When A Cowboy Asks (A Rancher's Bride Book 2)

by Chula Stone

  “But why?” she demanded, exasperated.

  “Because I asked you to,” he responded seriously.

  “That’s not an answer.”

  “It’s the only one I can give you right now. Promise me you’ll wait!”

  “All right. I promise.”

  “And be ready when I get back?”

  “Because you asked me to?” Her tone was half resigned, half amused.

  “That’s my girl!” With that he was off into the night.

  Chapter 9

  Pinkie twisted the handkerchief in her hands. She had hoped that by inviting her husband out into the cool evening after supper that she might put him in a friendly mood, which would soften him up for her little announcement. The scene was indeed lovely. They wandered from the huge stucco house with its old foundations and its recent additions, towards the pond where ducks and geese swam lazily.

  “I hope you’re not going to be too angry with me, Vince, but I’ve done something that… well, I think you’re going to be proud of me, but you might not be and I don’t want to get in trouble, so I want you to promise you won’t be mad.” She stepped onto the path that wound around the water and set a slower pace.

  Vince gave her one of his patented ‘you might be crazy but I still love you’ looks. “Are you going to let me jump into this conversation, or are you planning to do it all yourself?”

  Pinkie laughed and rolled her eyes at herself. “I’m sorry, but you know how I get when I’m nervous.”

  Vince put his arm around her shoulders and hugged her tightly to him, keeping his gaze on the water. “What have you got to be nervous about? Have you done something foolish?”

  “What makes you think I have?”

  “The way you’re twisting that handkerchief like it’s offered you some serious insult. When you do that, I always start polishing up my paddle. Am I going to need it now?”

  “I don’t think so,” she retorted defensively. As she stepped lightly away from him, she continued. “If I thought it was foolish, I wouldn’t do it.” They came to a large rock that sat half way out into the water.

  When Pinkie leaned on it to look out at the water, Vince took up a position on the other side and gave her an arch stare. “How many times have you followed one of your crazy impulses then thought better of it later?”

  She shrugged with a grin. “Okay. I’ll give you that one, but this time, I really don’t think it’s foolish. And, of course, I haven’t done it yet.”

  “You just said you had.”

  “Well, I’ve done some, but not all.”

  Vince’s sigh was conquered by his chuckle and came out as a sort of cheerful groan. He rested his elbows on the boulder and rubbed his head into his hands. “Sooner or later, you’ll let me in on what we’re talking about, I suppose…”

  “But if I do that, it will ruin the surprise.”

  That comment had him looking up with a jerk. “The transfer of information generally will kill a surprise. You can’t ask me to give blanket approval that I won’t get mad if I don’t even know what you did… or didn’t do, as the case may be.”

  “But if you know it’s a surprise and I’m doing it for all the best reasons…”

  Vince laughed again and circled the rock to join her. “You always have good reasons. It’s just that sometimes your good reasons give me heartburn.”

  “Just as long as they don’t give me backside burn,” Pinkie put in ruefully.

  “I think you need a little backside warming right now for beating around the bush like this. There’s something you want to tell me. So out with it, or I’ll take you into that clearing down by the mill and remind you who wears the pants in this family by spanking yours right off.”

  “I’m not wearing pants,” she retorted, relieved by his teasing tone but recognizing that he meant for her to a move on. She would have to tell him. It was time and close enough to their anniversary for her plan to work. “But how about instead of telling you, I just show you?”

  “Fine.” He looked down at her as if he were expecting her to produce it from her reticule.

  “It’s not here! In fact, it could take a while.” She looked around at the tired looking sun slipping below the tree line. Here in the valley, the shadows grew deep a good while before the sun truly set. “Maybe we’d better do this tomorrow.”

  Vince gave her a suspicious look. “To give you time to make up a plausible story? Nothing doing! You tell me right now, young lady, or I’ll give you reason to wish you had. You’ll be singing like a canary by the time I get through with you.” He turned her around so that her face was to the house then applied several hard swats to her bottom.

  His grin took some of the sting out of his love pats, but she realized he wanted an explanation now. “Quit that! Someone could see.”

  “Only if they’re rowing around in a boat. Come on. Quit stalling. It’s only a week until our anniversary anyway. Why don’t we just exchange gifts now?”

  “You’ve got my gift ready for me?” Pinkie couldn’t keep the surprised delight out of her voice. Usually, he waited until the last minute, then headed to the dry goods store to buy her a hat. The problem was that his taste in hats was not precisely informed by the latest fashion trends. His method of choosing haberdashery seemed to include inspecting the milliner’s case and selecting the largest, gaudiest model available. If he had something with him, it had to be better than last year’s offering simply by virtue of the fact that he wasn’t transporting it in a wheelbarrow.

  “I should say so,” he boasted confidently. “I wouldn’t leave a thing like this to the last minute.”

  She couldn’t let him outdo her. If he was ready, so was she. “All right! Ladies first.” She slipped around him and set a quick pace back up the path. When he stood there staring after her, she turned to beckon him. “Well, come on! What are you waiting for?”

  “An idea. Right now, I still don’t have one. As in, I have no idea what you’re talking about!”

  “Of course you don’t! It’s a surprise. Let’s get a buggy. It will be quicker.”

  She raced back to the house, not fooled by his allowing her to keep out of reach. She knew he liked to walk behind her and watch her. Still, she was glad of the excuse not to talk. What would she say? She was too nervous and excited. What if he didn’t like what she’d done? Or what she planned to do? It would be too great a disappointment to bear. But now that it came to the point of revealing all her work and effort, she began to see it through his eyes. She had taken on rather a lot of responsibility and assumed quite a bit of his indulgence.

  These musings carried her to the barn and into the buggy once it was hitched up. They had just pulled onto the main road that led through the valley when her nerve left her and she balked. “Stop! I’m not ready. Let’s go back.” She tugged at his hands to pull on the reins and signal the horses to come to a halt.

  Vince gently freed his hands from her grasp. “We’re not going back. If you’re not ready, I am. My surprise for you is out this way. I would have taken you by another way, but this will be fine, too. I think the fire trails have been cleared.” He signaled the horse to speed up to a trot.

  Pinkie’s mind was in a panic. “No, wait! You can’t give me your gift if I don’t have anything to give you!”

  “You’ve given me five great kids and ten wonderful years! What more could a man want? You don’t need to give me anything else.”

  “But I want to! And it’s ready, but there I’ll be with your wonderful… whatever it is and you’ll be empty handed.”

  “Well, your hands won’t exactly have… I mean, it’s nothing for you to worry about. Trust me. I’ve got it all worked out.”

  Pinkie pulled her handkerchief out and began twisting it again. “Oh, Vince! You’re too good to me.” Suddenly, she laid her handkerchief in her lap and came to a decision. “I shouldn’t be scared. I’ll go first. Stop the buggy.”

  “Now, Pinkie…”

  “Or
better yet, don’t stop. Keep going. It’ll be fine. We can get there from here, too. If the fire trails are clear?”

  “I think so,” Vince replied. “Where is it we’re going?”

  “You’ll see. Let me have the reins and you close your eyes.” Pinkie made as if to grasp the leather straps. The horse, thinking he was being signaled to stop, pulled up fast enough to make the buggy lurch.

  “Knowing how you drive? Not on your life! I’ll drive and you tell me where to go,” Vince said once he had seated his hat back onto his head.

  “But that will ruin the surprise!” she wailed.

  “So I’ll go first. I don’t mind you knowing right now. You close your eyes and enjoy the drive.”

  Pinkie did as she was told. The road twisted in and out of trees so she was rather disoriented before he had driven very far or gotten very deep into his explanation. It made it difficult to concentrate, but she did understand he was talking about Shep.

  “I’ve been thinking about Shep and Treli as well,” she admitted when he paused.

  “Glad to hear it,” Vince said. Was that hesitation in his voice? Was he having second thoughts similar to hers? “It’s just that, while our start in life was unconventional, at least we had a roof over our heads. I know what it’s like to fight an uphill battle for love and I’d like to help Shep if I can.”

  Pinkie’s curiosity was rising with every twist and turn in the road. Trying hard to concentrate on his words, she responded as best she could. If he was thinking along these lines too, her proposal had a better chance of succeeding. Instinct told her to encourage his romantic leanings. “I agree wholeheartedly. Shep is a good man and Treli is family. We have to help all we’re able to.”

  “If only they had a place of their own. It would anchor them here. Shep would be able to build up enough nerve to ask her if he just had someplace he could point to where they could start out.”

  “Of course, it would help him,” Pinkie agreed. Oh, this was turning out splendidly. Surely Vince wouldn’t object to her plan. He was practically doing her work for her!

  “But that’s enough talk about Shep. This is our anniversary and I want to celebrate it in a big way. Ten years! That’s nothing to sneeze at. To mark the occasion, I’m going to take you on a little trip. We never got a honeymoon, so to make up for it, we’re going to have a week away, all to ourselves. No kids, no chores, and no”

  “No paddles?” Pinkie interrupted.

  “I wouldn’t go that far, but I will say that I don’t see how you can get into trouble with me right with you the whole time.”

  “Oh, Vince, it sounds wonderful.” She didn’t want to tell him that she had been hoping for the same sort of time alone with him. Anticipation had Pinkie twisting her handkerchief again. “But obviously, we’re not starting right now. Where are you taking me?”

  “I’m taking the prettiest girl in the world to the prettiest spot in the world. Seems fitting to me, don’t you think?”

  “How sweet! And how much farther?” She hoped they weren’t going out of the valley. She couldn’t wait to show him her own surprise and it felt like it had to be getting dark. Very tempted to peek, Pinkie was just lowering her hands when she felt her own hat being whisked off her head and a large felt hat dropping onto it and over her eyes. So much for cheating.

  “We’re almost there. Keep your hat on. Or rather, keep my hat on.” Vince’s chuckle could be annoying.

  As the buggy lurched to a stop, Pinkie couldn’t stand it any longer. She whipped the hat off her head and looked down from the top of the hill where he had brought them to a halt. Clapping her hands in delight, she squealed, “Oh, Vince!” That was all she could force her mouth to say. She was gazing down at the very cottage she was so looking forward to showing him. At that point, unable to contain her joy and excitement any longer, she burst into tears.

  “Now, don’t do that, Pinkie!”

  “I can’t help it!” she wailed. “I’m so happy!”

  Vince patted her back. “After ten years of marriage, you’d think I’d learn,” he mumbled. “But it still gets me every time. Don’t cry, sweetheart.”

  “I’m sorry.” Taking several deep breaths, she finally calmed down by remembering that she would still have to convince her husband that this lovely spot would be perfect for the soon-to-be-newlyweds. In fact, it flashed across her mind to wonder what he would say when he entered the cottage and saw all the improvements she had made. This had always been the weak point in her plan. Quickly sobering, Pinkie forced a bright tone. “There. All better.”

  Vince had jumped down and come around to her side of the buggy. He patted her face awkwardly with his bandana. “Good, because this gets better. Just wait till you see the inside!” Hastily, he helped her out of the buggy and rushed her down the hill as if by keeping her moving, he could prevent her from another crying jag.

  Little did he know there was no danger of that. Pinkie’s thoughts were racing too fast for further emotional outbursts. What was going on here? Vince was presenting the cottage to her as if he knew all about it, but that was impossible. He kept showing her details, his pride as evident as his desire to please her.

  Pinkie was grateful for Vince’s enthusiasm. She could merely ooh and ah as he pointed out various aspects of the cottage she had to pretend she didn’t already know about. “Shep did a great job on the roof, didn’t he? And the new trim looks sharp. Now on the inside, you can kind of tell he was in a bit of a hurry. I’d have sanded these floors a couple more times and leveled that corner, but he can get it fixed come the spring.”

  Those were the jobs Pinkie had undertaken, so his criticism stung. “I think it looks fine.”

  “It looks like a girl did it.”

  “I don’t see why a girl shouldn’t do it.”

  “Some women could, if they’d been taught how, but it would be downright dangerous for somebody who didn’t know what they were doing, man or woman. I’ll have to check with Shep to see if he re-enforced the floor joists.”

  Now, this did present a problem. Pinkie knew for a fact she hadn’t re-enforced any floor joists because she had no idea what a floor joist looked like, much less how to re-enforce one. Should she admit to Vince what she had done or more importantly, hadn’t done? She could predict his reaction and how it would ruin their blissful mood, but if one of them fell through the floor, the moment would be ruined anyway.

  Vince spared her the trouble of deciding when he led her through to the kitchen at the back of the cabin. “Oh, I see what he’s done. This pillar.” He tapped it and nodded. “Runs from the roof to the floor and presumably down to the foundation. That’ll do the job.”

  Relief flooded through her. She wouldn’t have to rush the job of figuring out how to tell Vince what she had done. Oh, she would tell him. Someday. Of course she would, she assured herself. And soon. Before Drina had a chance to let it slip. Pinkie in her wildest dreams couldn’t imagine Drina being able to keep anything from Vince for long. She considered him family and to her way of thinking, families shared everything. Pinkie was surprised Drina had kept the secret for this long, but glad she wouldn’t have to blurt everything out now to avoid risking serious bodily harm.

  All she was risking now was serious bodily spanking, and if she could just get Vince in a good enough mood… perhaps during their week alone. Or maybe a few days after. “Yes, it’s lovely, Vince. Close enough to be convenient for quick trips, but far enough away from the house to provide privacy.”

  “Privacy… funny you should bring that up. You know who needs a lot of privacy? Newlyweds, that’s who.”

  Was Pinkie hearing him right? Could it be that he was thinking along the same lines as she had been planning? “They do indeed. A place like this would be ideal for a couple just starting out.”

  “See, I knew you would agree and I want to put an idea to you before you get all attached to this cottage. I’m glad you like it and I’m sure that we’ll spend many a happy night in it, but j
ust for a while, wouldn’t it be fitting to lend the place to Shep? Then he’d have a home to offer Treli. It might make a difference to her answer.”

  “Vince, she’s not the type of girl to marry a man for his house or refuse him because he was poor either,” Pinkie objected. “But it might embolden Shep to get off his duff and ask her if he had a place they could move into once they were married.”

  “It wouldn’t need to be forever. They could just live here until he builds her a house of their own. Then we’d get the cottage back for our own use.”

  “Sure,” Pinkie agreed. “I think it’s a wonderful idea. Just enough help without crossing the line into meddling. I’m sure it will provide the push he needs to get him out of the starting gate if he has a house to bring her back to after the wedding.” She mused for a moment before continuing. “And of course, he’ll need a job.”

  “He knows there’s always work enough around the Frogleg.”

  “Then she’d be a fool to refuse him,” Pinkie sighed happily.

  “Just like you’d be a fool to refuse me,” Vince mumbled. Coming up behind Pinkie, he encircled her waist with his arms and lifted her back into him.

  “I’ve already got you,” she teased.

  “Now, what are you going to do with me?”

  “I’d say you were doing something with me, more like! What are you up to, Vince?”

  He was pulling her towards the bedroom that lay to the right of the main open area that formed the bulk of the cottage. The structure was roomier than it looked from the front, but still snug enough to be cozy. “I know we can’t take our honeymoon right now, but I can make a down-payment on it.”

  Spinning her around, he put one hand on her waist and with the other gently started waltzing her toward the bed.