Overprotective Cowboy: A Mulbury Boys Novel (Hope Eternal Ranch Romance Book 2)

by Elana Johnson

  She didn’t know how.

  She knew Missy wanted to be here with her, and for Emma, it was all of her dreams come true. “You’ve been working toward this day for a decade,” she told herself as she pulled out another chunk of grass from the flowerbed rimming the cabin.

  “Momma?”

  Her daughter’s voice filled the air and lifted her spirits. She clapped her gloved hands together and groaned as she got to her feet. “I’m out back,” she called. The back door opened a few seconds later, and Missy stood there.

  She smiled at Emma and lifted the paper plate in her hands. “Come get some cookies.”

  Emma couldn’t say no to that. She’d given her permission for Missy to bake with Ted that morning, even if she didn’t understand it. She’d never known the cowboy to beat, batter, or bake. But Missy had wanted to, and Emma could admit she’d hoped Ted and Missy would become fast friends.

  He seemed to like everyone, and they all liked him too. Emma had been trying to convince herself for a week now that the connection between them was because of his magnetic personality and not because she’d started to fall in love with him.

  “Let me wash up,” she said as she entered the cabin. It was bigger than the single bedroom she’d come from, but still small for a house. Two bedrooms at the end of a hall that was only three steps long, with a bathroom between them. A galley kitchen she had to walk through once she entered through the back door to get to the dining room and living room at the front of the house. The whole thing was nine hundred square feet, but it had felt huge as she’d cleaned it, that was for sure.

  She paused at the kitchen sink and washed her hands. “All right,” she said, turning back to her daughter, who’d waited behind her.

  At that moment, Missy’s phone chimed, and she lit up. “I think that’s Frannie. Can I call her?”

  “Of course,” Emma said, taking the plate of M&M cookies from Missy. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to wait to have one of these.” She beamed at them and then her daughter. “They’re my favorite.”

  “I know,” Missy said, her attention already on her phone. “You don’t have to wait for me, Momma.” She smiled and hugged Emma, who held onto her for an extra beat of time. Long enough to commit the moment to memory and feel a wave of gratitude roll over her.

  Missy went out the back door, and Emma turned toward the rest of the house. Out of the kitchen, she turned left, and froze at the sight of Ted Burrows standing next to her dining room table. “Ted,” left her mouth in a gasp.

  “Oh, I thought you were calling me Teddy,” he said easily, both of his hands wrapped around the stems of a bouquet of wildflowers. A smile slipped across his mouth, but it didn’t stay long. “I’m…”

  He swallowed, and he was so adorable when he was nervous. He called to her soul in a way no one ever had before, and while it scared Emma senseless, she also wanted to embrace the feeling. Give in to it.

  “I’m really sorry,” he said. “For pushing you to tell me stuff you didn’t want to. I said you could have time and you could tell me when you were ready, but I didn’t really honor that.”

  “Don’t,” she said, her voice tight and harsh and pleading at the same time. “Please do not apologize to me. I’m the one who owes you an apology. I wanted to tell you.” She looked down the galley kitchen to see Missy had settled on the back steps, her phone to her ear. “She’s everything to me, and I was so used to keeping her to myself.” She looked back at Ted. “I realize now how wrong I was. She’s so wonderful, and everyone should know about her.”

  “I know why you did,” Ted said quietly.

  “I was scared.”

  He nodded as if he really did understand.

  “But you were right,” Emma said, finally able to take a step toward him and the table. Only a couple more and she arrived and set the cookies down. “Everything comes out in the end.” She looked up at him.

  Hope emanated from his expression. “I brought you these flowers,” he said. “Because I did the same thing on our first date, and that went really well, and it’s a good memory for me.” He cleared his throat and laid them on the table.

  “We made your favorite cookies, because Missy told me that she’d done that once when you were mad at her, and you forgave her.” He pressed his fingers to the table, his attention on them. “I was hoping for the same thing. That you’d forgive me for anything and everything, and that we could somehow try again.”

  The brim of his cowboy hat kept most of his face concealed, and he finally lifted his chin enough for their eyes to meet. “I sure do like you, Emma. Nate thinks it’s because I’ve been in prison for a while and don’t know many women.” He shook his head. “I know one-hundred percent that it’s not that.” He reached up and touched his chest where his heart beat inside. “I feel things for you. I started to fall in love with you. I know I’m a bit of a bull sometimes, and I’m overprotective, and I’m not perfect.”

  Emma’s eyes filled with tears, and she shook her head.

  “I know I’m going to mess up again,” he said quietly, dropping that chin again. “Because I’ve never felt like this about anyone before, and it’s all uncharted territory for me. But I was kinda hoping you’d started to fall for me too, and that if you had, we could—I don’t know.” He shrugged and shifted his feet. “Try again.”

  Emma wanted that with her whole heart and soul. Before she could contain her emotion enough to answer in a voice that wasn’t broken and cracked with tears, she heard a strange sound. A snuffling, rooting sound. A…piggish sound.

  “Oh, no,” Ted said, taking a couple of steps into the living room. He bent and scooped something into his arms and came back. “And I got you that little pig you wanted.” He held the most perfect pink and brown piglet Emma had ever seen. “I didn’t name her,” he added. “I figured you could go with Petunia or change your mind.”

  He looked at her fully now, everything laid out between them. “I honestly don’t care about what you did or didn’t do a decade ago. Missy is a pretty special kid, and I understand—”

  “Okay, enough,” Emma said, because she couldn’t stand to listen to him tell her how right she was again. She wasn’t right, and she knew it.

  She pressed her palms together, her nerves screaming through her. He’d said all the right things and delivered them perfectly too. She didn’t have a speech prepared, and she was messing everything up right now.

  “I started to fall in love with you too,” she said, her emotion staining and seeping into every word. “Let’s try again, okay, Teddy? Please?”

  Ted put the piglet down and stepped over to her, taking her into his arms effortlessly. “As many times as we need to, okay, sweetheart?”

  She nodded as the tears spilled down her face. She pressed her eyes closed, and Ted’s gentle, warm hands brushed the tears away. “I like it when you call me Teddy,” he said, his voice a husky whisper. “I’m going to kiss you now, and then you’ll have to name your piglet.”

  Emma half-laughed and half-cried, and she positively melted into Ted’s kiss the moment his mouth met hers.

  She felt unworthy and in complete awe that everything she wanted in her life was happening. Her daughter home with her. Ted Burrows in her house, kissing her with such tenderness and such passion that even if he hadn’t said he was falling in love with her, she’d have known.

  “Come on, Petunia,” she said to the little pig who’d wandered away from her. She’d grown to about fifteen pounds in the past couple of months, and Ted had told her there was no such thing as a true teacup piglet. Not only that, but pigs grew for the first three or four years of their lives, and he couldn’t predict how big Petunia would get.

  But she had been bred to be smaller, and to be an indoor pet. She’d been a pest in the beginning, always trying to root for something under the rug in the bathroom and always squealing for food whenever Emma or Missy ate. But they’d trained her religiously, and now she was pretty much the perfect version of t
he pet pig Emma had always wanted.

  She came trotting over to Emma, who walked down the road toward the stables. Missy would be finished with her riding lesson soon, and Ted was off with his parole officer for the last time.

  The last time.

  Emma couldn’t imagine what he was feeling, and he hadn’t been able to adequately describe what being free felt like for him.

  “It hasn’t happened yet,” he’d said when she’d asked him last night. They’d been sitting on the front steps of the cabin while Missy romped around with Petunia and the American Idol dogs.

  “Tomorrow, though,” Emma said. “How do you think you’re going to feel?”

  “Don’t know,” he’d said. And he’d not said much else. She knew he was deep in his thoughts, as they’d spent a lot of time together over the past eight weeks. The three of them. Him, her, and Missy.

  He’d said he wanted to go to the beach when he got released, and Emma had been planning that trip for a month now. She had everything ready—she just needed Ted to be the free man he wanted to be.

  When Ted stopped talking, it meant he was thinking really hard. Trying to figure something out. He’d gone with Nate to clean out Nate’s brother’s house, and both times, they’d both come back quiet and reflective. She’d taken Connor for Nate, as he and Missy were the only children on the ranch, and though they were five years apart, they got along great.

  And apparently, whenever Ted wasn’t around, Emma was a good enough substitute for his four dogs, so she never went anywhere by herself anymore. She always had Petunia with her, and usually Randy, Simon, Paula, and Ryan too. Missy too, if she wasn’t at school.

  Emma couldn’t believe how much her life had changed in the past three and a half months, and as she approached the stables, she tipped her head back and looked up into the heavens. “Thank you, Lord.”

  God really was good, and Emma wanted Him to know she knew it, appreciated it, and would do whatever He wanted her to.

  Ted usually took care of the horses after riding lessons, and she saw him when she picked up Missy. He’d work for a couple more hours, and then he came over to the cabin for the evening. Their routine had been nice and normal for a while now, and she glanced around the corrals, expecting to see him.

  When she didn’t, her anxiety picked up steam. He wasn’t done with his parole officer yet, and she wondered how long it took to tell him he was officially released from the Bureau of Prisons. She’d wondered if he’d have to keep meeting with Martin after his release, but Ted knew the law, and he said he wouldn’t.

  He’d served all of his time, and he’d been in the reentry program. He’d told her he expected today’s meeting to be the last one.

  Which was probably why it was taking so long.

  The children and instructors started returning, and Emma scooped Petunia into her arms so the little pig wouldn’t get trampled by the influx of horses.

  Spencer stood next to Jess, and they laughed about something. Jess put her hand on Spencer’s chest, and Emma watched them closely. Jess liked him, and Emma had never seen her act like this before—not with Spencer.

  She’d told him to ask her out, but she hadn’t known if he had or not. “Looks like he did,” she murmured to her piglet. “Good for him.” She smiled in their direction and started scanning the horses for Missy.

  She took pictures every Wednesday afternoon to send to Fran and Matt, because they’d so wanted to give Missy horseback riding lessons. Emma had set up virtual violin lessons with the teacher in San Antonio, and they’d go up there for a few in-person lessons before the recital. But that was months away, as summer was in full swing, and the only thing on Missy’s schedule was these afternoon riding lessons.

  “Emma,” Ginger said, and Emma turned toward her. “Can you come help me for a second?” She wore stress on her face, and Emma couldn’t wait until Ginger and Nate were married. The date drew ever closer, as Nate had convinced Ginger to move it to August, before the major harvest started and before school started again and their lessons picked up. After the breeding season for horses, which they were in the full swing of now.

  Only three more weeks until the big wedding on the ranch, and Ginger had been relying on Emma, Jess, Hannah, Jill, and Michelle for a lot of decisions. Emma had eaten fancy meals, and tasted chocolate cake until she never wanted another bite. They’d all gone to town to help Ginger pick her dress, and only Emma and Ginger had gone to order flowers.

  “Sure,” Emma said, casting another glance to the riders still coming in. She hadn’t seen Missy yet, and Emma reminded herself that her daughter was ten years old. She could dismount and hand over her reins by herself. She didn’t need Emma there to hold her hand the moment she returned from lessons.

  She put Petunia down and followed Ginger into the stables.

  “I just need help deciding on the altar design,” Ginger said over her shoulder, her longer legs eating up more distance with every step. Emma had never been able to keep up with Ginger, and she’d stopped trying.

  Her friend paused in front of two altars and studied them.

  “Oh, you actually have them here,” Emma said, joining her. She gazed down at the beautiful altars, both of them made out of natural wood.

  “They’re both from trees right here on the ranch,” Ginger said. “I can’t decide if I like the simple one, or the one with more detail.”

  Emma would never be able to decide. One had been stained a darker color, and it was simple in the way it was simply a chest-high altar, with natural bark still on the rounded curve of the top piece that lay over the legs. They’d been stripped, sanded, and stained, and the altar was rustic yet elegant.

  The other one included more details in the carving, and the yellow wood had been allowed to shine through the glossy stain. Emma ran her fingers over the swirls on the side of this altar, which had the top squared and completely free of bark.

  “Wow, Ginger. Who made these?”

  “I did,” a man said, and Emma spun around at the sound of Ted’s voice.

  He stood there in that stunning cowboy hat, wearing a blue T-shirt and jeans, every piece of him in the exact right place. He’d grown out his beard, but he kept it neat and trim, oiled to perfection whenever they went out or when he met with his parole officer.

  All four of his dogs loitered near his cowboy boots, and Emma inched toward him. “How did it go with Martin?”

  Ted flicked a look in Ginger’s direction. Emma followed his gaze, and she caught the tail end of her best friend’s nod.

  “Good,” Ted said, their eyes meeting again. A smile exploded onto his face. “It’s done, Em. I’m out.” He laughed, the sound bright and bold and loud as it zoomed up to the rafters in the stables. He took the few remaining steps to her and picked her right up off her feet, still laughing.

  She laughed too and held onto his shoulders. “I’m so glad, Teddy,” she said.

  He set her on her feet, his smile still in place though he sobered. “That chapter is over,” he said, his eyes bright. “I can hardly believe it.”

  Emma didn’t know what to say, so she just smiled up at him and reveled in the feel of his arms around her, his hands on her waist.

  “I’ve been waiting for this day for so long.” He swallowed and shook his head as if in wonder.

  Emma wrapped her arms around him and pressed her cheek to his chest. “What are you going to count down to next, cowboy?”

  “I’ve got something in mind,” he said.

  Emma pulled back and looked up at him. “You do? What?”

  He nodded to someone behind her, and Emma twisted in his arms to find Missy holding something toward him.

  A little black box.

  Emma sucked in a breath, which made a rasping, gasping sound fill the stable. “Teddy.”

  “I’ve been waiting for this day for so long,” he said again, shifting and stepping to take the ring box from Missy. “And not just because I would be a free man. But because I’m in love w
ith the most wonderful woman, and I didn’t want to ask her to be mine until I actually had myself to give to her.”

  He opened the ring box and looked inside it.

  The seconds seemed to pile on top of one another, and then he finally turned the box toward her and lifted his eyes to hers.

  “I love you, Emma Clemson. I love your daughter, and I want to be your husband and her dad.” He looked to his left, and Missy came to his side.

  “Will you marry him, Momma?” Missy asked.

  Emma looked from her daughter to Ted to the ring. Then back around again. “Yes,” she said, the word easy and filled with joy. She burst out laughing again and threw her arms around both of them. “Yes, yes, yes.”

  They laughed together, and Ted took the ring out of the box and slid it on her finger. He gazed down at her, and murmured, “I’m going to kiss your momma now, Missy.”

  “Gross,” Missy said, and she walked away.

  Emma couldn’t look anywhere but at Ted. Kissing him was definitely not gross, and Emma grinned at him as he smiled at her. “I love you too,” she said.

  “Good to know,” he whispered before kissing her. He brought such a calm presence to her life, and Emma had never felt safer and more protected than she did in the arms of her fiancé.

  She knew they weren’t alone, though, so she didn’t kiss him for long. She tucked herself into his arms, pure peace and joy filling her.

  “All right,” Ginger said, and Emma turned to her. Ginger opened her arms, and Emma hugged her too. “I’m so happy for you,” Ginger whispered. “You deserve the very best, Em, and I think he’s it for you.”

  “Thank you,” Emma said, getting emotional over Ginger’s words for some reason.

  Ginger stepped back, and they faced the altars again. “Pick one, Emma. I’ll use the other one.”

  “I can’t do that,” she said. “You pick, and I’ll use the other one.”