchen.
“Don’t need your help,” the booming-voiced woman told her bluntly. “Raised a passel of sons who ate like bears comin’ out of hibernation at every meal. I think I can put on this dinner without too much strain.”
“But we’re all here tonight,” Kate reminded her.
All being those family members who lived in the big house built to accommodate them—her twin brothers Ry and Shane, their wives, Tallie and Maya, and Ry’s nearly three-year-old son, Andrew, Matt, Jenn and Kate, along with Bax—Elk Creek’s doctor who lived in town—and his wife Carly and his going-on-seven-year-old daughter, Evie Lee, plus Brady.
“All or not, I can do it myself,” Junebug said, holding firm. “You’re missin’ time with Matt’s friend in there.”
“That’s just it—he’s Matt’s friend. Not mine. I don’t have anything to say to him.”
“I heard the two of you liked each other fine in Las Vegas,” Junebug said slyly.
“He’s a nice enough man. But that was then, and this is now, and he’s here to visit Matt, not me.”
Junebug eyed Kate as if she could see right through her. “He’s a handsome cuss. And single, same as you. Maybe you ought to try thinkin’ of somethin’ to say to ’im.”
“I’d rather not.”
“Could be you could get a little romance goin’.”
“I’m not in the market for a romance. If I was, I might go after one of those six handsome cuss, single sons of yours,” Kate countered, teasing the gruff older woman.
“Which one would you like? I’m tryin’ my best to get ’em married off but they’re too mule-headed for their own good.”
Kate laughed in spite of having her bluff called. “I don’t want one of your sons, either, Junebug. I’m not interested in fooling with any man right now.”
“Should be.”
“Well I’m not. And Matt’s as bad as you are about Brady—he’s trying to throw me together with him by hook or by crook. So do me a favor and put me to work in here.”
Junebug looked her up and down, as if debating about granting Kate’s wish.
Then she went to the swinging door that connected the dining room and said, “Would somebody get Kate outta my kitchen so’s I can do some dishin’ out of this food without her underfoot?”
“Thanks,” Kate said under her breath.
Junebug grinned. “Two by two—that’s how we’re meant to walk this earth.”
Kate just rolled her eyes at the woman as demands for her to go into the dining room were voiced in answer to Junebug’s request.
So, with no other choice, that was what Kate had to do.
Rather than serving appetizers buffet-style Junebug had had everyone take their seats at the dining table. But the only place setting that wasn’t already occupied when Kate joined her family was the one directly across from Brady.
She would have preferred being situated farther away from him and without much of a view of the houseguest, but as it was she had to take the sole remaining spot.
The McDermot family was once more laughing at something Brady had said as they passed hors d’oeuvres of bruschetta, cherry peppers stuffed with proscuitto and cream cheese, and blue-cheese torta served on crackers. Kate didn’t attempt to join in the fun but merely slipped into her seat, wondering as she did if she’d been manipulated once more by Matt, or if all her brothers, sisters-in-law and Matt’s fiancée were conspiring against her.
“Brady’s been in Alaska since we saw him in Vegas,” Matt updated Kate then.
“Ah,” she said, unsure what else she was suppose to contribute to that.
But Shane saved her the trouble by asking if Brady had done any hunting or fishing while he was there.
As Brady talked about his adventures, Kate couldn’t help checking him out.
He’d obviously taken that shower he’d been headed for. He looked refreshed, and she could smell the spicy scent of cologne or soap or whatever it was he’d used. She only wished she didn’t like it so much.
He had changed into a less-worn pair of jeans and a crisp white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled to midforearms and the top button unfastened. It wasn’t unusual attire by any means, but what those slight exposures let her see made her all too aware of more details about him than she wanted to be aware of. His thick, straight neck, for instance, and the wholly masculine hollow of his throat. Powerful-looking forearms and wrists that were unaccountably sexy. Not to mention big, blunt-fingered, capable hands.
He’d washed his hair, too, and recombed it, along with shaving away the shadow of a day’s growth of beard so that his raffishly handsome face was free of anything that could hide its glory. And even the way his razor-sharp jaw flexed when he chewed somehow tweaked a sensual nerve inside her.
Why hadn’t Junebug let her stay in the kitchen? Kate lamented to herself as she fought not to look at Brady, not to be so impressed by him.
But there she was, with nowhere to run and a mysterious disability that left her unable not to study his every movement, unable not to hang on his every word as he told stories about Alaskan winter days when light only dawned for a few brief minutes.
Alaskan winter days that left Kate thinking about endless hours of darkness that someone else might have shared with him….
She was grateful when Junebug finally served dinner and allowed her a distraction from that thought. And the odd bit of something that felt like jealousy that came with it.
The older woman had made Caesar salad, a crown rib roast, braised potatoes and carrots and home-baked rolls. Ordinarily Junebug either prepared dinner in advance and left it to be reheated when the McDermots were ready to eat, or left the cooking for someone else to do so she could go home to her own family. But on special occasions she catered and served the whole meal.
Tonight was one of those nights. So not until all the food was on the table did she inform them that dessert was ready and waiting in the kitchen whenever they wanted it and that she was leaving them to their own devices.
As everyone bade her a nice evening and dug into her delicious fare, Matt said, “I have it set up for you to take a look at those three spreads tomorrow, Brady. Ted Barton’s ranch next door is probably the best of the lot but he hasn’t made a firm decision to sell yet. The other two have been on the market for a couple of months. The houses on them aren’t in as good shape as the Barton place. ’Course I know you care more about the land and the barn than where you’ll be livin’, but still.”
Kate stopped cold and paid closer attention to what was being said as her other brothers chimed in with information on land that was for sale around Elk Creek.
Was she understanding this correctly? Was Brady buying property? Here? Was he moving here?
It was news to Kate. And not good news. She’d thought that after getting through this visit he would go back to Oklahoma. It had never occurred to her that he might be in Elk Creek permanently.
Suddenly she could feel the blood drain from her face and a cold clamminess settle over her.
“You want to buy a ranch here?” she heard herself blurt out with no small amount of alarm.
