by Leslie North
“Of course I do,” Katie said with a nervous smile.
“It taught me something. Me and Andy, we’re going to be okay, but it’s better with you. That’s the thing, Katie. Turns out, everything is better with you. I should have told you that instead of letting you go. I should have—”
Katie didn’t want to hear anything else. She didn’t need to. She let his hand drop, rose up onto the tips of her toes, and kissed him right there in front of everyone, right as Andy was crowned the champion of the Strawberry Fest’s cooking competition.
Epilogue
“I can’t believe it’s only been two months since we’ve done this,” Katie gushed, straightening Andy’s new chef’s coat, “It feels like a different life! More importantly, I can’t believe how big you’ve gotten! There’s no way your coat from the Strawberry Fest would fit you now. You’ve gone through the most incredible growth spurt!”
“Yeah,” Andy preened, looking at his reflection over Katie’s shoulder while she prepared him to go and defend his championship, “I look pretty good, don’t I?”
“Yeah, you do, little man,” Katie laughed, “and I have no doubt you’re going to win the Strawberry Festival competition. If we keep going at this rate, you’ll be teaching me new recipes any day now.”
“No way! I’m only seven. I gotta wait at least a couple of years until I can come and work at the bakery, you know. That’s when all of my best ideas will come.”
“Is it now?” Katie smiled, straightening his chef’s hat to a jaunty angle, “Well, I look forward to seeing that. In the meantime, we should really get going, don’t you think?”
“Definitely!” Andy whooped loudly.
“Good. Any idea where your dad might be? I haven’t seen him anywhere.”
“He’s busy!” Andy shouted again, a weird look on his face that Katie couldn’t quite figure out, “Let’s go without him.”
“We can’t do that. He’s really looking forward to it.”
“We gotta go!” Andy insisted while he pulled her towards the front door, “He’ll catch us later, Katie, come on!”
Katie looked around the house once more, frowned at Ian’s absence, and followed Andy out onto the porch. While the two of them drove to town, threading their way through the already collecting crowds for the Fourth of July Festival, Katie thought about everything that transpired over the last year. It had turned out to be the best year of her life, hands down. Ian’s apology and Andy’s win had been the start of a whole new life for Katie, one in which she finally had everything she wanted.
Katie had moved back to the ranch, this time into Ian’s bedroom. They turned the guest room that had been hers into a little studio for her where she could work on the production of her new cookbook. She had been afraid of trying that venture again after how badly the first one had gone, but Ian had convinced her that it would be different this time around. After a couple of months of working on it, she’d realized that he was right. When this book came out, it would be all her recipes and something she could really get behind. This time, it was something she could be proud of.
“This is where I get out!” Andy shouted, opening the door almost before Katie could get the car into park.
“Whoa! Hold on, buddy, where are you going? I’m supposed to walk you!” Katie shouted, scrambling to get her seatbelt off and the car locked up. By the time she took off running after him, she could only see the very top of his chef’s hat, and she was afraid that if she even blinked, she would lose that, too. She could already see Ian’s reaction to the news that she’d misplaced Andy. It wouldn’t be good. She loved him and Andy more than anything, and last thing on the planet she wanted to do was lose Ian’s son and put everything the two of them had built together in jeopardy.
“Andy, please! Stop! You’ve gotta slow down, or else I—”
Katie stopped so abruptly that she ran smack into Andy’s back, almost knocking them both over. He laughed and stepped over to one side. She looked around and saw with no small amount of mortification that she was on the stage where the cooking competition was supposed to take place. Aside from Andy, there was only one other person on the stage, and he was looking at her with the strangest smile she had ever seen on his handsome face.
“Ian? What’s going on here?” she asked, trying not to look at the crowd of people looking up at them. Ian laughed, and walked across the stage towards her. He took her hands, kissing one of them gently.
“Hey, babe, I bet this is a little confusing, huh?” he asked, his face flushed like he had been doing the running instead of her.
“Um, yes? I’m really sorry about Andy. I did my best to keep up with him, but he just took off running. I promise I won’t let anything like that happen again, I just—”
Ian put a finger up to his lips and turned towards Andy, who gave him an enthusiastic thumbs-up. Before Katie could ask him what was going on again, Ian let her hands go and got down onto one knee. Her hands flew up to her face, and her eyes instantly welled up with tears. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Carol and Jonah standing in the front row of the crowd, Carol grinning and Jonah clapping enthusiastically.
“Ian?” she asked breathlessly, “What are you doing?”
“If you have to ask me that, babe, I must be making a mess of it. So let me come right out and say it. You have been the best thing that’s happened to me and my boy. You’ve changed our lives, and when you went away, we were lost. I love you, baby, and I don’t want you going anywhere. What I’m trying to say is, will you marry me?”
And because she couldn’t speak, she got down on her knees right along with Ian, let him slip the ring he’d produced out of his pocket onto her finger, and nodded her head yes. All of her life, she had been looking for a place that felt like a real home, and now she knew she had found it. All of her crises, her fears and doubts, they had all been leading her to this very place. And the cherry on the top of the sundae? She didn’t have to be afraid for Ian and Andy’s happiness anymore. From now on, she would be right by their sides, guaranteeing it for the rest of their lives.
End of The Cowboy’s Surprise Nanny
Grant Brothers Book One
Blurb
Jonah Grant wants to make his own mark on the world. As a horse breeder starting his business from scratch, he hasn’t had the easiest road. But he might have finally caught a break in the form of two beautiful studs for sale that would be perfect for his stock. The problem is Jonah doesn’t have the funds, or any means of getting them—until an old friend shows up with a proposition.
Virginia Leeland wants to build something of her own. The daughter of a traditional family, she refuses to stand behind a husband...she wants to stand on her own two feet. Still, she’ll take advantage of the money bequeathed to her by her grandmother and use it to buy Jonah’s beautiful old barn to host weddings in. The funds, however, are only available upon her marriage, so it’s a good thing she’s engaged.
But when Virginia catches her no-good, cheating fiancé, well, cheating on her, the marriage plans dry up, along with the funds for her business, and Jonah’s plans for expansion. The situation seems hopeless. That is, until Virginia has a champagne-fueled epiphany: she and Jonah can marry. In name only, of course.
But when their agreement becomes more than simply a marriage by name, their passion creates all types of entanglements: the enjoyable kind, as well as the more permanent sort. In the end, Virginia and Jonah will need to decide if they still only care about their business goals…or if the chance at love is what will really make their dreams come true.
1
It was midday in early September—and in Texas, that meant it was hot. Hot enough for people in town to be complaining about what kind of summer they were in for. If it was hard on the townspeople, though, it was doubly taxing for people who worked outside; people like Jonah, whose horse training business didn’t exactly come with air conditioning. Far from it. The air around him was fry-an-egg-on-the-sidewalk hot, not to ment
ion sticky with humidity and stinking of manure as he mucked out the stables.
And still, there was nowhere he’d rather be. A career as a horse trainer was all he’d ever wanted for himself, and he was damned proud of all he’d accomplished. Anyone who wanted a fancy job in a fancy suit with a fancy office was welcome to it. As far as he was concerned, there was nothing better in the world than a hard day sweating in the sun followed by a cold shower and an even colder beer. He was already looking forward to it when the sound of tires running over gravel made him look up.
“Lord, bless—I haven’t been out here in ages. I’m surprised I even remember how to get here!”
“Better watch it, sugar, or you’re gonna hurt yourself. You may have found the place all right but you sure aren’t dressed for ranching.”
Jonah let his hands rest on the small of his back for a minute, stretching the shoveling out of his system while he surveyed his unexpected visitor. Virginia Leeland was a local, although she might as well not be for all the city in her. This woman could only stand around five-foot two, but her damned shoes were enough to add another four or five inches. Her hair was shiny and blonde in a way Jonah couldn’t help equating with money, and her dress was tasteful but tight enough to stoke the fires of a man’s imagination. To top it all off, there was a diamond ring perched on the ring finger of her left hand big enough to skate on. It was the ring that really set his stomach sour, though. The sun hitting its surface and bouncing back into his face was blinding.
If he thought real hard, he could remember Virginia, only five years old and already prettier than the rest. She had been one of the many kids to hang around with the Grant brothers back in the day, when the three still had parents and the freedom to run wild. Back then, she’d been barefoot and covered in mud just like the rest of them. There was no trace of that girl in the woman he saw standing in front of him. What on earth could this bewildering stranger want with him?
“No,” she laughed smoothly, “I’m definitely not dressed for ranching, you’re right about that. Lucky for both of us, that’s not why I came here.”
“Good to know. Mind telling me why you did?” Jonah asked. He knew it was probably too blunt—bordering on rude—but he’d never really been all that good at small talk. Virginia had driven out here for a reason, and she probably wanted to be getting on with it. Surely it made more sense to get to the point, so they could settle whatever her issue was and get on with their days. The rest of those stalls weren’t going to muck themselves.
“Don’t worry, Jonah, I’m not here to take up a bunch of your time. I’m sure you’re a very busy man, so let me get straight to the point. I’ve got a business proposition for you.”
“Oh, yeah? You take up with horses? Looking to be a trainer? A breeder, maybe?”
“Me? Oh, heavens, no!” she laughed, slapping the hand with the offending ring over her heart.
“What line of business are you in, then, if you don’t mind my asking?”
“Well, not much of one at the moment. I’ve been working for my father, helping him do a little of this and a little of that. It’s definitely not what I would call fulfilling, and that’s why I’m looking for a change.”
“But not a change to breeding horses,” he said, cracking a little smile.
“No,” she agreed, returning the smile tenfold, “not to that.”
“All righty, then I’m not seeing what kind of business you and I could do together.”
“It’s not really you I’m interested in working with,” she laughed, “it’s actually your barn.”
“My barn?” Jonah asked incredulously. Rather than clearing things up, her answers only had him more confused. If she was trying to say that his barn wasn’t part of his business she was kidding herself. Either that, or they had very different ideas of what his role was on his own land.
“Not the working one. That one wouldn’t suit my purposes at all. I mean the old barn, the one we used to play in when we were kids.”
Virginia looked over his shoulder as she spoke, and Jonah couldn’t help looking right along with her. The old barn she was referring to was just on his side of the border between his property and the ranch where he’d grown up. The old structure had been there for what felt like forever; certainly since well before his time. It wasn’t operational anymore with a new, more modern barn long since taking its place. That old barn, though, had sentimental value, and nobody had ever wanted to tear it down. Hell, it was a large part of why he’d purchased his little slice of land, although he’d never admit it out loud. Still, Jonah was surprised to hear that somebody would want to use it for anything. He was doubly surprised by the idea of a woman who looked like Virginia doing any kind of work at all that involved a barn out in the middle of the countryside. To him, everything about her screamed city girl.
“You think I’m insane, don’t you?” she smiled confidently.
“I’m not gonna lie, I don’t see what you would want with the place. It’s little more than a pile of old boards.”
“Oh, but it’s so much more than that! You may not be up on the wedding industry—”
“No, ma’am, can’t say that I am,” he said with a wry smile. If it bothered her, though, she didn’t show it. She was too busy looking at the barn in question, her eyes shining and full of some strange dream. Whatever it was, he couldn’t see it for the life of him.
“Well, if you were, you would know that barn weddings are all the rage. Your barn is perfect for that. We could make boatloads of money and with very little effort on your part.”
When he realized what she was getting at, Jonah was blasted with a flashback of them playing wedding in the barn as kids. Virginia had insisted on being the bride and had tried her damndest to make him the groom. He’d had nothing to do with it, but she had insisted that that barn would be where she got married for real, once she was old enough for that kind of thing. He could remember her hair shining like spun gold in the midday sun, much as it was doing right now.
“Jonah? Come on, what do you say?” she said, cutting through his thoughts like a knife through butter.
God knew he needed the money. His business was doing well, but if he was going to grow it, he needed capital. At this very moment there were two stud horses going on the market that he wanted to purchase, and badly. Depending on her price, selling the barn to Virginia would ensure that he could do that and still have funds left over when he was done. He didn’t love the idea of making the sale, didn’t like the idea of giving up any piece of the land he’d scrimped and saved to buy, but it wasn’t like the place was being used. If this turned out to be as profitable as she claimed, going into business dealings with Virginia Leeland could be a win-win.
Clearly determined to sell him on the idea, she started digging in her purse, pulling out a notebook that proved to be stuffed with photos, pages torn from bridal magazines, and sheet after sheet of paper crammed with notes describing flowers, lighting, pricing packages, amenities. It was obvious this wasn’t a whim—she’d put a lot of thought and work into the project. She started spitting out numbers faster than he could follow until he finally had to hold up a hand and ask her to stop.
“It sounds like a good idea, honestly,” he said. “It’s just a lot to take in.”
She flushed, then smiled—shy and eager all at once. It didn’t quite fit with her polished look, which made him like it all the more. “I’m probably coming on too strong. I’m just really excited to see this finally happening,” she said. “It’s something I’ve wanted to do for ages.”
“So why now?” Jonah asked.
“I needed the money I’m set to inherit from my grandmother. It’s a rather large amount , and I receive it as soon as I’m married. Which won’t be very long now at all, I might add.”
“Huh,” he said, genuinely surprised. Before now, he hadn’t realized that things like that actually happened in modern day life.
“She wanted the money to be a wedding present, but h
er health started failing pretty fast not long after I got engaged. So she put it in her will that the money will be mine right after my wedding—that way, it’ll sort of be like she’s there celebrating with us.”
“That sounds real nice,” Jonah offered.
“It does, doesn’t it?” she agreed with a grin. “And I’ll be using her wedding gift to me to make wedding dreams come true for dozens of other people…if you say yes.”
Jonah laughed. Just when he thought he’d heard everything, Virginia would speak again and say something else he’d never considered.
“I went ahead and had a contract drawn up,” she added, having the good grace to flush a little. “Not that I expect you to sign it today, but you should know what I’m offering so you can make your decision.”
“Sure, I’ll think it over. You can leave the contract, if you like. I’ll look it over just as soon as I get a chance.”
“Of course,” she answered, returning to a professional level of confidence. “Just make sure you don’t look it over for too long, Jonah Grant. Those studs won’t stay on the market for long. Far from it, I’m betting.”
“The studs…?” he answered stupidly, dumbstruck by the comment.
“Yes indeed. In fact, if what my sources tell me is correct, those studs will be snapped up lightning quick. It would be a shame for you to miss out on such a great opportunity. Shame for us both.”
Virginia handed over the contract, smiling and brushing his fingers ever so slightly while she did. Jonah had time to notice that there was a business card with her number paperclipped to the stack of papers. Then she was off, pouring herself into her expensive-looking SUV without so much as a backward glance. For his part, Jonah stood looking at the place where her vehicle had been for a long time after it was gone. It had been a quite a while since he had been really and truly surprised, long enough that he’d believed those days for him were done. As it turned out, there was still plenty of surprise left in the world. He just wasn’t sure he wanted to be a part of it.