Dearest Cowboys Box Set

by Mia Brown

  Ace’s face split into a grin, and he pulled me in for a kiss, his lips mashing against mine. When he finally broke the kiss, he had a smile on his face that I hadn’t seen before. He looked genuinely happy.

  “Thank you,” he said.

  “You have to let me go now,” I said. He was still pressing tightly against me, and I was very aware of his cock, and how little he was wearing. Ace sighed and stepped back. I glanced down at his erection and wished I didn’t have to leave.

  Someone cleared their throat behind me, and I turned to see Lily, Alana, and Andrew sitting at the breakfast table. They were looking at us, and Ace’s hard-on was visible for them all to see. I blushed furiously.

  “We have company,” I said to Ace.

  He laughed and kissed me again. “Good luck with your first day,” he said. He turned around and sauntered off without a care in the world. He didn’t care at all that they had seen everything there was to see besides being naked.

  I shook my head, feeling embarrassed. “Sorry about that,” I said.

  They were all smiling, on the verge of laughing about it.

  “I guess it’s nothing we didn’t expect,” Alana said, giggling.

  Andrew laughed. “Yeah, the Ropers have always been gifted.”

  Alana and I both blushed, but Lily was giggling, and it was the first time I had heard her laugh since she’d arrived. She didn’t look happy by a long shot, but she was relaxing more and more as things were working out for her, and I was glad she had gotten to a point where she could laugh about something.

  I walked to the table and grabbed an apple from the fruit basket to eat on the way into town.

  “Are you ready for your first day?” Alana asked. She didn’t have to go into the office until later, and I envied her being able to have breakfast with everyone.

  “I think so,” I said. “I’m just torn.”

  She smiled at me. “That’s a good sign. You were very lost when you first joined us.”

  She was right. I had thought that this was the last place on earth I’d belonged. When I’d finished my degree, a bank—the corporate world—was exactly what I’d thought I was after. How everything had changed.

  “You’re going to be fine,” she said. “And when you get back, the ranch and all of us will still be here.”

  That was true, and it made me relax. These were people that would always be here for me. Physically and emotionally. I could go away and come back again, and nothing would change, and I realized that was what family was about.

  I walked out to the truck and got in, ready to drive into town. I drove the winding road to the gate and pulled onto the main road. I watched the gate, and the sign for the Roper ranch shrink in the rearview mirror, and I knew that I would always be able to go back, whether it was after a day at work in town or after years and years of not being there.

  The ranch was where I belonged.

  Thirty-Nine

  Ace

  Despite Vanessa not being around—and I felt her absence acutely—the day went by fast. The crops were doing well, we had enough food and water for the cattle, and we had no disease scares this season. It was business as usual.

  “I think we can push up the price per pound,” Lance said when we sat in the office. “Prices are going up everywhere, and we should keep with the times. We have to balance our income with our expenses and the market, be realistic.”

  “But it’s our cheap meat that gets us the buyers,” I said.

  Lance nodded. “It is, and there’s no reason to push it up higher than what would still be considered a bargain. But we must be realistic and keep with the times. If we don’t push up the price, we’re going to run at a loss. I’m talking within reason.”

  I nodded. This was one of the reasons why I’d made Lance foreman. He knew what he was talking about. He’d been out in the real world as a working man, and he was logical about business. I was passionate about the ranch. Andrew was motivated. But it was a good idea to put everything in perspective.

  “Alright,” I said. “I’ll push it up. Thanks.”

  Lance nodded.

  “We need to place the order for the bunkhouse renovation,” he added. “If we order the material, it’ll take a few days after the building part is done to complete the renovation.”

  I nodded. The changes Lance had suggested were all good ones that would come in handy in the long run. An apartment for the foreman, a bigger kitchen for the staff: it all worked.

  “Get me the calculations. I’ll phone it in while you’re here.”

  Lance got up and took the papers out of the file. He put them on the table in front of me, and I picked up the phone.

  When I was done with the order, Lance nodded, satisfied.

  “I think it’s going to work well,” he said.

  “I think so, too,” I said. “We’ve found a stride around here. How are things with Lily?”

  She had taken a while to settle, but she looked like she felt more at home on the ranch, less flustered and not as out of place as she had seemed at first.

  “She’s doing well, I think,” Lance said. “It’s a big change for her, obviously, but we’re helping her. Vee is doing a lot.”

  I nodded. “She’s done a lot from the start. She’s been there for Lily when she had no reason to be.”

  “A real gem,” Lance said, and I had to agree. Vanessa was a good woman.

  When we were done in the office, Lance headed out to take care of other chores. I walked back to the ranch house. Lily was in the kitchen, wiping down counters. She had taken it upon herself to clean the house from time to time. It wasn’t too hard of work for her pregnant state. Her belly was growing, and she needed to take it slow enough.

  And she was great at cleaning house; I had to admit. When my mom had been sick, she’d done less and less. Even though we hadn’t been living in dire conditions, it was nice to have the place spotless again.

  She was also doing well with the vegetable garden and canning. Lance was teaching her about vegetable gardening, the change of the seasons and the moon, and Alana was showing her how to can the vegetables so we could sell them. She was taking to that well, too. She wasn’t comfortable with ranch work, but she could do work like that, and she had found a niche that worked for her and us.

  “How are you doing?” I asked.

  She smiled at me. “I’m okay, thanks.”

  “Fitting in a little better?”

  She nodded. “Thanks to you. I don’t know if I’ve said it before, but thank you for taking me in. You’ve given me a home when I didn’t have one, and it means the world to me.”

  “You’re welcome here,” I said. “But it’s not because of me that you’re here. It’s Vee’s big heart that got you a place here. If you want to thank anyone, you have to thank her.”

  Lily nodded. “I’ll do that,” she said. “You’re right.”

  I left the house to carry on with my chores, working the day away.

  Lily cooked for us in the evening, and when it was time to sit down with everyone, Alana and Vanessa arrived from the bank. I headed back from the barn when I saw them stop and get out of the truck. I walked to Vanessa, glad to see her. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed her. I pulled her against me, kissing her.

  “Well, I wish I got welcomed home like that,” Alana said, laughing. Andrew came from the side and scooped her up.

  “Of course, lover,” he said. Alana looked up, blushing. Vanessa and I laughed.

  “How was your day?” I asked, turning my attention back to the woman in my arms.

  “It was long and difficult,” she said. “It’s going to take some getting used to. It’s such a different pace than the ranch.”

  I nodded. “I can imagine,” I said. “But I’m glad you’re home.”

  Vanessa smiled, and I lifted a hand to brush flyaway hairs out of her face. Her blonde hair was still pulled back in the bun she’d put it in this morning, but her hair had started coming undone a bit, a
nd it made her look a little scattered and sexy as hell. I loved having her in my arms like this. I loved having her come home to me after work.

  “What about your day?” she asked.

  I shrugged. “Same as always. Nothing big to report. I missed you, of course.”

  She smiled and kissed me. Everything about this—her coming home to me, her referring to it as her home—was exactly what I wanted.

  I realized with a pang that it was what I wanted for the rest of my life. I wanted her to come home to me every day. I wanted her to make this her home. This was the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. If she wasn’t around here, I was lost. If I didn’t have her in my arms, I felt untethered. And the moment I had her back, I was okay again.

  And I wanted that. Forever. I had to marry this girl. I had to make her my wife. I had never known anything as clearly as I knew it now. I needed her to be mine, to always come home to me.

  “I’ll be right back,” I said to Alana and Vanessa. Andrew and Alana were still talking to the side. I turned around and ran into the house, shooting through the kitchen and to the room I used to use until now. We had stored my mom’s things there, the things we hadn’t wanted to get rid of. I opened a box marked “jewelry” and dug in it. My mom had had various jewelry boxes. She had been a collector, and she had pieces of jewelry that were extremely expensive and rare. She hadn’t worn it very often—ranch life wasn’t the kind of place you pranced around with jewelry on—but she’d had them, and we hadn’t gotten rid of them. They had been passed down for generations or owned by people who were significant in history.

  I searched for a while until I found the little leather box. It was older, with a few scrapes in the dark blue leather. When I opened it, though, the ring was still perfect.

  It was a princess cut with a diamond mounted in the middle. Small diamonds frosted the whole ring around it, and it was a dark silver, the way silver looks when it ages well. It had belonged to my ancestors, passed from one woman to the next far longer back than the existence of the ranch, and it was a prized possession.

  But we were two sons, and I knew Andrew was serious about Alana. Was it fair of me to give it to Vanessa?

  “Use it,” Andrew said behind me. When I looked over my shoulder, he stood in the doorway, leaning against the doorpost with his hands in his pockets.

  “But what about you?” I asked. “There’s two of us.”

  “That ring should be on Vanessa’s finger. I love Alana, but Vee is like Mom, Ace. She deserves it, and so do you. Give it to her.”

  I closed the little box again and put it in my pocket. After replacing the jewelry and closing the box again, I turned around. Andrew was still in the doorway.

  “How did you know I was up here, looking for it?” I asked.

  Andrew shrugged. “Sometimes, I can tell by the look in your eye what you’re thinking.”

  I hugged him. “You’re the best brother,” I said.

  He clapped me on the back. “Mom would have been proud,” he said.

  I swallowed hard, trying to get rid of the lump in my throat.

  “When the time comes for Alana and me, I don’t want you to even think about it,” Andrew said. “I know what I want for her.”

  I couldn’t tell my brother how much this meant to me. He was on the same wavelength as I was tonight. And he was right; my mom would have been proud. Not just of Vanessa and me but of who we had both become and the future we had planned. Together.

  I clapped Andrew on the back, and we walked back to the kitchen. Everyone was inside but Vanessa.

  “She’s still on the porch,” Alana said.

  When I walked outside, Vanessa stood on the edge of the porch, hugging herself. She looked out over the ranch. The sun was setting, the sky painted with strokes of orange and purple, the buildings silhouetted against a magical sky and a light breeze swept over the grounds. It was the perfect setting. I couldn’t have planned it better if I’d tried.

  When I walked to Vanessa, she turned to me. She’d untied her hair, and it hung over her shoulders, moving in the breeze. With the light reflecting in her eyes, they looked more violet than ever, her cheeks beautifully flushed. I wish I could capture this moment, this look, and keep it with me forever. A camera wouldn’t do her justice. And it would ruin the moment.

  “It’s beautiful,” she said, looking out over the ranch again. “I’m so lucky to be here.”

  “Vanessa,” I said. She looked at me. I took her hands so that she faced me. My heart suddenly beat in my throat. I was about to ask her to be my wife. It was the biggest thing I would ever do in my life.

  “What is it?” she asked. She looked a little worried.

  I took a deep breath and kneeled.

  “Oh my God,” Vanessa said, clasping her hand over her mouth.

  “I want you in my life. Forever. Marry me.”

  It wasn’t a very eloquent proposal, nothing she could tell her friends about repeatedly.

  “I mean, I’m not a poet,” I said before she could answer. “I can’t feed you a lot of sweet lines. But I love you.”

  She laughed, and her eyes welled with tears.

  “I will,” she said.

  I pulled the ring out of my pocket and opened the box. Vanessa gasped when she saw it.

  “This is amazing, Ace,” she said. She touched it carefully.

  “It’s been passed down through the generations, and I would like for us to pass it down, too.”

  She smiled at me and nodded. She held out her hand, and I took out the ring and slipped it onto her finger. It fit perfectly. I had thought I would have to get it resized, but her hand was exactly the size my mom’s had been.

  If that wasn’t a sign, I didn’t know what was.

  I stood up, and Vanessa wrapped her arms around my neck. She kissed me, and I held onto her. This woman, the one in my arms right now, was the woman that had changed everything for me. She had changed me as a person; she had given me hope when everything had seemed like the world was ending, and she gave me a peek into the future we would have together. I was going to do exactly what my mom said, and I would hold onto her. I would hold onto her for as long as I was able, and never let go.

  Epilogue

  Vanessa

  One Year Later

  “Come on, sweetie pie, why are we crying?” I asked Hannah and picked the baby up from her bouncer. “Mommy’s getting ready, and she’s going to look like a dream.”

  Hannah stopped crying when I cuddled her to me. I wiped her cheeks. She had dark brown hair just like Lily and the biggest blue eyes I have ever seen. She was 10 months old and the sweetest thing that could have happened to the ranch.

  “There we go. Nothing to be sad about,” I said. I walked with her to where Alana and Andrew were standing, talking. “Look, here’s Uncle Andrew and Auntie Alana.”

  “Hello, angel face,” Alana said. Andrew made faces.

  Hannah squealed, and I smiled. Andrew and Alana laughed, and he pulled her closer to him. They were going to get engaged soon; I could feel it. Since Hannah’s arrival, everyone has been thinking about marriage and babies. I loved her. She’d been born three weeks after Ace and I had gotten engaged, and everything had changed. She was the light of my life, and I couldn’t wait to have my own.

  I put my hand on my growing belly. It was only 12 weeks along. We didn’t even know if it was a boy or a girl, yet. I was hoping for a boy. I knew secretly, Ace was, too. Either way, I’m sure we would love the child as much as any parents could.

  “You’re a natural,” Ace said, coming toward us. I smiled at him. He walked to us and reached for Hannah, who grabbed his fingers with pudgy hands. “Isn’t she, sweet pea? A natural mommy. It won’t be long before you have some friends running around.”

  I laughed. “It’s quite a few months, yet,” I said.

  Ace shrugged. “Time flies when you’re having fun,” he said. He kissed me. “And I can think of a lot of fun things to do to pass it.”r />
  “Stop it, you two,” Alana said, but she was laughing. They all knew Ace. He wasn’t shy.

  I shook my head, laughing. Ace had a twinkle in his eye, and I knew what that meant.

  “I have to go. I’ll see you in a bit.” He kissed me and headed down the aisle.

  Ace and I had gotten married at the ranch in a private ceremony; everyone but my parents had been there. It had been a wedding with all our friends in town, the people that cared about us, the people that were there no matter what.

  I had been sad that Jaclyn hadn’t been there, and I knew that Andrew and Ace had felt the loss of their parents that day. But it had been a happy day, nevertheless.

  My parents had been invited, but they had been absolute jerks about it. They hadn’t approved of Ace. I had introduced him to them shortly after our engagement, showing my mom that I had found myself a man that I loved. She had stuck her nose up at him like he was something that had crawled out of the gutter. I hadn’t thought they would like him, but it had hurt all the same.

  Since then, we’d stayed away from Cleveland, and I barely spoke to them, now. The last time I’d spoken to them was when I’d phoned to tell them about the baby. They hadn’t been happy about that, either.

  They hadn’t wanted to come to the wedding, and that had hurt. I had hoped that despite not agreeing, they could accept it. That hadn’t been the case. But it was alright because I had seen Jaclyn as a mother and she would have accepted it. And everyone around us cared, and that was all that had been needed. Being surrounded by love was all that mattered.

  Today was all about Lily and Lance.

  In the past year, the two had fallen in love. He had been there for her during her time of need, accepting the baby and everything that she had been through. She had fallen for him. Lance was a good man, and I was so happy for them both.

  I carried Hannah to my seat and sat down with her. I was on babysitting duty, and I couldn’t be happier. She was so cute, and I loved spending time with her.