Cowboy Strong - Includes a bonus novella

by Carolyn Brown

  “Wonderful idea,” Iris hollered. “Welcome to Texas, Landon Griffin.”

  He had already started toward the truck, but he turned and waved at her. “Thank you. I think I’m going to like it here fine.”

  “Whew!” Pax shook his head in disbelief. “Just when I thought we’d jumped the last hurdle…”

  “There’s another one,” Alana finished the sentence for him. “But we’re proving that we do a pretty good job of getting over them if we hold hands and jump together.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  So how do you feel about this new kid brother?” Pax asked Maverick at the breakfast table the next morning.

  “When I went to sleep last night, I was mad as hell,” he said. “She threw us away like we were trash because her new husband didn’t want to raise another man’s children, or so she said. But it doesn’t take a genius to know that she never wanted us, the way she left us with Mam and Grandpa so much of the time. Then she goes and has another baby less than a year after Daddy’s death?”

  “That’s not Landon’s fault,” Bridget said as she put a platter of muffins on the table. “He didn’t even know he had brothers. I didn’t bloody well know you had secret cousins who could come out of the woodwork at any time. What are you going to do if your uncle’s kids come around wanting jobs or even handouts?”

  Bridget’s Irish accent got thicker when she was excited, but she was right. He and Maverick hadn’t talked about their cousins in years, had in fact kind of pushed them out of their minds when Teresa had forsaken them. But somewhere out there were three guy cousins and one girl who would be somewhere in the neighborhood of the same age as he and Maverick. Pax remembered a couple of them coming to visit a few times, but he hadn’t been more than five years old at the time, and he couldn’t even bring up their faces or names in his memories.

  Maverick raised a shoulder in half a shrug. “She’s right. It’s not Landon’s fault, but I have to admit that I’m glad Alana offered to house him at her place. I wasn’t real comfortable about bringing a stranger into the house.”

  “I would have protected y’all.” Iris set a platter of ham and eggs on the table. “I didn’t have a bad feeling about that kid. I kind of felt sorry for him. I knew your mama very well, and Teresa was always high maintenance as you kids call it today. She was more into her looks than her marriage to y’all’s father, and poor old Barton loved her too much to see past her narcissism. Landon had to live with her without the benefit of a brother or grandparents to help him get through it.”

  “Well, he’s close enough now that we can get to know him better,” Maverick said.

  “Which is a good thing, and we owe Alana for that.” Iris pulled out a chair and sat down.

  And I owe her for so much more than that, Pax thought as he bowed his head for Iris to say grace.

  * * *

  The wedding folks arrived on Monday morning to begin to get the basic decorations up. Alana and Matt were in and out all day, making decisions and overseeing the work with Crystal. By evening, they were dragging and decided to have fried chicken delivered to the house instead of making supper.

  Alana noticed that Matt had been sitting more than standing throughout the day, and that he often asked for spicy food when she gave him a choice. Tonight, he was content to sit in his recliner with his legs propped up, and he didn’t even turn the television on.

  “Just think, Alana. On Saturday you’re going to be a married woman,” Matt said.

  And in two weeks from that day, your official time is up, she thought. I’m praying you will be spared a little longer than that, but I don’t want you to suffer.

  “Yep, and right now I wish it was all over. I never thought that a wedding would be so much work and trouble,” she said.

  “Trouble?” Matt frowned. “Honey, this has been so exciting, and these have been the happiest days that I ever imagined. You’ve given me a reason to keep going this month. I can’t wait until all the girls are here on Thursday with their kids. It’s going to be wonderful.”

  “It’s going to be loud and noisy and crazy.” Alana almost cried when she thought about almost telling him about the whole ruse. Lately, the line between what was real and what was part of the deception had blurred more and more. “You do realize that Retta has a toddler. Claire and Emily both have sons that aren’t even crawling yet. And they’re bringing Claire’s coworker, Dixie, with them, too. She’s got a little girl who’s probably up and crawling. Bridget has promised that she’ll come over in the evenings so we can all be together. Nikki and Rose are pregnant. It’s going to be kids and women with pregnancy hormones.”

  “This house was built for a big family, and it never got to have one, so I’m going to love having the kids and the ladies here for a few days,” he said. “Hell, I’d be happy if they all moved in permanently. I can’t imagine anything better than having every bedroom in the place filled. I don’t want you to worry about cooking while they’re here, so I hired Trudy to come in on Thursday and Friday. Plus she’ll be here to help out with whatever needs done until all this is over. It’s almost here, Alana. My biggest dream is going to come true. Everything is going as planned and nothing is going to go wrong.”

  Alana giggled, and told him about the idea of putting Trudy on Rachel patrol for the wedding.

  Matt narrowed his eyes and said, “That woman had better not ruin your wedding, and I agree, Trudy would be a good choice for that job. I’ll talk to her about it, too. I never did like Rachel. She was mean to you when y’all were little girls.”

  There was something different in her father’s voice when he spoke about Trudy, and Alana asked, “Daddy, why didn’t you ever remarry?”

  “Truth is I thought about asking Trudy out five years after your mother passed away. It had been a couple of years since her husband had left her with Bobby Ray to raise all by herself, and she’s a nice-lookin’ Christian woman. But I felt like I was cheating on your mother to even think such a thing, so I didn’t. Besides, by then, you were fifteen, and we were settled into our own routine. I couldn’t make myself bring a woman and a ten-year-old boy into our home,” he answered.

  Alana battled the tears welling up behind her eyes, but she lost the fight, and she grabbed a tissue. “You gave up any hope of companionship and a second chance at love for me?”

  “And it was worth every bit of it,” he said. “That chicken better be here in five more minutes or I’m by damn going to complain that they’re doin’ false advertising. They said they’d be here in half an hour.”

  He had changed the subject to keep from crying with her, and she knew it. She wiped her eyes and said, “We’ll give them an extra five, since we live a ways out of town, but if”—she stopped in the middle of the sentence and leaned to the left so she could hear better—“I hear a car coming and there’s a truck right behind it.”

  “The truck will be Lucas. I told him to come eat with us tonight. We need to know how this new brother of Paxton’s is working out after his first day on the job,” Matt said. “Be nice if he could stay on, but if he’s as worthless as panties on a hooker, then we’ll send him packing.”

  “Daddy!” Alana exclaimed.

  “He said he’s got experience. If that’s the truth and he’s a hard worker, let him prove it, or get on down the road,” Matt said. “Don’t matter whose relative he is. I never liked that mother of his. Pax’s daddy was as blind as a bat in broad daylight when it came to that woman and couldn’t see her faults. And then she left them boys when they needed a mama. If Landon turns out to be like her, then Pax is better off not havin’ him around.”

  Lucas came in the kitchen door before Alana could reply to her father’s rant. “I got the chicken and paid the kid. Y’all come on in here and we’ll eat.”

  “Bring it in here,” Matt called out. “Alana, darlin’, grab us some drinks, would you please? Is Pax coming over tonight?”

  “That’ll be him on the porch now.” She got up from her c
hair.

  “Hey, food arrived.” She opened the door and stepped into his open arms. “Lucas is joining us.”

  “Great.” Pax kissed the top of her head. “I want to hear how Landon worked out today. Maverick and I owe you big-time for taking him in.”

  “Honey,” she whispered, “I believe giving your brother a job is nothing compared to what you’re doing for me.” She took his hand and led him into the living room, where the containers of food had already been opened on the coffee table.

  “Help yourself,” Matt said. “You’ll have to get your own beer. Me and Lucas is set and we ain’t gettin’ up.”

  “I’ll bring our drinks,” Alana said. “Lemonade?”

  “Sweet tea if you have it made,” Pax answered. “Remember, Matt, I’ve given up alcohol until…” He looked over at Lucas.

  “Until what?” Lucas asked.

  “Alana, you want to tell him?” Pax removed his hat and hung it on a lampshade.

  “I’m pregnant,” Alana said.

  Matt slapped Lucas on the back. “How about that for great news? We’d as soon it didn’t get out until after the wedding, though. We don’t want folks sayin’ that’s the reason Pax is marryin’ her.”

  Lucas let out a whoop, removed his hat, and slung it in the air. It came down from the high cathedral ceiling and landed on a pair of steer horns hanging above the sofa. “That’s the best news we’ve heard since we started talkin’ about the wedding. A baby on the ranch!! I told you that I was goin’ to live long enough to see a grandbaby, didn’t I?”

  “You sure did, and since you helped me raise Alana, I think our baby ought to call you Papa,” Matt said.

  Lucas puffed out his chest. “I would be honored to be the new baby’s papa.”

  Alana brought two glasses full of sweat tea back to the living room and sat down on the sofa beside Pax. “From all the noise, I guess Lucas knows now?”

  “Yes, I do, and congratulations to both of you. Promise I can buy the baby its first pony like I did yours,” Lucas said.

  “We’d be honored.” Pax picked up a paper plate and handed it to Alana. “How’d Landon do today?”

  “You done good, Alana, when you stole that boy from next door,” Lucas chuckled. “He’s a hard worker. I set him to stringing barbed wire. When he finished the job, he moved on down the line without bein’ told and started replacing the old wooden posts with metal ones. I wish I had a dozen like him. He’s strong as an ox and kind of quiet. He sings when he’s busy, though. Hasn’t got a voice for shit, but he seems to enjoy it.”

  “What kind of songs does he sing?” Pax asked.

  “It was George Jones today,” Lucas answered. “I asked him why a kid from California would be singing Jones, and he said there was an old foreman on the ranch where he used to stay in the summer who loved country music. He admired the old guy and hung around him as much as he could. He got to listenin’ to that kind of music and learned to like it, he said. He never even stopped stringin’ barbed wire when he answered my questions. Damn near worked me to death today, tryin’ to keep up with him. Tomorrow I’m going to give him a job and then go on about supervisin’ somewhere else. That kid don’t need bird-doggin’. He’s got the kind of ethic that you and Maverick have always had.”

  “Sounds like he’s going to do fine, then,” Pax said. “Matt, you do know that he has a business degree, don’t you? You could steal him from Lucas and get him to work in the office some of the time.”

  “Well, now, that’s even more good news,” Matt said. “This winter, when things slow down a little, you might think about that, Alana.”

  There was a lot that she’d have to think about when winter came, Alana thought, like what is the best way to take care of a new baby, how to get past the grief of losing her father. Thank God she and Pax had decided to wait on the divorce. She wanted him beside her through the next few months. No, that wasn’t right. She didn’t only want him, she needed him in her life forever.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Matt got his wish on Thursday afternoon when seven women and four children all arrived at practically the same time. The big house went from quiet to crazy in a matter of minutes. He stuck around until after Trudy served a buffet supper of lasagna, hot rolls, and salad, and then he packed a bag and headed off to the bunkhouse to join Lucas and the guys.

  Alana walked him out the back door, gave him a hug, and said, “Don’t you want to stick around for the bachelorette party? You’ve been right up in the middle of all the plans. You might want to see all the filmy, see-through nightwear the girls will give me for the honeymoon.”

  “Honey, I’m going to leave you in charge of that. My face is getting hot thinkin’ about what’s in those gift bags that are sitting on the credenza out in the foyer. Y’all have fun.” He kissed her on the cheek and disappeared into the darkness.

  She called Lucas on the way back into the house. “Hey, Daddy has left the house to us tonight. Give me a call when he gets there.”

  “We surely will,” Lucas chuckled. “We’ve invited Pax and the guys over here for a little party of our own. We’re going to play some poker and see how many bottles of Jack we can put away. Don’t worry, darlin’, I’ll be sure Pax gets home all right, and that he’s sober for the weddin’ on Saturday.”

  “If he’s not, I’m going to feed you to the coyotes,” Alana threatened.

  Lucas laughed out loud. “You’ll have to catch me first, and, honey, I’ve got lots of old women who’d love to hide me out. Here’s your dad comin’ in the door right now. You go on and enjoy your party and don’t worry about him no more.”

  “Thanks, Lucas,” she said.

  “Anytime,” Lucas said and ended the call.

  Nothing about the universe had changed. The phases of the moon were so predictable that there were charts telling when it would be full or when it would be nothing but a sliver. Stars still twinkled in the sky. The sun still came up in the east and went down in the west. But after the wedding on Saturday, nothing in Alana’s world would ever be the same. With a long sigh, she pasted on a smile and went back into the house.

  Trudy was busy putting dollops of cream cheese frosting in the middles of thumbprint cookies that were lined up on the countertop. “I thought you girls might want something a little fancy this evening, so I made these this afternoon.”

  Alana pressed her cheek against Trudy’s and gave her a side hug. “Thank you, Trudy, for everything.”

  “Honey, I’d do anything for you. Your mama was my best friend all through school. You’ve got good friends in there in the living room waiting for you. Enjoy your time with them, and I hope your marriage works out to be as good as what your folks had. Now, go enjoy your time with the girls.” Trudy stepped away and went back to squirting perfect little globs of icing on each cookie.

  “When you finish up here, come on in and join us,” Alana said.

  “Are you sure about that?” Trudy beamed.

  “Positive,” Alana told her. “Can I help you, so you’ll be done faster?”

  “Oh, no.” Trudy shook her head. “All I have to do is put these on plates and set them on the table. I made your favorite punch, so we’ll have that and the cookies as a little dessert for after you open your presents. I’ll join y’all in five minutes. Now go!” Trudy gave her a gentle little shove toward the living room.

  “Here comes our bride.” Emily smiled when Alana came into the room. “We would have planned a bigger party, but with everything happening so fast and so much distance between us, we couldn’t get it all together.”

  Alana patted her friend on the shoulder and sat down beside her. “I’m glad you’re all here, and to tell the truth, I like this intimate little gathering much better than something huge. That you came all this way and are staying with me until after the wedding is a big deal to me. It’s been a whirlwind around here this past month…and…” she stammered, “…and I only found out a few days ago that I’m pregnant.”

&
nbsp; “Congratulations!” Emily squealed.

  Alana looked around the room, her eyes landing on each of the women by turn, and she felt more love and appreciation for these wonderful friends than she ever had before.

  Emily had been her friend the longest of any of them. Tall and red haired, raised on a huge ranch not far away, the two of them had bonded as children when they traveled with their fathers to various cattle affairs. Rose, medium height, strawberry blond hair, had lived in Tulia and been Emily’s friend while she was there. When her family moved to Daisy, she and Alana had become sort-of friends. Rose’s parents had been very strict and she had never been allowed to go anywhere other than school, but Alana had liked her. The rest of the ladies, she’d gotten to know when Emily married Justin Dawson. Claire, a tiny little woman with a big attitude, had been one of Emily’s bridesmaids, and was married to Levi, the foreman at the Longhorn Canyon Ranch. Retta, a tall blonde with even more sass than Claire, was Emily’s sister-in-law, and married to Cade Dawson.

  Dixie was the youngest woman in the group, and the newest to become a part of the friendship. A few months ago, she and her daughter, Sally, had been homeless. They had taken refuge in an abandoned house that had caught on fire, and Rose’s husband, Hud, who was a volunteer fireman, had rescued them. Now, Dixie worked for Claire in the quilt shop that she owned halfway across the state in Sunset.

  Friends, becoming family, Alana was thinking when Trudy joined them. She was going to need all of them to help her get through the next few days and weeks.

  An hour later, the presents had been opened. Alana still had what appeared to be a permanent blush on her face because of all the sexy lingerie that the women had given her. Dozens of cookies had been devoured, and the babies were having a good time with all the tissue paper scattered on the floor.