by Lori Wilde
Gracie had surprised Becky just that morning when she arrived at the ranch without a wheelchair. She still needed to use a walker, but Gracie walking was the best wedding present Becky could’ve asked for.
“You can still change your mind, little girl.”
She glanced over at her daddy, who looked extremely handsome in his tux. He also looked sad. He might be bossy, but she knew he loved her and was going to miss ordering her around. She straightened his bow tie. “I’m not going to change my mind.”
“Well, you should. You’ve known the man for less than a month and now you’re going to spend the rest of your life with him. That’s just plain crazy.”
Becky leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “You know I’ve always been a little crazy, Daddy.”
The wedding march started. Her daddy rolled his eyes and held out his arm. “Then let’s get this show on the road.”
But when she moved into the aisle and saw the groom, she started to second-guess her decision to get married so quickly. With his dark hair slicked back and dressed in an expensive designer tux, Mason looked like he belonged on the cover of a magazine. He did not look like he belonged in a simple white chapel getting ready to marry a stubborn cowgirl.
But then his dark eyes met hers. And in them she saw love and happiness. The same love and happiness that filled her heart. She released her daddy’s arm and strode straight down the aisle to the man she loved with all her heart. He laughed, something he’d done a lot of lately.
“So I guess you’re ready to be my bride.”
She lifted her chin and sent him a saucy look. “I was born ready.”
The ceremony didn’t take long, and before she knew it, she was Mrs. Mason Samuel Granger. They left the church, only to walk a few yards away to the tent that had been set up in the open field. The tent was as pink as the chapel. But regardless of the decorations, her mama had done a wonderful job.
Salmon was on the menu, but so were steak and barbecue. Ms. Marble had made the five-tier wedding cake with a chocolate layer just for Mason and a strawberry one for Becky. And the country music and margarita fountain didn’t stop flowing . . . until the rainstorm hit.
After weeks of heat, it wasn’t a curse as much as a blessing. The people of Bliss didn’t hesitate to enjoy it. Disregarding their wedding finery, they walked right out of the tent and into the cooling summer rain where they danced around like a bunch of crazy Texans.
Mason and Becky were right in the middle of the mayhem. Although after only one dance, Becky’s dress became so heavy she could barely kick up her pink boots. Seeing her dilemma, Mason swept her up in his arms and carried her to his SUV. When they drove under the new scrolled-metal gate of the Double G Ranch, Becky couldn’t help feeling a little guilty.
“I hope Gracie wasn’t lying when she said she wasn’t upset about us living in the house and starting our own ranch.”
Mason brought her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “When I talked to her at the reception, she told me it was never her dream to live here. She just wanted to make sure Lucy’s secret was kept and the diary remained in the house.” He winked at her. “I didn’t tell her that you snuck the diary out weeks ago.”
Becky laughed. “Right. And exactly when did I have time to do that? Every time I’ve been at the house, I can’t seem to get out of your bed.”
She thought he would make a suggestive remark, instead he looked stunned. “You didn’t take the diary?”
Her heart sank. “You’re not kidding? It’s gone? Lucy’s diary is gone?”
Mason parked in front of the porch. “Now calm down. I’m sure—”
She didn’t let him finish before she jumped out and hurried through the rain. It was dark inside the house, but she didn’t waste time turning on a light. She knelt in the corner and removed the boards, then reached down between the floor joists for the wooden box. She opened it to find the diary all safe and sound.
Mason strode into the room. “I realize you’re upset, Rebecca. And I take full responsibility.” He walked to the nightstand and switched on the lamp. “I should’ve put it back in the floor. I just didn’t think anyone else knew about—” He turned and froze when he saw the diary in her hands. “It’s there? But someone took it from under my pillow, and when I looked in the floor, the box was empty. Now why would someone take it and then return it?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe once they read it, they decided to keep Lucy’s secret too.”
Mason helped her to her feet. “Well, we’re not going to take another chance. We’ll need to figure out a more secure place to keep it before we go back to Austin to close down my practice.” He took the diary from her and set it on the nightstand before he pulled her into his arms. “Are you sure you’re okay with being away from Bliss for a couple months?”
She hooked her arms around his neck. “Are you sure you’re okay with moving here forever and being a rancher’s husband? Being an attorney in a small town won’t be nearly as exciting as being a divorce lawyer in a big city. People don’t get a lot of divorces here.”
He hugged her tighter. “I’m counting on that. Whether you like it or not, Mrs. Granger, you’re stuck with me.”
“There’s no other honeybee I’d rather be stuck with.” She smiled wickedly. “Now get your silk tie . . . please.”
Katie Lane is a USA Today Bestselling author of the Deep in the Heart of Texas, Hunk for the Holidays, Overnight Billionaires, and Tender Heart Texas series. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with her cute cairn terrier Roo and her even cuter husband Jimmy.
For more info about her writing life or just to chat
@katielanebook
katielaneauthor
www.katielanebooks.com
If you enjoyed Falling for a Texas Hellion, be sure to check out the other books in Katie Lane’s Tender Heart Texas Series!
Falling for Tender Heart
Falling Head Over Boots
And coming soon . . . Falling for a Cowboy’s Smile
Other series by Katie Lane
Deep in the Heart of Texas:
Going Cowboy Crazy
Make Mine a Bad Boy
Catch Me a Cowboy
Trouble in Texas
Flirting with Texas
A Match Made in Texas
The Last Cowboy in Texas
My Big Fat Texas Wedding (novella)
Overnight Billionaires:
A Billionaire Between the Sheets
A Billionaire After Dark
Waking up with a Billionaire
Hunk for the Holidays:
Hunk for the Holidays
Ring in the Holidays
Unwrapped
Anthologies:
Small Town Christmas (Jill Shalvis, Hope Ramsay, Katie Lane)
All I Want for Christmas is a Cowboy (Jennifer Ryan, Emma Cane, Katie Lane)
When Things Got Hot in Texas (Lori Wilde, Christie Craig, Cynthia D’Alba, Laura Drake, Katie Lane)
Praise for Cynthia D’Alba’s Work
“Highly recommend to all fans of hot cowboys, firefighters, and romance.”
—Emily, Goodreads on Saddles and Soot
“Outstanding love story.”
—Avid Reader, Amazon on A Cowboy’s Seduction
“This book was fun and I loved every page of it.”
—Connie, Goodreads on A Cowboy’s Seduction
“This author does an amazing job of keeping readers on their toes while maintaining a natural flow to the story.”
—RT Book Reviews on Texas Hustle
“Cynthia D’Alba’s Texas Fandango from Samhain lets readers enjoy the sensual fun in the sun […] This latest offering gives readers a sexy escape and a reason to seek out D’Alba’s earlier titles.”
—Library Journal Reviews on Texas Fandango
“[…] inclusions that stand out for all the right reasons is Cynthia D’Alba’s clever Backstage Pass”
—Publisher’s
Weekly on Backstage Pass in Cowboy Heat
“Texas Two Step kept me on an emotional roller coaster […] Texas Two Step is an emotionally charged romance, with well-developed characters and an engaging secondary cast. A quarter of the way into the book I added Ms. D’Alba to my auto-buys.”
—5 Stars and Recommended Read, Guilty Pleasure Book Reviews on Texas Two Step
“I loved this book. The characters came alive. They had depth, interest and completeness. But more than the romance and sex which were great, there are connections with family and friends which makes this story so much more than a story about two people.”
—Night Owl Romance 5 STARS! A TOP PICK on Texas Bossa Nova
“Wow, what an amazing romance novel. Texas Lullaby is an impassioned, well-written book with a genuine love story that took hold of my heart and soul from the very beginning.”
—LJT, Amazon Reviews, on Texas Lullaby
“An emotional, complex and beautiful story of love and life and how it can all change in a heartbeat.”
—DiDi, Guilty Pleasures Book Reviews on Texas Lullaby
“TEXAS LULLABY is a refreshing departure from the traditional romance plot in that it features an already committed couple.”
—Tangled Hearts Book Reviews on Texas Lullaby
“A great read with just the right amount of steamy sexual tension and a HEA!”
—D. Yochum, Just The Write Touch, on Cadillac Cowboy
Texas Daze
By Cynthia D’Alba
Copyright © 2017 Cynthia D’Alba and Riante, Inc.
Print ISBN: 978-0-9982650-8-7
Digital ISBN: 978-0-9982650-9-4
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without written permission from the author—except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a magazine, newspaper, or on the web. For additional information or to obtain permission to excerpt portions of the text, please contact the author via email at [email protected]
This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogues in this book are of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is completely coincidental.
Cover Artist: Elle James
Editor: Delilah Devlin
Beta Readers: Debbie Watson, Teresa Fordice, Ruth Smithson
To my readers. Without you, I couldn’t do what I love.
THANK YOU.
Chapter 1
“Goddamn gophers.” Martha Gale Jenkins adjusted the tree limb she’d found to use as a crutch. She limped alongside her horse as they made their way back to the barn, her ankle hot and throbbing. “Hate ’em, hate ’em, hate ’em.”
Rascal, her chestnut gelding, limped along with her. Both of them had fallen victim to a couple of new gopher holes in the lower pasture. Better she fall in than Rascal. Hell, he was probably more valuable to the ranch than she was.
She was still a ways out when Pedro, one of the young ranch hands, came riding toward them.
“Seen ya limpin’, Marti. Need some help?”
Martha, aka Marti, was in a right fine mood, ready to pick a fight with anybody just to take her mind off the pain in her left leg. But Pedro was too nice a guy for her to use as her personal punching bag. “Thanks, Pedro. Rascal and me had a run in with a couple of rattlesnakes followed up by new gopher holes.” She pointed to two lifeless rattlesnakes draped over her saddle. “Won one battle, lost the other.”
The eighteen-year-old shook his head. “Can’t believe you brought those snakes home with cha.”
“You’ve been here long enough to know that Grisham loves rattlesnake meat. It’ll put him in a good mood for days. Here,” she said, trying to hand him the snake carcasses.
“No, ma’am. Me and snakes don’t like each other.”
She laughed. “Know what you mean.” She returned them to the saddle and gave a dramatic shiver. “If it didn’t make our grumpy foreman so happy, I’d have left these for the buzzards.”
“Why you limpin’? Did one of them snakes bite cha?”
She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from grinning. If one of these snakes had bitten her, even through her heavy boots, she wouldn’t be in a bad mood. She’d probably be dead.
Pedro had come to the ranch on a work-release program four years ago but he’d grown up in Kansas City. His abhorrence of anything dealing with snakes was, unfortunately, a continued source of jokes from the other hands with a multitude of rubber snakes showing up in unfortunate places.
In a joint program with the Whispering Springs Police Department, the Flying Pig Ranch had agreed to take non-violent teenage offenders to work off minor offenses, paying the police department for the man labor. Marti’s grandfather had started the program when he’d served as Chief of Police while still being a rancher in need of hands. Over the years, hundreds of teens had mucked out stalls, brushed horses, and even helped with feeding the livestock. Busted for selling marijuana at fourteen, Pedro had been one of those non-violent offenders and was sent to the ranch. Hostile when he’d first arrived, he’d found his home and calling among the ranch’s animals.
“No snake bites,” Marti said. “Rascal has a stone bruise and possibly a slight sprain from stepping in one of the gopher holes. I didn’t want to do any further injury. I, on the other hand, fell into a hole when one of these snakes decided he wanted to strike out. His mistake. Shot his head off.”
Pedro kicked his left foot free of the stirrup, then bent to hold out his hand. “Climb on, and I’ll give you a ride back.”
“Appreciate the offer, but I can barely stand on my left leg. No way can I lift myself.” She tossed him Rascal’s reins. “Take Rascal on back. I’ll walk.”
He hesitated, and then said, “It don’t seem right, leaving you here.” He swung off the horse with ease that showed years of riding. She smiled. He’d changed so much since the first time he’d tried to dismount from a horse and, instead, fell off.
“Now, don’t get mad at me,” he warned seconds before grabbing her around the waist and throwing her up onto his horse’s back.
She gasped in surprise and grabbed for the saddle horn before swinging her right leg over the beast.
“Sorry, ma’am but Foreman Grisham would have me muckin’ stalls by myself for a month if I left you here.” He collected Rascal’s reins and remounted his horse behind her. “Hold on. I’ll go slow.”
“Don’t look good to me,” Marti’s father said. Patrick Jenkins frowned as he turned his daughter’s leg side to side.
Marti gasped. Hot, stabbing pain radiated from her ankle up her leg. She bit her lip to keep from crying out. The swelling from day one spread downward to her toes and up to just below her knee. She’d found her grandfather’s cedar wood cane and had been using it for the past four days, hoping that, with the cane supporting most of her weight, she’d be back to normal by now. “It’s just a bad sprain. I’m sure,” she said.
“Carla, come here and look at your daughter’s leg.”
Carla Jenkins entered the living room drying her hands on a kitchen towel. “Still swollen?”
“Yup,” Patrick said. “But your daughter thinks if she ignores it, it’ll go away.”
Carla grinned. “Your daughter is a bullheaded as you.”
“Your daughter is sitting right here you know,” Marti muttered.
Her mother kissed her forehead. “Like we could forget.” Carla pressed on the front of Marti’s left leg just below her knee. Her finger sank into the swollen flesh. When she released pressure, the indentation remained. “Sorry, honey, but your father’s right. It’s time to see a doctor.”
Marti sighed and pounded the back of her head on the pillow behind her. “I hate doctors.”
“I know,” her mother said. “But I don’t think we have a choice.”
Marti held out her hand. “Fine. Fine. Hand me my phone.”
Her mo
ther give her a sideway look and chuckled. “No way, honey. I know you. You’ll put off the appointment as long as possible. I’ll make the call.”
Marti swallowed a couple of acetaminophens and gave up the fight. She knew when she was beat.
To no one’s surprise, her mother pulled strings and got Marti an appointment at Riverside Orthopedic clinic for that afternoon. Marti didn’t grouse too much. The last time Marti had gone out with the girls, she’d heard about a hot new doctor at that clinic. Couldn’t remember the name. Didn’t really matter anyway. She’d probably end up with the physician assistant.
After some fast talking, she convinced her parents that she could drive herself since it was her left leg that had the sprain. Her right was perfectly fine to push the brake and gas pedals.
At four o’clock, she parked outside a three-story building. She stubbornly opted to leave her grandfather’s cane in the car, not wanting to even suggest she was badly injured. A mistake on her part. Walking without the cane was excruciating. With each weight-baring step, searing hot pain shot up her left leg, making her hobble her way across the parking lot. By the time she made it into the building, up one floor to the medical clinic, and stood in front of the receptionist, her head and jaw ached from clenching her teeth.
“Good afternoon,” the receptionist said. “You’re limping.”
Marti grabbed a tissue from the box on the counter and dapped at the sweat on her forehead. “No kidding.” She shook her head. “Sorry. It hurts.”
The reception pulled out some papers and clipped them to a board. “How bad’s the pain?”
“On a scale of one to ten, about fifteen.” She lacked words to adequately describe what she was feeling, but fucking hell seemed the closest. She decided to keep that to herself.
The receptionist winced in sympathy. “Ouch. It won’t be long.” The reception pushed the papers toward Marti. “Fill these out. Be sure to sign here and here.” She pointed to the relevant places.