Country Bride: Country Bride / Woodrose Mountain. RaeAnne Thayne

look he’d been wearing a moment earlier. Kate couldn’t ignore it any longer. “Luke, please, tell me what’s bothering you.”

      “What makes you think anything is?”

      “You don’t seem yourself tonight.” Something in his voice puzzled her. A reserved quality. It was as if he was distancing himself from her and that was baffling. After Clay’s wedding, Luke had actually insisted they get married, and now he was treating her like some casual acquaintance.

      Kate took another sip of coffee while she collected her thoughts. Luke was sitting as far away from her as he could. His shoulders were stiff and his dark eyes a shade more intense than usual. Gone was the laughing devilry she adored.

      “I’ll be out of town for a few days next week,” he said abruptly. “I’m hoping to pick up a few pieces of new equipment from a wholesaler in New Mexico.”

      “When will the bank close the deal on the ranch?”

      Luke paused and his eyes pinned hers. “Your father and I signed all the papers the day before he married Dorothea Murphy.”

      Kate felt like bolting from her chair, the shock was so great. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she demanded, her heart racing. “Why didn’t my father? I shouldn’t even be here now. This is your home. Yours. Bought and paid for and—”

      “Kate.” He set his mug aside and wearily rubbed the back of his neck. “You’re welcome to stay as long as you need. If you insist on leaving, that’s fine, too, but there’s no rush.”

      She brought her hands to her cheeks, which were feverishly hot one minute, numb and cold the next. “I’ll be out as...as soon as I can find someplace to move.”

      “Kate, for heaven’s sake, why do you persist in being so stubborn?”

      She shook her head, hardly understanding it herself. All she knew was that this house, which had been a part of her from the time she was born, no longer belonged to her family. Despite everything Luke said, she couldn’t stay on at the Circle L, and she had nowhere else to go.

Eight

      Kate had just finished correcting a pile of math papers when her friend Linda Hutton entered her classroom. Linda’s third-grade class had been on a field trip and the two friends had missed talking at lunchtime.

      “Hi,” Kate said, smiling up at her. “How’d the tour of the jail and fire station go?”

      Linda pulled up a child-size chair and sank down on it, then started massaging her temples with her fingertips. “Don’t ask. By noon I was ready to lock up the entire third-grade class and lose the key.”

      “It certainly was quiet around school.”

      Linda gave a soft snicker. “Listen, I didn’t come in here to learn what a peaceful day you had. The only reason I’m not home in bed curled up with aspirin and a hot-water bottle is so I can tell you I was at Garner Feed and Supply yesterday afternoon.”

      “Oh?”

      “Yes, and you aren’t going to like what happened. While I was there, Mr. Garner asked me if I wanted to place a wager on the Rivers-Logan wedding.”

      Kate’s heart stopped cold. “He didn’t!”

      “I’m afraid so.”

      “But Luke told me he’d taken care of the problem. He said it was a dead issue and I shouldn’t worry about it anymore.” It wasn’t like Luke to make careless promises.

      “I wish I didn’t have to tell you this,” Linda said, with a sympathetic sigh.

      “But Luke told me he’d personally talked to Fred Garner.”

      “He did. Mr. Garner made a point of telling me that, too,” Linda confirmed. “He claimed Luke was hotter than a Mexican chili pepper. Said Luke came into his place, ranted and raved and threatened him within an inch of his life. But, Kate, the whole time old Garner was talking to me, he wore a grin so wide I could’ve driven a Jeep through it.”

      Kate sagged against the back of her chair.

      “Then Garner told me that the harder a man fights marriage, the faster he falls. Apparently he’s taking bets from as far away as Riversdale and south.”

      Kate pressed a hand over her eyes. “What am I going to do now?”

      Linda shook her head. “I don’t know. At least Garner’s taken it off the blackboard, but when I said something about that, he told me he had to, since half the county wants in on the action. It seems the betting outgrew his blackboard space.”

      “If nothing else, it proves how desperate this community is for entertainment,” Kate muttered. “If the good people of Nightingale have nothing better to do than waste their time and money on something as silly as this, then it’s a sad commentary on our lives here.”

      Kate’s friend cleared her throat and looked suspiciously guilty.

      Kate hesitated, studying Linda. No, she told herself. Not Linda. Her closest childhood friend wouldn’t place a wager. Her expression confirmed that she would.

      “You chose a date yourself, didn’t you?” Kate demanded.

      Linda’s gaze darted all over the room, avoiding Kate’s completely.

      “You did, didn’t you?” Kate exclaimed.

      Linda’s fingers were curling and uncurling in her lap. “You’re my oldest, dearest friend. How could I ever do anything like that?” she wailed.

      “I don’t know, Linda. You tell me.”

      “All right, all right,” Linda confessed. “I did put a wager on June. The first part of summer is such a lovely time of year for a wedding....”

      “I can’t believe I’m hearing this.” Kate had the sinking suspicion that her father had probably gotten in on the action, too, before he left on his honeymoon.

      “I had no intention of betting,” Linda hurried to explain. “In fact I never would have, but the odds were so good for June. For a five-dollar bet, I could collect as much as five hundred if you were to marry around the middle of the month—say the sixteenth. It’s a Saturday. Weekends are always best for weddings, don’t you think?”

      Kate wasn’t about to answer that. “You know, I suspect this whole thing is illegal. Each and every one of you should thank your lucky stars I don’t call the sheriff.”

      “He’s betting himself—on March. Said his own wedding anniversary is March tenth and he thinks Luke will be able to persuade you early in the spring. According to Fred, the sheriff figures that once Luke gets you to agree, he won’t wait around for a big wedding. He’ll want to marry you before you can change your mind.”

      Kate sent her a furious look. “If you’re telling me this to amuse me, you’ve failed miserably.”

      “I’m sorry, Kate, I really am. The only reason I went into the feed store was so I could assure you the whole betting thing was over, but I can’t and—”

      “Instead you placed a bet of your own.”

      “I feel guilty about that,” Linda admitted, her voice subdued.

      “Why don’t we both forget it and concentrate on the Thanksgiving play?” Instead of upsetting herself with more talk of this wedding lottery, Kate preferred to do something constructive with her time.

      “I might be able to make it up to you, though,” Linda murmured, fussing with the cuffs of her long-sleeved blouse.

      “Whatever it is will have to be good.”

      “It is.” Linda brightened and pulled a slip of paper from her purse. “I got this information from a friend of a friend,