by Katie Lane
“What’s going on here?” he thundered.
“Cru is asking Penny to marry him,” Sadie said. “And you better keep your mouth shut about it, Hank Gardener, or you’ll be finding yourself another cook and housekeeper.”
“I won’t be threatened, Sadie Truly. Nor will I let any daughter of mine marry some drifter.”
“Cru isn’t a drifter,” Lucas said with pride in his voice. “He’s a land owner now.”
Her father looked as confused as Penny. “What are you talking about? Cru owns land? Where?”
Chester smiled. “Right here. He just bought the Double Diamond Ranch. Or at least a portion of it. The boys wanted to give us money to rebuild our house, but Lucas and I couldn’t take their charity without giving them something in return. So we decided to split the ranch seven ways. We get the few acres that the house and barn sit on and our boys get the rest.”
“Your boys?” Her father glanced at Cru. “You were one of the boys who came here that summer?” Before Cru could answer, he turned to Lucas and Chester. “Why, you ornery old cusses. After I offered you my hospitality and helped you rebuild your house, you went behind my back and sold the land I wanted to those delinquents who don’t know the first thing about ranching.”
Penny finally snapped out of her stunned daze over Cru’s proposal. “They weren’t delinquents, Daddy. They were just boys who needed some love. And Cru knows enough about ranching to help both of us out in a pinch. If he wants to buy some land and start a ranch, that’s his business. Just like me deciding whether I want to marry him is mine.”
Her father pointed a finger at her. “Fine. But know this, little girl. If you marry a Double Diamond boy, you’ll never come back to the Gardener Ranch.”
Cru stepped up. “She doesn’t need your land, sir. Even if she decides not to marry me, I’m giving her the land I bought from Chester and Lucas as a gift.”
She stared at him. “You bought the land for me?”
“I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make you happy. Even leave, if that’s what you want.”
“Leave?” Luanne Riddell hollered from the crowd. “Please don’t tell me you’re going to be as stupid as that heroine in the book we read, Penelope Gardener. Hell, if a man offered me my own ranch, I’d marry him in a New York minute.”
“You’re right, Lulu,” Raynelle said. “A man with a ranch is much better than a man with a butcher shop or a truck filled with Ding Dongs.”
“Hush up, you two!” Sadie got after them. “Can’t you see the man is trying to propose? And they certainly don’t need an audience.” She waved her hands. “Come on, everybody, let’s get back to the dancing and give them some privacy.” When Penny’s father started to protest, she hooked an arm through his. “She’s not your baby anymore, Hank. Come on. I saved you a piece of apple pie.”
When everyone had moved away, Cru shook his head. “Damn, I should’ve taken you to a nice restaurant in Abilene and given you the ring and the deed.”
All she could do was repeat herself. “You bought me land.”
He smiled at her. “Someone once told me if you had a piece of Texas and a dream, you could do just about anything.” His smile faded. “And I’m afraid that’s all I have to offer you right now, Penny. Just land and a dream that one day I’ll get enough money collected to build you a house and get a few hundred head of cattle.”
She stared at him as the truth dawned on her. Cru hadn’t just bought her a ring to show he was ready for a commitment. He’d bought her a dream. A dream she’d had ever since a Double Diamond bad boy had ridden into her life.
“Yes,” she said.
His eyes widened. “Yes?”
“Are you deaf?” Lucas reappeared. “She said ‘yes.’”
Chester moved up next to his brother with a big grin on his face. “Don’t just stand there looking stupid, boy. Kiss the girl and seal the deal before she changes her mind.”
“Yes, sir,” Cru said before he scooped Penny up in his arms and kissed her. It wasn’t a quick kiss. He kissed her like wanted to keep kissing her for the rest of his life.
Penny was just fine with that.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“So I’m thinking we should have at least four bedrooms.” Cru used the mesquite stick to draw four squares in the dirt around the rectangle he’d drawn for the family room and kitchen.
“And just who’s going to be sleeping in those other three rooms?”
He stopped drawing and glanced over at the woman sitting next to him on the blanket under the big oak tree. Her fiery hair spilled around her shoulders like glowing flames and her blue eyes sparkled like sapphires. The happiness on her face was as visible as the afternoon sun blazing in the sky. And he was going to do everything in his power to keep that look on her face.
He set down the stick and scooted closer. “I was thinking kids,” he said hesitantly. “But if you don’t want children, that’s okay. We could use the rooms for when your sister and nephew visit. Or when Chester and Lucas get too old to live by themselves.” Which would probably be a long time off. The two old cowboys were doing quite well health wise and emotionally. They loved their new house and were talking about buying a couple more horses they could actually ride. And they loved having Penny and Cru coming by to visit and check on them daily.
Penny smiled and cradled his face in her hand. “You’re a good man, Cru Cassidy. And yes, I want children. I want two precious little boys with their father’s kind heart and pasture-green eyes.”
He turned his head and kissed her palm. “Then we better make it five rooms because I want two girls with their mama’s kind heart and sky blue eyes.” He grinned. “And I think one should be named Helen Marie for your mama. And one of the boys Hank William after your daddy. Hopefully giving him a son will make him like me a little better.”
“He likes you.”
“Really? Is that why he told Raul to saddle up that unbroken Appaloosa for me to ride this afternoon?” He glanced over at the wild horse that was straining against the reins Cru had tied securely to a tree branch.
Penny laughed. “All you had to say was you wanted another horse.”
“And show weakness to your father? That’s like showing weakness to a hungry wolf. You back down an inch and they’ll lunge for the throat.”
“Daddy’s not going to lunge for your throat. He’s accepted that you’re my choice.” When Cru sent her a disbelieving look, she retracted. “Okay, so maybe he hasn’t accepted you yet. But he will. And so will Evie.”
“Evie? She doesn’t want you to marry me either?” This was not good. Getting Hank to like him was hard enough. Now he had to get Evie’s approval too? Penny’s family meant everything to her. She wouldn’t be happy marrying him without their blessings. “What did she say?”
Penny smiled weakly. “Just that we’ll get married over her dead body.”
“Great.”
She squeezed his arm. “You have to understand how hurt she was when Clint’s father left and never came back. She doesn’t want the same thing to happen to me.”
Cru clenched his fists. “If Evie ever tells you who the Double Diamond boy is who left her and Clint high and dry, I’m going to beat his ass.”
“You and me both. Which is probably why Evie won’t tell me. And for the life of me, I can’t figure it out. Was there anyone you remember talking about her?”
“I think all the boys had a little crush on your sister. Except for Logan. He didn’t pay attention to her at all. He’d even get up and leave when I started talking about her. But I’m not worried about who Clint’s father is as much as I’m worried about getting your family’s approval.” He took her hand and linked their fingers. “I want to marry you, Penny, but I don’t want to cause problems between you and your family.”
Penny brought their linked hands to her chest and pressed the back of his against her heart. Her gaze was steady and true. “I do love my family, but I spent most of my life trying to make th
em happy. Now it’s my turn and I won’t let them stand in the way of my happiness. I want you, Cru. I want to marry you and have pretty babies with you and build a life with you. And the sooner that life starts the better.”
“Are you saying you’ll marry me today?”
She laughed. “Not today. I might be anxious to become Mrs. Cassidy, but I’m still a girl who wants a beautiful wedding. I’m thinking late summer or early fall under my mama’s rose arbor.”
Joy burst inside him like an overfilled balloon and he slid his hand through her glorious hair and pulled her in for a leisurely kiss. And then another. And then another. He started to lower her to the blanket, but she stopped him.
“They’ll be plenty of time for kisses later. Right now, I want to see the rest of our house.”
He gave her one more kiss before he picked up the stick and went back to his drawing. “I’m thinking all the kid’s rooms should be on this side of the house and our room will be on this side. I think it should have huge windows on one wall and, on the other, glass doors that lead out to a garden just like the French doors at Dixon’s Boardinghouse.”
She rested her chin on his shoulder. “Are you going to slip in those doors like you’ve been slipping into mine every night?”
“I’m going to be slipping into Miss Reba’s garden room every night as long as you’re there. But I hope I won’t have to sneak into my own house.”
“Not unless you do something to make me kick you out.”
His eyes widened as he turned to her. “Now, honey, what would make you think that? I plan to be the most devoted husband in the entire state of Texas.”
Her eyebrow cocked. “Are you saying I tamed the bad boy?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
She snorted. “Bullshit. I think that bad boy is still lurking inside you just waiting to do some naughty things.”
“Wishful thinking, Penelope Anne Gardener?”
“You better believe it.”
He bit back a grin. “So let me get this straight. I not only have to spend the rest of my life being the straight man for your horrible knock-knock jokes, I also have to be your sex slave?”
She looked thoroughly offended. “My horrible knock-knock jokes? My jokes aren’t horrible and I can prove it. Knock-knock.”
A smile broke out on his face. A smile that came from the knowledge he would be spending the rest of his life with this woman. “Who’s there?”
“Ima.”
“Ima who?”
“Ima gonna love you forever, Cru Cassidy.”
Cru tipped back his head and laughed before he lowered her down to the blanket and proved beneath the big ol’ Texas sky that he intended to do the same thing.
The End
Coming soon Katie Lane’s next Bad Boy Ranch novel,
Taming a Texas Rebel!
“I thought big city girls hot waxed from their eyebrows to their toes . . . including their womanly petals.”
Evie Gardener struggled to hold back her laughter at Raynelle Coffman’s inappropriate comment. Like most folks in Simple, Texas, Raynelle didn’t believe in mincing words. She said what she thought when she thought it, even if she was standing at her cash register at the Simple Market.
Ignoring the line of people who had moved closer to hear her reply, Evie continued to unload her cart. “Abilene isn’t really that big, Raynelle. It’s only a little over a hundred thousand people.” Which was big when compared to the little over seven hundred people who lived in Simple. Seven hundred who would no doubt hear all about this conversation by suppertime.
“So you’re saying you don’t hot wax down there?” Raynelle slid the razor that had brought up the topic over the scanner. Evie wanted to ignore the question, but she knew if she did, the people standing in line would take that as confirmation and the gossip would be even worse. It was the one thing she didn’t miss about living in a small town.
Probably because she’d been the brunt of gossip most her life.
In Abilene, she was just a single mom who worked as a loan officer at a bank. Here in Simple, she was Evie Gardener who’d had a string of bad luck. Bless her heart. She fell off a horse and broke her arm when she was five, dropped her baton five times in the twirling contest when she was ten, lost her mother from heart disease when she was thirteen, and got knocked up by some foreigner from Spain when she was fifteen. Now she lived in a big city and was hot waxing her womanly petals. Lord have mercy.
Evie finished unloading her cart and decided to answer truthfully. “Are you kidding, Ray? With a full-time job and a teenage son, I don’t have time to hot wax anything.”
Raynelle laughed. “I hear you, sister. Raising boys is one tough job—a never-ending job if Clint turns out anything like my Brandon. Of course, that’s my own fault. I should’ve kicked that lazy boy out when he turned twenty-one. Or at least made him do his own laundry and cooking. I guess I’m just a soft-touch where my baby is concerned.”
Evie understood completely. Clint was her baby too—the precious boy who could brighten her day with just one smile. Of course, lately, he hadn’t been doing much brightening. Her joyful little boy who had loved his mama to the moon and back had turned into an angsty, belligerent teenager who rarely shared a smile or talked with her—probably because she couldn’t help turning every conversation into a lecture.
But it was hard not to lecture a kid who refused to keep his room clean or do his homework or stay away from troublemakers. Since entering high school, his grades had plummeted, he’d been arrested for drinking beer in the neighborhood park, and just recently, he’d been given school detention for smoking on campus. He should be on restriction until the cows came home. Instead, she had let him talk her into spending the summer on the Gardener Ranch with her daddy.
She had to be the worst pushover ever. Closely followed by Raynelle.
“Now my son has brought home his girlfriend to live with us. And that lazy girl don’t do laundry or cook either.“ Raynelle held up a bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos. “What are all these snacks for, honey? You plannin’ on having an engagement party for your little sister. Everyone in town is excited about Penny marrying that cute Cru Cassidy.”
Every muscle in Evie’s body tightened. Penny would marry Cru over her dead body. Her sister wasn’t ready for marriage. She was too young and naïve. Having spent most of her life under the thumb of their domineering father, she had rarely left the ranch or dated. She was sweet and innocent and believed in the goodness of people. Evie had once believed in the goodness of people too, but she knew better now. And she wasn’t about to let her little sister marry a wild Double Diamond boy and end up getting her heart broken.
“There will be no engagement party,” she said adamantly. “These snacks are for Clint while he’s staying at the Gardener Ranch. The boy can eat his weight in Doritos.”
Raynelle seemed a little surprised by the no engagement comment, but she recovered quickly and scanned the chips. “I heard Clint was helpin’ your daddy this summer. It’s nice he’ll get to spend some time with his grandfather.”
Evie didn’t think spending time with her father was nice, but obviously Clint did. As soon as she pulled up to the ranch, he’d hopped out and greeted his grandfather with a big hug. And daddy had looked just as happy to see him. He’d thumped him on the back and told him all about the Appaloosa horse he had gotten for him. Evie, on the other hand, had only gotten a lecture about not calling to say they’d be late. Of course, she hadn’t expected anything different. She and her father were like kerosene and a lit match. Anytime they were together, things usually exploded.
Which is why she’d moved away. But she couldn’t deny her son a relationship with his grandfather. Or time spent on the Gardener Ranch. Some of her happiest memories were of living at the ranch. Of course, that was when her mother had been alive to soften her father’s stubborn nature.
“You plannin’ on staying at the ranch with Clint?” Raynelle asked.
<
br /> “No, I’m going to stay a few days in town with my sister before I head home.”
Raynelle shook her head sadly. “I was sure sorry to hear about your daddy and Penny having that big fight and her moving out. Both of you girls should be staying at your home instead of Dixon’s Boardinghouse.” Everyone in line nodded his or her head in agreement.
Rather than air the family dirty laundry, Evie tried to lighten the conversation. “But then I wouldn’t get to see you, Raynelle.”
Raynelle got a big smile on her face. “Well, there is that.”
After Evie paid for her groceries, she carried the bags out to her Camry. She’d bought the Camry used ten years ago and it had reached its expiration date. The air conditioner made a strange squealing sound if you ran it too high, two of the windows wouldn’t roll down, and the fuel gauge was broken so she had to guess on when she needed to get gas. She just hated to spend money on a new car when there were so many other things to spend it on.
She put her groceries in the trunk. Since she hadn’t bought anything perishable, she didn’t have to worry about driving them out to the Gardener Ranch today. She would take them to Clint tomorrow and check to make sure her son still wanted to stay. A day with her grumpy father might be all he needed to change his mind. But right now, she wasn’t worried about Clint changing his mind as much as her sister changing hers.
Dixon’s Boardinghouse was located on the edge of town. The big plantation-style mansion sat back from the main highway and was surrounded by green lawn and shady oak trees. The house was three stories tall, including the attic rooms, and had been built in the 1800’s by a wealthy cattleman for his new bride. The woman had loved the house, but hated the dismal Texas town it was in and had taken the first train back to Chicago she could get.
Not wanting to ruin his wedding plans, Dale Dixon had asked his Cherokee housekeeper to take her place. The marriage had turned out to be an affair of the heart and the couple had had seven children together. Unfortunately, six of those kids had greedily used up all the money and run the ranch into the ground. When the parents passed, all that was left was the house that they willed to the seventh child. With no way to pay for its upkeep, she’d turned it into a boardinghouse. It had been a boardinghouse ever since—except for a short time during the oil boom of the early 1900’s when it had been turned into a house of ill repute. Something that Reba’s great-aunt, Miss Gertie, refused to talk about.
