The plan he and Cisco Kidd had executed hadn’t been perfect, Montana multimillionaire Max McKendrick decided as he stroked the long Lone Star handles of his snowy white mustache. But the act of faking his own death and putting out an eccentric videotaped will had worked in reuniting his three heirs with the loves of their lives. And now five hundred of the most influential people in the West were here to celebrate the triple nuptials right along with him and the rest of the Silver Spur Ranch cowboys.
There were only two things wrong with this picture, Max decided as he surveyed the guests whooping, hollering and kicking up their heels in the festively decorated meadow. Pearl Pendergraph, the owner of the local diner and his lady friend from way back, was still ticked off as heck at him for not confiding his grand matchmaking plans in her, too. And Cisco Kidd, his unofficial “son,” was still alone.
Max figured Pearl would get around to forgiving him in time, ‘cause he sure as shootin’ couldn’t imagine his life without her. As for the protégé he had picked up off the mean streets of Butte years ago, brought to the ranch and taken under his wing…well, that was going to be a far sight trickier, Max thought as he downed a shot of whiskey and studied the smart, capable Montana attorney from a distance. Although equally at home in a courtroom or on the ranch, Cisco Kidd had lived a solitary and pricey bachelor’s life in town for far too long now. Whether he realized it or not, Cisco needed a woman in his life, ASAP. And, Max thought, grinning, as he began to put part two of his carefully conceived plan into action, he knew— even if Cisco didn’t yet—just who that woman should be.
“HONEY, I HATE TO BE the one to tell you, but your dress is buttoned wrong in the back.”
A self-conscious flush heated Gillian Taylor’s cheeks. “You’re kidding,” she murmured as Trace and Susannah McKendrick’s four rowdy boys went streaking past, shouting hello as they went. She’d baby-sat two of Susannah’s boys for years, the whole passel last night during one of the worst storms the area had seen in ages, then spent the day preparing food for the hired hands who’d cleaned up after the storm. She’d been so busy, she’d barely made it to the triple wedding on time, and now, after everyone had said their “I Do’s,” was still trying to catch her breath.
“Honey, I wish I was joshing you,” the owner of Fort Benton’s most popular diner said as. she motioned Gillian around.
The flush in Gillian’s cheeks deepened as she edged around as directed, practically knocking a vase of long-stemmed yellow roses off a table in the process. “How far off is it?” she asked, juggling a glass of champagne in one hand, and righting the cut-glass vase with the other.
“Well, lift up that gorgeous auburn hair of yours and let me see,” Pearl said, pausing to put her own glass aside. “You missed the buttonhole… one…two…three down from the top, and then it continues off all the way down past your waist. I’d say there are about, oh…fifteen or eighteen of those little buttons matched up wrong.”
Gillian moaned softly in distress, knowing her dress had been that way through the entire ceremony. “I knew I shouldn’t have dressed in such a hurry,” Gillian said, still cradling the weight of her wildly curly hair at the nape of her neck.
“Well, never mind that now. Just stand still and let me fix it for you. It’ll just take a minute for me to set these buttons to right.”
“Thanks, Pearl.” Gillian Taylor harnessed her considerable energy as she waited impatiently for Pearl to finish.
Sensing someone watching her, Gillian glanced up, then frowned all the more. That darn Cisco Kidd was staring at her again. She had to get out of here before he tried to talk to her. Fortunately there was a wealth of wedding guests between them, dressed in everything from buckskins and jeans to suits and ties. And all of them, it appeared, wanted to say hi to Cisco before he passed.
“Got dressed in a hurry this evening, hmm?” Pearl continued conversationally as she efficiently unbuttoned and rebuttoned her way down Gillian’s spine.
Becoming more impatient, Gillian blew out an exasperated breath. “Pearl, you would not believe the kind of day I’ve had.” And considering the way Max McKendrick’s attorney kept trying to approach her, Gillian thought as Cisco continued to close the distance between them, her evening did not look to get any better.
As soon as Gillian’s buttons were adjusted, she would say goodbye to the McKendricks and leave. Anything to avoid matching wits and words with Cisco Kidd.
Not that Cisco was bad to look at, especially this evening, with the Montana sun dropping slowly in the sky, giving everything a nice warm glow. Every time she had seen him before, he had been wearing one of his tailored Western business suits and string ties, his trademark bone-colored Stetson and his finely polished hand-crafted boots. Tonight’s suit was a dark midnight blue, the shirt a soft complementary medium blue. With the string tie held by a silver clasp around his neck, his cowboy hat tipped back on his head, the six-foot-one-inch, broad-shouldered, slim-hipped lawyer looked as brawny, handsome and rough around the edges as ever.
But as far as trusting him went…Never mind talking to him—that was out of the question, Gillian thought. For one thing, even his name sounded made up. For another, he was too darn nosy. And, worse yet, he was reputed to have as many secrets in his past as she did. Secrets no one but the wily old Max McKendrick had managed to unearth. No, Cisco was not the kind of man she wanted to get involved with, not on any level, Gillian decided firmly.
“Honey, your day can’t be any worse than mine,” Pearl lamented with an indignant sniff.
Gillian knew Pearl had reason to be upset. Max McKendrick, the eccentric millionaire rancher and Pearl’s longtime love, had been thought to be dead until just a little while ago. For nearly a week, Pearl had been in the dark along with everyone else, including Max’s niece and two nephews. To Pearl’s obvious chagrin, the only person who had known Max was still alive was his attorney, Cisco Kidd. And Cisco had not been talking.
Gillian sighed as Cisco abruptly said something to someone else and headed off in another direction, away from her. “At least we both made it to the wedding,” Gillian murmured to Pearl, thinking how glad she was to see the three couples united. Cody and Callie, and Josh and Patience, had married first. Susannah and Trace had arrived late, thinking they’d missed their deadline, imposed by Max McKendrick’s will, only to find out they’d never really been divorced! After everyone rejoiced, their four boys had stood up for them as they said their vows again.
Pearl sighed contentedly as she worked on the buttons. “It was pretty romantic, wasn’t it, seeing all three of Max’s heirs get hitched at one time.”
“That it was,” Gillian agreed softly. In fact it had been so romantic, it had made her wistful for a man— and an enduring love—of her own.
Abruptly Cisco reappeared at the edge of the crowd. He had a cool, determined look on his face and he was headed her way.
“Listen, Pearl.” Gillian tried to wrest free. “I think you’ve rebuttoned enough.”
“Nonsense, honey.” Pearl kept a firm grip on Gillian’s dress as she buttoned her way down Gillian’s spine. “I’m almost finished here—”
“I know, and thank you.” Gillian stepped sideways and tripped over the corner of a white folding chair as Cisco disappeared in the crowd of champagne-sipping revelers once again. “But really, I’ve got to go—” Quickly! Before Cisco could catch up with her and pester her with the questions she knew he’d been wanting to ask.
“Sure about that?” Cisco interjected, popping out around the corner of the party tent to join them. “After all, I wouldn’t want you to go around halfbuttoned on my account,” he drawled with a merry twinkle in his eyes.
Gillian flushed self-consciously. “You needn’t worry about that,” she said as she hitched in a tremulous breath.
“Good.” Cisco appreciatively eyed her long chiffon dress, with the femininely fitted bodice and demure lace collar, before languidly returning his gaze to her face. “‘Cause I’d hate to think of you catching cold.”
Not likely, with a hot-blooded man like Cisco around. “I don’t think we have to worry about that in this June heat,” Gillian said dryly. In fact, maybe it was the tiny bit of champagne she’d imbibed before Cisco caught up with her, but she was beginning to feel warm all over.
“Maybe not now, but when the sun goes down, you may need something—”
Or was it someone? Gillian wondered, reading the intense look of masculine interest in his boldly assessing silver-gray eyes.
“—to warm you.”
Irritated by the licentious direction of her thoughts—since when did she think of cuddling with a man she barely knew!—Gillian stiffened and folded her arms in front of her. “Thank you. I’ll manage.”
“I’m sure you will,” he agreed.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me—” Gillian continued in a low, harried voice.
“You know, Ms. Gillian, you keep this up and I’m going to get the idea you’re avoiding me.”
Gillian smiled at him sweetly. No doubt about it, this was one impossible man she was dealing with. “Why would you think that?” she asked.
Cisco shrugged his broad shoulders, but did not take his eyes from her face. “I don’t know,” he replied, his expression deadpan as he stroked his ruggedly handsome jaw. “Maybe it has something to do with the fact you never return my calls and always seem to disappear the instant you see me coming your way.”
So her elusiveness hadn’t been lost on him, she realized uncomfortably. “I’ve been busy,” she fibbed, knowing that wasn’t what had kept them apart at all.
“Hmm.” He studied her with a look that said he suspected she was in trouble, though he could not yet identify what kind.
It was all she could do not to fidget under his knowing look. Cisco was the kind of strong, quietly gallant man she’d always yearned to love. Allowing him to disarm and eventually protect her would be like falling into a thick down mattress at the end of a long day, and having been on the run for nigh on ten years now, the vulnerable part of Gillian longed to surrender herself accordingly. And had she not still had so much to hide, she might’ve thrown caution to the wind and done just that. But she did have a lot to hide, Gillian realized with a troubled sigh, not only from Cisco but from everyone on the ranch. So all she could do—for now, and for forever—was discourage him.
“You know, sooner or later you’re going to have to fess up,” Cisco taunted her in a low voice laced with the silky confidence of a man who always, always got his way. “So you might as well just tell me what’s got you running scared right now. ‘Cause it’s highly likely I can use my talents to help you find a legal way out of this jam you seem to be in.”
If only that were true, Gillian thought wistfully. But harsh experience had told her this was not so. This situation she was in could only be handled by putting it firmly behind her and forgetting about it, and that was just what she intended to do!
“You know, Cisco—” Gillian changed the subject stubbornly “—if I have been avoiding you, maybe there’s a message there.”
He grinned at her impudent manner. “One that cuts both ways?”
“Meaning?” Gillian goaded as their eyes clashed.
Cisco smiled and stepped forward so they were standing toe-to-toe. He brushed an errant strand of hair from her cheek and continued to hold her gaze. “That I can be every bit as persistent as you can be elusive. And when I think someone’s in trouble, not to mention too damn proud to ask for help when they need it, I gotta tell you, I hang in there like a dog on a bone.”
“It’s true,” Pearl admitted. “Cisco has quite a reputation—as both a Good Samaritan, and with damsels in distress. I don’t think there’s a woman who’s been hurting hereabouts who hasn’t cried on his big strong shoulders and benefited from his wealth of legal experience and expertise at least once.”
Unfortunately, Gillian could all too easily imagine not only herself, but a whole stable of other women doing just that!
“So if he’s right, honey,” Pearl continued, patting Gillian’s arm gently, “if you do need help—”
Gillian threw up her hands in exasperation. “I do not need help,” she stated unequivocally. Furthermore, she did not want to talk about this any longer!
Embarrassed color flowing hotly in her cheeks, Gillian pivoted away from Cisco and Pearl No sooner had she tried to dart past them, than Max McKendrick stepped into her path. The eccentric multimillionaire cowboy-businessman was larger than life and clad in fringed buckskins. And though he might have been as old as the hills, with a leathery suntanned face, he was still as strong as an ox and as sharp as a Montana hawk.
“Well, now, if it isn’t Gillian Taylor,” Max drawled, his silver spurs jangling as he swept off his Stetson to reveal his mane of snowy white hair and a grin as big as all Montana.
“You are just the woman I wanted to see,” Max announced, taking her gallantly by the arm. “‘Cause, darlin’, I’d like a word with you.” Max gestured to include his thirty-something attorney. “Cisco, you and Pearl mosey right along with us,” Max ordered implacably as he herded all three of them into a white parachute-silk wedding tent.
“Actually, this isn’t a good time for me,” Gillian said politely as soon as Max had released her.
“Going by past experience, it’s never a good time for you,” Cisco interrupted.
Max looked from one to the other and stroked his mustache. “I see you two have finally said your howdo’s,” Max remarked facetiously.
“Not really,” Gillian replied, beginning to get a very bad feeling about this.
“We’re in the process of getting acquainted,” Cisco offered.
Like heck they were, Gillian thought. In fact, if it hadn’t been for running into Max, her employer, she would already be long gone.
“I’m mighty glad to hear that,” Max said, rubbing his hands together as he regarded them with glee. “Because I have a surprise for each of you.”
Cisco Kidd could not imagine what that would be. Max McKendrick’s surprises were legendary for both their generosity and outrageous quality. “You don’t owe me anything, Max,” he told his friend and mentor meaningfully. Max had already given him more than enough, just by giving him a home and family and taking him under his wing all these many years.
Max’s leathery face broke into a wide grin. “Oh, I think I owe you quite a bit, Cisco,” he remarked with unexpected gentleness. “Without your assistance, I could never’ve managed to marry off all three of my brother’s children to the loves of their lives in one rootin’-tootin’ forty-eight-hour period.”
“They are happy, aren’t they?” Cisco noted, pleased with the way things had turned out.
Max nodded solemnly. “And you should be happy, too,” Max said.
Cisco did not trust the sudden mischievous twinkle in Max McKendrick’s eyes. It was the same twinkle the rambunctious old cowpoke got in his eyes when he’d talked about his matchmaking plans for Cody, Patience and Trace McKendrick. “What are you talking about?” Cisco demanded impatiently, bracing himself for the worst.
Max slapped his cowboy hat against his knee. “Romance, pure and simple.”
At the hint of matchmaking, Cisco noticed Gillian froze and paled considerably.
“There’s nothing simple about romance, Max,” Gillian interrupted, her thick-lashed emerald green eyes glinting emotionally. “There never has been and never will be.”
Ditto there, Cisco thought, agreeing wholeheartedly with the waif-size firebrand with the long, wildly curling auburn hair.
“Which is exactly why I’ve decided both of you need my help picking out a mate,” Max explained.
“Now hold on there a moment Max,” Cisco interrupted. He didn’t care if the thirty-year-old chef was pretty as could be, with her fair flawless skin, high cheekbones, pert turned-up nose and cover-girl smile. He did not want to be fixed up with anyone via one of Max’s grand plans.
“I found the perfect woman for you, Cisco,” Max continued. “And the perfect man for you, Gillian.”
“I know you may think you have,” Gillian sputtered, obviously incensed, the light dusting of pale auburn freckles across her nose standing out against the creamy porcelain of her skin. “But—”
“All you two have to do is agree to a few terms of mine to collect your inheritances and—”
“Inheritances!” Cisco interrupted disbelievingly. As Max’s attorney, he had drawn up Max’s will. He knew there was nothing in it for him or Gillian. Or at least there hadn’t been. And it hadn’t mattered to him. Not one whit It wasn’t money or property Cisco wanted from Max. It never had been. He’d thought Max understood that. “Listen to me, Max,” Cisco began, working hard to curtail his exasperation with the old man he loved. “You don’t need to give me anything—never mind pair me with anyone—when a simple thanks every now and again will do.”
“The same goes for me,” Gillian added hastily.
Max grinned wryly. “I’ll be the judge of what’s needed here, you two.”
Cisco regarded him in exasperation. “Max, like you, I’m quite happy being a bachelor. Always have been. Always will be.”
“And I like being single, too,” Gillian said passionately.
Max shrugged, unconcerned, and folded his brawny arms in front of him. “That’s what my nephew Cody said, and look at him now.”
Obviously, Cisco thought, now that Max was turning over most of his businesses to his heirs, and getting ready to retire, he had far too little to think about these days. “I don’t want to enter into a union that is destined to fail,” Cisco asserted bluntly.
Max grinned triumphantly. “Trace felt the same reservations about the idea of getting back together with Susannah. He had no faith my idea for fixing his love life would work. But he gave it a chance, and look at him now. Look at them all.”
“Susannah and Trace, Cody and Callie, and Patience and Josh are all deliriously happy with each other and their marriages,” Cisco agreed.
“But they all had a romantic past with each other,” Gillian pointed out, taking Cisco’s side. “We don’t”
Max grinned, like the wily old whippersnapper he was. “Then it’s, time we changed that, don’t you think?”
DECIDING THE WHOLE McKendrick clan needed to hear the rest, Max rounded them up and brought them inside the tent, too. With arms crossed, he waited until they were all settled in their white folding chairs. “Now, I’m sorry for the interruption, but seeing as how I needed Cisco’s help as both an attorney and a matchmaker’s assistant the last few days, I could not get to my bequest to him until now.” Max pulled up a chair, too, and straddled it backward. “You see, Gillian, I feel partly to blame for Cisco’s lack of a wife. I’ve kept him so busy on the ranch and in the various business deals I’ve got going on that Cisco here’s had no time for romance. But all that is about to change.”
“Look, Max,” Cisco said shortly as he tossed his hat down on a table and raked both hands through the slightly-too-long layers of his thick dark brown hair. “What you have done for Patience, Trace and Cody and their spouses is fine, but you don’t have to do the same for me,” Cisco emphasized bluntly. “I am, after all, only your attorney.”
“Don’t kid yourself, Cisco. You’ve been more than just my attorney for years now. You’ve become one of us McKendricks, heart and soul, and been like a son to me. That being the case, it’s only fair that I give you—and now Gillian, too—the same opportunity for happiness that I gave my other three heirs.”
Max held up a palm to keep them from interrupting. “‘Course, I realize your situation with Gillian is a mite different, but I can already see the sparks aflyin’ whenever the two of you look at each other— to the point I know you two are made for each other. So I have decided to lasso you two a chance, and give you two the same forty-eight-hour time period I gave the others for courtship. Only, yours is going to have a twist—”
“Oh, no,” Cody’s wife, Callie, muttered.
“Here it comes,” Cody agreed.
“I expect the two of you to be married during your courtship. And during this spur-of-the-moment matrimony of yours, the two of you will have to stick to each other like glue, with only three thirty-minute breaks apart. I figure at the end of that time, you’ll know in your hearts and souls what I already do— that the two of you are meant to be together for the long haul, too.”
“And if we don’t agree to this spur-of-the-moment marriage?” Gillian asked, stunned. “Then what?”
“Then I’m afraid the two of you are both going to have to forfeit your inheritances,” Max said, nodding at them sadly. “And that is an awful lot to give up. On the other hand, if you marry in the ceremony I have planned for you in just fifteen minutes, at the end of the forty-eight hours, Gillian will receive half ownership in the honeymoon cottage nestled in the trees at the foot of the Silver Ridge Mountains, as well as outright ownership of the Silver Spur logging camp kitchen and dining hall, with a lifelong contract with the ranch to expand her operation to supply meals for all the Silver Spur Ranch crews. Owning this business will give you the financial independence every woman should have,” Max said gently. “The cottage—a home.”
Neither of which, Gillian thought a tad wistfully, she’d had in a very long time.
“As for Cisco,” Max continued, his generosity seeming to have no bounds, “I intend for you to have sole ownership of all my land and businesses and residential properties in Fort Benton, as well as half ownership in the aforementioned honeymoon cottage at Silver Ridge, so that you too will always have a home on the Silver Spur.”
Gillian had only to slant a look at Cisco to know how he secretly longed to have just that.
Max continued in the same blunt, serious manner, “If, however, the two of you fail to meet the terms I am setting out for you, then you two will share a nontransferable ownership of the honeymoon cottage, but each of you will forfeit the businesses I am leaving you and the security they would bring.” He smiled at them fondly. “In either case, the two of you will be bound together for all eternity through your joint ownership of the honeymoon cottage.”
As lovable and outlandish as Max McKendrick was, he was taking far too much for granted, Gillian thought. Especially in pressing them to get married, just fifteen minutes from now! She leaned forward earnestly. “Max, I know what you’ve done for your niece and nephews and their respective spouses is nothing short of a miracle. And believe me, no one admires your ability to work matchmaking magic more than me,” she said softly as she pressed a hand over her heart. “But Cisco and I do not fall into the same category as the others.”
“Gillian’s right, Max,” Cisco agreed hastily. “No one appreciates more than I the fact that you’re treating me like a member of the family, but Gillian and I can’t just get married in fifteen minutes. There are blood tests and waiting periods and licenses to consider—”
“Doc’s standing by with the results of the blood tests from the ranch physicals the two of you recently took, and I’ve been told they’ll do just fine. There’s a court clerk here ready to issue the license, and the usual waiting time has been-waived.” Max regarded them, looking very proud of himself. “Anything else bothering the two of you?”
“Yes. We can’t stay together for forty-eight hours because we each have to work.” Gillian said.
Again, Max smiled in that you-don’t-need-to-worry way. “I’ve prearranged for you both to get time off from work. Gillian, we’ve got a substitute chef coming in from Butte, starting with the Monday-morning shift. You don’t have to worry about tomorrow, ‘cause the kitchen’s always closed on Sundays anyway. Cisco, your secretary is taking a vacation and attorney Roy McNamara is going to handle anything needing immediate attention, in your absence. So the two of you are all set in that regard, too.”
“Seems like Uncle Max has thought of everything,” Patience McKendrick commented to Cisco.
“Why am I not surprised?” Cisco muttered, looking every bit as angst-ridden as the rest of his unofficial siblings had been when they’d been unexpectedly roped into Max’s matrimonial plans for them.
Max picked up on that, and addressed the issue. “Son, from the moment I met you I believed in you with all my heart, ‘cause I knew that you could do anything you set your mind to. I felt the same thing about Gillian.” Max held up a hand before either of them could interrupt. “Now, I know it’s not going to be easy. Just remember, wanting something is half the battle. Working for it, despite the often-powerful adversities you encounter, is the other half. So when you find happiness, as you two surely will, you need to forget your fears, forget all the reasons why you think this spur-of-the-moment marriage of yours won’t work, and reach out with both hands and grab the happiness that is waiting for you. I guarantee if the two of you listen to your hearts, you’ll know what to do. Now, Cisco, you get down on one knee and ask Gillian to marry you.”
Cisco looked at Gillian and knew there was no way she figured that he would do as Max bid. And he probably wouldn’t have, had he been paired with any woman but the elusive Gillian Taylor. Just to get her goat, he took her hand in his and got down on one knee. “Gillian, will you marry me?” he repeated drolly, as the entire McKendrick clan gasped and chortled and whooped with glee.
Gillian blinked, clearly stunned. “I can’t believe this,” she muttered, looking both confused and incensed. “You’re actually proposing?”
“Heck, yes,” Cisco acknowledged with mock indignity. “So what do you say?” he asked, bracing himself for the inevitable “No” from Gillian that would end this cockeyed matchmaking plan of Max’s once and for all.
Gillian smiled at Cisco ruefully and drew him up off his knees.
“I say…I accept.”