by Joanna Wayne
A second later, Riley was on her side of the worktable and she was in his arms.
She held on tight as tears filled her eyes, washing streams of flour down her face. “Where’s Constance?” she asked suddenly, realizing she wasn’t there.
“Riding horses. We ran into Tucker at the feed store. I had this not-so-crazy premonition that we were not quite through with James. I sent her on with him and I put the pedal to the metal to get back to you.”
“Quick Draw, to the rescue,” she said, holding him even tighter. She’d almost lost him. She never wanted to be that afraid again.
Seconds later sirens screamed. Riley held her tight until the bakery filled with paramedics and deputies.
James and Angela were both taken to the hospital.
Sheriff Cavazos arrived, took one look at the flour-strewn kitchen and shook his head. “You Lawrence brothers and your women bring a heck load of trouble to my county. Lucky for you that Dani sure can bake.”
“Lucky for me,” Riley said, “she sure can handle her flour.”
Only she was the lucky one. She was alive and safe in Riley’s arms.
Epilogue
One month later
It was a beautiful Monday afternoon, a perfect day to enjoy the outdoors. But as much as Dani was enjoying her time with Grace while the girls were riding with Pierce, she was truly hoping to casually bump into Riley.
Up until a week ago, he’d been his usual self—attentive, sexy and always ready to make love or even to just hang out with her. For the past week he’d been mostly absent, claiming he was busy. When they were together, he seemed distracted.
She had a sinking feeling in her heart that he would soon be moving on. She’d promised herself she’d never ask for forever. Never ask him to give up the lifestyle he loved to become stuck in the town and the life she loved.
She never wanted him to feel trapped with her, but how was her heart going to survive without him?
Grace lifted her glass of lemonade and took a slow sip. “Pierce is delighted Dudley Miles is being released from prison today. He credits you and Riley for most of that.”
“It is a bizarre twist to a convoluted and incredible mystery,” Dani agreed. Thankfully Angela survived the gunshot wound and decided to clear up much of the mystery.”
“Still, I’m surprised Angela finally broke down and told the truth. I don’t know her that well, but the few times I was around her, she showed no signs of grief or guilt.”
“My guess is she just had the guilt and grief buried so deeply in her psyche she couldn’t move past it. When James insisted she help him kill me, her psychological facade cracked.”
“That’s so sad and a very scary,” Grace said.
“I’m just lucky and supremely grateful that never happened with Amber and Constance. Amber was my sister. Mother and I both loved her dearly and tried everything we could to keep help her kick the drugs. I wish now that I had tried even harder.”
“You can’t save everyone no matter how hard you try, but you have Constance now and she’s a fantastic kid in spite of everything her mother put her through.”
“You’re right. I can’t change the past anyway.”
“How about a recap,” Grace asked, “just to be sure I have all my facts straight?”
“I’ll try. To start with, James is under arrest for attempted murder and for the murder of his brother, Lenny. In the meantime he’s receiving psychological assessments to determine if he’s mentally stable enough to stand trial.”
“And Angela?”
“She’s admitted to being the only adult at home the day her son died. She got high and passed out. He climbed onto the counter, apparently trying to get a cookie. He fell and died from traumatic brain energy to the back of his head.
“She panicked, knowing she might face charges of neglect or manslaughter in his death. She tossed his body into the woods and then went home and told her family he’d been kidnapped from the house. The body was found months later and the evidence in the case soon pointed to Angela.”
“But why would Dudley admit to the crime when he wasn’t guilty?”
“To save Angela from going to prison. He and his wife, Millie, couldn’t bear to see their precious, spoiled daughter take responsibility for anything. She’s in a mental and psychological facility in Houston now, awaiting testing, treatment and eventually a trial.”
“I read once that family ties can be the sweetest ones on earth or they can be as deadly as a blood-sucking leech,” Grace said. “Sounds like the Miles family ties were definitely closer to the latter.”
“Hopefully, they can make something good from all this.”
“At least it’s good that Dudley can go home. By the way, what’s up with Riley lately? He’s always rushing off without saying where’s he’s going, and when he is here, he seems preoccupied.”
“I haven’t noticed,” she lied, trying to keep the anxiety from her voice. She couldn’t think about his leaving without getting literally ill.
Her cell phone dinged. She had a text from Riley.
Important that I see you and Constance. Can I take you two to dinner tonight at sixish?
He’d never asked her out by text before. More indication that this was the night the bomb would drop. No matter how upset she got, she wouldn’t let him see her cry. There would be time enough for tears after he’d left.
* * *
RILEY SHOWED UP at ten after six and the three of them climbed into his pickup truck. Dani was a wreck, talking too much and too fast, nervously jumping from one subject to another.
It was a few minutes before she noticed he’d taken a back road that she was certain didn’t lead to a restaurant. Still, she didn’t ask questions. Maybe he just wanted a quiet place to talk and get this over with.
He turned in at a gate that said Wallace Ranch. They drove past acres and acres of fenced and cross-fenced pastures before stopping on a hill overlooking a small lake.
Constance bounded out of the backseat and then rushed off to chase a fluttering butterfly.
Riley opened the car door for Dani. They stood in silence for a few minutes, watching the sun set in the western sky.
“What do you think?” Riley asked.
“It’s a beautiful area.”
“I’m glad you think so. I put a down payment on this ranch today.”
“You’re buying this ranch?”
“It’s not that incredible. I haven’t bought anything before except pickup trucks, so I have the savings to be able to afford it.”
“But what about your rambling ways and need to keep moving?”
“I think I was always just working my way to you. I want to marry you, Dani. I want to take care of you and Constance. I want to love you for the rest of my life.”
Constance came running over and tugged on Riley’s shirtsleeve. “Does this ranch have horses?”
“It will when we move out here. Horses and cattle and I’m thinking a big yellow dog.”
“We’re gonna have a ranch?” Constance asked.
“If your aunt whom I love very much will marry me?”
Constance started to jump up and down. “Say yes, Aunt Dani. Please say yes. Riley loves us and we love him. We’ll be a family. With a ranch. And horses. And a dog!”
From heartbreak at the prospect of losing him to a marriage proposal. This was coming so fast. Her head was spinning. “What about my bakery?”
“We’ll be like the elites, have a place in town and one in the country,” Riley said. “Only difference is ours will be only fifteen minutes apart.”
He took both her hands in his. “I would never expect you to give up the bakery any more than I’d give up ranching. I’ll work the ranch during the day. You’ll work at the bakery. Nights we
’ll be together at one place or the other. We can work it out.”
It sounded like heaven, but...
“Are you sure this is what you want to do, Riley? “Are you very, very sure?”
He dropped to one knee, pulled a brilliant diamond solitaire from his pocket and slipped it onto her finger. “I’m very sure that there is no place in the whole world I’d rather be than with you. I love you more than I ever dreamed I could love anyone. Will you marry me, Dani Boatman, and make me the luckiest guy on the planet?”
“Yes. Yes. Yes.” Tears filled her eyes. No one had the right to be this happy.
He stood and took her in his arms. Constance joined in the family hug and then dashed off to the nearest stump, jumped on top of it and started yelling to no one except perhaps the hidden wildlife this was moving to this ranch.
“What shall we do next?” Riley asked. “Eat. Go share our good news with the folks at the Double K?”
“Later,” Dani whispered.
“Don’t tell me this is one of those baking moments?”
“No, I just want to savor this feeling. But you never know what might come up once I get you in my bakery kitchen.”
“No doubt. Ever since I met you I’ve been dreaming of escapades involving your whipped cream.”
“I’ll see that a lot of those dreams come true.”
Riley Lawrence. No longer a rambling man but every inch a cowboy. The man she’d love every day for the rest of her life.
Who said you can’t have it all?
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from NECESSARY ACTION by Julie Miller.
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Necessary Action
by Julie Miller
Prologue
“This is some kind of Valentine’s Day curse.” Duff Watson stuck his finger inside the starched white collar of his shirt and tugged, certain the tux the rental shop had given him for today was a size too small.
He wondered what his family would think if he tossed the red bow tie and unbuttoned the collar of this stupid monkey suit. His sister, the bride, would be ticked, and his father would be embarrassed, Grandpa Seamus would laugh, and he’d never hear the end of it from his brothers. So he endured.
Duff—no one had called him by his given name, Tom, for years—was all for celebrating his sister’s happiness. He’d even agreed to stand up as best man for her fiancé. But the only things that felt normal about Liv’s wedding day were the gun holstered at the small of his back and the KCPD detective’s badge stashed in his pocket. And, oh yeah, watching his two younger brothers, Niall and Keir, tagging along behind him as they escorted the bridesmaids down the aisle to join him at the altar.
The three Watson brothers, all third-generation cops following proudly in their father’s and retired grandfather’s footsteps, couldn’t be more different if they tried. Niall was the brain, a medical examiner with the crime lab. He seemed clueless about all the pomp and circumstance surrounding the wedding. He looked as though he was doing some sort of mental calculation about the distance to the altar or how many guests were seated in each pew. Keir was the social one, and he was eating this stuff up. He flirted with his escort and blew a kiss to the older woman in the second pew, Millie Leighter, the family cook and housekeeper who’d helped raise the four of them after their mother’s senseless murder.
Duff was the self-avowed tough guy. He didn’t have the multiple college degrees Niall did, and he’d never win a sweet-talking contest against Keir. But neither could match him for sheer, stubborn cussedness. Duff was the survivor. He’d been old enough when Mary Watson had died that he could see his father’s anger and grief, and had stepped up to help take care of his younger siblings, even after their father had hired Millie, and Grandpa Seamus had moved in to do whatever was necessary to hold the fractured family together. Hell, even now that they were all grown-up, he was still doing whatever was necessary to protect his family—listening to his baby sister when her devil scum of a former partner had seduced and then cheated on her, making sure the man she was marrying today was worthy of her. He’d written a personal recommendation for Keir to one of his academy buddies when the ambitious youngest brother had been up for a promotion to the major crime unit. And there was no end to the coaching Niall required as the shy brainiac negotiated the intricacies of interpersonal relationships.
Duff had the street smarts, the gut instincts that helped him get through numerous undercover assignments for the department. He read people the way Niall read books. Only once had he misjudged someone he’d tried to help, and he’d paid for that mistake with his heart and a beat down that had put him in the hospital for nearly three weeks.
But facing a drug dealer’s wrath hadn’t killed him. Being betrayed by Shayla to her brother had only made Duff stronger and a hell of a lot smarter about falling in love. He’d been played for a fool, and he owned the repercussions of his mistake. Maybe his colossal screwup—when it came to love on this day that was all about love—was the reason he couldn’t get his tuxedo to fit right.
“Natalie is married to Liv’s partner, you know.” Niall, an inch taller than Duff, adjusted his dark glasses and whispered the chiding remark about flirting with the bridesmaid to Keir, who stood a couple of inches shorter.
“Relax, charm-school dropout.” Keir clapped Niall on the shoulder, grinning as he stepped up beside him. “Young or old, married or not—it never hurts to be friendly.”
“Seriously?” Niall turned that same whispered reprimand on Duff, eyeing the middle of his back. “Are you packing today?”
He’d tucked his ankle piece into the back of his itchy wool slacks. At least he wasn’t wearing his shoulder holster and Glock. “Hey. You wear your glasses every day, Poindexter. I wear my gun.”
“I wasn’t aware that you knew what the term ‘Poindexter’ meant.”
“I’m smarter than I look.”
Keir had the gall to laugh. “He’d have to be.”
Duff shifted his stance, peering around Niall. “So help me, baby brother, if you give me any grief today, I will lay you out flat.”
“Zip it. Both of you.” Leave it to Niall to be the cool, calm and collected one. Liv had probably put him in charge of corralling her two rowdier brothers today. The smart guy scowled at Keir. “You, mind your manners.” When Duff went after the collar hugging his neck again, Niall
leaned in. “And you, stop fidgeting like a little kid.”
A sharp look from the minister waiting behind them quieted all three brothers for the moment. With everything ready for their sister’s walk down the aisle, the processional music started. Duff scanned the crowd as they rose to their feet. Millie dabbed at her eyes with a lace hanky, making no effort to hide her tears. He knew a hug could make those tears go away, and he would gladly go comfort her, but he was stuck up here at the altar.
Grandpa Seamus was sneaking a handkerchief out of his pocket. The old man was crying, too.
And then Olivia and their father, Thomas Watson Sr., appeared in the archway at the end of the aisle. A few strands of gray in his dark hair, and the limp from the blown-out knee that had ended his frontline duty with the department far too soon, couldn’t detract from the pride in Thomas’s posture as he walked his daughter down the aisle. Duff’s sinuses burned. Be a man. Do not let your emotions get the better of you. Do not cry.
But Olivia Mary Watson was a stunner in her long beaded gown and their mother’s veil of Irish lace. Who knew that shrimp of a tomboy would grow up into such a fine, strong woman? He took after their father with his green eyes and big, stocky build. But Liv was the spitting image of the mother he remembered—dark hair, blue eyes. Walking beside Thomas Sr., he thought of the wedding picture that still sat on his father’s dresser.
He blinked and had to say something quick to cover up the threat of tears. “Dude,” Duff muttered. He nudged the groom beside him. “Gabe, you are one lucky son of a—”
“Duff.” Niall’s sharp tone reminded him that swearing in church probably wasn’t a good idea.
Gabe sounded a little overcome with emotion, too. “I know.”
“You’d better treat her right.”
Yep. Liv must have put Niall in charge of keeping him in line today. “We’ve already had this conversation, Duff. I’m convinced he loves her.”
Gabe never took his eyes off Olivia as he inclined his head to whisper, “He does.”