This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales, is entirely coincidental.
RELAY PUBLISHING EDITION, OCTOBER 2019
Copyright © 2019 Relay Publishing Ltd.
All rights reserved. Published in the United Kingdom by Relay Publishing. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Mary Sue Jackson is a pen name created by Relay Publishing for co-authored Romance projects. Relay Publishing works with incredible teams of writers and editors to collaboratively create the very best stories for our readers.
Cover Design by Mayhem Cover Creations.
www.relaypub.com
Blurb
No man should be as sexy as Trey Cantor when he’s mucking out a horse stall. But then again, there’s no man quite like Trey.
Charity has known Trey all her life, but she can still appreciate a fine-looking man when she sees one, and Trey is far more to Charity than just a fine-looking man. He may have always seen her as his best friend’s little sister, but Charity’s all grown up and her crush on Trey has grown up too. If only she could get him to see her as a woman.
During a trip to buy Charity’s new barrel-racing horse, Trey’s floored—and a bit horrified—by how attracted he is to her. He wants to put her firmly in the friend zone, but his body disagrees. And when they get home, that attraction ignites all the way to the bedroom, leaving Trey riddled with guilt the morning after. He feels he’s betrayed the family who made his life bearable when he was young and dealing with a drunken, violent father. But what Trey is convinced was a mistake turns into so much more when Charity finds out she’s pregnant—with twins. Now, he’ll do right by her and support his children. He’ll take care of Charity, like he’s always done.
The only thing is, Charity insists she doesn’t want or need his help, thank you very much. She’s still stinging from his rejection after their night together, and refuses to marry him based on some duty or obligation. She wants a man who loves her, not just one who’s determined to do the “right” thing.
Yet as Charity’s pregnancy progresses, Trey realizes he can’t live without her, and he’ll do all he can to convince her they were meant to be.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Epilogue
End of The Cowboy’s Mistake
Thank you!
About Mary Sue Jackson
About Leslie
Sneak Peek: Snowed in with the Rancher
Also by Mary Sue
One
I’m in the market for a new horse.
And a boyfriend, Charity thought while she swiped her favorite lipstick on and popped her lips together, looking closely in the mirror to make sure it looked the way it should. Not that Trey Cantor would take one look at her and fall in love. Charity was pretty sure that if that was going to happen, it already would have by now. It didn’t matter that she thought he was the handsomest cowboy ever to walk the earth. She always had thought that, ever since she was a little girl, and she’d had plenty of opportunities to consider it because Trey was her brother Austin’s best friend.
Which meant he was also off-limits when it came to romance.
But he was not off-limits when it came to helping her buy a new horse, and that was exactly what Charity needed to do.
So, she might as well dress the part.
She put on jean shorts she knew he’d notice and a shirt just tight enough to display her…assets, and headed out the door.
She knew the road to Trey’s ranch like the back of her hand, because it was the same road she’d lived on all her life. The Millers’ sprawling property butted up to the back of Trey’s place. It had been his parents’ once, but it was all his now.
It was infuriating, really, how close they were and still so far. Trey’d gone on a few rodeo circuits with her brother after high school and then settled back in town. And even though they lived right next door—he still kept his distance. Of course, in Applewood it wasn’t so much space that Charity didn’t know things about him. She knew, for instance, that Trey had never really dated anyone, not longer than a few dates, anyway.
Even though the two properties shared a border, there was still a good bit of distance to Trey’s farmhouse and buildings. Charity lived in the center of the Miller ranch, in a little house that matched her brother’s. Her parents still lived in the big farmhouse. Charity and Austin still helped around the ranch when they weren’t off on their various circuits, but there was enough room for each of them to have their own little place.
A place in which Charity had spent plenty of time thinking of Trey.
She couldn’t help it. He was just what she…mused about while her mind was elsewhere. Charity tried to work out exactly what she’d say to him while she drove her little red truck down the road and up his long driveway. She ran through the old warm-up exercises she’d had to do as a kid for the lisp that had plagued her for years. The exercises came out of habit now, thoughtless, and she hardly realized she was doing them until she parked in front of the farmhouse. Exercises over. That would have to do.
There was no way he’d actually be in the farmhouse at this time of day, though. Trey spent most of his time with the horses he was training. He rarely went out on the rodeo circuit anymore—it had been Austin’s passion, more than his—so his days were dedicated to teaching those horses all they needed to know.
Charity gave herself a once-over in the window of her truck. She looked good. Maybe this time, Trey wouldn’t go with his usual route of patting her on the head and calling her kiddo. She was, after all, coming to him as one adult to another. About horses. Yes. Horses. He was an expert horse trainer, and she needed his expertise.
Charity found him, as she thought she would, in the barn.
He was busy mucking stalls.
With no shirt on.
She could see each one of his muscles, defined and strong, and she had to admit it took her breath away a little bit to see him like this. Trey was sweat- drenched with the work, his skin tanned and glowing. The years had been kind to him. More than kind. They’d been generous. As a teenager she’d found Trey ridiculously attractive, and now that he’d grown into his body—out of those puppy-dog hands and too-long arms—he looked even better. Her mouth watered as she traced the lines of his chest, the lean abs descending into the waistband of his jeans—
“Something I can do for you, Charity?”
She could not stop the rush of blood to her cheeks as she dragged her eyes up from to his face. Trey had one eyebrow raised above his deep brown eyes, and his chocolate hair was mussed from the work.
“Yes, Trey, in fact there is.” Charity gave him an unrepentant grin. “I want you to come to a horse auction with me.”
He cocked his head to the
side. “Why?”
“I saw Doc Owens today.”
“Oh?” Trey leaned the pitchfork he’d been holding against the wall of the barn and crossed his arms over his chest. “What’d she have to say?”
It twisted her heart a bit to repeat the news. “Lady needs to retire.” Lady had been her first winning horse, but after so many years on the barrel circuit, the mare’s body had had enough. Doc Owens had said as much just this morning. Part of Charity wanted to spend a week processing the news, but another part of her was excited to get started on finding a new partner for her work. “If I’m going to make my shows this summer, I need a new horse, and sooner rather than later.”
Trey considered her. “When’s the auction?”
“Sunday. But we’d have to leave on Saturday. It’s in Greenville.”
“Greenville, huh?”
“Yes. All the way in Greenville.” She wasn’t asking him to come to an auction downtown. It would take some travel to get there. This was going to be the hard sell, but Charity wasn’t going to let her nerves show.
“Your parents aren’t going?”
“They’re not in town. A long-overdue honeymoon to celebrate their thirty-fifth anniversary,” she offered. That was true. Her parents had never taken a real honeymoon, and they’d planned for months to take six weeks off and travel.
His eyes on hers made her entire body feel warm. Charity felt herself holding her breath and let it out. “I could come with you and offer advice.”
This wiped all the sadness for Lady out of her heart and replaced it with a bolt of excitement. Charity stifled the urge to clap her hands and settled for beaming at Trey instead. “Oh, that’s great. I’m—” I’m so excited I can hardly speak, Charity wanted to say. “I’m happy you’ll be there. I’ll need that advice.”
“Good.” Trey gave her a nod and reached for the pitchfork.
“I’ll meet you here Saturday morning, then?”
“Sounds fine.”
Charity watched him as he turned back to the stall. After a moment he must have felt her waiting.
“Was there something else, Charity?”
In fact, there was. And here in the sunny mid-afternoon light streaming into the barn, she decided to press her luck a little bit. “Once I make my choice, would you be willing to train my new horse?”
Trey threw a glance over his shoulder at her, and she saw something like heat flash into his eyes. “Oh, I don’t think so. I’ll be too busy around the farm to add another horse to the roster.”
She hesitated, feeling the tension lingering in the air between them. Life had taught her that taking risks could pan out, if you took enough of them…but she also knew that sometimes you had to quit while you were ahead. Trey had already agreed to go out of town with her. That would have to be enough for today.
“All right. See you Saturday.”
She savored his agreement for the rest of the day on Wednesday, spent Thursday daydreaming about him—though she’d never admit it—and on Friday night she could hardly sleep. It was five hours to the town where the auction was being held, and she’d booked two rooms at a local hotel. It wasn’t quite as sexy as staying in a room together, but at least they’d be under the same roof. That hadn’t happened since her brother was in high school.
Trey was coming down the stairs of his farmhouse with a duffel bag slung over his shoulder when she parked her truck in the driveway bright and early on Saturday morning, excitement zinging through her like the buzz from a good glass of beer. She rolled down the passenger side window. “Hop in.”
“Not a chance,” he called back, his voice rolling into the truck on the morning air. “I’m driving.”
“I’m already in the truck.”
Trey stepped closer to the window, and even from here, she could smell him—freshly showered, his shampoo and soap manly and clean. “You’re in this truck.” The smile he gave her felt like an inside joke, and her core heated with it.
“Sure, she’s old, but—” As if on cue, the truck gave a rusty rumble.
Trey raised both his eyebrows.
“All right. Where do you want me to park it?”
“That’a girl,” Trey said.
* * *
“How about a sandwich?”
Trey cut a glance at her from across the cab of the truck. His truck, unlike her little red one, was practically brand new. The leather still contained a whiff of the dealership. She had no idea how he managed to keep it like this, what with training horses for a living, but he did it nonetheless.
“You brought sandwiches?”
“You bet I did.” Charity pulled the oversized lunch bag from the back of the cab. “And coffee, too.” Two matching thermoses. She had no reason to tell Trey that she’d bought the thermoses just for this trip.
“Can’t say no to that.”
Charity pulled out the thermoses and a couple of sandwiches—ham, with mayonnaise, pickle slices, and cheddar cheese—and handed one over to Trey.
He took one look at the sandwich and laughed. “Ham sandwiches for breakfast?”
“Don’t tell me you haven’t already been up for hours, making sure the horses would be all right while we’re gone.”
“Fine.” His grin lit her up all over. “You didn’t need to go to all this trouble, kiddo.”
There it was—kiddo. And not an hour into their drive. That was not the attitude Charity wanted Trey to have about her—as if she was nothing more than her brother’s kid sister. It was ridiculous, anyway. She was only two years younger, and not a kid.
“A kiddo couldn’t make sandwiches like that. Only a thankful grown woman.” She said it lightly, but she felt Trey looking at her nonetheless.
“Thankful?”
“Thankful for you.” Charity turned to face him, watching the side of his face as he took a bite of the sandwich, chewed, swallowed. “You’re doing me a favor. The least I could do was pack some food.”
“It is the way to a man’s heart.”
“Any man’s heart, or yours?” Charity reached out and brushed her fingertips down the curve of her bicep.
It was bold. Maybe too bold. It hadn’t been her exact intention to flirt with him, but sitting here, this close, watching him eat the sandwich she’d prepared…well, she wanted him to think of her as anything other than kiddo.
Trey’s jaw tightened, but he only took another bite of the sandwich. After a long pause, he said, “I get hungry like anyone else.”
“But what about when you’re not hungry?”
“What?”
“I mean…what about when you’re hungry for more than just food?” Charity half wanted to steer the conversation onto neutral territory and half wanted to see if she could rile him up. Double entendres about dinner could be the ticket. “What about when you’re looking for a really good meal, one that maybe you wouldn’t let yourself have under normal circumstances? What would you want then, if not ham sandwiches?”
Trey kept his eyes glued to the road. “I can’t think of a single meal I’d deny myself if I really wanted it.”
“I don’t believe that.” Charity swung her body to face him. “I know for a fact you don’t eat steak every day of your life.”
“Well, yeah, but I’m not denying myself steak. I’m only eating like a normal man.”
“Don’t you…see it at the store, though? At the meat counter? And think to yourself how good it would be if you took it home and grilled it up?”
Another grin spread across his face. “Are you saying you should have cooked us a couple of steaks for the road?”
“I’m saying—” She didn’t know what she was saying. “I’m saying that the road is where you can be real with one another. You know. What happens in Vegas, and all that.” She hadn’t brought up steaks, making herself hungry, for nothing. In her heart of hearts Charity badly wanted Trey to admit that he wanted her at least as much as he wanted a fancy meal.
Trey laughed again, popped the last of his sandwic
h into his mouth, and reached over to ruffle her hair. “This isn’t Vegas, kiddo.”
The word echoed over and over in her mind for the rest of the drive, even while she tried her best to steer their conversation toward anything deeper than Trey’s determined small talk. No matter how much she tried to get Trey to engage, he kept things light and jokey, holding her at arms’ length. It made the topic of the horse auction seem very serious.
By the time they reached the hotel, she was frustrated at being stymied and hopped out of the truck the moment he pulled under its awning. “I’ll check us in while you park,” she said, then shut the door before he could say anything.
Up at the counter, she ran a hand through her hair and sighed. She had half a mind to pretend she’d only booked one room—that would show him—but the representative was busy with a family ahead of her in line. By the time she stepped up to the counter, Trey had sidled up beside her, both their bags in his hands.
So much for that single room.
Charity checked in, pressing the little envelope into Trey’s big palm. “There it is. A hotel room all to yourself.”
He raised his eyebrows again for only a fraction of a second. “You all right, Charity?”
No, she wanted to say. I’ve been stuck in a car with you for hours and it makes me want to leap right onto your lap and kiss you. Do you even know what it’s like to have to breathe you in for that long? Torture! Sheer torture! And stop calling me kiddo!
“Just hungry.”
“We should get some dinner then.”
The Cowboy’s Mistake Page 1
