Rugged Cowboy

by Elana Johnson

  He knew now that reality was very different than the wedding day. Yet, he still wanted to be standing at an altar like the one where Ted and Emma stood. He wanted to smile at Jess and find her the most beautiful woman in the world. He wanted to proclaim to everyone who could hear that he loved her.

  He kept her hand secure in his, even when Remmy climbed on her lap and started whispering.

  “Shh, baby,” Jess said. “Ted and Emma are getting married.” She pointed toward where they stood, only a few feet away. Last time Dallas had sat beside her at a wedding, she’d been texting. He’d sniped at her, but she’d been getting him a job at the ranch. The rest was history.

  He leaned over to her as Ted started reciting his vows. “Could we maybe elope? Or have the wedding in Montana with just your family? I don’t want a big to-do.”

  She tilted her head toward him, and she slid him a look out of the corner of her eye. “I’ve never been married, Dallas.”

  “You want a big wedding?”

  “Not particularly, no,” she said. “Now can you stop? This is so distracting.”

  He straightened as laughter built inside him. He held it back though his shoulders started to shake. He wasn’t sure he’d make it through the ceremony, and he told himself not to ruin one of his best friend’s wedding.

  Finally, the pastor pronounced Ted and Emma husband and wife, and he clapped and cheered and laughed with everyone else.

  Ted and Emma faced the crowd and raised their joined hands, both of them beaming for all they were worth. Ted’s loud laughter filled the sky, and it filled Dallas’s soul, the same way his infectious personality had while they’d served together in River Bay.

  He faced her, and they shared a kiss. Dallas felt the love they had for one another, and when he looked at Jess and found her admiring them too, he felt the same adoration for her that he saw in Ted’s face.

  “What?” Jess asked, finally tearing her eyes from the happy bride and groom.

  “You want to marry me, right?” he asked.

  Her eyes widened. “Dallas, I—right now?”

  “No,” he said quickly. “I was just checking.”

  She put her arm around his waist and leaned into him. “I hope that wasn’t the proposal,” she said. “I really don’t want to call my sister and say we got engaged while you were just checking to see if I’d marry you.”

  Dallas chuckled, but his throat felt a little too narrow. A proposal. That was obviously very important to Jess, and he couldn’t mess that up.

  He had some more research to do, and this time, he wasn’t going to ask his seven-year-old for ideas.

  “What’s taking so long?” Dallas asked, peering through the windshield of Nate’s truck. “Does it always take this long?”

  “It’s the BOP,” Nate said without opening his eyes. “It’s a hurry up and wait game.”

  Ted didn’t even look up from his phone. Dallas had been back to River Bay a couple of times since the wedding, and he’d talked with Slate’s lawyer, as well as Luke’s. He’d signed to be the one to pick them up today, and they’d been waiting for half an hour after he’d checked in with the secretary so she’d know Slate and Luke had a ride.

  “Could I just show her a diamond and ask her?” Dallas asked.

  “No,” Ted said in a deadpan, his attention still on his phone.

  “I need help,” Dallas said.

  “No, you don’t,” Nate said.

  He looked toward the doors, praying for any distraction he could. The only time he wasn’t thinking about how to propose to Jess was when he was too busy. So he stayed as busy as he could, and he still didn’t have a good idea for a proposal.

  The doors opened, throwing sunlight into his eyes, and he opened the car door. “There they are.” He practically jogged toward the two men walking toward him, and behind him, he heard Nate and Ted getting out of the truck too.

  “Hey, hey,” Slate said, plenty of swagger in his step. He laughed, and Dallas reached him first. They embraced, and Ted came up behind them and grabbed Luke in a hug.

  Nate arrived, and everyone was laughing about their little band of brothers being back together again.

  “I am so hungry,” Luke said, and Dallas wasn’t surprised at all. The man was always hungry. Jess liked everything but seafood, and Dallas thought maybe he could just ask her to dinner and present her with the ring.

  He hadn’t realized how much pressure he was under to produce the perfect proposal.

  “Let’s go to breakfast,” Nate said, leading the group back to the truck.

  “I have to be on the ranch by five o’clock,” Luke said, and Dallas remembered that he wasn’t quite a free man yet.

  “How long?” Dallas asked.

  “Three months,” Luke said with a sigh. A smile followed, and he looked up into the sky. “Would you look at that? It’s amazing how many clouds you can see when there aren’t any fences in the way.”

  Dallas knew exactly how that felt. Everyone there did, and a sense of camaraderie descended upon them.

  “Somewhere nice,” Ted said. “I don’t want fast food.”

  “That’s what I got when Ginger picked me up,” Nate said.

  “And I’m sure it was just amazing,” Ted said dryly. “Somewhere nice. Let’s try that Grits and Grub we passed on the way in.”

  “Your wish is my command,” Nate said, and he got the truck moving.

  “Okay, I need some fresh ideas,” Dallas said, twisting in his seat to look at Luke and Slate in the back. They were both clean-shaven, as required in prison, and Slate watched him with eyes the same color as his name. Luke had piercing blue eyes, and they both looked at him, clearly eager to help.

  “Dallas, I’m going to ask her for you,” Ted said. “Just to get you to stop.”

  “Shh,” Dallas said. “Don’t listen to him.” He grinned at Slate and Luke. “Say you had this amazing woman you were in love with. How would you ask her to marry you?”

  “I’m calling her right now,” Ted said, and he actually lifted his phone to his ear.

  “Don’t you dare,” Dallas said, knocking the phone from his hand. The truck erupted after that, and Dallas ended up laughing while Nate yelled at them all to knock it off or he was going to pull the truck over and they wouldn’t get any breakfast.

  Another month passed, and Dallas had finally come up with an idea he hoped would work. He paced in the new house, which required more steps than his rental had to get from the front door to the back, while the line rang.

  Finally, a woman answered with, “Hello?”

  “Is this Abi?” he asked, his nerves practically searing through his brain.

  “Yes,” she said.

  “This is Dallas Dreyer,” he said. “I’m in love with your sister, and I need a really great way to ask her to marry me. I was hoping we could brainstorm a little bit….”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Jess didn’t drive her truck very often, especially because it tended to break down on her in the worst places. If she went in to see Dallas, she used a ranch truck. Sometimes, he drove her in so they could spend the evening together, and then he brought her back to the ranch.

  The new house he’d bought was only a few miles from the ranch, on the far eastern edge of Sweet Water Falls, where Hope Eternal was too.

  Today, though, she had an eye appointment, and all the trucks were being used. The boar hunt was on, and the ranch was extraordinarily busy.

  Dallas said he’d checked her truck, and that while he could continue to patch her up, she was likely going to die in the next several months. She’d nodded and accepted the truck’s fate, but she hadn’t bought a new car yet.

  She found the truck parked outside the stables, just like Dallas had promised. Upon opening the door, she froze at the scent that hit her in the face.

  Someone had filled the truck cab with flowers. Roses, sunflowers, tulips, bluebonnets, poppies. A smile filled her face, and she reached for one of the delicate purple
-blue flowers that symbolized Texas.

  This had Dallas written all over it.

  She found a yellow sticky note on the steering wheel, with a tiny smudge of grease in the corner. Also Dallas, and tears gathered in her eyes. The note read, Jess, come “see” me when you get a sec, okay?

  Cheesy, but Jess peeled it from her steering wheel and pressed it to her heartbeat. He’d been leaving little things for her around the ranch for a solid month now. When she went to get reins for Midnight, she’d find a mini candy bar tucked between the ropes and wonder how long it had been there.

  Once, she’d gone back to the West Wing for lunch and found a yellow sticky note like the one she held on her leftover box from their dinner the night before. It had simply said, I love you, J. ~D

  She liked that she was in his thoughts, and that she was so prevalent that those thoughts became actions.

  She looked over her shoulder to see if he was walking toward her, but he wasn’t. She didn’t want all of these flowers to wilt in the heat, and they would if she simply drove them to her eye appointment. After scooping as many as she could into her arms, she bustled into the stable and put them in the sink they used to clean the bottles for the babies. She ran cold water over them and let them rest there. In the air conditioned building, they’d be fine until she could put them in vases.

  After her appointment, she walked around the stables, picking up anything she could find that would hold a flower. She put the ones she’d rescued in calf bottles, empty water bottles, flower pots, an old boot she’d found, and even an empty and rinsed can of soup.

  She set them around the stables on the shelves and the tops of fridges. That way, she’d be able to see them and think of Dallas every time she did. Not that she needed a reminder to think of Dallas. The man made her feel like a queen, and she was beginning to wonder if she should ask him to marry her.

  He’d asked her little questions here and there over the past couple of months since they’d gotten back together. Things like, What ring size are you? or Would you even wear a big diamond while you work with the horses?

  She knew he was thinking about marriage and proposing. She just wasn’t sure when that might happen. She understood Abi on a completely new level now, and as she left the newly decorated stables, she texted her sister.

  How were you so patient with Huey? I feel like asking Dallas to marry me instead of waiting for him to get around to it.

  Abi sent back a laughing GIF and then the words, You sound like Nia. She’s about ready to rent a sky plane and write JUST ASK ME ALREADY WALT above his farm.

  Jess laughed, the sound free and easy. She hadn’t always felt that way, and she was grateful that today, she did.

  She entered the equipment shed through the tunnel and headed for Dallas’s office, still engrossed in her texting conversation with her sister. Had she not been, she might have noticed how quiet the shop was today.

  She finally did notice when she looked up and found Dallas leaning in the doorway to his office as if the frame needed him to hold it up. “Who are you talkin’ to?” he asked in a real Texas twang.

  “My sister.” She pushed her phone into her pocket and looked around. “Where is everyone?”

  “It’s Friday afternoon,” he said. “Ginger gave me permission to let them all off early.”

  Jess gaped at him. “You’re kidding.”

  “When you’re as organized and as caught up as we are, sometimes you get perks,” he said with a smile. He reached for her, and added, “Did you like the flowers?”

  She twined her fingers through his. “Yes, they were beautiful. I spread them out in the stables.”

  “I got you something else,” he said, nodding behind her.

  She turned and saw a small truck sitting there. Jess pulled in a breath, because that was not an old, beat-up truck. It wasn’t new either, and it wasn’t huge. But the mid-size vehicle gleamed like ivory, as it was cream-colored and very clean.

  “What do you mean, you got me something else?” She looked from the truck back to him, having to move in a hundred and eighty degree line to do it.

  “Luke’s brother bought that truck, but he hates it. He gave it to Luke, but Luke doesn’t need it. He said I could have it if I had use for it, and I said I did.”

  “So it was free,” Jess said.

  “I acquired it for very little,” Dallas amended, leading her toward the truck. It was a king cab, with four doors, so she could put Remmy and Thomas in the back. All four of them could easily fit inside, and she ran her free fingers along the bed as he led her to the driver’s seat.

  “Just get in and try it,” he said, opening the door for her.

  Jess met his eyes briefly before getting behind the wheel. She saw the yellow sticky note on the radio screen, but she planted her hands on the wheel in proper driving position before she truly let herself read the words.

  Look in the back seat.

  Smiling, she twisted to look behind her.

  “Surprise!” Remmy said, popping up and almost hitting Jess in the mouth. She giggled and handed Jess another envelope.

  “What’s this?” Jess asked her.

  “I’m not allowed to say.” Remmy sat down and watched as Jess flipped over the envelope and out dropped the key to the truck.

  Dallas hadn’t closed the door, but Jess couldn’t see him either. She got out of the truck, the key in her hand. He stood down at the tailgate with Thomas, both of them holding deep, luxurious red roses.

  Jess hadn’t known that roses were her love language until Dallas had started giving them to her. She held up the key, and he held up his rose.

  Thomas came forward and handed her the rose he held without saying anything. Remmy climbed out of the truck, and the two children stood there and watched as Dallas dropped to both knees, that rose in his hand getting overshadowed by the little black jewelry box he’d procured from somewhere.

  Jess pulled in a breath and held it. Her heart hammered in her chest, and everything seemed to be moving so fast now.

  “Jess,” he said calmly. “I love you, and my kids love you, and we want you to come live with us and be part of us. Will you marry me?”

  She’d started nodding about halfway through, tears filling her eyes.

  “Yay, yay, yay!” Remmy yelled, jumping up and down.

  Jess stopped to kiss the top of her head and run her hand down the side of Thomas’s face before she hurried into Dallas’s waiting arms. “Yes,” she whispered in his ear as she clung to him. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”

  Dallas set her down as the kids came over. The four of them huddled together, and Dallas asked, “Who wants to tell her?” He looked at Remmy and then Thomas. “Not you, Remmy.”

  “Daddy—”

  “Thomas is going to,” Dallas said, silencing his daughter. She loved to talk so much, and Jess actually felt a little bad for her as her expression fell.

  She looked at Thomas, who looked steadily back at her. “We want you to come be part of us real soon, Jess,” he said. “So we’re proposing a really fast engage-gage-ment.” He looked at Dallas as he stumbled over the word.

  Dallas nodded that he’d gotten it right, and Jess looked between the two of them.

  “How fast?”

  “You tell us how fast you can do it,” Dallas said quietly. “We’ll be ready.”

  Jess had no idea. She needed to call her mother. And talk to Ginger. And figure out what she needed to buy. Food. Flowers. A venue. Her mind raced, and she simply stared.

  Then she closed her eyes, and she quieted the racing thoughts with one simple statement. Help me to see what I should do here.

  She’d been working on listening and watching more, instead of panicking. Thinking things through instead of jumping to conclusions.

  She did not need food or flowers. She didn’t need a venue—she could get married here on this ranch, or in that huge back yard of Dallas’s, or on her father’s ranch where she’d grown up.

  She didn�
�t need much. She needed the three people she stood with and a dress.

  “Would you be willing to fly to Montana for the wedding?” she asked.

  The three of them looked at each other, and the kids started nodding.

  “I’ll do what you want, Jess,” Dallas said quietly. “But Luke can’t travel until he’s officially out, and that’s not for two more months.”

  She nodded; she knew how important Dallas’s friends were to him.

  “Let’s do it in the back yard,” she said. “As soon as I can get my parents and sisters here.”

  “Really?” Dallas asked.

  “Yes,” Jess said. “You need something nice to wear, my cowboy mechanic.” She kissed him, not caring that his kids stood there watching. She broke the connection early and looked at Thomas and Remmy. “You’ll both need something nice too.”

  “We can get clothes,” Dallas said. “I’ll ask Ted about an altar too. See how fast he can do it.”

  “I’ll need a dress,” Jess said. “And my family here. I’ll go call them right now.”

  Dallas nodded, and he started to take his kids back toward his office while Jess dialed her mother. “Jessie,” her mom said, her voice full of light and energy. “What’s up?”

  “Mom,” she said. “I just got engaged, and Dallas and I want to get married quickly. How soon can y’all get to Texas?”

  “Engaged?” her mom repeated, the word full of air. “Clint, Jess is engaged and we need to get to Texas!” She squealed, and more screaming happened in the background. The phone went to speaker, and Jess laughed as her whole family celebrated with her over the line.

  Her father finally said, “Jess, just tell us when. We’ve got guys we can call to work the ranch for a bit.”

  Jess turned toward the office again to find Dallas watching her. She started toward him, putting her phone on speaker too. “Well, you should come a couple of days early to actually meet Dallas,” she said. “So how about three weeks from now?”

  “Three weeks?” her mom asked at the same time Dallas’s eyebrows went up. “Jess, that sounds crazy.”