Montana Unbranded. Nadia Nichols
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Molly jumped up and grabbed her purse. “Come on, Joseph, we better hit the road. I told Steven I’d be home for supper.”
Joe cast his sister a questioning look, and Molly sighed. “I promise to tell you all about Luther Makes Elk on the way to Bozeman. Thanks again for everything, Dani. I’ll call you tonight.”
“You’d better,” Dani said. “In the meantime, don’t worry about your wedding gown. It’s going to be beautiful.”
“It’s not the gown I’m worried about,” Molly confided as they hugged goodbye.
“Everything will be fine,” Dani said.
Joe shook her hand once more upon leaving, and Dani watched them descend the porch steps and walk out to Molly’s red Mercedes.
She waved them out of sight, then closed the door and leaned against it with a sigh. Her hand was still tingling.
So that was Molly’s big brother, Joseph.
Wow.
* * *
JOE WATCHED THE scenic vistas roll past his window as Molly pulled onto the highway heading south toward Bozeman. Mountains loomed in every direction, walling off the horizons. He’d never been west of New York before and, as exhausted as he was, he found himself captivated. He also found himself wondering about Dani Jardine. Attorney, great photographer, down-to-earth and drop-dead gorgeous. What sort of man would walk out on a woman like that?
“You’re being mighty quiet for a Ferguson, Joseph,” Molly prodded after a while.
“Just thinking.”
After ten more minutes of silence his sister cast another sidelong glance and nodded sagely. “You’re thinking about Dani. It’s written all over your face.”
“Not me, baby sister. I swore off women after my divorce.”
“I might have believed that two hours ago, but Dani’s smart, beautiful and has a heart of gold. I don’t see how any red-blooded man could help falling in love with her, especially after she fed him lunch.” Her teasing smile faded and her face grew serious. “Why are you really here, Joseph? You didn’t come just to see me. You would’ve called first, and Mom would’ve told me you were coming when I spoke with her last night. She doesn’t even know you’re here, does she? Does this have anything to do with Marconi?”
He gave her a sharp look. “What do you know about it?”
“Honestly, I wasn’t born yesterday. There’s this thing called the internet. I have access to legal search engines, and I tend to dig a little deeper than your average newspaper reporter. And don’t forget, I grew up with some of your friends. Rico always gives me the straight scoop.”
“Do Mom and Dad know anything about Marconi?”
“If they do, they didn’t get it from me.” She cast him a curious glance. “What did you tell them?”
Joe shook his head. “Same thing the newspapers said, that I stumbled into the middle of a drug deal and stopped a few stray bullets.”
“Have they caught him yet?”
“Not yet, but they’ve got him cornered. It’s just a matter of time.”
“You think you’re safe here?”
“Marconi’s too busy running from the cops to be running after me. Nobody knows I’m here, and I traveled under a false name. The hospital’s keeping me on the patient list for the time being, stringing the press along with updates on my ‘guarded’ condition. I’m safe here.”
“But, Joseph, we’re talking the big time. Isn’t Marconi one of the biggest cheeses on the East Coast, and aren’t you the undercover cop and key witness whose testimony will be sending him to jail for a very long time when they catch him? Aren’t we talking witness protection plan here?”
Joe gazed out the window. He’d forgotten how annoying his baby sister could be. “Stop worrying about nothing and tell me about Luther Makes Elk and how he saved Steven’s life and why you’ve never told anyone in the family about this.”
She drove in stony silence for a few minutes before responding. “Luther’s a holy man and he’s Steven’s adopted grandfather and...” Molly blew out an exasperated breath. “I’ll do better than tell you about him. I’ll take you out there while you’re here and introduce you to him. And if we go this weekend we might even run into Dani. She always takes Luther something when she camps in the Arrow Roots.” Molly cast him a teasing glance. “Just so you know, I think it would be perfect to have Dani as my sister-in-law, and you’d make one cool cowboy.”
DANI LOVED THE utterly luxurious sensation of waking with a start, thinking she might have overslept and then realizing it was the weekend and she didn’t have to jump out of bed and get ready for work. It wasn’t that she didn’t like her job. Estate planning was okay. Predictable. No courtroom drama, but she liked the law firm she worked for and got along well with her coworkers. Still, she loved her days off better. Loved planning her weekend adventures. Loved having the dogs pad into the bedroom while the sunlight laid banners of warmth across the bed.
She pulled the goose-down duvet up to her chin and peered over the edge of the bed at her dogs and their questioning eyes. “Good morning, boys. No doubt you’re wondering why I’m lying here in bed when I should be up getting your breakfast, and no doubt you’re also wondering what’s on the docket today and what sort of grand adventures we’ll have. We haven’t been camping all winter, but I’m thinking today’s the day. It’s the end of May. The snow should be mostly gone in the mountains. We’ll hike up to the forest service camp and see if we can find Custer’s band.”
She stretched like a cat under the covers and reached a hand to stroke the pair of retrievers, who laid their blocky heads on the edge of her bed and wagged their tails in unison. “You miss Jack, don’t you?”
Their tails wagged faster at the mention of his name. She sighed. “I did, too, for a while, but I’m not sure why. He was hardly ever here. We were almost always alone, weren’t we? Nothing much has changed. It’s mainly been just the three of us since you were puppies. I know he really cared about you, and maybe he’ll come visit you some day. But I can love you and take care of you and take you camping, and that’ll just have to be enough.”
The dogs heaved simultaneous sighs and Dani heaved another of her own.
She’d stayed up past midnight last night, redesigning Molly’s wedding gown to compensate for the first trimester of her friend’s unexpected pregnancy, the inspiration for the new design having struck her after Molly left with her brother. She’d also thought about Molly’s brother a lot last night. Too much, truth be told, but it was the wedding gown that mattered, not Joe Ferguson. This would be no ordinary wedding gown. This was going to be a graceful sweep of elegance suitable for the red-haired Scots/Irish goddess who was marrying Steven Young Bear, the hard-hitting environmental attorney thought by many to be one of the rising stars in Montana’s political arena.
Molly’s gown had to be perfect. She wouldn’t let her best friend down on such an important day, but creating the perfect gown for the mother-to-be would require a big investment of time. This weekend’s excursion into the Arrow Roots to photograph the wild horses might be her last until after the June wedding. Which meant she shouldn’t be lying in bed, squandering one precious moment of this fine spring day.
Dani pushed out of bed, reached for her robe and wrapped it around her as she went downstairs to start the coffee. She’d lived in Helena for five years in this comfortable house, built in the late 1800s, with a big fenced yard for the dogs and only five miles from her office, but since Jack left she’d found herself wishing for a piece of land to call her own, large enough for a horse barn