Hawk's Way: Rebels (4 page)

“Do they look that much alike?” Cherry asked.

Billy chuckled. “Sometimes they try to fool me. But it isn’t hard to tell them apart once you get to know them. Raejean carries herself differently, more confidently. She looks at you more directly and talks back more often. Annie is kinder, sweeter, more thoughtful. She follows Raejean’s lead. When the two of them team up, they can be a handful.”

“Have you had a lot of trouble with them?”

His hand paused for a moment, then resumed its disturbing massage. “A little. Just lately. I think they’re missing Laura as much as I am.”

He rubbed a little harder, as though he had admitted something he wished he hadn’t.

“Were you expecting twins when they were born?”

Cherry felt his hand tighten uncomfortably on her flesh. She hissed in a breath, and his hand soothed the hurt.

“The twins were a complete surprise. They came early, and for a while it was touch and go whether Laura and the girls would all make it. They did, but there were complications. The doctor said Laura couldn’t have any more children.”

“You wanted more?”

“I didn’t care one way or the other. But Laura did.”

Abruptly his hand left her back, and he rolled away from her. “Go to sleep, Cherry.”

Apparently their conversation was over, leaving her with a great deal of food for thought.

The twins missed their mother. Like he did.

Cherry could do something to replace the loss in the twins’ lives. She could be a mother to Billy’s little girls. Of more concern was the temptation she felt to ease Billy’s sorrow. There were dangers in such an undertaking. She had to remember this was a temporary marriage. It was safer to let Billy cope with his loss on his own.

On the other hand, Cherry never had chosen the safe path. As she closed her eyes again, she saw the four of them smiling at one another…one happy family.

B
ILLY STARED AT THE
neon outside the window, willing himself to sleep. But he couldn’t stop thinking about his new wife.

The wedding kiss had surprised him. In the fluorescent light of the wedding chapel, Cherry Whitelaw had looked like anything but a radiant bride. Her blue eyes had been wide with fright and her skin pale beneath a mass of orange freckles. He’d had significant second thoughts about the marriage. And third and fourth thoughts, as well. All his thoughts came back to the same thing. She needed his help. And he needed hers.

He had been proud of her for getting through that awful ceremony—including the last-minute search for a ring that would fit—with so much dignity. That was why he had offered her the kiss, not because he had been wondering what her lips would taste like. When she had reached out to him afterward, he had stopped her because that wasn’t part of their deal, not because he had been shocked at the way his body had gone rock-hard at her touch. Just thinking about it caused the same reaction all over again.

Billy swore.

“Billy? Is something wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong, Cherry. Go to sleep.”

He closed his eyes, determined to get some rest, but a picture of her breast half revealed by the torn chiffon bodice appeared behind his eyelids.

He opened his eyes and stared at the neon again. Who would have thought he would find a freckle-faced redhead so erotically exciting? Or that his new wife would be off-limits for heaven knew how long? Billy heaved a long-suffering sigh. It was going to be one hell of a marriage.

His eyes slid closed again as sleep claimed his exhausted body.

B
ILLY WAS HAVING
a really spectacular dream. He had a handful of soft female breast, which just happened to belong to his new wife. Her eyes were closed in passion, and as he flicked his thumb across her nipple, he heard a moan that made his loins tighten. He lowered his head to take her nipple in his mouth. It was covered by a thin layer of cotton. He sucked on her through the damp cloth and felt her body arch toward him. Her hands threaded into his hair…and yanked on it—

Billy came awake with a jerk. “What the hell?”

Cherry was sitting bolt upright in bed with her hands crossed defensively under her breasts. A damp spot on her T-shirt revealed that he hadn’t been dreaming.

It shouldn’t have surprised him. His last thoughts before drifting to sleep had been about Cherry. No wonder his body had been drawn to hers during the night. He shoved a hand through hair that was standing on end and groaned. “God, Cherry, I’m sorry. I was dreaming.”

She eyed him suspiciously.

“I swear I didn’t know what I was doing.”

That made her look crestfallen.

“Not that it isn’t exactly what I’d like to be doing at this moment,” he said.

She gave a hitching breath that was almost a sob. “We agreed to wait.”

“Yeah, I know,” Billy said. “I don’t suppose you’ve changed your mind.”

She hesitated so long he thought maybe she had. Until she shook her head no.

Billy looked at the clock. It was only six. But he didn’t
trust himself to lie back down beside her. “I can’t sleep anymore. How about if we head for the airport?”

“All right,” she said.

He started pulling on his boots and felt her hand on his shoulder. He froze.

She cleared her throat and said, “I liked what you were doing, Billy. It felt…good. I wanted you to know that. It’s just…”

He shoved his foot down into the boot and stood. He had to get away from her or he was going to turn around and lay her flat on the bed and do something he would be sorry for later. “I know,” he said. “We agreed to wait.”

She had a brave smile on her face. And looked every bit her youthful age.

What on earth had possessed him to marry her?

It was a silent flight from Las Vegas to the airport in Amarillo. And an even more silent truck ride to the Stonecreek Ranch. Billy pulled up to the back door of a large, two-story white clapboard house and killed the engine. The blue morning glories he had planted for Laura were soaking up the midday sun on a trellis along the eastern edge of the porch.

“We’re home,” Billy said. His throat tightened painfully. They were the same words he had spoken to Laura—how many years ago?—when they had moved into this house.

Suddenly he realized he couldn’t go back into Laura’s house right now with a new wife. It was still too full of Laura. He needed a little time to accept the fact that she really was gone forever.

“Look, why don’t you go inside and introduce yourself
to Mrs. Motherwell, my housekeeper. I just realized I was supposed to pick up a load of feed in town this morning. I’ll be back in an hour or so.”

Cherry was staring at him as if he had grown a second head. “You want me to go in there without you?” she asked.

“Just tell Mrs. Motherwell you’ve come to replace her. I’ll explain everything to the kids when I get back.” When Cherry continued sitting there staring at him, he snapped, “Changed your mind already?”

His new wife looked sober and thoughtful. There were shadows of fatigue beneath her eyes. “No. I’m determined to see this through.” She gave him one last anxious look before she left the truck. “Don’t be gone long.”

“I won’t.”

Billy resisted the urge to gun the engine as he backed away from the house. Once he hit paved road he headed the truck toward town. He hadn’t gone two miles when he saw flashing red and blue lights behind him. He glanced down at the speedometer and swore. He swerved off the road and braked hard enough to raise a cloud of dust.

He was out of the truck and reaching for his wallet to get his driver’s license when he saw the highway patrolman had a gun in his hand that was pointed at him.

“Freeze, Stonecreek, or I’ll blow your head off.”

Billy froze. “What the hell’s the matter with you?”

“Put your hands up. You’re under arrest.”

“Arrest? For what?”

“Kidnapping.”

It took a full second for the charge to register.
Kid
napping?
Then he realized what must have happened and groaned. “Look, Officer, I can explain everything.”

“You have the right to remain silent,” the officer began.

Billy’s lips pressed flat. He had married Cherry Whitelaw in the hope of solving his problems. Instead he had jumped right out of the frying pan into the fire.

C
HERRY STARED
at the back door of Billy’s house—now her home, too—trying to work up the courage to go inside, wondering, absurdly, if she should knock first.

She turned and stole a glance at Billy’s rugged profile as he drove away, pondering what it was about him she had found so beguiling. He had rescued her, listened to her troubles, and shared his in return. She had felt his desperation and responded to it. Now he was her husband. She twisted the cheap gold ring that confirmed it wasn’t all a dream, that she was, indeed, Mrs. Billy Stonecreek.

Good grief. What had she done?

Cherry had gone off half-cocked in the past, but the enormity of this escapade was finally sinking in. Surely it would have been better to face Zach and Rebecca and explain the truth of what had happened at the dance. How was she going to justify this latest lapse of common sense?

She felt a surge of anger at Billy for abandoning her at the door. It wouldn’t have taken long to introduce her to Mrs. Motherwell and explain the situation. So why hadn’t he done it?

Maybe because he’s having the same second thoughts as you are. Maybe in the cold light of day he’s thinking
he made a bad bargain. Maybe he’s trying to figure out a way right now to get out of it.

If the back door hadn’t opened at that precise moment, Cherry would have turned and headed for Hawk’s Pride.

But it did. And Cherry found herself face-to-face with Penelope Trask.

“I saw you standing out here,” Mrs. Trask said. “Is there something I can do for you?”

“I, uh… Is Mrs. Motherwell here?”

“She packed her bags and left this morning.”

Cherry stood with her jaw agape, speechless for perhaps the first time in her life. Had Mrs. Trask already managed to gain legal custody of Billy’s children? Had their marriage been for naught? She wished Billy were here.

“Don’t I know you? Aren’t you one of those Whitelaw Bra—” Mrs. Trask cut herself off.

Cherry knew what she had been about to say. The eight adopted Whitelaw kids were known around this part of Texas as the Whitelaw Brats, just like Zach and his siblings before them, and Grandpa Garth and his siblings before that. Cherry had done her share to help earn the nickname. She was proud to be one of them.

She met the older woman’s disdainful look with defiance. “Yes, I’m a Whitelaw Brat. You have a problem with that?”

“None at all. But if you’re looking for your missing sister, she isn’t here. I have no idea what my no-account excuse for a son-in-law has done with her.” She started to close the door in Cherry’s face.

Cherry stuck her foot in the door. “Wait! What are you talking about?”

A flare of recognition lit Mrs. Trask’s eyes. “Oh, my God. You’re the girl, aren’t you? The one Billy kidnapped.” She stuck her head out the screen door and looked around. “Where is he? I have a few things to say to him.”

“Kidnapped?” Cherry gasped. “I wasn’t kidnapped!”

“Your parents reported you missing late last night.”

“Why would they think I was with Billy?”

“Your date wrapped his car around a telephone pole, and when he kept mumbling your name the police called your parents, thinking maybe you’d been thrown from the car. At the hospital, the boy told your father that he’d left you at the stock pond with Billy, after my son-in-law ran him off with his fists.

“Your father couldn’t find you at the stock pond, and when he came looking for you here in a rage, Mrs. Motherwell called me. Your father seemed bent on strangling someone before the night was out.”

Probably me,
Cherry thought morosely.

“Of course I came right over,” Mrs. Trask said. “All I could tell your father was that I wouldn’t put it past my reckless son-in-law to kidnap an innocent young woman.”

“Mrs. Trask, I wasn’t kidnapped.”

“I suggest you go home and tell that to your father. He told the police Billy must have kidnapped you, because you’d never go off on your own like that.” Mrs. Trask smirked. “Of course, that was before he found out you’d been expelled from school earlier in the evening.”

Cherry groaned.

“You’re in an awful lot of trouble, young lady. Where have you been? And where’s Billy?”

Cherry put a hand to her throbbing temple. Zach and Rebecca must be frantic with worry. And disappointed beyond belief. She didn’t want to think about how angry they were going to be when they heard what she had done.

“May I please use your phone?” It was her phone now, so she shouldn’t have to ask. Except, this didn’t seem the right moment to announce that she and Billy had run off to Las Vegas to get married.

Mrs. Trask hesitated, then pushed the screen door open wide. “Come on in, if you must.”

As soon as Cherry’s eyes adjusted to the dim light in the kitchen, she saw Raejean and Annie standing together near the table.

They wore their straight black hair in adorable, beribboned pigtails, and stared at her with dark, serious brown eyes. Their noses were small and their chins dainty, like their mother, but they had high, sharp cheekbones that reminded her of Billy. They were tall for six-year-olds and dressed exactly alike in collared blouses tucked into denim coveralls and white tennis shoes.

“Hello, Raejean,” she said, addressing the child who had her arm wrapped comfortingly around the other’s shoulder.

The child’s eyes widened in surprise at being recognized. Then she said, “I’m not Raejean, I’m Annie.”

The other twin’s mouth dropped open, and she glanced at her sister. Then she turned to Cherry, pointed to her chest with her thumb, and said, “I’m Raejean.”

“I see,” Cherry said. They were both missing the
exact same front tooth. No help there telling them apart. Billy had said Raejean was the confident one, so Cherry had assumed it was Raejean who was giving comfort to her sister. But maybe she had been wrong.

“I need to use your phone,” she said, moving toward where it hung on the kitchen wall.

Cherry felt the girls watching her while she dialed.

“We don’t need another housekeeper,” the twin who had identified herself as Annie said. “We’re going to stay at Nana’s house until Daddy gets home.”

Cherry felt her heart miss a beat. She turned to Mrs. Trask and said, “Billy went into town for supplies. He should be back any time now. There’s no need to take the girls anywhere.”

“I’ll be the best judge of that,” Mrs. Trask said. “Go upstairs, girls, and finish packing.”

The twins turned and ran. Cherry heard their footsteps pounding on the stairs as the ringing phone was answered by her sister, Jewel. Of her seven Whitelaw siblings, Jewel was the sister closest to her in age. Jewel had been adopted by Zach and Rebecca when she was five—the first of the current generation of Whitelaw Brats.

It had taken Cherry a while to straighten them all out, but now she could recite their names and ages with ease. Rolleen was 21, Jewel was 19, she was 18, Avery was 17, Jake was 16, Frannie was 13, Rabbit was 12, and Colt was 11.

Of course Rabbit’s name wasn’t really Rabbit, it was Louis, but nobody called him that. Jewel had given him the nickname Rabbit when he was little, because he ate so many carrots, and the name had stuck. Colt was the
only one of them who had been adopted as a baby. The rest of them had all known at least one other parent before being abandoned, orphaned, or fostered out.

“Is anybody there?” Jewel asked breathlessly. “If this is the kidnapper, we’ll pay whatever you ask.”

“It’s me, Jewel.”

“Cherry! Where are you? Are you all right? Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine. I’m at Billy Stonecreek’s ranch.”

“So he did kidnap you! I’ll send Daddy to get you right away.”

“No! I mean…” Cherry had turned her back to Mrs. Trask and kept her voice low thus far, but she figured there was no sense postponing the inevitable. “Billy didn’t kidnap me. Last night we flew to Las Vegas and got married.”

She was met with stunned silence on the other end of the line. Which was a good thing, because Mrs. Trask gave an outraged shriek that brought the two little girls back downstairs on the run.

“Nana! Nana! What’s wrong?”

“I have to go now, Jewel,” Cherry said. “Tell Zach and Rebecca I’m okay, and that I’ll come to see them soon and explain everything.”

“Cherry, don’t—”

Cherry hung up the phone in time to turn and greet the twins a second time. Again, she identified the twin taking the lead as Raejean, which meant the one standing slightly behind her was Annie. “Hello, Raejean. Hello, Annie.”

“I’m Annie,” Raejean contradicted.

Before Annie could misidentify herself as Raejean,
Mrs. Trask snapped, “Don’t bother trying to tell them apart. They’re identical, you know.”

“But—” From Billy’s descriptions of them it was so obvious to her which twin was which. Couldn’t Mrs. Trask see the difference?

“What’s wrong, Nana?” Raejean asked. “Why did you scream?”

Mrs. Trask’s face looked more like a beet or a turnip than a human head, she was so flushed. It was clear she wasn’t sure exactly what to say.

“Your grandmother was just excited about some news she heard,” Cherry said.

“What news?” Annie asked.

“It’s a surprise I think your Daddy will want to tell you about himself when he gets home,” Cherry said.

“We’re not going to be here that long,” Mrs. Trask retorted. “The girls and I are leaving.”

“Not until Billy gets back,” Cherry said firmly. “I’m sure Raejean and Annie want to wait and say goodbye to their father.” Cherry turned to the girls and asked, “Don’t you?”

Raejean eyed her consideringly, but Annie piped up, “I want to wait for Daddy.”

Mrs. Trask made an angry sound in her throat. “I hope you’re happy now,” she said to Cherry. “My grandchildren have had a difficult enough time over the past year, without adding someone like you to the picture.”

Cherry reminded herself that Mrs. Trask was always going to be Raejean and Annie’s grandmother. Throwing barbs now, however satisfying it might be, would only cause problems later. Zach and Rebecca would have been astounded at her tact when she spoke.

“I’m sorry we surprised you like this, Mrs. Trask. I know Billy will want to explain everything to you himself. Won’t you consider waiting until he returns before you leave?”

“No.”

Of course, there were times when being blunt worked best. Cherry crossed to stand beside the twins. “I’m sorry you have to leave, Mrs. Trask. The girls and I will have Billy give you a call when he gets home.”

Cherry saw the moment when Mrs. Trask realized that she had been outmaneuvered. She wasn’t going to make a quick and easy escape with Billy’s children. Cherry was there to stand in her way.

Billy chose that moment to pull open the screen door and step into the kitchen.

Annie and Raejean gave shrieks of joy and raced into his wide open arms. He lifted them both, one in each arm, and gave them each a smacking kiss. “How are my girls?” he asked.

Raejean answered for both of them.

“Some man got mad at Mrs. Motherwell because she didn’t know where you were and Nana came and Mrs. Motherwell packed her bags and left and Nana said we should pack, too, and go live with her until you came back home, only this lady came a little while ago and said you were coming home really soon and we had to wait for you because you have a surprise for us. What’s our surprise, Daddy? Can we have it now?”

Cherry had watched Billy’s narrowed gaze flicker from his daughter to Mrs. Trask and back again as Raejean made her breathless recital. When Raejean got to
the part about a surprise, his gaze shot to her, and she thought she saw both panic and resignation.

“What are you doing back here so soon?” Mrs. Trask said. “I was told you were going into town for sup plies.”

“I got stopped by the police long before I got there and arrested for kidnapping,” Billy said.

“Then why aren’t you in jail?” Mrs. Trask demanded.

Billy’s lips curled. “I showed them my marriage license.”

“Who got kidnapped, Daddy?” Annie asked.

“Nobody, sweetheart,” Billy replied. “It was all a big mistake.”

“Then, can we have our surprise now?” Annie asked.

He knelt down and set them back on their feet. Keeping an arm around each of them, he said, “The surprise is that you have a new mother.”

Annie’s brow furrowed. “A new mother?”

Raejean frowned. “Our mother is in heaven.”

“I know that,” Billy said in a sandpaper-rough voice that made Cherry’s throat swell with emotion. “I’ve married someone else who’s going to be your mother from now on.”

Raejean and Annie looked at each other, then turned as one to stare with shocked, suspicious eyes at Cherry.

Raejean’s head shot around to confront her father. “Her?”

Billy nodded.

Raejean jerked free and shouted, “I don’t want an
other mother! Make her go away!” Then she ran from the room.

Annie’s eyes had filled with tears and one spilled over as she stared at Raejean’s fleeing form. Cherry willed the softhearted child to accept her, but Annie paused only another moment before she turned and ran after her sister.

Cherry met Billy’s stricken gaze. She felt sick to her stomach. The two charming and innocent little girls she had married Billy to save from harm, didn’t want anything to do with her.

“You’re a fool, Billy,” Mrs. Trask said, grabbing her purse from the kitchen counter. “I don’t know what you hoped to accomplish with this charade, but it won’t work. I’m more convinced than ever that my grandchildren belong with me.” She gave Cherry a look down her nose. “I’ll see you both in court.”

She made a grand exit through the doorway that led to the front of the house. Cherry and Billy stood unmoving until they heard the front door slam behind her.

“She’s right,” Billy said. “I always intend to do the right thing, but somehow it turns out wrong.”

“This wasn’t wrong, Billy. If I hadn’t gotten here when I did, Mrs. Trask would have taken the children and been gone before you returned. At least Raejean and Annie are still here.”

“And angry and unhappy.”

“We can change that with time.”