by P. Creeden
After a long moment, they both pulled back, but she kept her hands on his shoulders while his remained on her waist. His eyes met hers with more seriousness than she’d expected. “I want to do this right, Ruby. I want to have our marriage annulled.”
Her heart sank. “What?”
“When we get back, I want Judge Hotchkiss to annul the marriage. Then I want to go back to Connecticut with you and ask your father for your hand in marriage properly. Then I want to have a real wedding—one with your family there, and mine. Would that be okay? Am I asking for too much?”
She laughed and pulled him into her embrace again. “No it’s not too much. It’s perfect.”
He squeezed her against him and leaned back, raising her off her feet for a split second before putting her back down again. Then he pushed her away. Although she loved the feeling of the embrace, she frowned when his hands pushed her back. He shook his head and laughed. “Don’t pout at me, Ruby. We need to do everything properly. You go on and get some sleep. We’ll meet up for lunch and see the saloon girls off on their stagecoach. Even though we’ll spend a lot of time together over the next few days, we need to keep an appropriate distance from one another, all right?”
She frowned harder, but couldn’t keep the playfulness out of her eyes.
“Don’t make me hire a chaperone,” he said with a laugh.
She laughed too, but then nodded in defeat. “Fine. A proper distance. Got it.”
Johnny laughed and took her hand in both his. “In a few weeks we’ll be married for real. I can’t wait until I never have to let you go again.”
She stepped toward him, but he backed away. She didn’t like it and huffed her displeasure and threw her hands up in frustration. “Why couldn’t I be marrying a less gentlemanly gentleman?”
His eyes went wide, and she giggled in response.
He shook his head as he released her hand and then pointed toward her door. “Miss Lockwood, I believe you need to return to your room before you do something untoward.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “I prefer Mrs. Lee, thank you very much.”
And then she spun on her heel opened the door to her room and then turned around to close it. She peered through the crack to peek at her future husband as he stood in the hallway, mouth agape. Every part of her felt giddy as she closed the door and leaned against it. She’d never known she’d find a man like Johnny when she’d gotten on that train with her sister. How did a man like him even exist? He was perfect... for her. And she couldn’t wait until they were married, for real this time.
The end.
About the Author
P. Creeden is the sweet romance and mystery pen name for USA Today Bestselling Author, Pauline Creeden. Her stories feature down-to-earth characters who often feel like they are undeserving of love for one reason or another and are surprised when love finds them.
Animals are the supporting characters of many of her stories, because they occupy her daily life on the farm, too. From dogs, cats, and goldfish to horses, chickens, and geckos -- she believes life around pets is so much better, even if they are fictional. P. Creeden married her college sweetheart, who she also met at a horse farm. Together they raise a menagerie of animals and their one son, an avid reader, himself.
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More Books by P. Creeden
An Agent for Josie
March 1872
Marriage has always been the furthest thing from Josie Roth’s mind. After all, the majority of men cannot suffer for a woman to vote, much less tolerate one who is smarter than him. For want of a son to take over his practice, her father raised his only child, Josie, to do the job. Even though she graduated summa cum laude at the New England Women’s College of Medicine, many in New England still looked down on her, believing that women should be either nurses or midwives. So, her father decided to take to the rails and travel out West, to Wyoming, and start a practice where there was a shortage of good doctors, hoping she’d be less frowned upon, being a woman.
Billy Hogge worked with Allan Pinkerton as an agent in Chicago before the fire. In fact, as a former fireman, he had volunteered to help bring the flames under control before they consumed the city. When the Chicago office shuts down, he joins the Pinkerton agency in Denver to work on crimes out west. He sees it as a great opportunity to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life.
The two of them meet under the unfortunate circumstance of Josie’s father’s death. But she’s too sick to take care of arrangements, so Billy does them for her. When she finally comes to herself and mourns her father, she discovers that the town in Wyoming isn’t free of the prejudices that she’d been dealing with in the East, and she turns to the Pinkerton agency for employment. What happens when these two find out that the only way to work their next case together is by getting married first?
An Agent for Opal
Opal Cahill was raised as the only girl in a family full of rough and tumble men. They taught her to fight and survive and taught her to push aside fantasies, because reality is as harsh as the rough side of a cat’s tongue. But she could never let go of reading about adventures of life in the west and dreaming that she might one day become a Pinkerton agent, like her hero, Kate Warne. But when her father passes, she’s stuck living in Atlantic City with her cousin who sometimes has them living in rundown shacks and sometimes, high end hotels. Until one day, that odd lifestyle catches up with them both. When Opal must choose a place to go out west, she heads to the Pinkerton office in Denver in the hopes that they might still interview her though it’s months after they originally advertised they were accepting applicants.
Caleb Wade has just come back from going deep undercover. He returns to the Pinkerton office and runs into one of the most stubborn, frustrating, and interesting women he’s ever met. When he finds out that she’s not only his new partner but his new wife, he digs in his heels before he decides to treat it as another undercover act. Together the two travel to Ohio to help Archie’s good friend and owner of the Turner Theater deal with an arsonist who has already succeeded in burning down the theater once and threatens to do it again. Both Caleb and Opal must learn to get past their stubborn ways and work together in order to capture the person who threatens not only the building but the lead actress as well.
A Bride for James
A boxer who’s tired of fighting. A persecuted woman with an unwanted suitor. A marriage neither of them want, but both desperately need.
James Fisher is Champion of the Kansas City Pugilist Society, but it's a title he doesn't wear proudly. When the man he won the last match with dies overnight from his injuries, James doesn't want to see good people hurt for sport. The only problem is that his contract with the Pugilist Society remains in effect until death or marriage.
But who wants to marry a bruised and broken boxer?
When Abigail Lee's house is foreclosed on, she's left desolate but not alone. Her best friend, a former slave, is willing to allow her to live with them. But the people in town don't like her living situation, and an unwanted suitor comes knocking on the door, making threats. Abby doesn't want anyone to be hurt on her account but feels stuck between the frying pan and the fire until Cecilia comes up with a plan.
A Bride for Henry
A spinster raised to run a ranch. An injured man with a broke
n heart. A wedding neither of them want, but both need more than they will ever admit.
October 1867, North Texas
Brienne Walsh has resigned to life as a spinster and the lone heir to the Walsh Ranch upon her grandfather's death. She's always been too tall, too strong, and too unprepossessing to be appealing to any man. Yet when the bank calls on her grandfather's loan, telling her to either pay the full amount due by the end of the month, or marry, she is thrown into an arrangement she can't abide but must endure.
Love has been unkind to Henry Miller. His first love promised to wait for him to return from fighting for the Union in the War, but when he returned, he found her married to his best friend. The betrayal cut him deeper than the bullet from a Confederate Springfield. He lost his fiancé and his best friend in one fell swoop two years ago, and now he finds himself losing his father and his home in another. With nowhere else to turn, he chooses to follow his father's wishes and sign a document he never thought he'd consider again--a marriage certificate.