Once Hitched Twice Shy

by Kimberly Krey

  “Oh, snap!” Mia said. “I thought I had it bad. What else?”

  “Why don’t you give them the second clue?” Hunter suggested.

  “Well, they usually dress pretty nice. See how Hunter is looking extra fine in a suit and tie?”

  Hunter’s cheeks reddened. “And notice how Mia is looking librarian-style sexy in her … outfit here?”

  Mia laughed. “I think it’s called a skirt suit. Librarian-style sexy, huh?” She gave the camera a playful wink and jabbed a thumb over her shoulder. “Connor, follow along so we can see if the folks at home guessed correctly.”

  Connor gave her a nod once he stopped recording. “Perfect. Head on over and I’ll meet up with you on the other side.”

  Mia took a seat on set. Bright lights, a massive crew, and a lot more cameras than she was used to looking at. “You’ll tell me where I’m supposed to look, right?”

  “Of course,” her fellow anchor said. “You’re going to do just fine.” Peter Jessop had worked for KTVL for years. And though Connor had hooked Mia up with several awesome sponsors over the last nine months, the popular television station had been the ones to contact Mia to try life as a newscaster. She could hardly believe what an honor it was.

  The countdown was on, so Mia gave Connor a thumbs-up. He stood among the crew with larger, flashier equipment, probably in awe of it all, faithfully watching for her cue. At once the light flashed red.

  “Well, if you guessed news anchor, give yourself a gold star, because you were correct. If you guessed anything else, sentence yourself to a time-out session where you’ll be forced to watch at least one dozen of my prior shows.” She hiked up her shoulders, reminding herself that she needed to look the part. “Before we start, I have one very important question to ask my cohost here. Peter Jessop, how is my posture? Is this good?”

  Peter tilted his head to the side, the look of disapproval on his totally-made-to-be-an-anchorman face. “Little higher,” he said. “Good. Now back a bit. Ah! Right there. Now,” he said, sliding closer in his chair, “the teleprompter beneath the camera will scroll through what you need to say.”

  “Wait, wait, wait. You mean I don’t get to see it in advance?”

  He shook his head. “Nope.”

  “What if there’s a word I don’t know how to pronounce?”

  “You’ll just have to do your best.”

  “I thought …” She grabbed the stack of papers on the desk before her. “What are these things? I thought you guys were always flipping through pages and looking down like you were reading extra notes or something.”

  Peter shook his head. “It’s just a prop.”

  “Well, that sucks.”

  The news anchor chuckled.

  She glanced to her left, wondering when Hunter would be led to the green screen. “Can’t we just fast-forward to where Hunter does the weather?”

  “No, we cannot,” Peter said.

  Connor hollered from behind the camera. “You’ve got this, Mia.”

  “Fine,” she said. “When are we live?”

  Peter eyed the countdown clock as a member on staff shouted, “Fifty seconds to go!”

  It felt like magnets were warring inside her tummy, causing all sorts of chaos.

  “I’ll start,” Peter said. “After a lead-in to some of our top stories, I’ll introduce you. You’ll report a short feel-good story to start the day.”

  Mia bit her lip. “What if I just barf instead?”

  “Seven. Six. Five …” The countdown continued, and then Peter spoke up, starting with what must have been the lead-in he was talking about—the town’s favorite ice cream shop changing things for better or worse. The next implied there could be something wrong with popular sunscreens, following it up with, “Stay tuned and find out what the latest health report suggests.” He said a traffic update would come soon, along with the latest on the weather, but he’d like to make an introduction first. “Filling in for Sharon today is star of the hit online entertainment vlog Try My Life, Mia Reynolds. And today’s she’s going to try my life. Or perhaps I should say Sharon’s, since she’s the one who has to put up with me.”

  The polite laughter they shared made Mia feel like an actual news anchor.

  “Take it away, Mia.” And with that, Peter actually shifted his front paper to the back and smacked the edge of the stack on the counter.

  Mia shot Connor’s lens a scared-to-death look and set her eyes on the prompter. “Thanks, Pete. Today was a happy day for a set of twins who received a pig surprise. You heard me right—P. I. G., pig. The four-year-olds have been asking for an oinking farm animal since their father read them the popular children’s novel Charlotte’s Web. Today, that dream became a reality. Take a look at this clip.”

  She blew out a slow breath, glad to have a moment where the spotlight wasn’t on her. Of course, Mia could see that Connor was zooming in on her, waiting for her reaction. He gave her a thumbs-up, and Mia fanned her face while mouthing, Holy crap! Pigs?

  Peter started up once the pig surprise clip was through, and Mia set her eyes back to the green screen. She hoped Hunter would come in soon. She could hardly wait to see him posing as a weather reporter. Dang, he looked good in that suit.

  “Next we’re going to meet a local hunter who thinks he’s found the catch of a lifetime,” Pete said. “Is he right? Let’s find out.”

  Panic flared within Mia when Peter stopped talking. She checked the prompter, wondering if she was supposed to pick up where he left off. Were they about to run footage of the story, like they did with the twins?

  Hunter stepped through a wall of crew members, his smoldering gaze on her. Yum. Heat warmed her blood as he neared the weather area. Wait, er, walked past the weather stage toward her. What’s he doing?

  The screen showed footage of Mia standing in a busy airport, jabbering about something or other. A background voice on the video spoke up.

  “Many hunters talk of the day they found the catch of a lifetime. The best-in-show buck. That prize-winning elk. The perfect mate?”

  Just then it showed Mia walking right into Hunter. The hat tumbled off his head. The two fumbled to get back to their feet.

  “This hunter says he didn’t know it at the time,” the voiceover continued, “but in this moment, he had found the catch of a lifetime.”

  It shot to a pre-recorded interview with Hunter. “It didn’t take long to see that I was dealing with a rare breed. I couldn’t let anything get in my way.”

  “But something did get in the way,” the voiceover said, “and Hunter Coleman almost lost the lady of his dreams, for good.” It zoomed out to a view of a United States map, dots appearing between Montana and Oregon.

  It flashed back to the interview with Hunter. “A lot has happened since the day she left,” he said. “But a lot more has taken place since the day she returned. And now, I want to secure her as mine once and for all.”

  The screens went black for a beat, and then lit up with a stunned version of her.

  Hunter walked over to the side of the desk and pulled something from his suit pocket.

  And who was this group of people the crewmembers were shuffling alongside the recording team? She noticed Gramps first, but the sight of the man beside him really took her by surprise. Dad? And there was Mom, Holly … when her eyes settled on the next face, Mia couldn’t help but blurt his name.

  “Kyle!” She gave them a wave. And there were Hunter’s folks, too. They all looked so happy to be there.

  And that’s when it started to sink in. They were happy to be there, because they were about to witness something special. Something life-changing. The acknowledgment brought on a swell of emotion so powerful, Mia felt as if she might rise off the floor.

  Peter escorted her to the front of the desk in time for Hunter to get down on one knee. He looked up at her through a dark set of lashes, those deep green eyes capturing her in a way only he could.

  “Mia Reynolds, you are the greatest catch
a man could find. I love you, and I plan to love you every day for the rest of my life. Please say you’ll be my bride.”

  Her gaze moved from his face to the ring, and then back again. The diamond was a promise, but the look in his eyes said forever.

  Visions of a beautiful spring wedding went through her mind. She bit her lip, smiled a wide, elated grin, and wiped a tear that slipped down her cheek. It was her greatest wish come true, and the answer was as simple as three small words.

  “As you wish.”

  Epilogue

  “Hey, guys, welcome to Try My Life, the place where you tell us what it’s like to be in your shoes. If we’re intrigued by your day-to-day forte, we might come try it out for size.

  “Today starts off our honeymooners series. That’s right, we brought you along with us on our honeymoon.”

  Hunter’s smile made Mia melt. “That’s right.”

  “Which means we brought Connor on our honeymoon, too,” Mia added. “Not awkward at all, right, babe?”

  Connor chuckled from behind the lens.

  Hunter laughed too. “The guy has his own cabin, that’s all I care about.”

  “So,” Mia said, “if you at home were listening carefully, you might have heard your first clue as to where we’re honeymooning this week—we’re in cabins. But not the typical in-the-woods type of log cabin you might have imagined. That’s where we’ll be for our autumn getaway. See, thanks to you guys, Try My Life had so many generous vendors offering honeymoon packages that we couldn’t narrow it down to just one. So we chose three.”

  “Three?” Hunter said in a surprised tone. “I’m a lucky man.”

  “I won’t argue with that,” Mia said with a grin. “But the best part—for you viewers at home—is that for each awesome honeymoon vacay we take this year, we’ll be giving away an equal getaway package to one of you.”

  Mia could hardly believe how fortunate they were. She never dreamed the vlog would earn her perks so great.

  “Go ahead and zoom out, Connor. Let’s give everyone at home their second clue.” Mia walked over to the edge of the ship where turquoise water met a glowing blue sky. “If you guessed cabins on a cruise ship, you were right. In fact, we’re on our way to the Caribbean. And since Hunter carted most of the luggage for this trip, we figured we could start off by trying the life of a masseuse.”

  She motioned for Rosie to join her by the massage tables. “And now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for … Hunter will drop his robe, get down to his swim trunks, and I’ll work on those sore muscles.”

  Hunter gave Connor a disapproving headshake as he shrugged out of his robe. Mia had seen Hunter in less than swim trunks dozens of times, seeing that they’d been married for a few weeks now, but seeing him shirtless while he stood in front of the lens was something entirely different. She had the sudden urge to cover those well-defined pecs with some animated black square.

  “Okay, Rosie,” Mia said. “Are you ready to let me try your life?”

  Rosie, an older brunette with a wide smile, nodded first at Mia, and then at the camera. “You betcha.”

  “Good. ’Cause I am really excited for this one.”

  “Wait, wait,” Hunter said. “I’m actually a little scared.”

  Mia’s eyes widened. What was he talking about? “Scared?”

  He nodded before looking back to the camera. “This girl doesn’t know her own strength. And what if she’s secretly mad and she’s just waiting for her moment to take her anger out on me?”

  She laughed. Hunter always knew how to keep things interesting. “What would I be mad at you for?”

  “Well, I beat you in laser tag earlier, so …”

  Mia looked at the camera, feigning a horrified expression. “You just told everyone that we were playing laser tag on our honeymoon! That’s so embarrassing.”

  Hunter grinned. “And that you lost.”

  “Oh, get on that table, buddy. Pronto. You’re gonna get it,” she said, rubbing her hands together.

  Rosie covered a laugh.

  “And in case you’re wondering how we played laser tag earlier,” Mia said, taking advantage of the promo opportunity, “they’ve got it here on the cruise ship. So cool!”

  Mia followed through with the segment, learning the right technique for the most effective massage. And she was enjoying it. “I know that I’m the one who usually tries these things out,” she said partway through, “but I’d really like Hunter to know how to do this too.”

  She smiled as Hunter laughed from her comment. “No, I think this is a good arrangement. You give the massages and I’ll take them.”

  Mia had Hunter’s neck pinched between her fingers and thumb. She took that moment to squeeze a little tighter.

  “Ouch,” Hunter said. “Rosie? I’m going to need a safe word,” he said. “I think she’s really out to hurt me.”

  “Okay,” the woman said with a laugh.

  “Don’t listen to him, Rosie,” Mia said, smoothing her hands over his bare back. “Just tell me one thing: When do we get to the karate chops?”

  “I’m glad Connor had a nice time on the cruise,” Hunter said. He ran the tip of his finger up the smooth slope of Mia’s arm, and thoughts of Connor faded fast. He may have collapsed on the bed with exhaustion moments ago, but when Mia flopped down beside him, he became a lot less tired.

  “Yeah,” Mia said, “me too. Do you know if he’s called her yet, the woman he met? Jackie, that was her name, right?”

  “Right. And no, I don’t know that he has.” Hunter fought off a yawn. “I’ll ask him later.”

  “Are we going to finish staining the dining room tomorrow?” Now Mia was yawning.

  Hunter pictured the large dining area, AKA the reason they were so exhausted. The day after returning from their cruise, Hunter and Mia began the process of refinishing the natural hardwood floors in their new (to them) home.

  Before moving in, they’d had the electric and plumbing redone. New paint on the upper level, and new carpet as well. The final project remaining (on the main level, that is) was the dining room. “I can’t even picture that room without a cloud of sawdust.”

  Mia chuckled. “Same.”

  Even then, a picture of the sun-drenched room filled his mind, a thick haze of floating specks. The wonderful smell of wood. “It’ll be nice to get it done. We can finally have Gramps and the ranch hands over for dinner.”

  “I can’t wait for that,” Mia said. “And we can have Kyle and his family come visit. Your parents. My parents …”

  Her words died off as Hunter swept her hair off her shoulder with the back of his hand. He moved his mouth to her ear. “I’m crazy about you, Mia Coleman,” he whispered, trailing kisses down the side of her neck.

  “I’m crazy about you, Hunter Coleman.” Mia turned to her side to face him, brought her mouth to his, and pressed a hot, lingering kiss to his lips.

  Hunter tilted his head, moving in to deepen the kiss, but Mia backed up.

  “I think you’re forgetting something,” she said in a whisper.

  “The light?” he asked.

  “No, that can stay on.”

  Hunter lifted a brow.

  “My massage,” Mia said. “You said you’d give me one when we got home.”

  Massage. That didn’t sound bad. “Okay.”

  Mia flopped onto her stomach and sighed. “Okay. Ready.”

  “What do you mean, ready? You’re still dressed.”

  “That’s fine,” she said, her voice muffled in the blankets. “Just do what I did to yours.”

  “All right.” He shifted his mindset, propped himself onto an elbow, and worked a strong hand up the center of her back. When she let out a moan, he had to remind himself she simply wanted the massage for now. She deserved it.

  He sat up so he could use both hands, and spread them across her lower back. “You’re pretty amazing, you know that?”

  “I am?” she asked, face still in the bed.

&
nbsp; “Yes. You built an incredible vlog show from scratch. You’re great at making people laugh. And you’re pretty good around the ranch, too.” He meant that. Spring came on early this year, and boy, what a help she was during birthing and immunizations. “When it comes to the horses and cattle, you’re a natural.”

  She lifted her head off the blanket and shot him a quick glance. “What else?”

  He laughed. “You’re a marketing genius. I mean, you managed to get us a free cruise for our honeymoon.”

  “And two other honeymoon vacations too,” she added.

  “That’s right.” They’d be leaving for one in two months. The other would come in the fall. Already, Mia had received a few very generous winter vacation offers. It seemed she might be able to shoot most of her Try My Life experiences during expense-paid trips around the United States. Possibly around the world. Not bad at all. In fact, he was pretty sure most people out there wouldn’t mind trying her life once in a while.

  One thing he admired about her the most, and he wasn’t sure how to put it into words, was that she was very good at bringing joy to people’s lives. Making them smile. Hunter had been converted to her cause. If participating with her meant bringing light to parts of the world, even in a small way, he was glad to be a part of it.

  Similar thoughts went through his mind as he worked his way over her delicate back.

  Mia shifted beneath his hands, shrugging to her side and onto her back, where she looked at Hunter, the dreamy set of her lids an invitation. “Thanks for the massage.”

  “You’re welcome.” Heat stirred low in his belly as she reached for his hand and placed it at the curve of her waist, a tempting smile at her lips.

  He needed no more encouragement than that. Hunter squeezed his hand around her hip and leaned over her, anxious to taste her kiss. Promises of a growing family, horseback rides, and a beautiful life lived on the ranch waited in the wings. But tonight he’d enjoy his time with her—just the two of them. He’d promised to cherish Mia the rest of his days, and no other life sounded sweeter.

  Thanks for reading Once Hitched Twice Shy: The Unlikely Cowgirl Series Book 1 by Kimberly Krey.