Belonging to Bandera by Tina Leonard

opened her mouth a loud splash near the pier stopped her. Bandera sat up, swiping his hat off his face just in time to see Mimi walking to her truck as Mason swam toward shore.

Chapter Seven
    Bandera sighed as he watched his brother hit the creek-bank and head off after Mimi. “You see how it is.”
    Holly nodded. “Crazy.”
    “Yeah.” He wanted to lie back down in the boat and relax, but at this point he knew he was too tense to do it. No doubt Mason had gotten his just desserts, and Mimi was always willing to ladle out those desserts with an extra-large spoon. “He probably said something stupid.”
    “Like he didn’t believe in marriage. I thought that was sort of unwise when he said it in the truck,” Holly murmured.
    “This from the bride on the run?”
    “Would you stop saying that?” She stared at him crossly. “All parties concerned are happy with the way matters worked out.”
    “Even you.”
    “Well, I wouldn’t be sitting in a canoe if mattershad gone as planned, which tells me that even the best wedding planners can’t control every detail.”
    “There are always random occurrences.” He thought about that for a moment. “As I said, I have always liked random.”
    “Would you like it in your wedding?”
    “I don’t know. There was a time, when Mimi got married and the minister asked if anybody had any objections…” He stopped and looked at Holly, knowing she’d probably not approve of what they’d done. “We actually took bets on whether Mason would stop the wedding or not.”
    She shrugged. “Why would he?”
    “Because he cares about Mimi, but we didn’t know he was going to be such a stubborn ass about not admitting it at the time. We thought he was just shooting off his mouth.”
    “Hmm. Wonder what she came all the way out here to tell him?”
    “Probably nothing specific.” Bandera grabbed the paddle and began stroking.
    “No,” Holly said, “women do not drive a couple of hours to say nothing specific.”
    He shook his head. “She was on her way somewhere. This is just a pit stop.”
    Holly stared at him. He lowered the paddle. “What?”
    “You’re not really that dense, are you?”
    “I suppose I might be. You think she had an ulterior motive?”
    Holly laughed. “Bandera, I’ll make a bet with you, and this one’s safer than all of you betting on whether Mason would stop her wedding.”
    He perked up. “I like the sound of a friendly wager. What’s on the table?”
    “I bet you Mimi came out here with something really, really earth-shattering to tell Mason.”
    “I thought you’d already established that.”
    “No fair,” she said. “You weren’t certain she’d had an ulterior motive when she stopped here.”
    He put the paddle down, and now that they were safely hidden from the shore by trees, he took her hands and pulled her toward him. “Spell it out for me some more. I love to watch your lips when you talk. They’re so full. They enunciate so well.”
    She pushed him away when he would have stolen a kiss. “This is a serious wager, Bandera.”
    “Oh, sure, get serious on me now, when we’re in the middle of a creek, and there’s no one around, and I want you to kiss me to sweeten the wager.”
    “No sweetening. I haven’t even gotten to the wager yet.”
    “Hey!” Jellyfish called loudly across the water. He rang a dinner triangle noisily.
    “Wow,” Bandera said. “I think Jelly wants us to come eat.”
    “I am hungry,” Holly said. “I didn’t eat breakfast because I was nervous about getting married.”
    “And right you were to skip that meal,” he said happily. He called back to Jellyfish to tell him that they were coming back in. “Quick, wager me.”
    “All right. The bet is that Mimi drove all the way here because she has something really important to tell Mason. If I’m right, you have to…send me a postcard when you get to Alaska.”
    He frowned. “Did I say I was going to Alaska?”
    “You said you had to stay