A Very Lusty New Year [The Lusty, Texas Collection] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)
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The Lusty, Texas Collection
A Very Lusty New Year
Anna Cooper knows her mother wants her to find a rich husband but Anna refuses. Since her mother has always harangued her for being fat and frumpy, she knows no man would want her. Eschewing the idle-rich existence her mother lives, Anna answers an intriguing ad in the paper.
Craig and Jackson Jessop might be considered investment gurus, but organized they are not. They decide what they need is an office manager—someone who can create order out of their chaos and manage them. It would be helpful, too, if the successful candidate possessed good pattern recognition skills.
The minute they set eyes on Anna Cooper, they know she was meant to be theirs. Winning her as their bride should be easy. All they have to do is negotiate their way past a beast of a future mother-in-law, a con man looking to scalp them, and the biggest obstacle of all—Anna herself, who doesn’t seem to know what a gem she truly is.
Genre: Historical, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Western/Cowboys
Length: 65,101 words
A VERY LUSTY NEW YEAR
The Lusty, Texas Collection
Cara Covington
MENAGE EVERLASTING
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting
A VERY LUSTY NEW YEAR
Copyright © 2015 by Cara Covington
E-book ISBN: 978-1-63258-912-5
First E-book Publication: January 2015
Cover design by Harris Channing
All art and logo copyright © 2015 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
Dear Readers,
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thank you to my wonderful readers, who continue to be loyal to the families and stories of Lusty, Texas. I’m always thrilled to hear from you, and to know that my words manage, if even in some small way, to touch you. Thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts with me.
Thank you to the Lusty Ladies, the most amazing street team, ever. Ladies and Lad, your continued enthusiasm for promoting the Lusty, Texas series is beyond awesome. I love the fun we have in the group, the funny conversations that sometimes run amok, and the inspiring pictures you post. You keep me smiling, and give me a boost when I need one. Thank you for loving the characters, and for being my friends.
My continuing thanks to Bea Connors, author’s assistant extraordinaire. I really appreciate your knowledge and your guidance. Thanks also to Karen DiGaetano for giving the manuscript her expert attention.
Last, but never least, thank you to the dedicated professionals at Siren Publishing. I am grateful for each and every one of you. And especially to Diana, my amazing publisher. Thank you for continuing to believe in me.
DEDICATION
As always, this book is dedicated to my husband, David. Forty-two and a half years and counting. Thanks for all you do so that I can keep on doing what I do.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Acknowledgements
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Epilogue
About the Author
A VERY LUSTY NEW YEAR
The Lusty, Texas Collection
CARA COVINGTON
Copyright © 2015
Prologue
January 1, 2015
The sound of voices—male and female, chatting and laughing— filled every space in the dining room, overflowing, Anna Jessop was certain, to every inch of the house. Being whimsical, she imagined her beloved two-story Victorian was smiling. The weather wasn’t cooperating today, starting the New Year off with a day of intermittent fog and temperatures only a few degrees above freezing.
Over the years, since that first New Year’s Day spent here in Lusty thirty-four years ago, the holiday had taken on a deeply personal meaning for her. Many people made resolutions and began to do their best to honor them, beginning January the first. The resolution symbolized a new start.
Anna’s first New Year’s Day as a Jessop had been a new start, indeed.
She was grateful every day for the two men who’d taken one look at her and loved what they’d seen. But on this day each year, she was especially thankful for them—for her own personal miracle.
She had no doubt about the matter at all. Her men had done more than just fallen in love with her. They’d saved her.
Her daughter’s laughter as she responded to something one of
the triplets said filled her heart with joy. Nancy had been gone for a long time, and in that world beyond their small town, she’d been battered and bruised and begun to change into a woman Anna recognized, because she used to see her in the mirror every day all those years before.
Anna loved Nancy’s husbands, Eli Barton and Jeremiah Winthrop, with all her heart, because they’d saved Nancy, just as Craig and Jackson had saved her.
Out of the corner of her eye she caught a tender moment between her oldest sons and their wife, Carol. The way Warren and Edward watched over her sweet daughter-in-law, attuned to her every mood, dedicated to her every need, put her very much in mind of the way Craig and Jack watched over her—not just in those early years, either, but to this very day.
Those two Jessop apples definitely hadn’t fallen very far from the family tree.
“You look really happy, Mom.”
Nancy’s observation quieted the conversation. Anna tilted her head and met her daughter’s gaze. “I am completely happy. For the first time in years, I have all of my children—yes, I know you’re no longer children—under my roof at the same time. That’s the first source of my joy. The second, of course, is that I have new sons and a new daughter. How blessed we’ve been this year, with first Carol, and then Eli and Jeremiah joining our family. I know I’m biased, but y’all are nine of the very best people I know.”
Craig had left the table a few moments before. He stepped back into the dining room and looked over at Jack, who nodded.
Something’s up. Anna always knew when they had some bit of fun or other on their minds. Of course she knew it wasn’t going to be that kind of fun—at least not until they were alone together behind their bedroom door.
“We have an anniversary gift for you.” Craig pulled his hands from behind his back to reveal a wrapped, flat box about the size of an eight by eleven notebook.
Anna never took them or their many gifts for granted. “Thank you. You know I don’t need anything.”
“Yes, we know, as you’re always telling us, Bella,” Jack said. “And we can guarantee you don’t need this, either, but we think you might get a kick out of it.”
Craig set it down in front of her. “Go on, sweetheart. Open it.”
Like their almost overwhelming passion, their pet names for her were usually relegated to those times when they were alone. Every time Craig called her sweetheart in that tone, she thought she would start to purr, she was just that happy. Jack had always called her Bella—beautiful—even right from the beginning when she would have sworn she was anything but beautiful.
Anna didn’t tear into the package as she had those first few birthdays and anniversaries, because she had endless patience now. There was always lots of love, lots of affection, and a constant sureness that she was respected and loved, that she was cherished—that she belonged. Her self-worth was never in doubt these days, and that security let her take things as they came.
Anna glanced at her grown children and their spouses. She couldn’t help but smile at the way Warren, Edward, Nancy, Paul, Lucas, and Wesley all sat forward, eager to see what sort of present their fathers had given her this time. Through the years, her men had gifted her with surprises wrapped in big boxes and small. The fancy paper always revealed a present that would make her children either gasp in wonder or groan in embarrassment.
For Anna, the real treasure wasn’t in whatever they’d given her, but in the much more basic fact that they had chosen it—whatever it was—for her themselves.
“Nothing’s changed,” Paul teased. “You’re still the slowest gift opener I know.”
“Trust us, son, when we tell you that everything has changed from that first gift we gave your mother—and those changes are all good.”
Of course neither Paul nor any of the rest of her children had any real idea what Jack meant. They’d told their children an edited version of their own love story—children always want to know how their parents met and fell in love.
Anna chuckled. “Nothing’s changed. You still want everything right now.”
Paul met her gaze, and in his eyes she saw something she’d hoped never to see in the eyes of any of her children. Soul-deep regret. Oh, not the kind of regret that everyone has from time to time. No, this was a poignant regret that reflected a lost chance—or a lost love.
“Some of life’s lessons are harder to learn than others,” he said.
“Yes, sadly, they are.” She read commiseration in his womb-mate’s eyes. She wasn’t ignorant of the excesses they’d been exposed to, living out in California. She would never admit to any of her children that she routinely scanned the internet for mention of her sons’ names—or that she’d shared that pastime with her husbands.
Nancy wasn’t the only one of their wandering chicks the senior Jessops had kept tabs on.
One of the hardest things about being a parent was reaching that watershed moment of realizing that your children were children no more. Her babies were no longer babies, and no longer could she protect them from life’s sharp, cruel edges.
Nothing I can do about any of that, really.
Anna returned her attention to the business of opening her gift. Beneath the pretty wrapping paper was a box—a plain white box with no markings on it. Her curiosity piqued, she lifted the lid.
“Oh, my.” Anna had no doubt the picture frame itself was pure gold. It had that deep rich luster that only real gold had. But that wasn’t the most precious thing about this gift. For inside the frame, protected by glass, was a typed sheet, measuring eight by ten. On it the words, well-known and remembered, that had started it all.
“What is it?” Nancy asked.
Anna looked up, her daughter’s face wavering from the tears in her eyes. Her men stood behind her, each with a hand on her, surrounding her not only with their physical presence but their emotional selves, too.
A handkerchief appeared before her, cotton, plain white with white embossed initials. She felt her lip quiver. Then she looked up at Craig, repeating words first said thirty-four years ago.
“Whoever carries a linen handkerchief in this day and age?”
“I do.”
When Jack stroked her hair, she turned her head and met his gaze. “It’s time for us to tell them the full, unabridged edition of our love story, don’t you think, Bella?”
Anna nodded, and then looked at Nancy. “This is the ad copy your fathers wrote, all those years ago, that they sent to the Dallas Morning News.”
Nancy tilted her head to the side, so much like Anna in that moment. “The ad you answered that brought you to them?”
“Yes, the ad that changed everything.” Anna sighed. “Do you know, I can still picture the moment—a moment that took place at another dining room table, one not nearly so convivial a place as this one. Except for that particular November morning—but only because Mother was gone to the spa for a two week vacation...
Chapter 1
Dallas, Texas, November 1979
“Good morning, Anna.”
“Good morning, Father.” Anna Cooper took her usual seat at the dining room table. She was quite aware that her mood was light, nearly carefree and bordering on giddy. She was also aware that the reason it was so was directly related to the fact that her mother was away on vacation.
Clara Cooper was indulging her inner woman at...Anna frowned. She didn’t know which spa her mother was staying at this time. She didn’t particularly care. The only thing she cared about was that the woman was gone, and Anna could look forward to nearly two full, glorious weeks of relative peace and freedom, beginning this spectacular Monday morning.
“You’re looking well this morning, daughter.” Her father met her gaze. Was there a bit of a humorous twitch to his lips and a sparkle in his eyes? Possibly. I’m not the only one Clara harangues mercilessly on a regular basis.
“Thank you, Father. I’m feeling well.”
Josie, their maid of several years, entered the room, insulated coffee pot
in hand. She poured a cup of coffee for Anna, then set the pot down between her and her father.
“Good morning, Miss. What will you have for breakfast today?”
“Do we have berries?”
“We do. Mrs. Moody went to the market first thing. She said they’re very fresh.”
“Then I’ll have berries and yogurt, and a small bowl of bran cereal, please.”
“Yes, Miss.”
Anna took a moment to place the linen table napkin on her lap, and then fixed her coffee—cream, only, of course, even though, with her mother’s absence, the sugar bowl was actually on the table.
Her father had been reading the newspaper when she’d entered. He’d set it aside, and put his attention on her.
Edgar Cooper was a man whose business acumen was second to none. He was the president and CEO of Cooper-Syd Oil and Minerals, a company that had been started by his grandfather when the man made his way to Texas from England. She’d read articles in business magazines that described her father as fierce, decisive, intuitive—a man who made it clear to all and sundry that he was indeed the captain of his ship and the master of his fate.
She recalled thinking, when she’d read that line, that the journalist should have interviewed the man’s wife—her mother.
Clara might well have put paid to that poor reporter’s belief fast enough.
Now, as she met her father’s gaze, she could understand completely that he had a corporate persona, and then a private one. Perhaps he was able to be so knowledgeable, decisive, and successful in business because he allowed his wife to control him so completely at home.