“No problem,” Darla said, and Jackie chimed in, “We do it all the time.”
“What kind of appointment do you have, Seton?” Darla asked, opening a bridal magazine and looking at the latest fashions. “How about a bouquet like this?”
“Fine.” Seton barely glanced at the page. “Thanks, girls.” She went into the dressing room and changed, tossing the suit into Jackie’s hands as she dashed out. “You’re lifesavers, both of you. I couldn’t do this without you. See you tomorrow for Sabrina’s fitting!”
She ran out the door.
Jackie looked at Darla. “She’s in a hurry.”
Darla laughed. “We would be, too, if we were getting married in two days.” She hung up the suit in a plastic bag. “I wonder where Seton’s going?”
“Maybe a hair appointment.” Jackie looked over the off-white pumps they had in stock, her lips pursed. “Does it seem like this is sort of a fast-food wedding?”
Darla glanced up. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know,” Jackie said. “Just fast. Like hold the pickles and the mayo, extra cheese, please.”
“Oh. Because she’s having us pick everything out.” Darla shrugged. “Seton’s got a lot to do.”
“Yeah.” Jackie looked at the plain suit with some concern. “Not very romantic, though.”
“The romance probably comes later.”
“I guess so.” Jackie couldn’t put her finger on what exactly was bothering her. But this was Diablo, and if Seton was keeping secrets about her and Sam’s wedding, they wouldn’t be kept long.
T
HREE
HOURS
LATER
, Seton sat in a doctor’s office in Santa Fe, looking at a young go-getter of a doctor who was probably fresh out of med school and not married long. But she’d looked up his credentials, and he was supposed to be excellent for her situation.
“Considering your health history of an ectopic pregnancy and consequent loss of a fallopian tube, yes, you may experience some difficulty in conceiving,” Dr. Stewart told her. “But it’s by no means impossible.”
She didn’t have time for a leisurely route to pregnancy. If she got a chance at conceiving, she’d need to have as much in her favor as possible. “I’m a bit worried.”
“I wouldn’t worry,” the doctor said, “but in cases like yours we have had some success with a low dose fertility drug. It may be an appropriate choice for you to consider.”
Seton’s heart flared with hope. “What is it?”
“Generally, what we’ve experienced is that the dose is low enough not to cause multiples. Of patients who suspect that their chances of pregnancy may be reduced, those who have taken the drug have had more success in conceiving than those who didn’t.”
Seton felt a flash of sneakiness. Sam would never know. He wanted a wife, and she wanted a family of her own. Sam was right: her biological clock was ticking like the second hand on a watch.
“I’ll try it,” she told Dr. Stewart, who wrote the prescription and handed it to her.
If she and Sam ever got around to making love she wanted her one little ovary set on superboost.
“
A
RE
YOU
SURE
this is what you want?” Jonas asked Sam, who sat lounging in front of the television beside his brother, lazily eating a Popsicle. They resorted to packaged desserts these days. Without Fiona around, constantly baking, any nod to the sweet tooth came from a box or plastic bag.
It wasn’t awful, but Sam was kind of hoping that Seton wasn’t opposed to tossing an occasional blackberry pie in the oven.
He shook his head. She was a career girl, probably not much of a cook. He licked the Popsicle stick and shrugged. “I wouldn’t be marrying Seton if I didn’t want to do it. Anyway, I get cold feet, and she strikes me as the kind of girl who has colder feet.”
“Ugh,” Jonas said. “I’ll get you guys some Smartwool socks for your wedding gift.”
“Thanks.” Sam tossed away the stick and wondered if he wanted another one. “Sabrina’s going to be her maid of honor.”
Jonas perked up. Then he flattened out again, slumping in his chair, as if he’d already given up the fight.
What a loser. He should be running around getting that mangy hair cut, and at least shaving. If I don’t give him a kick in the pants, he’ll very likely get snagged by Wendy. He’s unmotivated like that.
Never mind Jonas, you log. Kid brother to the rescue!
“I told you a long time ago I was going to be efficient about getting married,” Sam said. “I always said I wasn’t going to be a desperate dope like the rest of our clan. I picked the girl, I proposed, and now I’m going to marry her. It’s a surgical strike, Jonas, and as a surgeon, you know you need the right tools at your disposal. You just open your mouth and say, ‘Want to be my baby?’ and the little lady says, ‘Sure thing, hot stuff,’ and next thing you know, you’re off the market. Settled. Very efficient.”
Jonas stared at him. “You’re crazy.”
Sam shrugged. “I don’t have time for all that chasing our brothers did. I have my reasons for what I’m doing, and I prefer easier rather than harder.”
“You always did,” Jonas said sourly. “Well, I’m a type A personality, thanks. I have oldest child syndrome. I can’t just target a female and bag her like I’m hunting a turkey.”
Sam shrugged again. “Suit yourself.”
“Okay, Mr. Efficient, Mr. Surgical Strike,” Jonas said, “what’s going to happen when Seton gets pregnant?”
“I plan to wear a condom that works, unlike some of our brothers. In fact, I may double wrap.”
Jonas rolled his eyes. “Have you told Seton this?”
“She knows I’m all about the baby-free zone. I just want the comfort of a woman in my life, something you should understand.”
“You’re doing this for the ranch,” Jonas said, his tone accusing. “This setup has all the earmarks of a scam. Aunt Fiona will be able to smell deceit in your game.”
“Nope,” Sam said. “I’m real busy, Jonas. I don’t have time for rinky-dink romance. So I picked a practical girl who won’t expect me to spend a lot of time groveling at her feet.”
“You’re a piece of work.” Jonas grunted. “I’m not sure why Seton said yes to you.”
Sam scratched his head. He wasn’t entirely certain about that himself. She hadn’t seemed overly inclined to welcome his company in the beginning. And his story about the double wrap was just for Jonas’s benefit. Sam and Seton had no plans whatsoever to do the ol’ sheet dance. One minute he’d thought he might not ever get the girl he’d been eyeing for some time; the next thing he knew, she was saying yes to a pretty lame proposal, if he did say so himself. It wasn’t efficient, as he’d claimed to Jonas; it was more like opportunistic.
Maybe she digs me.
Not so much. Seton had barely looked at him the first couple times he’d visited her office.
Guess she really wanted to be married.
She’d already done the trip down the rose-festooned path, and hadn’t sounded too happy about it.
It didn’t matter. In two days, Seton was going to be Mrs. Sam Callahan. And all the pieces of his life would fall into place.
Finally, he’d belong.
“Back to this surgical strike theory of yours,” Jonas said, but Sam shook his head.
“On second thought, fast-and-furious isn’t your style, Jonas,” he said, and his brother slumped back in his chair.
Never mind, bro. We’ll get you a woman.
Somehow.
It wouldn’t be easy pushing Jonas’s chicken, type A butt through the eye of the needle, but Sam was bringing the needle right to his brother’s door.
The rest was up to Jonas.
Thankfully, Seton was easy to work with. No fancy stuff, no games. Easy-bake bride.
Just my style.
Chapter Six
The Diablo grapevine was buzzing like a hive full of bees over Sam and Seton’s upcoming quickie marriage. Everyone wanted an invite to the wedding, and everyone wanted in on the Big Secret.
It stood to reason that there was something fishy about the union, Bode Jenkins had pointed out to Seton’s aunt. Corinne had stuck her nose in the air and told Bode to mind his own durn business.
“And that’s what I intend to tell everyone. That mischief maker’s done nothing good for the Callahans ever since the day Jeremiah and Molly Callahan came to this town,” Corinne declared to her niece.
“I like Mr. Jenkins, Aunt Corinne,” Seton said. “He seems harmless. When Sabrina was living in Bode’s house, taking care of him, he was always nice as could be to me.”
“He’s always nice when he wants something. If there is a big secret, Seton, don’t let me hear it from Bode.”
Seton wondered if she should tell Corinne about Sabrina’s pregnancy. The news was her sister’s to share, but Seton felt guilty for not telling their aunt.
Seton couldn’t go anywhere in Diablo without someone stopping her to ask about the wedding. How did she and Sam keep their romance so quiet? Where were they going to honeymoon? Where were they planning to live?
She tried to ward off all the well-meaning questions with a smile and noncommittal conversation. She didn’t have those answers herself. With the gossip running red-hot the way it was, she could only hope she wasn’t getting in over her head with this short-term marriage.
“I’m going to go pick Sabrina up from the airport now,” she said to Corinne, who jumped.
“Gracious! I forgot to tell you that Sam stopped in on the Books’n’Bingo Society today and told me that he was making Jonas go get Sabrina. He said you had too much to do. In fact, I think his exact words were, ‘I think my little bride has a list a mile long yet to conquer,’” Corinne said with a smile. “You’ve been so quiet, Seton, that I hadn’t realized you were caught in a flurry of last-minute preparations.”
Seton resolved to bean Sam at the first opportunity. “Excuse me, Aunt Corinne, please. I need to go call my darling bridegroom and tell him that I can take care of my own errands, like picking up my sister.”
“He means well, dear,” Corinne called after her. “He’s a Callahan, you know. Those men think they have to take care of everything.”
That was fine. Sam could be as pigheaded as he wanted to be—but he had no right to spring Jonas on her sister like this! Seton felt as if plumes of smoke were sprouting from her head. Poor Sabrina! Quickly, she started to text her sister to warn her—then put her phone away.
Sabrina hadn’t planned to tell Jonas about the baby.
Maybe Sam had a good idea.
Still, he had a nerve. Seton pulled out her phone again and dialed his number.
“Is this my beautiful bride?” Sam asked. “My partner in crime?”
“What do you mean, sending Jonas to get my sister?” Seton said. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“The idea hit me when I was visiting with Corinne,” he replied. “It was so good I had to move on it. Then I had to call Jonas and jolly him into it. You were next on my list to phone, but trust me, I was moving at lightning speed to get all the moving parts in place.”
Seton wasn’t entirely mollified. “You have to discuss things with me first, Sam. What if my sister doesn’t want to see Jonas right away?” Secretly, Seton knew the best thing for Sabrina and Jonas was probably to spend some time alone with each other—but Sam didn’t know Sabrina was pregnant.
Her and Jonas’s reunion had
awkward
written all over it.
“Sorry,” Sam said. “I really am, but bright ideas shouldn’t lie around growing moss. Wendy was over here again last night. I’m getting worried.”
Seton closed her eyes for a moment. “It’s all right,” she said, feeling slightly sick at heart for her sister. “You did the right thing, all things considered.”
“But from now on,” Sam said magnanimously, “it’s you and me against the world, beautiful. I promise.”
“All right,” Seton said, her attention captured by the endearment. Did Sam think she was beautiful?
“By the way,” he said, interrupting her Sam lapse, “we couldn’t get in touch with Aunt Fiona and Uncle Burke. So they won’t be here tomorrow night for the wedding.”
“I’m so sorry, Sam. I know how much that mattered to you.”
“It’s all right,” he said. “I didn’t give them much time, didn’t have much to spare. And when I mentioned it to my brothers, they all said they haven’t been able to reach Fiona in the last month. She and Burke might be vacationing somewhere.”
“Wouldn’t they tell you?” Seton wondered aloud. The P.I. in her went into instant digestion of the facts. It didn’t sound like Fiona to disappear without telling her nephews. She doted on the men she’d raised.
“Hard to say. We don’t call Ireland as often as we’d like. It’s possible they wrote us or sent us an email and one of us hasn’t checked the right email account. Anyway, I plan to swing by later to see you, so be ready, doll.”
“Don’t you have a bachelor party or something to go to?” Seton thought she should probably stay home with Sabrina—they had a lot to talk about. She also had to get her sister’s dress fitted pronto. Luckily, Corinne was handy with a needle if there were any problems.
“It’s bad luck not to see the bride the night before the wedding,” Sam said. “Remember, most folks would be having a rehearsal dinner. I can’t go two days without seeing my bride.”
Seton frowned. “You’ve seen me every day for the past week, Sam.”
“And we have lots of catching up to do. Be ready!”
He hung up the phone, and Seton put hers away, aware that with the slickness of a lawyer and the charm of a ladies’ man, Sam had erased all her ire at him taking over her plans to pick up her sister. In fact, he seemed pretty happy to be in charge of just about everything.
Seton went back to worrying about Sabrina’s surprise meeting with Jonas. Her sister was certain to be angry with her, and rightfully so. She would likely automatically assume Seton was trying to push them together, at the minimum, or force Jonas into realizing he was going to be a father, at the worst. Hopefully, she and Sam were doing the right thing.
But sometimes pushing Fate was a bad idea.
W
HEN
S
ABRINA
WALKED
into Seton’s bedroom two hours later, as she was looking over the things Jackie and Darla had chosen for her to wear with her wedding outfit, Seton automatically smiled and started to run to hug her sister.
Then she saw her stomach—and gasped.
“Oh, Sabrina,” she said to her petite, five-foot-two sister, who was now pushed so out of shape that her delicate form looked as if a baby elephant had taken up residence inside her. Seton hugged her tightly.
Sabrina let out a long breath, hugging her back. They clung together for a few moments, happy to be together again.
“Obviously, even Jonas couldn’t have missed that you’re in the middle stages of pregnancy.” Seton pulled back to look at her. “What did he say?”
“Not much.” Sabrina went to sit on the bed. “In fact, that was the most silent car ride I’ve ever experienced.”
“I am so sorry,” Seton said, getting mad at Sam all over again. “Sam made the arrangements for Jonas to pick you up, and Jonas left before I realized what Sam had done. Sam doesn’t know you’re expecting, Sabrina, so Jonas had no preparation.”
Seton winced at the sadness on her sister’s face.
“That would explain why he was so quiet. Callahans don’t handle surprise very well,” Sabrina said.
Seton sat down next to her sister. “Did you two talk at all?”
Sabrina sighed. “Mainly about the weather. The distance from the airport to the ranch. And then when he dropped me off here, Jonas said, ‘Take care of yourself,’ and I realized he didn’t think the baby was his.”
“What?”
Seton stiffened. “Whose would it be, if not his?”
Sabrina shrugged. “The thought never seemed to occur to him. So I didn’t offer any information. I was so shell-shocked at seeing him, and then realizing that he thought I was involved with someone else, that I just let it all go for the moment.”
This was awful. Seton and Sam had made everything worse by dragging Sabrina back to Diablo. Their plan had failed dismally. And now they were marrying each other, when there really was no reason to do so.
Seton wasn’t going to be the one to back out. She wasn’t going to be a bride-on-the-run. If Sam wanted to be a groom-on-the-run, he was welcome to put on his sneakers and haul out.
She sighed. “Let’s get you something to drink and maybe some of Corinne’s cookies, and then let’s have her look at this suit I bought for you. Maybe the lightbulb will go on over Jonas’s stupid head fairly quickly.”
“I wouldn’t count on it,” Sabrina said. “This is Jonas Callahan we’re talking about.”
Mr. Draw-Me-a-Map-Where-Ladies-Are-Concerned. Seton wondered what Sam’s next move would be, once he realized he’d really thrown a kink into his oldest brother’s life.
“
I’
VE
HAD
SOME
SHOCKERS
in my life,” Jonas said to Sam, as the Callahan brothers gathered together for an impromptu, informal bachelor party. “Seeing Sabrina again was hard enough. But seeing that she was several months pregnant shocked me so badly I couldn’t make sense of it. Then I realized she must have met someone in Washington, D.C.”
The brothers sat together in the upstairs library, where they always met for family conferences. Each held a cut-crystal tumbler and pondered his own thoughts.
“What difference does it make?” Judah asked.
“Do we care if she’s got a boyfriend?” Rafe wondered.
“Seton’s the only one marrying into the family. It shouldn’t affect us, should it?” Creed said.
“It matters,” Pete stated carefully, “because I think Jonas and Sabrina were quietly singing each other bedtime lullabies since at least around the time I began romancing Jackie.”
“Wow,” Sam said, staring at his older brother. “You old dog. None of us had any idea.”
“I did,” Pete admitted reluctantly. “I just thought Jonas had better sense.”
Sam took a liberal sip from his tumbler and gawked at his oldest brother. “You’re going to be a
father,
Jonas? Holy hell, that means I don’t have to get married!”
“What?”
all his brothers cried, in one giant explosion of disbelief.
“I can’t deal with his issues right now, even though I arranged this gathering for him,” Jonas said. “What do you mean, I’m going to be a father? That’s not my baby Sabrina’s carrying.”
“Who else’s would it be?” Sam asked. “C’mon, Jonas, don’t be a dope.”