“It’s your brother.”
“Do I have a brother?”
“He doesn’t belong to me,” she said.
“Oh, yeah.” Rolling away, he scrubbed his face with one hand. “What is it?” he called.
“Booker’s on the phone,” Mike said.
Reaching over to the nightstand, Josh grabbed the receiver and handed it to her. “It’s your roommate,” he grumbled.
“Do I detect a little jealousy?” she asked.
“Damn right.”
There wasn’t anything to argue about if he was going to agree with her, so she pulled him down next to her and contented herself with threading her fingers through his hair. It was such a possessive thing to do and so utterly fulfilling….
“Late night, huh, babe?” Booker said as soon as Rebecca answered.
“Yeah. Delaney had her baby.”
“I heard. A little girl. It’s all over town.”
“Already?”
“That surprises you?”
“Not really.”
“What’s up?” she asked.
“Thought I’d better warn you that your family’s looking for you. They’re about to call the highway patrol and they’ll probably follow with the morgues in Boise. They’ve talked to Delaney and know you left the hospital last night. They’re afraid you might’ve ended up in a ditch. And I wasn’t gonna be the one to tell ’em you’re sleeping with Josh.”
“Gotcha.” She let the silky strands of Josh’s hair slip through her fingers again. “The morgues, huh? That’s not good.”
“What’s not good?” Josh murmured.
“My parents think I’ve gone missing.”
“So what are you doing for your birthday?” Booker asked.
Josh kissed her temple and placed a possessive hand on her breast, obviously trying to distract her. “I think we’re going shopping.”
“‘We?”’
“Josh and me.”
“For a birthday present?”
“For a wedding ring.”
“No shit?”
Rebecca smiled, remembering how Josh had called her Mrs. Joshua Hill while he was placing little kisses along her collarbone—and then considerably lower—last night. “No shit. How are things with Katie?”
“Not anywhere as good as they are with you and Josh.”
“You really like her, don’t you?”
“Hell, no. I don’t like anybody,” he said, but Rebecca could tell he was lying.
“If she’s as smart as I think she is, she’ll wise up someday.”
“It’s pretty tough for a lowly mechanic to compete with a big-ass horse breeder.”
Rebecca playfully batted Josh’s hands away. “Yeah, well, they’re not all they’re cracked up to be.”
“Next time try saying that like you mean it,” he said.
“That might be the best I’ll ever do,” she admitted. Then she told him he owed her a birthday present, hung up and called her mother.
“There you are,” Fiona said, obviously in the middle of what her father called a dither. “Where have you been? Are you all right?”
Rebecca skipped the first question to focus on the second. “I’m fine.”
“Your father’s definitely not happy with you, Rebecca Paige Wells. You made him miss an important meeting this morning.”
“I did?”
“Yes! When you didn’t come home last night, he was sure that hunk of junk you call a car had finally given out on you and you were stranded on the side of the road somewhere. Or worse. He’s driven all the way to Boise looking for you.”
“And now he’s going to be upset that I’m okay?” she teased.
“You know what I mean.”
Rebecca smiled to herself. “Yeah, I do. But there’s nothing to worry about. And you can tell him…” When she hesitated, Josh lifted his head and looked up at her expectantly, and the magnitude of what she was about to do suddenly hit her. She was going to marry her childhood nemesis. She was going to bear his children. Her mother-in-law would probably hate her forever, but Rebecca had never been happier in her life. “…Tell him I’m getting married, after all. That should make everything better.”
“You’re what?”
“I’m getting married. And Greta can do the wedding in ivory and green, if she wants. It doesn’t matter to me.”
“Are you drunk?” her mother demanded.
“No!”
“You don’t sound right. And I don’t know if marriage is such a good idea, after all. Your father and I have talked about it, and we really don’t think Buddy will make you a good husband. I mean, maybe if he’d agree to move here….We don’t think you should leave your friends and family. We’d never get to see our grandkids and—”
“Don’t worry, Mom,” she interrupted. “I’m not moving to Nebraska.”
A moment of silence met this statement. “Well…that’s a relief, at least.”
“And you did make all those little poem scrolls. We should probably use them, don’t you think?”
“They were an awful lot of work….”
“Exactly. What time is dinner?”
“Five. We’re having your favorite—homemade pot pie and German chocolate cake.”
“Can I bring a guest?”
“Booker?” she asked, obviously not pleased.
“No, my fiancé.”
“Oh!” The tone of her mother’s voice instantly changed. “Of course. It’ll be good to see Buddy again. Doyle has a few things he wants to say to him.”
“Uh…we’ll see about that,” she said and hung up.
“We’re making the big announcement today?” Josh asked, putting the phone back in its cradle.
“I thought it might be a good time. The whole family’s gathering for my birthday.”
“Then we’d better get going. I want to have your ring.”
“It’s Thursday. Don’t you have to work?” Rebecca asked.
“That’s the beauty of being in business with your big brother,” he said. “Mike will cover for me. He owes me for all the time he’s spent in McCall.”
“Hey, you two interested in breakfast?” Mike called from the kitchen.
“Boy, you do have it good,” Rebecca said.