“This is Ginger Rollins.” He turned, briefly catching her eye. Warning flashed in his expression. He, too, thought something was up, and wordlessly urged her to play along with whatever he said and did.
And really, Ginger thought, what choice did she have?
“Ginger,” Rand continued with laudable politeness, “my brother Colt.”
Colt tipped his Stetson in her direction. “Pleased to meet you.”
Rand went on reluctantly. “This is Rio Vasquez.” He nodded at the olive-skinned lawman, then the dark-haired man beside him. “And my cousin, Kyle McCabe.”
Ginger shook all three deputies’ hands in turn and uttered a cheerful greeting to each.
“So what brings the two of you to the bait shop?” Colt asked.
Ginger had a feeling, from the way Colt McCabe’s eyes had initially been twinkling, that he already knew. So much for their plan of calling ahead to ensure there were no further delays.
Rand kept his poker face. “Nothing much,” he told his older brother. “You?”
Colt’s silence was answer enough.
Rio continued, in all seriousness, “We heard you have a marriage license in your possession that was issued in Summit County four days ago.”
Rand pressed his fingers to his eyes and grimaced.
Wondering what her husband-to-be knew that she didn’t, Ginger asked, “Is there a problem?”
All three deputies exchanged looks. “Mind if we take a look at it?” Kyle McCabe asked.
Unhappy that their marriage license might somehow be suspect, Ginger took it out of her handbag and handed it over. Kyle inspected it, then showed it to Vasquez and McCabe. All three shook their heads in silent remonstration.
“Just as we thought,” Rio declared, eyes twinkling.
Kyle McCabe handed the license back to Ginger and said, “We’re going to need the two of you to get back in your vehicle and follow us.”
Whatever the joke, Rand was clearly not in the mood. He paused, as if weighing his options. “And if we don’t?” he challenged.
Colt McCabe gave his younger brother another long, provoking look. “I think you can imagine,” he retorted. “Sometimes it’s just best to go along to get along, if you know what I mean.”
“Go along with what?” Ginger asked.
Rand shoved a hand through his mahogany hair and muttered something under his breath that Ginger was just as glad not to be able to decipher. More meaning-laced looks passed between the four men.
Aware Rand seemed more exasperated and annoyed than concerned about whatever it was that was going on, Ginger knit her brow in consternation. “Is there something wrong with the marriage license?” Because if there was...
More looks. These seeming to tell Rand to keep her in the dark, at least for a little while longer.
Rand placed a protective hand at her back and turned Ginger toward his truck. He leaned down, his warm breath brushing her ear and muttered, “We only wish that were all this was.”
* * *
“YOU WANT TO tell me what’s really going on?” Ginger asked when the caravan had headed down the highway, in the opposite direction from which they’d come.
A mixture of resentment and resignation warred on his handsome face. “I’d rather not speculate,” he said finally.
Okay. Next question. “Do we even have to go with them, then?” The three lawmen had made it clear, as they were getting in their patrol cars, that they weren’t currently “on duty” with the sheriff’s department. Colt had just gotten off shift, Rio hadn’t yet started his and Kyle was on break. So, it was clear that whatever this was, it wasn’t exactly official.
“No,” Rand returned in a low voice. Having come to terms with their predicament, though, he was resigned to handling it with his usual good humor. “But we’d just be putting off until later what we may as well handle now.”
Ginger rolled her eyes. “Well, that clears things up.”
Rand reached over, put his hand on her knee and gave it a friendly squeeze. “Want my advice?”
Making no effort to hide her growing frustration, she plucked his hand from her leg as if it were an odious insect. “No, but I guess you’re going to give it to me anyway.”
Rand chuckled. “I suggest you relax and enjoy the peace and quiet, because it sure as heck won’t last for long.”
Turned out, Rand was right about that. The minute they passed beneath the wrought-iron archway announcing the spread owned by Wade and Josie McCabe, and headed down the tree-lined path to the big stone-and-cedar ranch house, they saw the catering trucks and the big white tents on the back lawn. Musicians were already setting up. Acutely aware of their casual attire, Ginger shot Rand a startled look. “Please tell me your parents are having a party.”
“It would appear so.”
She added the important caveat, “One that doesn’t involve us.”
“That, I can’t say one way or another. I can tell you all four of my brothers are already here. As well as...”
Ginger’s face fell. She recognized the white Cadillac sedan with the vanity plate #1TXMOM. Her hand flew to her throat. “Oh, no. My mother.” A litany of frustrated words followed.
Rand mirrored her feelings with a groan of his own as the front door to the ranch house swung open and a bevy of McCabes and Rollinses poured out.
Ginger’s mother was dressed in a beaded knee-length suit suitable for a mother of the bride. Perhaps because they were the ones throwing the bash, Josie and Wade were still in jeans, boots and loose-fitting cotton shirts. All three parents looked as privately exasperated and publicly determined as Rand and Ginger felt.
Rand and Ginger got out of the pickup, waved goodbye to the departing lawmen and met their families midyard. “How did you find out?” Rand asked.
Josie McCabe scowled at her youngest son. “A reporter from the Summit Journal-News called me three days ago to ask me how I felt about my environmentalist son marrying a rival lady wildcatter. From there it was easy enough to find out a marriage license had been issued, so I called Cordelia Rollins to find out what she knew...”
Ginger’s mom picked up where Josie left off. “And lo and behold, I knew nothing.”
Wade added, “We all talked and decided if you two were going to get married, you were going to do it with friends and family present.”
Josie nodded. “So I called the justice of the peace in Summit and asked him to hold off.”
That explained the mysterious family matter that had kept the court official from marrying Rand and Ginger. “We already knew you were coming home this evening, so it was...well, not easy—” Josie frowned “—but possible, with Cordelia’s help, to get a wedding set up here.”
Rand quirked a brow. “What if we had canceled our trip north this evening?”
Josie shrugged. “I would have invented an emergency to get you here anyway.”
“And what if we were already married when we got here?” Ginger asked her mother.
“Then you would have been married again, by a proper minister, in proper wedding clothes,” Cordelia replied, shaking her head in reproach. “Honestly, Ginger, you are my only daughter. Were you really going to deny me the chance to see you pledge your love to the man of your dreams? Even if I haven’t yet had the opportunity to even meet him, never mind give my blessing!”
If