The More Mavericks, the Merrier!

by Brenda Harlen

  Her mother smiled. “I know you do.”

  “I tried not to,” she admitted. “But he’s it for me.”

  “That’s how it was for me with your father,” Maureen confided, lifting a hand to tuck a wayward curl behind her daughter’s ear. “I’m glad you didn’t straighten your hair today—I like the natural look.”

  “I thought I had to change to get Jamie’s attention,” she confessed. “But as it turns out, he likes the real me. He loves the real me.”

  “Because he’s as smart as he is handsome,” her mother remarked.

  “Speaking of smart and handsome men—let’s go find your husband before the guests start arriving.”

  It seemed as if all of the residents of Rust Creek Falls showed up to wish Paddy and Maureen O’Reilly a happy anniversary. Some folks just passed through to offer a brief “congratulations” while others settled in for a longer visit with friends and neighbors and to enjoy the food and drink provided. Even Homer Gilmore stopped by to offer his best wishes. While the old man was in the house, Fallon kept a close eye on him to ensure that he never got close enough to the punch bowl to spike the fruity drink Brenna had prepared.

  It was close to five o’clock when Jamie showed up.

  She hadn’t been certain that he would come. She’d invited him and Bella and Dana, but she knew the three siblings had a lot of catching up to do and she wouldn’t have blamed them for skipping the party.

  Hudson and Bella came in first, with Bella carrying Henry. Dana followed with Jared in her arms, then Jamie walked through the door with Katie. It was readily apparent that the newly found Stockton sister had already fallen head over heels in love with her niece and nephews, and it warmed Fallon’s heart to see them all together, to see that the bond they’d shared as children had not been broken by the time or distance that had separated them.

  There were still four other siblings to be found, but she knew that Jamie would find them. She’d helped him take the first step; now it was time for her to step back and let the Stocktons figure out their family.

  She tried to make her way to him through the crowd but was halted in her tracks when Paddy put his fingers between his lips and whistled to silence the crowd.

  “Sorry to interrupt, folks, but I wanted to take a few minutes to thank you all for coming today to celebrate our anniversary with Maureen and me.”

  The crowd cheered and applauded, but Paddy—an Irishman to the bone—wasn’t even close to being done.

  “I’d also like to make a couple of toasts,” he said, “so make sure your glasses are full.

  “First, and most important on this day, to my always beautiful and amazing wife. These first thirty years have been a heck of a ride, and I’m looking forward to the next three decades—and more.”

  The crowd applauded and cheered.

  “I’d also like to toast our children who, through the many challenges they presented to us over the years, taught Maureen and me a lot about the trials and tribulations of parenting.”

  There was, predictably, some laughter to follow that.

  “But seriously, when Maureen and I exchanged our vows, we were united in our desire not just to spend our lives together but to fill our home with children. We were fortunate to be blessed with Ronan, Keegan, Fiona, Brenna and Fallon, who have enriched our lives in more ways than we ever would have thought possible. And who will hopefully further enrich our lives by giving us the wonderful gift of grandchildren someday.”

  There was more laughter and the clinking of glasses again, then Fallon saw Jamie hand his daughter to Hudson and step forward. Her heart hammered against her ribs as her mind wondered, what was he doing?

  “Since you brought up the topic,” Jamie said, addressing her father, “I was wondering if you’d mind having your lives enriched by grandchildren sooner rather than later?”

  Paddy’s bushy brows lifted to meet his hairline. “I’d guess that would depend on the circumstances,” he said. “What, exactly, are you asking?”

  Fallon held her breath, waiting for Jamie’s response. Thankfully, he didn’t make her wait long. Through the crowd, his eyes found and held hers as he said, “I’m asking for your daughter’s hand in marriage.”

  And Fallon’s heart swelled to fill her chest.

  But it was Brenna who piped up to say, “And I accept.”

  Paddy chuckled as several other guests began to whisper about this unexpected turn of events and Jamie’s face turned red.

  “I guess you should have been more specific,” the O’Reilly patriarch suggested.

  Jamie nodded. “I would like to ask for Fallon’s hand in marriage,” he clarified.

  Brenna let out an exaggerated sigh. “You’re dumping me already?”

  Fallon elbowed her sister sharply in the ribs as laughter sounded around the room. She couldn’t imagine it had been easy for Jamie to make a public declaration of his feelings and she didn’t want him to shy away now. Not when he was so close to finally asking the question she’d been waiting to hear for so long.

  She looked toward her father and saw Paddy offer his hand to Jamie.

  “You and your children would be a welcome addition to the family,” he said, then he raised his glass again. “And now we have another reason to celebrate today—not just an anniversary but an engagement.”

  Everyone cheered again.

  Everyone except Fallon who, when the murmur of the crowd died down, finally spoke up. Because while the moment was pretty close to being perfect, she still wanted an actual proposal. “I’m pleased to see that everyone is having a good time, but I think some of this revelry might be a little premature.”

  “So long as he’s not...premature...in the bedroom,” Winona Cobbs piped up.

  Which, of course, made Fallon’s face turn red, but her gaze didn’t shift away from Jamie.

  He took a ring out of his pocket, lowered himself to one knee in front of her and finally offered her what she most wanted in the world—and it wasn’t a diamond in a band of gold, it was his heart. “Fallon, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”

  Her eyes misted and her heart, already full, overflowed with love and happiness. “I feel as if I’ve been waiting my whole life for you to ask me that question,” she confessed.

  “Is that a yes?” Keegan interjected. “Because when a guy asks a yes-or-no question, he just wants a yes-or-no answer.”

  “And he’d probably appreciate the rest of her family butting out so that she can answer the question,” Fiona said pointedly.

  Fallon continued to hold Jamie’s gaze as she shook her head in response to her family’s antics. “I’ll bet you’re regretting the public proposal now, aren’t you?”

  “My only regret would be if you said no,” he told her sincerely. “Because I don’t want anything so much as I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

  “Yes,” she finally said. “My answer is yes, because I want exactly the same thing.”

  He took her hand but paused with the ring—a stunning princess-cut diamond solitaire—at the tip of her finger. “You do understand that marrying me will mean becoming an instant mother to three adorable, messy and demanding children?”

  “I do,” she agreed. “And I love those adorable, messy and demanding children every bit as much as I love you.”

  He smiled and slid the ring onto her finger.

  “I love you, Fallon O’Reilly,” he said, whispering the words against her lips.

  “And I love you, Jamie Stockton.”

  And then, finally, he kissed her.

  * * *

  “Well, it’s official,” Jamie said, dropping onto the sofa beside his fiancée and surveying the disaster zone that had once been his living room.

  In the middle of the floor littered with discarded
paper, Henry was trying to pull off his socks, Katie was banging on a drum, Jared was collecting all the green bows—and only the green ones—in a toy shopping cart, Molly was chewing on a red bow and Andy, apparently worn out from all of the excitement, was sprawled on his back beneath the Christmas tree.

  On the coffee table were two framed photos: similar but different pictures of the babies with Santa, one wrapped up for Jamie by Fallon and the other for Fallon by Jamie. They’d both had a good chuckle over that.

  Fallon tipped her head back against his shoulder. “What’s official?”

  “This was undoubtedly The. Best. Christmas. Ever.”

  She smiled. “Only until next Christmas,” she promised.

  “Well, while we’re still celebrating this Christmas, I have one more gift for you.”

  She took the small, flat package and peeled away the paper, then opened the lid of the box to reveal a silver snowflake ornament decorated with sparkling crystals.

  “It’s beautiful,” she said.

  “Turn it over.”

  She did as he suggested and found that it was inscribed on the back with a date and the words: Fallon & Jamie—First Christmas Together.

  “I love it,” she said, softly, sincerely.

  “The first of many,” he told her.

  “I’m already looking forward to each and every one,” she assured him.

  “I’m hoping that next Christmas I’ll get to wake up with you in my arms.”

  Because although they were engaged, engaged wasn’t married, and Paddy and Maureen had made it clear that they expected their unmarried daughter to wake up under their roof and spend Christmas morning with her family. Which she had done, then she’d come over to The Short Hills Ranch to celebrate with Jamie and the babies.

  “Me, too,” she said.

  “Does that mean you’re ready to set a date for our wedding?”

  “We haven’t even been engaged twenty-four hours,” she pointed out.

  “Is there some kind of required waiting period that I don’t know about?” he teased.

  “I just thought you might want to wait until all of your brothers and sisters could be at our wedding.”

  But he shook his head. “I want to find them—I am going to find them—but I have no idea how long that’s going to take and I’m not willing to put our wedding on hold until it happens.” He kissed her softly. “Because I want to spend every day of the rest of my life with you, and I want the rest of our life together to start as soon as possible.”

  “That sounds like a perfect plan to me,” she agreed.

  Epilogue

  Three months later

  “That’s a lot of cupcakes,” Jamie commented, looking at the miniature frosted cakes that had been assembled on the table to spell out Happy 1st Birthday.

  “There are a lot of babies celebrating today,” Fallon reminded him.

  Although Henry, Jared and Katie had celebrated their birthday two months earlier, they’d been invited to this party, along with everyone else in town, to celebrate the first anniversary of the Baby Bonanza—as many residents had taken to calling the population explosion that had occurred nine months after Braden and Jennifer’s Fourth of July wedding.

  “They look like they’re all vanilla,” he said, sounding disappointed.

  “There’s leftover chocolate cake in your fridge from the bakery that’s going to make our wedding cake,” she reminded him.

  They’d decided on May twentieth as the date for their wedding, because it gave them a few months to make the arrangements and would allow them to take time for a honeymoon before Bella and Hudson exchanged their vows.

  Maureen had initially been a little concerned that they were rushing their nuptials, but Fallon assured her mother that she didn’t feel rushed at all. She’d been in love with Jamie since she was seventeen years old and she was excited about finally starting their life together.

  “I can see now why so many women who want to have babies believe there’s something in the water in Rust Creek Falls,” Fallon commented, as more families and more babies entered the community center for the celebration.

  “Except it wasn’t the water but the wedding punch,” Jamie reminded her. “I’m not sure if Homer Gilmore should be given the key to the city or put in jail and the key thrown away.”

  “No doubt that’s a topic that has been widely debated around town, but I’d vote for the key to the city,” Fallon said. “Because if it wasn’t for Homer spiking the wedding punch, we wouldn’t have Henry, Jared and Katie.”

  “True,” he acknowledged. “But when we decide to expand our family again, I’d be content to let nature take its course.”

  It was the first time he’d mentioned having another child, and Fallon was both pleased and surprised. “You want to have another child?”

  “I’m not in any hurry,” he assured her. “Especially considering that we aren’t married yet and already have three babies in diapers. But I loved growing up with so many brothers and sisters, and I’d be thrilled to add to our family in a couple of years.”

  “I’d like that, too,” she told him. “But I really hope we grow our family one baby at a time.”

  “How would you feel if you did end up pregnant with twins or triplets?” he asked curiously.

  She looked at Henry, Jared and Katie, playing with the toys that had been scattered in the middle of the room, and thought back to the early days when they’d been so tiny and fragile and demanding. The first few months had been incredibly hard, and there had been days when she’d wanted to cry right along with them. But for every one of those days, there were countless more during which she’d felt nothing but pure and unadulterated joy simply because Henry rolled over or Jared clapped his hands or Katie smiled at her—simply because they were a part of her life. And that was even before they’d stopped calling her ‘Fa-fa’ in favor of ‘Ma-ma.’

  “Blessed,” she finally responded to his question. “I would feel doubly or triply blessed.”

  He smiled and slid an arm across her shoulders. “Let’s gather up our kids and go get some cupcakes.”

  * * * * *

  Don’t miss the previous books in the

  MONTANA MAVERICKS: THE BABY BONANZA continuity

  MARRIAGE, MAVERICK STYLE! by Christine Rimmer

  HER MAVERICK M.D. by Teresa Southwick

  A MAVERICK AND A HALF by Marie Ferrarella

  MAVERICK VS. MAVERICK by Shirley Jump

  THE MAVERICK’S HOLIDAY SURPRISE by Karen Rose Smith

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  MONTANA MAVERICKS:

  THE GREAT FAMILY ROUNDUP!

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  A Cowboy's Wish Upon a Star

  by Caro Carson

  Chapter One

  It was the end of the world.

  Sophia Jackson strained to see something, anything that looked like civilization, but the desolate landscape was no more than brown dirt and scrubby bits of green plants that stretched all the way to the horizon.

  She might have been in one of her own movies.

  The one that had garnered an Academy Award nomination for her role as a dying frontier woman had been filmed in Mexico, but this part of Texas looked close enough. The one that had made her an overnight success as a Golden Globe winner for her portrayal of a doomed woman in a faraway galaxy had been filmed in Italy, but again, this landscape was eerily similar.

  Doomed. Dying. Isolated.

  She’d channeled those emotions before. This time, however, no one was going to yell cut. No one was going to hand her a gold statue.

  “Are we there yet?” She sounded demanding, just like the junior officer thrust into a leadership role on a space colony.