How to Marry a Cowboy (Cowboys & Brides)

by Carolyn Brown

  The girls said that she had to have a veil, because all brides had one, and she couldn’t refuse them anything. This was their wedding as much as hers.

  She wore a white eyelet dress with a hankie hem, and the traditional white satin high-heeled shoes. She expected to see Nash when someone rapped on the door of the bride’s dressing room, but Gina Lou poked her head in the door.

  “Hey, I hear there’s a bride back here,” she said.

  “Gina Lou!” Annie Rose gasped.

  Gina Lou crossed the room in a couple of long-legged, easy strides and hugged Annie Rose. “We got in from Africa last night and drove like hell to get here.”

  “I’m so glad to see you. If I’d known you could make it, you would have been part of the wedding party.” Annie Rose grabbed a tissue to dab at her eyes.

  “I know you would have, but hey, I didn’t know until the last minute, and besides, I want to watch. I’ve never heard you as happy as you sounded on the phone. I’m so glad everything is working out.”

  Annie Rose tossed the tissue in the trash. “I can’t tell you in words how I feel, Gina Lou. Having you here puts the icing on the cake.”

  “And are these your new daughters?” Gina Lou asked.

  “I’m Lily and this is Gabby and you have to be Gina Lou. Mama told us all about you.”

  Gina Lou smiled. “Well, I bet she’s told me more about you two. I’m so happy for all of you. We’ll talk later. It’s almost time for the ceremony to start, so I’m going to get seated.”

  Gina Lou winked at Annie Rose and slipped out of the room seconds before Nash peeked in and grinned. “You are a beautiful bride, Miz Annie Rose, and I’m glad you are coming to the ranch to be the mistress of it.”

  ***

  Mason stood at the front of the church with Colton, Lucas, and Greg beside him. He shifted his weight from one leg to the other and wished they would have gone to the courthouse the morning after he proposed. But Annie Rose said that the girls needed the wedding as much or more than she did. They needed to know that it had been done right so they wouldn’t fear that she would leave anymore.

  Laura was the first bridesmaid down the aisle. Emily followed her and then a very pregnant Natalie, serving as maid of honor, took her place next as the pianist played soft music. Mason thought that Gabby and Lily, in their blue lace dresses, would take forever getting to the front of the church. They smiled at him, held their heads high, and marched up on the stage like princesses to stand beside him.

  Then the traditional bride’s march began and all the people rose to their feet. From that moment, he didn’t see another person. Just Annie Rose as she floated toward him on Nash’s arm. Tears welled up in his eyes and he bit his lower lip to keep them at bay. A full-grown cowboy didn’t cry.

  “Who gives this bride to be married to this man?” Henry asked.

  “Gabby, Lily, and I do,” Nash said in a loud voice and handed her off to Mason. “We’ve waited a long time for this, Mason. You be good to her. And, Annie Rose, you be good to him. The ranch needs a family.”

  “Yes, sir,” Mason said.

  Nash kissed Annie Rose on the forehead and stepped back to the front pew of the packed church to join Lorraine, Sam, and Skip.

  “You may be seated,” Henry said. “We are gathered here today to join Annie Rose Boudreau and Mason Harper together. But we are also joining Gabby and Lily Harper to this couple and making a family as well as a new bride and groom.”

  ***

  Annie Rose heard a sniffle behind her and caught a flutter of white as Lorraine dabbed at her eyes. She swallowed the lump in her throat in time to say her vows and then to say “I do,” since those were very important words to the girls.

  “And now Gabby and Lily have some vows,” Henry said.

  “I’ll go first,” Lily said.

  Henry looked down at her and asked, “Do you, Lily Harper, take this woman, Annie Rose, to be your new mother. Will you treat her like a mother and not a nanny? Will you promise to love her forever, like you do your daddy?”

  “I do,” Lily said.

  Annie Rose picked a small box from behind her bouquet of flowers, opened it, and fastened an open-heart necklace around Lily’s neck. “I promise to be your mother, and I promise to love you forever too.”

  “Gabby Harper,” Henry said, “Will you take this woman, Annie Rose, to be your new mother. Will you treat her like a mother and not a nanny? Do you promise to love her forever, like you do your daddy?”

  “I do,” Gabby said.

  Annie repeated the process.

  Lorraine sniffled again, louder this time.

  “Okay, by the authority given to me by the state of Texas, I pronounce Annie Rose and Mason husband and wife as well as a new family. Now, Mason, you may kiss the bride,” Henry said.

  “That was beautiful,” Mason whispered before his lips landed on hers.

  When the applause quieted, Henry spoke up. “There’s a reception out at Bois D’Arc Bend and everyone is invited. I hear that Nash and Skip have been smokin’ beef for two days and that Lorraine made the cake, so if you don’t attend, you’re going to miss a good party.”

  ***

  “I love you doesn’t begin to cover how I feel right now,” Mason said when he and Annie Rose were alone in his truck.

  “I know. Let’s go home. Wait, where are our girls?”

  “They are going with their grandparents. It was their idea.” He chuckled. “I think they were serious about that new-sister idea.”

  “How do you feel about the new-sister idea?”

  “I always wanted a whole yard full of kids. You decide how many it takes to make up a yard full and I’ll be satisfied with your decision,” he said.

  They led the procession of vehicles from the church to the ranch. Mason hopped out of the car, shook the legs of his freshly starched jeans down over his boots, and removed his Western-cut jacket. He tossed it into the front seat of the truck, along with his string tie, and was on the way around the truck when the door flew open and Annie Rose stepped out.

  “Look at that.” She sighed.

  The porch swing had been decorated with garlands of roses, wildflowers, and white ribbons, and O’Malley and Moses were curled up right in the middle of a long white satin pillow with lace edging.

  “Do you like it?” Mason asked.

  “I love it,” she said.

  “It’s where I found you and I thought it would make a wonderful place for wedding pictures.”

  Her arms snaked around his neck and he carried her to the porch, pushed the cats to the floor, and set her down on the pillow. “Oh, Mason, this is perfect. Just absolutely perfect. Thank you.”

  He sat down beside her and pulled her close to his side. “It’s where it all began, and when we are old and gray, it’s where it will end. I’m glad we have a few minutes before they all get parked and out of their vehicles. I want to tell you that I love you and I’m glad you are my wife and that things still feel right and that we are going to make lots of happy memories right here on the ranch.”

  “I love you too and, Mason, we’ve already got a thousand memories. We’ll add to our collection as the days and years go by.” She laid her head on his shoulder.

  ***

  After the reception, multiple toasts, and their first dance together as man and wife, Mason led her out of the house amidst a shower of birdseed and drove away from the ranch toward Savoy.

  A quarter of a mile down the road he made a sharp right, opened a cattle gate, and headed across the pasture on a rutted lane with grass growing up between the ruts.

  “Where are we going?” she asked.

  “On a two-day honeymoon. Mother and Dad are taking care of the girls until Sunday morning. We’ll meet them and Nash in church. Later, maybe in the fall, we’ll go somewhere on a real honeymoon,” h
e told her.

  She squealed and clapped her hands when she realized that they were at the bend of the river, right where they’d gone that night to make love under the stars. And back under the willow tree was an RV. A wreath of wildflowers hung on the door with a bright blue ribbon. Written in gold letters across the ribbon were the words, “Just Hitched.”

  He carried her from truck to the door. “If you’ll open it please, ma’am?”

  She turned the knob and the scent of fresh roses wafted out to meet her. A path of petals led the way from the door to the king-sized bed at the back of the trailer.

  “Oh, Mason, this is perfect. I don’t need another honeymoon, but when we have a couple of days free, we can always come back here,” she said.

  “A perfect honeymoon for a perfect bride that I found sleeping on my porch swing a few weeks ago,” he said.

  She pulled him down on the bed beside her when he gently laid her down. “I love you so much.”

  He pushed a blond curl away from her face and kissed her with so much promise that it brought fresh tears to her eyes. They would grow old together. The fate star wouldn’t have brought them together if it hadn’t been willing to give them a long future together. She believed it with her whole heart.

  “According to a famous author I know, there is only one thing left to do if I follow the directions in the new bestselling How to Marry a Cowboy book,” she whispered as she unbuttoned his shirt.

  “What’s that?” He grinned.

  “I have to sleep with the cowboy, even if he snores a little bit.” She threw a leg over his body and straddled him, leaned forward and planted kisses all over his face as he reached around behind her and unzipped her dress. “But it doesn’t say that I have to go to sleep as soon as my head hits the pillow.”

  “No, it doesn’t, and we will sleep, darlin’,” he drawled. “But not until much, much later.”

  Dear Readers,

  Writing the first line of a new book in a brand-new series is so exciting. Writing the last line of the last book in a series is bittersweet. The stories have been told, but it’s not easy to leave behind the characters that have been friends for months and months.

  What started out to be The Cowboy’s Runaway Bride evolved into How to Marry a Cowboy somewhere along the way, and the title fits the story so much better, even if for a while there the folks on Bois D’Arc Ranch thought Annie Rose was a runaway bride.

  It’s the beginning of summertime, both in the story and in real Texas time, and as I write the last of How to Marry a Cowboy, I hope you are all enjoying long, lazy, relaxing days as daylight lasts longer. My tomcats, Boots and Chester, are still protecting the fenced-in backyard from grasshoppers, birds, and all kinds of varmints that might come calling. The roses and lilies are blooming and I spend a little time each day on the swing, thinking about the next four cowboys who have already arrived in my virtual world.

  Two of them you met in Cowboy Seeks Bride—Finn and Sawyer O’Donnell—but the other two, Tanner Gallagher and Declan Brennan, are brand-new. There’s a feud going on in Burnt Boot, Texas, between the Gallagher and the Brennan families, and poor old Finn and Sawyer are thrown right in the middle of it. So keep your boots shined and your hats ready… there’re more cowboys on the way in the Burnt Boot series.

  Thanks again to the whole Sourcebooks staff, from Dominique Raccah, the brilliant publisher, to the art department, who does fabulous covers for my books, to the publicity department (bowing to Danielle at this time) and with a big hug to Deb Werksman, my truly awesome editor. Thank you to my agent, Erin Niumata, and the folks at Folio for all you do to make my life run smoother. But most of all, a big thanks to all my readers. Know that you are appreciated for your continuing support, for sharing my books with your neighbors and friends, or for telling them about them, for the reviews that you write, the notes that you send my way, and for reading my stories.

  Have a wonderful summer!

  Carolyn Brown

  Read on for an excerpt from the first book in the brand-new Burnt Boot, Texas series from Carolyn Brown

  Cowboy Boots for Christmas

  The third time is not always the charm.

  Twice now, Finn O’Donnell had told the government he wasn’t interested in anything that the FBI, CIA, or any of the other alphabet agencies dangled at him like a carrot on a long stick in front of a donkey. All Finn wanted to do was watch his cattle grow fat on Salt Draw Ranch and be left alone with his dog, Shotgun.

  So that black SUV coming down his lane could turn around and go on back to wherever the hell it came from. They didn’t have enough carrots in the world to make him leave his new home in Burnt Boot, Texas, and pick up his sniper rifle again. He leaned against the porch post, and with arms crossed over his broad chest, he waited.

  The yellow hair on Shotgun’s back stood up like a punk rocker’s, and a low growl rumbled out of his throat. The dog took a step forward and Finn stuck a boot out to touch his leg. That’s all it took for the dog to heel even when his body quivered in anticipation of attacking something, like the wheels of that fancy SUV.

  “Easy, boy. We can tell them to go to hell a third time easy as we did the first two.” He pushed mirrored sunglasses up a notch and tipped his black cowboy hat down to block the sun from his eyes.

  Dead grass and gravel crunched under the wheels of the black vehicle when it stopped in front of the low-slung, ranch-style house. Shotgun whined, but until Finn moved his boot, the dog wouldn’t bail off the porch and go after the intruders.

  “Not yet. We’ll hear them out and then you can take a bite from the ass of their Italian suits as they get back in their van,” Finn said softly.

  An identical vehicle turned down the lane and parked right behind the first one. This was something new. Maybe since he’d moved to Burnt Boot on his own ranch and wasn’t a part of his folks’ operation in central Texas, they thought they’d best send out a whole committee to persuade him. Finn looked out over the tops of the sunglasses but the SUV windows were tinted and he couldn’t see a damn thing.

  “Looks like they’ve brought an extra van just for you, Shotgun. You want to join the Army, old boy? You’ll have to do boot camp and learn to sniff out bombs and herd camels instead of cows. And boot camp involves more than chasing rabbits when I’m doing my evening run.”

  He removed his black felt cowboy hat with stains around the leather band, raked his dark hair back from his forehead, and resettled the hat on his head at an angle to shade his eyes better. Were they waiting for Christmas? If so, they were a little early because that was four weeks away.

  He pulled his denim jacket tighter across his broad expanse of a chest and leaned on the porch post, his boot still touching Shotgun’s front leg. The entire O’Donnell family had chipped in the day after Thanksgiving to help him move from Comfort, Texas, to Burnt Boot. His herd woke up in holding pens and by nightfall they were grazing on the grass growing on Salt Draw three hundred miles away. His sister, two brothers, and a dozen cousins would put him in a straitjacket if he let the brass out there in those vans talk him back into the Army after that move.

  Then the door of the van flew open and a woman stepped out. He thought he was seeing things. Surely that couldn’t be his Callie.

  ***

  Callie Brewster had listened to the man in the front seat of the SUV tell her all the reasons why she and her brother should be in the Witness Protection Program. Now he was repeating himself and she didn’t want to hear any more, so she threw open the door the minute the vehicle stopped moving.

  He said something about not getting out of the SUV until they’d talked to Finn, but she’d made up her mind. She stomped the legs of her jeans down over her boots and started across the yard. She damn sure didn’t need anyone to talk for her or before her either.

  She didn’t need anyone to protect her. She could take the eyes o
ut of a rattlesnake with any weapon the Army slapped in her hands. She’d kept up her skills at the shooting range in Corpus Christi and kept in shape. But she did need someone to watch her back, and Finn O’Donnell had proven time and time again that he could damn sure do that.

  From a distance he still looked the same. Broad shoulders, sculpted abs, biceps that stretched the sleeves of any shirt on the market, thighs that testified he was used to hard work, and hands that could be either soft or tough depending on what was needed. Yes, that was her Finn: the man she’d had a crush on for three years, though she’d never said a word about it. They were partners, sniper and spotter, and were closer than a husband and wife in lots of ways. But partners didn’t act on crushes and they damn sure didn’t get involved with each other, not when they had to do the jobs that Finn and Callie were called upon to do.

  She threw back the hood of her jacket and put her sunglasses in her pocket. The moment he lowered his sunglasses and recognized her, he started her way, meeting her in the middle of the yard in a bear hug that brought her feet off the ground.

  “God, I’ve missed you so much,” he said.

  Heart pounding, pulse racing, she was slow to let go when he set her firmly back on the ground.

  “Lala?” she asked.

  His wife damn sure wouldn’t appreciate him showing so much affection to his old partner. Any minute now Callie expected her to come out of the house, maybe with a grenade in her hands.

  He held her by her shoulders. “Lala isn’t here, Callie. That’s a story for another day. I can’t believe you’re right here in front of me. I’ve thought of you every day since I came home. What in the hell are you doing in Burnt Boot, Texas?”

  Her aqua eyes locked with his crystal-clear blue ones and held for what seemed like eternity. There was no Lala and he was glad to see her. She had known this was the right decision.

  “I need a place to stay.” Her voice was an octave too high but, hell on wheels, Finn O’Donnell had hugged her. She’d almost had a damn fan girl moment.