by Sable Sylvan
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Epilogue
The Cinderella Hoedown
Fated Mate Speed Date, Book 1
Sable Sylvan
Sable Sylvan
Copyright © 2017 by Sable Sylvan/Heather Davies
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Contents
The Cinderella Hoedown
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
Epilogue
Sneak Peek: “The Rapunzel Rodeo”
About the Author
The Cinderella Hoedown
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There's no way you'd catch Kelly Dean at a speed dating event…unless her best friend, Savina, had something to do with it. There's also no way you'd find the no-nonsense BBW in the company of three different alpha male cowboys in the span of under a week, but when werebears after their fated mates get mixed with women who are two parts sass, one part curves, you'll find anything can happen. The only question is, will this Texas fairytale end with this Cinderella finding her Prince Charming…and her lost shoes?
Kelly's a recent college grad keeping herself busy by helping her friend Savina organize the first ever Fallowedirt Hoedown, a celebration of the town's recent economic growth. Part of that growth has come in the form of the McCarthy Dude Ranch, home to a veritable bounty of hot shifter men. Kelly's far too busy to date one man, much less three hot-blooded cowboy werebears who all want to claim her as their fated mate. She definitely doesn't have time for their drama. While these cowboys might be experts at driving cattle, it seems all these shifters can do with Kelly is drive her away.
Jeff, Tom, and Will may seem similar, but the three grizzly bear cowboys couldn't be more different. All-American Jeff can't stand local bad boy Will, and neither can stand the out of towner, Tom the doctor. These three grizzlies can barely get along on the ranch, working side by side. How are they supposed to manage to menage? The clock's ticking, and while these three fight, the hoedown swiftly approaches, and Kelly's curves are sashaying right back out of town. Which one of these cowboys will win Kelly's heart?
Chapter One
As Kelly Dean walked down Main Street, something interrupted her banter with her best friend, Savina Quincy-Scoville. It was something that was part hot, part spicy, and one hundred percent pure Texas. It was the smell of barbecue, and it seemed to be emanating from the very direction they were heading. Kelly’s stomach rumbled. She was hungrier than she’d felt in months. A day spent planning a major event, without breaks, would do that to a gal.
“Hello? Earth to Kelly?” asked Savina, waving her hand in front of Kelly’s face. “Hello?”
“Oh, sorry,” said Kelly. She’d been staring at the brightly lit red neon sign reading ‘The Matchstick Grill’ which was the brightest thing on what counted as a ‘main drag’ in Fallowedirt, Texas. The sleepy town had gone through a transformation in the last year since an infusion of Scandinavian funds had turned the hamlet from ghost town to tourist spot. Kelly turned back to Savina. Savina was one of the few people that could keep up with Kelly, even in Savina’s current state.
“I swear, Kelly, I don’t know what to do with you,” said Savina. “It seems you’re more interested in a hot meal than a hot man! Is this something that will happen to me when I go back for junior and senior year, once I have this baby and am done taking maternity leave…err, I mean, my ‘gap year’?”
“Have you seen what passes for hot men in our town?” asked Kelly. “You didn’t settle for a townie yourself.”
“First off, there’s a lot of hot guys in our town,” said Savina. “You’d be surprised how some of them have changed since high school. Secondly, I’m flattered you think I’ve settled. Guess this would make this Mason’s way of trapping me.” Savina rubbed her stomach.
“You know I didn’t mean it like that,” said Kelly, embarrassed.
“What, you saying that he’s the one settling?” teased Savina. “After all, don’t they say that one person’s always the reacher, and one person, well, they’re always the settler?”
“They do say that,” said Kelly. “But you and Mason…well, you two go together like hot sauce and hot dogs.”
“Maybe if I’d had more wieners in my mouth, I wouldn’t have a baby in my tummy,” joked Savina.
“Sav, I’m glad married life hasn’t tempered your fire,” said Kelly. “You and Mace have something that’s, well, out of a fairy tale.”
“Trust me, married life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be,” said Savina seriously, before cracking up. “Oh, who am I kidding? Mason’s loaded. I can do whatever I want, whenever I want. Being a billionaire polar bear shifter’s fated mate means the world is my oyster.”
“Well…I can think of something you can’t do,” said Kelly.
“Something that I’d want to do?” asked Savina.
“Hell yes,” said Kelly. “There’s no way that you could have some whiskey and steak with me tonight. Aren’t pregnant ladies supposed to stay away from bloody meats and bloody good alcohol?”
“Come on, Kelly, you really have to play me like that?” asked Savina, crossing her arms. “You know I’d kill for that tonight. I’m going to end up with chicken breast and a green smoothie tonight. Yuck.”
“Okay, okay, sorry,” said Kelly.
“Sorry?” asked Savina, gears turning between her ears. “Not good enough.”
“Really?” asked Kelly.
“Yeah, really!” said Savina. “You know you can’t taunt a Quincy girl about her meat or her liquor. It’s going to take more than just a sorry to get back on my good side.”
“Okay, shoot,” said Kelly. “You want me to be put on babysitting duty for a month after you give birth? Three months?”
“Tempting, but I’m in the mood for some of that immediate gratification,” said Savina. “You know…the stuff you’re taunting me about.”
“No need to flog a dead horse shifter,” said Kelly. “What exactly do you want from me?”
“Go to my grandparent’s event tonight,” said Savina.
“Their event?” asked Kelly. “What, like a knitting club?”
“Trust me. This is no knitting club,” said Savina. ”They’re not looking to make blankets. They’re looking to make matches.”
“Matches?” asked Kelly. “You don’t mean…”
“Oh, but I do,” said Savina. “They’re calling it ‘Fated Mate Speed Date.’ It’s for shifters looking to find their fated mates, and the people that love’m…or that could fall in love with’m.”
“Hell no!” said Kelly. “I can’t do that. I’m not in any position to be anyone’s fated mate. Being tied down to one man for the r
est of my life? Finding true love? Dating a serious man, much less an alpha male who can turn into a beast at the drop of a hat? No way, no how.”
“You just said that you would do anything to get back on my good side,” said Savina with a smirk before taking on a more serious tone. “It’s also their first night running the event, and well…I’m worried that not enough people will show, especially women. It’d genuinely mean a lot to me if you went. You don’t even have to walk out of there with a guy! You just have to go and fill a seat.”
Kelly opened her purse and fished her wallet out.
“I don’t have any cash on hand,” said Kelly.
“Lucky for you, I have a ticket,” said Savina. She pulled an envelope out of her purse and passed it to Kelly.
“Why do I have a feeling you woke up today with the goal of getting my ass through those doors?” asked Kelly.
“Because I absolutely did,” teased Savina. “You need to get out more, Kell. I know that you haven’t had the best luck in dating, but neither had I. You don’t need to be great at dating. You just need to find one person you want to spend the rest of your life with. How fuckin’ hard could that be?”
“Uh, real hard when you look like this,” said Kelly, motioning over her body.
“Did you lose confidence in your curves?” asked Savina. Any insult Kelly gave herself was an insult to Savina as well, for Savina and Kelly could pass for sisters. Kelly was only two years older than Savina, and they shared the same clothing size…or had, until recent events.
“No, stupid,” said Kelly. “I mean…in this outfit. We’ve been painting signs all day, and somehow, it manages to make you look like a rock star, while I look like I just escaped a mental hospital.”
“Guess that means you’re going to have to have a crazy time tonight,” said Savina. “Come on. The event’s starting soon, and walking slowly won’t get you out of attending.”
Savina took Kelly’s arm into hers and walked with her down the street. It was enough to make Kelly want to roll her eyes. How come Savina could walk down the street as proudly as if she was the Queen of England while covered from head to toe with spots of acrylic paint? She’d splattered her jewel-toned floral dress with all shades of the rainbow from red and yellow to puce and brown, yet it made Savina look like she’d just stepped out of a fashion spread focused on haute couture maternity fashion.
Kelly looked down at her outfit. She’d worn all black clothes as knock-around clothes that she wasn’t afraid of ruining, and now, she looked like someone dressing up as an artist for Halloween. She saw the people entering The Matchstick Grill, and in contrast to her, none of them looked messy. There were girls in sundresses and bountiful bunches of blonde curls tied with gingham ribbons. There were men in button-up shirts and sports coats who’d shaved their five-o-clock shadows. None of them looked like they would even want to touch Kelly with a ten-foot pole.
Savina let go of Kelly’s arm once she was in front of the saloon-style batwing doors, but Kelly followed Savina to the back of the restaurant, where the rest of the joint Quincy-Scoville family was gathered around their fleet of cars, ready to head back to their manor on the outskirts of town.
Savina turned to see Kelly trailing her.
“Nuh-uh-uh,” said Savina, turning tail and taking Kelly by the arm again. “Guess I’m going to have to walk you in myself!”
“Couldn’t fool you that easily, could I?” asked Kelly with a sigh. “Do I really have to do this? I’m underdressed.”
“Anyone who passes you over because your sneakers are a bit dingy is somebody I’d pass over myself,” insisted Savina.
“Wait, my sneakers are dingy?” asked Kelly, looking down at her shoes, but when she looked back up, Savina was already walking away and waving at her.
Kelly turned around and looked at the restaurant. A large banner reading ‘Fated Mate Speed Date’ was draped along the upper part of the wall. It hadn’t just been an elaborate prank on Savina’s part.
Kelly took one final breath of fresh air and walked into the restaurant, toward a table staffed by two elderly people.
“Why, if I’m not wrong, it’s Miss Kelly Dean!” said Grandma Quiggly. “Hopefully, I’ll have to start calling you Missus Kelly Dean!”
“You do get straight to the point, Grandma Quiggly,” said Kelly, using the honorific that Grandma Quiggly had insisted everyone call her. She was the maternal grandmother of the Quincy sisters and happened to share a similar surname. “Looks like you and Grandpa Scoville have been up to no good since I last saw you two. That must’ve been at the barbecue at the start of the summer.”
“Well, you know, we’re going to have to mug you now,” said Grandpa Scoville with a wink. “It’s twenty dollars for a ticket.”
“Oh, I have a ticket,” said Kelly.
“A ticket?” asked Grandpa Scoville, looking to Grandma Quiggly, confused.
“Yeah, I got it from Savina,” said Kelly. She pulled the envelope out of her purse and passed it to Grandma Quiggly.
Grandma Quiggly opened the envelope and pulled out a torn lined journal page. On the paper was a scrawled message, written in messy handwriting, reading, ‘I.O.U., Grandma, XOXO Savina.’ Grandma Quiggly couldn’t help but burst out laughing, and it spread to Grandpa Scoville, who showed the note to Kelly, whose cheeks turned bright red.
“I’m so sorry,” said Kelly as she pulled her purse out. “I had no idea Savina was pranking me. Here—”
“Don’t worry about it,” said Grandpa Scoville. “The laugh we got more than pays for your ticket.”
“Speak for yourself!” said Grandma Quiggly. “I’m going to have to dip into Savina’s wallet tomorrow or give her twenty spanks, one for each dollar she’s stiffing me tonight!”
“Nah, I’m sure the event is sold out, and I should be on my way,” said Kelly. “Plus, I’m a little, well…” Kelly motioned to her body.
“Don’t you dare talk about your curves that way!” snapped Grandma Quiggly before calming herself. “Sorry, dear, I just meant that…you should be proud of your looks, your body. The best kind of men are the ones that can appreciate such a feminine form. Take it from me. I’ve been a very…very…very happy woman. The best thing I passed onto my granddaughters, well, it has to be my curves first, my sass second.”
“No, I mean, aren’t I underdressed for this?” asked Kelly.
“Underdressed? Well, heavens to Betsy, you aren’t comparing yourself to the people here right now, are you?” asked Grandma Quiggly. “I mean no disrespect to anyone, but…bless their ‘basic’ little hearts. I haven’t seen anything so ‘extra’ as that girl’s number over there since…well, since the last time I saw her, bless her heart. I am using ‘basic’ and ‘extra’ correctly, right?”
“Of course you are,” said Kelly, in awe that Grandma Quiggly had picked up that slang, but knowing exactly who she must’ve picked the words up from: Savina. The sass, however, was all Grandma Quiggly’s.
“Those aren’t the people you are here to meet,” said Grandma Quiggly, passing Kelly her sign-up form. “Let the ordinary people mingle and mate. There’s no crime in them being mediocre. But you…well, you’re someone special. You don’t want to come to this kind of event and hide that. There are a few very eligible young men I know will be coming tonight, so hold out for them. Don’t let your story become a boring one, okay, darlin’?”
“All right, all right,” said Kelly, filling out the sign-up form, which asked for far more information than Kelly expected.
“And besides…anyone who comes to this restaurant wearing clothes they aren’t afraid to get messy, well, they aren’t a true ‘foodie,’ now are they?” asked Grandpa Scoville.
“Guess you should call this a ‘meat and greet’,” joked Kelly, passing the sign-up form back to Grandma Quiggly, who gave Kelly a randomly assigned number from a bowl and a wristband. “Wish me luck!”
Kelly went and got a drink from the bar, which was sectioned off from the res
t of the restaurant, done up in an old Western border saloon style. She just had to show her wristband, and she was able to order the drink of her choice, and tonight, the poison of choice was two shots of whiskey: one for her, one for the gal who had got her into this mess to begin with. Twenty bucks for a night of free drinks and free meat wasn’t bad, except for the whole ‘socializing with strangers she could never see herself with in a million years’ part.
“All that liquor for one little lady?” asked a familiar voice. Male, husky, and deep, it was going to take a little liquid courage for Kelly to face whoever owned such a gruff voice…and to come up with a decent retort to his pesky question.
“Get your eyes checked, because I don’t know who the Hell you’re calling ‘little,’” said Kelly, taking the first shot.
“You’ve got a mouth on you now, Kelly Dean,” said the voice.
“H-how do you know my name?” asked Kelly, her voice breaking as she took the second shot quickly. She tried to see who was talking to her out of the corner of her eye, but the stranger was leaning against the bar, facing out toward the restaurant’s tables, a cowboy hat tilted over his face.
“You really don’t remember me, do you?” asked the man as Kelly turned to face him.
“You some kind of a stalker?” asked Kelly.
“Never been called that before, but for you, I think I could make an exception,” said the man. He tilted his hat up to wink at Kelly, and the glimmer of blue shining in the low light of the bar area was all that Kelly needed to see to know exactly who she was looking at.
Tall. Firm body. A red and black flannel shirt messily rolled up to the elbows, a pair of black leather cowboy boots and even darker jeans, and the scent of hay and animals. None of this fit the man’s usual description, at least, the description he’d had the last time Kelly had met him. A familiar glint of blue seemed to glow from underneath the hat’s brim, a shade of blue as light as the sky yet as vibrant as the surf.
