“A bottle of your best champagne,” Pax answered. “And bring us an assortment of appetizers to nibble on while we study the menu.”
“Coming right up, and congratulations to you both.” She winked at Pax.
“What was that all about?” Alana asked.
“We danced a few times at the Wild Cowboy and flirted a lot,” he admitted.
“Are you going to miss those times this next little while?” she asked.
“Maybe, but then I’m engaged to the prettiest girl in this part of Texas, so I kind of doubt it. We’ll be so busy with all the wedding stuff that the time will go fast.” The smile disappeared, and he tilted his head to the side. “I’m sorry. You don’t want the time to go by lightning fast. You’ll want to enjoy every moment you can spend with Matt.”
“This whole thing has me so wound up in knots that I’m not sure what I want,” she said. “The full impact of what is about to happen hasn’t even sunk in. I’ve cried, and Daddy and I’ve talked a little, but not enough. He doesn’t seem to want to say much about it, other than that he wants life to be as normal as it can possibly be. Looking back now, I realize that something’s been wrong for a while. He hasn’t had much of an appetite, and he’s been taking a nap after we come in at noon for a break. Maybe if I’d been less involved with the ranch, I would’ve made him go to the doctor sooner.”
“You can’t blame yourself,” Pax said. “And Matt wouldn’t want you to anyway.”
“But I do,” she argued. “I’m an only child. He’s raised me all by himself after Mama died. I never thought of him as aging. I guess I figured that he’d live to be a hundred or at least ninety, like his father did.”
“That’s what I thought about my grandpa too, so I understand what you’re saying. He was taken from me in the blink of an eye, but he died the way he wanted. He used to tell me that he wanted to drop at the end of a long day, right there on the ranch, and that’s exactly what happened.” Pax locked gazes with her. “Your dad has been given some time and what he wants is to see you settled and happy. We can give him that.”
“Hello, I’m Deanna.” Their new waitress set a silver ice bucket with a bottle of champagne in it on the table. “Shall I pour for you?”
“Yes, please.” Pax’s eyes never left Alana’s.
Deanna poured champagne into two flutes. “I’ll be right back with your appetizers.”
Pax picked up his glass and held it up. “To an amazing engagement and wedding.”
She touched hers to his. “To making wishes come true.”
They each took a sip.
Alana leaned forward and said, “I’d really rather have beer, but it’s nice to try something a little different every now and then.”
“Me too,” Pax said. “These bubbles make my nose tickle.”
Deanna brought out the appetizers and asked if they were ready to order. Alana reached for a grilled shrimp, looked at the menu once more, and said, “I’ll have the nine-ounce rib eye, a loaded baked potato, fried okra, and sliced tomatoes.”
Pax handed Deanna his menu. “Make that two of the same, only I want the twelve-ounce rib eye.”
“Well, if you’re going for the big steak, then change my order to that one too.” Alana gave her menu to Deanna.
“How do you want the steaks cooked?” Deanna asked.
“Medium rare,” Pax and Alana said at the same time and then laughed.
“Got it.” Deanna hurried in the direction of the kitchen.
“We’ve got a lot in common, ranchin’ being the biggest thing, but I was thinking about what it would be like for us if we were really getting married.” Pax refilled their glasses and then picked up a fried cheese stick. “We both like tomatoes with our okra and our steaks cooked the same way. Think there’s more to us than that?”
“We’d make a fine couple. We can talk cows and ranchin’ for hours. We understand each other, and we make a damn good-lookin’ couple.” She reached for another shrimp.
“Yep.” He picked up a slice of fried green tomato. “Do we have kids in this dream?”
Their hands brushed, and Pax wondered if she felt the same tingling sensation that he had.
She doesn’t feel anything but sadness right now, the voice in his head scolded him.
He refilled her glass one more time, but not his.
“It gets better with each glass,” she said. “Of course we have children. The ranch house was built for a lot of kids, and as you can see”—she made a motion that took in her body—“I’m built for having kids. You aren’t drinkin’ anymore? Does the husband in the dream give up alcohol?”
“I’m the designated driver tonight, and Matt would shoot me dead on the spot if I drove after drinking,” he told her. “You have all you want. I’ll throw you over my shoulder like a bag of chicken feed and carry you into the house if you pass out.”
“Honey, it’d take more than this to knock me on my butt. I’ll admit to being a little tipsy a few times, but only one time did I even have a hangover, and that was prom night, and I’ve never passed out in my life.” She popped a tiny stuffed mushroom into her mouth and took a sip of champagne. “It’s pretty damn good when you blend the two flavors. Here. Try one.” She leaned across the table and fed him one, then handed him her glass.
He nodded in agreement. “You are so right. We’ll have to have this at our wedding reception.”
“I agree. I’m thinking a small wedding and then a reception at the church fellowship hall. What’s your opinion of that?” she asked.
“Honey, it’s your day, so you plan it any way you please. I’ll show up and smile for the pictures,” he answered.
“The smaller the better as far as I’m concerned. I don’t know why I didn’t tell Daddy that we’d already eloped to Las Vegas.” She sighed.
“Then we’d have to be married, not engaged, and he wouldn’t get to walk you down the aisle.” Pax had a sudden image of them really living in the same house together. Sleeping in the same bed. He felt his cheeks flush and his blood stir at the thought.
“Holy smoke!” She clamped a hand over her mouth and whispered, “What happens if Daddy insists we go on a honeymoon?”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.” He laid his hand back on hers and squeezed her fingers ever so gently, willing his mind to think of anything but her on a beach in a bikini.
Chapter Four
Hey, sweet baby.” Pax stopped at the high chair to kiss Laela on the cheek when he reached the kitchen the next morning. He could still hardly believe his brother was now married with a newly walking toddler. As godmother to Laela, Bridget had taken charge of her when the baby’s mother and father had both been killed in an automobile accident back in Ireland. Luckily, Pax loved Bridget like a sister, and he adored Laela.
“Don’t you act like nothing has happened.” Bridget turned away from the stove and punctuated every word with a fork. She might be petite, but dynamite came in small packages, and Bridget was a force to be reckoned with when she walked into a room.
Maverick poured two mugs of coffee and handed one off to Pax, and then they both sat down at the kitchen table. “You and Alana? When did y’all stop runnin’ from each other?”
In that moment, Pax understood how hard it had been for Alana to lie to her father. He and Maverick had shared everything since they were little kids. They’d cried together when their dad died and again when their grandpa passed away. They’d moved away to the Rockin’ B Ranch right out of high school to work with a couple of their friends, Tag and Hud Baker. Then when Tag and Hud bought a ranch of their own halfway across the state, they’d gone with them to help out. After Mam moved into an assisted-living facility and left Pax and Mav her ranch, he’d come back home, and they’d worked side by side to restore the place.
“We had to stop sometime and see if any of the vibes we’ve felt for the past ten years are real or if they were a flash in the pan,” Pax said, trying to skirt around the issue.
“So why didn’t you tell me that y’all were dating?” Maverick asked. “I thought you were still enemies.”
Pax raised one shoulder in half a shrug. “We were what they call frenemies, I guess. That’s somewhere between friends and enemies, and then somehow the enemy part kind of went by the wayside, a little at a time, and we became friends. We started talking, and then it led to more.” That much wasn’t a lie. After he had come home from Sunset in the winter, they had begun to talk about ranching stuff when they’d meet at the feed store or the burger joint. Then they’d started calling each other a couple of times a week to talk about other things.
“Why didn’t you tell me that?” Mav asked.
“Things were going so well between us that we didn’t want to jinx it,” Pax answered. “We talked about eloping to Las Vegas, but Matt has always had this dream of walking her down the aisle.” That part was true, so he looked his brother in the eye and smiled. “Be happy for me.”
“Happy for you?” Maverick raised his voice. “You don’t even say the word marriage out loud, and you’ve been running from Alana since y’all were kids. Now you tell me you’ve proposed to her?”
“Marriage,” Pax said with a grin on his face. “There I said it.”
“All right.” Maverick narrowed his eyes. “Now you said it, but when you even mentioned settling down, it was always after you were thirty.”
“I’m almost twenty-nine,” Pax shot back at his brother. “That’s pretty damn close.”
“I think you’re rushing things because you think you want what we’ve all got,” Maverick said.
Pax shrugged. “Maybe so, but it is what it is. I’m going to marry Alana, so get used to it. Will you be my best man?” Pax asked. “It’s going to be a real small wedding with family and very close friends with a little reception in the fellowship hall.”
“Of course.” Maverick finally smiled. “But why the rush? Is she pregnant or something?”
“No, she’s not pregnant and the rush is that we want to get married. God!” He raked his hands through his hair. “Geez, with this kind of interrogation, maybe we should’ve eloped to Las Vegas like we talked about doing.”
“I don’t know her so well,” Bridget said, “but she seems like the type who’d want a big wedding. She’s lived in this place all her life, and knows everyone. I’d think she’d want the big dress and all the frills.”
“You got her pegged wrong. She’s pretty down-to-earth once you get to know her. She didn’t even want me to buy a ring. She’s so sentimental that she wants to use her mother’s wedding rings.” Pax pushed back his chair, stood up, and refilled their coffee mugs, then helped Bridget bring breakfast to the table.
Maverick said a short grace, and Bridget passed the platter of biscuits to him first.
“So from what I’ve heard, you and Alana have had some chemistry between you and you’ve been running from each other for a while?” Bridget asked.
“Since they were big enough to walk,” Maverick answered.
“Why would you do that if you felt something for one another?” She handed the bowl of scrambled eggs to Pax.
“She’ll be the sole owner of the Bar C when Matt passes away,” Pax explained. “Until Mam deeded this place over to us, I had nothing to offer her, and besides once you’ve been runnin’ as long as we were, it was kind of hard to stop and admit defeat. And”—he paused and decided to tell the truth—“it all started when we were thirteen.” He went on to tell the story of their first kiss. “I decided right then I wasn’t going to give her the time of day. I liked her and thought she liked me. I was wrong, and the rejection right along with that slap in the face sure enough smarted. I wasn’t going to be rejected again.”
“What was the exact day you decided to let her catch you?” Bridget asked.
“We both showed up at the assisted-living center to visit Mam and wound up going out for a burger. We figured out later that Mam had asked us both to come at the same time, and no doubt about it, she was playing matchmaker. Then the very next Saturday night we were both at the Wild Cowboy. We were dancing with other people and her partner tapped me on the shoulder, so I stepped back, and there she was, lookin’ kind of hurt. So I opened up my arms and she walked into them. From then on, we kind of…” He kept the story as close to the truth as possible.
“Kind of fell in love,” Bridget sighed.
“That’s right.” He made a mental note to call Alana later to tell her that he’d told that much of their story.
“And when did you actually propose?” Maverick finished biscuits and eggs and put a stack of three pancakes on his plate.
“Yesterday afternoon out in the barn,” Pax answered. “She came over to see me right after you left. It wasn’t nearly as romantic as I’d planned, but I did take her out to The Silver Dove for supper last night to make up for it.”
“It doesn’t have to be romantic.” Bridget gave Laela small bites of egg while she ate. “You know in your heart when you love a person enough to ask them to marry you.”
“That’s the way I figured it.” At least he didn’t have to tell Alana how that happened.
“What did you say?” Bridget asked.
“I said, ‘Alana Joy Carey will you marry me?’” He was damn sure glad he’d actually gotten down on one knee and done it up right.
“With no ring?” Maverick asked.
“We’d talked about eloping and having matching bands. Besides, I knew she loved her mother’s ring. This was a fine breakfast, Bridget.”
“Where are you going to live after the wedding?” Bridget asked.
“Over at her place.” He hoped Alana wasn’t having to answer this many questions. “But don’t worry, I’ll be over here every morning. This is our ranch, and I’ll be here to help take care of it like always. I just won’t sleep here.”
“I guess your wild days are over.” Maverick snapped his fingers. “That quick.”
“So were yours,” Bridget reminded him.
“Yes, but…” Maverick started.
“There are no buts when it comes to love,” Bridget told him.
Pax chuckled as he got up, took his plate to the sink, and rinsed it. “I can only hope that Alana and I have as good a relationship as y’all have got.”
He hurried out the back door before either of them could ask another question, went to his truck, and drove out to the barn where he and Maverick would be working on a tractor that morning. As soon as he was inside, he fished his phone from his hip pocket and called Alana.
* * *
“Hi, Pax.” Alana was already in her truck and headed out to the barn on her place to tell the hired hands where she wanted them to work that morning. “I hope you survived the interrogation at your ranch this morning,” she said.
“I kept everything as close to the truth as possible.” He told her what he’d told his brother and Bridget.
She smiled at the sound of his voice—and at the memory of that night, when she danced in his arms. She’d felt as if she belonged there and wished that the song would never end.
“Got it,” she said. “Daddy wasn’t so interested in particulars about when we decided that we were in love. He’s more wound up about this wedding. He’s called a wedding planner, and we’re supposed to meet with her tomorrow evening. And he says that he doesn’t think the church will hold all our close friends, so he wants to have the wedding here at the ranch. You okay with that?” She’d come close to fainting that morning when he told her that her plan for a small wedding idea wasn’t going to work, and that they were going to invite everyone they’d ever known.
“I don’t even know what a wedding planner is, and whatever makes Matt happy is fine with me,” Pax said. “So what are you doing today?”
“I’m helping Daddy measure our sale barn, and then we’re going to make out a wedding list so the planner can get the invitations sent. That means you need to get your guest list done by tomorrow evening. Some of our people will be
the same, but Daddy says the planner will sort it all out.”
“I’m sure she will. How are you holding up?” Pax asked.
“Trying to keep busy. Otherwise I worry too much—about Daddy’s…” She couldn’t even say the word. “And whether we’re doing the right thing.”
“Hang in there, Alana. He seems to be getting a lot of joy with all this wedding planning. Focus on that.”
His deep voice soothed her, like a hug right over the phone.
“Thanks, Pax. Can you come over for supper to help with some of the planning stuff?”
“I’ll be there, darlin’.”
When Alana got back to the house, her dad was sitting at the dining room table with folders and papers all around him. He looked up over the wire-rimmed reading glasses perched on his nose and smiled. “Sit down. I want to go over some of the books with you, and then we can start talking about the guest list. I don’t want to leave anyone out and hurt their feelings.”
“Daddy, I hate paperwork,” Alana groaned, “and Pax and I really want to keep the wedding a small affair.”
He patted the chair beside him. “Honey, we both hate to do the office work, but it has to be done if we want the ranch to be successful. Pick one day a week to take care of it all so it doesn’t pile up. Your mama loved all the organization and books, so she did it before she left us.”
Her father almost never said when your mama died or even when your mama passed away. It was always when she left us.
Alana sat down and kicked off her boots under the table. “All right then, let’s get with it. What do I need to learn today?”
He pushed a whole stack of folders to one side. “Let’s go over my will first and get that out of the way. I’ve left everything I own to you, of course, but since you’re getting married and Pax will be living here, I’m wondering if I should put it in both your names. Until you have a child to inherit the place, it could be a nightmare if, God forbid, something happened to you. Pax wouldn’t even be able to pay for a sack of cattle feed.”
Cowboy Strong - Includes a bonus novella Page 4