Her Bodyguard (34 page)

He kissed her then, and it was a kiss like no other they’d shared before, a heady combination of promise and passion. When finally they broke apart, Luke tenderly brushed a finger down her cheek. “I’d better go. I left Rory at the Blue Goose and I’m afraid he’ll—”

“Rory?” Mari’s voice went shrill. “Rory’s back in town, too?”

Luke winced. “Hell, I forgot. I took one look at you, Maribeth, and forgot one of the reasons I came by here tonight. Yes, Rory’s back, and he’s no longer married. Kat has a decision to make.”

Mari thought a moment, then blew out a heavy sigh. “You’d better come inside.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

TEN MINUTES LATER, LUKE sat at the kitchen table eating a piece of Mari’s pecan pie. Though he’d refused a loan of her father’s clothing, he’d made good work of a towel. Mari had changed her dress and, while upstairs, convinced her sisters to come say hello to their guest.

If Luke had to guess, judging by Emma’s tense smile, the pained expression in Mari’s eyes and the hot glare of accusation Kat fired his way, either Mari had shared news of their engagement or someone had noticed his and Mari’s gazebo frolic and expressed her displeasure. Either way, the visit was awkward from the outset.

Luke preferred to ease into the subject of Rory, so he attempted to make small talk with the McBride sisters. His efforts fell flat as a flour tortilla. Mari tried to encourage conversation and act as if everything was normal, but she couldn’t quite rinse the starch from her speech. Emma kept her comments short, and Kat did nothing but glower.

Luke finished his pie, then decided he might as well be blunt. He set down his fork, leaned back in his chair, looked Kat straight in the eyes and said, “It occurs to me that you’re bound to have a truly beautiful baby. You’re pretty as a field of bluebonnets, Katrina, and no one can deny that Rory has a fine-looking face of his own.”

Kat fumbled her fork, and it clattered to the floor. Emma’s mouth gaped in surprise. Mari eyed her younger sister warily.

Luke pressed on. “That’s been part of his problem from the get-go. He was such a good-lookin’ cuss, even from the day he was born, that folks just naturally favored him, let him get away with nonsense all his life. I wish Rory could have known our mother. She’d have kept him on the straight and narrow. She was a good mother to me and my sister. I’m sure you’ll be the same way, Kat. You have fine family upbringing that will stand you in good stead. Your baby is a lucky one in that respect. So, are you hoping for a boy or a girl?”

Kat’s dumbfounded expression, along with Emma’s look of alarm, suggested to Luke that Kat’s loved ones tended to tiptoe around the subject of her child. Maybe he’d taken the wrong approach, but hell, Luke couldn’t tiptoe worth a damn.

“A girl,” Kat said after a long moment’s pause. “I think illegitimacy might be an easier burden for a girl to bear.”

“Hmm.” Luke rubbed the back of his neck. “About that. I couldn’t in good conscience recommend that any woman tie herself to my brother. The fact is, Rory is a sorry individual and I honestly don’t think that’ll ever change. However, I think you have a right to know what we found in Galveston, and if you decide you want to do something about it, you have my word that I’ll see that it happens.”

“See that what happens?” Kat asked.

Emma reached across the table and held her sister’s hand in a silent offer of comfort and support. Uncertain whether he’d be considered the bearer of bad news or the messenger of glad tidings, Luke briefly met Mari’s encouraging expression, then matter-of-factly stated. “Rory is no longer married. His wife divorced him. Kat, if you want to marry him to give your baby his name, then I’ll see that he says his ‘I do’s.’ Personally, I’m not certain that marrying Rory is in your best interests. However, that’s your decision to make.”

Kat slumped back in her chair, obviously stunned by the news. Emma shut her eyes and rubbed her temples. Mari chewed on her bottom lip, her gaze flitting from one sister to the other.

“One other thing, Katrina,” Luke added in complete sincerity. “No matter what you decide about Rory, I’ll always be your child’s uncle. I am not my brother. I take family seriously. If you ever need my help for anything, it’s yours. You can count on that.”

Tears welled in Kat’s eyes. Blinking rapidly, she offered Luke a shaky smile. “Thank you. I appreciate that. As far as the other goes…” She turned beseechingly toward her sisters. “Emma? Mari? What do I do?”

“Nothing right now,” Mari advised. “You have plenty of time to think about it. Right, Luke? Nothing must be decided immediately.”

Luke nodded, then judged the time had come to lighten the mood. “Actually, one very important decision must be made immediately. I know it’s rude of me to ask, but may I have seconds on the pie?”

“Of course you may,” boomed a masculine voice from behind him.

Trace McBride. Luke couldn’t help but wince. Half an hour ago, he’d been rolling in the grass with the man’s beloved daughter. McBride would surely pick up on it, note the telltale redness of the skin on Mari’s neck, the dampness of her hair, the sated glow of a well-loved woman.

“In fact,” Trace continued, his tone sharp as a bowie knife, “we’ll both have some pie while we talk. Jenny, my love, would you please bring a couple slices to my study?”

Luke noted the concern on each of the McBride women’s faces.
Well, hell. I’ll be lucky to get out of here alive.

THE HIDDEN stairways inside Willow Hill had been a gift from a doting architect father to his three lovable Menaces. Patterned after the home Trace had grown up in, the Willow Hill “secret passages” had provided countless opportunities for mischief over the years involving all six members of the McBride brood.

As part of her effort to put her Menacing days behind her, Mari hadn’t entered the passages in years. Seldom did she think about them. But the minute her father closed the study door, closeting himself inside with Luke Garrett after denying her entrance, she made a beeline upstairs to the parlor that offered access to a hidden staircase. From there, she quietly made her way downstairs until she reached the peephole she and her sisters had drilled into Papa’s study years ago.

She put her eye to the pencil-width hole. Trace was seated behind his desk, Luke in one of two leather chairs opposite her father. Well, she didn’t see any blood. She put her ear to the hole and strained to hear.

“…in a quandary,” her father was saying. “Without your help, it’s doubtful Kat would be home with us today. For that, I owe you my undying gratitude. Yet, it’s clear you’ve taken advantage of Mari.”

“Mr. McBride,” Luke began. “I—”

“For that,” Trace continued as if Luke hadn’t spoken, “I’d like to kick your ass from here to the Great Wall of China.”

Wisely, Mari thought, Luke refrained from comment.

“Now, most men in my position would gather up a shotgun and host a wedding, two of them, if what I heard you telling Katrina is true. However, the thought of you and your no-good sewer rat of a brother becoming permanent members of my family curdles my stomach. You know, Garrett, Mari’s been subtly singing your praises for the past two weeks, so I knew I’d be well served by learning something about you.”

Mari took a second to look through the spy hole. Her father wore his brow-lowered, eyes-narrowed, I’m-mean-so-you-should-fear-me expression and drummed his fingers on his desk. Luke met him straight on— calm, confident and fearless.

The unstoppable force meets the immovable object, Mari thought with a silent groan. This was not what she’d wanted in a conversation between her father and her lover. Her stomach churning, she put her ear to the wall.

“…not now and never have been on any Texas Ranger roster.”

Mari waited for Luke to defend himself, to explain how he led a special force that reported directly to the governor. He remained distressingly silent.

“You’re a liar, a convicted thief, a con man. While I owe you for one daughter, I will not pay you with another. After the fire, you told me you owed my family a debt. I’m calling it due. I want you to leave Willow Hill and never contact my daughter again.”

Papa, how dare you! You can’t do that
. Mari wanted to bang on the wall and shout it, but not as much as she wanted to hear Luke’s reply.

Finally, he spoke. “Mr. McBride. I appreciate your position. It cannot be easy for a father to see another man supplant him in the affections of his little girl.”

Not a good choice, Luke. Not a good choice at all
.

“Listen, you piece of—”

This time Luke was the one to continue as if the other hadn’t spoken. “I love your daughter. I could sit here and attempt to defend myself, to convince you I am deserving of the gift of her love in return, but we both know that is a lie.”

What?

“No man will ever be good enough for Maribeth. Period. However, I can promise you that no man will ever love her more than I will. No other man will honor her, cherish her, respect her like I will. No other man will better support her dreams or comfort her disappointments. I will provide for her financially, physically and emotionally. Your daughter will want for nothing married to me, except, perhaps, for acceptance from her father. That, I’m afraid only you can give her.”

Mari took a fast look into the study. Luke stood facing her father, straight and tall and proud. Papa’s complexion had blanched white.

“But you’re a goddamned thief!”

“I stole her heart, perhaps. It is my most prized possession and I will not give it back. You know, Mr. McBride, at risk of making things worse, may I offer you a bit of advice? Respect Mari’s intelligence. She knows what and who is right for her. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a family commitment I must honor.”

Mari heard footsteps walking away, the click of a turning doorknob, then her father’s voice. “You’ll marry her?”

“As soon as she wishes.”

“You don’t have another wife squirreled away?”

For the first time in the conversation, Mari heard an edge in Luke’s voice. “I am not my brother, Mr. McBride. I’ll thank you not to charge me with his character failings.”

“What about him?” Trace asked belligerently. “Aren’t you going to tell me that I can’t stop him from marrying my Katie-cat, either?”

Mari darted a look. Luke stood in the doorway, looking down at his feet. “Honestly, Mr. McBride,” he said. “If I were you, I’d utilize that boot-in-the-ass you mentioned earlier. Knowing Rory, that’s all it would take to chase him off.”

When Luke exited her father’s study, Mari lifted her ear from the peephole and prepared to dash upstairs to the exit. She wanted to catch Luke before he left Willow Hill. A
pound
, pound, pound on the wall by the spy hole stopped her in her tracks. “Come to my study, Maribeth. Now.”

Suddenly, she was an eight-year-old mischief maker about to be called up on the carpet once again. How did he know?

Oh, for crying out loud, Mari
, her eight-year-old self replied.
Papa always knows everything. Eventually
.

She grimaced and dropped her chin to her chest, then dragged her feet and made her way toward her father’s study. Luke was gone by the time she arrived.

Trace stood facing the family portrait hanging on the wall. Without taking his eyes off the painting, he said, “Talk to me, Maribeth.”

Her stomach dipped. Her heart ached. He looked so miserable.

What she was fixing to say would only make it worse.

“I love him, Papa.”

He winced. “He’s not good enough for you.”

“He’s perfect for me. Papa, Luke is strong and he’s steady and he’s dependable. He makes me laugh. I trust him.”

“Oh, Mari. That shows such poor judgment. It’s something a McBride Menace might do. I thought you’d outgrown that foolishness. You might as well be a little girl again.”

His words hurt, but Mari knew that fear and concern for her put the words in her father’s mouth.
Something a McBride Menace would do
. It occurred to Mari that maybe being a Menace wasn’t such a bad thing. “Papa, Luke has proved his strength of character time and again. He’s a good man.”

“He’s an outlaw!”

“No, he’s not. He told you the truth, Papa. He really is a ranger. He has a Warrant of Authority. I’ve seen it.”

“Probably forged,” Trace muttered. “He’s lying to you, just like that weasel brother of his lied to Katrina.”

Stubborn as an old mule, her father. “Luke didn’t lie about this, Papa. But if you need proof, look no farther than the Fort Worth jail. Finn Murphy was arrested because Luke summoned the Texas Rangers.”

As she expected, Trace had no reply to that “Papa, I love him. I want to marry him. I want him to be the father of my children.”

Trace grimaced. “Please, Mari. Don’t talk about such things. I don’t like to think about you…”

“Growing up?”

He shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged, reminding her of Tommy. Reminding her of…that’s when it hit her. “They say women pick out men like their fathers. Well, Papa, in many ways, Luke is a lot like you. He can be stubborn. He always thinks he’s right, at least until I show him otherwise. He gets the same look in his eyes when he looks at me that you get when you look at Mama, and he would, he has, protected me with his life. He’s my hero, Papa. Just like you are my hero, too. Give him a chance. You’ll see. If you’re open-minded and fair, you’ll see. He’ll prove himself to you. Please, Papa?”

From behind her came the sound of her mother’s voice. “Well, now. That seems like a fair enough request. Don’t you think, Trace?”

He scowled blackly. Mari flashed her mother a grateful smile. Jenny McBride continued, “In your father’s defense, Maribeth, this comes as quite a surprise. You need to give him some time to grow accustomed to the idea and to get to know your young man. You’re not planning on eloping, are you?”

“Oh, no. I want a big church wedding, Mama. I want to wear the Good Luck Wedding Dress, and I want Aunt Claire to bake us a magical wedding cake.”