One Hot Cowboy Wedding (17 page)

“A tub deep enough that the water covers boobs and knees. Either Gramps or Granny knew the way to a woman’s heart.” She rolled a towel to go under her neck and let the sloped back of the tub cradle her. With eyes shut, the warm water eased the tired tension from her muscles.

Her eyes popped wide open. She had forgotten about Sam, Dexter, Buddy, and Tyson. Ace would have to put them in the wedding and that meant more bridesmaids.

Unless they could serve as ushers.

She laid back. That would work. They’d need at least four ushers and the guys could do that job. The only thing left was someone to sit at the registration desk…

and that was on her shoulders.

“I hate this,” she mumbled. “I’m asking Ellen and Nellie.”

Your
mother
will
pitch
a
fit
, Granny Dale whispered OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 142

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softly.
Two
eighty- year- old women in her wedding. It
ain’t happenin’, child.

The only way she could get away with it would be to pull out the Cousin Candace card. She could hear the conversation playing in her head like an old radio soap opera.

“But, Mother, I suppose Cousin Candace is…” That’s all she’d have to say.

Kelly King would go off on a tirade that would scorch the hair out of Lucifer’s ears. “I will not have that hussy in your wedding. She’s a disgrace to the King name with her tattoo parlor down there in Dallas. God Almighty!

Jasmine, what are you thinking about? Don’t you have another friend?”

“Well, there are two sisters, Ellen and Nellie, but…”

“Do either of them have tat sleeves or a nose ring?”

“No, they do not have tats or piercings.”

“Then Ellen and Nellie it is.”

Jasmine opened her eyes and giggled. “And that’s the way it’s done.”

“What’s done?” Ace was sitting on the vanity bench not three feet from her.

Her knee- jerk reaction was to come straight up out of the water. Her second was to gather what bubbles were left into strategic places. It wasn’t until she reached the third that anger set in.

“What in the hell are you doing in here? What are you even doing in the house at this time of day?” she asked.

Ace shrugged. “Watching you sleep in the bathtub.

You talk in your sleep. You said something about that being the way it’s done. Got a phone call. Came home early to get cleaned up, and when I came to the bathroom OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 143

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I found you. You are so damned cute I couldn’t make myself wake you up. Is the water still warm? Mind if I join you?”

“No! Water is cold and I’m getting out. So turn around and shut your eyes while I get a towel around me.”

“Wives aren’t supposed to be so skittish. I bet sex would be good in that tub with you all slippery wet,” he teased.

She raised a hand out of the water and pointed at the wall.

He shut his eyes tightly, but that didn’t stop him from picturing her leaving the tub with water sliding off her naked body, bubbles still hanging on her firm breasts and clinging to her butt. He heard her wet feet hit the floor and the towel snap open. He smelled the sweetness of vanilla. And the arousal started just like it had every single time Jasmine was anywhere near him. Ever since the wedding, that’s the way it had been.

Before the wedding, he saw her every day without a problem. Now he just had to think her name and he got an instant erection.

“You can open them now. I’m going to the bedroom and get dressed,” she said.

The water gurgled as it swirled down the drain and the bathroom door closed, but it didn’t take all of Jasmine with it. Her smell and the picture in Ace’s mind stayed behind as he turned on the shower. He tossed his dirty clothing on top of hers and wondered if that was an omen. Underwear, shirts, jeans, even socks all tangled up together; did that mean that his and Jasmine’s lives would be tangled up like that someday?

He was thinking about what it would be like to share OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 144

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his entire life with Jasmine as he washed the dirt and grime from his hair and body. He certainly didn’t expect to find her sitting fully clothed on a vanity seat when he threw the shower curtain back.

“Need some bubbles?” she asked.

His
knee- jerk reaction was to grab the washcloth and cover his package. His second was to reach out and pull her into the shower with him. It took ten seconds to reach the third, which was laughter.

“A towel will do fine, ma’am.”

She handed him a towel and fought back the blush.

It had sounded like a wonderful plan to get back at him when she was dressing in denim shorts, sandals, and a sleeveless cotton shirt. But it had backfired when he threw open the shower curtain and there stood a real, breathing, flesh and blood Greek god before her.

Whoever was responsible for sculpting those statues sure hadn’t had Ace for a model; that much Jasmine could vouch for. Before they went to chiseling out the lower extremities of those statues they should have come on across the waters and found a blond- haired cowboy.

That would have really made the ladies drool.

Ace whipped the towel around his waist and stepped out onto the worn throw rug. “Guess I forgot to tell you about that phone call, didn’t I?”

“Your mother or mine?”

“Wil, actual y. Pearl has been trying to cal you for the past hour. No, make that an hour and a half now.

Why didn’t you answer your phone?” Ace asked.

Jasmine reached for her hip pocket, then checked the jeans on the floor. “Guess it fell out in the truck seat.”

“Well, her water broke and she’s at the hospital and OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 145

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she says she isn’t calling her mother until you get there because she can’t deal with Tess without you,” Ace said.

Jasmine popped up off the bench, her hands went to her hips, and she took a step forward until she was nose- to- nose with Ace. “And why didn’t you tel me this before now? I could have already been halfway there.

Hell, if I’d driven fast I could be there. Dammit! If Tess isn’t there when Pearl has those boys, I’ll get the blame.

And if she’s there and I’m not Pearl wil kil me because I promised that I’d keep Tess from driving her crazy while she’s in labor.”

Ace bent slightly and kissed her hard without touching any other part of her body. “You’re damn cute when you are mad.”

“Ace Riley!”

“Okay, I didn’t tell you on purpose because I needed to get cleaned up and because I want us to go together,” he said.

Her lips were so hot she was amazed that her words didn’t fry as they left her mouth. “Wel , you’d damn well better hurry up because if you aren’t ready in five minutes, I’m leaving without you.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He grinned.

She stepped back and her foot landed in the middle of the dirty clothing on the floor. She bent down to gather it up to take to the laundry room and touched his bare leg with her cheek. It immediately fired up as hot as her lips.

“I’m sure Pearl would understand, us being newlyweds and all, if you’d like to make a side trip to the bedroom,” Ace said.

“That’s a dream, cowboy,” Jasmine said.

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When she stood up with the clothes in her arms, he brushed a quick kiss across her cheek. “Thanks for taking care of mine with yours.”

“Four minutes. You’d better hurry your ass up.”

“He’s disappointed. I tell you that for sure. He might not even cooperate when you want him to,” Ace said as he followed her down the hall toward the bedroom.

“Honeymoon must be over,” she quipped and kept walking.

He dressed faster than he ever had, finger combed his curls back away from his forehead, and jammed his feet down in boots. He was lacing his belt through the loops on his jeans as he made his way across the yard and to his truck where she was already sitting in the passenger’s seat with the buckle fastened.

“Ten seconds to spare. I’m on my way,” she said into the cell phone and snapped it shut.

“Am I forgiven?” he asked.

“Depends on whether we beat Tess to the hospital.

She called fifteen minutes ago to check on Pearl who happened to be right in the middle of a contraction so Tess grabbed her bag that’s been packed for a week and is on the way. You can bet your cute little cowboy ass that if she gets stopped she’ll talk the policeman into giving her an escort complete with sirens all the way to the hospital. If you get me there first so I can run interference for Pearl, I might forgive you,” Jasmine said.

“I figured Rye and Austin would be ahead of us.

They were on their way to take Rachel to Maddie when the call came. Raylen and Liz were headed for the house to get cleaned up too.” Ace started the truck engine and fiddled with his seat belt.

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She tucked her head down and rolled her eyes up at him. “You, Ace Riley, better hope I’m the first one there.”

“Or what?” he asked.

“Pearl keeps two shovels in her barn. I keep two in my pantry. You’ve probably noticed them before. They are right there beside the broom and mop. We are prepared at any time, night or day, to dig a six- foot hole.

Need I explain further?”

He stomped the gas pedal all the way to the floor and hoped all the Texas Highway Patrolmen were having donuts and coffee at the local Dairy Queen. He made it from Ringgold to Henriet a in record time, went through the first traffic signal on yellow, and the second one had barely turned green when he slipped through it. When he braked in front of the Henrietta hospital he left skid marks on the pavement.

“Get out in a hurry. I passed Rye and Austin back there at the second red light. Hurry up and get in there first,” he said.

Jasmine took time to touch his shoulder. “You are forgiven.”

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Only one other truck was parked under the

awning at the burger joint, but then all the midweek church traffic would have long since come and gone, and most teenagers had an early curfew, especial y in the middle of the week.

Liz and Raylen waved through the window when they saw Jasmine and Ace nose into the other side of the parking spaces. Liz held up a hot fudge sundae and smiled.

“So will it be pickles and ice cream?” Ace asked.

“No, thank you. After that experience, I’ll buy my babies. I knew it hurt like hell, but Pearl cried real tears,” she said.

“But there was that big grin on her face when she was holding those boys,” Ace said.

“I don’t know how she did it, Ace. I really don’t. I hurt for her there at the end when she pushed until her face was as red as her hair and she cried.”

“Then no pickles on top of your ice cream?” She shook her head. “One of those chocolate sundaes like Liz is eating will be fine. And a cup of black coffee.”

“This late at night? You’ll be awake all night and I’m too tired after all that waiting on Pearl to birth them two boys to even think about a romp in the sheets,” Ace said.

“No more sex for me. I saw the end result of that fun OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 149

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right there in that delivery room,” Jasmine told him with a soft shiver.

“Tess was more than a little bit jealous that Pearl wanted you in there to hold her hand,” Ace told her.

“I know, but Pearl would have raised up out of those stirrups and strangled her mother. It was best that I stayed in there with her and Rye. I stayed up by her head and Rye got to actually watch the babies coming out. I did chance a peek or two at the mirror and that was enough for me. Tess forgot all about anything when he went out with a baby on each arm and she got to be the first one to hold the boys.”

“Where were you when he brought the babies out?” Ace asked.

“Holding Pearl’s hand and telling her that they were beautiful, that they had black hair, and I couldn’t tell if they were going to have blue eyes or green ones and that she did a fantastic job. She was squeezing my hand and telling me that it hurt like hell, she wasn’t doing it again, and that I could never endure it, to go buy my kids even if they had ‘Made in China’ stamped on their butts.”

Ace put in their order and turned around to face Jasmine. “Why couldn’t you endure it?”

“She says I’m not as tough as her.”

“Are you?”

“Oh, yeah. I’m every bit as tough but she just pushed two six- pound boys out of her body. I wasn’t going to argue with her.” Jasmine smiled.

“John and Jesse. I like the names, but they looked just alike. Think they’d better tattoo their names on their butts before they take them home so Wil don’t get them OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 150

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mixed up?” He steered her toward the table where Liz and Raylen were sitting.

“You ever get Old Bill and Little Joe mixed up?” she asked.

“What’s that got to do with anything? But no, I do not. Old Bill is six months older than Little Joe. They had the same parents but they aren’t even littermates.

They just look alike. I keep tel ing you Old Bil is fat er.”

“Well, I don’t reckon Wil’s going to get his boys mixed up either. Maybe Jesse will be fatter.” She laughed.

It had been a long evening and by the time the twins were born the waiting room was packed with friends and family. It was eleven when they left and they were both starving.

“What are you thinking about?” Ace asked.

“The look on Pearl’s face when she held those babies.”

“It was pretty awesome. I was standing in the door-way. We’d followed the nurse down there with them.