Beneath Montana Skies

by Mia Ross

  “And she still wants to marry you. Go figure.”

  Ty knew he was kidding, but the comment mirrored what he’d been thinking. And when you added in the fact that he was about to officially become the daddy his daughters had been hoping for, he couldn’t imagine himself ever having a more perfect day.

  Finally satisfied with his reflection, Ty followed his best man out into the church to stand in the groom’s customary waiting spot.

  The organist was playing some mellow hymns when Pastor Bartlett joined them. Giving Ty an encouraging smile, he said, “It’s a beautiful day for a wedding.”

  “To be honest, I wouldn’t care if it was a hundred degrees or a blizzard outside,” Ty replied as Allie and Hannah appeared in the open doorway that led into the chapel. In their poufy white dresses and hair wreaths made of pink roses, they made him think of cherubs who had dropped in from heaven to make his life better. “The ladies coming in right now make every day good for me.”

  “That’s really sweet,” Perry murmured as the girls made their way up the aisle, sprinkling rose petals as they went. “Never knew you had it in you.”

  “I do now.”

  Smiling proudly at his daughters, he was surprised when they detoured from their practiced walk and bookended him in an enthusiastic hug. Taking their cue, he hunkered down and gathered them into his arms, looking from one to the other as his heart swelled with love for his little cowgirls.

  Jessie came forward, flashing him a smile before herding the girls to the bride’s side of the altar. She whispered something to them, then pointed back toward the door as the music ended and drifted into the rafters with dramatic effect. When that famous bridal march began, everyone stood, and Ty’s gaze went to the doorway.

  On her father’s arm, Morgan was wearing the kind of smile he rarely saw. Light, unworried, full of joy, she made her way through the chapel as if she was floating on air. Her white dress swished over the runner, and the bouquet of pink roses she held matched the wreath nestled into a waterfall of luxurious blond curls. All at once, she was the tomboy he’d loved to chase and the woman he’d come to love more than anything in the world. Because of her, he was about to have the strong, loving family he’d always longed for. He couldn’t envision his heart containing any more emotion than it did right now.

  JD paused in front of him and gave him a stern look that he softened with a wink. Turning to Morgan, he broke etiquette and embraced his daughter tightly before letting her go. After shaking Ty’s hand, he smiled at them both and rested his hands on their shoulders. “Be happy.”

  There were some “aws” in the crowd, and more than a few sniffles as JD took his seat next to Ryan and Ben. While folks were settling down, Ty took the opportunity to grin over at Morgan. “Nice dress.”

  “Nice tie,” she shot back, adding a smirk for good measure.

  He couldn’t help laughing, and he heard his mother click her tongue from her seat in the front row. As usual, his behavior didn’t suit her. Nothing new there, and he opted to ignore it. “You’re gonna get me in trouble.”

  It was an old warning from when they were kids, and Morgan replied with what she’d always said back then. “You don’t need my help.”

  They traded a smile and then got down to the business of getting married.

  After a heartwarming homily about building a life together, the pastor gave folks time to get their cameras ready before turning to Ty. “Do you, Tyler Vernon Wilkins, take this woman, Morgan Jo Whittaker, to be your lawfully wedded wife?”

  “I do.” Taking her left hand, he slid the shining gold band into place.

  “And do you, Morgan Jo Whittaker, take this man, Tyler Vernon Wilkins, to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

  “I do.”

  He’d seen this woman stare down charging bulls, lasso calves and charm a contingent of politicians that would have made a lot of men turn tail and run. Somehow, this unflappable rancher’s daughter fumbled his ring and it fell to the old wooden steps with a very audible thunk.

  Jessie covered a laugh with her hand, and Perry was almost strangling behind him as Ty leaned down and retrieved it. Handing it back to his almost wife, he grinned. “Nervous, MJ?”

  The sound of the nickname she hated had the effect he was after, as she squared her shoulders in a typical Morgan pose and successfully got the ring onto his finger.

  “I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride.”

  Before he could manage the last step in the ceremony, Allie and Hannah broke loose from their aunt and careened into them, nearly knocking them both over in their excitement.

  “We’re a family!” Hannah shouted joyfully, tossing her small bouquet into the air.

  Allie followed along, and then shyly tugged on Ty’s hand. When he looked down, she gazed up at him with a hopeful look. “Are you our daddy now?”

  His already full heart swelled a little more, and he smiled over at the woman who’d been generous enough to give him the one more chance he’d needed. Pulling Morgan close, he kissed her and smiled.

  “Yes, I am, honey. With Mommy’s help, I finally got it right.”

  * * * * *

  If you loved this tale of Western romance,

  be sure to pick up

  The Cowboy Takes a Wife

  by Ruth Logan Herne.

  And check out these other stories

  from Mia Ross’s previous miniseries,

  Liberty Creek:

  Mending the Widow’s Heart

  The Bachelor’s Baby

  His Two Little Blessings

  Available now from Love Inspired!

  Find more great reads at www.millsandboon.com.au

  Keep reading for an excerpt from The Rancher’s Baby Surprise by Kat Brookes.

  Dear Reader,

  Welcome to Mustang Ridge!

  I’ve always wanted to write a story set out West somewhere, and I had an absolute blast with this one. The idea came to me one night while my family and I were watching a documentary about a small town in Montana that was fighting against planned mining and energy development. What struck me was that the people waging this battle were everyday folks: farmers, ranchers and small business owners. They banded together to keep those changes from destroying the wild beauty of the land they treasured.

  Morgan Whittaker stepped onto that same stage, strong, determined and ready to meet any challenge. Or so she thought. As capable as this rancher and single mom had always been, she quickly realized that her latest effort would require a team dedicated to keeping her hometown the way it was meant to be. She had plenty of courage when it came to animals and hard work, but taking on a challenge this huge required her to lean on her strong faith and trust in someone she’d long thought was out of her life forever.

  After all he’d been through, Ty Wilkins needed some of that faith himself to start his life over. He found it in the smiles of the daughters he met for the first time. Forging a connection with them instantly, he was willing to do whatever it took to be part of their lives. Forgiving himself for past mistakes was another story. Once he did, he was open to embracing a future with Morgan, creating the kind of family he’d always longed for.

  This is just the beginning of the story of Mustang Ridge. I’m looking forward to finding out what happens next!

  If you’d like to stop in and see what I’ve been up to, you’ll find me online at www.miaross.com, Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads. While you’re there, send me a message. I’d love to hear from you!

  Mia Ross

  The Rancher’s Baby Surprise

  by Kat Brookes

  Chapter One

  Hannah Sanders eased her foot off the gas pedal as she struggled to make out the winding country road ahead. The overcast day had turned as black as night when she’d driven into the storm. Even her car’s high beams st
ruggled to push through the wall of rain before her. Deepening puddles along the barely visible road pulled at her tires, causing Hannah to tighten her grip on the steering wheel even more.

  “Dear Lord,” she prayed, resisting the urge to run a hand over her rounded abdomen, knowing she needed to keep both hands firmly wrapped about the steering wheel, “please don’t let anything happen to this baby.” Her sister’s baby.

  The wipers, set on high, pushed water to and fro on the windshield, but the deluge outside rendered them nearly useless. Why hadn’t she turned around when she’d seen the approaching storm? As if in answer to her question, the cramping in her lower back returned, this time wrapping around to her swollen abdomen. She hadn’t turned around because, according to her GPS, Bent Creek, Wyoming was the closest town in any direction to seek shelter from the storm she was driving through.

  Hannah clenched her teeth as the cramping sensation, one she still hoped was nothing more than false labor pains, settled low in her abdomen. Tears pooled in her eyes. “This can’t be real labor,” she uttered in denial as she fought to push away the sense of panic threatening to overcome her. It was too soon. The baby, the tiny little blessing her older sister and her husband had entrusted her with, wasn’t due to arrive for five more weeks. A child that, following the multicar pileup that had taken her sister’s and brother-in-law’s lives three months earlier, would be Hannah’s to raise. To love.

  And love this baby she would. With all her heart. He was all she had left of Heather, her only sibling. She told herself to stay calm. That stress wasn’t good for the baby, and what she was experiencing was nothing more than false labor pains. But what if they weren’t? She couldn’t give birth to Heather and Brian’s son on the side of some rain-soaked road alone. There could be complications? What if—

  A crack of thunder erupted in the looming clouds above just as Hannah started across an old wooden single-lane bridge, yanking her from her fearful thoughts. The Honda Civic shuddered almost violently below her. Then, before she could fully process that the rumble she’d both heard and felt wasn’t thunder, the bridge gave way beneath her car.

  A panicked cry escaped her lips. She jammed her foot on the brake, not that it made any difference as the nose of her Civic dipped downward. The creek’s rampant flow immediately crested over the front end of the hood on the driver’s side, mixing with the deluge of rain still coming down around her. Hannah’s stomach dropped, and it had nothing to do with the life growing inside her. It was an instantaneous fear of what might very well be her last few moments on this earth. Was this how her sister had felt in the milliseconds before the deadly crash that took her life?

  Guilt rose up, overtaking that fear. Her decision to drive on through the storm instead of pulling off onto the side of the road to wait it out would cost her not only her life, but that of the innocent babe she carried inside her. Thick, hot tears of regret rolled down her cheeks. Just when she thought her car was about to be swept away, the rear of the vehicle caught on something, causing it to hang up on the rain-soaked hillside behind her. The car now hung partially submerged in the rushing water of the creek. Thankfully she hadn’t been going fast enough for the front air bags to deploy. There was no telling what kind of injury that might have caused to the baby this far along in her pregnancy.

  However, the seat belt she’d secured herself in with, thanks to the downward slant of the vehicle, now pulled taut against her swollen abdomen. While it kept her from sliding forward into the dashboard, it also made it harder to breathe and nearly impossible to move.

  The engine sputtered and died as water pushed through the partially submerged hood of the car, causing the headlights as well as the inside lighting to go out. Fearing that any movement she might make would dislodge her car from the creek’s hillside, Hannah sat perfectly still. If one could call it sitting, with gravity wanting to pull her body downward toward the nose of the car.

  Darkness shrouded the world around her as she sat listening to the sweeping rush of the water around her. Rain drummed against the car’s roof, the sound drowning out the furious pounding of her heart as the reality of the situation she suddenly found herself in settled into her panic-stricken mind. She was caught up in a flash flood. She’d seen enough news coverage on them over the years to know what they were capable of. Less than two feet of rushing water could sweep vehicles away as if they were nothing more than weightless toys.

  A damp chill began to seep into the car, making Hannah shudder. She had to do something. But what if her movement caused the Civic to break free of whatever it was that had hung it up? The car bobbed against the water’s force and she knew time was running out. With the water rising as quickly as it was, the flooding creek would soon sweep her—them—away. Two more lives gone far too soon.

  Her thoughts went to her sister’s child and the life he would never have the chance to live. And what of her father? What would become of him? He was still grieving over the loss of his oldest daughter. She couldn’t do this to him again. Wouldn’t do this to him. Forcing one hand’s iron-banded grip to loosen on the steering wheel, she released it and then eased slightly numb fingers across the center console, searching the front passenger seat for her purse and the cell phone she’d left lying on the seat next to it. She only prayed she would have signal out there in the middle of what felt like nowhere.

  Her fingertips danced over the empty passenger seat and Hannah groaned. Her purse must have slid onto the floor when the bridge dropped out from under the front of her Honda. There was no telling where her phone had ended up.

  “Dear Lord, please keep us safe until help arrives,” she prayed, determined to cling to her faith despite the gnawing fear that no one would be out in a storm like this. Why would they be?

  She turned her head slowly from one side to the other, trying to assess her situation. Through the heavy downpour, she was barely able to make out the hazy outlines of tree trunks along the creek’s bank on either side of her car. Below her, angry whitecaps churned in the rising creek as fallen logs and other debris swirled past.

  To think that she’d made the conscious decision to take less-traveled roads on her way back from Idaho to Steamboat Springs, believing the fewer vehicles on the road the safer she and the child she carried inside her would be. She’d been so wrong.

  The force of the rising water, surging in a constant push against the side of her Civic, had Hannah’s panicked gaze shifting toward the driver-side window. There would be no leaving out that door, which was taking the brunt of the creek’s rushing flow. She looked frantically to the passenger side, which, much to her dismay, had water lapping up along its side mirror as well. With no power, she couldn’t lower the windows. That left her with only one other option: getting her very pregnant self into the backseat where she might be able to, if the car remained where it was, make her way out onto the bank of the swollen creek through one of the rear doors. Then she would have to pray she didn’t lose her footing on the wet, muddied ground.

  The vehicle shifted again beneath her, making Hannah gasp. By the grace of God, it remained where it sat, precariously suspended on the side of the bank. Whatever she was going to do, she needed to do it now. If her car were to dislodge and be taken away by the rushing water, her life would end, right along with that of the innocent baby tucked so trustingly in her womb.

  Heart pounding, she moved to unlatch her seat belt. With trembling fingers, she jabbed at the button, but it refused to release. She tried again to no avail. “No,” she gasped, a deeper panic setting in. She tried to push free of the strap, but her protruding abdomen made that impossible. Nausea roiled in her gut. Closing her eyes, she tried to calm down. She needed to think.

  Another pain, this one sharper than the previous ones had been, caused her stomach to clench. A hazy darkness began to skirt the outer edges of her vision. Hannah’s thoughts went to her sister and the babe that should have carried on his pa
rents’ legacy. She thought of her widower father back in Steamboat Springs, who would be utterly devastated to lose yet another daughter, another grandchild.

  “I’m so sorry,” she sobbed softly. Then, letting her fear go, she turned herself over to the Lord’s safekeeping as the darkness claimed her.

  * * *

  “I’ve driven in storms before,” Garrett Wade muttered into the phone as he pulled away from his ranch house.

  “I’d rather lose a horse than a friend,” Sheriff Justin Dawson said worriedly from the other end of the line. Justin, the best friend of Garrett’s younger brother Jackson, had property that bordered the Triple W Rodeo Ranch, which Garrett and his brothers shared with their parents. Shortly after the storm had begun, he’d called to ask Garrett for advice regarding one of his mares that was having birthing complications. While he could have possibly talked Justin through the birthing, Garrett felt better seeing to it himself. After all, as a veterinarian, that’s what he’d devoted his life to—caring for animals, horses in particular. He’d delivered dozens of foals over the years, and it appeared he’d be adding another to his list that dark and stormy afternoon.

  The storm worsened, slowing his travel to what felt like a mere crawl. Rain deluged the windshield of his truck, making it almost impossible to see more than one or two cars lengths ahead. He rounded the curve that cut through one of the smaller wooded hillsides on the property, wondering if he might be better off turning around at the bridge just beyond and help Justin with the delivery of the foal via the phone.

  He knew far too well how helpless one could feel when a life hung in the balance. Even if the life in jeopardy that afternoon belonged to a horse. He was still driven to do whatever he could to make certain Justin’s mare and its foal survived whatever complications had arisen. As he hadn’t been able to with Grace. Not that there was any comparison to the loss of a human life. But if he had the ability to make a difference where he hadn’t been able to in Grace’s case he would. Be it animal or human.