THE EIGHT SECOND WEDDING Read online

  He shook her hand. "So you're Chan's girl."

  "Not really," Madeleine said quickly.

  "They're talking about marriage." Gil grinned and she shot him a hard look.

  "We're traveling together. Doing research," Madeleine said.

  Dan lifted one brow. "That what they're callin' it these days?"

  Madeleine's cheeks went beet red. "Not that kind of research," she said hastily.

  Dan gave her a broad grin and a wink. "Just kidding." Then he sobered. "Wish I'd done that with Laura. My wife. Ex-wife," he amended with a rueful grimace. "If I had, maybe I'da known it wouldn't work. She didn't understand the life-style before she got into it. And when she did, she hated it. You'll know before you marry Chan."

  "I'm not marrying Chan."

  Dan looked at Dev and Gil. They looked back at him. All three of them looked at Madeleine and shook their heads.

  * * *

  The meal Lily put on the table would have fed the starving of Calcutta for years to come. At least that was the impression Madeleine had of the quantity of meat and potatoes and corn and salad that filled the men's plates and, in short order, their stomachs.

  She volunteered to help bring things to the table from the stove, but Lily shook her head. "You just protect your plate and mine. I'll be along in a moment."

  So Madeleine sat. Lily had put her next to Chan, who hadn't spoken to her since he'd come back.

  She'd said, "Did you get the truck out all right?" And he'd given a one jerk nod of his head, and that was that.

  She supposed he was mad at her for not learning everything she had to know in one day. Well, too bad, she thought. She'd done the best she could.

  No one seemed to notice that they weren't speaking to each other. Dan talked to Chan. Chan talked to him and to Lily and Dev and Gil. They talked about Dan's crops and Frank Parker's bull. Then they talked about the stock they'd drawn for Thursday's rodeo. Madeleine listened.

  Lily got up and went to get more corn from the kettle on the stove.

  "I drew me Living Daylights," Gil said, then grinned. "Hope to hell he don't kick 'em right outta me."

  "You stay on, you got a good chance of money," Chan said. "Better'n I do on Miser."

  Gil and Dan made sympathetic noises.

  Chan turned to Dev. "Who'd you draw? Dev," he said more loudly, "which bull'd you draw?"

  Dev, who'd been staring off toward the stove where Lily was taking more corn out of the pot, looked around and blinked.

  "Oh, uh, Shadow Boxer, I think." He frowned a minute, then nodded. "Yeah, Shadow Boxer."

  Chan made a face. "Both of you are gonna wipe the floor with me."

  "Vickers brings good stock," Lily said, coming over with more corn. She sat down across from Dev. "You'll all do fine. And I'll be there to save you if you don't."

  There was a sudden jolt as Dev's corn skewer slipped. His elbow knocked his baked potato off his plate and into his cup of coffee. It slopped across the table.

  There was an instant's stunned silence.

  "Nice shot," Gil said.

  "Reckon we'll put you in the barn next time," Dan added easily, tossing him a napkin.

  Lily got up quickly. "I'll get a rag."

  Madeleine passed Dev her napkin. "Can I help?"

  He shook his head. He mopped with the napkins until Lily returned with the rag. Then he took it without comment. Lily stood waiting. She held out her hand to take it when he was finished.

  He shoved his chair back. "I'm done." And he brushed past her, dumped the napkins in the trash and the rag in the sink and went right on out the back door.

  It banged after him.

  Lily stood staring, then came and sat down again and picked up her fork. Dan started talking loudly and determinedly about the price of feed. He was investing far more enthusiasm in the topic than Madeleine thought it warranted, but apparently she was wrong, for Chan and Gil chipped in with equal fervor.

  * * *

  Chapter 7

  « ^ »

  It was almost eleven when the camper door opened and Chan came in. He seemed almost surprised to see Madeleine still up and sitting at the table, typing. He opened his mouth, then closed it again.

  Madeleine didn't say anything either.

  There didn't seem to be a whole lot to say.

  She'd left almost immediately after they'd finished dinner. Lily had said that Dan and Gil would do the dishes. Dan and Gil looked surprised, but they didn't argue. Neither did Madeleine. She had taken it as an opportunity to escape.

  "I have work to do," she'd said. It was only the truth. But the greater truth, the one she didn't say, was that she didn't want to spend any more time with Chan. The tension between them had grown all day. Madeleine wasn't sure what was causing it. Her driving skill – or lack of it – probably. She didn't know. She gathered he felt the same way.

  Certainly he hadn't joined Lily and Dan and Gil in urging her to stick around after the dishes were finished to play cards.

  "Come on. The more the merrier," Dan urged, and Gil and Lily had agreed.

  Chan hadn't said a word. Madeleine figured she was doing them both a favor when she declined and left.

  She'd spotted Dev over by the barn and watched him for a moment, curious about his reaction to Lily's pronouncement. He stood with his back to her, shoulders hunched, leaning against the corral fence staring off into the distance.

  She didn't know what he was looking at, but she doubted it was anything she'd be able to see.

  Did everyone else know? Probably.

  Certainly Lily knew what was bothering him. But Madeleine knew instinctively she couldn't ask Lily, either. All those years spent traipsing after her mother had taught her that there was a time to ask questions. She knew this wasn't it.

  "Lily says you can sleep in the house," Chan said now. They were the first words he'd spoken to her all evening.

  She looked up at him. "Why?"

  "I … well, I just thought you'd prefer it."

  "You thought? Not Lily?" she ventured.

  "We both thought, all right?" He shifted irritably. "I mean, this place isn't exactly the Hilton."

  "I know." She paused. "But I don't mind it. I slept well last night."

  "Lucky you," he muttered.

  Madeleine smiled. "I suppose that means you didn't. Will you sleep better if I'm not here, Richardson?"

  "God, I hope so."

  And she would, too, she was sure. "Fine. I'll go." She put away her computer, gathered up her nightgown, toothbrush and soap. He stood watching her every move until she started out the back door of the camper.

  "Decker?" He was standing in the lighted doorway looking down at her when she glanced back.

  "What?"

  "I'm sorry about today."

  * * *

  Chan stared at Lily, who was sitting placidly in the kitchen nursing a cup of coffee. "What do you mean, she isn't here? We were supposed to go driving this morning."

  "She went. Dev took her."

  "Dev?"

  Lily shrugged negligently as she got up and went to the refrigerator. "Why not? No law says you had to do it, is there? Do you want some eggs?"

  "Yeah. No. I don't know." Chan shook his head. "Why'd she go with Dev?" He was unaccountably annoyed. "I was gonna do it."

  "I got the feeling she didn't want to bother you."

  "I apologized!"

  Lily stared. "For what?"

  "Never mind." Chan raked fingers through his hair. "It isn't easy teaching somebody to drive, you know."

  "I know. I remember Dan and Dad yelling at me. Did you yell?"

  "A little." He gave a brief shrug. "But I was polite, too."

  Lily grinned. "I'll bet." Then her grin faded and she said abruptly, "Anyway, she went with Dev."

  "How long ago?"

  "Couple of hours."

  "They should be back soon, then."

  But they weren't.

  * * *

  She certainly hadn't p
lanned to ask Dev. It was fate – what else? – that brought her out to the kitchen to find him there with Lily. She was standing at the stove with her back to him, stirring some hash browns. Dev was standing with his hands on the table staring at Lily's back. He'd obviously just finished saying something when Madeleine came in. The tension fairly crackled in the air.

  "Uh, good morning," she said into the silence, wondering if she shouldn't be backing out instead of walking in.

  Lily and Dev both turned.

  Lily beamed. "Hi, there! How'd you sleep? Want some coffee?"

  "Fine, thanks. Love some." She took a mug Lily handed her. "How are you?" she asked Dev.

  "All right." His handsome face looked drawn. He pressed his lips together in a thin line. "You driving this morning?"

  Madeleine grimaced. "Undoubtedly. Chan hasn't come in yet?"

  Lily shook her head.

  Dev offered, "I'll take you."

  Both women turned to look at him. He gave Lily a look that Madeleine couldn't quite interpret before he turned his gaze on her. He smiled. "Or do you want to wait for Chan?"

  She didn't even have to think. "No, thanks. I'd be delighted. After breakfast?"

  "Sure. Take your time. I'll be outside." He turned and walked out the door.

  Lily stared after him, letting the hash browns burn.

  "Do you mind?" Madeleine asked hesitantly.

  Lily jerked around, realized the potatoes were starting to burn and scraped them around in the pan. "Mind?" she repeated.

  "If I go with Dev?"

  Lily snorted. "Why should I care?"

  Madeleine didn't know the answer to that.

  She left with Dev half an hour later. He took her up in the hills to drive. He was quieter and calmer than Chan. He didn't wince when she jerked the truck. He didn't cringe when she came too close to the shoulder.

  At first she just concentrated on her driving and they passed the time in silences except when Dev gave her directions or made a comment. But then her confidence grew and she started asking him questions.

  He told her about growing up in Omaha with just a hint of the West in the air, about how he'd always wanted more, about how he spent summers on his uncle's small ranch in Colorado and fell in love with horses and rodeo. He told her that he'd wanted to leave right after high school and join the circuit, but his doctor father had insisted he get a degree before he did. So he got one. And someday he might go back and become a doctor. But that wasn't where he was now. It wasn't what he wanted. What he wanted was to rodeo. He smiled as he spoke about driving for hours and riding mere seconds. And he smiled when he told her about winning buckles and breaking ribs.

  She didn't imagine Chan would be that open with her if she traveled with him for a hundred years. Now if her mother and Dev had plotted to fix them up, she might consider it!

  But there was something else Dev wasn't telling her. Something that haunted him, that caused him to stop mid-sentence and stare off into space.

  Something about Lily? Madeleine wondered. Something that made the air thick between them. Whatever it was, Dev didn't talk about that.

  After they'd been driving for a couple of hours, Madeleine said, "Are you ready to go back?"

  "What do I have to get back for?" he said, and a sad, almost despairing look passed over his face. Then he shook himself out of it and smiled. "Let's drive into town. Get you around a little traffic."

  "Traffic?" Madeleine said doubtfully.

  "Gotta try it sometime."

  So she drove to town. They passed fairly close to the house on their way to the highway, and she glanced over as they went by, wondering where Chan was. Wherever he was, she thought, he was probably vastly relieved not to be with her.

  And she was glad not to be with him, too. She'd have felt more sure of herself if he hadn't apologized. She wasn't quite sure what to say to him since he had.

  She couldn't remember any man ever apologizing to her in all her twenty-six years. Malcolm and Douglas never had, even when they'd been wrong. And Scott? Her mouth lifted in a wry smile. Scott had never been wrong. Just ask him.

  "What's funny?" Dev said.

  She shook her head. "Just thinking about a man I know who never did a thing to apologize for."

  "That's funny?"

  "No. It's stupid."

  "That's what I thought."

  Dev was silent a moment, staring out the window at the brown, rolling hills. Then he said, "Sometimes apologies don't do any good."

  Madeleine waited for him to amplify. He never did.

  Driving on the highway was a little nerve-racking. But in some ways it was easier since she didn't have to constantly shift.

  "You're doing great," Dev said. "Have you seen the ocean from up this way? You want to?"

  She nodded. They went. She drove them over winding, hilly roads, then out onto the freeway, then all the way down to Santa Barbara and parked near the harbor.

  "Hungry?" Dev asked her.

  "Oh, yes."

  They bought take-out fish-and-chips from a little shop on lower State, then walked back toward the harbor. The sun beat warm against her back, but the breeze was cool even in mid-afternoon. They walked out to look at the boats tied up at the docks. Fancy boats. Splashy boats. Incredibly expensive boats.

  "Did you ever wish you had a boat like that?" Madeleine asked him as they sat on the dock and dangled their legs over.

  Dev shook his head. "Just as well, too. I'd never be able to afford it on what I make riding bulls."

  "But someday, if you're a doctor…"

  "I won't be doing it for the money."

  And somehow she knew he wouldn't. "Will you specialize?"

  He shrugged. "Maybe. Reckon I'll try to stay in the West. Work around rodeo if I can. They can use it."

  "I imagine. When I saw Chan get kicked in the head—" She shuddered even now at the thought.

  "It can be bad," Dev agreed. "Most of the time it isn't. Most of the time you just get a scare. But…" He swallowed and stared off toward the horizon. "Did Chan tell you about John?"

  "Lily did." Madeleine pulled her knees up against her chest and wrapped her arms around them. "She said be died in the rodeo at Reno two years ago."

  "It was one of those freak things. John was one of the best. He thought like a bull, you know? Always knew what they were gonna do next. And he was quick as lightning. You always felt safer when John was out there for you." He chewed on his lower lip.

  Madeleine waited, not saying anything.

  "He was out there all week at Reno," Dev said in a low voice. "Then on Thursday he twisted his knee gettin' out of the way once. No big deal, he said. Hell, gettin' wracked up is part of the job. He went back out on Friday. No problem. Until the last." His voice roughened slightly. "The last rider made the buzzer, but when he tried to jump clear, his hand got hung up in his rope. John and the other clown were tryin' to get him free." He paused and ran his tongue over his lips.

  Madeleine waited. She watched a seagull strut past.

  "John slipped. His knee gave out, I guess. That's what the doc thought, anyway. On the videos you could see it buckle. When he fell, the bull caught him from behind."

  Dev leaned back, propping himself up with his hands braced behind him, his face lifted toward the sky. He swallowed again. "He just … just nailed John with his horn. And that was it. He bled to death before we got him out of the arena."

  "Dear God," Madeleine whispered.

  "The bull rider who got hung up…" Dev said. "It was me."

  * * *

  By noon Chan was pacing around the kitchen, pouring himself coffee, gulping it, dumping the rest down the sink, pouring more.

  By one he was going out on the porch and scanning the road as far as he could see.

  By two Lily said, "Why don't you drive out and look for them if you're so worried. I told you I saw them go past an hour or so ago."

  "Headed which way?" Chan demanded.

  "Toward town."

>   He grumbled. But he didn't go look for them.

  By three he was considering it. He needed to do something. Anything. He didn't like standing around, worrying, waiting.

  Were they in a ditch somewhere? In a head-on? Dead?

  All terrible possibilities.

  But another possibility occurred to him too, one that he found he didn't like much better. Maybe she was interested in Dev.

  It sure as hell looked like it at six o'clock that evening when they finally drove into the yard. Dev wasn't sitting clear over next to the passenger door of Dan's truck. And Madeleine was laughing at something he was saying.

  Chan stood on the porch watching them, grinding his teeth and trying to think of something cool and polite and detached to say.

  He said, "Where the hell have you been?"

  * * *

  "Can you pass it?"

  "I hope so."

  "Because if you can't you're history."

  "I know that."

  "Well, good, because I would have taken you out driving yesterday, if you and Dev had ever come back."

  "Which is exactly why we didn't come back," Madeleine said. They were sitting in Dan's truck across from the driver's license bureau. She was wedged against the passenger door. He was as far left as it was possible to be. "I didn't want to come back," she said. "You would have yelled at me."

  "I never yelled at you." He paused. "Much. Besides I apologized."

  "And then you yelled at me again yesterday evening when Dev and I came back."

  "Because you'd been gone the whole damned day! I thought you were dead."

  "So you yelled? I would have thought you'd rejoice."

  "Maybe I should have," he said tightly. He yanked the keys out of the ignition and slapped them in her hand. "Go to it," and he got out and walked toward the café down the street.

  Madeleine watched him go, confused. She weighed the truck keys in her hand and considered flunking the test. She might, anyway, though Dev had really done a good job with her yesterday. She didn't jerk when she started now. She shifted smoothly. She used her mirrors. She could even, after a fashion, parallel park.

  Unless the testing official asked her to do something she hadn't even thought of, or unless she had a complete blackout, she thought she stood a good chance of passing.