Heart So Sweet: Book 3 in the Great Plains Romance Series (10 page)

He held up both hands. “I promise, I promise.”

She scowled, wondering if she should say anything at all. But telling Jonathan, who was by far the calmest of the four brothers, might give her a good indication as to how Lucas and Andrew would react. Finally, she huffed and said, “Tate Trudell.”

Jonathan looked like he’d been hit by a truck, which made Susannah’s mouth go dry.

“Oh, no, Jonathan. Please tell me it’s not that bad.”

He shook his head. “Are you trying to kill Lucas? Is that what this is all about? Finally send him around the bend?”

She was shaking her head. “What are you talking about?”

Jonathan licked his lips. “Lucas hates Tate.”

“No, they were friends once.” She waved a hand at him as if she could wave away the past.

“Yeah, once, until Mary Ellen fell in love with Tate.”

The world spun wildly around her, and Susannah reached out to Jonathan for support. “What are you talking about? Lucas married Mary Ellen. Why would he do that if she loved Tate?”

Jonathan took Susannah by the arm and led her to the porch of the bungalow, easing her down onto the front steps. “Look, I don’t know the specifics.” He spoke quietly, so as not to wake Jenny inside. “But I do know that the reason Tate left was because Mary Ellen had feelings for him. Him leaving suggests that he didn’t feel the same about her, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“No—no, that’s not it.” She grabbed Jonathan’s arm tightly. “He said he’d get Lucas’s approval. I made him promise, but he said he’d take care of it.”

Jonathan let out a low whistle. “Well, you know what that means.”

“What?”

“That Tate Trudell is in love with you.” Jonathan frowned at his sister. “And by that bright rosy color in your cheeks, I take it that you love him too. Oh, baby sis, I wouldn’t want to be you right about now.”

He put his arm around her shoulder and she leaned into him.

“It’ll be all right. Tell me it’ll all work out.”

“It’ll work out, Suz. It has to.”

“You don’t sound very convinced.”

He squeezed her shoulder. “I know it will, because I have never seen you so happy. Lucas will see that too.”

“And Andrew?”

“Don’t you worry about Andrew.” Jonathan chuckled. “Me and Daniel, we’re on to him.”

She sat up to look at him. “Really?”

He nodded. “His time away has been good for all of us, Suz. When he gets back, there are gonna be some changes.”

She waited for him to explain, be he just shrugged and jumped up off the step. He waved to her as he headed over to the farmhouse. Susannah tried to take in some of his cautious optimism, telling herself that it would all work out, but the nervous pitching of her stomach didn’t make it very easy to believe.

The rest of the day she just went about the motions of her life, but she wasn’t really part of the world around her. Her brain was focused on wrapping itself around the new piece of information she had learned about Tate and Mary Ellen. She tried to remember everything that had happened before Lucas and Mary Ellen got married, but all she could remember was bits and pieces. She herself had been too wrapped up in her own life in junior high to pay much attention to the woman who was taking away her oldest brother. Mary Ellen had always been pleasant to everyone, but Susannah couldn’t remember her having any friends of her own. Even after Lucas left for the war, Mary Ellen had spent most of her time alone, in the bungalow. Of course, she’d been pregnant, so no one really thought twice about her becoming a homebody.

But her and Tate? Mary Ellen was too...plain. She was pretty, but not beautiful. Polite, but not outgoing. She always said the right thing, and no one ever said anything negative about her—at least not in Susannah’s earshot. Yet for the life of her, she could not imagine Mary Ellen ever being able to match Tate’s passion. She would never have stood up to him, and Susannah got the feeling that Tate liked a woman with some spunk in her. She laughed to herself. One thing Mary Ellen would never have been called was spunky.

Her thoughts went round and round until she didn’t know what she was thinking. She was anxious for the sun to set so she could make her trek to the cabin and sort everything out. When she rode back in from checking on their cattle grazing in the northern fields, she saw the sheriff’s SUV driving down their lane and out onto the road. Her stomach sank as, in a single breath, she realized Tate was nearby but she wouldn’t be able to see him. She stabled her horse and hurried to the farmhouse, trying not to show her anxiety.

Jonathan met her at the door and pulled her outside. “He stopped by to talk to us about Andrew’s release, but you need to go see him now, at his place.”

“Why? What’s wrong?”

Jonathan shook his head. “Nothing, nothing like that. He said he’s heading west, made it sound like he’ll be gone a while. Maybe even a couple of days. Go now if you want to see him.”

She stood on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. “I owe you one.”

“I won’t forget it.”

She raced to her truck and drove as fast as she could to the cabin, but Tate was nowhere to be seen. She waited for an hour, walking around the cabin and through the clearing to the bluff, but he never showed up. In the end, she realized she must have missed him. As she drove toward the farm, she decided that she didn’t want to be alone tonight, and Daniel and Jonathan weren’t the kind of company she needed. She didn’t want to have to watch her tongue or be careful about saying too much. She drove past her lane and headed east to the Jameses’ ranch. Dalton had gone to Rapid City with Lucas, so Trish might be needing some company herself.

Trish threw open the door and stood on the porch, waiting for Susannah to walk around the truck and up the sidewalk. By the second step, Susannah was blubbering like a fool, and Trish hurried her inside the house, an arm around her shoulders as she consoled her. She led Susannah to the kitchen and sat her down on one of the stools along the long counter. She placed a box of tissues on the counter in front of her, then held up two bottles.

“Is it a glass of wine or a shot of tequila kind of night?”

Susannah started crying again.

“Right. Tequila it is.”

Half a bottle later, both women were giggling uncontrollably as they shared insights into their men.

“So have you done the whole ‘I’m in control tonight’ thing?” Trish raised her eyebrows several times. When Susannah blushed, she yelled, “Isn’t it fabulous? You have all the power over them and they love it!” She slapped the counter to emphasize her point.

“Right? What’s with that?”

“Honey, I don’t know, but I know I can get anything I want when I take charge.”

Susannah sighed, dropping her head into her hands. “I dunno what I’ll do if Lucas can’t accept Tate.”

“What about Tate?”

She shrugged. “Oh, he doesn’t care if my whole family hates him. I think he kinda expects it, ya know?”

“There’s history there.”

Susannah snorted loudly, then covered her face and they both giggled. After a few minutes, they finally settled down again.

“Yeah, but I just can’t abandon Lucas like that. He’s already lost so much.”

Trish nodded. “That he has. That is one strong man.”

“Yup.”

“Yet so vulnerable.”

“Thank you! I thought I was the only one who saw that.”

Trish shook her head. “You’ve been hanging around too many men and not enough women.” She put the bottle of tequila away, hiding it in the back of the cupboard. When she turned back to Susannah, she asked, “What about a woman?”

“What d’ya mean?” Susannah let her head drop to the counter. Her eyelids felt so heavy.

“For Lucas. When was the last time he went on a date?”

This time Susannah didn’t bother to hide her snort. “It was with his wife, so ten, twelve years? He doesn’t seem interested in women.”

“Oh, good lord, girlfriend. Name one heterosexual man not interested in women 24/7.”

“Good point.” Susannah forced herself to sit up. “I dunno, though. Lucas is...intense.”

“That he is. You think you can make it upstairs?”

“Upstairs? But my truck is downstairs.” She giggled as she waggled her fingers to show someone walking.

“Uh-huh. But you are crashing here tonight.”

Trish helped Susannah off the stool and down the hallway. They made it partway up the stairs when Susannah had to sit down for a minute to keep her head from spinning. When they finally made it to the second floor, Trish steered her to a guest bedroom. “It’s just you and me, girlfriend. So you just act like you are home. Bathroom’s right next door, and I’m just down the hall.”

Susannah climbed into the bed. Just before Trish left the room, she called out to her. “Thank you.”

“No problem. We girls have to look out for each other.”

“Oh, and Trish?”

“Yeah?”

“I think you’re right about Lucas. About a woman, I mean. Gonna have to look into that.”

“We’ll talk about it in the morning. I think I know just the woman. G’night.”

“Nighty-night.” Susannah rolled over and pulled the sheet up to her chin. When she closed her eyes, she found rich cobalt blue eyes staring back at her. She smiled. “G’night, Tate.”

Chapter Eighteen

Susannah’s headache from the hangover lasted all day Thursday and most of Friday, although the second day it was exacerbated by Andrew returning home and launching into an immediate attack on her and asking how dare she let him sit in jail when she could get Daniel and Jonathan out. Susannah tried to ignore him, wondering how it was that Daniel and Jonathan had managed to escape the confrontation. But everywhere she went on the farm, Andrew was right there, his tirade growing louder by the minute. She finally managed to sneak away into the bungalow, locking the door behind her while praying that he wouldn’t bust the door down. She went to her bed and pulled the sheet over her head. Soon she heard Andrew’s truck churning down the lane. Five minutes later, she was fast asleep.

When she woke up, it was already dark outside. She listened for a minute, trying to make out sounds of people in the bungalow or goings on in the farmhouse. She heard nothing. She dragged herself out of bed and glanced out the window. None of her brothers’ trucks were in the lane. When she looked at the clock, she understood why. It was well after eight o’clock—she’d slept most of the day away—which meant they were probably already at the street dance. She walked out into the kitchen to grab a quick bite. She saw the note hanging on the fridge, a white piece of paper with pink and purple hearts all over it. It was from Jenny’s stationary kit. The note said they were indeed headed to the street dance and that she hoped her aunt would meet them out there soon.

Susannah was smiling when she got in the shower, but as soon as the hot water hit her, she frowned. She’d locked the door to the bungalow before she’d fallen asleep, but Jenny didn’t have a key to the door because they almost never locked it when she was around. The only person who did was Lucas. Susannah raced to get ready. She didn’t know if Tate had returned yet, but she knew the sheriff and deputies usually patrolled street dances. It would be expected. Would Tate try to speak to Lucas tonight, in public? And with Andrew out of jail?

Her hair was still damp when she jumped in her truck and sped down the highway. She almost wished that she would get pulled over for speeding, that Tate would pull her over so she could talk to him about Mary Ellen and Lucas, but naturally the one time she wanted to be caught by law enforcement, they were nowhere around. Once in Bender, she drove around several times before finally finding a parking place. As she scurried toward the festivities, she chewed her lip. She didn’t see any law enforcement personnel, not even their cars. Were they even here? Had something already happened that they’d had to leave?

At the entrance, she breathed a sigh of relief when she handed her five dollars to a deputy. They were here, so it wasn’t too late. She wanted to ask the deputy about Tate but was having trouble thinking of a nonchalant way to drop his name without sending up red flags. By the time she did, the deputy was ushering her through so he could take the money from the trio of elderly ladies behind her.

“Why Miss Clark, so lovely to see you,” Rose Carter said, linking her arm through Susannah’s. “And is Sheriff Trudell with you this evening?”

Susannah started to answer, then saw the deputy hide a smile. She snapped her mouth shut and led the ladies further from the entrance.

Daisy Carter giggled and linked her arm through Susannah’s other arm. “He’s so yummy!”

“And about time the two of you got together.” Lily Carter’s perpetual frown was in place, but her eyes twinkled with excitement. “Been saying for years that you two would make a good couple.”

Susannah groaned. The Carter sisters might be octogenarians, but they somehow always knew everyone’s business—and weren’t afraid to let everyone know it.

“Oh, hush, Lily. You have not.” Rose shook her head at Susannah. “Don’t listen to her. She’s just jealous.”

“We all are.” Daisy giggled again. “So dreamy.”

“Actually, I’m looking for Tate—I mean, Sheriff Trudell—myself.”