* * *
WYATT HAD NEVER thought he’d settle down, much less get his own happy ending. But here he was, married and at their wedding reception.
Frankie looked so beautiful and radiant it had made his throat hurt, and he’d had to swallow back tears when she’d walked down the aisle.
It had been a shock to see her walking with her dad. No wonder she looked so happy. He figured that meant they’d made amends. The perfect gift for her, today of all days.
When the minister had pronounced them husband and wife, Johnny had run up to them and thrown his arms around Wyatt. “Now can I call you Daddy?” he’d blurted loud enough for everyone to hear.
The reception in full swing, Wyatt looked around at everyone having a good time. He gazed at Frankie as she laughed with Isabella, the dragon assistant who had flown out for the wedding. Isabella had apologized to him for forgetting to give Frankie the envelope that night. He’d said it was over and done, and at least they were together now.
Johnny ran up to him, another s’mores cupcake in his hand. He and Frankie had decided to surprise Johnny with his favorite dessert, and the kid had been so excited he’d dropped the first one.
“How many of those have you had, bud?” Wyatt asked, grabbing a napkin and wiping Johnny’s mouth.
“I dunno, Daddy,” Johnny mumbled around a mouthful.
“You might want to slow down. I promise we’ll have some left over.” He crouched down to Johnny’s level. “And I betcha Mrs. Green would make more if we do run out.”
Johnny grinned, then smacked Wyatt’s cheek with a kiss and ran off to find Maddy.
He stood up just as Frankie walked up to him and started to kiss him, then pulled back. She picked up a napkin and wiped his cheek. “Chocolate. Johnny?” She laughed.
“Yup. I hope he doesn’t have a stomachache later. That would ruin the sleepover with the cousins.”
“Not to mention our wedding night,” Frankie whispered in his ear.
Her lips tickled his ear, and it was all he could do not to snatch her away right now and start their wedding night early. They’d hardly had any time alone since the week before when she and Johnny arrived.
And now that she truly was his wife, he wanted her with a passion he’d never experienced until now. When they’d had their first dance a short time ago, he’d ached for her. She’d brushed against him, then smiled that siren smile she saved only for him. And she’d whispered in his ear what she wanted to do as soon as they reached his—their—cabin.
Before he could try to convince her to sneak out, Frankie got pulled away to talk to someone else.
And he mentally ticked down the seconds till they could leave.
“Hey, bro,” Hunter said and swung an arm around Wyatt’s neck. “You are one lucky dude to have such a good-lookin’ bride.”
“You ready to settle down again?” Wyatt asked him.
“Hell, no. I’m having too much fun being single.”
Wyatt looked at his youngest brother—there was something odd in his tone. “You sure about that?”
Hunter grinned, toasted Wyatt with his beer bottle. “You bet. Footloose and fancy-free. So I’m going to go talk to that woman from Frankie’s office.” He peeled off and walked toward Isabella.
Wyatt looked around and found Frankie. “Can we go yet? I want to take you home and make you mine for good,” he whispered in her ear.
She smiled, then leaned in and brushed a kiss across his mouth. “Yes. Bunny just told me it’s time to throw the bouquet so we can leave.”
The DJ’s call for all the single women to gather around the dance floor had them squealing and rushing forward. Even Isabella looked excited about joining in. She and Hunter had just started talking, but she edged away toward the group of singles.
And just like that, Wyatt flashed back to Nash’s wedding a couple months ago. Wyatt had been talking to a woman as Kelsey threw her bouquet. It had hit him in the head, and he’d reflexively caught the flowers.
When he realized what had happened, he’d tried to get Kelsey to rethrow it, but she refused.
And now he was married.
He grinned, watching Frankie prepare to throw her own bouquet.
It had worked out just fine, him catching that fated bouquet. No complaints from his corner. Nope. None at all.
“Three, two, one!” Frankie hollered and tossed it over her head.
He watched the flowers sailing through the air almost as if they were in slow motion, turquoise ribbons trailing like a kite tail.
Hunter turned around, holding a piece of paper out toward Isabella, and the flowers landed in his outstretched hand.
Wyatt started laughing as Hunter stared at them, a look of horror on his face.
“Frankie!” Hunter yelled. “Do it over!”
She linked her arm with Wyatt’s. “No way, brother. You’re next!” she called.
Wyatt couldn’t stop laughing, and tears gathered in his eyes. He wiped them away with his thumb.
“What’s so funny?” Frankie asked.
“Fate, Frankie. Fate.”
He’d gone from a rebellious cowboy to a groom, all because of a bouquet of flowers that hit him in the head, and the pit of mud Frankie had fallen in that first day.
In that moment, as he took her hand to walk out of the reception, he knew, without a doubt, he’d never been happier in his life.
* * * * *
If you loved this book, look for the previous book in Allison B. Collins’s Cowboys to Grooms series:
A Family for the Rancher
Available now at Harlequin.com!
Keep reading for an excerpt from The Texas Cowboy's Triplets by Cathy Gillen Thacker
Join Harlequin My Rewards today and earn a FREE ebook!
Click here to Join Harlequin My Rewards
http://www.harlequin.com/myrewards.html?mt=loyalty&cmpid=EBOOBPBPA201602010003
If you loved this story from
Harlequin® Western Romance
be sure to discover more heartfelt tales of family,
friendship and love from
Harlequin® Special Edition.
Romance is for life, and these stories show that
every chapter in a relationship has its challenges
and delights and that love can be
renewed with each turn of the page!
Look for six new romances every month.
Connect with us on Harlequin.com for info on our new releases, access to exclusive offers, free online reads and much more!
Other ways to keep in touch:
Harlequin.com/newsletters
Facebook.com/HarlequinBooks
Twitter.com/HarlequinBooks
HarlequinBlog.com
Join Harlequin My Rewards and reward the book lover in you!
Earn points for every Harlequin print and ebook you buy, wherever and whenever you shop.
Turn your points into FREE BOOKS of your choice
OR
EXCLUSIVE GIFTS from your favorite authors or series.
Click here to join for FREE
Or visit us online to register at
www.HarlequinMyRewards.com
Harlequin My Rewards is a free program (no fees) without any commitments or obligations.
The Texas Cowboy’s Triplets
by Cathy Gillen Thacker
Chapter One
“Guess my legendary Texas charm finally paid off.”
Dan McCabe didn’t know how true those words might have been if Kelly Shackleford had been in the market for a man in her life. Thankfully for both of them, she wasn’t.
Reassuring herself that she was not on a fool’s errand, Kelly emerged from her SUV and sauntered toward the irrepressible lawman slash cowboy. Sizing him up all the while. Six feet four inches. M
esmerizing blue eyes. Thick dark hair. A body to die for. And a face so ruggedly handsome it nearly took her breath away.
“What makes you think that?” she asked, stopping just short of where he appeared to be working on extending the height of the fence on some kind of livestock pen. He lifted a fistful of T-shirt and wiped the sweat from his face, giving her an all too brief but tantalizing view of his powerful pecs and taut abs. As the fabric dropped to his waist, she caught a mouthwatering glimpse of the dark strip of hair that arrowed down into the fly of his faded jeans.
He waited until her gaze returned to his eyes before he answered her question with a lazy grin, “You came all the way out to my new ranch to see me.”
Desperate times called for desperate measures.
Her heart skittering in her chest, Kelly returned his flirtatious smile. “You’re right. I did,” she murmured, regarding him innocently.
Apparently her false cordiality struck a chord in him. A wrong one. He eyed her skeptically. “Any particular reason why?”
She tightened her fingers on her car keys. “You’ve been saying we should get to know each other better. I’ve decided you’re right.” She flushed beneath the intensity of his gaze, took a deep breath, and plunged on. “Becoming better acquainted could be beneficial to both of us.” And, more importantly, to others as well.
A brief silence fell, in which she feared that he was going to see her awkward explanation as an open invitation to try to sweet-talk her into the one thing he’d been wanting from her, ever since she had moved to Laramie, Texas, the summer before.
A real date.
“I see.” He flashed her an enticing smile. “Is this going to happen before or after you go out with me?”
Kelly tore her eyes from the sensual shape of his lower lip and gave him an exasperated look. “Now, Dan, we’ve been over that.”
She’d fallen hard and fast for a sexy cowboy from a wealthy family once before. Only to be dumped just before giving birth to triplets. No way was she opening herself up to further heartbreak. Never mind with one of the most eligible—and sought after—bachelors in the county.
“We have.” He turned and went back to pounding tall metal stakes into the ground on the outside of the existing pen fence, then slanted her a glance over his brawny shoulder. “But never to my satisfaction.”
Darn it all, the man was persistent. Not that there was any surprise there. Dan McCabe was a man who was used to getting what he wanted, when he wanted it. The fact he hadn’t been able to add her to his growing stable of former “dates” had no doubt frustrated him to no end.
Reluctantly, she moved with him as he worked his way around the perimeter of the entire pen. Then, with a long-suffering sigh, she reiterated what she told him every time the subject came up. “I’m open to being friends.”
Finished, he picked up a roll of metal mesh. “So am I, as long as that means we get to go out, too.”
When he briefly had trouble attaching the mesh to a tall post with a zip tie, she impulsively stepped in to help him. And just as swiftly regretted it because working together left them in such close proximity.
She swallowed, hard, shook her head, ready to step back. “That can’t happen.”
He slanted her a glance that was so genuinely appreciative she felt compelled to keep right on assisting him. “Because you work full time,” he echoed.
“Yes,” she said, drinking in the earthy male scent of him. Why was that so hard to understand? Why did everyone think she needed a man in her life to be happy?
He moved down the line, quickly securing the fencing while she held it against the post. “And are the mother to rambunctious three-year-old triplets.”
None of whom he’d met yet.
Aware of the heat emanating from his big, tall body, she said, “Precisely.”
He moved a little farther down the line. “And you’re not looking for passion. You want love.”
“Whoa now.” She lifted a hand. Their gazes clashed, then held in a way that had the hot June air between them sizzling. “I never said that.”
“Don’t have to.” Sheer male confidence radiated from him. “The thing is, I’m not looking for a one-night stand or a casual affair, either.”
“So you’ve said.” Unable to decide whether he looked sexier in cowboy clothing or a tan law-enforcement uniform, Kelly continued, reminding him, “Every time you asked me out.”
“That is true.” He shrugged affably and continued working quickly and efficiently around the last of the perimeter. “It’s why I bought this ten-acre property with a family-size home.”
And Kelly couldn’t help but note that the Bowie Creek Ranch property was gorgeous, with its sprawling ranch house and terrain that was a mixture of rolling grass and woods. “Now all you need is a wife and kids to fill it up. Although—” she turned, looking off into the distance “—I see you’ve already got a collie.” Who was absolutely beautiful. The original Lassie, come to life.
“His name is Shep,” Dan informed her.
She squinted to see what the canine appeared to be running around. “And a herd of...goats?”
“Six miniature ones.”
She turned so suddenly her shoulder bumped his. Tingling at the contact, she stepped back. “May I ask why?” Having grown up on a cattle and horse ranch nearby, with two parents and five siblings, he likely had enough cowboy in him to last a lifetime. But she had never imagined the tall native Texan to want to be a shepherd.
“Shep is mine. I rescued him as a puppy two years ago when I first moved back here from Chicago. The goats came with the property,” he explained. “The family that lived here had to move back to Great Britain for the dad’s work, and the goats weren’t allowed to go with, so I had to promise to not only find them good loving homes, but care for them until I do.”
No surprise there. The McCabes were gallant to the core. “Which is why you’re building a fence?”
He sighed. “They keep escaping the pen they were using. As you can see, the original walls are only four feet high. Apparently they need to be at least five feet, so I decided to be extra safe and make it six until I can find them all suitable homes. Then I plan to just take the entire structure down.”
That made a lot more sense.
Aware they were at the end, and he no longer needed her help, Kelly stepped back. She gazed at the collie racing back and forth in the grass next to the woods. “Why is Shep barking at that goat?”
Dan grinned proudly. “I trained him to herd them back toward the enclosure. The doe he’s chasing is getting a little too far away.”
Doe? Kelly squinted. “You can tell the sex from this distance?”
“They’re all female.” Dropping his tools into the box at their feet, he caught her semi-amused look. “I know. I’m surrounded.” His soft laugh was infectious and oh so sexy. “Why, even you...”
Kelly groaned, refusing to let herself be drawn in by his irresistible charm. “Don’t start.” His constant quips had her smiling and had a way of leading her way offtrack.
“So...” A twinkle appeared in Dan’s eyes. He let his gaze drift over her in another long, thoughtful survey. “Let me get this straight. You want us to become better acquainted, but you don’t want me to flirt with you?”
Only because of where it would inevitably lead. “No,” she said blithely. “I don’t.”
He took a moment to consider that. Then, seeming to know intuitively she was fibbing about her ever-escalating attraction to him, he opened the gate wide and whistled a command to Shep. Immediately his dog began rounding up the goats and pushing them toward the enclosure.
Dan turned back to Kelly. Serious now, as he asked, “So why do you want to get to know me better, if you don’t plan to accept any one of my ten invitations for an evening out? ’Cause I have to tell you, Kelly, I’m really not interested in
being ‘just friends.’”
She knew that, too. Which left her only one option. Distract—with facts.
“Actually, Dan,” she countered, doing her best to put the brakes on his shameless flirting with a haughty lift of her chin, “you asked me out seven times. Not ten.”
“Ah.” He stood with his arms folded across his chest and regarded her smugly. “So you’re counting, too.” The corners of his sensual lips turned up.
Darn him for pointing that out!
Kelly ignored what that might mean. With effort, she met his probing blue gaze. Realizing the time had come to lay all her cards on the table, said, “I’m here because I need a favor. And,” more importantly still, “I’d really like it to come from you.”
* * *
WHATEVER THIS REQUEST WAS, it was serious. And from the looks of it, highly confidential, as well. “Okay,” he concurred, immediately sobering and calling on the gentlemanly good manners that had been instilled in him since youth. Aware it was uncomfortably hot outdoors, he pointed to the house. “Would you rather go inside to talk?”
Kelly shook her head, looking more beautiful than ever, and he felt his senses kicking into high gear. It wasn’t just the delicate physical perfection of every inch of her that constantly captured and held his attention. It was the way she moved—with a kind of sultry, inherent grace. The way her lips curled up softly when she was happy, and the way her chin tilted stubbornly when she was not. She was all energy, all woman. And the slender curves that were hidden beneath a loose-fitting pink cotton shirt and faded jeans—along with her cloud of shoulder-length caramel blond hair and pretty amber eyes—made it impossible for him to look away.
“No. Out here is fine.” She rocked back on the heels of her sneakers and peered at him intently, her guard up once again. “But first, I want to make sure whatever I do say to you will be held in the strictest confidence. The same way it would be if I went to a doctor or lawyer or minister.”
Disappointment tightened his gut. “So you’re coming to me in my capacity as an officer of the law?” He had a miserable sense of history repeating itself.
Falling for the Rebel Cowboy Page 19