Always On My Mind: A Bad Boy Rancher Love Story (The Dawson Brothers Book 1)

by Ali Parker

  As she cleared my plate and helped Mama in the kitchen, me, Luke, and Dad all went outside, leaving Mason at the table talking on his phone. I imagined it was the girl, Abigail, who he’d introduced us to on the other end. And according to Luke, who’d filled me in on everyone’s business but his own, the two had gotten pretty serious.

  We sat on the porch and Dad kicked his feet up on his stool. “That’s one fine little lady you’ve got there, Davey. I hope your brothers get so lucky.” He turned his gaze to Luke, who turned his head.

  I had a feeling my younger brother had something or someone up his sleeve, but the fact that he wasn’t talking made me wonder if she was the type of girl you’d bring home to Mama. I’d heard he quit seeing Cindy, and all I could think about that was good riddance. Luke could do better. He just needed to look in the right places. He pulled his hat down over his eyes and leaned back in the swing as he hoped to disappear.

  Dad turned back to me. “Your Mama sure thinks a whole lot about Sarah. She goes on and on about her enough.”

  “I’m glad you both like her. She’s been so good to me these past months, I’m sure I couldn’t do any of it without her.”

  “That’s the kind of girl you want to keep around.” My dad’s words brought my head around. It was so good to hear him say that.

  “I agree. She’s very special to me. I love her.”

  “So what are you going to do about it? The two of you can’t go on living in sin for the rest of your lives. You think you’ll ever make an honest woman out of her? She deserves better, that one.”

  “I know she does.” I knew that more than anything. I sometimes wondered why she put up with me, for that alone she deserved so much better.

  “Well, what the hell are you waiting for, son?”

  I grinned. Daddy picked a fine time to grill me about marrying Sarah. There wasn’t anything I’d wanted more lately, but the two of us had been so busy it seemed the opportunity just wasn’t there or it didn’t seem like a good time.

  It wasn’t long after that Sarah and Mama came out to join us on the porch. Mama took her usual place with Daddy and Sarah sat beside me, pulling her hair up to tie it back. Little tendrils hung down, brushing her neck. She was so beautiful. I stared at her and we just smiled at one another for no other reason than we loved each other’s company.

  It was the same way I’d seen my parents look at one another, and I hoped that I would always have the quiet moments with her.

  “I was going over the schedule earlier. You’re going to be in this area around the holidays, so that will work out perfectly. I’m also going to see if we can schedule a mini vacation when we’re on the West Coast between stops. I think it will be the last chance to get out that way for a break for a long while. Most of our stops are back East.”

  She’d poured over that schedule for hours at a time, and I knew she knew it inside and out. “What does the spring look like? Any free time then?” I asked.

  She narrowed her eyes and stared at the sky as if straining to remember. “May’s not too busy. Do you want me to call Richard and put in for some time?”

  “Yeah. We’ll need a few weeks at least. Don’t you think?” I could tell by the set in her brow that she was confused.

  “A few weeks?”

  “Yeah, to get ready for the wedding.” She glanced at Luke who seemed just as confused.

  I had wanted my entire family there for the moment, but Mason and Ted had never been anywhere they were supposed to be when you needed them. I stood and dug the ring out of my pocket and dropped to one knee before her. Her eyes widened as she noticed what I was doing.

  “Yes!” she screamed before I could even ask. She screamed the word and her arms wrapped around me so tight that she nearly pushed me over.

  My parents and Luke were laughing so hard, and Mama had tears in her eyes and a smile on her face. “I didn’t get to ask you, yet.”

  She pulled away and cupped my face. “I’m sorry. Do you want to do it over?”

  “I love you, Sarah. Will you do me the honor of marrying me?” She buried her face in my neck and whispered against me.

  “Yes.”

  Luke clapped and Mama and Dad joined in.

  Mason walked out still lost in his phone. “What’s going on?” He glared at me like I’d done something wrong and Mama filled him in on the news.

  He shrugged. “It’s about time.”

  “Do we have to wait until May?” Sarah pulled away and wiped her eyes.

  “You know the schedule. We can do it whenever you want.”

  “Is Christmas too soon? I’ve always wanted a winter wedding.”

  “Mama, I have a feeling we’ll be home for Christmas, if we can have the wedding here?”

  “Of course.” She wiped her eyes and laid her head on Dad’s arm.

  I stood, helping Sarah to her feet. She admired her ring as tears filled her eyes. “Did you have this in your pocket all day?”

  “Yeah, I was trying to find the right time, but I just couldn’t wait any longer.” I pulled her in close and brushed my lips softly against hers. I couldn’t believe I’d waited this long.

  I took her hand and we excused ourselves and walked out to the barn, I couldn’t wait to get her alone. I had so much I wanted to say and yet I found myself in one of those quiet moments with her. I leaned against the fence and pulled her to me. She gazed up into my eyes, hers still fresh with tears.

  “How long have you known that you wanted to marry me?”

  I remembered the very first time she’d showed up here. Her little heels digging into the dirt and then later when I pulled her up on my horse with me. She was so determined.

  “I knew it the first day when you busted your pretty little ass lifting that bale of hay.”

  A blush rose to her cheeks and I wiped away the last of her tears. “You really knew all the way back then, even though I made a fool of myself?”

  “You were adorable. You’ve made every one of my dreams a reality. Promise me something?” I held her chin in my fingertips, holding her gaze.

  “Anything,” she said, taking my hand.

  “Promise me, you’ll always be mine?”

  She leaned in, giving me a quick kiss as she wrapped her arms around my neck. “Always.”

  Author Note: Hope you enjoyed David and Sarah’s story. David’s brother, Ted and his girl, Lauralee will have a book coming out in early March! For now, I’ve included my Second Chance Romance set for your reading enjoyment. It’s just a thank you for picking up a copy of my book. Appreciate you and your support!!

  JADED

  “Love is a Lie”

  Chapter 1

  "Are you excited at all? You look rough, like you might throw up any minute." Lisa reached over in the front seat of the car and poked Kari, whose hands were shaking slightly on the wheel.

  Kari laughed sarcastically and glanced toward the fiery redhead beside her, a smile on her mouth as nervousness churned from her stomach to her chest. The big day was tomorrow and she was beyond blessed to be marrying someone like Frank, but that didn't ease her worry, her thoughts. To be tied down to someone for the rest of eternity and hope that they would remain loving, faithful, fun?

  Impossible. Her own parents were a great match and yet they'd fallen apart her senior year, leaving her to celebrate most of her high school events with her brother, Marc and her mom's youngest sister, Katie. If two of the most compatible people in the universe hadn't made it, what chance did she and Frank have?

  "Hey, that was a question."

  "Oh, yeah, sorry. I was thinking about my folks again." Kari shrugged, glancing in the rearview mirror and pulling up to a long string of apartments. "Run in and get Sicily. I think I might hurl if I get out right now."

  "Yeah, no prob." Lisa reached for the door handle before looking back across the open confines of the car. "You know you don't have to marry him, right?"

  Kari shrugged and turned to face her friend. "I love Frank, Lisa. It
's all good. I'm just feeling a little overwhelmed by the idea of forever."

  "Yes, well, I don't love Frank at all. He's too mysterious and something’s jacked up about his hair."

  Kari pushed at her best friend. "Go get Sicily and stop trying to break up my happy ending before it even happens."

  Lisa huffed, her voice soft and low as she grumbled various things about Frank and his hair. As soon as she shut the door to the car, Kari let out a long breath, her head dropping back and her eyes closing. Was this the right decision? Why was she having second thoughts now? She and Frank had been dating since her freshman year of college and now they had both graduated. It was time for the next step.

  The wedding had been planned over a six-month period, Lisa and Sicily helping her along every step of the decision-making process. It'd been a long six months, one filled with nothing more than minor petting and carefully guarded make-out sessions with her husband-to-be. It was something she wanted, not him. He was more than happy to hump the side of a pole if it had an opening, but he had been faithful to her for the last four years. At least she assumed as much.

  She wanted their wedding night to be special, like opening a new package. The idea of re-virginizing oneself seemed trivial and silly to her friends, but it was something that mattered to her. So, she suffered through Frank's occasional rants about being a man and simply reminded him that she rarely asked for much and this was important to her.

  The ironic thing was that he wasn't exactly her type. He was fit and strong, sleek and mysterious, the last of which Lisa hated. Her friends berated her for not digging a little more into his past, which she knew very little about. Life was more about the future to come than the past that slipped into nothingness behind them. Right?

  His mother had been from Mexico and a father was never mentioned, leaving Frank rather withdrawn whenever she brought it up, so she rarely did. They would have the rest of their lives to figure each other out. No need to know everything before becoming one. He was a good man and had a great job and doted on her most of the time. She'd yet to see a temper or angry streak in the past four years, and she loved him – plain and simple.

  The front and back car doors opened and her friends slipped in, Sicily getting in the front where Lisa was previously. Her long chestnut hair hung around her slender shoulders and covered the top of a silky white shirt that dipped low into her breasts. Her friend was magnificently beautiful and yet she didn't seem to have the slightest clue, or she didn't care. They'd only been friends for two years, but Sicily and Lisa had grown up together on the west side of New York.

  "You weren't lying." Sicily buckled up and looked over toward Lisa in the backseat, Lisa giving a sound of appreciation.

  "Lying about what?" Kari asked before pulling back out into the street. They were headed out for the bachelorette party, the three of them joining a larger group of girls at a club in the heart of downtown Manhattan.

  "Lying about how sickly you look." Lisa leaned up and tugged at a strand of Kari's hair, smiling up at her in the rearview mirror.

  "You okay?" Sicily reached over and rubbed her forearm, a soft smile on the other girl's face.

  Kari laughed again and shook her head. "I'm fine. Wait until you witches are getting married and then you'll understand. Forever is a long time. Like really, really long."

  "Yeah, I'm not hunkering down with the same man for forever. No way." Lisa stomped her feet on the floor, the sound of her false tantrum filling the car. "Not gonna happen. I refuse."

  "I want to settle down. I think it would be great to trust someone enough to really share all of yourself. You know, both your heart and your body." Sicily reached up and pulled down the small visor in front of her, popping it open and checking her teeth.

  "You already share your body readily. What is the big deal with sharing your heart? You have us for that," Lisa responded from the backseat.

  "Kari, help me out here. Our hooker friend doesn't understand love because she's a spoiled brat only child who gets whatever she wants."

  Kari straightened up a little, pulling onto the freeway and trying to decide whose side to take. On the one hand, she totally understood Sicily. She wanted to love deeply and be loved, but to Lisa's point, sometimes love sucked royally and lust was simple and straightforward.

  "I'm not a hooker. I just think that love and lust are messy, but lust allows you a quick shower and you’re back on your feet. Love usually provides weeks of crying, ice cream causing rear expansion, and a necessary purge to remove his crap from your house. That's a lot to ask of a girl."

  "She's right about the rear expansion." Kari shrugged and tried to get into the conversation, her own thoughts filled with question. "Why am I so worried about this?"

  "Because he's not good for you. He's not even big and all muscled up like you like." Lisa leaned forward and rubbed Kari's shoulder, her voice louder from her new position.

  "I am a little surprised you've lasted this long," Sicily added from her seat, pushing the mirror back toward the ceiling and reaching for her purse before pulling out gum. "You guys want a piece?"

  "Frank's a good guy. He's handsome and smart, has a great job, and was really there for me in college no matter what I wanted. Lately it's been a little ehhh..."

  "That's because you locked down the goods." Lisa sat back and Kari turned the radio on, keeping the volume low. Kari reached for a piece of gum, smiling at Sicily.

  "Boys are weird about the 'P', Kari. I know my last boyfriend was sex first and talk later, which wasn't such a bad thing, seeing that he was dumb as dirt." Sicily leaned back in her seat, her hands cupped together in her lap.

  "The 'P'? What are you, ten?" Lisa grumbled from the backseat, her body shifting in the rearview mirror as she turned to press her back against the door and extend her legs across the seat. She wore tight blue jeans, a cotton green top, and a push-up bra that left the size of her breasts obvious to anyone who looked her way. The girl was stacked and single at the moment. The world should be fearful.

  "Hey, not all of us are vulgar like you," Sicily retorted, a smile on her pretty mouth.

  "Frank has been weird since we stopped sleeping together, but I thought it would be a good idea. I mean, I still do. We needed a break. He's insatiable and every time we'd get together it was sex. I wanted to see if there was more to us before getting married."

  "And... what did you discover, Sherlock?" Lisa asked, her voice filled with question.

  "We do have a good relationship under the lust, but it's not the friendship I would have expected after four years of being together." Kari sighed again, heaviness sitting on her as they pulled up to the large, extravagant club entrance. A few valet guys rushed toward the small Honda. Kari was happy to be off the hook for now, but knew she'd soon be having a serious conversation with either one or both of her good friends. Neither one of them was too fond of Frank, and where she understood why, she was getting toward her mid-twenties and wanted to start considering marriage and kids.

  When Frank popped the question seven months back, she hadn't hesitated at all in saying yes. After being with someone for so long, that's what you did, right? It was the next step in the process of relationships at her age. Those deep-seated feelings of lingering regret were just a bundle of nerves over a new venture and fear of the unknown.

  "Come on, you. Stop thinking and let's start drinking." Lisa grabbed Kari's arm and pulled her toward the entrance to the club, the glass clean and offering her a reflection of herself as they approached. Her jet black hair bounced as she walked, the slight curl she'd given it adding an innocent look to herself that she wasn't entirely sure she liked. Her black dress was fitted tightly to her body, her skin tanned and legs shapely. She'd left the gym stained in her scent many days in the last few weeks, her efforts to lose the last ten pounds she gained from college richly rewarded. Two inch heels allowed her to hover a little over her friends, the other girls about the same height as her on a normal day.

  A lar
ge African-American male opened the door, his muscular arms and chest bulging through the small T-shirt he wore. A lovely smile slipped onto his full lips and he wagged his eyebrows at them. "Well, well... if this doesn't smell like trouble I'm not sure what would."

  Lisa was quick to respond, as usual. The strong-willed redhead who led the group stopped in front of him and placed a well-manicured hand on his chest. "And what exactly does trouble smell like, handsome?"

  He leaned down and breathed in deeply, his nose running just beside the soft column of her neck. "Mmmmmm, very much like you."

  She laughed and looked back toward the other two. "Oh yeah... this is going to be good for us."

  Kari rolled her eyes and walked into the darkness of the club, the music pumping so loudly that her heart raced in tandem to catch up. She looked around for the rest of their group, a few more of her friends from high school lingering somewhere undiscovered. Sicily and Lisa left her to grab drinks and she moved through the club, the layout enormous and welcoming to all sorts of dancers. There were four rooms in the monstrous place, each with a different style of music.

  She stood at the edge of the main floor, the club-style music pouring from the speakers above her. Her eyes moved across the crowd, looking for her friends, but taking in the glorious freedom found on the faces of those who moved in the middle of the floor. Dancing was like sex - liquid and free, sensual and stimulating. She bit at the side of her lip, realizing how badly she missed both activities in her life. Tonight was going to be a time to exorcise the demons of youth and desire in tandem.

  "Hey, you wanna dance, beautiful?" a deep voice sounded beside her. His large hand was resting on the small of her back, his teeth biting along lip as his eyes dragged across her.

  She stiffened and looked to her left, the well-built male most likely in the military by his size and the seriousness of his appearance. He smiled and she couldn't help but smile back, his gaze kind and remaining on her face for the moment.