Chapter 1

by Unknown

  “Yep, and I’ll go to bed frustrated, right?”

  “Not my idea at all, darlin’.”

  “I’m going to go play dominoes with Daddy and Megan.”

  “Have fun.” She yawned again and shut her eyes.

  With every nerve wound so tight that she couldn’t think of anything but sex, she didn’t think she’d fal asleep, but she did and the sun was setting when Ace awoke her with a kiss.

  “Time to wake up, Sleeping Beauty,” he whispered.

  She opened her eyes to see all seven Riley grandsons looking down at her and giggled. “I’m not Sleeping Beauty. I’m Snow White because I see the seven dwarfs.”

  “Yep.” Landon smiled. “I’m Doc since I’m the oldest, and Mark is Grumpy.”

  “Well, Luke is Sneezie since he’s allergic to everything, and Kyle has to be Happy. That boy is laughing all the time,” Mark said.

  “What about me?” Bart got into the game.

  “You are Sleepy,” Landon said.

  “Why?”

  “Because of your droopy eyes.”

  “Momma says the girls are going to like them someday,” Bart said.

  Jasmine sat up. “She’s right. They’ll tell you that you have bedroom eyes.”

  “Yuk,” Bart said and took off in the opposite direction.

  “Guess that leaves me to be Bashful,” Hunter said.

  “That’s a big lie.” Garvin laughed. His voice was at that crackle stage that came out in a high squeak part of the time and in a low growl the other. “And that only leaves Dopey for me, and I’m not dopey.”

  “I don’t remember the dwarfs fighting in the fairy tale. What is happening now?” Jasmine asked.

  “Supper and then fireworks out by the pond. Poppa already has everything set up, even the chairs,” Hunter said. “He and Uncle Garret take the boat out in the middle of the pond and set them off for us.” Jasmine raised her arms and stretched like a long, muscular wildcat. Just those movements about broke Ace’s vow he’d made to himself after they’d made love the last time. Making it until Saturday night was going to kill him graveyard dead for sure.

  Dolly brought out cold cuts and leftovers for supper and served them buffet style in the dining room.

  Everyone was free to take their plates wherever they wanted. Jasmine carried hers outside to the pal et and Ace followed.

  “Is Prince Charming aware that after he wakes the princess that they live happy ever after?” She dipped a hot dog in mustard and bit off the end.

  “He is,” Ace said. “Momma got boys, but we had to listen to her read a few girl books when we were little.”

  “So?” Jasmine swallowed and waited.

  “You believe in happy ever after?”

  She nodded. “I didn’t but I’m willing to admit I believe in the possibility. I don’t think it’s all wine and roses. I think there are speed bumps along the way.” She remembered tel ing Liz that she had to get over the speed bumps to get to her destination, which was Raylen.

  “Speed bumps? Well, Jazzy, I’m working on a speed bump right now. Think you can bear with me until Saturday night?”

  “What’s that got to do with anything?”

  “It’s a test I set up for myself. I drive very fast and I have to slow down or else I’m going to crash and burn.

  I love you. I’m in love with you, but I’m not going to make love to you until I get over this bump.”

  “Why?” she asked.

  “It’s like this, Jazzy. I’ve loved you as my best friend for a long time. Now I’m in love with you but I’ve just got to prove to myself that it’s the real thing and not a sex infatuation. It’s just until Saturday night, darlin’.

  Three more days. Will you wait until Saturday night?”

  “It won’t be easy,” she muttered.

  “No it won’t. It will be pure old hell,” he said.

  “I’ll wait.” She nodded.

  He kissed her on top of her head. “Thank you.”

  Chapter 27

  Thursday, after work at the café, Jasmine drove a hay truck, had a supper of sandwiches that Lucy brought to the field, and kept driving until midnight.

  Rain was forecast for the next day and the small bales of hay would be ruined if they got wet, so it was either get them into the barn or lose them. By the time they got the last of the bales in the barn, dark clouds were rolling in from the southwest with lightning and thunder off in the distance.

  The first raindrops fell, hitting the dry dirt and throwing up dust from the force as they were driving from the barn to the house. It was coming down hard and steady when Ace parked as close to the front yard fence as he could.

  They ran hand in hand through the rain from truck to porch.

  Ace shook his head like a dog, and water flew from his hair. “Looks like the drought is over.”

  “That one is,” Jasmine said.

  “What does that mean?”

  “It’s not Saturday night yet. Until then there’s a drought in my body. I’m going for first shower and then you guys can fight over the bathroom.” She took off before Ace could say a word.

  She made it quick and found Ace standing at the bathroom door when she came out with a towel around her head and her terry cloth robe cinched up at the waist.

  “Good night,” she said.

  “Good night, darlin’,” Ace said.

  She tried to go to sleep, but it was impossible. She sat up when Ace came into the bedroom and wished he was naked, but he wore boxers and a gauze undershirt that hugged his muscles, tempting her to reach out and touch his tight abs and broad chest. She laced her fingers together in her lap.

  “Cuddle with me,” he said as he slipped beneath the covers.

  “That all?” she asked.

  “For tonight. I miss holding you at night, Jazzy.” She snuggled up in his arms and sighed. Five hours until she had to crawl out of a bed that felt so good and so right and go back to the café. And she’d gladly spend all five of them in hot sex rather than sleep. She’d never felt like that with another man, not ever! All she could think about was Ace, his smile, his hair, his kisses, his hands on her body.

  “Thank you,” Ace said wearily.

  “For cuddling? My pleasure.” She laid a hand on his chest and settled into the crook of his arm even tighter.

  “For that, for your patience in this other drought, and for helping us with the hay. We wouldn’t have got it in without you driving an extra truck,” he said.

  The rain hit the windows and the wind roared.

  “Got ’em in just in time. I enjoyed helping, Ace.

  Reckon we’re in for a tornado?” she asked.

  “Sounds like a hard rainstorm, not a tornado,” he said.

  “They do sound different, don’t they?”

  “Jazzy, you know I love you.”

  She didn’t answer. He waited, but all that answered him was soft snores that reminded him of a kitten purr-ing. He shut his eyes and sighed.

  Dalton and Blake moved back to the Riley ranch on Friday while Jasmine ran the café. Lucy cleaned their rooms thoroughly, and when Jasmine got home that evening her mother, father, and Grandma Dale were already there.

  Grandma and Lucy were in the kitchen with cookbooks lined up from one end of the table to the other.

  Kel y had driven to Bowie to pick up tablecloths and paper goods for the next day, and Walt had gone with Ace to Wichita Falls to buy everything they needed to work cattle on Monday after the party.

  “Grandma! I didn’t know you were coming.” Jasmine crossed the kitchen floor in a few easy strides and gave her a big hug.

  “I couldn’t stay away and I had to meet the man that finally got you to the altar. I like him. He’s a fine young man besides being pret y. He’l make pret y babies,” Grandma said. “Don’t you roll your eyes at me, girl. I don’t care if you are thirty. I can still take you down.” Jasmine smiled. Her grandmother wasn’t quite five feet tall, had a mop of kinky gray hair that Kiz
zy Jane made popular back when Roots was popular, and wouldn’t weigh a hundred pounds soaking wet with rocks in her pockets.

  “I don’t doubt it, and Ace is pretty. And Grandma,” she leaned down and whispered, “he’s sexy, too.”

  “Hell yes, he’s sexy. That boy would make your

  great aunt Rosalee’s underbritches wet, and honey, she’s a preacher.”

  Jasmine giggled and pulled out a chair. “What have you two found to cook for tomorrow?”

  “We’ve about decided. Grandma’s been tellin’ me stories.” Lucy winked.

  “And I like Lucy. Don’t ever get rid of her,” Grandma said. “I don’t intend to,” Jasmine said.

  “Well, I’m tellin’ you if you do, then there’s going to be trouble in our quarters.” Grandma’s eyes were barely slits.

  “You pickin’ a fight with me?” Jasmine asked.

  “Nope. Just gettin’ things said before your momma gets home and can’t no one get a word in edgewise.

  She’s off to get tablecloths and centerpieces and all kinds of tomfoolery. She always did like to fancy things up. That comes from my sister. She liked things like that,” Grandma said.

  “I ain’t sayin’ a word. She can do whatever she wants since she didn’t get her wedding,” Jasmine said.

  “That was the biggest bit of horseshit I ever heard.

  You was already married and it was done with. I’m glad you stood up to her and said that you wasn’t goin’ through with it. Now, me and Lucy has decided on makin’ two of these things here with the bananas and whipped cream and strawberries and cream cheese layered up with pound cake on the bottom. That way we can do them early tomorrow and they’ll keep in the

  ’frigerator until Sunday. Then Saturday we’re makin’

  chocolate sheet cakes, a couple of cobblers, and some cookies. How’s that sound?”

  Lucy smiled and held up her list. “Grandma has it all organized and we can use the oven in the house and the two out in the bunkhouse. I’m making soup on top of the stove tomorrow. Two kinds: vegetable and tortilla.”

  “Don’t guess y’all need me then. I’m going to take a bath,” Jasmine said.

  “That’s what you need to do. You’ll be relaxed when your momma comes in here all in a tear tryin’ to boss everyone around. Don’t let her rile you, Jasmine. It’s just her way. She loves you and wants the best for you,” Grandma said.

  Jasmine kissed her on the top of her silver curls. “I know. I’ll be back in a little while. Y’all are doin’ great, and believe me, I wouldn’t let Lucy go for nothing.” She’d barely sunk down in the tub when Ace poked his head in the door.

  “Hey,” he said.

  “Come on in and talk to me.”

  He eased inside and shut the door behind him. “Want some company in that tub?”

  “Sure, but the sex drought would be over if I see you naked,” she said. “Want to talk to me about it?”

  “No, ma’am. I’m saving it for tomorrow night. I’ll pick you up at work.”

  “But we have guests,” she said.

  “No, we have family. They’re going to be so busy getting things done that they won’t even know we’ve run away for an hour. Three o’clock and, Jazzy, wear that pretty sundress you wore to church last Sunday for me.”

  “Okay, want to tell me why?”

  “No, that’s just what I want you to wear. Now lean up and I’ll wash your back and your hair for you. Walt told me today that he still wants your café. He says it’s all he thinks about and that your momma is already talkin’

  about selling their house in Sherman and building something in Ringgold, not too far from the café, maybe even out back of it if they could buy a couple of acres. She’s even looking into making a garden so there would be fresh vegetables for the café.”

  “Dammit! I’ve got water in my ears. I didn’t hear what I thought I did, did I? I can’t even begin to imagine my mother in a garden,” Jasmine said.

  “Grandma Dale says that she’d probably be good at it, that whatever she sets her head to, she can do.” Ace poured water through Jasmine’s hair and lathered it up with shampoo. “I love your hair. It’s like holding strands of silk in my hands.”

  The door to the bathroom was shut and locked, but even the air changed when Kelly got back to the ranch.

  She came in talking about her fantastic finds and asking Lucy and Grandma to help her make silk arrangements after supper that night.

  “Don’t tense up,” Ace said. “Lean forward and let me rinse your hair and put in that conditioner stuff. Then I’ll wash and massage your back. Just remember someday you’ll be a momma.”

  “You are good for me as well as good to me, Ace Riley.”

  “Right back atcha, darlin’.”

  Saturday went by in a blur. Kelly called in the middle of the morning to ask about the flower arrangements she was making for the tables and to talk about the wedding cake table. Did Jasmine want a punch bowl on one and the cake on the other with a big arrangement in the middle? Or did she want the cake in the middle flanked by the punch bowl and the arrangement? Kelly had to have an answer right away so she’d know how big to make the arrangement.

  “Momma, I trust your judgment. You make it. I’ll love it,” Jasmine said.

  “Thank you, Jasmine Marie. I appreciate that. Your dad is in the kitchen with Lucy and Grandma. I swear he looks strange wearing an apron, but I’ve fallen in love with him all over again in the last few weeks. Please think about selling us the café. We need something to keep this retired- type love alive and I think the café would do it,” Kelly said.

  “I won’t sell it to anyone else,” Jasmine promised.

  Finally, at two o’clock Jasmine locked the doors.

  Bridget raced through her afternoon chores and was out by two fifteen, leaving Jasmine forty- five minutes to shower and get dressed.

  She was more nervous than she’d been at the Vegas hotel when she dressed for the wedding. Ace had something big up his sleeve. She could feel it and couldn’t, for the life of her, figure it out. She took a quick shower to wash away the sweat and cooking odors, used a dryer on her hair, and ran an iron over the dress she’d worn on Sunday. Shoes, boots, or sandals? The choice was there in front of her. She tried on a high- heeled shoe and a sandal and stood in front of the mirror. She kicked off the high heel and replaced it with the white cowboy boot she’d worn when she married Ace.

  She checked her reflection in the mirror and decided on the boot.

  She was walking down the stairs when she looked down and saw Ace staring up at her.

  “Well?” she asked.

  “You look beautiful. Love the boots. Are you ready?” He wore a pair of creased jeans stacked up over his best Sunday boots and the same shirt he’d worn Sunday.

  When he hugged her she got a whiff of Stetson, and a dot of blood on his jawline testified that he’d just shaved.

  “You look pretty damn sexy yourself, cowboy. I have no idea if I’m ready because I don’t know what we are doing, but I’m putting my hand in yours, Ace, and trusting you,” she said.

  “That means a lot to me today, Jazzy.” He laced his fingers in hers and led her out to the truck where he tucked her safely into the passenger’s seat and whistled al the way around the truck. He turned north instead of south when he backed out onto the highway, then back to the west on Highway 82, went a few blocks, and turned back north.

  “Where are we going?” she asked.

  “Just another minute.” He pulled into the empty church parking lot and got out of the truck.

  “We’re going to the church?” she asked when he opened her door.

  He looped her arm in his. “Yes, ma’am.”

  The front door was open but the church was eerily quiet.

  “Ace?” she asked.

  “To the front,” he said.

  When they reached the pulpit, he dropped down on one knee and looked up at Jasmine. “Jasmine King Riley, I love you and I’m in
love with you. I’ve wanted you all week, but I had to be sure that I needed you as well. Want and need are two different critters. They’re as far apart as black and white. Want is instant gratification. Need goes deeper. It’s something that comes from the soul, not the body. And I need you in my life and in my heart to be whole. So I’m askin’ you to marry me, Jasmine, right here in this church, right now.” Tears welled up behind her eyelashes. “Yes, Ace, I will marry you.”

  He picked up a faded velvet box from the front pew and snapped it open. “I’ve already given you a wedding ring, but on this day of our real marriage, I want to give you the pearls that Granny wore the day she married Gramps.”

  Tears streamed down her face. “Oh, Ace, they are beautiful.”

  Ace stood up, wiped away the tears with a clean white handkerchief he pulled from his pocket, and gently kissed her eyelids. He removed the pearls, fastened them around her neck, and said, “With these pearls, I promise to give you my love, my respect, and devotion for the rest of our lives. I promise to be faithful and to love you with my whole heart, not only in this life but for all eternity.”

  She swallowed hard and touched the string of aged pearls around her neck. “Ace Riley, I accept the pearls and promise to give you my love, respect, and devotion for the rest of our lives. And I promise to cherish these pearls as much as our love, to be faithful and love you forever.”

  “And now I can kiss my bride,” he said.

  She slipped her arms around his neck and he sealed their marriage with a kiss full of love and passion.

  “Honeymoon will have to wait until fall when things slow down,” he said as they walked together down the aisle.

  “Honeymoon, darlin’, begins tonight in our bedroom at the ranch and will go through our whole lives. And Ace, tomorrow at the reception, I’m selling my café to Momma and Daddy. I’m ready to be a full- time rancher’s wife,” she said.

  He stopped and hugged her to his chest. “I’m the luckiest man on earth.”

  “Tell me that after we have five daughters.” She laughed.

  He graced her with his sexiest grin. “Fine by me. Five daughters and five sons. Maybe we’ll start tonight?” She giggled and he scooped her up like a bride and carried her to the truck.