The Perfect Plan [The Men of Treasure Cove 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (14 page)

“Ya think!”

For the next hour, the rest of the trip was in total silence. While Lilly worried over what to do next, Orin stewed.
Damn it, I can come up with some good ideas! It was my idea to clear the south field so that the cattle could have a wider range to roam. It was my fuckin’ idea to buy those stupid snowmobiles, and it was a good idea we did,
’
cause those suckers were handy a month or so ago, and what about getting that used tractor? Damn thing was the best investment, and Davis had to eat his words. Huh! We didn’t need a new tractor.

Lilly’s gasp brought him out of his stupor as he pulled into the drive. Parked in the driveway was a black Lincoln Continental. Slowing down, Orin brought the truck to a stop and turned off the engine. Looking at Lilly, he saw that she stared at the vehicle in shock.

“What is it, baby?”

“That’s my momma’s car,” she whispered as she slowly got out of the truck. She waited by the front porch, and when Orin took her hand in his, she looked up at him and smiled. “Stay with me?” she whispered.

“Always.”

* * * *

Iris Jane Campbell was a vision. Her shoulder-length blonde hair was perfectly trimmed, and it accentuated her strong cheekbones and vibrant blue eyes. Dressed in a wool gray pantsuit and creamy silk shirt, Orin thought she looked more ready for the boardroom than a rancher’s wife.

When Lilly walked in the front door, Jacks and Davis watched as Lilly’s mother stood and her daughter ran into her arms. The brothers stood and quietly walked over to Orin.

“What the hell took ya’ll so long?” Davis asked through clenched teeth.

“Lilly needed to run some errands. How long as she been here?” Orin asked.

“About twenty minutes. I was out in the barn when I heard someone coming up the drive and thought it was you and Lilly, until I saw her get out of the car,” Jacks said.

“Where’s her father?” Orin asked, looking around the house.

“It’s just her,” Jacks whispered.

“Orin, Davis, Jacks, come here and meet my mother,” Lilly said, turning to them with tears in her eyes.

Taking a deep breath, the brothers walked over to meet their mother-in-law.

“Momma, this is Noah Orin McDaniel, my husband,” Lilly said proudly.

Orin smiled and extended his hand. “Mrs. Campbell. It’s my pleasure to finally meet you.”

“Noah.” She smiled back. Orin almost gasped, for when she smiled, she looked so much like Lilly.

“Please call me Orin. Everyone else does,” he offered genuinely.

“Momma, this is John Davis McDaniel, my second husband,” Lilly said, smiling at Davis.

“Ma’am. It’s a pleasure,” Davis said, shaking the older woman’s hand. Though he noticed her smile falter, she quickly recovered and greeted him in kind.

“And this is Kenneth Jackson McDaniel, my third husband,” Lilly said, linking her arm in Jacks’s.

“Mrs. Campbell, a pleasure.” Jacks nodded.

“Are there any more of you?” Iris asked, looking around the room. The brothers tensed at her question, quickly looking at Lilly for guidance. Lilly knew it wasn’t every day her men got to meet their mother-in-law for the first time, and regardless of what they said or did in the past, they all wanted to make a good impression. But when Lilly laughed and hugged Jacks and Davis, what tension they had slowly eased, but not totally.

“Oh, Momma, it’s just these three. I couldn’t handle another one.”

“Baby girl, I can’t handle one,” her mother replied, sitting down. “Lilly, sweetheart. We need talk. Please sit down, all of you,” she asked, instantly taking control of the room.

“Would you like something to drink, Mrs. Campbell?” Orin asked, staying on his feet. He watched as Lilly, Jacks, and Davis went to sit, but something in him told him to stand his ground. This was his house, and his wife. When Iris Campbell turned to look at him, he knew instantly this was not going to go as Lilly expected. The pure determination that shone in her mother’s eyes let Orin know that what happened next would define their marriage. Someone was about to get hurt, and he prayed it wasn’t his wife.

“No thank you, Noah,” she replied, looking directly at him.

Lady, you hurt my wife and it’s over.
Orin stared at the woman defiantly.

“Please sit, Noah. We need to discuss this situation,” Iris said, sternly never taking her eyes off him.

“I think I’ll stand. Say what you need to, Mrs. Campbell,” Orin said, firmly standing his ground.

“Just as stubborn as my husband. That’s good. You’re gonna need to be,” she said flatly and then turned to look at Lilly. But what came out of her mouth next shocked him.

“Just where in the hell have you been young lady?” she demanded to know sternly, looking directly at her daughter.

“Momma.”

“Don’t you momma me!” Iris Campbell shouted, getting to her feet. Davis got up from the couch, leaving Lilly in Jacks’s capable hands, and walked over to stand next to Orin.

“I just got back from California, young lady, and managed to make it to church, only to hear the most amazing story. Imagine my surprise that my daughter, whom I haven’t laid eyes in five years, is married to not one but three men! What do you have to say for yourself?”

“Momma.”

“Wait till your father hears this. You know he is going to go ballistic. What about Jethro? He has been waiting on you to come home from your sabbatical. What are we going tell him? Do you realize what you have done?”

Orin watched as his lovely wife went from complete and total happiness to fear. But when her beautiful eyes shed their first tear, something in Orin snapped. “Baby, come here,” he said, looking at his wife.

When Lilly stood, her mother pointed back at the couch. “You sit your butt back down, young lady. I am not done talking to you.”

Orin watched as confusion crossed his wife’s face. For the first time since she had been with them, his wife was uncertain on what to do. Orin knew that Lilly needed to make this decision on her own. She could either listen to her mother, and he and his brothers would know that their marriage would never survive, or Lilly could chose them, and together they would stand united, as a family should.

He watched as Lilly looked from her mother to him. Holding his breath and praying she made the right decision, he stood his ground, with his hand held out for her to take.

The silence in the room was deafening. Everything was frozen in time. Nobody moved. What seemed liked hours was only seconds, but when Lilly turned and walked into his arms, he finally took that breath he had been holding and wrapped his arms around her tightly.

Jacks stood and walked over to stand beside him, with the three of them supporting Lilly.

“Mrs. Campbell. I know this is a shock for you, but please understand that we love your daughter very much. We only want to see to her happiness and love her till the good lord sees fit to take us from this earth. I understand that you don’t know our ways, and we are willing to give you some leeway till you can see for yourself that me and my brothers are good, upstanding citizens and that we can love your daughter properly, but let me assure you of one thing. If you ever come into my home again and upset my wife, you will never set foot in this house again. Now please apologize to Lilly so she can visit with her mother,” Orin said firmly and directly.

“You understand I had to make sure. She is my only daughter. I love her, and I needed to be sure that you were genuine. I am truly glad that you were strong enough to stand up to me. Some men take the cowardly way out. It shows a lot about your character,” Iris Campbell said, looking at him, and Orin saw something flicker deep in her eyes. But before he could figure out what it was, she smiled and turned her gaze toward her daughter. “Lilly, baby, I am sorry. Come here, baby,” her mother said, opening her arms. Orin released his wife and watched as she ran into her mother’s arms and sobbed.

“What the hell did she mean by that?” Davis asked, looking at Orin.

“Don’t know.”

“Did you see that look in her eyes? She almost looked sad for a second,” Jacks commented, watching Lilly with her mother.

“Yep, I saw it. There’s a story there,” Orin stated and then clapped his brothers on their backs. “Help me with the groceries Lilly picked up. The truck is loaded down with supplies,” he said, walking out the front door with his brothers.

* * * *

Lilly couldn’t believe that her mother was sitting in her living room. She wanted to say so much to her but didn’t know where to start. Just having her mother here was enough for right now, but she knew that eventually she was going to have to start talking. So, taking a deep breath, she looked at her mother and started talking. “I missed you, Momma.”

“Where have you been? I went to California, to that address you gave me. You can imagine my surprise when your college boyfriend opened the door and told me he hadn’t seen you in five years. Why didn’t you come home?” her mother asked.

Lilly knew this day was coming. She only wished she had prepared for the inevitable. How could she tell her mother that her family was right about Derrick and that after he tried to force himself on her, he abandoned her in Celestial, and she was too scared to go home with her tail between her legs? Though looking at the whole situation now, she knew how childish she had been back then. But after months on her own, what seemed liked this big evil was nothing more than a child’s hand at rebellion. That and there was no way she was going back home to marry Jethro!

Sitting with her mother and talking about what her life had been like over the last years was not as hard as she thought. Her mother even smiled and laughed with her on certain occasions, but when her story came to the part of meeting her husbands, Lilly was unsure on how to proceed. How could she tell her mom that she went to a wild party and insisted that three men marry her just so they could have sex and then proceed to get stonefaced drunk and wake forgetting she was married?

There is no way in hell I am telling her that!

“So which brother did you meet first?” her mother asked, curious, or at least she thought she looked interested. Looking at her mother, Lilly couldn’t really tell, her face was expressionless, devoid of all emotion. It was so unlike her.

“Uh, I met Jacks first,” Lilly whispered.

“And where did you two meet?” her mother persisted.

“Here at the ranch,” Lilly admitted, thinking that wasn’t so bad, since a lot of people met their significant others at their personal residences.

“I see. Were you here for work?” her mother prodded.

“No.”

“Then how did you come to be here at their house? Was it a church social, a weekend barbeque, what? Come on, Lilly, you married these men. How did you four meet?”

“We met at a party I was throwing,” Orin said, his deep voice interrupting them.

Lilly’s eyes shot straight to her husbands in shock. Oh how she wished he hadn’t said that, but the look on Orin’s face was not what she expected. He looked at her as if he was disappointed, almost angry that she would hide how they met.

She knew that Orin didn’t give a rat’s ass how they met, only that they had. Though he was shocked as she was of what had occurred that night, he soon took charge and accepted it for what it was.

Though Lilly agreed, mainly because they were so loving toward her, she knew deep down she had stayed until she found out if she was pregnant. Of course she didn’t tell them no when they had sex with her often. She actually enjoyed that part. The more time she spent with them, the more she grew to love each of them. How they met shouldn’t matter to her, but on some deep level it did, and it bothered her.

“A party? What kind of party?” her mother asked, and when Lilly looked away, unable to answer, Orin provided the answer for her.

Lilly waited for her mother’s outrage and scorn. She knew her mother was going to rant and yell until the rafters came tumbling down upon their heads. But when her mother started to laugh, Lilly couldn’t help but stare at her mother in shock.

“Momma?” Lilly asked when her mother’s laughter came out in full force, but when tears started falling from her eyes, Lilly grew concerned. “Momma, it’s not what you think. I only came because a friend thought I needed to get out some. I didn’t participate in any of the things going on here, I promise,” Lilly quickly explained. Looking at Orin, she pleaded, “Tell her, Orin. Tell her I didn’t do anything that night.”

“Baby, you do remember that you married three men that night, right?” Orin said with a grin.

Oh, the insufferable oaf! He was not helping. Turning to her mother, who was still laughing, Lilly couldn’t take it anymore. “Mother! Stop laughing! So I met and married my husbands at a party. There is nothing wrong with that, and it’s definitely not a laughing matter! Will you please stop laughing?” Lilly shouted at her mother.

“Oh, Lillian dear, I am not laughing at you, honey. I am laughing at myself,” her mother said, wiping her eyes. “You see, my dear, how you met your husbands is exactly how I met your father. We met at a—what did you call it, Orin? A wild party, and like you, I got carried away.”

“What? I thought you and Daddy met at church?” Lilly said in shock.