Brothers of Miller Ranch Box Set

by Natalie Dean

  “Oh really?”

  She nodded. “I’m not saying I’m giving up on my dreams of making it in the big city, but I think—for the moment—that I have everything I need. No matter what anybody says about me, I have a career now as a writer for an insanely popular website that literally thousands of people apply to every year. I didn’t even apply! I was chosen.

  “And…” her tone softened, and he could feel her face warm from where it was resting against his shoulder. “I don’t want to be that far away from someone who cares so much about me that they would give anything to make sure I am happy.

  “We have some things we need to work on, mostly with communication and listening, but I got your message loud and clear, Ben. I don’t think I can ever forget it.

  “So, if you’re willing, I’d like to try this whole being together thing again. But as adults, which means no more grandiose promises we don’t intend to fulfill, no more thinking the other should read our mind, no more bottling things up until they explode. We’ll be open and honest about how we’re feeling.”

  “And what if you go back to the city?”

  “Well, we can try long distance. Or we can breakup. But that is a decision we would have to come to together. I won’t lie to you; I still don’t know where my life is headed, and I’m really excited about all the possibilities of this writing thing, but when I daydream about my future, it’s better when you’re involved.”

  “I think I can understand that.” Ben shifted slightly, just enough to allow him to gaze at her face. “Chastity Parker, if you’d be so inclined, I’d like to court you.”

  Now she blushed scarlet and giggled ever so slightly. “I do declare, Mr. Miller, I think I might be inclined to say yes.” She spoke with an overly exaggerated Southern accent, but he didn’t care. She said yes—and that was all that mattered.

  She said yes.

  He couldn’t hold back anymore, he leaned forward, his lips catching hers in an intense kiss. He felt her gasp, but she soon melted into him, and the passion consumed them both.

  After so many years of longing, a decade of denying what he wanted and everything he needed, after all those times saying he wasn’t interested in romance, he finally had what his heart had been crying out for.

  True, she had her flaws, but so did he. He lost his temper, and perhaps he had been a little too willing to blame her for everything. But that didn’t matter now. The only thing that mattered was that they loved each other and were finally going to try again with all the trust they had refused to give each other before.

  Eventually they parted, and he could hear both of them panting. His blood was rushing in his ears while the rest of his body was reacting viscerally to her presence. He wanted her; he wanted her more than anything.

  Forcing himself to take a deep breath, he shifted slightly again. “Perhaps we should go on a walk? There’s probably more things we should talk about.”

  Chastity looked like she wanted to say no, her lips slightly swollen from the need of their kiss and her face flushed, but after a beat she nodded and slid off of his lap. Offering Ben her hand once she was upright, she sent him a beaming grin.

  “I don’t think I’ve said it since I came back, but I love you, Ben. And I’m realizing I always have.”

  He stood and pulled her into another hug, his body singing as they touched once again. “And I love you, Chastity. But this time, I’m actually going to show it.”

  “Me too.”

  As tempting as it was to go right back to kissing in the chair—the two strolled out together.

  And hopefully, together was how they would stay.

  Epilogue

  Chastity

  Chastity’s stomach jumped up and down as she paced the small room. This couldn’t be happening.

  Was it really happening?

  It was definitely happening.

  Her teeth went to her nicely manicured fingernails again, biting down on her nail before the bitter taste of the polish reminded her to stop.

  “Relax,” Keiko said, gently running a hand over her arm. “Everything is going to go perfectly. You have nothing to worry about.”

  “Easy for you to say,” Chastity said, not stopping her relentless march. “You’re not the one getting married.”

  “Not yet,” Mrs. Miller said, as she opened the door, giving the slender woman a wink.

  But Keiko ignored that beyond her cheeks flushing slightly pink. She always had a knack for staying so poised.

  “Take a deep breath, Chastity. This is what you’ve been waiting for ever since he proposed. You planned this whole thing. It’s going to be perfect.” Keiko adjusted her maid-of-honor dress.

  “I know it’s going to be perfect,” Chastity said, flinging herself backward onto the bed, not caring if she rumpled her freshly done hair. “I’m worried about me.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, look at me! I’m Chastity. The fat, nerdy girl from high school, who excelled at drama club and almost nothing else. I went to New York City and totally failed after a decade of trying to make it big and had to come home with my tail between my legs.”

  “Is that how you see it?” Keiko asked. “Because what I see is an amazing woman who’s made a career out of writing fascinating travel articles and became an online travel personality. People pay you to take amazing trips across the world and thousands of people look up to you.

  “I see a woman who has an entire team of writers working under her that she handpicked from town. People who now have their comfortable livelihood thanks to you.

  “I see a woman who never gives up. A woman who’s always patient. A woman who walked her mother through one of the worst illnesses that you can have and came out the other side all the better for it.

  “I’m not quite sure what you see, but I see a bride that any man would be incredibly lucky to have. And I think Ben would agree with me.”

  Chastity sat up and gave her best friend an earnest smile. “You really do have a way with words, Keiko. You know it’s not too late to join my team.”

  “I belong with the church. Although I don’t mind guest posting every now and then.” She offered her hand, and Chastity took it, allowing herself to be pulled to her feet. “Now, how about we get you dressed?”

  Chastity nodded shakily, and both she and Mrs. Miller went about getting the dress out from where it had been hidden in the closet.

  It had been a very intense two years since Chastity and Ben had decided to give their relationship a real try, and her life had changed entirely.

  Starting with her mother. Finally, after what seemed like forever, the doctor was able to identify the type of dementia she had, and it was one that was relatively reversible. However, there was a lot of repair to be done, as he figured that she had been sick with it for over a year and that there had been a lot of internal damage to her brain from the stress.

  So, she was on the appropriate meds now, and she had several rehabilitative nurses who came in twice a week to work with her, and a night nurse for as soon as the sun went down. Now that Chastity was on the Listicles’ health insurance plan, she was able to take on her mother as a dependent and get her some better—and less expensive—medical care.

  While she wasn’t entirely back to normal, her mom’s episodes were few and far between, and she seemed to have come to terms with her husband’s death. Of course, there were bad days, but she knew she was only a call or a walk away from Chastity’s place.

  Naturally, things were going to be strange for a while as Chastity, her mom, and Ben moved into the house Ben and his brothers were building for them. Although she had her own place and Ben had his bachelor’s attachment, neither of those places were really fit for the three of them to live together, and if Chastity was going to live on the ranch, she wanted to bring her mother with her.

  She shuddered at the thought of them being an hour walk apart. Funny how she had lived an entire decade without much contact with her mother, and now t
hey were practically inseparable.

  “Arms up!”

  She did so and soon the dress was being put over her head. For a moment, the world was just tulle, chiffon, and satin, but then the dress was on her body and being pulled into place by the two women.

  It was a beautiful, white mermaid dress with an explosion of beautiful cloth just below her knees. It was made from a mix of both Mrs. Miller and her mother’s dresses, the former happy to give up some of her own wedding dress because she didn’t have any daughters of her own.

  The dress made her feel like a princess from some fairytale kingdom—and she loved it.

  Almost as much as she loved Ben.

  Finally, the dress was fully on, and they were lacing her up. This was it. In just a short while, she would be Mrs. Benedict Miller. Crazy to believe that she had come here for her father’s funeral and was ending up married to one of the most sought-after and richest bachelors in the whole area.

  Not that the money mattered to her. She was loath to the idea of ever being a gold digger and had managed to amass a modest amount of wealth herself. She was by no means rich, but she and her mother were more comfortable than they had ever been.

  Speaking of her mother, the door opened and her mother quickly popped in, an expensive looking box in her hands. “I have the veil,” she announced, rushing over. “I have the—”

  She stopped short upon seeing Chastity, and her eyes instantly started to water. “Oh, my little girl…” she whispered, nearly dropping the veil.

  Who could keep a straight face in front of such emotion? Chastity felt herself blush, and her own eyes watered.

  “Hi, Mom,” she said, her voice catching with emotion.

  Her mom set the veil down and walked toward Chastity, enveloping her in a hug that was surprisingly tight.

  “You look so beautiful,” she said.

  “I feel beautiful, Mom.”

  “I’m sorry your father isn’t here to see you. He was always so proud of you.”

  Chastity’s eyebrows raised. “Mom, we both know Dad didn’t approve of any of my choices.”

  “Oh, honey. He loved you so much.” Her mom looked into Chastity’s eyes. “As your daddy, his number one priority was for his little girl to be safe. He worried about you. He wanted you to have a happy life and couldn’t stand the thought of you getting hurt or being sad. When you were far away, he missed you being close.”

  “I never thought of it like that. So he was proud of me?”

  “Yes, he was. I’m sorry you didn’t know that,” her mom said.

  They held each other until there was a knocking of three short raps on the door. That was her signal.

  The wedding had started.

  Chastity and her mother parted, but their arms stayed linked around each other. Since Charles Parker had passed, it would be her mother who was giving her away.

  “Are you ready?” Mrs. Miller asked, patting her cheek ever so lightly.

  Chastity nodded, afraid that if she spoke she would break down into happy and nervous tears all over again.

  “All right. I’ll see you then. And if you make a break for it, remember the horses are to the south, not the west.”

  She laughed slightly, remembering that since they were being married in the gussied up main barn that all of the horses had been moved into the other barn that Ben and his brothers had finished renovating before the last winter.

  “Good to know.”

  Mrs. Miller nodded then headed out the door, no doubt to walk down the aisle with her son to sit at the first seat on his side.

  “Time for me to go too,” Keiko said. She adjusted Chastity’s veil to be perfect, gave her a warm hug, and went to take her place at the front of the church.

  She had a rather small number of attendants. And by small, it was just Keiko, who was her maid-of-honor. One of Ben’s cousin’s children was the flower girl, and they had decided to forgo a ring bearer entirely.

  Of course, his party was much fuller, with all of his brothers agreeing to see the eldest marry—even Bryant, who promised to be on his best behavior. That boy had really turned things around in the past year, but that was a story for another day.

  “Ready?” her mother asked, looking up at her with loving eyes.

  “Ready,” Chastity said, her emotions already threatening to overwhelm her.

  But it was a good sort of overwhelmed. One that filled her with happiness from her toes all the way up to her scalp. She was so stuffed full of joy that she wouldn’t be surprised if she glowed in the dark.

  Life seemed to become a bit surreal as she left the building that was Ben’s bachelor attachment. It would soon be someone else’s, as Ben wouldn’t be needing it anymore. Likely, none of the brothers would move into it, considering they all had their own places. But she was sure the Millers would find some way to make it of use.

  It was a short walk to the main barn. Ben’s brother Benji had spent the last few days building a beautiful, lacy canopy to walk under. Chastity didn’t even want to think of how much money the Miller family had spent on her nuptials, but Mrs. Miller had insisted on being in charge of the finances and wouldn’t let her look at any of the receipts. Normally, Chastity would never allow someone to override her on something so important, but considering she was the first Miller marriage of the current generation, she didn’t see what was wrong with letting the matriarch do what she willed.

  “Here we are,” her mother said.

  The barn loomed in her vision, and they were only a few feet from the open barn doors. Her senses awakened as she inhaled a lovely pine scent mixed with wood and fresh hay. She heard the processional music start, and the moment she had dreamed of but never thought would be real had arrived. Generations of Millers had married and started families here. And Chastity realized with a tug at her heart that this was something to cherish, not to run away from. Maybe this beautiful feeling of belonging is what her father and mother had wished for her all these years.

  The light dimmed as she passed through the large door, with the candles flickering against the barn walls creating a soft glow. Everyone stood to see her. Her stomach lurched again, but all of that nervousness came to a grinding halt as her eyes landed on Ben.

  Oh goodness.

  He stood there, tall and illuminated by the sunlight streaming in through one of the windows, looking like a handsome statue in his clean, pressed suit.

  Their wedding colors were black, white, and blue, and those fit him perfectly. His tux was black, but his vest was blue, which made his green eyes shine that much brighter. But it wasn’t his looks that captured her, rather the expression in his gaze as their eyes met.

  How could he fit so many words into a single look? Love, attraction, relief, amazement. All of them swirled within his green orbs and left her utterly speechless.

  “Oh dear,” she whispered as she felt the tears come on. Thank goodness Keiko had insisted that she only use waterproof mascara and eye makeup for her big day.

  “You all right?” her mother whispered.

  “I’m more than all right,” Chastity answered, her voice warbling from the tears. “I think I’m as happy as is possible for a single human to be right now.”

  “Good. This feeling will last for the rest of your life if you do it right. Your father and I always wanted you to experience a relationship full of love like we shared. There’s nothing better.”

  Chastity squeezed her mom’s arm tight, as the realization of how much her parents loved her and wanted the best for her caused a lump in her throat.

  Her dress swished and rustled on the aisle runner that created a path for her on the hay. A path to her future. They reached the end of the aisle, and then the reverend was asking who was giving her away. Her mother answered, and the next thing that Chastity knew, she was walking up to face Ben.

  The world fell away, and it was just the two of them, existing in their own bubble of love. The reverend kept talking, saying all the things that he was suppos
ed to, but she didn’t pay much attention until it was time for their vows.

  She went first, and every word was a struggle. She wanted to throw her arms around Ben and never stop kissing him, but she managed to contain herself for a bit longer.

  “I, Chastity Parker, promise to love and cherish you, Benedict Miller, as much as you have loved and cherished me in these past years together. I promise to always include you in my dreams, no matter how grandiose and faraway they are.

  “You are my first thought in my morning, and my last thought at night. I will hold you close to my heart, and make sure your home will always be there.”

  By the end she was a sobbing mess, and Ben wasn’t doing much better. Granted, he had a much classier cry than her.

  “I, Benedict Miller, promise you, Chastity Parker, that I will love you until the end of time. I promise to never clip your wings or stand in the way of any of your dreams. I will always support you, always believe in you, and although I may not understand your next great scheme, I’ll follow you through it to the other side of the world and back.

  “I know it’s cliché to say that you are my light, but you are. You are the sun that greets me every morning, and my hope for a grand future. You give me reason to be, and I promise to never forget that. I love you, Chastity, and I can’t imagine ever living without you.”

  He leaned forward to kiss her, but the reverend cleared his throat and stopped him at the last moment.

  Right.

  There were still more words to go before the kissing could take place. But it was hard to wait.

  A few light chuckles filtered through the wedding, and Chastity felt her cheeks redden, but it gave them both a chance to collect themselves before the holy man continued.

  “Do you, Benedict Miller, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife? To have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for better or for worse?”

  “I do,” he whispered, his green eyes still staring into hers.

  “And do you, Chastity Parker, take this man to be your husband? To have and to hold, for better or for worse, and in sickness and in health?”