Who Wants to Marry a Cowboy?

by Abigail Sharpe

  “The night will go by faster after we fall asleep. I’m for bed.”

  “You don’t have to hide, you know.”

  Ainsley paused with her hand on the doorjamb. “Good night.”

  She really wasn’t tired, but retreated into her bedroom to savor the thrill of being wanted by someone just by being herself. Not the daughter of a wealthy family or for any connections she may have. Just Ainsley Fairfax from South Carolina, finder of lost sheep and master of ordering pizza.

  She had to call Tess in the morning and warn her about the possible backlash for staying in Wyoming, though she was sure her mother wouldn’t do anything without Ainsley there to witness it. Sophia preferred a much more dramatic style. Ainsley snorted and took out her night clothes. Perhaps the way to save Blooms was to stay in Wyoming forever. The idea did have some appeal. Mostly hazel eyes and hard body appeal, but also a sense of family and genuine respect and the ability to be herself. Something she didn’t get much of at home.

  She pulled on her green tank top and boxers before hopping into bed and snuggling under the warm covers. She heard the cabin door open and heavy footsteps tread inside. Not Riley’s. She held her breath and stiffened, but relaxed when Meagan’s bedroom door closed with a firm click.

  * * *

  Edward gripped the beige phone in the ship’s business center, bracing for the anticipated verbal onslaught. Sophia Fairfax never yelled, but she had the uncanny ability to voice her thoughts with extreme disappointment.

  “How could my daughter be in Wyoming instead of on the cruise with you, Edward? And why didn’t you call me about this sooner?”

  Because I wanted to spend time with your other child, even though she threw my phone into the Atlantic. “I misplaced my cell. And technically, your daughter is on a cruise with me. Just the wrong one.”

  “This is not the time for humor, Edward. Bennett and I had plans for your return. An engagement party and photos, an appointment with a wedding planner. I went over all of this with you and Ainsley before you left town.”

  He sighed and ran a hand over his head to calm the anxiety. He didn’t need anyone else outlining his life; he knew what he had to do now. “I’m trying to rectify the situation but I don’t know where Ainsley is. She and Cecelia switched vacations and Ainsley went to a ranch in Wyoming. Do you know which one?”

  “I’ll find out. Even when Cecelia is avoiding me, she always sends me an email to know how to get in touch with her.”

  Edward clicked his pen in a rapid staccato while Sophia checked her email. Last night he’d ordered flowers to send to Ainsley, but hadn’t known where to send them. He hadn’t wanted to tell Sophia what was going on with the cruise, but he finally broke down and called her for Ainsley’s location. It would probably cost him a ton of money, but rekindling his relationship with her was worth any amount that ended up on his credit card. Staying away from Cecelia was worth preventing the inevitable pain. His parents had loved each other, once, until things turned sour. Edward never knew what happened. His dad dealt with the cold relationship by having affairs, leaving that impression of marriage with Edward as well. He thought he could get over it with the woman he loved, but the near-panic attack in the dining room and his close call with his lost control with her in the bikini had changed his mind.

  “Are you ready? She’s at the Crescent Ridge Ranch in Little Falls, Wyoming.” Sophia gave him the address. “And Edward?” Her emotionless tone caused a chill to creep over his shoulders. “Fix this.”

  She was too refined to slam down the receiver, but somehow still managed to hang up with a decisive click. Edward turned back to the computer and finished his flower order, then spent another ten minutes in misery, working on the perfect note to include with the bouquet. It expressed the depth of his feelings and his desires in one neat, concise paragraph. Unfortunately, those feelings were for the wrong sister.

  He held his breath before he entered his cabin, praying Cecelia wouldn’t be in the common room. Spending all his time in a small bedroom wasn’t his idea of a fun cruise, but the alternative would be to give in to the woman he loved and ruin the rest of his life. He needed the stability, the predictability, of Ainsley.

  Cecelia’s door stood wide open and she was nowhere in sight. Avoiding her got easier when she’d started avoiding him, too. Right now she was probably swimming or having a drink. Or studying. He couldn’t believe she had brought a textbook along on a vacation, but she had said she wanted to start the summer semester armed with knowledge. And besides, she pointed out, he had brought financial reports. He paused at her doorway, her fresh and clean scent filling him, even though he stayed out of her room. Her sarong lay on her bed and Edward turned away before he reminded himself of how she looked in it, how the knot begged to be untied. Back to his stale, lonely room, to do nothing but wait until the ship returned home.

  It was a good plan except for the naked woman on his bed.

  He drank in the sight of her, the cool stream of love and desire that he gathered in his mind. Her hair spread out like a halo on the pillows, her firm breasts and pale pink nipples made his hands shake with the effort to keep from rushing to the bed and touching them. He spun on his heel to banish temptation from his sight. “Good Lord, Cecelia! Put some clothes on!” This reality was better than any fantasy he had concocted. “What are you doing?”

  There was a rustle behind him and soft footsteps padded on the floor. Her fingers grazed his back through his cotton dress shirt, making his skin come alive everywhere she touched. He managed to stay still, only jolting a little when her warm breath sent a tingle into his ear. “What do you think I’m doing, you big dummy?”

  She kissed his neck while her hands caressed his shoulders. He wanted to stay, wanted to turn around and thread his fingers through her thick hair, feel the weight of her breasts in his hands and press her smooth skin against his. She made it difficult to remember why he had abandoned her in the first place.

  She would not fit into his future, he reminded himself. The tidy box of expectations that he’d known since birth that he would follow. He might be in love with her, but his family shouldn’t marry for love.

  “You have to stop.” His voice was ragged, dammit. She’d know he couldn’t control the longing he felt.

  She blew a soft puff of laughter, her bare breasts pressing into his back. “Make me.”

  “Cecelia.” It was almost a plea.

  “No.” Her voice became challenging. “You know what you want, Edward. And you can tell yourself that I’m the wrong girl, that you’ll screw up your life if you admit you’ve fallen for me, but we both know you’d be lying. So if you want me to stop, you have to make me. Otherwise, I’m taking you to bed right now and showing you how happy you could be with me.”

  He turned then, forcing his gaze to stay on her face, even when her tongue flicked out and moistened the corner of her mouth. She stood on tiptoe and brushed her full lips against his cheek, then grazed his earlobe with her sharp teeth.

  A groan escaped his throat and he grasped her trim waist, spinning her so his back was toward the bed. Every muscle in his body shook with the effort to control the rush of euphoria that came from being with her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he gave in to the desire to inhale her scent before he gently shoved her out of the room and locked his door.

  * * *

  The yelling and knocking on the cabin door woke Ainsley the next morning. It wasn’t that low, rich voice that called her name, but a young, feminine one.

  “Coming!” She fumbled into her robe and padded to the door. Jeanne stood outside, holding an ornate vase filled with a beautiful display of blue forget-me-nots, lilacs, and red roses surrounded by lush greens. Her stomach free-fell to her toes. If they were from Riley, he would have brought them himself. So this couldn’t be good.

  “These were just delivered. There was no name on the envelope so I had to open it to see who they were for. They’re beautiful! Who’s Edward? Is it your
birthday?”

  “No. Thanks, Jeanne.” She took the vase and closed the door before the girl could say anything more. She carried the flowers into the kitchen, holding them in front of her like they were a squalling baby.

  She slipped her fingers into the envelope and removed the note. My dear Ainsley. I miss you and can’t wait to see you soon. All my love, Edward. She crumpled it in her hand and threw it hard across the room. Damn him. He wasn’t going to ruin the remaining time she had on the ranch. Her phone rang and her pulse thundered with anticipation.

  “Ainsley, darling. I’m so sorry about the cruise. Had I known your sister was going, I would have stayed home.” Edward’s normally carefully precise words came in a rush.

  “It was as much my idea as Cecelia’s,” she said. And don’t call me darling.

  He exhaled in a huff. “Your sister tried to seduce me. Don’t worry; I didn’t tell your mother that part. It would break her heart to know her recalcitrant daughter tried to steal me away from you, to have something that’s yours!”

  Panic tinged her skin everywhere. If her mother knew where she was, her shop was in danger already, before she was ready to defend it. Dammit, dammit, dammit. She took a steadying breath and addressed the immediate problem. “You haven’t told Mother about it because you’re in love and don’t want to give yourself away. You know she can ferret things out by looking at you.”

  “How can I be with an unbalanced checkbook when I have accepted accounting principles?”

  Oh, for the love of a puppy. How romantic. She was a set of rules. She flopped on her bed, hitting the pillow to keep herself from banging her phone against the night stand.

  “Did you enjoy the flowers? I had to order them while I was still on the cruise. I wanted to make sure you knew how I feel about you.”

  “I know, Edward. Believe me.”

  “When are you coming home? I can’t wait to see you again.”

  Tension radiated to the front of her head and she pressed her hand on her forehead. “You’re not going to see me unless you come to Wyoming. Good-bye, Edward. Talk to Cecelia.” Not for the first time when talking to him, Ainsley wished she were on a land line so she could slam it down. Instead, she snapped it shut and hurled her cell phone on the bed. “Gah!!!”

  Leaving her phone behind, she met Meagan in the common room and they scuttled to the house so they wouldn’t be late to breakfast. She studied her roommate in the morning sunshine. The hesitation from last night had disappeared. Her mouth wore a permanent smile and there was a different kind of sparkle in her blue eyes. Ainsley grinned at her.

  “Shut up,” Meagan said, a blush rising to color her cheeks.

  Three other women remained at the breakfast table and Ainsley steeled herself for more us-against-them. Robin, Jewel, and Leigh clustered around Riley, leaving the other end of the long table for Meagan and Ainsley. She studied Riley for some sort of sign about Edward’s flowers but he kept his eyes off her, the hard planes of his face unwelcoming. She took a bite of eggs, focusing on her food. He knew something, and she resolved to talk to him before he went on his date with Robin.

  After breakfast, the phone rang at the ranch, and Molly went to answer it. She re-entered the dining area, eyes wide with concern. “Ainsley, your mother is on the phone.” Conversation stopped and every woman at the table stared at her, some curious, others—most of them—openly hostile. Riley stared, too, but his mouth had taken on a sardonic twist.

  She sighed. “Thank you. Can you please tell her I’ll call her back on my phone in a moment?”

  Molly relayed the message, then turned back to Ainsley. “She said that wasn’t acceptable. She insisted on speaking to you now. I hope everything’s okay at home.” She handed Ainsley the receiver and pointed her to the parlor.

  “Oh, I’m sure everything’s fine,” she said cheerfully. If fine meant she was about to get chewed out for following her heart. She closed the door behind her and sat on the powder blue sofa. The light yellow walls gave the room a cozy glow and she took her time getting comfortable before putting the phone to her ear. “Good morning, Mother,” she said.

  “What are you doing in Wyoming? You have many duties and responsibilities here, Ainsley,” Sophia said.

  “I’m fine, thank you, Mother. Does this morning find you well?” she asked.

  “Don’t be flippant with me, young lady. When Edward called to tell me where you were, I almost fainted. You know how I felt about Cecelia going, and you did the same thing! What were you thinking?”

  Even from a thousand miles away, her mother still tried to control her. “I was thinking about my own happiness. I was thinking about my future. I was thinking about a lot of things that are completely unconnected to you.” It didn’t matter what she said. Her mother never listened anyway.

  “I expect you home today. Tomorrow at the latest. I have to reschedule the wedding planner and I hope she can fit us in.” Sophia hung up the phone without waiting for a response.

  Ainsley lay back on the sofa and cleared her mind. This time she refused to let her mother cause any interference with her own plans. She stayed in the solitude of the small room until she felt ready enough to face the breakfast table. When she got to the kitchen, Riley and Robin had already gone.

  Chapter 8

  Frontier Days was an annual celebration in Wyoming and one that Riley visited every year. He and Robin traveled through the familiar carnival midway, dust kicking up from the thousands of people surrounding them. Noises of barkers and games and families made conversation hard. It was the same scene he’d witnessed since he started coming and he didn’t mind. It allowed him to think about Ainsley and those damn flowers.

  Robin had other ideas, and spoke loudly enough to be heard over the constant cacophony. He concentrated on paying attention, but kept part of his mind on the woman who had managed to creep into the crevices of his subconscious regardless of the defenses he always held firmly in place.

  “So, listen to this, Riley. I was helping this guy on the phone. He wanted a program installed, but he didn’t know how to do it. I tried telling him how to use his mouse…”

  He tuned her out and his thoughts strayed to that morning. He had just closed the door of the SUV and watched through the dust cloud as one of the hands drove two women out of his life forever, wondering why Molly had chosen five to stay. Five. Why not three? Or two? His dogs started a barking frenzy, alerting him that someone unfamiliar approached the house.

  “…use the tracking ball to get the cursor to point to the File menu, and to click the left button. Well, he says there’s no…”

  A plain white van had pulled up, the only markings on it some swirling script about flowers. A delivery man removed a large glass vase filled to overflowing with red roses and some blue flowers and a lot of green leaves. He approached Riley and held out a clipboard. “Ainsley Fairfax?”

  Riley had signed for the flowers, then watched the man drive away, leaving him holding…what, exactly? He had brought the vase into the kitchen.

  “…told him to turn it over, put his palm on top of it, and move it around. We call that an ID-10T error. Can you believe that?”

  An unmarked card sat on a plastic holder, daring him to invade Ainsley’s privacy. His fingers itched to open the small envelope but footsteps on the back stairs had made him hightail it out of the house. Ainsley’s guilty face had cast furtive glances at him during breakfast and he didn’t have time to corner her about the flowers before her mother called. So now he had only his imagination to figure out who they were from.

  “Can you? Believe that, I mean. Riley? That he had his mouse upside down? It wasn’t a tracking ball at all.”

  “Unbelievable.” He had absolutely no idea what she had said.

  Robin beamed.

  He checked the schedule to stop her from asking any more questions that he couldn’t answer. “There’s a bull riding contest in a few minutes. Want to go check it out?”

  “No, I’d rather
go to the art show.” She studied the program over his arm, her brown hair whipping around her face from the breeze. She pushed it back behind her ears. “I don’t really like contests involving animals, unless it’s to see how cute they are. Did I tell you about the puppies my neighbor’s dog had last week? Adorable. They’re a mix of Labradors and Bulldogs. How cute is that?”

  That sounded much more awkward than cute but he said nothing. “You won’t want to go to the rodeo later.” He used to barrel ride and rope calves in the junior division, and he still enjoyed watching the sport. He didn’t know how a woman expected to survive in Wyoming if animals were only interesting if they were cute.

  Robin tucked her hand inside his. “We can go if you want to,” she said. “I don’t understand why watching people tie up a cow is supposed to be fun. Or risking death by being on a horse that’s trying his hardest to get you off his back. Maybe you can explain it all to me while we’re watching.”

  Tempting, but he didn’t want to spend the entire time in conversation. Although with the way she was talking that would happen anyway. “The art show is fine.” Surely there was a requirement for silence when looking at art.

  She beamed at him again as they made their way to the exhibit.

  “Anyway, I work for a computer support center, and we have walk-ins, but most of the business comes over the phone,” she said. “And I can answer those phone calls anywhere. That’s one thing that’s really great about my job. I can request to work remotely. If I move here, I won’t have to find work.”

  “If you…”

  “Move here. You know. If you choose me.” She snuggled against his arm.

  “If I…” He checked his behavior. Unless she had a thing for silent types, there was no way she could think he would ask her to move.

  “To be your wife, silly!” She giggled. “Or whatever is supposed to happen at the end of this research. The land is so beautiful. I could imagine spending the rest of my life here.”