One Heart to Win (38 page)

Chapter Forty-Eight

H
UNTER WAS THE ONLY
Callahan who didn’t leave the dining room immediately. Tiffany glanced at him to discern what he thought of her suggestion, but the look she got back was pensive, a little curious, utterly lacking in humor. It told her nothing.

But he must have intended to share his thoughts because when he did stand up, he said, “Come out to the porch with me to say good night.”

“Not if you’re going to kiss me again.”

“You strike a hard bargain, Red.”

“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that,” Frank said, actually sounding amused as he left the room to see his guests out.

Hunter came around the table and held out his hand to her. She stared at it a long moment before she took it. They
did
need to talk. If it wasn’t obvious to him yet, she had to make it clear to him that she wasn’t Jennifer—and without making him angry, because his support was paramount to ending the feud. So she led him out of the room and started to follow her
father to the front porch, but Hunter pulled her in the opposite direction.

“That one’s too crowded. Show me where you’ll be watching the sunset.”

She nodded and led him down the hall, which branched to a T at the back, then down another short passage between a couple storage rooms at the left corner of the house, quite a different design from the Callahans’ home. The outbuildings here were even on the right side of the house instead of behind it. The small porch at the end of that passage was private, with no windows looking out on it. It wasn’t completely dark outside. The sun had set, but the moon was on the rise, looking quite beautiful since it was nearly full tonight.

Tiffany ignored the two comfortable, short chaise longues that were placed side by side. They were new. Her father had told her he’d had to replace them every few years due to weathering, but they were the exact same design Rose had picked out so long ago. Tiffany had pictured her parents leaning back in them as they watched the sunset, holding hands.

She moved to one of the corner posts and leaned against it, staring up at the moon.

“Your mother had good ideas,” Hunter remarked as he moved to stand behind her. “You’re going to want a porch like this, too, aren’t you, Red?”

She would have if her future home were going to be in a place that had sunsets as spectacular as they were here, but it wasn’t. “You
have
to stop calling me that. My name is Tiffany.”

“That’s the problem. In my mind, it’s not. And maybe it’s not in yours, either. Would the woman you’re trying so hard to convince me you are have mentioned kissing me in front of her whole family?”

She tsked. “I know you’re trying to make a point with that logic, but among family is the only time I don’t have to watch what I say.”

“But with everyone else you do?”

“Certainly, as is only proper.”

“Do you
like
living that way?”

“It’s ingrained in me. It’s as natural to me as being blunt is to you. What wasn’t natural was my trying to be Jennifer, the housekeeper. That was—difficult. That was wrong. I apologized to your family, Hunter, but that didn’t express how sorry I am for deceiving you. I know you’re angry. You have every right to be.”

“I was,” he said softly, and put his hands on her shoulders. “But do I sound angry now?”

She quickly stepped to the side to get out of his reach and turned to face him. “You sound like you still think I’m Jennifer Fleming, but I’m trying to tell you that I’m nothing like her. I might have gotten a little carried away with the charade, but it’s over. Who you see now is the real me, Tiffany Warren, and this isn’t who you want. You even told me—”

The words caught in her throat as he grasped her waist and lifted her, setting her down on the porch railing next to them, far enough from the post that she couldn’t grab it to get her balance. She had to grab him instead. But he made that easy, lifting her gown enough to move in between her legs to trap her there.

She gasped. “Stop this.”

“Hell no. We’re going to find out who you’re trying to convince of what, because I don’t need convincing of anything, but you apparently do.”

She didn’t have a chance to reply. He held her face as his
mouth slanted across hers, so quickly reminding her of that night in the barn when she’d abandoned everything for what he made her feel. It was there again, that passion, blinding her to reason and logic, negating everything she’d just tried to tell him, and she didn’t care! This was the one perfect thing they had between them, where their families didn’t matter, where nothing mattered except each other. . . .

He leaned in closer. She held on tighter, deepening the kiss herself. It was ecstasy to hold him again like this, taste him again. How was it possible to want someone this much?

She was still thinking that when he pulled her away from the railing and she slid down his hard, strong body. She would have crumbled, her legs were so wobbly, if he hadn’t been holding her tenderly now.

“I’ll do anything for you—except make love to you on your father’s back porch.”

He sounded as shaky as she felt. Was she really going to walk away from
this
? From him? But she had to! God, what had she just done? She couldn’t even upbraid him for it when she needed him on her side right now.

She latched onto what he’d just said, asking hesitantly, “Will you talk to your father and get him to agree to my suggestion?”

“No.”

Her eyes flew up to his. “You just said—why not?”

“Who says I want it ended that way? Maybe I like the idea now, of marriage being the cornerstone of a new foundation.” He let go of her and leapt over the railing.

She yelled after him, “You do not!”

He continued to head toward his horse out front, but she heard him laugh. “
Now
you sound like my Red.”

Chapter Forty-Nine

T
IFFANY WAS OUT OF
breath, from laughing, from drowning. And her brothers, who surrounded her in the lake, wouldn’t give up on trying to dunk her. Not that she had a chance of winning when they were so much stronger than she was. She finally crawled out of the water to catch her breath. The boys continued their antics, pulling each other under the water.

Sam had loaned her one of his shirts to swim in. Long-sleeved, buttoned up the front, it fell to her knees. She wore her longest bloomers with it. Not exactly proper swimming attire, but then no one was going to see her except her brothers.

She sat on the grass, leaning back against a tree trunk, as she watched them, though she wasn’t actually seeing the boys now. Removed from the horseplay, she felt an onset of the sadness that had come over her last night. She was actually going to miss things about Montana when she left: the beauty, the
openness, summer storms lulling her to sleep, even days like this, so crystal clear. And most of all Hunter. No one had ever treated her the way he did, no one ever would again. The teasing and the laughter that so easily broke down her defenses, the way he didn’t hesitate to speak his mind with her. The man truly had an enjoyment of life to find humor in the smallest things, and it was infectious when she was around him. She’d never felt so close to anyone else, the way she did to him. But then he’d given her the most incredible experience of her life when he’d made love to her.

She wished she could package him up and take him home with her, but Hunter wouldn’t be Hunter in the city. She couldn’t ask him to make that sacrifice. They simply weren’t meant to be. They’d known it all their lives. The attraction they shared wouldn’t survive the differences in their ways of life and the hard feelings and animosity that had been bred into their families. Last night had proved that, when neither family could get through one simple dinner without arguing and the Callahans had left angry because of it.

The framing of the house that was supposed to be hers one day caught her eye across the lake and deepened her sadness. She could see the broken corner post and the pieces of framing hanging down. Hunter had said he’d tear it down.

It would have been so much easier if he’d stayed angry with her for deceiving him and his family. But after what had happened last night on the porch, and, worse, his mention of cornerstones and marriage, she knew he wasn’t. She was going to have to be blunt and tell him that wasn’t happening—and remind him why
he
should be relieved that it wasn’t.

“Your logic confuses me, Red,” Hunter said behind her. “I
got the distinct impression last night that you were trying to convince me you’re nothing like my Jenny, yet here you are behaving like a hoyden with your brothers.”

She leapt to her feet and came around the tree to find him leaning against it. “How long have you been here?”

“Long enough to see that you could have used some help against your brothers.”

“Don’t guns get too wet to shoot in the water?” she quipped.

He chuckled. “You know I didn’t mean that kind of help.”

She was embarrassed that he was seeing her like this, her hair dripping wet, clothes clinging to her. “Go away. This is a family outing.”

“And we’re going to be family.”

Oh, God, that sounded nice, but
he
wasn’t being logical. “You know you don’t really want that. You’ve hated this betrothal as much as I have. Don’t turn stubborn now just because you think I’m someone I’m not. I—I won’t marry you. I’m going to go back where I belong. Be glad that I’m letting you off the hook.”

Her own words started to cut deep. She hadn’t thought it would hurt saying them! But his expression arrested her. He didn’t believe her? He actually smiled.

“Your pa followed your ma back East,” he said, coming away from the tree to maneuver her against it. “He did his courting there. You going to make me do that?”

“Courting at this point isn’t appropriate.”

“She didn’t fight him every step of the way, Red. Why are you fighting me?”

She lifted her chin stubbornly. “She didn’t know what the West was like yet.”

“Do you really think she cared? She was in love. She just wanted to be with her man.”

“Yet she left him,” she stated, thinking she’d made her point.

He didn’t think so. “Don’t use that excuse when you admitted you don’t know why she left. And you don’t really want to leave, either.”

“I—I do.”

“Prove it,” he whispered as he leaned in closer.

She could have turned away in time—no, she just didn’t want to. She wrapped her arms around his neck, let him lure her into a few moments of bliss. It was. His kiss was pure magic. How could she give this up, what he could make her feel? Did she dare be selfish and marry him when she knew they’d both end up regretting it eventually?

“
This
is beautiful,” he said against her lips. “This is two people meant to be.” Then he stepped back, but he left his hand tenderly on her cheek. “Go tell your ma what you feel, what you really feel. She’ll tell you this is where you belong.”

“I can’t, she’s not—”

“She’s in town. One of the hands just rode in and mentioned it. Half of Nashart remembers her, it’s all they’re talking about. I was riding over to warn you, in case you didn’t know. The sound of laughter in the lake distracted me.”

“But she said she’d never step foot in this territory again!”

He shrugged. “Maybe she felt she had to come to straighten you out.”

Tiffany winced. “No, she’s probably come to rescue me. If she’s here now, then she left before she got my father’s telegram. But she will be furious when she finds she came for nothing, that he and I are on the best of terms now.”

“Need me to protect you? My pa might have been intimidated by her, but I’ve got more at stake. I’ll fight the dragon for you.”

Tiffany almost laughed. “She’s not a dragon, she just doesn’t mince words when she’s angry.”

Chapter Fifty