Mail Order Bride - Westward Secrets: A Clean Cowboy Romance Novel (Montana Mail Order Brides Book 13) (23 page)

              Randall had a little trouble getting a grip on his emotions.  His voice was slightly husky as he said, “I would be most honored to give you away, Gina.”

              Gina hugged him and Joe stood transfixed at the sight.  It was the first time he could ever remember seeing Randall hug anyone besides the children, who didn’t give him a choice.

              “I’ll be danged,” he said as a big grin spread across his face.  “If that doesn’t beat all.”

              Lacey leaned against Joe and said, “Yes, it does.  I’m so happy for them.  They make such a nice couple.”

              “Yeah, especially because she likes those rats of Rick’s,” Joe said with a laugh.

              Lacey hit his chest and Joe grunted.  “Stop that.”

              Joe just chuckled.  Then he announced that he was breaking out champagne.  It was very late when the celebrating was over.

              Joe approached Rick as the guests were leaving and said, “It’s late.  If you wanna stay in one of the guest bedrooms it would be ok with me.”

              Rick would have loved to, but his medicine was at home.  He didn’t want to take the risk that he would have a nightmare if he were not to take it.  “Joe, I appreciate the invite, and I might take you up on that sometime, but I … uh … have something I need to do at home first.”

              Joe gave him a quizzical look.  “What is it that you need to do at this time of night?”

              Rick sighed and said, “I wasn’t planning on staying here tonight, so I didn’t bring my medication with me.”

              “Medication?  What for?” Joe said with genuine concern.  “Are you sick?”

              “Um… Not exactly.  It’s very personal and I’d rather not talk about it tonight, if you don’t mind,” Rick said.

              “And you can’t go without this medication overnight?” Joe asked.

              “No,” Rick said emphatically.

              Joe regarded him silently for a moment.  He saw a flicker of fear in Rick’s gaze, something he’d never seen before and it disturbed him a little.  Whatever was going on with Rick was serious apparently. “Does Gina know about whatever it is?”

              “Yes.  She’s been there all along,” Rick said with a smile.

              Joe nodded.  “That’s good.  Maybe someday you’ll tell me about it?”

              “Yeah.  Just not tonight,” Rick answered.

              “Fair enough.  You be careful goin’ home.”  Joe cleared his throat and said in a lower voice near Rick’s ear.  “If you want to take her home with you, it’s ok.  I know she stays with you sometimes anyway.  I’m no stranger to this kind of thing and since you’re gettin’ married anyway…”

              Rick gave Joe a surprised look.  “You knew?”

              “I’m a light sleeper and heard you pull up and her come in.  Don’t let on to her, though.  I don’t want to embarrass her,” Joe said.

              Rick grinned.  “I won’t, but I don’t want to make her go out again at this time of night.  I appreciate it, Joe.  I really do.”

              “All right.  Suit yourself,” Joe said with a smile and moved away.

              Gina did not go home with Rick that night and, though he greatly missed her, he ended up being glad because the nightmare came upon him with a vengeance.  He knew it was because he hadn’t taken the laudanum until much later than normal.  Eventually, he was able to go back to sleep, but it was not a restful sleep.  He needed a distraction and thought that he might as well go into work, even though he wasn’t due in until later on.

              It worked until his giddy period hit and he took an hour to go for a ride until it was over.  He came back and was fine the rest of the day.  When he went to see Gina after work, Ryan came flying at him crying, “Daddy!”

              Rick picked him up and swung him around.  “Did you have a good day, Deputy Ryan?”

              “Yeah.  Did you?” Ryan said, looking at Rick with his big, brown eyes.

              “I did.  I brought someone along who’d like to play with you.”

              “Curtis!” Ryan said and squirmed to get down.

              “Hi, Miss Chloe,” Rick said.

              “Hi,” she said shyly.

              Rick took out Curtis and handed him to her.  “Take him to the playroom and shut the door.  We don’t want to give Joe a heart attack.”

              Chloe giggled and took the ferret.  She and Ryan ran down the hallway and disappeared around the corner.  Gina had stood back watching Rick the whole time he was interacting with the children.  She went to him and put her arms around him.

              “You’re going to be such a good father,” she said after he’d kissed her.

              “I’m glad you think so.  I’m looking forward to making little Westlakes.  I certainly like our practicing.”

              Gina giggled.  “You’re so bad.  I do, too, so I’m just as bad as you are.”

              “Yes, I love my visits with Racy Lady,” he said and held her closer.

              “She loves hers with Passionate Lover,” Gina returned.

              Rick captured her mouth in a kiss that heated her blood.  She loved seeing the desire in his eyes when the kiss ended. 

              “Are you busy this evening?” he asked.

              “No.  Why?”

              “I’d like to take you and the kids out to tell Tessa and company about us.  I think it’s time for you and our little people to get to know them.

              Gina’s eyes lit up.  “I would love that.  We can go right after supper.”

              “Sounds good, future Mrs. Westlake.”

              She laughed and kissed him again.

              Dean and Tessa happily welcomed the foursome.  Mike had made it home and he took Rick to task for not telling him his identity.

              “I’m not like Mama.  I can keep a secret,” he said with a grin.

              Tessa said, “Don’t make me get a towel, Michael.”

              Gina looked at her curiously.

              Mike said, “Mama is a very accurate and deadly shot with a towel.  You don’t want her to snap you, trust me.”

              Dean said, “Jack is usually the one on the wrong end of the towel, but he brings it on himself.”

              Tessa chuckled.  “Yes, he does.”

              Rick cleared his throat and said, “We have good news.  Gina and I are engaged.”

              This was met with more congratulations and Tessa and Katie admired Gina’s ring.  Tessa winked at Rick to let him know that she wasn’t going to say anything about her already seeing it.  Rick smiled back at her in thanks.

              Seth arrived with J.R. and Chloe blushed when she saw him.  Rick asked Seth if he and J.R. would play something because he knew how much Chloe liked hearing J.R. play.  J.R. ran over home quick to get their fiddles.  When he came back he and Seth set up and played several songs. 

Chloe sat gazing at J.R. with adoration the whole time.  Discreetly, Rick nudged Gina and brought it to her attention.  She hid her smile behind a hand.  When the duo was finished playing, they received a nice round of applause. 

Tessa watched Rick with Gina and thought what a nice couple they made.  It surprised her to hear Ryan address Rick as “Daddy”, but she knew it would be pointless to try to dissuade the little boy from doing it.  It would only upset him and it looked as if Rick was happy being called by that moniker. 

When the evening wrapped up, Tessa and Dean told them they had to come back soon and Tessa offered to help with the wedding, which Gina accepted.  The women made plans to meet for lunch the following week.  As they drove home, the four of them talked about their visit and clowned around in general.

Gina had such a feeling of wellbeing and happiness and was grateful to the fates for bringing them to Dawson. 

The days marched ahead towards Christmas and the renovations on their house were completed.  Rick and Gina took the kids to pick out a Christmas tree to put up at Rick’s new house.  He had moved into the bigger house now.  It was going to take some getting used to, but he liked it.  Rick couldn’t wait to share it with his new little family. 

He’d enclosed the back porch of the house and made half of it into a ferret pen.  It was bigger than their other pen and they enjoyed the extra room.  They also liked running through the house.  The young ferrets were growing and Rick decided that he was going to keep one of the females and start training her much the same way he’d trained Curtis.

The couple made plans for an early February wedding.  Lacey, Claire, and Tessa were thrilled to be helping with the nuptials and often had powwows at the Dwyers’ to plan.  Rick sat in quite often on these and offered off the wall suggestions. 

“I think we should dress up the ferrets in little suits and dresses and let them come down the aisle,” he said.

“If you do that, half the church will leave,” Claire said.

“Well, then how about you carry Curtis instead of a bouquet?” he said to Gina.

“I can’t throw a ferret to the single women,” she responded.

They all started laughing as they imagined different scenarios of what might happen if she did that.

              Rick asked Jack to be his best man and Mitch and Reckless to stand up with him.  Gina had asked Lacey to be her maid of honor and Claire and Tessa to be her bridesmaids.  Chloe was thrilled to be the flower girl and Ryan was happy to be the ring bearer as long as he could wear his badge that day.

              It was a magical time for them and they looked forward to their first Christmas with enthusiasm and joy.  Close to Christmas, it snowed a couple of times, which delighted many people, including Rick.  He conned Joe into showing him how to drive the sleigh and took the kids riding in it quite often.  He told Joe that he was going to buy a sleigh so they could race.

              Joe said, “Y’all can buy the sled, but I challenge you to find a team anywhere that can outrun King and Rook.  You do that, and we’ll have that race.”

              The week before the holiday, both town doctors became fathers; Marcus for the third time, and Ben for the first.  Little Eric Samuels and Adam Walker were born within two days of each other.  The doctors took turns delivering each other’s baby, which would be joked about for a long time.

              Christmas was a busy day for Rick and Gina.  They had the noon meal with the Dwyers and company, which was almost as rowdy as Thanksgiving.  The place was filled with presents and wrapping paper.  Rick had gone overboard with shopping for the kids despite Gina’s protests.  He wanted to give the kids a spectacular Christmas; the kind he’d never had when he was their age.

Then they went out to the Samuels’ ranch.  Rick was determined that he wasn’t going to miss another holiday with whatever family wanted to see him.  Geoff and Maureen had left by the time they arrived, and Rick felt a momentary disappointment.  He brushed it off, however.  He wasn’t going to let it lessen the happiness of the day.

              New Year’s Day was more of the same, with the Dwyers ringing in the New Year in style.  Even the kids were allowed to stay up until midnight if they wanted.  Chloe was the only one who was able to stay awake that long.  Then she was ready for bed and said her goodnights to everyone.

              Rick had come prepared to sleep over that night because it was after two when all the guests had left.  He took his laudanum around one a.m. so it would kick in.  Once everyone was in bed, Rick snuck down the hall and entered Gina’s room.  He shut and locked her door and heard her giggle.

              “I was wondering when you were going to get here,” she said as he slipped into bed with her.

              “Here I am, Lovely.  You didn’t think I was really going to be able to stay away, did you?” he asked with a smile as he gathered her close.

              “I was hoping not,” she said and kissed him.

              They rung in the New Year together, laughing and loving quietly.

              Rick hadn’t been asleep long before he was woken by the nightmare.  He was able to avoid disturbing Gina as he got up and dressed in his nightclothes and robe.  He wasn’t used to wearing such things, but figured he’d better get used to it.  There was no way he could run around in his underwear with two young children in the house.

              He walked out to the kitchen, holding his shaking hands under his biceps.  There was already a lamp lit in the kitchen and he encountered Joe there.

              “What’re you doin’ up?” Joe asked and then burped.

              Rick laughed.  “I could ask you the same question.”

              Joe burped again.  “Heartburn.  Too much champagne.  Does it to me every time.  Wakes me up.  Marcus gave me some kind of Lakota tea for it.  It works, but it makes me burp.  Sorry.”

              “It’s ok.  It doesn’t bother me any,” Rick said.  “I’m actually after more booze.”

              Joe arched an eyebrow at him.  “Why?”

              Rick grew uncomfortable.  “It’s to do with that thing I’ve got going on.”

              Joe said, “Ok.  What does the alcohol do for it?”

              He moved towards the cellar door and took a small key from a hook high on the wall nearby.  Then he unlocked one of the upper cabinets in the kitchen and said, “Take your pick.”

              Rick said, “Can you pour some vodka into a glass?”

              “Why can’t you?”

              “My hands are shaking too badly.  I don’t want to drop the bottle or the glass and break them,” Rick told him.

              Getting down a glass, Joe asked, “Why are they—oh, for Pete’s sake!  Just tell me what the hell the problem is so I don’t keep havin’ to ask questions, Rick.”

              Rick sat down at the kitchen table and sighed.  “I can’t explain the whole thing right now or I might have a blackout.  I suffered a lot of trauma as a kid and I have nightmares and flashbacks about it.  The laudanum works well as long as I take it on time, usually by ten or ten-thirty.  If I take it much later than that, I usually have the nightmare.”

              Joe burped and sat down with Rick as he set a glass down in front of him.  “Laudanum.  I hate that stuff.  Someone almost killed me with it once.  I won’t touch it ever again, I’ll tell you that.  So it helps keep these nightmares away?”

              “Yes,” Rick said and then downed the vodka all at once.

              “Jesus!  Slow down!” Joe said.

              “Can’t,” Rick said as the liquid set his esophagus and stomach on fire.  “Have to do it quick for it to work the best.”

              Joe was very concerned about Rick. The man who was sitting with him now was a far cry from the tough, smart-mouthed bouncer Joe was used to seeing.  “How long has this been going on?”

              “Since I was thirteen or so,” Rick said.  “I hope someday I get over it, but it hasn’t happened yet.  Don’t mention this to anyone, ok?”  Then he let out a grim laugh.  “Although, it seems like more and more people know about it.  I should just take out an ad in the paper so that I don’t have to keep talking about it.”

              “I won’t say anything.  How long does it take for the booze to start workin’?” Joe asked.

              “About a half hour or so.”

              Joe grinned.  “Enough time for some poker then.  I’ll be right back.”

              As the mayor ran from the kitchen, Rick said, “He wants to play poker with me when I’m drugged up and on the verge of being drunk.  Typical Joe.”

              A few days into the New Year, Rick went to the medical clinic to get more medicine.  He almost walked right back out again when he saw Geoff sitting in the waiting room.  Then he decided to face the man who apparently didn’t want to associate with him.  Rick went right over and sat in the chair next to him.

              “Hi, Dad,” Rick said.

              Geoff looked at Rick with a mixture of surprise and annoyance.  “Dad?”