“I can’t quite read it,” he said. “Maybe you’d better spell it out for me.”
“You can’t read it?” she asked, craning her neck out the window on her side to see for herself. When she pulled back into the car, her expression reflected pure disappointment. “Well, damn.”
Duke reached over and forced her to face him. “What’s it say, darlin’?”
She swallowed hard and tried to evade his gaze. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, she looked him square in the eyes. She began to speak, cleared her throat and tried again.
“It says ‘Will You Marry Me?’” she said in a nervous whisper.
A rush of pure joy swept over him. He barely managed to contain a triumphant shout.
“What was that? I couldn’t quite hear you.”
She scowled at him. “Will you marry me or not?” she demanded testily.
Duke figured he’d pressed his luck just about as far as he could. “I’m not like you. If you were hoping I’d turn all wishy-washy now that the shoe was on the other foot, it’s just plain too bad, because the answer’s yes. I’ll marry you tonight, if that’s what you want?”
“You will?” She seemed startled by the response and more than a little intrigued. “Tonight?”
To hell with Jordan’s warning about an elopement. “If that’s what you want,” he said.
“I do. I mean, yes. Please. Right this minute.”
“Any particular reason you’re in such a rush?”
“I’m afraid I’ll have second thoughts,” she admitted candidly.
“About loving me?”
“No,” she said at once. “Never that.”
“Then what?”
“About taking such a huge risk on the future.”
“Darlin’, life is all about taking risks. If you don’t take a few, you’re not really living at all.” He cupped her face in his hands. “Besides, there’s no risk involved here at all. Nobody’s ever going to love you the way I do. This is forever. You have my guarantee.”
“You love me?” She sounded dazed.
“Took me long enough to figure it out, but yes, I love you, Danielle Adams. Always will. I promise.”
“Forever’s a long time,” she said, but she was smiling at last.
“Not half long enough for the two of us.”
“Don’t you mean the four of us,” she teased.
“Or five or six,” he amended. “There’s not enough trouble in the world that you and I together can’t handle it. Agreed?”
She stared into his eyes, then slowly nodded, a smile on her lips. “Agreed.”
Just then Duke noticed the first rose petal flutter down against the windshield. It was followed by another and then another. He postponed the kiss he’d had in mind and gestured outside.
“What on earth?” Dani murmured, poking a hand out to catch one of the petals. Her eyes widened when she realized what she’d captured. “Rose petals? Red rose petals?”
“Everybody said I needed to do something dramatic to capture your heart,” he said. “This was my last shot.”
“You planned to propose to me again tonight?” she asked. “I did all this for nothing?”
“Not for nothing,” he assured her. “It just proved what an incredible pair we’ll be. We both came out here tonight with the same idea.”
She regarded him intently. “If you were planning this, where’s the ring?”
“Who says I have one?”
“Forget it, Duke. You’re too arrogant not to have one tucked away somewhere. Where is it?”
He winked. “In my pocket,” he taunted.
A grin spread slowly across her face. “You know, there’s nothing I enjoy more than an old-fashioned treasure hunt.”
“And as I recall, you’re very, very good.”
She smiled. “Yes, I am, aren’t I?” And then her clever hands went in search of that diamond.
Duke figured what happened next was the part of the engagement celebration they would keep to themselves. Some family legends just weren’t meant to be shared.
* * *
Read on for a sneak peek of The Cowboy and His Baby part of the 2-in-1 anthology Winter’s Proposal from #1 New York Times bestselling author Sherryl Woods!
The Cowboy and His Baby
by Sherryl Woods
BOOK TWO OF WINTER’S PROPOSAL
1
Damn, but it was cold, Cody Adams thought as he chased down the last of the herd of cattle he was rounding up. Texas had never been this frigid, not even in the middle of January. He was surprised half the livestock hadn’t flat-out frozen in the harsh Wyoming winter. They’d lost a few head of cattle, but nothing like what he’d anticipated the first time the temperatures had dropped below zero and the snow and ice had swirled around him.
The bitter cold and the frequent blinding snowstorms did serve one useful purpose, though. They kept him so busy—kept his brain cells so frozen, for that matter—that he hardly ever thought about home. He’d freeze his butt off and suffer frostbite on most any part of his anatomy for the blessing of a blank memory. He didn’t want to think about Texas or his family. Most of all, he didn’t want to think about sneaky, conniving Melissa Horton and the way she’d cheated on him.
It had taken him a long time to block out the image of his longtime girlfriend wrapped in his best friend’s arms. Even now, more than a year later, that terrible, gut-wrenching moment sneaked up on him when he least expected it and reminded him that that kind of pain might hide out, but it seldom went away.
With the last of the herd rounded up and dusk falling, Cody gestured to one of the other hands that he was leaving and headed back toward the small but cozy line shack he’d insisted he preferred to the bunkhouse. He’d claimed it kept him closer to the cattle for which he was responsible, but the truth was, he craved the isolation.
For a man who had been a very social creature back in Texas—okay, a notorious flirt—it was quite a change and, for the time being, a welcome one. It was the only surefire way he could think of for staying out of trouble and avoiding the sort of heartache that falling for some woman just about guaranteed.
His boss, impressed by the fact that for years 28-year-old Cody had been running White Pines, his family’s ranch back in Texas, hadn’t argued with his idiosyncratic decision. Lance Treethorn had insisted only that a phone be installed so he could reach Cody on business. He was the only one with the number. He rarely used it. Cody dropped by the ranch house often enough to stay in touch.
On the tiny porch Cody stomped the snow off his boots, gathered up an armload of firewood and went inside. Within minutes he had a fire roaring and had shucked off his skeepskin jacket. He stood in front of the blaze, letting the heat warm his chilled body. Unfortunately, it couldn’t touch the cold place deep inside him.
He’d been standing there for some time, lost in thought, when he noticed the stack of mail sitting on the table in the kitchen area of the one-room cabin. It was sitting atop a foil-covered pan that he suspected from the sinful, chocolaty aroma, contained a batch of freshly baked brownies. He grinned and ripped off the foil. Sure enough, brownies. Apparently, Janey Treethorn had been by again.
The fifteen-year-old daughter of his boss had a giant-size crush on him. Thankfully, though, she was painfully shy. She limited her overtures to dropping off his mail, always with a batch of brownies or his favorite apple pie. In the summer it had been fresh fruit cobblers. She was usually careful to stop by while he wasn’t home. On the one occasion when he’d caught her, she’d blushed furiously, stammered an apology for intruding, and fled on horseback before he could even say thanks.
Unable to resist, he grabbed one of the brownies and ate it as he sorted through the few pieces of mail she’d left, putting the bills aside to be paid later. A small blue envelope caught his attention. Turning it
over, he recognized his sister-in-law’s handwriting.
As always, when anything came from a member of his family, his heart skipped a beat. Letters were rare enough to stir a pang of homesickness each time one arrived. Jordan’s wife had been dutifully writing to him once every two weeks or so from the moment she and Jordan had gotten married. For a man who swore he wanted nothing to do with anyone or anything back home, it was downright pitiful how he looked forward to Kelly’s chatty letters and the family gossip she shared with such humor and telling insight. This one was more than a week overdue. Since the others had come like clockwork, he’d been trying not to admit just how worried he really was.
He could tell right off there was something different about this one, too. It was stiffer, more like a card than a letter. He grabbed a second brownie, then carried Kelly’s latest correspondence with him back to his chair in front of the fire.
When he ripped open the envelope, a tiny square dropped out of the card inside. He grabbed for it instinctively and found himself staring at an infant swaddled as tight as a papoose in a blue blanket. He caught himself grinning at the sight of that tiny, red, scrunched-up face.
So, Jordan was a daddy, he thought, amazed by the shaft of pure envy that shot through him. He’d known the baby was due any day now. Kelly had kept him apprised of every detail of her pregnancy, including his older brother’s bemusement at the natural childbirth classes she’d insisted he take with her. He wondered if Jordan had made it through the delivery or if he’d fainted at Kelly’s first big-time contraction.
He closed his eyes against the tide of longing that rolled over him. He was missing so damned much, he thought, once again cursing Melissa for the betrayal that had made staying in Texas where he belonged impossible.
He was missing seeing his other brother Luke and his wife Jessie’s little girl grow. Angela had turned two back in December. Kelly had sent a picture of her with her face streaked with icing and her fist in the middle of the chocolate birthday cake with its two, fat pink candles. He’d tucked it in his wallet, along with the snapshot of Kelly’s daughter from her first marriage, Dani, a little con-artist-in-training who could persuade penguins to buy ice, if she was of a mind to. Now he opened his wallet and inserted the tiny picture of this latest addition to the family.
He stared at the brand new baby one last time and wondered if he’d ever see him. He’d been named Justin James, according to the information on the birth announcement.
“We’re going to call him J.J.,” Kelly wrote in the note accompanying the card. “We can’t wait for you to see him. Jordan swears he hasn’t slept a wink in the past week. I don’t know how that can be, since I’m the one up every time the little monster screams in the middle of the night. I haven’t noticed Jordan pacing the floor alongside me. I think he’s been sleeping with a pillow over his head deliberately, so he can claim he never hears J.J. crying. He swears he only wakes up after I’ve already left the bed. The silver-tongued devil says it’s missing me that wakes him. He thinks a line like that will make me more sympathetic to him. Fat chance.
“No, seriously,” he read on, “your big brother has been a huge help. I think he’s a little awed by fatherhood...or maybe it’s just that mountain of diapers he’s expected to wash every night.”
Cody chuckled at the image of his button-down brother, the big-time oil company executive, changing diapers and warming bottles. Maybe he was taking to it better than any of them had anticipated, including Jordan himself.
“We’re scheduling the baptism for the end of the month and we expect you to be here,” the letter continued. “No excuses, Cody. It’s time to come home.”
It’s time to come home. Kelly’s words echoed in his head, taunting him, reminding him that nothing would ever make this beautiful, sprawling Wyoming ranch into home. Lance Treethorn was a kind, decent man. He’d become a good friend. His daughters were real little angels and they treated Cody like one of the family. Even so, it wasn’t the same. Not that a little thing like being homesick mattered. Even though his heart ached for the life he’d left behind, he knew he could never go back. He’d rather eat dirt than get within a hundred miles of the traitorous Melissa ever again.
It had been over a year since he’d left Texas, eighteen months to be exact, but not even time had cured him of the rage that had sent him away from everyone and everything dear to him.
Mention Texas and he didn’t think of his beloved White Pines, didn’t think of his parents or his brothers, much as he loved them all. The only image that inevitably came to mind was of Melissa Horton. Sometimes not even an entire bottle of the best liquor in the store could blot out the memories of the woman who’d betrayed him with his best friend.
Even now the vision in his head of Melissa was so vivid he could practically feel the silky texture of her skin and the soft flow of dark auburn hair through his fingers. He could practically smell the sweet summer scent of her.
But along with the sensual memories came the blinding rage, as powerful now as it had been on the day he’d left Texas for good. Accompanying that rage was the anger and frustration of realizing that he was, in part, responsible for what had happened. Maybe if he’d told her he loved her, she wouldn’t have turned to Brian Kincaid in the first place. Maybe if he’d had a clue just how much she mattered to him, instead of taking her for granted, he wouldn’t be lying awake nights aching for her. He’d been a fool. She’d been a cheat. Quite a pair, the two of them. Maybe he deserved to be this miserable. She certainly did, though he had no idea if she was. She could be happily married to Brian now, for all he knew.
Before he’d realized what he was doing, he’d ripped the note inviting him to the baptism of Jordan and Kelly’s baby to shreds. He couldn’t allow himself to be tempted back, not even by something as important as this. He would not go back to Texas. Not now. Not ever.
The decision was firm, but it left him feeling heartsick and more lonely than he’d ever felt in his life.
He was almost glad when the ring of the phone shattered the silence. He grabbed the receiver gratefully.
“Hey, boss, what’s up?” he said, knowing it would be Lance Treethorn on the other end of the line.
The widowed father of three young girls, Treethorn had his hands full with trying to run the ranch and raise his daughters to be proper young ladies. He’d succeeded with the oldest. Janey was as prim and proper and dutiful as a father could ever want, but the two younger ones, ten and twelve, were terrors. Cody didn’t envy the thirty-five-year-old man trying to get them raised and married without calamity striking.
“We got the herd rounded up today,” he told Lance. “We only lost one more to the cold.”
“Thanks, Cody, but I didn’t call for an update.”
Something in Lance’s voice triggered alarm bells.
“What’s wrong?” he asked at once. “Are there problems with the girls?”
“No, it’s nothing like that. We’re all fine, but you had a call here at the house.” “I did?” He’d given the Treethorn number only to Jordan, with a direct order that it never be used except for a dire emergency. He knew his brother would never break that rule. His heart thudded dully as he waited for whatever bad news Jordan had imparted.
“Call home,” his boss told him. “It sounded pretty urgent. Your brother asked how quickly I could get a message to you. Obviously Jordan still doesn’t know you have a phone in your cabin.”
“No,” Cody admitted, grateful that his boss had never asked why he insisted on having such a buffer between him and his family. Lance was the best kind of boss, the best kind of friend. He was scrupulously fair. He lent support, but never asked questions or made judgments. There had been no hint of criticism in his voice when he’d commented just now on Cody’s decision to keep his private phone number from his family.
“I’m sorry he bothered you,” Cody apologized anyway.
&n
bsp; “You know damned well it’s no bother. I just hope everything’s okay at home. Give me a call if there’s anything I can do to help.”
“Thanks, Lance.”
Cody hung up slowly, thinking of the tiny picture that he’d placed in his wallet only moments earlier. Had something happened to Justin James? Or to Kelly? Why else would Jordan call? Damn, but he hated being so far away. What if... He allowed the thought to trail off.
“Stop imagining the worst and call,” he muttered out loud, finally forcing himself to dial his brother’s number, knowing that this call, whatever it was about, would shatter whatever distance he’d managed to achieve from his past.
Jordan picked up on the first ring. His voice sounded tired and hoarse.
“Hey, big brother,” Cody said.
“Cody, thank God. I was worried sick you wouldn’t get the message for days.”
Jordan, the most composed man Cody had ever known, sounded shaken. The alarm bells triggered by Lance’s call were clanging even louder now. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s bad news, Cody. Real bad.”
Cody sank onto a chair by the kitchen table and braced himself. The last time Jordan had sounded that somber was when their brother Erik had been killed in an accident on Luke’s ranch.
“Is it Dad?” he asked, hating even to form the words. Harlan Adams was bigger than life. He was immortal—or so Cody had always tried to tell himself. He couldn’t imagine a world in which Harlan wasn’t controlling and manipulating things.
“No, he’s fine,” Jordan reassured him at once, then amended, “Or at least as well as can be expected under the circumstances.”
“Dammit, Jordan, spit it out. What the hell has happened?”
The Heart of Hill Country Page 38
