Taming the Cowboy

by Aarsen, Carolyne

  Kinsley felt like her heart was going to burst in her chest, and then as if she wasn’t happy enough, Elliot lifted her hand to his mouth and brushed a gentle kiss over her knuckles. He took a deep breath, biting his lip. He looked uneasy, and Kinsley wandered what he was going to say next.

  “Kinsley, I may not be the best person, and I haven’t made the best decisions in the past, but I’m hoping to make better decisions in the future. Starting now.” He sucked in another breath, his hands squeezing hers so tightly she thought her knuckles were going to break. “Kinsley, I love you so much. I don’t want to live my life like I did the last few days. I don’t want you out of my life at all. I want to marry you, I want to have kids with you, I want us to be together for the rest of our lives.”

  Kinsley’s heart trembled, and she had to swallow down a knot of tears. She pulled in a trembling breath. “I love you too. I missed you so much too,” she said, her voice breaking. “I don’t want to be apart from you either.”

  He swept her close, in a crushing embrace, his hungry lips seeking and finding hers.

  When they drew away they were breathless, but they were smiling.

  “I’m glad you said yes,” Elliot said. “I have to confess I was a little worried. I’m sorry I don’t have a ring and everything. I wanted to do it right, but I couldn’t wait.”

  “I’ve already had the romantic proposal,” Kinsley said, her mind ticking back to the elaborate production Drake had made out of his offer of marriage. Candles, music, flowers. “But this means a lot more to me than anything that happened before.”

  “I want us to set a date right now,” Elliot said. “I don’t want to wait too long. You need to know I’m committed to this.”

  Kinsley chuckled at his intensity, love for him pouring through her. “I could pull out my clipboard and pencil you in.”

  Elliot chuckled. “Nice to know I’m gonna end up just another notation on your calendar.”

  “You should be so fortunate,” Kinsley said, laughing.

  “Okay, looks like we have things to do.” Elliot stood up and pulled her to her feet. “And before we do anything else, were going to go find a jewelry shop in town. I got money burning a hole in my pocket and a ring I want to buy right now.”

  “I’m game for that,” Kinsley said.

  He slipped his arm around her waist and together they walked down the path, toward town.

  Toward their future.

  * * *

  And now Elliot has found his soul-mate even though she came in a way he never expected.

  As well, if you’re wondering about Lucas, who showed up at the wedding via a Face-Time call, his story is coming up next. Here’s a taste of what to expect:

  Chapter One - The Cowboy Returns

  Home.

  After three tours, long months of tension, pain and disappointment, healing and hurt, seeking a ragged peace, Lucas Groves’ life had come full circle, and he was back in Rockyview.

  He made the last turn off the road onto the driveway leading to the house he had barely lived at, the house that held such a mixture of memories.

  The house he now owned.

  However, as he drove down the drive lined with poplar and aspen trees bursting with orange, yellow and gold, his thoughts didn’t move to his destination, but to that trip he made, nineteen years ago away from here.

  When his grandmother drove him down this very driveway, away from his house, then down the road five miles to the Tye ranch.

  Where he spent the next nine of the best years of his life until he enlisted.

  He sighed as he followed the gentle curve of the road, leaves fluttering down from the trees onto his Jeep, like small welcome-home gifts.

  Coming here was a way to give himself some closure. Some space. A time for reflection.

  Time to make a decision about what to do about this place and the ranch-land connected to it. He and his parents had only lived here a year before his life was torn apart. The place held few happy memories, but it had been his since he turned twenty-five. These were the stipulations his parents had put in their will, not ever thinking they would be leaving behind a nine-year-old as an orphan when the kayak they had been in tipped and trapped them, drowning them both.

  Lucas tossed off the old, worn memories. That was many years ago and since his parents died, his foster father Zach rented the land and the house, with its Granny Suite, he had put in the hands of a property manager who took care of the renters and managed the finances.

  As a result Lucas had a healthy nest egg, a valuable ranch he was contemplating selling so he could move on to the next part of his life.

  Which is?

  Again, he pulled himself back to the present. To the now. There was no rush to make a decision right now.

  He just wished he could have come back to an empty house. Had he waited a few more months he would have.

  Right now the plan had been to be in Chile, hiking and touring with his buddy. But Curtis had bailed last minute when his girlfriend called to tell him that if he went, their relationship was over.

  Lucas figured it couldn’t have been much of a relationship if all it took was a trip to be a deal breaker.

  Of course, not that he was any expert in the romance department. He’d been issued ultimatums too but, unlike Curtis, he stood his ground. Followed his own plans instead of the demands of someone who didn’t want to be dating a soldier.

  As he made the final turn, he crested a hill and slowed a moment, allowing himself a smile as he looked at the ranch-style home spread out along a copse of trees, a creek flowing beside it. From there his eyes drifted upward to the mountains that stood sentinel over the small ranch.

  The Rockies had been there for thousands of years, they would be there long after he died, watching over this country and the changes that tiny humans created.

  He stopped, hands resting on the steering wheel as he let the sight of those rugged peaks fill his soul. The five day drive here had shown him much of the beauty of this country. He drove through thick forests, lakes and the rocks of the Canadian Shield. Then the prairies with their vast sweep, a horizon that seemed to fall below the road. But as soon as he saw that faint blue ridge ahead, he couldn’t drive fast enough. Couldn’t get to this valley quick enough.

  All those years sweating it out in full battle rattle as he worked with Iraqi security forces on tactical missions, dodging bullets from the Daesh, dust swirling up from Griffons, memories of the mountains would ground him.

  When things got too hard, his mind would sift back through his memories. Horseback riding with Elliot, Kane and Tricia up in the cool mountain air. Baling hay, moving cattle.

  He even scavenged through his winter memories when the heat was especially unbearable. Snowboarding with his buddies on the local ski-hill, a sport disdained by his uber cowboy brothers. Taking the sleds out up into the hills, snow spraying out from the tracks, risking frost-bite as they tore through mountain valleys and along frozen creeks.

  Now, through no choice of his, he was back.

  He reached up to his face, letting his fingers run along the scar that ran from the corner of one eye to his lower jaw. The injury that necessitated his medical discharge. Limited vision in one eye had become his one-way ticket out of the forces and out of the army. He could have fought it. Pushed for a desk job but he was soldiered out. The dream that had pulled him through basic training, a tour in the Ukraine then two in Iraq had sucked the life out of him. His counsellor had pretty much told him that he’d been extremely lucky to have avoided, so far, the extreme end of PTSD. The bad dreams were subsiding, the memories shifting.

  He knew it would be years before he could put his experiences in their proper place in his life. He’d always been thankful for the faith instilled in him by Grace and Zach Tye. The quiet trust in a God that knew who Lucas was and, in all the mess of the world, knew where he was.

  He just wished as if he didn’t feel he had let his buddies down.

 
; Curbing the memories that could still hold him hostage, Lucas put the Jeep into gear and cruised down the hill to the house.

  Two cars were parked on the gravel pad by the garage and assumed one belonged to his grandmother, the other probably to a visiting friend. A year ago the people who had been renting the house moved out and his grandmother had e-mailed him in Iraq, asking if she could move back to Rockyview back into her old home.

  Despite the lack of a strong connection between them, he felt he could hardly say no to his maternal grandmother so now Glenda was here. And, he had found out from conversations with Zach, that she’d recently had hip surgery and was recuperating. She’d hired a private nurse, however, to care for her so that responsibility wouldn’t fall on Lucas.

  Not that he would have taken it on. He and Glenda had a complex and diffident relationship. He had limited expectations from the woman who didn’t want to take care of her orphaned grandson. A birthday card and a cheque every year, a text message even less often and, when he was in the hospital, a phone call.

  Thankfully Glenda her own locked off apartment with its own entrance connected to the house, containing a small kitchen, dining area, living room and bedroom.

  Lucas assumed that was where she was staying which left the larger, spacious house for him.

  He parked his truck beside the cars and as he got out, he paused, listening to the utter quiet that pressed in on him, almost creating a pressure on ears that had been assaulted by the steady noise of his vehicle and before that every city he’d been.

  He’d forgotten the complete stillness of this place.

  A faint breeze sifted through the trees, sending another shower of coloured leaves, carrying with it the earthy smell of fall. He inhaled it in, letting the familiar damp earth scent blended with dying apples from the apple trees behind the house settle into his soul, creating the usual feeling of melancholy that this season brought out.

  He wondered if Kane, Zach and Elliot got all the hay hauled home, wondered if any of the horses had new babies. Wondered if the cows were down from the upper pasture, safely corralled in the huge yards on the ranch.

  Tomorrow, he promised himself. Tomorrow he would head over to the ranch and share a meal. Catch up. Spend some time in his other home.

  But for now, despite his scattered relationship with his grandmother, given she just had surgery, he figured he better say hello and at least get settled in.

  He grabbed the duffel bag he’d been using the past few months from the back of the truck.

  Slinging it over his shoulder, he strode toward the private entrance of the suite and rapped on the door realizing his mistake.

  Of course, Glenda wouldn’t come to the door, she just had surgery. But when he tried the handle, it was locked.

  He looked back at the cars again then figured out what was going on. His grandmother was probably staying in the main house.

  So he strode over to the other entrance of the house rustling through dead leaves covering the sidewalk and fluttering from the whispering trees above. The flowerbeds flanking the sidewalk had been raked and the shrubs crowding under the bay window of the house’s living room had been trimmed.

  Glenda had clearly been taking care of the place.

  He pushed open the large front door, no need to knock here, tossing his bag on the floor of the tiled entrance. As he did a memory slithered into his mind. His mother’s voice calling out to him to slow down, his father’s laughter.

  And right behind it a flash of light, the sound of gunfire.

  The disconnect was disorienting, and he stopped himself, letting the memories of the past few years wash over him. Then he slowly breathed in an out, centering himself.

  Praying.

  His counsellor told him the after effects would ease with time and deliberation and to remind himself he was safe now. Another breath and a reminder that he was home now.

  “Glenda, are you here?” He glanced into the living room to the left, but that space only held the furniture leftover from his parents. The sight was like a gentle touch to an old bruise. A melancholy pain that didn’t cut as much as it had the first time he’d seen it after his parent’s death. He hadn’t bothered to get it cleared out as the people renting the house were happy enough to have furniture supplied.

  The beat of footsteps on the hardwood floor caught his attention as he entered the family room to the right of the main entrance. He doubted the quick, light steps belonged to his grandmother. Probably the nurse she said she had hired.

  And as he came face to face with a petite woman, her light brown hair pulled back in a loose ponytail and her large gray eyes staring at him with confusion, icy fingers clenched his heart.

  “What are you…how…” he couldn’t get the words out as he stared at the one woman who could still make his heart beat faster. The one woman who had held his heart then tossed it aside.

  The woman who was now in his parent’s house.

  And clearly pregnant.

  * * * *

  The Cowboy’s Return is up now for pre-order. Grab your copy by clicking on the cover of the book below:

  As well, if you enjoyed Taming the Cowboy, I’d love if you could let other people know by leaving a review. Reviews keep me writing. Reviews keep me motivated. Reviews keep me on my toes. If you think these are good reasons to leave a review, click on the link below

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  Thanks so much and I hope you like spending time in Rockyview county. It’s a place I’ll be coming back to a number of times in the future so stay tuned.

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