Cowboy Strong - Includes a bonus novella

by Carolyn Brown

  “Let’s not talk wills today, Daddy,” she sniffled. “It makes me too sad. That can always be changed after the wedding is over and done with.”

  “All right, but you need to keep that on the back burner,” Matt said. “As soon as you get back from your honeymoon, we’ll revisit this folder.” He laid it to the side. “Now, let’s get into finances. You already know what the operating cash is for the ranch and how much we’ve put into savings in case we have a bad year down the road, but I’ve had some personal accounts for years. I’m meeting with my lawyer tomorrow to sign all those over to you as well. One is for your wedding, so I don’t want you to give a thought to how much anything costs.”

  All Alana heard was honeymoon. “Pax and I thought we’d wait until later to take a trip. I want to spend as much time with you as I possibly can, Daddy. I couldn’t bear it if…” She couldn’t say the words.

  Matt wiped a tear from her cheek. “Don’t cry. We need to talk about it like it’s a second honeymoon for me and your mama. We’ll be together again, and I’m so looking forward to looking at her all I want. After the wedding, I want you kids to at least have a long weekend honeymoon.”

  “But that would be time I could spend with you,” Alana argued.

  “It’s important for you and Pax to have some time away from the ranches and from family. It’ll make your marriage stronger.” Matt patted her back. “So, where do you and Pax want to go? What’s always been your dream vacation? We never went on anything that didn’t have to do with Cattlemen’s Conventions or rodeos. I’m sorry for that. I should have taken you to the beach or the mountains or even to New York City,” he said.

  “I loved going to the places we went to,” she said.

  “Close your eyes,” he said.

  She did what he asked.

  “Now open them and say the first place that comes into your mind,” he said.

  “Right here on the ranch,” she said.

  “Oh, no, you’re at least going somewhere for two or three days,” he argued.

  “Maybe Galveston to the beach then,” she agreed, but she had no intentions of leaving the ranch after the wedding. Like Pax said, she’d cross the bridge when it came time, but today, she wasn’t wasting precious time on a fake honeymoon.

  * * *

  “Well, don’t you look all fine?” Bridget looked up from the counter where she was putting together a salad.

  “Thank you.” Pax smiled and then chuckled when a movement in his peripheral vision caught his eye. Ducky, Dolly, and Laela marched into the room, looking like a little parade coming to see him off to the Bar C.

  “She follows them everywhere, now that she can walk,” Bridget said. “I don’t know if they’re trying to get away from her or helping her exercise, but whatever it is, she loves them.”

  Pax picked the toddler up and kissed her on the cheek. “A kiss for good luck and”—he kissed the other cheek—“another one because I love you so much.”

  Maverick came through the back door and Laela held out her arms to him. “Da-Dee,” she said loud and clear. His brother removed his work gloves, stuffed them into his hip pockets, and took the baby.

  Pax’s felt like someone pricked his heart as he saw the love that flowed from the baby to her father. He opened the refrigerator to get out a couple of six-packs of beer and noticed the glance that passed between Maverick and Bridget. That’s what he wanted when he really got engaged—a love so strong that everyone in the room could feel it.

  “See y’all later,” he said as he headed out the back door, reluctant to intrude on their private moment.

  Laela waved at him and said, “Bye-bye.”

  “She’s going to miss you when you move across to the Bar C,” Bridget said.

  Pax waved back at her. “I’ll still see her every day.”

  He couldn’t tell them that he wouldn’t really be jumping the barbed-wire fence that separated the Callahan Ranch from the Bar C and actually moving into the big two-story house over there. “This is a helluva lot tougher than I thought it would be when I agreed to it,” he muttered as he crossed the yard and got into his pickup truck.

  As the crow flies, it would have taken only two minutes to get over to the neighboring ranch, but as the truck drove, it took longer. Pax had to drive down the lane a quarter of a mile, make a left-hand turn and drive a few hundred yards, and turn left into the lane leading up to the Carey house. When he arrived, Alana waved from the porch swing, then came to the truck and opened the door for him.

  “We’ll put that in the fridge,” she said, pointing to the beer. “Daddy says he’s in charge of dinner and that we’re to spend a little time together.” She motioned for him to follow her inside, took two beers from one of the six packs, and put the rest in the refrigerator. She twisted the tops off and handed one to Pax. “Let’s sit out on the porch. I’ve always thought these walls have ears and that they report back to Daddy every night at bedtime. Somehow, I’ve never been able to keep anything from him.” She tucked her free hand into Pax’s and led him through the den, the foyer, and back outside.

  “I used to think that about our house too,” Pax said, “but I found out later it was Mam’s hotline with the gossipers in Daisy.” He waited for her to sit down beside her and then eased down on the porch swing.

  She scooted over closer to him. “Just in case the drama gossips have spies out,” she whispered. “This is our first night after the official engagement. If there’s three feet of space between us, they’ll think we’re already fighting.”

  “You sure do look pretty tonight,” he said, “and that’s real, not pretend. Orange is a good color on you.”

  “Glad you like it.” She smiled up at him.

  Was this the same girl that had slapped him and told him in a loud voice to never touch her again?

  That’s when you were a kid, and you felt awkward about the kiss too, since it was your first one, Mam scolded him.

  Pax remembered that night vividly. He’d watched Alana from the sidelines all evening, and when she’d gone out the back door, he’d followed her. The kids at school said that she liked him and wanted him to be her boyfriend. He’d never kissed a girl before so his heart was doing double-time and his hands were clammy. It didn’t take long until his face was burning, not only from a hard slap but also from rejection.

  “I’m planning on using yellow and orange for the wedding. It looks so summery.” She took a long drink from her beer. “I didn’t realize there was going to be so many details. I figured we’d go to the church, get married with a few friends and family watching, and then we’d get it annulled when”—she took another drink from the bottle—“when, well you know.”

  Pax slipped an arm around her shoulders. “Let’s concentrate on getting through this a day at a time. It doesn’t matter to me how big or how small the wedding is, and I’ll even take the blame for the breakup when it comes, so long as you don’t tell folks I was unfaithful.” The thought of folks thinking that about him would be worse than being rejected by the one girl he’d admired up until that fatal night when they were thirteen.

  “I’d never do that,” Alana said. “I think the best scenario is that we rushed into marriage too quick because I knew my dad was dying, and I wanted to make him happy. It’s the truth, so it’s believable.”

  “And my excuse will be that Matt wanted to walk you down the aisle so I proposed. It’s the truth, even if it isn’t the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” he said.

  “One more thing out of the way,” Alana agreed.

  Matt opened the door and said, “Food’s on the table, so if you two lovebirds can quit making eyes at each other, we’ll eat now.”

  Pax stood first and extended a hand toward Alana. She put hers in his, and together, they walked across the porch. To Matt and to anyone looking on, they looked like a couple in love.

  “Alana sure looks pretty tonight, doesn’t she?” Matt held the door open for them. “Seeing her wear a dress tw
ice in twenty-four hours might break all records around here.”

  “Daddy!” Alana scolded. “I wear a dress to church almost every Sunday.”

  “And you always look gorgeous.” Pax leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. He liked that he didn’t have to bend down to her and the smell of her hair, but what he liked most was the way she fit against him when he hugged her up tight.

  “Well, thank you both. Now, can we eat while the steaks are still hot?” Alana went straight to the kitchen table. “Look at this.” She waved her hand to take in the whole setting. “You even got the table set all pretty. Mama would be proud of you.”

  Matt wiggled his dark eyebrows. “It ain’t my first rodeo. I used to grill every week for your mama. Friday nights, she’d dress up, and I’d put a steak dinner on the table. That was our date night when we were first married, and we were trying to keep the ranch out of the red.”

  “We should do that.” Pax held Alana’s chair for her. “I can grill a mean steak.”

  Matt sat down and put a huge T-bone on his plate and then passed the platter to Alana. “We always found it was something we both looked forward to all week, and it beats the devil out of going out to eat. After all”—he lowered his voice and raised his eyebrows—“the bedroom is a lot closer when the meal is done.”

  “Daddy!” Alana’s face flushed with a crimson blush as she slid a steak onto her plate and handed the platter to Pax.

  Pax couldn’t remember the last time he had blushed, but he had no trouble recognizing the heat traveling from his neck to his face.

  “Oh, come on,” Matt teased, “don’t tell me that—”

  Alana held up a palm and butted in before he could go any further. “I’m already blushing, and you’ve always said that cowboys don’t kiss and tell. Well, neither do cowgirls.”

  “Fair enough,” Matt chuckled. “But while both of y’all have red faces—and I didn’t know Pax was even capable of blushing—if you ever have a daughter, please keep the name Joy in the family. Your great-grandmother was Joy. Your grandmother was Alice Joy and then your mama’s name is Joy Rose.”

  Alana nodded. “If we have a daughter, you’ve got my promise that we’ll keep the family name.”

  A daughter of his own—Pax wasn’t sure how he felt about that idea, but this marriage wasn’t real, so he didn’t have to worry about it. Yet, the idea kept nagging at him, and he figured if he had one like Laela, that would be great.

  Matt used present tense when he talked about Joy, and he’d teased them about already having sex. That wasn’t the quiet, solemn Matt Carey that Pax had always known. Whatever was in his brain had to be already affecting him, but by golly he could still grill a mighty fine steak.

  “This is really good,” Pax said between bites.

  “Good Carey beef,” Matt said. “Before I forget, and I’ll do a lot of that in the days ahead according to the doctor, the wedding planner is coming over tomorrow night at seven. She’ll need your guest list, Pax, since we’re short on time.”

  “Yes, sir. I’ll bring it with me.” Pax made a mental note to call his grandmother the next morning and ask her to help him with that.

  “Good, and Alana, you need to choose your bridesmaids because Saturday, you’ve got an appointment at that fancy bridal shop in Amarillo to pick out dresses for you and them,” Matt said. “When I called Trudy to tell her to put us on the charge calendar, she told me about the shop and offered to make an appointment for you. She said that she’d be getting in touch with you to set up a wedding shower. Several ladies have already offered to be hostesses with her.”

  “Thank you so much for taking all this on,” Pax said.

  “But, Daddy, we really don’t need all this fuss,” she said.

  Matt shook his head. “No, ma’am. This is going to be the biggest, prettiest wedding the Panhandle has ever seen. I insist on it. And same with your honeymoon.”

  Alana reached under the table and squeezed Pax’s knee. The gesture and the fact that Matt had mentioned a honeymoon startled him so badly that he dropped a bite of steak off his fork back onto his plate.

  “I forgot to tell you that Daddy wants to give us a honeymoon.” Alana locked gazes with him. “I’ve picked a beach in Florida, maybe Destin. What do you think?”

  “That sounds wonderful, and I’d love to spend a few days with Alana on the beach, with our toes in the sand, but Matt, I believe the groom takes care of the honeymoon. I’ll make all the arrangements for that. You take care of this big ranch wedding,” Pax told him.

  Thank you, Alana mouthed when her father wasn’t looking.

  Pax gave her a brief nod and went back to eating.

  Chapter Five

  While other little girls were playing with dolls and having play dates that involved tea parties, Alana had been tagging along after her father on the ranch. She was helping round up cattle on a four-wheeler at the age of six and roping calves before she went to school. She had been the tallest kid in her kindergarten class and had held that position until ninth grade, when Pax finally matched her in height. She’d always preferred to sit with the guys at lunch or play football with them on the playground. Alana liked getting dressed up for church on Sunday, but when she got home, she was more than ready to get back into her jeans and work shirts.

  “So who do I ask to be my bridesmaids, since I didn’t form those kind of friendships when I was growing up?” she asked herself as she climbed the stairs to her room that night. “Maybe Rose, Emily, and Bridget?”

  She thought about those three as she undressed, hung her clothing back in the closet, and adjusted the water in the shower. She and Emily had known each other through their family’s ranching businesses. Bridget was Pax’s sister-in-law. Rose had gone to school with her here in Daisy back when they were in junior high school, and she’d been nice to Alana.

  “But then there’s Retta, Claire, and Nikki over at Longhorn Ranch. They’re all kind of like extended family.” Alana peeled off her bikini underpants and tossed them into the hamper. “I guess if Daddy wants a big wedding, then by damn, he can have one. I’ll ask all six of them.”

  She showered and dried off, shrugged into nightclothes and climbed into bed. Thoughts swirled through her mind so much that she couldn’t sleep. Finally, she slipped out of bed, picked up her phone, and tiptoed downstairs. She took a cold beer from the refrigerator and carried it out to the porch. A full lover’s moon sat in the night sky like a queen on her throne with a gazillion stars twinkling around her like her adoring subjects. She sent Pax a text to ask if he was awake.

  His reply came back immediately: Yes, got too much on my mind to sleep.

  Her thumbs were a blur as she typed: Want to call it off?

  Her phone rang in seconds.

  “Hello, Pax,” she said. “What’s keeping you awake?”

  “I’m worried that I might mess up and say or do something wrong. Matt would be devastated if he found out, and now we need to plan a honeymoon, right?”

  “Only a long weekend one, and we’re planning it to please Daddy”—she paused—“but by then we won’t even have to go on one.”

  “There’s a mountain resort not far from Pueblo, Colorado, that might be nice,” he suggested.

  “Yes!” she said without hesitation.

  “Then I’ll get the arrangements made,” Pax said. “There’s a four-day package and a seven-day.”

  “Four,” she answered. “And we can drive rather than fly. I’ve been up there with Daddy on a Cattlemen’s Convention. It’s beautiful this time of year, and we can be home in half a day if he gets sick. I’ve read all I could find about his illness. From what the papers he brought home from the doctor’s say, his memory and motor skills should be fine, but he’ll get to where he sleeps more and more. With the medication they gave him, the tumor might stop growing, but even if it does, then six months is all they’ve given him.” She paused.

  “We’ll hope that he stays well until this wedding is over.” />
  His calm tone comforted her. Who’d have thought that a big strapping cowboy like Paxton Callahan would have such a soft heart? She was so lucky that he was her friend and that he’d jumped right in when she asked him to marry her.

  “Did you decide on how many women you’re going to have in the wedding party?”

  “Yep,” she said. “If Daddy wants a big wedding, then by damn, he’ll get one. I’m having six.” She named them off. “I don’t know any of them as well as I know their husbands. I’ve only met Levi and Claire at a couple of weddings, and Rose adores her.”

  “That’s great,” Pax replied. “Now I can ask Levi, Tag, Hud, Justin, Cade, and Maverick and not have to choose between them. They can each come down the aisle with their wives, right?”

  “Sure thing.” She didn’t care how the wedding planner set it all up, so long as her father had a good time.

  “Dealing with grief and all this at the same time must be tough,” Pax said.

  “It’s sure not easy,” she sighed.

  “I can be over there in five minutes if I jump the fence,” he said.

  “I’m on the swing in my nightshirt and shorts,” she told him.

  “I’ll be there in four,” he laughed.

  “I’ll have a beer waiting for you.” She ended the call.

  She took a minute to actually put on a pair of shorts before she went to the kitchen and got a beer out of the fridge. She was surprised to see him already sitting on the swing when she returned to the porch.

  “That was fast.” She handed him a beer and sat down on the other end of the swing.

  “I was motivated.” He smiled and took a couple of long gulps. “It don’t take long to get here when I come across the pasture. There’s a nice breeze this evening, and the moon is throwing good light, so it was a pleasant walk. Are you okay? You sounded a little frazzled on the phone.”

  “I am,” she answered. “A couple of days ago the only thing on my mind was whether I’d go to the Wild Cowboy tomorrow night. I was listening to music while I took a bath and Vince Gill started singing ‘Go Rest High on That Mountain.’ Ever since it came out, Dad has said that he wants the song sung at his funeral, and I don’t know if I can bear it.”