Issued to the Bride One Sniper (Brides of Chance Creek Book 3)

by Cora Seton

  A slow grin spread over Hunter’s face, tangling Jo’s emotions into a breathless knot.

  “We’ll see about that.”

  As Hunter stepped inside the large white clapboard house, and watched a white cat skedaddle up the stairs, he felt like he’d come home. Not because of the look of the place. It wasn’t small and spare like his mother’s cottage—nor was it a large, rambling post-and-beam monstrosity like Heartfelt Acres. Two Willows was a Victorian, with spacious, high-ceilinged rooms and a homey, lived-in air. It was that sense of history in its very walls that reminded him of the Franks’ home. He’d learned to ride a horse, harvest hay, feed cows and do a million other chores at Heartfelt Acres, just like generations of Franks had done before him. He itched to get busy and start pitching in with the work here, but first he needed to be sure of his welcome.

  Jo backed away from him as he set his bag in the front hall and looked around.

  “I’ve got something—for your sister. From the General,” he said.

  Jo swallowed, still eyeing him like he might be harboring the plague, and Hunter knew he needed to bridge the gap between them. “It’s good to meet you.” In his experience, most women couldn’t ignore a pleasantry like that.

  Jo’s good manners kicked in and she nodded. “Good to meet you, too.” A spark of interest kicked to life inside him when her gaze flicked over him. Hunter wondered what she thought about what she saw.

  When she found him watching her back, she quickly turned away, her cheeks flushed, and satisfaction settled within him. He’d seen interest in her eyes. That was a start.

  She led him wordlessly through the house, and he took in the neat interior. The kitchen was a large room that overlooked the backyard. Jo moved toward the back door, but Hunter stopped at the table. The Franks’ dinner table was a lot like this one. Hunter couldn’t help but run his fingers over the table’s smooth surface. So many memories—

  His fingers slid into a rough gouge.

  The Franks’ table didn’t have scars like these, though.

  He turned to Jo.

  “Bullets. From the shoot-out,” she explained, as if she guessed he’d have heard all about that.

  Hunter nodded and pulled his hand away. He had heard all about the shoot-out that had nearly taken Cass’s and Lena’s lives. Thank God Brian had been there to help, or who knew what would have happened? He took in the freshly painted walls and remembered the renovations Connor had talked about to patch the place up. This wasn’t Heartfelt Acres. This was Two Willows. He’d have to work to fit in here.

  Jo still watched him, wary as a doe and just as apt to flee if given the chance. “I mean it, I won’t—”

  “Marry me, I got it,” Hunter finished for her. “I’ll point out I haven’t asked you.”

  “Still. Just making my position clear.”

  Hunter had spotted the wedding festivities through the kitchen windows. “Mind if I go pay my respects to the bride?” It was probably best not to let her dig in her heels too deep about marriage before they got the chance to know each other.

  Hunter liked her resoluteness, though. Jo was a woman who stood her ground. He valued that in people. Hated it when people cut ties and ran.

  With a sigh, Jo waved him on. She followed him outside to where Connor stood with Sadie, who was dressed in a beautiful white wedding gown. Brian and his wife, Cass, stood nearby, as did Jo’s other sisters, Lena and Alice, whom Hunter recognized from their photographs back at USSOCOM. Next to Cass stood a redhead Jo introduced as Wyoming Smith, Cass’s best friend.

  “Hunter—you made it.” Brian came and clapped him on the back.

  “Good to see you again.”

  “How was the trip?” Connor asked.

  “Uneventful.” Hunter ignored the silent communication shooting between sisters. A look here, a raised eyebrow there. Were the women alarmed at yet another man sent into their midst by the General?

  “Your father sent me,” he said to Jo’s sisters. “I’m supposed to—”

  Hell. What was he supposed to do?

  The Reed women waited expectantly for him to finish his sentence. Five sets of sharp, clear eyes waiting to judge him if he lied. Six, counting Cass’s friend, who was watching the whole exchange avidly.

  “—to make Jo happy. She gets whatever she wants,” he finished lamely. That’s what the General had said, though, hadn’t he?

  “Are you supposed to build something? Like Connor did for me?” Sadie asked.

  Hunter knew Connor had built his bride a walled garden—a legacy project, he’d called it. Sadie’s mother had built the greenhouse and, more importantly, planted the large hedge maze on the property. Connor had come ostensibly to help Sadie add a new feature to Two Willows.

  Of course he’d really come to marry Sadie, the way the General had sent Hunter to marry Jo.

  “Something like that.” Hunter thought fast. What would the youngest daughter of a dictatorial General want most? “Something of her own. Jo gets to pick.”

  A throwaway line, but the right thing to say if Jo’s expression was any indication. Her eyes widened. Her lips parted in shock. “I get to pick?” she repeated.

  “Of course.” Too late Hunter realized how open he’d left that to interpretation. What if she—

  “I want a house,” she said quickly. “My own house.”

  Cass’s mouth dropped open. “What’s wrong with Two Willows?”

  Hunter knew that Cass took primary responsibility for the running of the home. From everything Brian had told him, she was a sweet woman who cared for her sisters very much, but even though Hunter was an only child, practically living with the Franks had taught him much about birth order. Marlon was third in the family, which meant he’d bucked authority at every turn but was quick to order around his younger siblings. Cass was the oldest Reed daughter. She was married and the first of her sisters to get pregnant.

  He bet she tried to rule the roost—even if she did it kindly.

  He turned his attention back to Jo, the youngest of the Reeds, who was quivering like an arrow nocked to a bowstring.

  “A house,” she repeated. “Just for me.”

  “I can do that.” Hunter had no idea if he could. His time with the Navy had made him handy, of course. Taught him all kinds of skills. But fall was drawing in, soon to be followed by a Montana winter. “Might have to wait until spring,” he added uncomfortably.

  “That won’t work,” Connor said sharply.

  All the Reed women turned to Connor at his pronouncement, and Hunter could have kicked himself. Of course it couldn’t work; he needed to persuade Jo to marry him fast. Waiting for spring was out of the question.

  “Why wouldn’t that work?” Cass asked Connor.

  Hunter saved him. “Because Jo doesn’t want to wait that long.”

  “You’re right; I don’t. And I don’t see why I would have to.”

  “Hard to build in a Montana winter,” Lena pointed out. “What do you need a house for, anyway?”

  Jo ignored her and kept her gaze on Hunter, and he knew if he failed this test he might as well go right back to Florida. His mind raced. How could he follow through?

  “A small house?” Brian ventured.

  “I don’t want a small house. I want a real house,” Jo said emphatically.

  “A trial house.” Hunter met her gaze and held it. “I can build it in a month. You can test it out over the winter. If you like it, I’ll build you a bigger one in the spring.”

  “She doesn’t need a house. You don’t need a house,” Cass told Jo.

  “You wouldn’t know how to keep it up on your own,” Sadie put in.

  “Yes, I would,” Jo said, obviously stung by her sisters’ interference.

  Lena snorted. “The General’s doing it again—he’s shoving another man down our throats. This one will end up staying here, too. Just you wait.”

  “No, he won’t,” Jo said. “When he’s done with my trial house, he can go. I’ll buil
d myself a new one in the spring.”

  Hunter’s jaw tightened but he made himself speak evenly. “Then you’d better work with me, to see how it’s done.” And he’d have to research fast to learn how to do it himself.

  Her reaction was so slight he thought he’d imagined it. Her features hardened.

  Hunter got the message.

  Game on.

  He thought he could trick her with a house, did he? And not even a real one—a trial house, whatever that meant. Some kind of little box without a kitchen or a bathroom, she supposed. If he expected her to traipse back and forth to the big house every time she was hungry or needed to pee, he could think again.

  It would be a real house, or it wouldn’t be anything.

  Still, unease trickled through her veins as Jo sized up the man again. The General had sent him, which meant he wasn’t to be trusted. He was a worthy adversary. Sharp. Hardened by his work and what he’d seen. She’d felt echoes of that when she shook his hand. But then she was always sensing something when she touched people, which was why she tended not to touch folks she didn’t know well. She knew she often came off as standoffish.

  But Hunter seemed determined to get past that—to her. And as much as she’d sworn she wouldn’t let another man do that, she had to admit he intrigued her. There’d been something about him when they’d touched. Something… interesting.

  Jo sifted through her intuitions. She thought of the puppies she’d given away to their new owners only yesterday. Thoroughbred McNab pups that would work on ranches all around the county with avid eagerness and utter loyalty. If only you could find humans like that—

  Jo nearly stumbled.

  Loyalty.

  She raised her gaze to Hunter again. Men were never loyal.

  But she’d felt—

  “Jo, can you help me inside for a minute?” Lena said. Without a word of explanation, she took Jo’s arm and hustled her toward the house. When Hunter looked like he’d follow, Lena put up a hand. “Just Jo.”

  Jo wouldn’t have been surprised if Hunter had followed regardless; he looked like the kind of man who pursued what he wanted.

  What did he want from her?

  She doubted it was marriage—despite their exchange at the front door. He was… old, for one thing. Over thirty for sure. He wouldn’t want her.

  And she didn’t want him.

  No more men. Period.

  Even if he was… interesting.

  “What are you doing?” Lena burst out the minute they were inside. “Can’t you see what’s happening? The General sent him to marry you—just like he sent Brian and Connor. We can’t let him get away with this.”

  “Hunter isn’t going to marry me.”

  Lena stared at her. “He isn’t going to marry you? Don’t you mean you aren’t going to marry him? Or is it already too late? Have you fallen for him? Like—love at first sight?” She looked like she was frightened the condition might be catching.

  “Don’t be ridiculous!” Jo automatically reached for a dirty dish.

  Lena pulled it from her hands and slapped it down on the table. “The General wants control, and we’re practically handing it to him on a silver platter.”

  Jo tried to keep her cool. She knew what Lena was angry about—that just when it finally seemed like she might get her chance to run the ranch, the General had sent first Brian and then Connor.

  And both of them were staying for good.

  “Brian and Connor have been letting you take charge,” Jo pointed out.

  “For now. But just wait until the first time we disagree. Then we’ll see how it goes.” Lena paced from one end of the room to the other. Picked up a dirty ladle, looked at it and slammed it down again. “Why? Why won’t he leave us alone?”

  “I don’t know.” She was beginning to worry about Lena. If the General pushed her to the limit, what would she do? Leave?

  “He had better not send anyone for me,” Lena spat. “If he does, that man won’t make it out of here alive.”

  “You don’t really think…” Jo trailed off. Despite what she’d said to Hunter, she couldn’t say it to her sister.

  “That Hunter’s here for you? Hell, yeah—that’s exactly what I think.”

  “But why would the General pick him? Hunter’s… old,” Jo said.

  Lena’s lips suddenly twitched. “I dare you to say that to him.”

  “But really—” Jo held up her hands. “What was the General thinking?”

  “I don’t know.” Lena shook her head. “I mean, Hunter’s maybe thirty-three, thirty-four. That’s not that old, Jo.”

  “Isn’t it?” Jo asked doubtfully.

  Lena’s smile quirked again, but then she groaned and covered her face with her hands. “Why is our family so weird?”

  It was Jo’s turn to smile. Lena in a bridesmaid gown was a funny sight no matter how you sliced it. Lena in a bridesmaid gown losing her mind was even funnier. “Can you blame me for wanting my own house?”

  “I can’t blame you, but I think you’re nuts. Cass won’t do all the hard work for you if you move out.”

  They shared a conspiratorial grin. Since they both focused on outdoor work, tending to the cattle, horses and other critters on the ranch, they’d long had an understanding that they were the only sane ones in the family.

  “You’ll have to do laundry. Cook. Sweep, for God’s sake.”

  “I do chores now,” Jo pointed out. She began to stack the dirty dishes by the sink again. Lena automatically moved to help. They might be in charge of the animals, but they knew their way around a house, too. Cass often corralled all of them when things needed a thorough cleaning.

  “Not every day.” Lena shook her head again and handed Jo the dirty ladle. “If I were you, I’d send Hunter packing. The whole thing is a trap.”

  “I don’t need you or anyone else to tell me what to do.” She was sick of that.

  “If you smartened up, we wouldn’t have to tell you anything.”

  Before she could answer Lena, the back door opened, and Hunter leaned in. “Don’t suppose you’d dance with me, Jo?”

  His thick, Southern drawl wrapped around her like a cotton blanket.

  Lena glared at her. “Say no,” she mouthed.

  “I’d love to.” Jo made a face at Lena as soon as Hunter’s back was turned, then followed him out the door.

  Chapter Two

  ‡

  When they reached the makeshift dance floor, and he turned to take Jo in his arms, Hunter found her watching him. His chest tightened in an unfamiliar way when he took in the curve of her cheek and the arch of her brow. Jo was so untouched. So fresh in the face of the world’s ugliness. Her gaze met his and she held it, fearless. She reminded him of the fierce Greek goddess Artemis. Poised. Powerful. Dangerous.

  And oh, so beautiful at the same time.

  She could be a match for him, Hunter thought. As improbable as it seemed, this young woman—this young warrior—could be exactly the woman he could share his life with. Strange how a series of events kicked off by his best friend’s marriage falling apart had led him here.

  Holding Jo lightly with one hand at her hip and the other clasping hers, he moved her around with the other couples. She was light on her feet. Graceful. Womanly in an altogether unstudied way.

  “You’re worried about your friend,” Jo said suddenly.

  Hunter nearly stumbled. How the hell had she known that?

  “And you’re… interested… in me,” she added with a private little smile that hinted at depths unplumbed. Jo had a sense of humor. A wicked one, he’d bet.

  “I am interested in you, but what man wouldn’t be interested in a pretty woman? And I am worried about my friend, but I don’t know how you figured that out.”

  “It isn’t important. Caring is a good thing.” She pronounced it like a wise edict, and it was, Hunter mused. If more people took the time to think about people other than themselves, it might spare a lot of trouble in the world.<
br />
  “I thought Alice was the one who was supposed to see the future.”

  Jo stiffened in his arms. “She is. I don’t see the future.”

  He kept swaying. “You guessed about my friend. Out of nowhere.”

  He could almost feel her trying to form a lie. When her shoulders slumped, he guessed she’d decided to tell the truth. He was curious to hear what she’d say.

  “I just… feel what people feel in the present.”

  Hunter hesitated, losing the beat for a moment, as he took that in. She couldn’t be for real. Could she? He’d been joking about Alice.

  “Everyone?” That sounded awful. And wouldn’t the military love to know about a trick like that? Had the General ever thought about his daughters’ abilities that way? He filed the question away for later. He felt sure Jo must be talking about hunches, not something truly quantifiable. He wasn’t sure if he believed it Alice’s visions either, although Brian and Connor seemed to.

  “No. Usually, it only happens if I touch someone.” She smiled that wry little smile again. “And now you know more about me than anyone else does.”

  “Really? Your sisters don’t know you can sense things?” He tried to keep his voice neutral, as if they were discussing something like the weather or a football game. Something actually real.

  She shook her head. “I don’t like to talk about it. It’s… hard.”

  “I can imagine.” He kept dancing, wondering if Jo believed her own words.

  “You don’t believe me.”

  Hunter swallowed. “That’s an easy guess. You’re talking about something that defies logic.”

  “Mother.”

  He frowned. Why had she said that? Unbidden, thoughts came into his mind. Love, confusion. Pain. That old desire to understand the woman who’d given birth to him.

  “You’re feeling sad that you and your mother aren’t closer. Hurt that she’s kept secrets. Love mixed with confusion over the past.”