then signed by Dalton, Kayla, and now, Cord.
“So, what do you have?” Dalton asked her again.
With hands that were suddenly trembling, Kayla slowly placed her cards face-up on the table, and waited. Dalton stared at the three kings and two aces in silence for a moment. Then, with a foul expletive, he threw down his cards and pushed back his chair. With an angry glare at her and Cord, he pushed
through the crowd and strode over to the bar. Snickers and laughter followed him, along with congratulations for her and Cord.
Someone reached out and turned over Dalton’s cards. Kayla almost got dizzy when she saw what he had been playing. Three queens and two aces. That
was almost too close, she thought, sitting down and watching as Cord
gathered up the money and IOU from the table. When he turned to her, she
simply gazed up at him mutely.
“Come on,” he said, holding out his hand. “Let’s go home. We have a lot of talking to do.”
Home. Just that word made her feel warm all over and forget the second part of the sentence. When Cord took her hand, she went with him willingly, only to hesitate once they reached his horse.
“Cord...” she began, but he gently placed his finger to her lips.
“We’ll talk when we get back to the ranch,” was all he said.
Lifting her onto the horse, Cord swung up behind her and took up the reins.
They rode in silence and she rested her head against his chest, content
simply to be in his arms.
Back at the ranch, Cord helped her down from the saddle, and then told her to wait for him inside while he saw to his horse. Once in the house, she went straight up to their bedroom, and then waited anxiously for him to join her. He no longer seemed angry with her, she thought. Surely, that was a good sign.
A short while later, she heard the sound of his booted feet on the stairs, and she turned as he stepped into the room and closed the door. Looking at him, everything she had been practicing to say fled her mind, and she nervously smoothed her skirts.
“Cord, I...” she swallowed hard. “I wanted to tell you the truth. I even tried that day we went on the picnic, and then again on the day of our wedding, but I was afraid.”
He folded his arms and regarded her in silence for a moment. “Go on.”
She chewed on her lower lip. “I met Abigail on the stage coming out here,”
she continued. “She told me that she was a mail-order bride, but that she was having second thoughts about marrying you. She said that though you
sounded wonderful in your letters, she missed her family and her life back in Boston too much to go through with the marriage.”
His jaw tightened. “And you thought that you’d just conveniently take her
place.”
She quickly shook her head. “No,” she said, and then hastily added, “At least not in the beginning.” She saw his eyes narrow, and she took a deep breath.
“Since she knew that I would be going through Copper Creek, Abigail asked
me if I would tell you that she had changed her mind. I agreed, and I fully intended to tell you when I got off the stage, but then you naturally thought I was Abigail. I couldn’t tell you with the entire town watching, so I let you think that I was Abigail, figuring that I would tell you when we got to your ranch. But you really seemed like a nice man, and I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
Besides, I barely had a penny to my name, so I thought that I could hang
around here and come up with a few dollars before heading on to San
Francisco. So, pretending to be your mail-order bride just seemed easier than telling you the truth.”
He held up his hand. “Hold on a minute,” he said. “San Francisco? Why were you heading to San Francisco?”
She shrugged. “To open a dress shop.”
He frowned. “Does being totally broke and your plan for a dress shop have
anything to do with you trying to get into the lock box under the bed?”
She hesitated, wondering if she should hide the part about planning to steal from him, but then decided that there had been too much lying already. “I
thought I could get it by playing poker at the saloon. But I had also planned to get into that box under the bed to see if you had any money I could take.” His mouth tightened, but she hurried on before he could say anything. “But that was before I fell in love with you. At some point, my dreams of going to San Francisco changed, and all I wanted to do was live here with you on the
ranch. I should have told you the truth about everything, but I was too scared to take the chance. Rachel said that I should tell you, but...”
His eyes widened. “Rachel knew about this?”
Kayla nodded. “Yes, but I begged her not to say anything,” she told him. “I really did want to tell you, Cord, but I thought that if you learned the truth you wouldn’t want anything more to do with me.”
He frowned again. “Even after I told you that I’d fallen in love with you?”
Wordlessly, she shook her head. Taking a step closer to him, she looked up at him with imploring green eyes. “After you said that, it became even more important that I not mess everything up. Please say that you can forgive me, Cord,” she begged. “Please.”
Lifting a hand, he gently tucked a strand of loose hair behind her ear. “I do forgive you, Kayla,” he said, bending his head to kiss her gently on the lips.
“And I probably should have let you
