Page 55 of A Surprise Wedding for the Cowboy

What was going on? Stephanie hadn’t spent much time with Bridget. The attorney seemed very intimidating, plus she’d pressured Tate to make Stephanie sign a prenuptial agreement. He’d refused.

That made Stephanie happy, because she wasn’t marrying him for his money. Had she really married him for love, though? Two months was too quick for that, though Tate told her he loved her often, and she didn’t completely disbelieve him. The other shoe was sure to fall at some point, but they’d work through it. She was determined to do her best to get through the inevitable hiccups they would face.

“Tate’s mom is staying with Jamie while you’re on your honeymoon? That’s great. She was his caregiver for months, right?”

“Yes. She’d had him for the weekend when his parents were killed back in November, and he stayed with her until Tate applied for guardianship in March, just before his grandfather summoned all of them to the ranch.”

“Summoned.” Carey laughed. “That word would have seemed so absurd to me before I met my father-in-law. Declan is the summoning kind, too.”

“Yes, he is.” Declan Cavanagh had changed a lot in the past year or two, so much he barely seemed like the same man who’d pushed two wives away — he was now reunited with wife number two — and drove his sons hard on their nearby cattle ranch. “Walter, Tate’s grandfather, expects to be obeyed with a click of their heels and a salute as though they’re all in the military or something.”

“Right! But underneath, even those gruff, testosterone-laden patriarchs are big softies.”

“I’ll tell Declan you said so.”

Carey chuckled. “He might even be okay with hearing it now. A couple of years ago? Not so much.” She leaned closer. “Where are you guys going for your honeymoon?”

“Tate won’t tell me.” Stephanie sighed. “I just know we’re catching a late afternoon flight to Seattle and spending the night there before continuing to our destination tomorrow.”

“Oooh, sounds dreamy.”

Everything Tate did was romantic. One day he’d wake up and realize his wife was too practical for their own good. That she was using him to get out of her own predicament. Actually, he already knew that and claimed to love her, anyway.

Tate Thomas Sullivan was an enigma, and he was coming toward her, holding Jamie’s hands outstretched. The little guy giggled and lunged off Tate’s shoulders and into her waiting arms.

Stephanie spun him around. She was going to miss the toddler this week.

Then Tate caught the two of them in his embrace and she melted against him. She needed to set aside her doubts and live in the moment. The moment, coming soon, when she and Tate would consummate their marriage and embark on their lifelong adventure.

No more overthinking everything. Not today. Not this week. Maybe… not ever again.

Chapter Eighteen

“I hope you’ve had a good honeymoon, Mrs. Sullivan.” Tate slipped his arm around her as he extended the handle on his carryon in the Missoula airport a week later.

Stephanie leaned into his embrace and sighed. “Do we have to come home?”

“I wish we didn’t.” He pressed a kiss to her temple. “If it weren’t for Jamie, I’d be tempted to play hooky for another week. Or longer.”

She straightened. “Right. Jamie. I’ve missed him. Wasn’t he so cute when we video-chatted?”

Tate chuckled. “He kept looking behind Mom’s phone for us. It will be good to be all settled in together as a family.” Even though it still felt wrong to hear Wally’s son call him dada. Would he ever get used to it?

“And you’ll be back in the office tomorrow?”

“Eight o’clock.”

She winced.

Tate didn’t dare tell her about the emails and messages he’d tried to ignore all week. Giving any of them a week off for a honeymoon hadn’t been in Grandfather’s Year One plans for the ranch, and definitely not so soon after their grand reopening weekend. Still, the old man seemed pretty pleased Tate had latched onto Stephanie. Was it only because that secured his hope for the next generation, both Jamie and — hopefully — more young ones?

Grandfather was hard to read, and maybe the cat-in-the-cream expression didn’t mean anything for the workings of Sullivan Enterprises.

They exited the airport into a toasty summer day with no ocean breeze to cut the heat. Another week in Fiji would have been amazing. They’d barely had time to relax and start the lifelong process of getting to know each other.

Maybe they could get away again sometime in winter when things at Sweet River Ranch had slowed back down and they’d absorbed their biggest lessons in preparation for the second year of operations.

Tate beeped to open the locks on the Lexus, and the tailgate rose. He slung their luggage inside and kissed Stephanie long and deep before opening the passenger door for her. Soon they were headed east toward the ranch.

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