Always Dakota - Debbie Macomber [52]
“No.” He was adamant about that. His face softened and he offered her a second, tentative smile. “You’re all the woman I can handle.”
Slowly Margaret grinned. It could be a ploy to bolster her ego, and if so, it had worked. She felt better already. “I—I never knew I’d be a jealous wife.”
“You don’t need to be, I promise you that.”
She relaxed.
“Any more questions?” he asked.
“No.” She started toward the house, but a few feet away she turned back. “You don’t plan on seeing Sheryl again, do you?”
“No,” he said. “Not on purpose, anyway.”
“One more question.” She looked down, embarrassed to be asking it, but needing to be sure. “Am I really all the woman you can handle?”
He took his time answering. Meeting her eyes, he didn’t say anything for a long moment. “In all my life I’ve never had anyone believe in me the way you do. Without conditions. Without expectations. I figured I was lucky to marry you, but I had no idea how damn lucky.”
He didn’t kiss her, didn’t so much as touch her. Without another word, he returned to the truck and resumed his task.
Reassured, Margaret headed back to the house. Sadie was waiting in the kitchen. “Did he tell you about her?” the housekeeper demanded as soon as she hung up her coat and hat.
“This is between me and Matt,” Margaret told her, tired of the same old argument, resenting the housekeeper’s disapproval of her marriage.
“He’s playing you for a fool.” Sadie made a soft belligerent sound. “Mark my words, you’re going to rue the day you ever laid eyes on that man.”
Rachel and Heath were married in a private ceremony the third week of January. The reception that followed was in a posh Grand Forks hotel. Against the advice of her physician, Lily Quantrill attended both the wedding and the reception, looking frailer than Heath could remember.
The reception was well attended, with friends from Buffalo Valley as well as Grand Forks. The Sinclairs were there and Hassie Knight and the McKennas and more. Best of all, Rachel’s parents had flown in from Arizona. Heath divided his attention among his bride, his guests and his grandmother.
“I think it’s time you went back to the retirement center,” he told Lily, ready to call for the attendant. Heath didn’t want to make a fuss, but he was worried. Her health had declined rapidly in the past few weeks.
“Would you kindly allow me to make my own decisions?”
“Grandma…”
“What are you doing spending time with me, anyway? You have a bride.”
Heath glanced toward Rachel who stood in the center of a group of men, his business associates, completely winning them over. “She’ll have me the rest of my life,” he countered. But he didn’t know how much longer he’d have Lily.
“Before I go, there’s something I want to tell you,” Lily said.
Heath had to strain in order to hear her and crouched by her wheelchair so they could look eye to eye. “Then you’ll go back to the center and to bed?”
“You make me sound like a disobedient child,” she muttered, scowling at him.
It was a scowl he knew well. She’d been critical of him nearly his entire life. In his youth, Heath had watched his parents and brother kowtow to Lily Quantrill. He never had. He viewed her as cantankerous, opinionated and wonderful, but he’d always been his own person, even as a boy.
“What’s so important that you have to say it right now?” he asked.
Lily reached out and touched his cheek with an arthritic finger. “You always were my favorite.”
“Me!” The shock of it nearly bowled him over.
“You were the only one with enough grit to stand up to me.”
“That being the case, you might’ve occasionally let me win an argument.”
Lily’s face beamed. “You won your fair share.”
Heath had never thought of it that way.
“Rachel will make you a good wife.”
Heath smiled at his bride, loving her with an intensity he’d never known. “I think so, too.”
“I’m proud of you for not settling for second best.”
He’d been tempted a number of times to search out another woman, especially when it seemed Rachel wasn’t interested in