The Cowboy Earns a Bride (Cowboys of Chance Creek Book 8) (32 page)

“I don’t know.”

“Did something happen? Is Mia all right?”

“She’s fine. She’s more than fine. She’s rich.”

Ned swung out of the saddle to the ground and began to lead Silver at a walk beside Luke. “Mia’s rich? Did someone die?”

“I wish.” Luke got himself under control. “Ellis bought her off with two hundred grand. Now she wants to buy Thayer’s with Rose and run her wedding planning business out of it.”

“That’s an interesting idea. Rose would go back to selling rings?”

“And her paintings, I guess.”

“Seems like that could work.”

“That’s not the point. The point is Ellis gave Mia two hundred grand.”

Ned shot him a look. “Let me guess. You think that makes him the better man?”

“In her eyes, yes.”

“Luke.” Ned stopped and Luke stopped, too, although he didn’t want to. “She isn’t marrying Ellis Scranton. She’s marrying you—because you’re the kind of man who sticks with a woman, who offers her his home. His heart. Ellis is the kind of man who fools around with a woman, throws money at her and heads for the hills.”

Luke shook his head. Those were just words. Money was money.

“Don’t be an idiot,” Ned went on. “You’re part of this ranch and it’s worth a lot. It might not be cash in the bank, but it’s still something. Mia knows that.”

“That’s not all of it.” Luke adjusted his hat, looking at the mountains in the distance, the cattle in the pastures—anywhere but at his brother. “I’m still in debt, even though I sold my truck.”

Ned nodded slowly. “I think we all were until we started to get paid some. How bad is it?”

Luke named a sum.

Ned made a face. “That’s not too bad. You can pay that off in a couple of months if you put your mind to it.”

“I’m marrying Mia next month. I want to take her on a honeymoon. I want to help build her an office for a business.”

“You don’t need to build her an office anymore, do you?” Ned was practical. “Put off the honeymoon until you can afford it. And tell her exactly what you just told me.”

“About the debt? Hell, no!”

Ned leaned closer. “About everything, if you’re smart. Starting with the debt.”

By the time Luke got back to his cabin, Mia had already eaten her lunch and was packing up the remains.

“There you are. Is everything okay?” she asked when he walked in.

“Yeah, it is.” He fiddled with the doorknob, noticed what he was doing and moved farther into the house. “Actually, it isn’t. But it will be.”

“Is this about money?”

Luke stopped. “How’d you know?”

“Because we were talking about it when you hightailed it out of here.” She sighed. “I knew you wouldn’t like it that Ellis gave me all that cash.”

“This isn’t about Ellis. It’s about me.”

“I love you. You know that.”

She looked so worried, Luke moved to her and pressed a kiss on her mouth. “I do know that. Just give me a few minutes to say what I have to say.”

“All right.” Mia sat at the table. “Go ahead.”

He sat down across from her. “You know Dad kept us all on a short leash for a long, long time. We all pitched in and worked the ranch, but he didn’t pay us a lot for that. Since we’d been doing chores here all our lives, we didn’t think much about it until recently.”

“Until Rob decided to marry Morgan?”

“That’s about the size of it. It’s easy to be single with a little cash when your house and food are paid for. But when you take on a wife and start a family, things change. Now we all take a salary based on the amount of work we do. The thing is, I still have some debts from those days. Credit cards. That kind of thing.”

Mia expelled a breath. Was that relief he wasn’t mad at her? Luke wasn’t sure. He went on before she could say anything, wanting to get it all out at once.

“I want to give you things. I want to take you on a honeymoon, and help you buy Thayer’s, if that’s what you want. I want to support you, Mia. I’ve always wanted that. I need time, though.” He braced himself. He knew what would happen next. Mia would offer to pay his debts with Ellis’s money. He didn’t think he could stomach hearing that offer.

Mia surprised him, though. “I can give you time. We’ll go when you’re ready. Between us, Rose and I have enough to buy Thayer’s and get a start. Since the jewelry business is already established, we’ll have enough income to pay our mortgage. We’re working out the details.”

“I wish I could just buy it for you.”

“I know that, but here’s the thing.” She gathered her thoughts. “I like business. I like thinking about it, planning for it, figuring out how to make it grow. I like talking about it, too—that’s why I kept meeting with Carl. I’m not afraid of money anymore. And you and I—we’re a partnership. You don’t have to buy me things. You don’t have to do everything all on your own. Look what you’ve already given me.” She gestured to the cabin. “More importantly, you’ve given me your heart. That’s what I want from you. The rest we’ll do together.”

Luke didn’t bother with words. He pulled her close and showed his appreciation in other ways. Ways that soon had them naked and tangled together on the living room couch.

“You sure Pam’s sleeping?” Luke said when things got to a critical juncture.

“Positive. Just keep the noise level down.”

“You’re the one who makes all the noise. You keep it down.” He gathered her close.

“I can’t help it if you make me scream.” Mia arched back as Luke entered her. “Oh, that feels good,” she gasped.

“I can’t help what your body makes my body do.”

The time for words was over, though. Luke kissed Mia whenever her cries rose in volume and Mia kissed him back when his release came hard and fast and had him calling out, too.

Afterward, they snuggled together as best they could on the couch.

“I can’t wait to marry you,” Mia said.

“No,
I
can’t wait to marry you.”

‡
Chapter Twenty-Three

M
ia had dreamed
about her wedding day ever since she was a little girl, and now she was about to walk down the aisle on her father’s arm to meet the man she loved at the altar and join her life to his forever.

Her mother held Pamela, dressed in a soft yellow daisy dress for the occasion, in the front row of the Chance Creek Reformed Church. Reverend Halpern stood waiting to perform the ceremony. Once Mia’s mother had held her granddaughter for the first time, all her need to control the wedding seemed to disappear like so much dust before the wind. Mia felt closer to her than she had in years, which healed a part of her heart she hadn’t realized was so broken.

When the music swelled, Mia took her father’s arm and began a slow, stately walk down the aisle.

“I’m proud of you, honey. You’ve really made something of your life,” he said.

“Thanks, Daddy.” She was proud of herself, too. For having the strength to see her pregnancy through. For having the guts to start her own business. And for her wisdom in choosing a man like Luke to spend her life with.

Standing tall and proud at the altar, Luke looked so handsome that her breath caught. He would be hers forever. He would support her in times of trouble, be a friend to her during their rounds of everyday life, and love her—at every opportunity. Her lips curved into a smile.

When her father passed her hand to Luke, a shiver of anticipation traveled through her. From this day forward they would always be together. There would be no question of if she’d end up in his arms—the only question would be how often. And that was exactly the way she wanted it.

Pamela cooed and a ripple of laughter ran through the congregation.

“She says, hurry up already!” Jake called out.

This time the laughter was louder.

“I’m ready,” Luke said, looking into her eyes. “How about you?”

“I’m ready, too.”

After the Cowboys of Chance Creek series, the next book in order is
The Navy SEAL’s E-Mail Order Bride
, Volume 1 in the
Heroes of Chance Creek
series.

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Reviews mean so much to authors! If you enjoyed
The Cowboy Earns a Bride
,
consider leaving an honest review here
.

If you love Chance Creek and the characters who inhabit it, read on for an excerpt of Volume 1 in the
Heroes of Chance Creek
series,
The Navy SEAL’s E-Mail Order Bride
.

Other books in the
Cowboys of Chance Creek
series:

The Cowboy’s E-mail Order Bride (Volume 1)

The Cowboy Wins a Bride (Volume 2)

The Cowboy Imports a Bride (Volume 3)

The Cowgirl Ropes a Billionaire (Volume 4)

The Sheriff Catches a Bride (Volume 5)

The Cowboy Lassos a Bride (Volume 6)

The Cowboy Rescues a Bride (Volume 7)

Read on for an excerpt of Volume 1 of
The Heroes of Chance Creek
series –
The Navy SEAL’s E-Mail Order Bride
.

“Boys,” Lieutenant Commander Mason Hall said, “we’re going home.”

He sat back in his folding chair and waited for a reaction from his brothers. The recreation hall at Bagram Airfield was as busy as always with men hunched over laptops, watching the widescreen television, or lounging in groups of three or four shooting the breeze. His brothers—three tall, broad shouldered men in uniform—stared back at him from his computer screen, the feeds from their four-way video conversation all relaying a similar reaction to his words.

Utter confusion.

“Home?” Austin was the first to speak. A Special Forces officer just a year younger than Mason, he was currently in Kabul.

“Home,” Mason confirmed. “I got a letter from Great Aunt Heloise. Uncle Zeke passed away over the weekend without designating an heir. That means the ranch reverts back to her. She thinks we’ll do a better job running it than Darren will.” Darren, their first cousin, wasn’t known for his responsible behavior and he hated ranching. Mason, on the other hand, loved it. He had missed the ranch, the cattle, the Montana sky and his family’s home ever since they’d left it twelve years ago.

“She’s giving Crescent Hall to us?” That was Zane, Austin’s twin, a Marine currently in Kandahar. The excitement in his tone told Mason all he needed to know—Zane stilled loved the old place as much as he did. When Mason had gotten Heloise’s letter, he’d had to read it more than once before he believed it. The Hall would belong to them once more—when he’d thought they’d lost it for good. Suddenly he’d felt like he could breathe fully again after so many years of holding in his anger and frustration over his uncle’s behavior. The timing was perfect, too. He was due to ship stateside any day now. By April he’d be a civilian again.

Except it wasn’t as easy as all that. Mason took a deep breath. “There are a few conditions.”

Colt, his youngest brother, snorted. “Of course—we’re talking about Heloise, aren’t we? What’s she up to this time?” He was an Air Force combat controller who had served both in Afghanistan and as part of the relief effort a few years back after the massive earthquake which devastated Haiti. He was currently back on United States soil in Florida, training with his unit.

Mason knew what he meant. Calling Heloise eccentric would be an understatement. In her eighties, she had definite opinions and brooked no opposition to her plans and schemes. She meant well, but as his father had always said, she was capable of leaving a swath of destruction in family affairs that rivaled Sherman’s march to Atlanta.

“The first condition is that we have to stock the ranch with one hundred pair of cattle within twelve months of taking possession.”

“We should be able to do that,” Austin said.

“It’s going to take some doing to get that ranch up and running again,” Zane countered. “Zeke was already letting the place go years ago.”

“You have something better to do than fix the place up when you get out?” Mason asked him. He hoped Zane understood the real question: was he in or out?