A Marriage Made in Texas (The Brothers Kincaid) (14 page)

Indulging herself, and the dogs, she threw the ball several times, then filled their water bowl with fresh water and went inside. She and Jay hadn’t had much chance to talk about combining their households. Or maybe, she thought with a smile, remembering the honeymoon, they’d had better things to talk about. Better things to do.

Jay’s furniture was sparse, but she liked what he had. His bedroom suite was a beautiful dark wood that was the only thing he’d brought from California, so she knew he liked it. He’d just bought his couch, which gave Gail the chance to get rid of the one she’d been using for years, an ancient hand-me-down of her mother’s. She loved her dining room set, fortunately, since Jay didn’t have any furniture at all for that room.

She was trying to figure paint quantities in Mel’s room when the phone rang. A little breathless from running to the kitchen to get it, she answered. “Hello?”

“Who is this?” a woman’s voice asked sharply.

Gail rolled her eyes at the rude tone. “Who do you want?”

“I’m looking for Jay Kincaid. Is he there?”

“No. He’s at work. Can I take a message?” She glanced around for a piece of paper, spying a note pad on the counter.

“I’ve tried his office and couldn’t get through.” She sounded irritated and impatient. “Are you the maid?”

Gail stifled a giggle as it dawned on her who the caller might be. “No. But I’ll be glad to take a message,” she repeated.

The woman huffed out an angry breath. “Tell him to call Carla. His fiancée.” She waited a moment and added, “And if you’re not the maid, who the hell are you and what are you doing in Jay’s house?”

The back door opened just then and Jay came in.

“I think I’ll let him tell you about that,” Gail said. “He just walked in.” She held the phone out to Jay. “It’s for you.”

“Who is it?” he asked, tossing his keys down on the kitchen table.

“Your fiancée,” she said, and handed him the receiver. “Obviously, one of us is confused.”

H
IS FIANCÉE
?
Great, that could only be Carla. He didn’t know anyone else running around calling themselves that. Jay had come home for lunch for a couple of reasons. The clinic’s phones were out since the phone company had cut the regular lines while trying to install a new DSL line for the computers. He had wanted to check on Gail but mostly, though, he’d just wanted to see her. Hold her. Kiss her.

The last thing he wanted was to have another scene with Carla. And this one should be a doozy, since she didn’t have a clue he was married. He took the phone from Gail and held it to his ear. “Hello, Carla.”

“Hello, darling. I had some good news and I couldn’t wait to share it with you.”

“Yeah, I’ve got some news of my own.” He glanced at Gail, who was leaning against the kitchen table with her arms crossed. He couldn’t quite read her expression.

“I made partner in the law firm,” Carla said. “It’s going to be announced next week. Can you believe it?”

“Congratulations.” He knew how hard she’d worked for the position. “You deserve it.”

“Oh, Jay, you can’t imagine how exciting it was. But there was one thing missing. One thing would make it perfect.”

“Carla—”

“Jay, what do I have to do? Come back. Please. I’ll do whatever you want. I swear I won’t so much as mention the word marriage. Just come back to me.”

“I can’t.” He started walking, wishing the conversation was over. Wishing he didn’t have to hurt her, more than he already had.

She didn’t speak for a moment and when she did her voice was strained. “You’re involved with someone, aren’t you? That woman who answered the phone. Who is she, Jay?”

“Her name is Gail. You’ve met her.”

“Oh, please,” she said, and laughed. “That drab little thing? She won’t keep your interest for a week.”

“Carla, I’m married.” He could feel her astonishment over the phone line.

“Married?”

“Gail and I were married last weekend.”

“You’re lying. Or making a very unfunny joke. You walked out on me because you didn’t want to get married. You swore you had no intention of marrying anyone.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Things…changed. I changed.”

“You can’t have changed that much. I don’t believe you. There must be another reason. Something you’re not telling me.”

“I’m not discussing my marriage with you.” Jay glanced over at Gail, but sometime during the conversation she’d left the room.

“How could you marry another woman? When you swore up and down you’d never marry?” Her voice was shrill, yet he could hear tears trembling in it. “Oh, my God, she’s pregnant, isn’t she? And you believe her? That’s the oldest trick in the book.”

“Carla, leave it alone.”

“Fine, don’t talk. But if she is pregnant, I recommend a paternity test. You might just find out you married her for nothing. Or another man’s child.”

He wasn’t about to confirm her suspicions, and her comments didn’t deserve an answer. “Are you through?”

“No, I’m not through! You could have called me. I deserved to know, not to find out like this. You weren’t planning to tell me at all, were you?”

“We haven’t been together for months. It didn’t occur to me to call you. Why would it?”

“We lived together for two years. Did I mean so little to you that you didn’t even think to tell me you were marrying another woman?”

He felt a flash of guilt. But he still didn’t know if it would have been any kinder if he had told her before now. “Carla, don’t do this. Whether I should have told you or not, the fact remains I’m married now.”

Carla laughed harshly. “I always thought you were so smart, but you’re a fool, Jay. Don’t think you can
come crawling back to me when this farce of a marriage is over.”

“I won’t.” If he’d ever been sure of anything, he was sure of that. “And, Carla, I married Gail because I wanted to.”

“Bastard,” she said, and the line went dead.

N
OT WANTING TO
torture herself any longer by hearing Jay talk to his ex-girlfriend, Gail had left the room shortly after giving him the phone. Unfortunately, she’d already heard more than she wanted.

Standing by the den window, the one that looked out into the back yard, she watched the puppies gleefully digging yet another hole. She knew she ought to go out and scold them, but she couldn’t summon the energy. Instead, she replayed the brief snatches of conversation she’d overheard.

I can’t,
Jay had said. Had that been regret in his voice? She was nearly certain it had been. Regret that now he couldn’t go back to Carla, even if he’d wanted? He had a wife now, and a baby on the way. And two stepdaughters, one of whom was probably making him regret he’d ever convinced Gail to marry him.

Things have changed. I’ve changed,
he’d said. Because he’d had no choice. He’d done the right thing, he’d married her. Was he regretting it now? Part of him was bound to resent her. Barry had. Barry had resented being forced into marriage so much, he’d eventually left her. Would it come to that with Jay?

And what would she do if it did?

Sensing his presence, she turned to see Jay standing in the kitchen doorway. He gave her a rueful smile.

“I’m going to fix some lunch before I head back to the office. Want something?”

“Okay. There’s not much food over here.”

“I know. I think I can scrounge up a can of soup, though. Come keep me company.”

She followed him into the kitchen and watched as he dumped soup into a pan and set it on the stove. His phone conversation with Carla sat like the proverbial elephant in the living room between them, until Gail finally grew frustrated enough to say something. “So, can we expect a wedding gift from Carla?”

His mouth lifted at one side and he shook his head. “I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for it.”

“You look upset. Was it that bad?”

He shrugged and stirred the soup. “Pretty bad. At the end she called me a bastard and hung up. And that was the good part.”

“You’d have to expect her to be upset.” She took out a couple of bowls and set them beside the stove.

Jay transferred the soup to the bowls. “I should have told her. She shouldn’t have had to find out the way she did.”

“Why would you have told her? You broke up months ago.”

He waited until they were seated before speaking again. “You told Barry. She was right, I should have told her.”

“Barry is my children’s father and lives in the same town. I see him every other weekend, for heaven’s sake. It’s hardly the same thing.”

He looked a little annoyed. “It wasn’t just some casual fling, Gail. Carla and I lived together for two years. I owed her the courtesy of telling her. But I didn’t, because I didn’t want to deal with her reaction.”

“Maybe that’s not the only reason you didn’t tell her,” she said, unable to stop herself. “You still have feelings for her, don’t you?”

He set his spoon down and stared at her. “Not the way you seem to be implying. I don’t want to hurt her, Gail, and I did.”

“Fine.” She could hardly speak because of the lump in her throat. Damn those pregnancy hormones! She always cried more easily when she was pregnant. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

“Gail.” He covered her hand with his. “I’m married to you. I’m committed to you. And to Roxy and Mel and the new baby. I don’t want you to doubt that our marriage is important to me. I want it to work.”

“I know,” she managed to say. “I do, too.”

He leaned forward and kissed her. “Good. Why don’t we forget about Carla? I think she’s caused enough trouble for one day.”

They talked of other things until he went back to work. Her heart heavy, she watched him go. She believed he wanted their marriage to work. But the fact remained, if there hadn’t been a baby, there wouldn’t
have been a wedding. And sooner or later, that reality was going to hit home. Then how would Jay feel?

Trapped. And forced to make the best of the situation.

G
AIL AND
J
AY SETTLED
into married life quickly once they all moved into one house. Roxy still hadn’t warmed up to Jay, but Mel seemed perfectly happy with her mother’s marriage and her new stepfather. Jay was surprised at how quickly he grew accustomed to the near-constant noise level of life with two little girls. Living with one woman was nothing like living with three. Most of the time, he enjoyed it, though he did like the weekends the girls spent with Barry, when he had Gail to himself.

One Saturday afternoon a few weeks after Gail and the girls moved in, Jay attempted to watch a ball game on TV. Attempted being the operative word. Mel sat beside him, chattering and asking him so many questions he couldn’t concentrate on the game. Then she got up and started running around, which was even worse. But the final straw came when he missed a Longhorn touchdown because Mel was doing a cartwheel in front of the TV. And he couldn’t even cuss.

“Mel, honey, why don’t you go see what your mom is doing?” he asked through gritted teeth. And leave him in peace to watch what precious little was left of the game.

A blood-curdling shriek came from the bedroom.
Afraid Gail had fallen, Jay raced in there, closely followed by Mel.

“Good God, Gail, I thought you were dying,” he said, relieved to see her standing and apparently, unhurt.

She stood in the doorway of her walk-in closet, clutching a mangled piece of something—maybe leather?—in one hand. Her cheeks bloomed with color, her chest heaved, and he could swear sparks of fire shot from her eyes. She looked magnificent.

“Do you know what this is?” she demanded, thrusting the scrap beneath his nose.

Yips and growls could be heard, coming from the closet behind her. “Part of a shoe?” he hazarded.

“Exactly. To be more specific, this is all that’s left—” she thrust it toward him again “—of my best pair of heels.”

Her eyes shimmered with anger, the blue as deep and dangerous as the ocean. She sucked in a deep breath, which caught his attention because her shirt stretched much tighter across her breasts than normal. He dragged his gaze from that mesmerizing chest up to her eyes again.

“Do you know how much high heels cost?” She shook her fist at him. “Do you?”

He had a pretty good idea. “I’ll buy you another pair.”

“Don’t even start with me. I can buy my own shoes. I don’t need or want your money. But I’ll tell you what you can do. Take a good look at that.” She stood aside and gestured dramatically to her closet floor. Completely unrepentant, or possibly unaware,
Fudge and Fluffy played tug-of-war with yet another shoe.

The closet was a shambles, half-eaten shoes lay everywhere, and if the smell was any indication, at least one of the dogs had pooped as well.

“Uh-oh,” Mel said, as Roxy came in behind her. “Somebody’s in big trouble.”

Jay swallowed. There was always Mastercard. Surely she’d let him pay for the shoes, once she calmed down. “Listen, Gail, I know you’re upset but—”

“Upset?” she yelled. “Upset doesn’t even begin to describe my feelings.” Eyes blazing, she took a step toward him. “They’ve destroyed every single pair of shoes I own, except the ones on my feet. Did you let those furry fiends from hell into my closet?”

He started to deny it, but he happened to glance at Roxy. Her eyes were huge, her face white as a sheet. Her gaze met his. Defenseless against the plea in those eyes, he sighed and prepared to immolate himself.

“I watered earlier.” He glanced at the French doors, open to the backyard. Muddy paw prints marched across the beige carpet, disappearing into the closet. “I might have left the doors open. I was watching the game, so I might not have noticed.”

Roxy and Mel watched them, wide-eyed, fascinated and utterly silent.

“You
might
have left them open or you
did
leave them open?”

He shifted, stuck his hands in his pockets. “Well,
I doubt the puppies could open them, so it must have been me.”

“You were watching the game,” Gail repeated, her tone ominously calm. “So naturally, you allowed your two miserable, misbegotten, horribly trained mongrels full run of the house. You couldn’t be bothered to even close the damn door,” she said, her voice rising with each word.

He rubbed the back of his neck. “Gail, it’s football. The Longhorns are playing.”

She let out a strangled scream and stepped forward until she stood nose to nose with him. Her index finger jabbed firmly into his chest. “Let me tell you what’s going to happen. I’m going to the mall and I’m going to replace my shoes.” She glanced at the closet, then back at him. “I have to get at least one pair for work, even if I can’t afford to replace all of them. And when I come back—” she punctuated her words with another jab of the finger “—there won’t be a sign, not a trace, not even a dog hair, to indicate that those canine criminals were ever anywhere near my closet. Got that?”

He bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. After all, he didn’t have a death wish. “Absolutely. Are you sure you won’t let me pay—”

“I said, don’t start.” Her gaze narrowed. “The subject is closed. The only thing I need from you is for you to clean out my closet!” she yelled, her voice rising on the last words.

She stalked off and a few minutes later, he heard the back door slam.

Jay let out a breath and shook his head admiringly.
“Wow, what a woman. Does she get that mad often?”

“Nuh-uh,” Mel said, blond curls dancing, eyes still wide. “Last time was when Roxy and me spilled purple paint on the living room carpet and we had to get new carpet. But she’s always sorry after she yells.” Mel reached out a pudgy arm and gave him a hug. “Don’t feel bad, Jay. You didn’t do it on purpose.”

“He didn’t do it,” Roxy said, speaking for the first time, her lip quivering. “It’s my fault. I let the puppies in. Not on purpose, but I came in to get a drink of water and I forgot. Jay told Mommy he let them in, so I wouldn’t get in trouble.”

“She had more fun yelling at me,” he said, hoping to avert the tears that trembled in her eyes. “Don’t worry about it. Your mom will forgive me.” I hope, he added silently. “But we better get this cleaned up. How about some help? First, we toss the puppies outside.”