“Hi. I saved you a seat next to me.” She cleared her throat. “I’m sure all of you know Dirk, uh, Doc Adams, by now.”
Dolan laughed. “Of course we do. This is Mercy Ridge, remember?” He stuck out his hand and shook Dirk’s, and then Chad whomped him good-naturedly on the back.
“How’s your practice doing now?” Barb heard Mike ask him quietly as he reached across the table and shook Dirk’s hand. “I heard some ranchers talking about ‘the new guy’ when you first got here.”
“Yeah.” Dirk sighed. “Customers are gradually warming up to natural medicine, but not all of them. Some of the older guys, like Doc Nick, probably never will. And for them, I just use the tried and true methods they’re used to.”
“So Bar...b,” Jennifer drawled out her name. “We wondered when you’d admit it.”
Barb feigned innocence. “Admit what?”
“Barb, sorry, that won’t work. Chad and I didn’t say anything, but everyone knew about you two.” Kristin smiled.
“That obvious, huh?”
The other women nodded. Tessa giggled. “You’re always together.”
Barb ignored the comment. “I have an announcement to make.” She tapped on her glass of orange juice with her fork to draw their attention. “I’m no longer head wrangler at the Saddle Up.”
She heard a couple gasps and Tessa put a comforting hand on hers. “Oh Barb.”
“Okay, maybe I put that wrong. I’ll still be the head wrangler for a while...but also... part-owner.” She couldn’t help grinning as she looked around the table, encouraged by the smiles on her friend’s faces. “Since Mr. Taylor’s stroke, the Taylors decided they should retire. Mom and I are selling our ranch. Eventually, we’ll buy the Taylors out.”
“So, you and your mom will run the dude ranch by yourselves?” Tessa asked.
Barb turned and looked at the counter, where Bobbie Jo sat on a stool smiling, with Bob next to her.
“Not if I can help it,” Bob answered for her, and everyone laughed.
Dirk stood from his chair. “Well, now that all of you are here, Barb’s best friends in the world...” Then he got down on one knee.
Barb grabbed his arm and hissed in his ear, “What are you doing?”
“Barbara Sessions, will you do me the honor of being my wife?” He held out a diamond ring.
“What? How can you afford that? You have student loans and the practice and—”
Dirk put a hand on her arm. “Babe, just answer the question,” he said quietly just for her.
She looked over at her mother, who stood there, with tears in her eyes, a smile on her face and Bob’s arm around her shoulders. She realized the room had grown suddenly hushed as though everyone in the diner awaited her answer. Then Barb turned back to the man she’d come to love.
“Well, hel—I mean, heck yeah!”
As Dirk placed the ring on her finger, and enveloped her in a bear hug, she barely heard the sound of cheers from the room.
“Welcome to a lifetime membership at The Pancake Club,” she whispered to Dirk and sealed the deal with a kiss.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jennifer Conner
Jennifer Conner is a best-selling Northwest author who has sixty short stories, books, and audiobooks. She writes in Christmas Romance, Contemporary Romance, Paranormal Romance, Historical Romance, and Erotica.
She has hit Amazon’s top fifty authors ranking and her books have been #1 in sales.
Her novel Shot in the Dark was a finalist in the Emerald City Opener, Cleveland, and Toronto RWA contests.
Jennifer is an Associate Publisher for the indie e-book publisher, Books to Go Now who resides in the Seattle area. They pride themselves in helping new authors get their foot in the door with well-edited manuscripts, professional covers, and platforms uploads.
She live in a hundred year old house that she grew up in. Her semi-small town holds an interesting mix of resident hillbillies, yuppies and Navy Seals. And of course Seattle, only a few miles away, is the birthplace of Starbucks so coffee is always on the check list. She blows glass beads with a blow torch, (which relieves a lot of stress and people don’t bother you) and is a huge fan of musicals.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JW STACKS
J.W. Stacks is a librarian by day and an airship captain by night. She’s has been writing for over ten years but has just recently decided to try hia hand at fiction. Please make sure your goggles are fastened securely and that you keep your hands, bonnets and handkerchiefs inside the vehicle at all times - this will be a turbulent ride.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MARILYN CONNER MILES
Marilyn began writing as soon as she could print. Her first career was in the transportation industry, working for the airlines. Her second career was in advertising, marketing and promotions. Currently a freelance editor, Marilyn lives with her husband and cat in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains in southwest Washington State, where she watches horses and deer and sometimes owls from her home office window.
Books to Go Now
You can find more stories such as this at www.bookstogonow.com
If you enjoy this Books to Go Now story please leave a review for the author on a review site which you purchased the ebook. Thanks!
We pride ourselves with representing great stories at low prices. We want to take you into the digital age offering a market that will allow you to grow along with us in our journey through the new frontier of digital publishing.
Some of our favorite award-winning authors have now joined us. We welcome readers and writers into our community.
We want to make sure that as a reader you are supplied with never-ending great stories. As a company, Books to Go Now, wants its readers and writers supplied with positive experience and encouragement so they will return again and again.
We want to hear from you. Our readers and writers are the cornerstone of our company. If there is something you would like to say or a genre that you would like to see, please email us at [email protected]
The Pancake Club Anthology Page 12