The Cowboy's Mail Order Bride

by Carolyn Brown

  That tingly, breathless feeling told Emily that Greg was close.

  “Your boys had a party last night, Greg. Dotty cleaned up the mess on the floor, but she left the rest for y’all to see,” Clarice told him.

  “Want me to peel them all off and wash down the front of the fridge?” he asked.

  “Hell, no! I’ve saved all the little pieces and I’ll put those,” she nodded toward the refrigerator, “in the shoebox with them. We’ve already written the date on the outside and Simba and Bocephus’s names. When the future generations come upon them, they’ll know what year the boys came to live with us.”

  “Did you punish them, Emily?” Greg grinned.

  “They don’t get bacon tomorrow,” she answered.

  “You hear that, boys? Enjoy that treat this morning because you don’t get any tomorrow. Hey, big news isn’t the cats trying to shred the sticky notes. Louis left me a text message,” Greg changed the subject.

  “Is he sick? Do I get to help with the horses this morning?” Emily asked.

  “No, he’s on his way right now. But Prissy and Tommy eloped to Las Vegas. Her grandpa is having a double-wide hauled in for them to live in, and Prissy will be living on the ranch. Guess that she figured out that she was about to lose the best thing ever.”

  Dotty shook her head from side to side. “The heart will have what it wants or else it will wither up and die.”

  “Speaking from experience?” Max asked.

  Dotty pointed to the food on the bar. “Damn straight, I am. Now fix plates and eat. This ranch don’t run itself, and you got to make hay or plow or whatever the hell needs done while the sun shines and all that shit.”

  “What are my jobs today?” Emily looked at Clarice.

  “You are working with Greg this morning. We’re going to work on bazaar things. Come Monday morning we’ll start getting the barn ready for the big affair, so this is our last weekend to work on our projects, and this afternoon we’ve got to get things caught up in that office. Payroll and important business things.” Clarice winked.

  Greg brushed past her on the way to the coffeepot and for just a brief second, his fingers touched hers. When she glanced his way, he mouthed the word, “Amazing.”

  ***

  Emily really wanted to ride bareback with the brisk pre-spring wind blowing her ponytail and the sunrays warming her face, but Albert and Louis were already out in the stables. That left two jobs: walking the fence row on the back side of the ranch or running errands in Bonham.

  Max handed her a piece of paper. “Here’s the list. I’m glad Clarice hired you, Emily. I hate running errands like this.”

  Greg blew her a kiss from behind Max’s back, and a vision of the two of them in the attic room materialized so real in her head that her cheeks started to burn. She whipped around and made a trip back through the house to ask Clarice and Dotty if they needed anything from town before she left.

  Clarice nodded. “I need another package of buttons or charms if you can find them from the craft section at Walmart. Anything that has to do with cowboys—boots, hats, lassos, or horseshoes. And we also need twenty pounds of sugar. That way we can get busy on the banana bread and pumpkin bread on Monday without fear of running out of sugar,” Clarice said. “Oh, and this afternoon we really will work on the payroll. Boys like their money on Saturday night. Then you need to catch up on the entries for the past week, both for the incoming bills and the cow information. They’ve been doing all kinds of vet work this past week, so there’s a stack an inch thick on the cows. And then I want you to look at the four ladies I’ve picked out to invite to the auction and get your opinion on them.”

  “Looks like I’ve got a full day.” Emily’s cheeks were no longer fire-engine red, but now her soul had turned bullfrog green with jealousy.

  Dammit! In the haze of long-lasting afterglow, she’d forgotten about all the women who thought they were talking to Greg Adams on the dating sites.

  “She’s a slave driver, I tell you, she is,” Dotty said. “I have to cook and crochet until my hands bleed, and then I have to be Greg and talk to the women like a man.”

  “Oh, hush; it’s better than drinking yourself to death,” Clarice said. “Take the van, Emily.”

  The door up to the attic beckoned to her when she was in the garage. She eased it open and tiptoed up the steps. Maybe she’d dreamed the whole evening. Maybe it hadn’t happened at all and all that dancing had made it very vivid. Maybe the single word on the letter from Greg that morning had been concerning the good time they’d had at the Angus party.

  When she reached the top, there was Greg stretched out on the bed.

  “Good morning, beautiful,” he said.

  “It was real, wasn’t it? It was so wonderful I thought it might be a dream.”

  He patted the bed. “I know exactly what you mean, darlin’. I couldn’t resist coming back to make sure when Max said we needed to take a roll of barbed wire in case we see a break. We’ve got about ten minutes.”

  “With or without clothes?” she asked.

  He popped up off the bed and shucked out of his coat and boots so fast that it was a blur. “Damn, it’s cold up here. We really should get us one of those little space heaters.”

  “It’ll be warm in a few seconds,” she said as her jeans, shirt, boots, and underwear all joined his in a pile beside the bed.

  He grabbed her around the waist and fell onto the bed with her in his arms. She grabbed a handful of hair and brought his mouth to hers. “Don’t waste time on foreplay. I’ve been hot since you walked into the kitchen this morning.”

  He propped up on an elbow and kissed her long and lingering, and yet gentleness and sweetness were mixed in with the passion. “I hate that this has to be a quickie. I like to play and cuddle afterward.”

  She rolled over on top of him and in one swift motion and wiggle of the hips planted him inside her. “Me too, but if you don’t put this fire out, I’m going to be real bitchy all day.”

  He flipped her over so that he was on top. “Well, darlin’, we can’t have a bitchy woman on Lightning Ridge, can we? After curfew tonight, we’ll meet here again for the real thing.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  ***

  “Is the van backing out of the garage yet?” Clarice asked.

  Dotty leaned closer to the kitchen window. “It’s Greg’s truck, and now it’s the van.”

  “Fate brought her to Lightning Ridge and that’s the whole reason that Marvin and I ever wrote to each other in the first place. The stars weren’t lining up for us but for our grandkids,” Clarice said.

  “All that fate stuff is a load of shit, Clarice Adams. What would you have said about any other girl who went to the attic with Greg last year? Anyone who he’s dated in the past seven years he’s been on this ranch?”

  Clarice’s eyes twinkled. “I might have nailed that door shut and booted her off the ranch. But that was last year and this is different. He’s been here seven years.” She clapped her hands. “That’s my lucky number, Dotty. I swear, it’s the stars all getting lined up perfect.”

  “Don’t matter who all is convinced. What matters is if he is, and it has to go beyond what’s going on in that attic, don’t it?”

  ***

  Greg was running on less than two hours’ sleep, but he couldn’t force the grin off his face. Emily was amazing both on the ranch and in bed, and just thinking about her kept him in semi-arousal all morning. That night he planned to take candles to the attic and maybe a couple of beers.

  “For a man who danced until midnight, you sure got lots of energy this morning. I figured you’d come up with something that would put you in the house so you could sneak a nap this morning,” Max said.

  Greg slapped his thigh. “Must be too tired from partying all night for my mind to be working. You said the fence needed chec
king and I just did what you said without even asking questions.”

  “We’ll be done by noon. Clarice mentioned yesterday that she and Emily would be working on the computer this afternoon. I guess they could probably use your help.”

  Greg shrugged. It was too new, too raw, and too passionate for him to talk about, even to Max, who’d been like a second father to him.

  Father!

  Greg’s dad had said not to tell Nana he and his mother were coming to the bazaar because it was a surprise, so there hadn’t been any talk about it and in all the excitement he’d forgotten to even mention it to Emily.

  His parents would meet Emily!

  His hands were suddenly sweaty inside his leather work gloves. His mother wouldn’t like Emily because she was a ranching woman. Nancy Adams had held out hope ever since her son moved to Lightning Ridge that he’d get his fill of dirt and cows and move back to Houston.

  Greg wiped sweat from his forehead.

  “It’s not that warm. You must’ve drunk a lot at the party and it’s working its way out of your system.” Max chuckled.

  “Guess so,” Greg said.

  “You didn’t answer me about Emily. You like her or not?”

  “I do,” Greg answered. “But she’s determined to go back to Happy. If she had a lick of business sense, she’d realize that she can’t do the impossible.”

  “Like what? I thought she could move mountains and walk on water,” Max said.

  “It’s not possible to run enough cows to make a living on a ranch the size of hers, especially out in west Texas,” Greg answered.

  “You don’t believe that, and that’s what makes you so mad. If she set her head to do it, she could turn a garden plot into a profitable ranch.”

  “I don’t have to admit it though, do I?”

  ***

  Emily got back to the house right at noon. She’d been to the feed store to drop off a payment, to the bank to make a deposit, to the tractor supply to pick up some more veterinary supplies that they had to unpack and mark up before they’d sell them to her, and had stood in line forever at the Walmart store. To have more than twenty checkout counters and only two checkers was downright sinful. She would have zipped through a self-check counter, but none of them were working.

  She hoped that Greg had come in from the back forty at least for dinner so she could see him. It wouldn’t be as good as getting to sneak off to the attic or even snag a couple of kisses in the den when no one was looking, but it would have to do. Until he was ready to announce that they were dating, if that’s what they were doing, she intended to keep silent.

  Dating?

  Or was it just sex? Which did she want it to be?

  “In the dining room. We’re just sitting down to eat,” Dotty called out when Emily entered the house.

  “I’ll be right there soon as I wash up,” she yelled back.

  She could hear Clarice talking, but something wasn’t right in her tone.

  Dotty wasn’t using a single cuss word and Greg sounded strange.

  Shit!

  The preacher had come to dinner and Emily was wearing her work boots, a chambray shirt, and faded jeans. She quickly ran her fingers through her hair and redid her ponytail. Bocephus came slinking around the corner with Simba right on his tail. Both of them crawled low on the ground and their eyes were wary. Could a preacher get into heaven if cute little kittens were terrified of him?

  She stopped long enough to pet the kittens and whisper reassurances in their ears and did not wash her hands afterward. Maybe she’d even touch the preacher’s hot roll instead of passing him the bread basket. Sorry old sucker anyway for scaring her two kittens. Now they were hiding under the kitchen table and peering out around the chair legs.

  “You get lost in there?” Max called out.

  Even his voice sounded different, and nothing rattled Max.

  “On my way,” she said.

  Everyone turned to look at her when she entered the room—Clarice, Dotty, Max and Greg, and Taylor.

  “Surprise!” Taylor said.

  Her breath caught in her chest. Her feet were glued to the floor and she couldn’t move.

  “Taylor!” she squealed.

  He pushed back his chair and hugged her tightly. “I’m here to surprise you, and I think I just did it.” He led her to the table with his arm around her shoulders.

  She was glad that there was a chair nearby and doubly glad that it was right beside Greg instead of across the table from him.

  “I’m so tickled to see you but… oh, my Lord, you’ve got bad news?”

  Taylor flashed a beautiful smile. “No, darlin’, no bad news. I would have told you right up front if that was the case. I bought a bull a month ago from a breeder in Blue Ridge, remember? I know I told you about it. Blue Ridge is less than half an hour from here, so I came by to see you while I was in the area, and I’m glad I did. A greasy old burger couldn’t measure up to a feast like this one.”

  Color returned to her ashen face. “Did you leave Happy in the middle of the night?”

  “Drove halfway yesterday. Wanted to pick up the bull, check on you, and get home by midnight. I hate leaving a big old bull on a trailer overnight,” he answered.

  Greg laid a hand on her leg and the tension eased out of her body. No one had died. Everything in Happy was fine. Taylor, her favorite boy cousin, was right there at the table with her.

  “I know you remember the bull. We looked at his lineage online just before Marvin passed. What surprised me is that he’s tame as a…” Taylor went on, “I was going to say kitten, but I really hate cats. The bull is as gentle as a lamb.”

  “Emily has two kittens,” Dotty piped up.

  “I know. She told me,” Taylor said.

  Emily helped her plate but didn’t pay any attention to the food. “So your plan is to drive all the way to west Texas tonight? Clarice, couldn’t he put the bull in a holding pen and spend the night? That way he could get an early start in the morning.”

  “We’ve already invited him,” Clarice said.

  “And I do thank all of you for the offer, but after dinner I’ll head back to Happy. I’ve put in longer hours than this lots and lots of times. So have you, Em,” he said.

  “I’m willing to lose a little sleep for something I enjoy,” she said.

  That got her a leg squeeze under the table.

  Talk went to bulls, ranching, and whether or not it would be a good year for the hay, and dinner was over way too soon.

  Taylor pushed back his chair and said, “Miz Dotty and Miz Clarice, that was an excellent meal. I’ve eaten too much, and believe me, I will be braggin’ about it when I get back home. Walk me to the truck, Em?”

  She laid her napkin on the table beside her plate. “Of course, but I sure would feel better if you’d stay the night. We haven’t talked nearly enough.”

  “I’ll be home by bedtime and the roads are clear.”

  “Please stay one night. It’s like a dream that you are even here, and you didn’t even get a tour of the ranch,” she begged when they were out of the house.

  “Remember, I’m holding down my ranch and yours. I just wanted to surprise you,” he said.

  “Well, you sure did that. I thought I was dreaming. I wish you would’ve brought Dusty. She would have put up a fit to stay at least one night and we both know you can’t refuse her,” Emily said.

  “The surprise was only part of the reason I drove out here. The bull could have waited another month, but I wanted to meet this Greg fellow and I came prepared to hate him, but I didn’t and now I’m scared that you might stay here. The way he looks at you is downright—” He stopped.

  She leaned against the cattle trailer. “What?”

  “You’ve been like a sister to me and Dusty both,” he said. “At least promise you’ll c
ome home and tell us in person, not do it with a phone call.”

  “What in the hell are you talking about? I’m coming home, cowboy. This is a vacation, and folks come home from vacation,” she said and quickly changed the subject. “Did you take Melinda to the Valentine’s party last week?”

  Taylor chuckled. “I did and we hit it off really good. I’m not lookin’ at her like that cowboy in there looks at you, not yet anyway, but I did ask her out again.”

  Chapter 16

  Gramps used to say that people were fools if they set their plans up in stone because God had a wicked sense of humor, then he’d go on to tell stories about how his plans had been thwarted. Emily remembered several of those stories as she carried her two kittens up to her room that evening.

  She’d offered to go with Max and Greg when they got the call that their fence had been cut and there were at least fifty head of cattle wandering up and down the road, blocking traffic. That would be using the word “traffic” very loosely, since there might be two or three pickup trucks driving down the road from Ravenna toward Lightning Ridge in a day’s time. But once out of the pasture, cows roamed, so there wasn’t anything to do but go herd them back into the pasture and fix the fence by flashlight power.

  That meant a long, long night, no playing around in the attic, and she didn’t have a blessed thing to do that evening. The kittens must’ve put in a hard day of play after Taylor was out of the house because they went right to sleep.

  Emily took a shower, washed her hair, did her nails, and picked out a dress for church the next morning. She would most likely be driving the ladies, and Greg would sleep in if he fixed fence all night long.

  Her phone rang at ten thirty, and she picked it up without even checking the ID.

  “Greg?” she asked.

  “No, it would be Taylor. My bull is safe and sound, and the cows are already ogling him like you did Greg. Thought I’d let you know,” he said.

  “I did not ogle.” She sighed.

  “Oh, yeah, you did. I’ve never seen you look at a man like you do him. He might be the one, whether I like it or not.”