Architect's Angel (Culpepper Cowboys Book 16) Read online

  “And wouldn’t that be a silly idea,” she said, stilted and totally unconvincing.

  Arch snuck another look at her. His eyes were filled with questioning. So much so that Tabby’s heart sped up. What if they did decide to stay married? It wouldn’t be so bad, would it?

  “Yeah.” Arch breathed out a laugh, as unconvincing as she’d been. “Silly.”

  But Tabby could tell that neither of them were all that sure anymore.

  New Year’s Eve morning dawned bright and crisp, with sunny skies and just a touch of frost covering last week’s remaining snow. Culpepper was off to a lazy start to the last day of the year, but more importantly, the street where Sly and Rachel had their house was quiet and deserted.

  “Did you load the CO2 cartridge correctly?” Tabby whispered as she and Arch crouched by the front of his truck, parked in front of Sly’s house along with their siblings’ vehicles.

  “Yes,” Arch whispered back. “And the confetti cartridge. I followed the directions to the letter.”

  “Mr. Confetti Cannon Salesman would be proud,” Tabby giggled.

  Arch broke down into a chuckle too. The ride home from Rock Springs had been awkward and filled with layer after layer of emotion that he wasn’t ready to deal with, let alone talk about. But once they’d arrived back at Tabby’s apartment, things had smoothed out. They’d pored over the instructions for the cannon all evening, winning back their laughter.

  And then she’d cooked him supper and he’d stayed overnight, sleeping on her couch. He wasn’t sure why he’d done it, only that it hadn’t felt right to go. He’d told Tabby it was because their prank needed to be pulled so early that it didn’t make sense for him to drive all the way home and back again a few hours later.

  That’s what he’d told her, at least.

  “Are they all inside?” Tabby asked, bringing him back to the present.

  Arch peeked around his truck’s front bumper at the front door. The lights were on, but it was hard to tell just from looking through the windows if they were all inside.

  “I guess they are. Everyone’s cars are here,” he said.

  “Should we do it, then?”

  Tabby glanced to him. He looked right back at her. She really was pretty in the frosty morning light. She wore her thick, puffy parka, a knit hat pulled down low over her ears, and a hand-knit scarf wound around her neck. Her cheeks were almost painfully red from the cold, and he detected a teensy drip about to fall from her nose, but she still had him turned on like a Christmas lights display. How had he gone so long without letting himself see how wonderful she was?

  “We should absolutely do it,” he said. There was a roughness in his voice that almost made it sound like he was talking about something else.

  She paused, the flash in her eyes too deep for a simple prank. Her gaze focused on his lips for a second, which wasn’t great since he could feel how chapped with the cold they were. In fact, he probably looked as much of a wreck as any guy would early in the morning after sleeping on someone’s couch. Tabby didn’t seem to care.

  “Okay,” she whispered at last. “Let’s do it.” Her expression flashed to mischief, and Arch’s heart skipped a beat.

  They launched into action. Arch hoisted the heavy confetti cannon into his arms and rushed with her around the front of the truck and onto the front path leading to Sly’s front door.

  “The manual says it fires up to thirty-five feet,” Tabby hissed instructions as they figured out how to set the contraption in place. “So we don’t want to get too close.”

  “Wouldn’t want to hurt anybody,” Arch agreed.

  “But we want to make sure the glitter and confetti get into the house.”

  They decided on a spot about ten feet from the door and went to work positioning the cannon and doing a few final checks. When they were both satisfied that everything was in order, they stood, flanking the cannon.

  “Well,” Arch said, “here we go.”

  “Yep,” Tabby replied. “The big prank. Once we pull this, we can figure out who actually has the marriage license and get all of this over with.”

  Neither of them said anything else. Neither of them moved. A heavy ache filled Arch’s gut. After the glitter bomb went off, all they had to do was track down the marriage license and destroy it, and they wouldn’t be married anymore. They could go their separate ways, back to their regular lives. It was what they both wanted…wasn’t it?

  “You know—”

  “I was just thinking—”

  They spoke at the same time, then stopped and broke into laughter. Tabby’s cheeks burned even brighter, and she glanced down, looking almost shy.

  “You first—”

  “After you—”

  Again, they spoke simultaneously. And again, they both burst into giggles, louder and longer this time. More than anything, Arch wanted to step over the cannon and draw her into his arms, hold her close, and kiss her until they both let go of their pride and came to their senses. It would be the easiest thing in the world to do. In fact, the way she tilted her face up to him now, lips soft and kissable, was like an invitation handed out on gilt-edged paper. He swayed closer to her.

  The front door swung open.

  “Are the two of you going to stand out there on the cold all morning,” Sly said, “or are you—”

  “Now!” Tabby shouted, jumping away with a squeal.

  Arch acted fast, flicking the switch on the remote control. With a hollow BOOM, the cannon exploded. Glittering, metallic confetti burst out of the end, blasting the house’s entryway. Sly had the good sense and fast reflexes to reel back when Tabby shouted, and the brunt of the glitter bomb went shooting straight into his front hall.

  A second later, Rachel screamed. That was followed by Elvie and Sammy bursting into laughter. Arch’s worry that someone could get hurt by the cannon blast vanished. He and Tabby rushed into the house.

  It was perfect. The entire front hallway was plastered in metallic confetti from floor to ceiling. Arch could see bits of it spilling into the kitchen on the right and the living room on the left, not to mention peppering the stairs leading to the second floor. Poor Rachel stood toward the back of the hall, looking as though she’d fallen into a vat of glitter. She blinked rapidly and held her silvery arms out to her sides. Her bathrobe would never be the same.

  Elvie and Sammy were peeking into the hall from the den at the back, while Evan, Doc, and Nancy hurried forward to see what had happened. Sly had dodged most of the confetti by hiding behind the front door, but he didn’t escape it all. And to top it all off, the breeze blowing in from outside continued to swirl confetti everywhere.

  “Think you can trick us into getting married, do you?” Tabby burst into the speech they’d spent half the night preparing.

  “Well, think again,” Arch added his part. “This is what you get when the two of us work together.”

  “You’ll be cleaning this up for years,” Tabby said, then burst into laughter. She topped that off by turning to Arch and raising her hand for a high five.

  Arch, of course, couldn’t resist. Their hands met in a triumphant smack, and the two of them turned to face their siblings, glittered and unglittered alike.

  There was a moment of stunned silence, eyes wide and brows raised. Then all of them, Rachel included, burst into laughter. Sly shut the door, keeping out the cold.

  “You two are ridiculous,” he chuckled.

  A warning tickle began to form in Arch’s chest.

  “What are you talking about?” Tabby asked.

  “The two of you,” Sammy added. She and Elvie came forward to help Rachel brush off confetti.

  “We did you the best favor anyone has ever done you,” Elvie said.

  Arch frowned. That was not the reaction he wanted to the prank. “The only thing you did was force us into something we didn’t want.”

  “Yeah,” Tabby seconded him.

  The others just continued to laugh.

  “Look
at the two of you,” Sly said, stepping forward to help his wife. Doc and Nancy jumped into action too, disappearing, then returning to the hall with brooms and dustpans. “I’ve never seen the two of you smiling so hard.”

  “I’ve never seen you happier,” Sammy told Tabby directly.

  “That’s not…you can’t just…no way,” Tabby protested.

  “I’ve got fifty bucks that says the two of you never even try to undo your marriage,” Elvie said.

  “Then you’re going to be out fifty bucks, sis,” Arch told her. “Because as soon as we’re done here, we’re heading to Haskell to get the license back from Tabby’s dad.”

  “If he’ll even give it to you,” Sammy said.

  Tabby perked up. “So Dad does have it.”

  “Yes,” Sammy admitted with a shrug. “But he’s got it in a safe place.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Arch frowned.

  “It means he hasn’t filed it yet,” Tabby said, her face alight as if she’d figured out a mystery.

  “He hasn’t,” Sammy admitted. “But he’s planning to file it as soon as he talks to you.”

  “Well, what’s he waiting for?” Tabby asked.

  “For you to show up in Haskell.”

  “Yeah,” Sly answered. “Frankly, the fact that you didn’t rush over there immediately after the wedding is proof enough that you’re never going to go through with not going through with it.”

  The weird feeling in Arch’s gut began to spread to prickles down his back. “We are so going to not…going to go through with…not going to go through not going through…”

  “Stop babbling, honey.” Tabby cut him off, or rather rescued him, batting her lashes at him. “We’re going to prove to these people that they can’t just set us up and expect us to go along quietly. We’ve got a date in Haskell.” She grabbed his hand and started for the door.

  “See,” Elvie called after them. “The two of you can’t even hatch a plot to get unmarried without acting all cute and together.”

  “That’s what you think,” Arch called to his sister over his shoulder as Tabby tugged him to the door. “Next time you see us, we will officially not be Mr. And Mrs. Arch O’Donnell.”

  “Puh-lease,” Elvie said. “Next time we see you, you’ll probably already be expecting Archie, Jr.”

  At that thought, Arch might as well have walked into the door Tabby opened, instead of through it. Archie, Jr. Or Little Tabby. Or half a dozen other little tikes. The possibilities were endless. And he would be a good father, a much better father than his had been. His children would grow up happy and healthy. They could rely on their parents for help and support, not have to go it alone. He had all of that right within his grasp.

  “We’ll see who’s right in the end,” he shouted back to Elvie and the others as he and Tabby bent to gather up the confetti cannon.

  And as much as he knew his words were true, he wasn’t so sure that he was right.

  Chapter 8

  Tabby was restless for the entire drive to Haskell, even though it wasn’t that long. Pranking Sammy and Arch’s siblings had been more fun than she’d had in a long time. But part of her couldn’t help but wonder if the fun was the prank itself or the time she and Arch had spent together planning and executing it.

  “You know….” She stopped, staring out the windshield of Arch’s truck as he turned off the highway and onto the road that led to downtown Haskell.

  “What?” Arch asked when she didn’t go on.

  She’d been about to say that they should plan something else together. Maybe not a prank, but something. A charity event would be nice. She’d been about to say that the two of them worked really well together.

  Arch continued to drive, attention darting back and forth between the road and her, waiting for her to go on.

  Tabby couldn’t bring herself to finish her thoughts aloud. Arch would probably think she was weak for going back on her promise to not let their siblings get the better of them. He’d think she was caving in. But really, she wondered, would it be so bad to cave in to this?

  “When was the last time you visited Haskell?” she asked instead.

  Arch shrugged. “A couple years ago, probably.” His shoulders relaxed, as if he’d been expecting her to say something he didn’t want to hear.

  Tabby latched onto that moment of relaxation. “Have you seen everything they’ve built for this new Paradise Space Flight company?”

  “No.” A grin spread across Arch’s face, and he glanced out the windows, looking for signs of the new construction.

  “Over there.” Tabby pointed out the windshield and a little to the right.

  The heart of Haskell was about three lights down. A few of the historic buildings—The Cattleman Hotel, the old town hall, and a corner of the original bank—were visible beyond a century’s-worth of newer buildings. Beyond that were more buildings of various ages. The original church and school were hidden behind newer shops and houses. But beyond that, rising up and glittering in the sunlight, was a brand new, five story, glass office building.

  “Oh, man,” Arch hissed when he realized what he was seeing. “Who on earth built that atrocity right in the center of a cozy little town like Haskell?”

  Tabby laughed. “Howard Franklin Haskell IV, that’s who.”

  “But it’s totally the wrong style for the rest of the town’s architecture,” Arch went on as they drove closer. He screwed up his face in a look of disgust. “Why?”

  “Apparently, because Mr. Haskell saw the design in a magazine about top businesses on the west coast and decided he needed something by the same designer.” Tabby paused and turned to Arch. “He should have asked you.”

  “Yeah, well if he’d asked me, I would have told him to go with nineteenth century revival to match the rest of the town.”

  Arch had a point. Aside from the new headquarters for Paradise Space Flight, the town of Haskell had an aesthetic blend of late nineteenth and early twentieth century style. The roads in the central portion of town were blocked off, so Tabby and Arch had to drive the long way around to get to the far side, where Tabby’s father’s house stood. Most of the original buildings had been preserved and maintained, including almost all the mid-nineteenth century houses.

  Haskell, like many other frontier towns, had originally consisted of a Main Street lined with businesses, two perpendicular streets at either end with more businesses, and a tiny handful of offshoot streets where houses stood. The old railroad line had run parallel to Station Street, on the south end of Main Street, and the higher end businesses and hotels had been along Elizabeth Street, north of Main Street. But in the 1880s, the land on the south side of the railroad tracks had been built up by a firm called King Cole Construction. Most of the new businesses that had flooded into town in the last two decades of the century had gone up on that side of the tracks, leaving almost all of the area on the north side to develop into residential areas, except for Main Street.

  The twentieth century had seen more exponential growth as Howard Franklin Haskell I, son of Franklin Haskell, who himself was the son of the town’s founder, Howard Haskell, doubled the family’s ranching money and reinvested it in steel and railroads. The second Howard Franklin Haskell had doubled the fortune again, as had the third. Now, Howie Four, as he liked to be called, was attempting to double the fortune again, like his predecessors had done. And he planned to do it by creating a private space flight company that would, if all went well, build commercial satellites and vehicles that could carry passengers and supplies to the International Space Station or whatever other stations people like NASA would think up in the twenty-first century. Only, unlike his namesakes, Howie Four evidently didn’t have the aesthetic eye that had kept Haskell looking cute as a button.

  “I don’t like to call any building a monstrosity,” Arch said as he parked his truck on the curb outside of Tabby’s father’s house, “but it’s like you can’t avoid that thing, no matter where you go.”<
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  Sure enough, the Paradise Space Flight building was equally as visible from the neatly landscaped, residential neighborhood on the west side of town as it had been from the highway side of town. Although now that Tabby could get out of the truck and look closer, she saw a whole team of workers swarming on top of the building and even suspended on the side of it.

  “What are they doing?” she wondered aloud.

  Arch came to stand beside her and raised a hand to shield his eyes. “Looks like they’re setting up some sort of decoration.”

  As interesting as that activity was, Arch standing beside her was what drew in her attention. He was a big, powerful presence at her side. And even though it was freezing, she was certain she could feel his heat. Either that or his closeness made her warm.

  She wasn’t quite ready to think about that, so instead she cleared her throat and turned away from the glittering, glass monstrosity. “Let’s go inside.”

  “Yeah.” Arch lowered his hand, following Tabby up the front path to the door, a pinched, revolted look still on his face. “I just can’t believe they would do that,” he muttered.

  Tabby rang the front doorbell, then stepped back. Arch didn’t get out of the way in time, and she bumped right into him. On instinct, he caught her and held her so that she could stabilize. Only, stable was the last thing that Tabby felt. In fact, her world seemed to tip even more with the strength of him holding her up. It would be so easy to lean into him, to let him support her. And she could support him just as much too. After that story about his parents way back during their senior year… She still wasn’t sure she understood that whole thing, but maybe…

  “Are you sure he’s home?”

  Arch’s question—and his gruff tone of voice—shook her out of those thoughts. Tabby turned back toward the front door. It never took her dad that long to answer. She frowned. “His car isn’t in the driveway, but I just assumed it was in the garage.”