McKettricks 02 - Shotgun Bride by Linda Lael Miller

Author:Linda Lael Miller
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Brothers, United States marshals, Western stories, Westerns, Fiction, Romance, Western, Historical, General, Mail order brides, Love stories
ISBN: 9780743422741
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2003-10-28T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 35

The brides had Kade cornered in the lobby of the Arizona Hotel before he even took off his new hat, bought special for the occasion, and they were loaded for bear. Sue Ellen, arriving with Holt, but a little apart, joined up with them right away.

Kade tried to look past them, scanning the crowded, noisy room for Mandy, but there was no sign of her. By his reckoning, that was both a problem and a mercy.

At his side, Jeb gave him an elbow. “Speak up, Brother.”

Kade swallowed, darted a look at his sibling, and did as he’d been bidden. “This is my brother Jeb,” he said to the brides, seeing them as a flock, just like always. “He’s in the market for a wife himself.”

Jeb’s grin was ready and wicked. Kade sidestepped a second and more forceful jab to the ribs. “I declare you ladies are lovely enough to make a man forget the sacred vows of matrimony,” Jeb said smoothly, showing that damn disappearing ring of his. “I’m sure my patient wife wouldn’t object to a little dancing, though.”

The brides looked every bit as confused as Kade felt, though the redhead accepted Jeb’s hand when he extended it and allowed him to lead her into the swirl of dancers in the middle of the floor. The rest of them backed off a little after that, and seemed amenable when Captain Harvey’s soldiers and a few fancied-up cowboys ventured forward to request a dance.

“If you’ve got a wife,” Kade demanded, when he and Jeb were momentarily alone, fifteen minutes later, with the brides temporarily off their trail, “where is she?”

Jeb looked smug, fiddling with the ring. “That would be my business, wouldn’t it?”

Kade decided it would be unseemly to smack him right there in Becky’s crowded lobby. “I think you’re lying; ring or no ring.”

“Think whatever you like.” With that, Jeb walked away to find himself a dance partner.

If Mandy hadn’t chosen just that moment to come down the stairs, looking grand in the calico dress he’d bought her at the general store as part of the stakes for their horse race, he might have gone after his brother and choked a straight answer out of him, party manners be damned. As it was, he made his way through the crowd like a sleepwalker, all his thoughts centered squarely on Mandy.

“You look—” he began, and it came out sounding so raspy that he had to start over. “You look real nice.”

She smiled. “Thanks,” she said, preening a little under the compliment. “Who’s watching the jail? Not poor little Harry, I hope.”

“Old Billy’s there,” Kade said with a tilted smile that felt unsteady on his mouth, as if it might not hold. “He’s got a rifle, and I’ll be stopping by regularly to check on the situation.”

Mandy sighed and assessed the gathering almost wistfully, as though she couldn’t believe she was really there, and a part of it all. When she looked at Kade again, fretfulness was in her eyes. “You must know that Old Billy won’t be able to handle that gang, if they decide to come for Gig.

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