by Trish Milburn - The Texan's Cowgirl Bride (Texas Rodeo Barons)
Somewhere out in the darkness, a songbird began to herald the new day. He wasn’t a morning person by nature, but even he had to admit there was an allure to this time of day. A person could truly think when not being bombarded by noise from every direction.
He looked up toward the sky, at the blanket of stars that wouldn’t be visible for much longer. He imagined Corinne looking down at him and smiling. Since he’d proposed to Savannah two weeks ago, the tie he had to Corinne had changed. It would never go away, and he’d always love her. But it felt as if she’d given her approval. He couldn’t explain why he felt that way, but he figured there would always be things he couldn’t explain.
Like how his thoughts had gone to Irene Crouch a lot lately. When he’d seen a news segment showing the media camped out in front of her house after the details of David’s death were released, anger had risen up in him again. But this time it wasn’t at her or her son, but at the people who wouldn’t leave her alone. By all accounts, she’d done the best she could raising her son by herself. But he’d gone down a bad path, and she’d lost him forever because of it. He hated the idea of her sitting inside her house, mourning alone, unable to step outside without a camera and microphone being shoved in her face. He knew what that felt like, and it wasn’t right.
And he doubted he could explain it to anyone, but it also didn’t feel right that she was suffering while he was so incredibly happy. But if anyone could understand, he’d bet it was Savannah.
His thoughts of the woman he loved turned into the real thing when she opened the door behind him. When he glanced over his shoulder, he noticed that Savannah carried her own coffee mug.
“Did I wake you?” he asked.
“Not at all.” She came to sit beside him. “Though I think my early morning tendencies are beginning to rub off on you.”
He leaned over and planted a soft kiss on her lips. “I can think of worse things.”
She smiled. “This from the man who not so long ago could only grunt responses at daybreak.”
“What can I say? Early mornings are a lot better when I wake up next to you.”
“If only your army buddies knew what kind of sweet talker you are. I wonder what Evan would say.”
“You, Miss Baron, are ornery.”
“Who, me? I’m an angel.” She held both hands above her head, forming her fingers into a halo.
He wrapped an arm around her waist and tugged her close. “You have the world fooled, but not me.”
This time, his kiss held a lot more heat and lasted considerably longer. Savannah kissed him back with an enthusiasm that made every nerve in his body hum before she pulled away.
“I think we’d better cool it,” she said. “I have way too much to do this morning to be tempted by my fiancé.”
“Does that mean you’re kicking me out?”
“I’m sure you can find something to do.”
He glanced down at his half-consumed cup of coffee. “Actually, I do have somewhere I need to go.”
Savannah looked at him with a fleeting moment of curiosity before nodding as if she knew what had been distracting him the past few days. She smiled and leaned over to plant a soft kiss on his cheek.
“You’re a good man, Travis Shepard.”
“Good enough to marry?”
“Yep. Go, do what you need to. I’ll see you later.”
After she went inside, he took a few more minutes to finish his coffee and watch as night gave way to day. As he took his last swig, however, he rose to his feet. The peach festival would be getting under way midmorning, and he fully intended to be back to the ranch to see the fruition of Savannah’s hard work.
He expected anxiety to twist his gut as he drove toward Dallas and then through the series of streets that brought him to a neighborhood that had seen better, more prosperous times. But it didn’t, and a voice in his head told him it was because this was the right thing to do. Though the streets weren’t filled with crack houses or shot up like the more dangerous areas of the city, the small houses could use new coats of paint that their owners likely couldn’t afford.
When he reached a dingy white house on the corner that was so small it could fit in Savannah’s apartment, he pulled over next to the sidewalk and parked. His SUV looked out of place amongst vehicles that had rolled off the assembly line when Ronald Reagan was president.
He scanned the street but only saw a couple of people, a woman in a robe placing envelopes in her mailbox and an elderly man sitting on his porch watching the world go by. Thankfully, the media had evidently moved on to someone else’s tragedy and vacated the area.
With a quick, deep breath, he got out of the vehicle and took the short, cracked concrete walkway up to Irene Crouch’s porch. When he knocked, at first he didn’t hear anything. He wondered if she’d stopped answering the door. Maybe she’d had to stop all those years ago when David had made his fatal mistake.
He’d raised his hand to knock again when the white sheer curtain hanging over the window to his right was pulled aside. It almost immediately dropped back into place, followed a moment later by the front door opening.
“Mr. Shepard, I didn’t expect to see you. Can I help you?”
“I just wanted to see how you were doing.”
He doubted she could have looked more shocked if he’d told her she’d won a fortune.
“I’m fine,” she finally said.
She’d lowered her eyes as she said it, but not before he’d seen the truth there.
“Do you have any plans for today?”
When she met his eyes, her face was filled with confusion. “No. I...I don’t go out much other than to work and the grocery store.”
He pulled one of the flyers for the festival from his pocket and extended it to her. “I’d like to invite you to this. It’s being held about an hour from here, on my fiancée’s family ranch.”
“You’re getting married again?”
“Yes, ma’am. You actually helped me come to that decision.”
“Me?”
He nodded. “The day you came to see me, what you said and...David’s letter made me realize that time is precious. There was no going back to undo anything that was done, but I could move forward.”
Irene pressed her lips together and blinked several times. She took the paper he held and unfolded it. She skimmed the list of activities that would fill the day and hopefully draw a big crowd.
“It sounds like a nice event, but I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to go.”
Travis didn’t even think about it before he reached forward and took Irene’s hands in his. She didn’t look up at him, but she did take a shaky breath and sniff.
“I hope you reconsider.” He didn’t push her. Only she would know when she’d be ready to come out and face the world again, take that first step toward living.
Irene didn’t speak, and he suspected she probably couldn’t in that moment. When she gave him a slight nod instead, he released her hands and retraced his steps to the SUV. Once he was in the driver’s seat, he looked back toward the house to find Irene still standing in the doorway looking at the flyer. He could feel her yearning from where he sat, and he truly hoped that she’d find the strength to come out to the ranch, if only for a few minutes.
As he drove back toward the ranch and Savannah, his heart felt lighter. Today was going to be a good day. The best.
* * *
SAVANNAH LAUGHED AS she sat atop a stack of hay bales watching Alex and several other kids running through the hay bale maze her brothers had constructed.
“He’s going to sleep well tonight,” she said to Travis, who’d just brought her a scoop of peach ice cream and sank onto the hay bale next to her.
“I think we probably all will after today.”
“If he go
es to sleep without demanding I read him no less than five stories, I’m going to push for one of these festivals every weekend,” Julieta said from where she stood next to the entrance to the maze.
Savannah made a strangled sound. “As much as I’m loving this, I don’t think I’m quite up for that.”
Alex came racing out of the maze, all squeals and laughter. Julieta scooped him up and headed for the front porch of the Peach Pit, where Savannah’s dad sat in his wheelchair observing all the activity going on around him like a king on his throne. She remembered what she’d told her dad about making the Peach Pit so successful that he’d wish it had been his idea all along. By the look on his face, she thought maybe she’d taken at least a few steps toward that goal.
Her heart swelled at how her family had come together to make the event successful. Carly seemed to be having a great time manning the face painting station even though she kept shooting glances at the crowd, as if she expected to see someone in particular. Jet and Daniel drove the tractors pulling the hay wagons for rides. Jacob was giving roping lessons, and even Lizzie was helping out by manning the cash register in the store. She’d been given strict orders by everyone to stay off her feet, so they’d pulled a stool up to the register. While Lizzie stayed inside out of the heat, her fiancé Chris was staying cool by being repeatedly dumped into the dunking booth tank. Savannah’s brothers had even taken several shots at the target, barely giving Chris time to climb out of the water before they sent him right back down.
Travis’s arm came around Savannah’s waist and pulled her close. “You’ve done a great job with this.”
She looked up into those gorgeous blue eyes of his. “I had a lot of help.”
He dropped a quick kiss onto her lips before something drew his attention. Savannah shifted her gaze behind her and saw a woman walking slowly around the edge of the crowd.
“That’s her, isn’t it?” She looked back at Travis. “Mrs. Crouch.”
He nodded. “I hope you don’t mind that I invited her.”
“Of course not.” She lifted her hand to his cheek. “It only makes me love you more.”
He squeezed her hand before hopping off their perch and maneuvering through the groups of people toward Irene Crouch. Just when she thought she couldn’t love the man who would soon be her husband any more, he proved her wrong. Sometimes she worried that she’d gotten too lucky, that something would happen to take it all away, to leave her feeling empty and alone like she had as a seven-year-old girl wondering if she’d ever see her mother again.
She shook off the thought, determined that this day would bring nothing but joy. After taking the last bite of her ice cream cone, she wiped her hand on a napkin and rejoined the crowd. She talked to neighbors and newcomers alike as she made the rounds, even stopping when she crossed paths with Travis and Mrs. Crouch to tell the older woman that she was glad she could come to the festival.
Irene looked stunned, as if she feared that any moment the crowd would turn on her. But as the afternoon progressed, Savannah caught sight of her a few more times. Once, there was even a hint of a smile on her face as she watched several kids jump around and turn flips inside the bouncy castle. If Irene was thinking of David at that age, Savannah was glad that the memory had brought her a flicker of happiness instead of tears.
When Savannah came near the front of the Peach Pit, she sat on the edge of the porch and smiled at her father. “So, what’s the verdict, old man?”
“You do know I’m going to get out of this chair at some point, right?”
She laughed, glad to see her dad in a good mood.
Brock scanned the crowd. “You’ve proven that you just might be smarter than your daddy.”
Pride swelled within her. Though she’d been determined to succeed with or without her father’s validation, she couldn’t deny it was nice to have.
“Who’s that Travis is talking to? I don’t recognize her.”
Savannah searched the faces spread out in all directions until she spotted Travis handing Irene a plate of barbecue. “Someone who needs a friend.”
She didn’t explain further, and thankfully her dad didn’t ask for more details.
As the sun started heading toward the west, a band that Jet had hired for the evening began setting up. That was her cue. She turned to search for Travis to find him standing right behind her.
“You ready?” he asked.
“More than ready.”
He took her hand and led her up the steps at the end of the flatbed trailer where the band was unloading their gear and tuning instruments. Travis led her to the microphone and tapped on it to make sure it was on.
“Hello, everyone,” he said. “I’d like to introduce you to the lady who has made all this possible—Savannah Baron.”
Savannah’s face flushed as she acknowledged the cheers from the crowd. Her heart beating wildly, she stepped up to the microphone. “Good afternoon. I hope everyone is having a great time.” After some more clapping and cheers, she continued. “We’ve got a lot more on tap for this evening, including music and dancing. And don’t miss Amos’s barbecue plates. He’ll ruin you for any other barbecue place in the state of Texas.”
Amos doffed his hat in her direction then went back to dishing up food.
“But before we start the music, we’ve got a special surprise.”
Her pulse thumped like a hummingbird’s wings. She looked toward the porch of the Peach Pit and saw that all of the members of her family had gathered there. As she spotted Travis’s family standing near the dunking booth, he stepped close and took her hand. He squeezed it in that way he had of giving her courage.
“We’re going to have a wedding.” She looked up at Travis and love filled her to overflowing. “Today, I’m making an honest man out of Travis Shepard and bringing him into this crazy Baron clan.”
The cheers this time were a lot louder and more enthusiastic, which only made her smile grow that much wider. Before anyone in her family could rush forward and push for a big, traditional wedding, something she and Travis had decided they didn’t want, they looked to the edge of the stage to signal Reverend Tillman. The minister came forward, and she and Travis faced each other, still holding hands.
Though they were surrounded by hundreds of people, several friends, some family and many strangers, everyone faded away except the man in front of her. He was the love of her life, and she felt like the luckiest woman in the world for having found him. What made her heart fill with joy, however, was how he was returning her gaze as if thinking the same about her.
Somehow she made her way through the vows, saying the right thing at the right time. When Reverend Tillman finally said, “I now pronounce you man and wife,” she knew that was the single happiest moment of her life.
Travis pulled her close for the kiss but paused right before touching her lips. “I guess you’re stuck with me now, Mrs. Shepard.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
He kissed her then, and she felt it all the way down to the tips of her toes. If she’d thought the cheering earlier was loud, it paled in comparison to what erupted as they kissed. In fact, she was pretty sure that people in downtown Dallas heard the roar.
When the kiss finally ended, she and Travis turned to face the crowd. Her gaze went straight to where her family stood together, nervous to see their reactions.
Every single one of them was smiling and cheering. Even cranky, crusty, large-and-in-charge Brock Baron looked as if he might have a tear in his eye.
The band struck up a lively tune behind them, and Travis pulled her close.
“It’s time you dance with me, wife.”
She couldn’t agree more. Savannah Baron Shepard took center stage and danced with her husband.
* * * * *
Be sure to look for the next bo
ok in the
TEXAS RODEO BARONS miniseries!
Author Barbara White Daille continues
the Baron family saga with
THE TEXAN’S LITTLE SECRET
available in August 2014 from American Romance!
Keep reading for an excerpt from RUNAWAY LONE STAR BRIDE by Cathy Gillen Thacker.
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Chapter One
One look at her lovely face, and Hart Sanders knew. Magnolia McCabe was going to run.
It didn’t matter that Maggie’s fiancé, plus her twin sister and her groom, and all their families, had taken the coveted Wedding Train to the very top of Sanders Mountain and were now standing in Nature’s Cathedral.
Nor was it important that the minister had gotten halfway through the ceremony that would join Maggie and her intended husband forevermore.
The only thing that mattered to Maggie in that instant was how trapped she felt.
And Hart knew from his years of military training that cornered people did one of two things.