Megan's Marriage

“So when did you get into town?” she asked, not really caring, but determined to curb her impatience and make a stab at being polite.

“Wednesday night.”

“Mmm,” she responded as noncommittally as possible. She picked up her glass and took a long; refreshing swallow of iced tea.

Travis waited until she looked at him before he leaned forward, his weight on his forearms resting on the table, and said, “I happened to run into Maribeth at the post office this morning.”

She eyed him for a moment, waiting for him to continue. When he didn’t, she prompted him with, “Did you?”

“She said y’all are having some problems.”

She made a mental note to have a long discussion with her youngest sister about not discussing private family matters with outsiders. Striving for nonchalance, Megan shrugged and studied the ice cubes floating in the amber liquid. “No more than anyone else around these parts. Looks like the drought’s about to do the whole county in.”

Megan made herself look at Travis, only then noticing that he’d removed his hat. Up close, his unusual eyes were even more noticeable, if possible, what with the stark contrast between their bright color and his tanned face.

“Megan—” he began, then paused, as though searching for words.

Megan knew that Travis had always had a way with words, so his hesitation surprised her. “What?” she finally asked.

“Maribeth says that since the new management took over at the bank, you don’t think they’re going to be willing to work with you on the mortgage payments anymore.”

She could feel her jaw tighten at more evidence of her sister’s loose-lipped ways. She took another drink of her tea before responding. “Maribeth has a big mouth,” she finally muttered through clenched teeth.

He placed his glass between his palms and rotated it around and around in a circle. “Megan, I know you have no use for me. I’m not certain why, exactly. I mean, I know I used to give you a bad time when we were kids, but that was all part of growing up. I never meant anything bad by my teasing. I always thought of us as friends, even if we haven’t seen much of each other in the past few years. I always thought that, if you ever needed anything, you’d know that I’d help you out in any way I could.”

She shot out of her chair, knocking it over on the floor. “Is that why you’re here? You think we’re some kind of neighborhood charity case? Is that it? Well, you couldn’t be-”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” he said, coming to his feet, his hands held out in front of him. “Damn, woman, do you have to go off like that over every little thing? What’s the matter with you, anyway? Why would you take offense at an honest offer of help?”

She could feel her face flaming, which didn’t help her temper in the slightest. “We don’t need your help. We’re doing just fine,” she muttered, picking up her chair and replacing it on its legs. She sank into the chair and grabbed her glass with both hands.

“C’mon, Megan, it’s me you’re talking to. Needing help isn’t anything to be ashamed of. We all need help at one time or the other.”

She looked up at him and knew she was making a complete fool of herself. Why didn’t that surprise her? She had never learned to act naturally around this man, not even when they were kids. “I’m sorry,” she muttered. “I’m just tired, that’s all. I didn’t mean to take it out on you.”

He sat down once again. “I know this is a tough time for you. I think you’ve done a hell of a job holding this family together. I just want you to know that I’m here to help you, if you’ll let me. I’ve got money just sitting in the bank, drawing interest. I figure you could use it to help get over this bump in the road. Let’s face it, we’re bound to get some rain sometime. Cattle prices will be coming up. I figure you could be using the money since I don’t need it right away.”

Megan couldn’t sit there any longer, facing him. She got up from the table and walked over to the counter, her back to him. Never had her temper made her so ashamed. It didn’t matter what Travis had done in the past, or how uncomfortable she felt around him. He had driven all the way out here to offer her a helping hand. And what had she done? Ignored him, left him standing in her dust, been rude and unsociable for no good reason.

It wasn’t his fault that his good looks had seemed to make his life so much easier, that his irresistible grin had made all the girls carry on about him in school, or that she had received a great deal of teasing because they lived near each other.

It wasn’t his fault that she didn’t like him.

She picked up the iced tea pitcher and brought it back to the table, filling both their glasses. “I’m sorry for being so rude,” she said, sitting down again. “It’s really very kind of you to offer to help.” Megan couldn’t make herself look into those eyes. Hadn’t they haunted enough of her dreams over the years without her being confronted with them now?

Travis leaned back in his chair and smiled at her in silent acknowledgment. “Dad tells me this new bank management team seems to be more concerned about their asset and liability reports than they are about the welfare of the people in the county. So you may be right about them,” he said.

“Can you blame them? With some of the banks in the state going under, it’s no wonder they’re concerned.”

“Have you spoken to them at all?”

She nodded.

“Did you offer to make interest only payments?”

“They aren’t willing to do anything but accept full payment of all money due or to foreclose. Those are my options.”

He muttered something under his breath that she couldn’t understand, which was probably just as well.

Megan straightened in her chair. “Why do you care?” she finally voiced the nagging question that had been gnawing at her throughout the conversation. “Travis, you know as well as I do that we aren’t friends. We’ve never been friends. It seems to me you probably expected me to fail. You never had a very good opinion of me, either, as I recall.”

He rubbed his jaw. “I guess you’re right. As far back as I can remember you’ve treated me like some piece of trash that was cluttering up your immediate area. I should be gloating about now that the high-and-mighty princess is taking a nosedive.”

“Exactly.”

They looked at each other for a long time without speaking. After several minutes of silence, Travis sighed. “I guess I deserved your haughty treatment, though, didn’t I? I used to treat you pretty badly—pulling your hair, grabbing your books, making fun of your friends…”

“You made it clear what you thought of me, that’s for sure.”

“Would it help to remind you that I’ve grown up a little since then?”

He gave her that heart-melting smile of his that had gotten him out of all kinds of trouble as a kid.

“No,” she said baldly.

“Oh.” He looked around the kitchen before meeting her steady gaze. “The thing is, I was really shaken when Maribeth told me what was happening with y’all. I’d lost touch with you since high school. I mean, all that stuff I did to you was years ago. I’ve been on the road for the past eight years.”

She knew that. He’d been two years ahead of her in school. She’d been sixteen the year he graduated. He’d been president of the student body, captain of the football team, homecoming king. By the time he’d graduated, he’d been driving to school for two years. So they were talking about behavior of more than ten years ago…almost half a lifetime.

“Will you let me help you, Megan? Please? Then I’ll know you’ve forgiven me for all that childish stuff I used to pull. I can’t stand by and watch you lose this place, not when I could help you. Surely you can understand that.”

She couldn’t believe she was having this conversation. Especially with Travis Kane, of all people. Of course she wasn’t going to accept his offer, but the very fact that he’d made it blew her away.

Her silence seemed to spur him on. “You’ve done a hell of a job, Megan…keeping everything going. You were just a kid when you took over here. The girls were still in grade school back then, weren’t they?”

“Yes.” She looked away, absently drawing designs in the moisture collecting on her glass.

“When is the mortgage due?”

She glanced back at him, grateful that he had changed the subject. “The first.”

“It’s paid annually?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s no time to try to sell stock.”

“Not at the current prices. Who knows if they’re ever coming up. Nobody seems to be eating beef these days, according to present market indicators. I’ve been hanging on, hoping the drop is only temporary. If I sold at today’s prices I’d lose everything I’ve invested in this herd.”

“So will you let me loan you the money?”

“I appreciate the offer, Travis. I mean that. It was kind of you to hang around today when I was being so—rude. But, in the long run, borrowing the money from you isn’t going to help. I would just owe another debt I couldn’t pay.” She rubbed her forehead where a headache was forming. “I’ve thought and thought about it. There’s just no way out of it, no reason to prolong any of this.” She forced herself to smile. “You know, it’s kinda funny when you think about it. Paddy O’Brien won this place in a card game more than a hundred years ago, closer to a hundred thirty-five.” She wondered if he knew that. “My illustrious ancestor was a riverboat gambler at the time. Didn’t know a thing about ranching.”

He didn’t seem particularly surprised, but then few families in the county had histories that weren’t known by all their neighbors.

“You’ve always been a gambler, too, Megan,” Travis said in a tone more gentle than she’d ever heard from him. “Don’t forget that. You’re a fighter. A survivor. You never give up.”

An unexpected lump formed in her throat. “Is that how you see me?”

“Of course. Why are you so surprised?”

“I always thought—” She decided not to tell him what she’d thought his opinion of her was. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter.”

He hitched his chair closer to the table and leaned toward her. “Look, if you don’t want to owe me money, then I have a suggestion on how you could buy yourself some time—so that you could pay this year’s mortgage payment, wait on the market to sell your cattle, maybe investigate other stock you might choose to bring in. It would give you some breathing room.”

She eyed him warily. “What do you suggest I do, win the lottery?”

“Nope. Marry me.”

Two

Megan realized that her jaw must have dropped because she suddenly became aware of the fact that her mouth was dry. She groped for the glass in front of her, draining it while her thoughts raced around in her head like a rioting crowd of protesters.

Travis Kane was suggesting that she marry him? Travis Kane? How could he be sitting there watching her so calmly?

“Marry you?” she finally repeated weakly.

“I know you think I’m crazy,” he replied hurriedly, as though afraid she was going to demand that he leave, “but listen to me for a minute. Just hear me out. It won’t be considered a loan that way. I’ll be making an investment that may or may not work out, but whatever happens, you’ll have the money you need, plus some left over. You’ll have enough to repair that blasted windmill and whatever else’s broken down. You’ll have the money to hire extra help, which I’m sure you could use. We’ll treat it like a business arrangement, like a partnership contract, or something. We’ll set a time limit—say one year. Twelve months. At the end of that time we’ll review the situation, decide if we want to continue the partnership. If we don’t, well—who knows what will have happened by then?” He flashed that smile of his and she could feel herself succumbing. “I mean, the drought can’t last forever. Things are bound to pick up and you won’t have to be worried all the time about—”

“What’s in all of this for you?”

He’d been talking rapidly but he stopped at her question as though a hand had been clamped over his mouth. He swallowed, eyeing her cautiously. “For me?” he repeated, as though puzzled by the question.

“Uh-huh. Why are you willing to be so generous? If you want the ranch, why don’t you just make me an offer on the place and we can talk about it?”

“Megan, there’s no way you’d ever sell this place and we both know it. This is your home. I don’t want it. Ranching doesn’t fit in with my life-style. You know that. Besides, if you sold the place, where would you and the girls live?”

She couldn’t believe she was sitting there at the kitchen table having this conversation, and with Travis Kane, of all people. “If we were to sell the ranch, we would have the money to move anywhere. If the bank forecloses, I’m not sure where we’ll go,” she admitted. “But we’d find a place somewhere. We certainly wouldn’t starve.”

“This way you could stay here and still have the money you need to make repairs and—”

“You didn’t answer my question. Why would you make such an offer? What do you expect to get out of this?”

The look he gave her was definitely wary. “A wife?” he offered a little hesitantly.

“C’mon, Travis. The last thing you could possibly want is to get married. You need a wife like you need another hole in your head. And even if you’ve suddenly decided that marriage appeals to you, you certainly don’t want to be married to me, of all people!”

He fidgeted. There was no other word for it. He pulled his earlobe, scratched his nose, fussed with his collar, then shoved his hair off his forehead. Finally he muttered, “Don’t underestimate yourself, Megan.”

Seeing his nervousness gave her some comfort, but not much. “Are you saying you’re in love with me?”

He straightened in his chair. “Umm—well, would you believe me if I told you I was?”

“Absolutely not,” she immediately responded.

He flexed his shoulders in another restless movement. “Then I’m not in love with you.”

She gave him an approving nod. “Well, at least you’re being honest.”

He cleared his throat and took a long drink from his glass without meeting her gaze.

She studied him for several minutes in silence. “You can’t be serious,” she finally said.

“I am,” he argued. “Try me.”

“Try you?” she repeated suspiciously. “Would you care to explain what you mean by that remark?”

“It’s just a figure of speech and you know it. I’m willing to prove to you that I’m serious, that I’m making an offer in good faith. I want to help you. That’s what friends are for—to help each other.”

“You make it sound like some kind of a game!” She leaned back in her chair and deliberately deepened her voice. “Hey, there’s not much going on in my life these days. Maybe I should get married!” In her normal voice she added, “Life is always a joke to you. Admit it!”

“Well, what about you? You always look at life so blasted seriously all the time. Can’t you lighten up a little, once in a while, have some fun?”

“Of course you would see things that way. Life’s always been easy for you. You’ve never had to be responsible about anything or for anyone. You’ve never been serious about anything in your entire life.”

“A few things,” he murmured.

“Such as?”

“I’ve taken my rodeoing serious. I’ve won some good prize money. I take that serious enough. It’s the money I’m willing to offer to you, money that I’ve worked hard to earn. You don’t hear me joking about that, do you?”

Grudgingly she said, “Okay, I’ll go along with that one.”

“I take my friendships seriously, as well. I know I haven’t been home much these past few years but whenever I’m in town, I’ve always made a point of checking on you, to make sure you and the girls were okay. As I recall, a couple of years ago I actually asked you to go to the movies with me. As also I recall, you were quick enough about turning me down.”

“Going to a movie would have meant an hour’s drive to the next town.”

“Is that why you turned me down?”

She stared at him. “I get up early. I can’t stay out late at night. I didn’t figure you meant it, anyway. You were just trying to get a reaction out of me, like always. You’ve always been the biggest tease I’ve ever known, Travis, bar none.”

“You don’t date at all, do you?”

She looked down at her shirt and coveralls, then at him. “Of course I do. Why, I’ve got men lined up outside the door, impatiently waiting their turn to take me out. A stunning creature like me has to fight ’em off.”

Travis frowned. “Don’t, Megan.”

“Don’t what?”

“Don’t make fun of yourself that way. You’re a very attractive woman. Just as important, you’re a very warm and loving woman, protective of your family, willing to do whatever it takes to keep everyone safe.”

She narrowed her eyes and peered at him. “Did you by any chance get kicked in the head by one of those bulls you ride or something, Travis? I can’t believe what I’m hearing coming out of your mouth. Are you sure you don’t have me confused with someone else?”

“What I think is that we haven’t spent much time together in. the past several years and that there’s a lot you don’t know about me. Obviously what you do know doesn’t impress you much. So how about giving me a chance to prove to you that I can make a good husband?”

A shiver ran over her at the word husband. Travis Kane? She would have to be out of her mind to consider marrying him, of all people. For any reason.

Even if it means saving the ranch? a little voice whispered inside her head.

For the first time in her life she finally understood what the preacher was talking about when he chose the subject of temptation for his Sunday sermons.

Temptation was a mighty insidious thing. It teased and tantalized, making all her beliefs dance and jump around, stand on tiptoe and fall over.

Travis Kane had been a pest as a kid, and his constant need to tease her had come close to breaking her heart in high school. Of course he’d never known the crush she’d developed on him back then. She had no intention of ever letting him know.

What would the star-struck girl back then have done if she’d known that someday in the future the ever-popular Travis Kane would actually come to her and propose marriage.

As a friend.

He didn’t love her, of course. Hadn’t he just said so?

But then, she didn’t love him, either. She knew better.

So. It would be a business deal, that’s all. It would have an expiration date.

“A year, you said?”

“It can be longer, if you want.”

“Oh, no. A year would be fine. It would give me some breathing space, like you said. I’d have some time to make plans, decide whether I should try to sell the place. After that, I could—” She paused, her thoughts finally leading her to ask, “I, uh—I guess you’d expect to live here, then?” She laughed nervously and answered her own question. “Well, of course you would. We’d be married and it would look strange to everybody if you continued to live at home with your folks.” She knew she sounded rattled because she was. This was the most bizarre thing that had ever happened to her. Even more bizarre was the fact that she was actually considering accepting his outlandish offer… because the alternative was too painful for her to face. She’d been praying for a miracle, hadn’t she? She just hadn’t realized before God’s strange sense of humor.

“I’m not home all that much, anyway, Megan,” Travis was saying, quietly. “I’m still following the rodeo circuit.”

“Oh, that’s right!” she replied, unable to hide her obvious relief. “Well, that would work out okay.” She went on, hopping up from the table. She began to pace. “I mean, we’ve got plenty of room,” she said with an expansive wave of her arm. “Why, this old house rambles in all directions. There’s several bedrooms…” She came to an abrupt halt, her voice trailing off. She eyed him uncertainly. “Would you expect to share my room?”

He took a deep breath and held it, his gaze never leaving hers. When he finally exhaled, he gave her a lopsided smile. “Whatever you’re comfortable with, Megan.”

“Oh.” She thought about the idea of sharing a bedroom with Travis Kane and shivered. “Well, I’m certainly not comfortable with the thought of sharing my room with you…or anybody…really.”

“I see.”

She began to pace once again. “Well, I mean, the whole idea takes some getting used to, you’ve got to admit. I never expected to get married so I’ve never given it much thought.”

“Why?”

She’d reached the window and was looking outside, wondering when the girls would be getting back from town, wondering how she could possibly explain to them what she was thinking about doing. She whirled around to face him, vaguely recalling his question. “Why what?” she repeated. “Why give it much thought? Because I’ve had other more important things to think about.”

Travis stretched his long legs out straight, then tipped his chair back and crossed his ankles. “No, I want to know why you never thought you’d get married.”

She threw her arms wide and grinned. “Who would be interested in marrying somebody like me who’s trying to keep a run-down ranch going as well as raise a couple of sisters? Nobody in his right mind is going to be interested in getting involved in a situation like that.” She eyed him speculatively.

“I am,” he said mildly.

She continued to study him. Had she found the fly in this particular ointment? Had he fallen off a bull onto his head one too many times and scattered his brain cells? He appeared rational enough, but his suggestion had all the earmarks of a crazy man. However, he’d been smart enough to place a time condition on the agreement. She smiled at him as she reminded him. “Yes, but only for a year. Believe me, after a year you’ll be more than ready to get away from this place.” She nodded, seeing more and more advantages to his wild suggestion. “By that time Mollie will have graduated from high school. Who knows? Maybe both of them will want to move into town. Or maybe to Austin or San Antonio.”

Suddenly feeling more lighthearted than she’d felt in weeks—no, more like months—Megan realized that she was starved. She went over to the refrigerator and opened the door. “Speaking of the girls, both of them stayed in town last night with friends. I don’t know when they’ll get home tonight, but I don’t intend to hold supper for them. I’m hungry.” She peered over her shoulder at him. “Do you want to stay and eat with me?”

He smiled and in a gentle voice, said, “I’d like that, Megan.”

She began to rummage around inside the refrigerator. “It won’t be anything fancy. Mollie’s the real cook around here. I just throw together some of the basics and—”

She straightened and backed away from the refrigerator with her hands full, then turned to find Travis immediately behind her. He took the dishes out of her hands and placed them on the nearby counter, then reached behind her and closed the refrigerator door.

“I think we should seal the bargain, don’t you?” he murmured, trapping her between him and the refrigerator.

Megan couldn’t remember ever having been caught so off guard. Before she could think, his lips were pressing against hers. A bolt of electrical shock went through her. Travis was kissing her. Travis Kane. Kissing her. Her…Megan O’Brien…tomboy…the girl who…

Her thoughts scattered as her senses took over. She became aware of the woodsy scent of his after-shave, the minty flavor of his mouth, the muscled wall of his chest as it pressed against hers, his uneven breathing as he tilted his head to another angle, teasing her with his tongue. Her eyes drifted closed, savoring all the new and glorious sensations that were sweeping over her.

She’d never been kissed by a man before, a man whose hands were tracing her spine, shaping her buttocks and pulling her closer so that she could feel—could feel…

Megan’s eyes flew open and she gave him a sudden shove. Caught off guard, he took a couple of quick steps back before regaining his balance.