The Chestnut Ranch Cowboy Billionaire Boxed Set: Three Sweet Cowboy Billionaire Novels (Chestnut Ranch Boxed Sets Book 1)

by Emmy Eugene

  “I am,” Kadence said, gripping the side of the truck as she scooted to the edge of the tailgate. Russ stayed close by in case she toppled out of the truck, but she managed to get down easily. Henry Stokes didn’t seem like the type of man to own a pickup truck, but Russ reminded himself that Janelle and her kids did live in Texas. A lot of people drove trucks.

  Kelly got down just fine too, and Russ met them everyone at the front of the vehicle. “Okay,” he said. “I have a lot of wood cut. We need to build sections like these.” He walked down past the huge hole he’d dug, which now had the cement foundation curing inside it.

  “Two tall ones,” Kelly said. “With these in between.”

  “Yep,” he said, picking up one small section of what they’d use to frame in the walls. “I have all of these smaller ones cut, and my brother and I marked where they go.” He moved over to the trailer they’d first used to haul away the dirt. It now rested out near the fields, where it would be plowed into the ground before they planted their crops for next year.

  “So you take a smaller one,” he said, lifting one out of the trailer. “And you have to be real steady. We don’t go trying to hammer something in our hands.” He took the two boards a little farther down, where several sawhorses waited. “This here is called the stud,” he said, laying the long piece of wood across three sawhorses.

  “The sawhorses support it at a height where we can sand it, cut it, or nail into it.” He turned and looked at the girls, Janelle included. “You with me?”

  “Yes, sir,” the two little girls said.

  “Your mom or I will put the studs here,” he said. “And you get to attach what we call the blocking.” He smiled at them and bent to pick up two child-sized hammers he’d purchased last night. He handed one to each girl. “Nails are in the bin on this here sawhorse.”

  He wasn’t as carpentry inclined as Travis, but Russ did love seeing a building come together. He could measure, cut, nail, and make things line up. And he and Travis had spent a couple of hours that morning already, marking a couple dozen studs with blue marks for where the horizontal support blocks should go.

  He’d be making the doorframes and attaching them to sections of prepared frames, and he’d teach Janelle how to take the studs with their blocking and put the ceiling plates and sole plates on them to make them sturdy, square, and strong.

  “I think it’s easiest to nail down,” he said. “So what you do is you take your blocking and you line it up with the blue mark we put on the stud. See?” He held the block in place. He was well-aware that he’d done this a thousand times before. For him, it was like pouring milk on cereal. For the girls, they probably hadn’t seen anything like this in their lives. He waited to make sure they’d all nodded, and then he looked at Janelle.

  “Can you hold that block there, sweetheart?”

  Their eyes met, and the heat from her gaze made every cell in his body light up. He thanked his momma for calling him honey, sweetheart, baby, and darling for his whole life. Saying such things was simply second-nature to him, and he sure did like the way Janelle looked at him when he did.

  “Right here?” she asked, putting her hands on the block and keeping it in place.

  “Yep.” Russ inched to the side. “You guys can work together, and you can stand on opposite sides of the stud. Okay?”

  “Okay,” Kelly said, her fingers gripping her hammer a little too tightly.

  “Hands out of the way,” Russ said. “Then you line up the nail.” He did so. “And drive it in.” Five taps of the hammer, and he was done. “Easy.”

  For him, he knew.

  Kadence stared at the wood and then Russ, her mouth slightly open. “Kel, I want to hammer.”

  “I was going to say that,” the other girl said.

  “You can take turns,” Janelle said.

  “And we’re not done,” Russ said, glancing around at all of them. Janelle looked the teensiest bit frustrated, but Russ didn’t know why. A powerful feeling of…love came over him, and he had no idea what to do with it.

  He looked around, his train of thought derailed. “Uh…” He caught sight of a longer section of wall. “Right. Then you can lay the stud and blocking on the ground.” He did so, making sure he didn’t hit anyone as he moved the long stud. “And you attach another stud to the other side of the blocking. They go straight in, ladies.” He pointed straight horizontally through the stud to the blocking. “Okay?”

  “Okay,” they all chorused, and Russ grinned as he looked around at them.

  “So we’ve got things for y’all to work on, and we’ll help you get a good rhythm going.” He looked at Janelle. “I’m going to have you cap the frames as they make them.”

  “Oh, boy,” she said. “Sounds hard.”

  “It’s super easy,” he said, shaking his head.

  “Mornin’ y’all.”

  Russ turned at the sound of Travis’s voice, a bit of relief pulling through him that he had more help. “Hey, Travis.” He wanted to rush over to his brother and hug him for a reason he couldn’t name. He didn’t, but grinned at him and adjusted his cowboy hat. “This is my brother, Travis. Travis, you remember Janelle Stokes.”

  “Of course,” Travis said, a perfectly placed smile on his face. He stepped forward and shook Janelle’s hand.

  She likewise smiled at him and said, “Nice to see you again, Travis.” She immediately retreated back to Russ’s side, and he sure did like that.

  “And her daughters,” Russ said, looking at the girls who had also come to stand on his other side, as if they belonged to him. Emotion crowded into his throat, making everything tight for a moment. “Kelly’s the oldest.” He nodded at her. “And Kadence is the youngest.”

  “Are you guys going to help us build this new place for the dogs?” As if on cue, Winner barked, and Russ glanced over at her.

  “And the dogs,” he said. “Winner, Thunder, and Cloudy.”

  Kadence squealed and ran toward the mutts, lavishing them all with hugs and scratches behind the ears. Winner barked at her and licked her face, which caused Russ to laugh. He sure did like having these small people on the ranch, and he thought he was doing a decent job of interacting with them.

  “Millie all set up with the chickens?” he asked Travis.

  His brother looked back toward the barns and pens where they kept goats, chickens, and horses. “Yeah. I hope she doesn’t get pecked or anything. She seemed a little freaked out about going into the coop.”

  Russ chuckled and shook his head. “She’ll be fine.”

  “Millie Hepworth?” Janelle asked.

  “That’s right,” Travis said, looking at her. “She’s working out here today.” He looked back at Russ, who was surprised Travis didn’t claim Millie as his girlfriend. “I’ll go out to the well once she’s done. Take her with me in case I need help clearing the debris.”

  “Sounds good,” Russ said. Travis had never taken anyone out to the well to help before, and he knew by the time Millie finished with the feeding, Travis would be ready to be alone with her.

  Russ turned back to the girls, his thoughts suddenly on being alone with their mother. “All right,” he said. “Who’s starting with the hammer?”

  “Me,” both girls said in unison, and Russ sent laughter into the sky.

  “Kelly can start,” Janelle said. Kadence immediately started to protest, and Russ had no idea what to do about the whining. Janelle simply waited for her to stop and then she said, “Kade, you got to do all the dogs this morning. You went first for that. Kelly gets to go first for this.”

  Kadence pouted, but she said, “Fine,” and turned to go get a block.

  Russ slipped his hand into Janelle’s, impressed by how she’d handled the situation. He would’ve had no idea what to do, and flipping a coin to see who got to nail first had sounded like a good idea to him.

  Janelle squeezed his hand and leaned her head against his shoulder. “Thanks for having us, Russ.”

  “It�
�s so great you’re here,” he whispered, dropping her hand and moving to reposition the stud so Kelly could put in the second horizontal support.

  Russ served taco soup for lunch, and Millie pulled out her party planning folder. The conversation didn’t go super well until Janelle jumped in with a comment about apple fizzers. Russ appreciated her then, and he knew Travis did too.

  Rex had made some smart comments about the food until Millie glared him into silence, and the ranch hands just watched everything. Russ felt somewhat exposed, having his girlfriend and her family there, and he knew he’d have to talk about it next time he got together with Darren and Brian to play cards.

  And he’d have to talk to Travis too, see how the conversation at the well with Millie had gone.

  For some reason, he wanted everyone out of the homestead, and he asked, “Back to work?” to get everyone to clear out. Darren, Brian, and Tomas thanked him for lunch and left through the back door.

  Rex and Griffin went to catch a siesta on the couch, their usual midday activity. Russ took Janelle’s hand in his and leaned right into her. “I want be alone with you,” he whispered.

  She tensed next to him, but her face lit up. “Girls,” she said. “Why don’t you go play in the backyard for a few minutes before we get back to work?”

  Travis started cleaning up the kitchen while the girls ran into the backyard. Russ didn’t know where to take Janelle to be alone with her. But he desperately wanted to kiss her, and he could not let her leave that day without doing it.

  With the kitchen clean, Millie and Travis went into the formal living room, already talking about the party again.

  He had no idea where to take her. He had brothers everywhere. Kids in the yard. They didn’t have time for a walk, and he sure didn’t want to kiss her in a shed or a smelly stable.

  Then Janelle was tugging on his hand and leading him into the small half-bath off the kitchen. “Really?” he whispered.

  “You wanted to be alone,” she said, ducking inside with a smile.

  Russ closed the door, the space not terribly big. His heart pounded in his chest, and he mentally commanded himself to calm down. He’d kissed this woman before.

  But this felt new, and exciting. He felt like he was fourteen and sneaking off for his first kiss with the hottest girl in school.

  Janelle wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned into his body. “Why’d you want to get me alone, cowboy?”

  Russ gazed down at her, easily accepting her into his arms. “How do you think things are going?” he asked.

  “Great,” she said. “You?”

  “Amazing.” He whispered the word as he lowered his head. His cowboy hat got in the way, and he swiped it off his head and tried again. His lips touched hers hesitantly at first, and then he pulled in a breath and kissed her.

  He felt fused to her after that, wanting her to know that everything about her amazed him. That he sure did like her, and he didn’t want to her to welcome anyone else into her life. Just him. Only him.

  “Janelle,” he breathed, breaking the kiss.

  But she formed her mouth to his again, and Russ sure wasn’t complaining.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Janelle loved kissing Russ Johnson. Simple as that. The man made her feel like the only woman in the world worth having, and she hadn’t felt like that for a long, long time.

  Discovering Henry’s infidelity had been terribly hard for her. She’d learned a lot through the experience, and she thought she made a more sympathetic lawyer now for her female—and male—clients who came in looking for a divorce because their spouse had been unfaithful to them.

  She’d felt thrown away. Used. Like she’d never be good enough for anyone again.

  Her husband had chosen someone else over her, his wife, because he didn’t care about her. Didn’t love her.

  But when Janelle kissed Russ, all of that disappeared. He cared about her, and he wanted her to know it.

  His hands moved through her hair, down her shoulders, and back up to cradle her face. She couldn’t stop kissing him, and he wasn’t slowing down either.

  She felt twenty years younger, making out with a man in the most unlikely of places. But it didn’t matter. All that mattered was Russ. The smell of his skin, his cologne. The touch of his hands. The taste of his lips.

  She couldn’t get close enough to him, though he’d backed her into the wall and pressed himself right against her.

  “Janelle,” he said again, and she didn’t reunite their mouths.

  “Hmm?”

  He didn’t speak, instead sliding his lips along her throat. She leaned her head back and clung to his shoulders, fire exploding down into her chest as he kissed his way up to her ear. She wasn’t sure, but she might have moaned. Everything felt liquid, like it wasn’t quite solid or real.

  “Baby?” he asked, finally removing his mouth from her skin.

  “Yeah?”

  He pressed his cheek right against hers, positioning his mouth close to her ear. “Do you want more kids?”

  She pulled in a long breath, imagining what a child with Russ’s DNA mingled with hers might look like. “Yeah,” she whispered. “You want your own kids, right?”

  He backed up enough so they could look at one another. “I’d love your girls as my own,” he said. “But I do want a child or two that comes from me.”

  Janelle pressed her lips to his again, relinquishing control of the kiss to him immediately. He moved slowly now, though the kiss was still full of passion and desire and hunger. She loved that the most—the fact that Russ acted like he couldn’t get enough of her.

  Everything in the world felt far away, muted, as she focused on kissing Russ. She’d been in love before, and she sure felt like she was sliding in that direction with him. And fast.

  She became aware of someone whistling at the same time someone opened the door. Russ pulled away from her and looked over his shoulder as Rex swore. He stomped away, leaving the door open so his footsteps echoed right into the bathroom.

  Janelle couldn’t help the giggles that erupted from her throat. Forty-one and caught making out in the bathroom, of all places.

  Russ didn’t laugh with her, but stepped back and picked up his cowboy hat from the floor. “We better go check on the girls,” he said. He didn’t leave her standing in the bathroom alone, but waited for her to make sure her T-shirt was covering her properly. She also ran her hands through her hair to straighten where he’d mussed it with his big, cowboy hands.

  She shivered as she thought about those hands touching her in other places, and then she left the bathroom with him. Thankfully, they didn’t see anyone else in the homestead as they made a quick escape through the back door.

  A wail filled the air, and Janelle’s excitement waned. “That’s Kadence. Sorry, she and Kelly have been going through a stage where they fight all the time.”

  “You don’t have to apologize to me,” Russ said. “I grew up with four brothers, remember? And one of them just walked in on us and didn’t seem too happy about it.”

  “He didn’t, did he?” Janelle gave another light laugh and headed for the swing set where Kadence had her arms folded as Kelly benignly swung in one of the swings. Probably the one Kadence wanted—or had already claimed. Kelly seemed innocent a lot of the time, but she was just quieter about her defiance.

  All three of the dogs Russ had introduced them to earlier loitered nearby the girls, and Janelle thought the canines made pretty good babysitters.

  “Yeah, I’ll have to talk to Rex about it,” Russ said with a sigh. “And that won’t be fun.”

  Kelly shook her head, and Kadence wailed again. “Yeah, this isn’t fun either, so I understand.” She dropped Russ’s hand as they approached the girls. “Kade, what’s going on?”

  “She said I can’t swing because I’m a baby.” Kadence glared at her sister for an extra moment and then ran toward Janelle.

  She received her youngest daughter into her arms whil
e glaring at her oldest. Kelly didn’t even look up from the ground as she continued to sway back and forth in the swing. She hugged Kadence while she tried to figure out what to do.

  “I’ll take her,” Russ said, easily taking Kadence right out of Janelle’s arms. “We’ll go visit the horses. You want to, Kadence?”

  “Mm hm,” the little girl said, still sniffling. She clung to Russ as if he were her father, and the strong, sexy cowboy walked away with the little girl wrapped around him. But he was the one wrapped around her little finger, Janelle knew that.

  She sighed as she took the last few steps to the other swing and sat down. “Kelly, what’s goin’ on?”

  “Nothing.”

  Janelle toed the ground, which set her to swaying too. “Why can’t you just let Kadence swing too? There’s two swings.”

  Kelly looked up at her. “I want to go see Daddy this weekend.”

  Confusion pulled through Janelle, making her eyebrows pinch downward. “What?”

  “He called and said he’s in town and wants to see us. He said he went to the house, and we weren’t there.”

  Janelle held her breath, because she hated with the heat of a volcano that Henry called Kelly without her knowledge. But he’d bought her a phone that only did texts and calls, and he was her father. He and Janelle had exchanged words about it a dozen times, but the fact was, Henry did what Henry wanted.

  Always.

  Janelle wished she could tell Kelly that, but she never had and she wouldn’t.

  “He hasn’t called me,” Janelle said, taking out her phone. “Look.” She handed the phone to Kelly, who did look at it.

  “Can you call him?” She handed the phone back. “When I told Kadence, she whined—she’s always whining—and said she didn’t want to go with Daddy. But I do.”

  Janelle gazed out over the peaceful land at Chestnut Ranch. She didn’t want to drive her daughter back into town for Henry, but she sure didn’t want him coming out here. It angered her that he’d gone to the house too, because that was just another ploy to try to get back into Janelle’s life.