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room was at the end of the hall, and he hurried to clean the grime and

sweat from his person before he faced his biggest fears.

The room he’d claimed as his for the last couple of decades was

now devoid of all decoration. Everything but his most basic personal

belongings had already been taken to the cabin to await his move. He

agreed to remain in the main house through the wedding to make it

easier for Lacy to touch base with him on his task list. Each person in

the family had been given a list of responsibilities, and she was like a

damn drill sergeant about them getting done.

On his list were three things. The first was to make sure Drannon

arrived at the wedding on time. The second was to collect the

wedding rings from the jewelry store in Grand Forks and make sure

they arrived safely at the wedding on time. And the third, and most

important in his mind, was to make sure the bachelor party went off

without a hitch. Lacy hadn’t exactly added that last item, but it was

supremely important anyway.

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After showering, he threw on a clean pair of jeans and a t-shirt,

and headed further into the main house in search of his favorite room.

Abe’s study still looked exactly as it had the day Abe died. They’d

continued on as though he was going to walk back through the door

and go in search of his checkbook and the bill register. Vin knew that

Franki was learning to handle all of the accounting for the ranch from

Drannon, but for the moment, the books still sat in the upper right

hand drawer of the desk.

Along with the familiar space, was the familiar fragrance of old

books, and furniture polish. Marilyn took extra care with the antique

desk and the built in book shelves, and they rarely held a speck of

dust.

Reaching for a well-read book of poetry, he dropped down onto

the chaise lounge, and opened to his favorite sonnet. For a moment

he wondered what Lauren would think if she saw him sitting there

reading poetry. Would she laugh? Did it really matter?

His heart ached for the time he’d lost with her. If only he hadn’t

been so selfish.

“What do you mean you’re leaving?”

“The judge offered me two options. I could go to jail for twelve

months, or enlist in the military. I leave for basic training in a few

days.”

Lauren’s big brown eyes filled with tears and confusion. “I

thought the lawyer said you wouldn’t have to serve time.”

“I don’t have to serve time if I go into the military. The judge

will give me a deferment, and the incident will stay in my juvie

records if I do this. Hell, maybe the Marines will be good for me; you

never know.”

“I still don’t understand why you have to leave so soon. I

thought…” She paused, and then took a deep breath, “I guess I

thought maybe you’d consider going to UND with me.”

He snorted out a laugh. “I could never get into UND with my

record. Besides, you have a scholarship to go to Louisiana. You need

to take it.”

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Claiming His Cowgirl

“I can’t. I can’t leave you like that.”

“See, now you don’t have to worry about me. I’m leaving, too.”

“Vin, what about us?”

Stiffening his spine with every possible ounce of willpower he

had, he looked her squarely in the eyes and lied to her. “There is no

us, Lauren. Just a passing thing to fill the time while I tried to figure

out what to do with myself.”

Her mouth dropped open and pain filled her eyes. “You don’t

mean that.”

“Yes I do. If I hadn’t stolen those cigarettes and been arrested, I

still would have said the same thing. This just sped up the process.”

He shoved his hands in his pockets and took a step backwards. “Go

to Louisiana and follow your dreams. Be happy. Don’t look back.”

She’d done exactly as he asked. She’d accepted the scholarship

to LSU, and carved out a life for herself that didn’t involve anyone

from her past. He was proud of her and jealous of the life she’d built.

He’d gone on to spend almost seven years in the Marines followed by

an eighteen-month stint in prison and a dishonorable discharge.

It seemed no matter what happened, he was always going to be

wrong for her. He’d be better off avoiding her as much as possible

while she was here, and yet his body ached something fierce just

knowing she was nearby.

During Sera’s funeral, he’d been too heartbroken to reach out to

her, even though he saw her in the crowd. She’d held back, refusing

Drannon’s offer of a seat with the family. She still didn’t realize that

they considered her one of them. Maybe not a permanent resident of

Crawley Creek, but a large part of their story there.

Abe’s death had been such a shock. He honestly didn’t even

remember the funeral. He moved about for days in a haze of grief,

and by the time he’d come back to the real world it was over and

done. He should have taken one of those opportunities to reach out,

but he hadn’t been strong enough. The question now was whether or

not he had the balls to face her as a grown woman. Would she even

want to see him?

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Lori King

Lost in his own thoughts, he absently turned the pages of the

book without really reading. It was the scent of her perfume that

caught his attention, and he looked up to find Lauren watching him

from the doorway.

~ ~ ~ ~

“Hey Vinnie,” she said softly, staring into his blazing blue eyes.

So many emotions filled her she could barely think straight. He

looked so good it hurt to look at him. His thick hair was buzzed off,

and she assumed that he’d picked up that particular style while in the

military because he’d always worn it longer as a kid. She drank in the

sight of his muscular limbs unfolding from the chaise lounge he was

sprawled out on. He’d always been a big guy, but years of manual

labor had added a chiseled edge to his jaw and ripples of hard muscle

under his skin.

“Lauren. Damn woman, you get prettier every time I see you.”

The compliment flowed over her, warming her to the core before

she remembered that she was still angry at him. “Thanks. You look

like hell.”

He snorted out a laugh and shook his head, putting his book

down to stand up. “Still the same old charming Lauren, I see.”

Tipping her chin defiantly, she narrowed her eyes. “Yep. And

you’re still sneaking off to spend time with the books.”

“I like books. I don’t have to deal with them smarting off to me.”

She felt her cheeks flush, but she refused to back down. He

might have been able to dominate her when she was a young, naïve

girl, but now she was a grown woman. “I’m surprised to see you still

hanging around here.”

“Why is that?”

“All that talk about moving on, spreading your wings and

experiencing life…” She paused and then shrugged. “Guess life

kicked your ass, huh?”

“I took a few knocks, but I got back up. At least I haven’t spent

the last eighteen years hiding from myself.”

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Claiming His Cowgirl

The barb hit its intended mark, and she had to force herself not

to wince. Was this the way it would be between them from here on

out? Unable to resist slinging snarky comments at each other just to

inflict pain?

“Anyway, I just wanted to say hello since you didn’t come to

dinner.”

“Hello,” he said, pointedly ignoring the rest of her statement.

She waited, half hoping he’d say something more, but when he

just stood there, she sighed and turned away. It took everything she

had inside to put one foot in front of the other and make her way

upstairs, leaving him behind. If he didn’t want her around, she wasn’t

going to waste her time.

Exhaustion hit her as she collected her bath products and headed

for the bathroom closest to her room. There were only two bathrooms

for all six bedrooms to share, outside of the one in the master

bedroom, but thankfully, the rest of the upstairs was blissfully empty

of guests for the time being. She could take a long soak in the tub,

followed by a steamy shower and just unwind. It was the perfect way

to greet her old stomping grounds.

Water rose to her chin as she sunk into the tub with a sigh, and

she thought about how the day had gone. Everyone was genuinely

happy to have her there, except for the one person whose opinion

mattered the most. Vin had looked like a deer in the headlights when

she popped in on him. Was he that uncomfortable around her?

Focusing her mind, she thought about her other foster brothers.

Drannon and Roman both seemed to have found their soul mates. She

was happy for them, and she liked Franki and Lacy already. Lacy

reminded her a lot of Seraphina. They shared some of the same

mannerisms, and she even wore her hair in a braid the way the former

mistress of Crawley Creek did. It was slightly unnerving, and yet it

made total sense to Lauren. Drannon admired Sera so much when he

was young; it only seemed fitting he would find a woman just like

her eventually.

Franki, on the other hand, was an absolute riot. One moment she

was talking about her motorcycle, Hal, and the next she was arguing

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Lori King

with Roman about her fear of horses. Apparently even after over a

month on the ranch, he was still unable to ease her past her phobia.

Lauren also heard more details about the traumatic events that

led to Franki’s move to North Dakota. It was bone-chilling to know

that there were people in the world who cared so little for others that

they would inflict that kind of harm. And to hear that a human

trafficking ring was working out of this part of the country was

downright shocking.

Franki seemed to be both mourning and moving on in her grief,

considering how recently it had occurred. At one point, Lauren had

wondered if she was doing more avoiding than grieving, but it wasn’t

her place to question the other woman.

All in all, it felt good to be home for a few days. She knew the

night would bring vivid heartbreaking memories in the form of

nightmares—as it always did when she was forced to relive her

childhood—but hopefully, she’d find closure while she was here. It

was time she let go of her feelings for Vin for good.

~ ~ ~ ~

“Damn it, Lauren!”

Her mother’s voice rang through the tiny two bedroom trailer

home, echoing off the walls. Lauren cowered in the corner of her

closet under her favorite blanket. Rainbows and grinning bears

dotted the material, but instead of smiling back at them, silent tears

slipped down her cheeks. If Joss was drunk enough she would pass

out before she tracked her daughter down. If not, Lauren would be

dodging her heavy-handed swings.

“Lauren Nicole Kensington, you’d better get your ass out here

now. I know it was you who hid my bottle. Eddie hasn’t been here for

three or four days.”

Eddie Wayland was Joss’s on again off again boyfriend. He

hated dealing with her drunk almost as much as Lauren did, and the

drinking kept the couple from finding any sort of peace or happiness.

Lauren liked Eddie, but he didn’t have much of his own. That’s how

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Claiming His Cowgirl

he ended up with Joss in the first place. She’d found him at the

unemployment office where she worked, and brought him home to

“crash on the couch for a few days”. A few days turned into weeks

and then months of sharing her mother’s bed. They’d be content for a

while, and suddenly, something would happen, and Joss would start

drinking again, and Eddie would run for the hills.

He used the phrase “getting out of Dodge”, but he’d been doing

it so much that Lauren figured he had a whole other life he was living

away from the trailer park. Not that she blamed him. She hated when

her mother got like this. Joss was an angry, mean drunk. She would

start feeling sorry for herself, crack open a fresh bottle of liquor, and

before long, she was taking out her depression on her young

daughter.

Lauren had been dodging the blows for almost eight years, and

she prayed for the day that she’d be old enough to leave all of this

behind. It couldn’t come soon enough.