“I’m your grandchild?”
“Of course you are, dear.” She slipped him another cookie. The child would probably have a stomachache for days. “Now that your papa and Miss Cochran are to be married, you inherit all of us.” She waved her hand around at Mitch who was dodging questions from Papa, Paul, Henry, and Ben. Only four-year-old Andrew seemed happy to eat as many candy canes as he could before Mama took notice.
Actually, Priscilla was quite happy with how Mitch was handling himself. Even her brothers were starting to look impressed. Papa still glowered.
Mama sat alongside Papa on the sofa and took his hand. “Dear, we knew one day Priscilla would fall in love and marry.”
“Yes, darlin’, but I expected it to happen under my nose so I could be sure there were no shenanigans going on.”
Mama leaned toward Papa and whispered in his ear. He grinned at her then pulled a serious face. “Never mind. That was different.”
Mama smoothed out her skirts and grinned back, a slight pink tinting her cheeks.
Well, then.
Mitch had been through some pretty tough spots in his life, but nothing had him sweating like the four Cochran males pelting him with questions. He should have guessed that a woman with four brothers and a highly respected father would be extremely protective of their women. He ran his finger inside his collar once more, wondering if he’d been crazy to extend the invitation to Priscilla’s family to come to Dogtown.
“Jesse, I think you’ve tortured this poor man long enough. It’s time to open Christmas presents.” Tori sat alongside her husband, bumping him with her hip to allow her enough room. He put his arm on her shoulders and tugged her close, giving her a kiss on the cheek.
Both Ian and Andrew raced to the tree where a stack of presents sat, most of them hauled into the house from the two cars the Cochran family had arrived in. Mitch was dying to ask to drive one of them, but he thought it would be a good idea to get on solid ground with the family before he began to ask for favors.
Everything he’d heard about Senator Cochran turned out to be true. He was a man to be respected and admired. If he hadn’t heard from his uncle about the senator’s background, he would never have guessed it. In fact, never would have believed it if it had come from anyone else.
He couldn’t be happier at how quickly Tori had accepted Ian and told him he was her grandchild now. His son could definitely benefit from some soft, female loving. Mitch tried to ignore the gaily wrapped presents from the Cochrans for Ian under the Christmas tree since he’d never mentioned a son in his wire to the senator. He was probably better off not knowing how his future father-in-law had gained that information. Or what else he’d learned.
Speaking of Senator Cochran, Mitch had a strong feeling he wouldn’t even get to kiss his fiancée as long as her family was around so a speedy wedding was definitely in order.
Priscilla told the story of her parents’ wedding, how her cousins Ellie and Rachel got her mama all ready for the event that she, apparently, wasn’t too happy about.
“That’s right,” the senator chimed in. “I ordered her to be ready to meet me at the church.”
Mitch sat up straight. “Wait a minute. Why did it work for you? When I tried to order Priscilla to marry me, she flat out refused.”
Jesse grinned. “Ah, well, we had a reason to make sure that wedding took place.”
“We do, too,” Mitch said. He realized his mistake the minute Priscilla turned beet red and her three brothers and father sat up straight. Why the hell hadn’t he keep his big mouth shut?
“Is that right?” Paul said.
Tori hopped up. “It’s getting late. and Priscilla and I have a wedding to plan.”
“Please stay at my house,” Mitch said, trying desperately to recover from his blunder. “I have three bedrooms.”
“Yes.” Jesse said as he stood. “However, Andrew and my wife will stay here with Priscilla to keep an eye on her, and my sons and I will stay at your house to keep an eye on you.”
The four men stood and pulled on the cuffs of their shirts and straightened their jackets, staring at Mitch the entire time. He wanted to face that mountain lion again. His chances of survival would have been better.
True to their word, the Cochran men never let Mitch out of their sight. Tori and Priscilla were holed up in her house doing whatever it was women did to plan a wedding. The few times he did see Priscilla—surrounded by her family—she positively glowed. Her mama had brought a wedding gown with her that she had managed to find in Guthrie on the very short notice she’d had.
He did finally get to drive one of the automobiles and promised himself a fancy motorcar would be his next big purchase. He’d learned that Jesse had his two vehicles loaded aboard the trains they took from Guthrie to Denver, and then drove the vehicles from Denver to Dogtown. No mail coach for them.
Once they were more relaxed, he found Priscilla’s papa and brothers to be very nice. Easygoing, staunch supporters of family. Only Ben seemed to have an interest in following Jesse’s footsteps into law. Once he finished college, he’d told Mitch, he was headed to law school. Paul was a pharmacist, and Henry was in medical school. They would certainly be excellent role models for Ian, who they’d taken under their wing.
Ian was in his glory with his new grandma and grandpa. And he’d taken over the supervision of Andrew while the ladies were busy. He seemed confused when Mitch explained to him that Andrew would be his uncle. But then he’d found when the Cochrans were around, confusion carried the day.
It was early on his wedding day, and Mitch was more nervous than he’d ever been in his life. Half the town had been invited,
Tori passing out invitations up and down the street. Everyone in Dogtown already loved her as much as they loved Priscilla.