“Anne, this is preposterous,” Mrs. Dean said. “No one in her right mind gives away a whole ranch.”
“But I don’t want it,” Anne said. “And I can’t run it from Texas.”
“I couldn’t do that,” Myrtle said. “Maybe we could own it together.”
“Anne, I refuse to allow you to do anything so absurd!” Mrs. Dean declared.
But Anne wasn’t paying attention to Myrtle or Mrs. Dean. She had no thoughts for anyone except Pete, who was smiling for the first time in what seemed like forever.
“Do you mean what you said?” he asked.
“Of course I do.”
“But you said—”
“I said a lot of things that weren’t true. So did you. We had good reasons then, but we don’t need to lie or pretend anymore. We just need to be ourselves.”
“I’m just a cowboy.”
“I’m just a breed.”
“You are not,” Mrs. Dean declared. “I refuse to allow you to refer to yourself in that manner.”
“Are you sure?” Pete asked.
“Positive.”
Pete stood and held out his arms. Anne jumped up and threw herself into his embrace. Nothing in her whole life had felt so wonderful. She had no regrets about leaving the ranch. All that mattered was being with Pete.
“If this very foolish conversation means what I think it means,” Mrs. Dean said, “let me tell you I’m not allowing Anne to go one step from this house until she’s married.”
“I think we can take care of that,” Pete said, without taking his gaze off Anne.
“And don’t get any ideas about beginning your conjugal relations immediately,” Mrs. Dean said. “I’m not leaving Anne’s side until the vows are spoken.”
“I’ll agree to sleep in the bunkhouse tonight,” Pete said. “But if you can’t get that preacher out here by tomorrow, I’m kidnaping Anne. I know of a snug little pine bower that’s unoccupied at the moment.”
Epilogue
“Don’t let him bully you,” Isabelle said to Anne as they walked from the corral back to the house. “You don’t have to learn to ride a horse if you don’t want to.”
“But I do want to learn,” Anne said. “I want to ride with Pete when he goes out to look after the herd.”
Pete had bought his ranch next to Sean’s. There had been enough money left over to stock it with the blooded Hereford cows Chet had purchased for them. Using her share of the income from the Tumbling T, Anne had built a house just as big as Uncle Carl’s. And an indoor bathroom with running water.
“You won’t want to for long,” Isabelle said. “Cows are useful enough when it comes to making a living, but there’s more than enough work at home to keep you busy. There’ll be twice as much after your baby’s born.”
Isabelle had started coming over regularly to “help out” ever since Anne announced she was pregnant.
“Stop sowing seeds of rebellion,” Pete said. “I want a quiet, obedient wife who will take every word I say as law.”
“Pete Jernigan, if I didn’t know you were teasing, I’d hit you upside the head with the first log I could get my hands on.”
Anne went off into a fit of giggles. “She said it,” she gasped, when she managed to get control of herself. “I never believed you, but she actually said it.”
Pete looked at her doubled up with laughter and started laughing, too.
“I said what?” Isabelle asked. “What are you laughing at?”
Anne couldn’t help it. She laughed harder. The harder she laughed, the harder Pete laughed.
“Okay,” Isabelle said, “before I lose my temper, somebody had better tell me what’s going on.”
“Are you bullying them already?” Jake asked. He came out of the house, slipped his arms around his wife, and kissed her on the back of the neck.
“How can I be bullying them when they’re laughing themselves silly?”
But she was obviously more interested in what her husband was doing to the back of her neck than in finding out the source of Anne and Pete’s amusement. They sneaked away while they had the chance.
“She’s going to remember,” Pete warned Anne. “She will find out.”
“I don’t mind. I think she’s wonderful.”
“No more wonderful than you.” Pete kissed Anne on the cheek.
“Will you kiss me on the back of my neck?” she asked.
“Why?”
“Isabelle seemed to like it. I do, too.”
She liked it very much. She thought it was absolutely wonderful to be able to sit outside in March and kiss under a big oak tree. It was just one more reason to like being in Texas. Of course, Pete was the best reason of all. If he weren’t making her crazy with all the things he was doing to her neck, she’d list a dozen reasons why she was the most fortunate woman in the world, not the least of which was her new house, her new baby, and the enormous family that surrounded her.
But topping the list, filling at least the first dozen places, was her new husband. As long as she was in his arms, nothing else mattered.
About the Author
Leigh Greenwood is the award-winning author of over fifty books, many of which have appeared on the USA Today bestseller list. Leigh lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. Please visit his website at http://www.leigh-greenwood.com/.
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