The Lawman's Convenient Bride

by Christine Rimmer

But whatever she called him vis-à-vis Marybeth, she didn’t want to call him on the phone and admit that she needed him. She wanted him, all of him, damn it, including his stubborn heart and those all-important three little words spoken out loud and clear and without hesitation.

  However, she didn’t have what she wanted, and she was starting to fear that she never would. She’d made her big stand, and they were living separately. And as far as she could make out, he still felt he owed his love to a dead woman.

  Marybeth yowled.

  “It’s okay, sweetheart.” She sent a quick glance over her shoulder at the sobbing baby. The car seat was pointed backward, but Jody could clearly see her baby’s red cheek and angry, open mouth and her little fist waving. “It won’t be long now. Mommy just has this one more delivery, and then I’ll take you home to Daddy.”

  Marybeth only wailed louder.

  Jody gritted her teeth and turned onto the street where the Watsgraffs lived.

  She parked in the Watsgraffs’ driveway, leaving the windows down a crack so the baby would have fresh air for the three minutes it took to carry the flowers inside. At 2:35, she set the vase full of roses on the Watsgraffs’ dining room table. Mrs. Watsgraff was teary-eyed. Mr. Watsgraff beamed.

  Jody wished them the happiest anniversary ever and got the hell out of there.

  In the Tahoe, Marybeth was still crying. Jody opened the door behind the passenger seat and leaned in to check her diaper. Dry. As a rule, Jody tried not to depend on pacifiers. But some days, well, what was a harried mom to do?

  She got one out of the pocket of Marybeth’s diaper bag and slipped it into the baby’s crying mouth.

  Marybeth blinked in what truly did look like outrage. And then she opened her mouth wide. The pacifier dropped out. Jody tried to poke it back in again, but her baby was having none of that.

  In the end, Jody gave up and stuck the pacifier back in the diaper bag. “Just a few minutes longer, sweetheart,” she coaxed. “You’ll be with Daddy. You’ll feel better then.”

  Marybeth cried all the louder. Again, Jody considered calling Seth to let him know she could be late. But then, if she got on the road immediately, she could make it in time.

  Jody shut the door and went around to the driver’s side. She climbed behind the wheel and got going, observing the speed limit until she left the Watsgraffs’ development, but pressing the gas a little harder than she should have once she got out on the open road.

  She was maybe ten minutes from town and making great time when a lovely thing happened. Marybeth stopped crying. Jody glanced at her in the rearview mirror. She was sound asleep, her little head turned to the side, looking exhausted and adorable, a shiny bubble of drool on her pouty rosebud mouth.

  Jody started to smile—but then through the back windshield she saw the flashing lights.

  “Crap.” She’d only been going a few miles over the speed limit. Some days a girl just couldn’t catch a break.

  The cop behind her turned on his siren, too.

  “You have got to be kidding me...”

  The siren wailed louder.

  “Fine,” she muttered. “All right. I’m pulling over.” She slowed, steered to the shoulder and stopped.

  Behind her, the siren wound down to nothing, but the lights kept on flashing. Tires crunched gravel as the cruiser slid in behind her.

  She didn’t realize it was Seth until he emerged in his khaki uniform, aviator sunglasses and Smokey the Bear hat. He shut the cruiser’s door, adjusted his sunglasses and came right for her.

  She rolled down her window but stayed in the car. Wasn’t that what you were supposed to do when an officer of the law pulled you over—even if the officer in question just happened to be the guy you were married to?

  He leaned in the window, bringing that infuriatingly wonderful scent of soap and man. “Going a little fast there, young lady.”

  She took off her own dark glasses and tossed them on the passenger seat before hitting him with a look cold enough to freeze the testicles off a polar bear. “Is this supposed to be funny?”

  “Not wise to use that smart mouth on an officer.”

  God. That sounded downright dirty. What did he think he was doing, anyway?

  She turned her gaze straight ahead and told herself things could be worse. At least Marybeth hadn’t started screaming again. Yet. “It’s been a hellacious day, Seth. I was hurrying to get to the house in time to meet you, in case you’ve forgotten. And I’m not in the mood for—”

  “Ma’am. I want you to step out of the car.”

  Wow. Had he lost his mind? It seemed increasingly possible.

  “You do remember that you were coming to see Marybeth at three?”

  “I remember. Step out of the car, miss.”

  “What is the matter with you?” She pushed the words out through clenched teeth.

  He moved back from the door a step and crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m not going to ask you again.”

  Ha. As if there had been any asking going on. “Fine. You want to play it that way?”

  “Oh, yes, I do. Ma’am.” What was up with him? The way he called her “ma’am”?

  It made her think of tangled sheets and his big hands all over her. “Have you gone insane?”

  To that, he said nothing, just waited there with those arms she wanted wrapped around her crossed over his chest, his badge glinting aggressively in the hot afternoon sun as more than one car whizzed by not six feet away, the occupants watching wide-eyed through their side windows as they passed.

  He still wasn’t budging. She supposed she had to do something. “Fine. You want me out?”

  “That’s right. I want you out.”

  “Well, you got it, then. I’m getting out.” She shoved open the door, swung her shoes to the gravel and jumped to her feet, grabbing the door as she did it, slamming it shut good and hard in her fury—and then wincing as she realized she’d probably startled her poor baby awake.

  But no. Marybeth slept on.

  And her husband had definitely lost his ever-loving mind. He stood silent and still as a statue. Beneath the wide brim of his hat, the lenses of his dark glasses reflected her own distorted image back at her.

  She lit into him. “What is the matter with you? You can’t just come after me in your cruiser. Seth Yancy, this is harassment, pure and simple. You should be ashamed of yourself.”

  Once again, he said nothing. But he did move at last. He took off his hat and his sunglasses and set them carefully on the Tahoe’s hood.

  Only then did he speak. “It’s not harassment, Jody.” Now his voice was quiet. Tender, even. Really, what was going on here? None of this made sense. “I promise you it’s not.”

  She glared at him sideways, totally lost as to what he was up to and also unwilling to back down. “Oh, yeah, well, if not harassment, what is it, then?”

  What he said next almost buckled her knees. “This is me trying to find the way to tell you that I’m hopelessly in love with you.”

  She made a noise then. It wasn’t a word, exactly. It was more a cry of pain and longing.

  “Jody?” He looked suddenly terrified. “Jody, are you okay?”

  She blinked at him owlishly. “Um. Yes. I think I am, yes.”

  “You sure?”

  “Well, if I’m not I definitely could be. Now, where were you? Please, go on.”

  And right there, on the side of the road a little more than halfway between the Bar-Y and their hometown, Sheriff Seth Yancy dropped to his knees. “I love you, Jody.” He stared up at her, and there was no mistaking the truth in his eyes. “Forgive me, Jody. Take me back. Make my life worth living. Please.”

  She gaped down at him. “I don’t... What are you...? Seth.” Her throat burned and her vision blurred with
tears. “Oh, God. Seth.”

  “I’ve done what you asked for. And what you asked for was right. I talked to my father, and he made me see that we don’t honor the dead if we refuse to be all we can be for the living. I love you, Jody. Let me give you my all. Let me be just for you—you and Marybeth and any other little ones that God might be willing to give us. Give me one more chance. You won’t regret it. That is my promise. I swear that to you. That is my vow.”

  She blinked away the blinding wet heat of her tears and looked down at his upturned face, saw the truth in him, saw that somehow he had done it, put his guilt and his pain behind him enough to reach out for her at last. “You, um, ahem. Would you get up, please?” She offered her trembling hand.

  He took it, strong fingers closing around hers, the wonder of his touch arrowing straight to her heart. “Jody.” He swept upward. And he touched her face, a caress both reverent and full of tender care. His fingers brushed the curve of her cheek, and everything within her cried out in joy. “You are my love, Jody. You are my everything.”

  Another cry escaped her. She held out her arms.

  That did it. He grabbed for her and yanked her close, wrapping her up in his heat and his strength and, at last, the miracle of his love. “One more chance...” He pressed his lips to her hair.

  “Yes. Oh, yes. Oh, Seth. Thank God.”

  “I love you, Jody.”

  “And I love you.”

  And he lifted her chin and he kissed her, right there on the side of the road with several good citizens of Broomtail County rubbernecking the sight as they rolled by in their cars.

  He kissed her and then he kissed her again. And then finally, when the baby woke up with a cranky little cry, he let her go and ushered her back into the Tahoe, opening the door for her, gently shutting it once she’d settled into the driver’s seat.

  He took his hat and sunglasses off the hood and then leaned in the window as she hooked up her seat belt and started the engine. “I’ll follow you home.”

  “Yes.” She glanced over her shoulder at her baby. Marybeth was quiet again, staring dreamily into space, her little fist stuffed in her mouth.

  Seth said, “Keep to the speed limit, now.”

  “Yes, Sheriff. I will.”

  “I’m letting you off with a warning this one time. But I’ll be keeping my eye on you.”

  “I will behave, Sheriff. I will be good.”

  “I intend to hold you to that.”

  “I expect nothing less,” she replied. “And you’ll see. I keep my promises. I will not disappoint you. We’re going to have a great life together, you and me.”

  His stern mouth twitched at one corner. “Something tells me we’re not just talking about speed limits here.”

  “Something tells you right. We’re talking about everything.”

  “Now, there’s a tall order.”

  “Everything, Seth. All that we have together, all that we are and all we will be. I love you, and it’s everything to me that you can finally say you love me, too.”

  He leaned even closer. His mouth brushed hers. “I do love you,” he whispered. “So much. With all my heart.”

  “See you at home,” she whispered.

  He straightened with a slow nod. “See you at home.”

  Epilogue

  A year after Seth declared his love for his wife on the side of the road, Bill Yancy returned to live at the Bar-Y. A year after that, Jody was pregnant again.

  In February of the following year, as a blizzard turned the world to white outside the ranch house windows, Jody had her baby right there at home without the aid of a single medical professional.

  But Seth was with her through it all, the same as he’d been when she had Marybeth. More than once, he said how much he loved her as he fed her ice chips, rubbed her back and reminded her to breathe. She said she loved him, too.

  But having a baby? If she’d only remembered how bad labor was, she’d have stopped with Marybeth. And when it came time to start pushing, she clutched his hand so hard the bones ground together, and she swore never in her life to have sex with him again.

  Downstairs in the family room, Marybeth climbed into her beloved grandfather’s lap. “Mommy sounds really mad, Pop-Pop.”

  Bill guided her head to rest on his shoulder and stroked her shining golden hair. “She’s not mad, Bethie. She’s just having a baby. She will be fine.”

  “You promise?”

  “Oh, yes, I do.”

  “She sounds like she’s crying, too, like she might have a bad owie.”

  “Could be. But she’s a tough one, your mommy. And your little brother will be here before you know it.”

  Marybeth’s half brother was born twenty minutes later. They named him Nicolas, after the uncle he would never get to meet.

  Two years after that, Jody had a little girl, Darlene. And three years after that, another boy. They called him Patrick.

  That same year, Josh Levinson, twenty years old and a sophomore at UCLA, asked to meet his birth mother. Jody and Seth welcomed him at the Bar-Y. Having grown up an only child, Josh was excited to discover he had four half siblings.

  And at the age of forty-three, seven years after he married the mother of his brother’s child, Seth Yancy remained sheriff of Broomtail County. He still had a flock of pretty admirers who showered him with baked goods and bright smiles.

  Jody had no problem with any of those women.

  She knew his heart belonged to her.

  * * * * *

  Watch for book eight in the unforgettable saga of THE BRAVOS OF JUSTICE CREEK. GARRETT BRAVO’S RUNAWAY BRIDE is coming in October 2017, only from Harlequin Special Edition.

  Keep reading for an excerpt from CHARM SCHOOL FOR COWBOYS by Meg Maxwell.

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  Charm School for Cowboys

  by Meg Maxwell

  Chapter One

  “I wouldn’t date you if you were the last man in Texas, Hank Timber!”

  Jake Morrow glanced up in time to see Fern, a neighboring rancher who’d dropped off the four billy goats he’d purchased for the Full Circle Ranch, scowl
ing at his foreman. Fern stomped to her truck and sped off, dust and gravel flying in her wake.

  Hank didn’t even bother waving away the dirt and grit that now covered him. He shoved his hands in his pockets, his expression forlorn as Jake approached.

  “Didn’t go so well, huh?” Jake asked his foreman. Hank, twice divorced, had mentioned at breakfast this morning that he thought Fern was “darn pretty and had a way about her” and planned to ask her out to dinner at Hurley’s Homestyle Kitchen, everyone’s favorite restaurant in Blue Gulch.

  Hank sighed. “I thought that rancher to rancher, I could ask her out by joking that we already had something in common—how we’d both stink of cow dung while chowing down on supper. Then I sniffed around her and nodded and laughed. Instead of saying yes to a date tonight, she got all mad.” He shrugged, watching Fern’s truck disappear down the Full Circle’s long dirt drive.

  Jake refrained from slamming his palm against his forehead. At this rate, Hank would be single forever. Of the four cowboys working for Jake at the Full Circle Ranch, his foreman wasn’t even the most clueless when it came to women. No, Jake would say it was a four-way tie. Forty-two-year-old Hank had been in love with Fern since he laid eyes on her a month ago while listening to her presentation on calving season at the local rancher’s association meeting. Twenty-five-year-old Golden, who’d earned the nickname from the motto about silence, was so shy and quiet he turned away any time the young woman he had a mad crush on, a Hurley’s waitress, was around. Fifty-two-year-old Grizzle, who hadn’t shaved or had a haircut in years, maybe a decade, spoke wistfully of his late wife and how he wished he could find someone as special, but had scared a little girl at the feed store in town with just the sight of him. Then there was Jake’s own brother CJ, ten years his junior at twenty-two, who took full advantage of his good looks and ranch-honed muscles to play the field. CJ had left a trail of broken hearts and parents, older sisters, and bffs to storm up to Jake in town and let him know just what a “no-good lying player” his brother was. Charles John Morrow was a good guy, Jake knew that more than he knew just about anything, but when it came to love and romance, CJ was an absolute hot mess, a train wreck, as his neighbor’s teenage daughter would put it. CJ would just say, Well, what was I supposed to do? Propose? She just wasn’t the one. The Morrow brothers had been in Blue Gulch all of one month, and at least ten young women hadn’t been “the one.”