Chasing McCree (28 page)

“
We have a team of lawyers
and financial advisors.”

“
And you support yourself
selling cattle?” my father was considering something. Maybe that
this might be a good for our family. If Chase had the right
connections, he might be persuaded.

“
No, the ranch makes enough
to support itself and the men we employ.” Chase said. “I don’t
actually live off the money.”

Now my father looked like he’d had
enough. He rubbed his hands together and sat forward. “Son, I’m not
sure you understand. You have to be getting money from somewhere to
live such a comfortable life. If not from the ranch, then
where?”

Now was when I wish I had a camera to
capture the looks on their faces.

“
I’m independently
wealthy.” Chase took the loveseat and I sat beside him, not taking
my eyes off my father.

He laughed, “That’s nice, but you can’t
support,” he glanced around the room, “this lifestyle forever.
Believe me, I know. Money has to come from somewhere.”

I glanced at Chase. “Should you tell
him, or should I?”

Chase smiled with a strained
politeness. “I love this ranch. It’s been in my family for over a
hundred years. But I could buy ten others like it and not feel any
financial strain.”

“
How?” my mother asked,
sitting next to my father.

“
Oil,” I said.

Dollar signs appeared in my parents’
eyes and Alex looked like he was going to crap himself.

“
My father’s uncle was a
Texas oil man. He left the ranch because he didn’t like it.” Chase
said. “And when he died the money was split between his favorite
niece and nephew, my father and his little sister Millie. When my
father died, his half of the money went to me.”

Forget dollar signs. My mom was picking
out my wedding dress and the venue in her head.

Good God, was money the only thing that
mattered to them?

“
Since we are considering
letting Briar stay with you…” dad made a choking sound and mom
hushed him. “We need to know your assets. Will you be able to
support her?”

Chase burst with laughter. “You want to
know how much I’m worth?”

“
Well, more or less.” My
dad smiled. “And I’d like to contact your lawyers for good
measure.”

He lifted a shoulder. “Around
four.”

My mother looked like she was going to
pee her Gucci pants. “Million?”

Chase cleared his throat and went a
little pink. “Uh, no. Billion.”

Dear God, why wasn’t I filming this? I
knew Chase was kind of, well, loaded, enough to make my parents
look like paupers. But a billionaire?

“
I just want to apologize
for the way I treated Briar.” Alex smiled.

“
Yeah, nothing you say is
going to help you. It’ll only make it worse.” Chase grinned and
looked at my dad. “Now, how can we settle this?”

I think my father was still processing
the fact that Chase was richer than he could comprehend. He
slouched back into the couch, stunned. “Uh, well…Briar obviously
needs to feel like she’s doing what’s best for her…”

“
Please,” I snorted and
looked away.

“
How ‘bout I just make you
an offer?” Chase asked. “I understand you love Briar more than
words can describe. It must be killing you to even think about
leaving her with me.”

My mother pressed her hand to her
chest. Her face pulled tight as she managed a sincere expression.
“Oh, we are in agony over it. She’s our baby.”

I tried very hard not to laugh. “I bet
it is torture.”

“
So, to ease the pain,”
Chase smiled at me, then back at them. “I’d like to make a sizable
donation to Dartmouth, in the name of Dr. and Mrs. Thompson, for
medical research.”

My father nearly hit the roof. He
jumped out of his seat. “Why?”

“
Each year we always give
back in some way, usually through donations. Those donations get a
lot of attention.”

“
Chase…” I touched his arm,
trying to stop him. Essentially, he was paying off my family. I
didn’t know how to react or what to think. So I looked at my dad,
who wasn’t looking at me, he was looking at Chase as if he were the
savior himself. I felt sick to my stomach.

“
It’s okay,” Chase patted
my leg and I met his eyes. “And, it’s not what you’re thinking.” He
looked back at my parents. “I’ll make the donation no matter what
you decide.”

My dad’s eyebrows went up. “So, even if
we take Briar back with us, you’ll do it?”

“
Yes,” Chase agreed and I
felt my stomach lurch. He’d made a huge mistake. My parents were
not good people. They would take his offer, and me, and run. “If
Briar goes back to Florida, so will I. As soon as she turns
eighteen we’ll be coming back to Montana. Only a few
months.”

“
Briar, you can’t possibly
want this.” My mother gestured around the room, but mostly to the
deer heads, rugs, and the gun rack on the wall. What once made me
slightly apprehensive felt like home.

“
I know this may be hard
for you to understand, but I love Chase. I love it here. I’m not
like you…I never was.” I let out a deep breath and smiled at
Grandma. “I’ll visit. I promise. But for once, can’t you just let
me be happy? We’ll all get what we want.”

Grandma stood, hitching her purse high
and nodded. “Well, I’m ready to go home, kids. Don’t want to miss
our flight. We’ll see you soon Briar. Take good care of your
cowboy.”

I laughed. “You don’t have to leave
now. Why don’t you stay for the night?”

“
Okay, you’ve convinced me.
You don’t have stuffed beavers, do you? I’ve never been a fan of
beavers after that one I saw made into a lamp.”

Chase and I looked to my parents. They
were hardly agreed, openly arguing back and forth. By the next
morning though, they’d decided I could stay, but I had to come home
for all the major holidays. It wasn’t easy to get them to agree to
home schooling either. They searched frantically for a ritzy
private school for Chase and I to attend in vain. Our senior year
was spent at the dining room table with Millie, Dustin, Josh, and
Ellie. Our senior prom was in a barn. Our afternoons spent on
horseback. And I loved every second of it.

Once the holidays rolled around, there
was more negotiating. No country clubs, and no hired chefs. It
would just be family.

Chase was my family now, so they’d have
to welcome him too.

And family was all that
mattered.

Epilogue

Chase

I remember Grandma’s words as she left
Briar with me on the porch, early that summer morning almost five
years ago. “I’m telling you, she’s going to marry that Cowboy one
day. I’ll be in the front row saying, I told you so!”

Grandma never made it to the wedding.
The old girl had a good run, but it’d been her time to go, shortly
after Grandpa. She just couldn’t live without him. Grandma was in
our thoughts on the day. Briar had cried the night before, wishing
she could have been there. But she was. She watched from afar, and
I told Briar as much. She’d be with us forever.

Of course, that made her cry even
more.

I cried a little too.

“
Do you, Chase McCree, take
Briar Thompson, to be your lawfully wedded wife? To have and to
hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or
poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish for as
long as you both shall live?”

“
I do.”

Sam Reed, who was retired now from his
position as sheriff, in his spare time, officiated weddings. He
turned to Briar and winked.

“
Do you, Briar Thompson,
take Chase McCree, to be your lawfully wedded husband? To have and
to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer
or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish for as
long as you both shall live?”

“
I do.”

The rest of Sam’s words were lost on me
as I looked into Briar’s eyes. I was remembering how furious her
parents were. Her grandmother elated. Aunt Millie was ecstatic to
have Briar around to do girly stuff with. Uncle Jerry was happy as
long as I was home. And I was happy to be home, with Briar. She was
part of me. My family, and I would never be without her
again.

Briar’s parents said it wouldn’t work,
even though Grandma cheered us on, that we set ourselves up for
failure. We endured lecture after lecture on those holiday
visits.

But they were wrong.

After a few years Briar’s parents
didn’t argue the point of her coming home at all, because she
already was home.

I smiled at her, holding her hands
firmly in mine, thinking she looked like an angel in her gauzy
white dress. The bracelet with a horseshoe charm I’d given her our
first Christmas together glittered in the late afternoon sun. I
wore the watch she’d given me on my eighteenth birthday.

I was so proud of her. She’d be
graduating soon. The ranch would have a resident vet. She pestered
me sometimes about running for sheriff, and I would. I had plenty
of time. Seems she’d told everyone I wanted to, and the neighboring
ranches were all for it.

“
I love you,” I
mouthed.

She smiled. “I love you
too.”

We stood under a gazebo built special
for the occasion on a hill behind the house. The Callahan’s, the
O’Brian’s, and the Smith’s…everyone we knew, and some people we’d
never met, sat outside in matching rocking chairs in the crisp
spring air. My mom and Todd were in the front row with my little
sister.

At first when my mom came to visit,
shortly after Briar had moved to the ranch with me, things hadn’t
gone smoothly. My mom wasn’t sure it would work. She kept trying to
warn Briar, telling her about the dangers of being a rancher’s
wife. But Briar won her over eventually, and now the two were thick
as thieves.

Briar’s folks came to the wedding. Her
father even walked her down the aisle. We kept things civil, but
they knew I didn’t care for them. Her father never got that big
promotion, but I never regretted making the donation in his name.
It was for research, and that’s what mattered most.

To top it off, ol’ Stinker was even led
down the aisle by my nephews as the ring bearer. A few eyebrows
rose, but Briar and I just smiled.

“
By the power vested in me
by the state of Montana, it gives me great pleasure, to pronounce
you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.”

Briar smiled up at me and whispered,
“Damn them all, Cowboy. Damn them all.”

I tugged her close for our first kiss.
“Yes, Ma’am.”

Years later Briar and I sit on the
porch every night after dinner with the dogs, and then a few years
after that with our kids. We watch the sun sink into the horizon
behind the white-capped mountains, telling stories and reminiscing
about the day I picked her up in a Florida park, drunk and crabby,
and how that night, she stole my heart forever.

Thank you for reading
Chasing McCree by J.C. Isabella. You can read her other books, The
Unofficial Zack Warren Fan Club, or The Council: A Witch’s Memory,
on Kindle. For more information about J.C. and her books, you can
visit her website at,
www.jcisabella.com

Upcoming releases for
Summer 2012!

The Council, book 2, A Werewolf’s
Moon

&

The Unofficial Story of Kyle B.
Johnston