Cowboy Seeks Bride (29 page)

“Girl, you are a fool if you let this man get away from you. I don’t give a shit if he’s a rancher or where he lives. He loves you,” Mahalia whispered.

“I know, Granny. I love him too.”

“Well, don’t drag your feet about telling him. Man can’t read your mind, you know. You got to open up your mouth and your heart and tell him how you feel,” Mahalia said.

Dewar held the door open for her and jogged around the front of the truck. When he was inside and buckled up, he leaned across and kissed her long, lingering, and hungrily.

“I love you,” he said.

“I love you, Dewar O’Donnell. Now what do we do about it?” she asked.

“First thing is to find this island, right? Tell me how to get there.”

“Well, first we drive a ways and then there’ll be a boat tied up at the dock. It’s got a motor so we don’t have to row, which I should make you do after that monthlong horseback ride,” she said.

“Would you do it again?”

She laid a hand on his thigh. “In a heartbeat, darlin’.”

It took twenty minutes to go from the dock to the island, which didn’t cover more than five acres all total. An old weathered cabin with a wide front porch sat right in the middle. There was a chicken house out back, and as far away from the house as possible the outhouse with a moon cut in the door still stood as a silent sentinel of bygone days.

“They had a garden over on the other side of the house and they ate a lot of fish,” she said. “And don’t be gettin’ any screwball notions about that outhouse. Until a couple of years ago it was still functional, so it won’t smell as sweet as the last one we were in.”

He tied off the boat and picked up the basket. “Are we going inside or…” He let the sentence dangle.

“It’s just an empty house. When we came out here as kids we brought sleeping bags. See that tote bag in the bed of the truck?” She pointed.

“When did that get there?”

“Granny put it there while we were finishing breakfast. It’s got a blanket and two pillows in it. There are fishin’ poles on the back porch if we want to do anything other than lie back under the shade trees and make wild passionate love,” she said.

“Pick the place and let’s get that blanket on the ground, then.”

She grabbed the tote bag and carried it to a big tree not far from the house. Once the blanket was fluffed out, she tossed the two pillows on it. Dewar set the picnic basket off to one side and pulled her down beside him.

Haley didn’t care if her cute little cotton sundress was hiked halfway to her panty line when she stretched out beside him. She laid her head on his chest and listened to his heartbeat. Good and strong, just like Dewar.

“I really do love you,” she whispered.

“Did you mean it about owning your own cable television station?” he asked.

“That wasn’t the response I was expecting.” She smiled up at him.

He kissed her again, soft that time but still hungry.

“I love you, Haley, but I’m a rancher. I don’t know how to be anything else.”

“Yes, I’d love to have my own station. I could start small and grow and in a few years I’d be running Daddy some competition, but what has that got to do with loving you?”

“I put in a bid for one in Wichita Falls. I’ve got a friend up in Ambrose who has a lot of money and he wants to invest in it too,” he said.

The words came out so fast that she wasn’t sure she heard them right. “You did what?”

“I’m supposed to be on a knee when I ask you to marry me, but I don’t want to get that far from you. I want to spend my life with you, Haley. I want to go to sleep at night knowing that you’ll be right there beside me when we wake up in the morning. I want to ranch and raise horses, but it’s okay if that’s not what you want. I’ll buy you a television station and you do what you love, starting with putting out your own reality story about a bunch of city slickers on a cattle run.”

“Yes, yes, yes. Dewar, I love you.” She rolled over on top of him and kissed him until they were both panting.

“Long engagement?” he finally asked.

“Courthouse closes at five. That too long?” She busied herself unbuttoning his shirt.

He deftly unzipped her dress. “I think I can live with that.”

“Tomorrow’s party just turned into a wedding reception,” she said as she undid his belt buckle.

He hooked a thumb under her underpants and pulled them down. “Do you think your granny planned it that way?”

“She probably did. I love you. I love you. I love you,” she singsonged.

***

Mahalia arose early the next morning and at seven she climbed the stairs to wake her granddaughter. Her hand was raised when she saw the piece of paper thumbtacked to the door with a note above it that said “Do not disturb” written in bright red lipstick.

She stuck a thumb under the marriage license and carried it back down to the kitchen where more than a dozen female relatives had gathered to help with the party plans. “We’ve got a lot of work to do, ladies. This party is now officially a wedding reception.”

She picked up the phone and hit a speed dial button. “Good morning, Jenny. That cowboy is here that Haley fell in love with out there on the trail drive y’all made her go on so you can’t blame nobody but yourself. And he’s not in his bedroom but there is a do not disturb sign tacked on her door and it looks like it’s written in red lipstick.”

She slapped a hand over her mouth when Jenny screamed, “Dammit! Mama, what have you done?”

“Me,
chere
, I didn’t do anything but plan a big party that starts in a couple of hours. Oh, I forgot to tell you, I’m holding the other piece of paper that was tacked to the door. It’s their marriage license. Guess they went to the courthouse down in New Iberia yesterday. My party is a wedding reception now. Get in your little airplane and tell Carl to bring his allergy pills. And leave that pansy-assed Joel fellow at home. You bring him down here and I’ll feed him to the gators.”

“Shit!” Jenny said.

“Party starts in two hours. You better get things going.”

Haley hugged her grandmother from behind and kissed her on the cheek. “Good mornin’, Granny. I see you found my note. I’m taking breakfast up to Dewar on a tray.”

“Put her on the phone,” Jenny said.

“I’ll see you before noon.” Mahalia hung up.

“Who was that?” Haley asked.

Mahalia turned around and gave Haley another hug. “Someone wanting to know what time the party starts. Congratulations on your marriage, my child. I told you he was a keeper.”

“Yes, ma’am, he sure is.”

Four months later

It was a hot August morning with the temperature already rising up close to the ninety mark at eight o’clock. A herd of bawling cattle roamed around in the ranch yard with one little gray donkey in their midst. The chuck wagon was loaded and ready with Coosie on the buckboard and Buddy on a horse beside him. Sawyer was the only cowboy they could talk into going with them again, but he was there along with a couple of other O’Donnell cousins who were eager to be a part of the reality show.

Dewar mounted up and looked down at Haley. “It’s your show, ma’am. You get to tell us when to roll out of here and head for Dodge City.”

Haley led Apache up to his side and mouthed, “I love you.”

He grinned and whispered the words back to her.

She held up a hand and Eeyore brayed. “Hey, you don’t get to start this.” She laughed. “Cowboys and cowgirls, it’s time mount up. Reality begins right now.”

She was the proud owner of a television station and her first big production was going to be the Chisholm Trail reality show as well as her honeymoon. She was so excited that she could hardly wait to get in the saddle and be on her way.

Her contestants mounted up. Most of them had never even touched a horse before that minute. The camera crew was doing a great job of being inconspicuous. She’d chosen them well and it was going to be a fantastic reality show!

One cute little blond-haired lady looked at the big horse in front of her like it was a stick of dynamite before she finally slipped a foot into the stirrup. She grabbed the saddle horn, got off balance, and promptly fell backwards on her butt.

Haley handed her horse’s reins to Dewar and started toward her, but Sawyer was faster than greased lightning. According to the name tag pinned to the front of her brand-spanking-new Western shirt the woman’s name was Angelyn. Haley would bet dollars to doughnuts before the end of the month that Sawyer had shortened it to Angel because Miz Angelyn’s eyes left no doubt that she felt a hell of a lot of heat when he touched her.

Sawyer let go of her hand, tipped his hat, and went back to his horse.

Haley took off her hat and set it firmly on the woman’s head. “You’ll be needin’ this and…” She stepped forward, hugged her, and whispered, “don’t worry, honey, you’ll do just fine.”

Read on for an excerpt from Carolyn Brown’s next Christmas cowboy romance,

The Cowboy’s Christmas Baby

There she stood with a dead coyote at her feet, a pink pistol in her right hand, three bluetick hound pups cowering behind her, and cradling a baby in her left arm.

“Natalie?” He raised an eyebrow and blinked sleet from his eyelashes. Yesterday he had awakened to overbearing heat in Kuwait, and today Texas was colder than a mother-in-law’s kiss on the North Pole. Maybe he was seeing things due to the abrupt change in weather. She looked like the woman he’d been talking to via the Internet for the past eleven months, but he hadn’t expected her to be so tall, and he damn sure had not expected her to be holding a baby or a pistol.

She whipped around and raised the gun until it was aimed straight at his chest. “Who the hell… oh, my God… you are early, Lucas. Surprise!” she said.

“Yes, ma’am,” he drawled. “I guess I am, but you aren’t supposed to be here for two more days.”

“We were working on a big surprise for your homecoming. Hazel was going to make your favorite foods and we had a banner made and I heard a noise and the coyote had the puppies cornered and…” She stopped and stared at him as if she expected him to disappear.

She caught her breath and went on. “Why in the hell didn’t you tell us you were coming home early? You’ve ruined everything.”

“It’s my ranch. It’s my house and I can come home when I damn well please,” he said.

He looked from the baby to the dead coyote, to the puppies, finally meeting Natalie’s big blue eyes staring at him across the six feet separating them. There’d been more warmth in her face when there were oceans and deserts separating them than he felt with only six feet between them.

The whole scenario he’d played out in his mind was shot to hell and back. She wouldn’t take two steps forward, hug him, and then share an intimate, passionate kiss that said that yes, they had become more than Internet friends.

A whimper came from the blue bundle and she looked down at it. “I know you are hungry, son. We’ll go inside in just a second.”

Dammit!

He’d thought he’d found the right woman. Hell, he’d even entertained notions that she was
the
one
. He’d been right all along: people were crazy to believe what they saw on the Net or to trust anyone they met on there, either.

“Joshua is hungry. Can you put these pups back in the pen? Sorry little critters dug out from under the fence and the coyote cornered them up by the porch,” she said.

She damn sure looked different in real life with curves and legs that went from earth all the way to heaven. She was stunning in those snug-fitting jeans, red flannel shirt, and thick brown hair floating in gentle waves down past her shoulders. How could he have not known she was pregnant?

Because
you
only
saw
her
from
the
waist
up
and
in
pictures
that
she
posted. Man, you got duped real good this time. Sucker!

“Well?” She shoved the pistol into the waistband of her jeans, shifted the baby to a more comfortable position, and headed toward the porch.

He dropped his canvas duffel on the icy ground. “I’ll take care of the coyote and the pups. Then we’ve got some serious talking to do. Where are Grady and Gramps and Dad?”

“Grady took Henry home after supper. You hungry?”

Yes, he was hungry. He’d foregone supper until he got home because he couldn’t wait to have Hazel’s home-cooked food. But the way his stomach was churning around he wouldn’t be able to swallow. A baby boy, for God’s sake! And she never mentioned him one time.

“Hazel in the house?” he asked stiffly.

She stopped and turned. “No, she is not. I’ve got to get Joshua inside, though. He’s cold. Just take care of those pups.”

“Don’t boss me, Natalie,” he barked.

“I’m going inside. You can stay out here and freeze to death if you want, Lucas. The way you are acting, I don’t reckon it’ll be much warmer in the house when you get there anyway,” she said.

He folded his arms across his chest. “And that is supposed to mean what?”

“Figure it out for yourself.”

“Shit!” he mumbled under his breath.

He gathered up three wiggling bluetick hound pups and stomped toward the dog pens. What in the hell did she expect—a big old passionate kiss with a pistol and a baby between them?

He opened the gate and set the puppies down inside the chain-link fence, where they made a beeline toward the hole they’d dug. One by one they scampered out of the pen and into the yard and ran helter-skelter back to the dead coyote. One grabbed its tail and the other went to work on its ears, all the while growling like vicious mean hunting dogs.

Lucas grabbed a piece of two-by-four and chinked up the hole, fought them away from the coyote, and put them back in the pen.

“Whole bunch of you haven’t got the brains that one of you should have. That coyote could have killed all three of you if it hadn’t been for Natalie.” He could hear their whining all the way across the backyard.

He thought about carrying his duffel bag to the bunkhouse, hooking up his laptop, and telling her via Internet to get the hell off his ranch. It would serve her right for not telling him that she was pregnant most of the eleven months they’d been cyber-friends or even mentioning that she’d had a baby. Hell, they’d shared everything over the Internet, so why shouldn’t they break up over it too?

He was supposed to be waiting anxiously on the porch for her to arrive in a couple of days and they’d fall right into a wonderful relationship that ended in a trip down the aisle to the altar. Well that damn sure wasn’t going to happen now.

He’d been right all along. He’d never believed in all the Internet shit the guys talked about. Not until Drew Camp pulled out his laptop on the first night and there was Natalie on the computer screen with her big smile and twinkling eyes. He’d always been a sucker for blue eyes, and if it had blue eyes, it had brought him nothing but heartache in the past. So why did he expect anything different with Natalie?

He threw his duffel bag over his shoulder and started toward the bunkhouse. He’d almost made it to the backyard fence when that damned niggling voice in the back of his head told him he was a coward. Lucas kicked the trunk of a pecan tree so hard that it jarred his leg all the way to the hip as he murmured cuss words under his breath. He wasn’t afraid to face Natalie or to have it out with her. But he damn sure didn’t want to do it in front of Hazel.

Still, it had to be done, and Hazel could just sit there and be quiet.

“Yeah right,” he said.

Hazel was never quiet. She spoke her mind and didn’t spare the cussing when she did. He whipped around and the north wind blew little sleet pellets in his face that stung every bit as bad as a sandstorm in Kuwait, maybe even more so because his jaws were set so tightly.

“Might as well get it over with,” he grumbled as he stormed back across the yard.