Texas Wild: The Gallaghers of Sweetgrass Springs Book 2

by Jean Brashear

Her hand brushing his hair nearly undid him. “Ris…I am so goddamned sorry. I did everything wrong, including not realizing that nothing mattered but being with you. I can stay. I can put down roots. Just let me be with you.”

  “Mackey…look at me.”

  His head rose, and his weren’t the only eyes that were wet.

  “I love you. I need you. I would love to marry you and adopt Eric.”

  “Can you ever forgive me?” He didn’t know how he’d ever forgive himself for what she’d been through.

  “There’s nothing to forgive.”

  “You were so hurt. So still. I thought—” His throat got tight. He cleared it. Bored in with his gaze. “No more warrior woman, you hear me? Some bastard needs confronting, you let me take care of it.”

  “You’ve had enough of violence and battle,” she said tenderly, stroking his face. “You don’t have to be my hero.”

  “I damn well do. I mean it, Ris. You’ve had to be strong for too long now. You need to lean on me for a change.”

  “We can argue about all that later,” she said, stubborn chin lifted. “How about you shut up and kiss me instead?”

  He looked at her, this woman who challenged him, maddened him…who understood him like no one else ever had. Who made him want to stay when he’d never imagined anyone could.

  And he knew he’d found his home at last. His roots.

  His place to belong.

  With a wicked smile on his face and hope in his heart, Wild Mackey carefully cradled her face in his hands and kissed the living socks off Cousin Crankypants.

  The hard-headed, amazing, completely unexpected woman of his dreams.

  Epilogue

  Standing in the cupola that night, Ruby saw the faint glow of white drift past her. She turned and saw The Lady’s soft, sad smile.

  Only one more, Ruby thought she heard her say.

  “One more what?”

  Love strong enough to stay.

  Ruby’s forehead wrinkled, then she thought about the call she’d already planned to make.

  The Lady nodded. It is time.

  “It is.” Past time for you to have some peace, too, Ruby thought.

  She pondered The Lady’s long wait as she descended the steps and detoured back to her house. She would return to the cafe after she made one call. Halftime would take a little longer tonight.

  Once inside, she picked up the phone in her bedroom and made a call. This was her fourth try, but she couldn’t leave word about Rissa on voicemail.

  A rich, deep voice answered. “Gallagher.”

  “Jackson, it’s your Aunt Ruby.” She’d held his secrets long enough.

  “You’re needed here. It’s time for you to come home.”

  ~THE END~

  Thank you for letting me share my stories with you!

  Next up is TEXAS DREAMS:

  From New York Times bestselling Texas romance author Jean Brashear, a new tale in her popular TEXAS HEROES western series that brings all three branches—The Gallaghers of Sweetgrass Springs and Morning Star plus The Marshalls—together in a heartwarming homecoming reunion that’s all about family, and all about love.

  Take two reluctant brides and two frustrated cowboys, mix with both clans of Gallaghers and season with a Navy SEAL or three, a movie star, a Hollywood Barbie and a country music giant—and you get a recipe for family mayhem, laughter and a tear or two.

  Watch as Sweetgrass Springs matriarch Ruby Gallagher and her granddaughter Scarlett, aided and abetted by the irrepressible Maddie Rose Gallagher, try to pull off surprise wedding plans for each other in the worst-kept secret in Texas’ most beloved small town.

  Start reading TEXAS DREAMS today!

  Sweetgrass Springs stories include:

  TEXAS ROOTS (Ian and Scarlett book 1)

  TEXAS WILD (Mackey and Rissa book 2)

  TEXAS DREAMS (a reunion of all the Texas Heroes families)

  TEXAS REBEL (Jackson and Veronica book 4)

  TEXAS BLAZE (Bridger and Penelope book 5)

  TEXAS CHRISTMAS BRIDE (a Texas Heroes reunion book 6)

  TEXAS TIES (Book Babes part 1)

  TEXAS TROUBLES (Book Babes part 2)

  TEXAS TOGETHER (Book Babes part 3)

  TEXAS HOPE (Michael and Laken)

  TEXAS STRONG (Tank and Chrissy)

  TEXAS SWEET (Brenda and Henry’s story)

  If you enjoyed TEXAS WILD, I would be very grateful if you would help others find this book by recommending it to your friends on Goodreads or by writing a review on Amazon. If you would like to be informed when my next release is available, please sign up for my newsletter here.

  I love hearing from you, so please contact me through any of the options at the end of this book.

  Thanks!

  Jean

  Please enjoy an excerpt from TEXAS DREAMS:

  “I need to plan a wedding,” Ruby Gallagher blurted into the phone without even a hello.

  “Ruby, that’s fantastic!” Maddie Gallagher responded. “Arnie must be thrilled.”

  “Arnie?” Ruby paused. Debated between a chuckle and a frown. These young ones needed to stay out of her love life. “Not you, too. I’m talking about Scarlett’s wedding, goose.”

  “Oh.” But her great-nephew’s wife quickly recovered her enthusiasm. “Poor Arnie, but Ian will be happy, I know.”

  “Heaven knows the boy has had to wait long enough. Don’t know what my granddaughter’s waiting on.”

  Maddie snickered. “Pot, meet kettle. How many years has Arnie been waiting on you?”

  “Don’t you get smart with me, young lady. There will be consequences.”

  “Consider me duly terrified,” Maddie responded. “Given that my five-year-old is nearly as tall as you, my knees are quaking, I assure you.”

  “Not fair the Gallagher men get all the height,” Ruby grumbled.

  “You and Scarlett are the only pygmies, best I can tell.”

  “Enough of that impertinence. Do you want to help me plan this wedding or not?”

  “Are you kidding? Of course I do. I was just telling Boone we need a family get-together soon. What better excuse? When were you thinking? A spring wedding?”

  “Not hardly. I was thinking Thanksgiving.”

  “You don’t lack ambition, do you? How about Christmas instead? What does Scarlett want?”

  “She wants to get the old courthouse renovated for her new restaurant. Then she’ll focus on getting that up and running. Then she’ll want lord knows…and Ian is too patient with her.”

  “Is he complaining?”

  “The man is goofy in love and too nice for his own good.”

  “So…” Maddie began. “Basically, Scarlett’s grandmother wants Scarlett to hurry up and get married?” She paused. “That’s never worked with you, and Scarlett comes by her stubbornness honestly.”

  “I’m hanging up now,” Ruby grumbled.

  Maddie burst out laughing. “Okay, okay…but it’s late enough that Scarlett’s friends from New York would have a hard time booking tickets for the heaviest travel time of the year. How about early December?”

  Ruby had never been on an airplane in her life. “I never thought of that. All right. So, you’re in?”

  “Absolutely. And Perrie can do the cake. She’s turning into quite a pastry chef. My sister Lacey could help with flowers, I bet.”

  “Veronica Butler owns a flower farm,” Ruby reminded Maddie. “She’ll handle the flowers.”

  “Absolutely. Lacey has many other skills—she could organize the wedding of the century in a week, I swear. All that socialite training didn’t go to waste. She’s a whiz at planning social galas and charity functions. I’ll call her. We need to come down for a girls’ weekend.”

  “If you show up here, Scarlett will get wind of it.”

  Silence fell.

  “Ruby.” Another pause. “You cannot mean to say you’re planning her wedding as a complete surprise. Seriously?”

  “I guess it
wouldn’t hurt to bring Ian in on it.”

  “You are something else.” Her quick laugh hovered somewhere between horrified and intrigued. “You can’t do that to her.”

  “Didn’t your little town of Morning Star pretty much put your wedding together?”

  “Well, yes, but—”

  “And wasn’t it wonderful?”

  “It was, but nobody sprung it on me. Do you honestly want to incite Scarlett’s likely reaction? She’ll freak. At best, you’ll wake up and find yourself married one morning, you know you will. She’ll get Judge Porter to marry you in your nightgown, fast asleep.”

  “Judge would never do that, unless he wants me to evict him from my boarding house. And there’s the little matter of my agreeing to it.”

  “And your point would be…?”

  Ruby sighed. “All right. I just…I want to see her settled while I’m still here.”

  “You’re going to live forever, Ruby. We all insist on it. Sweetgrass can’t do without you, and neither can the family.”

  “No wonder Boone is still crazy for you, sweet-talker.”

  Maddie chuckled. “It’s true, though. But back to Scarlett—maybe if we could put a plan together to show her instead, so she’d see she wouldn’t have to start from scratch? That might make things more doable if lack of time is all that’s holding her up. Lacey and I could compile a timeline, and I know Perrie will be onboard. We’ll talk to Veronica and Scarlett’s cousin Rissa, as well. Since you can’t easily get away from Scarlett, operating the diner together, we can put a rough outline together, run it by you, then you let me be the bad guy and spring it on Scarlett.”

  “I wasn’t planning to give her advance notice.”

  “At all? Ruby, you can’t do that.”

  “Of course I can. It’s my right. I’m old.”

  Maddie burst out laughing. “What you are is incorrigible.”

  Ruby barreled on. “Ian will help you with her when the time comes. He has a way with her.”

  “I just bet he does,” Maddie responded drily. “There’s something about those good-lookin’ cowboys…”

  “It’s not that she doesn’t want to marry him. She just has this notion that she has to get the events center running first, as if I’ll kick the bucket next week and she has to assure me Sweetgrass will be taken care of beforehand.”

  “She’s hungry for family, Ruby. She adores you.”

  “She’s the blessing of my life.” Ruby’s throat went tight. “I thought I would never have a family again after my daughter Georgia ran away.”

  “You have all of us, Ruby. And everyone in Sweetgrass considers you family.”

  “Do I hear a sniffle, young lady”? Maddie was a soft touch, with a heart as big as the world.

  “Of course not. Would I dare get weepy in front of you?”

  “Are you breeding again, Maddie Rose?”

  “What a sexist thing to say.” But the smile was there in her voice. “Yep. Knocked up bigger ‘n’ Dallas, but only Boone knows. As if those hellions of ours aren’t plenty already.”

  “You talk a good game. I’m happy for you, sweetheart.” Ruby knew Maddie had been all alone until she’d inherited Boone’s ranch out from under him. She, like Scarlett, had been hungry for family. If not for her, the existence of Boone and Mitch’s half-sister would never have been discovered. Lacey and her husband Devlin were now deeply ingrained in the Gallagher family.

  “Thank you. So, see, I won’t be dragging my heels on this wedding because I have an ulterior motive. I want to be a bridesmaid while I’m still hot. Pregnancy boobs without the belly.”

  Ruby had to laugh. “You are a caution, honey. Boone needed some shaking up. Boy was always too serious.” His career in the SEAL Teams had not been a joyride, nor had his life with his father, after his mother had died.

  “He doesn’t have that problem now, I promise.” Free-spirited Maddie had blown into Boone’s life like a spring storm, and the man was crazy about her.

  “So we’re set, right?”

  “I will start calling as soon as we hang up. But you should still tell her.”

  Silence ensued.

  Maddie sighed. “I’ll get back with you in a few days, okay?”

  “Thank you, honey. You’re a good girl.”

  “Practically a saint, I tell Boone every day. Talk soon, Ruby.” With another bawdy laugh, Maddie disconnected.

  …Excerpt from TEXAS DREAMS by Jean Brashear © 2013

  Click on the covers below for more on each book

  Readers react to the TEXAS HEROES series:

  “In all of Jean’s books so far I love the strong independent heroines and the men who know right away these women are special and fall in love in such a sweet way. Loving this series and can’t wait to read more.”

  “Love the seamless flow from one book to another. Jean Brashear’s Texas Heroes series is well worth a read. The characters are vivid and so real…the storylines are captivating. You won’t go wrong purchasing this series.”

  “Jean Brashear, you are now one of my favorite authors. I loved them all and I can’t wait to read some of your other books. You have the unique talent of making the reader feel like they have been transported to Texas and are part of the family. I found it very difficult to put down your books. Thank you for giving me hours of reading pleasure.”

  The Marshalls

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  “Ms. Brashear has written a great story line with characters who are both ‘larger than life’ in some ways and yet very likeable, believable people. I’m looking forward to getting the next one about Quinn’s brother, Josh, who is also in this book. Ms Brashear does indeed write very much like my most favorite author, Linda Howard.”

  ~Reader review

  “The Marshall men are quite spectacular and what they will do for the women they love wow! Not only are these men handsome, passionate, nurturing, but they will do anything to protect their families. Great books!”

  ~Reader review

  “Jean Brashear will knock your socks off!”

  ~New York Times bestselling author Stella Cameron

  The Gallaghers of Sweetgrass Springs

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  “This was a fantastic series! The Gallaghers are a crazy bunch but have a heart of gold. The love each one has will be forever! I highly recommend this series!”

  ~Reader review

  “Wow!! What a way to bring us back to the Texas Heroes series. Every time I read one of Jean’s books about Sweetgrass Springs it makes me want to find this town and become a member. Catching up with the characters in the past books and seeing how new ones are written into the story lines is what keeps me coming back.”

  ~Reader review

  “I love taking trips to Sweetgrass Springs! The characters and the story draw you in and won’t let you put the book down until you’ve read the happily ever after. The writing is excellent and I really love the small town setting!”

  ~Reader review

  “Sweetgrass Springs, Texas embodies a special place for hearts that need healing. This warm and romantic series only gets better with each story, as all the characters we have come to love, from the beginning, move forward with their lives.”

  ~Reader review

  The Book Babes Trilogy

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  “I love the concept of this story, about a unique group of women whose friendship cements them, despite their differences. How they grow into their relationships, as the years pass, becoming stronger as they find new challenges, is compelling.”

  ~Reader review

  “Great start to what will be an awesome trilogy. I love the eclectic group of characters. All these strong women & some delicious men. I love the connection to Sweetgrass as well.”

  ~Reader review

  More Sweetgrass Springs Stories

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book

  “You will laugh, cry but most of all enjoy the love this story is filled with. A truly heartwarming story that will leave an impression on you! A great series!”

  ~Reader review

  “This latest story from the Sweetgrass Spring series is the most touching and heartwarming yet. Beautiful story of redemption.”

  ~Reader review

  “Oh boy, I just fell in love so hard. Tank is so damaged. I cried for the boy he was and the broken man he became. Chrissy is so feisty and has the heart of a lion. And she needs it, to help heal Tank. I think Jean Brashear’s writing just keeps getting better & better. What a powerful story of love & healing. So beautiful.”

  ~Reader review

  “I must admit that I did tear up a bit with this one, but loved each of these people and their search for love and forgiveness. It’s a MUST read.”

  ~Reader review

  “I can’t say enough good things about Jean Brashear’s books, I have read each and every one, and have loved them all. This one takes a hold of your heart and won’t let go. It has the characters of her other books, but there is enough description in it that it can stand alone. The characters are so well developed that you feel like you know each one of them. I for one would love to find the town of Sweetgrass Springs and live there for the rest of my life. The mystery surrounding the family is so well developed, you feel like that you know them personally, and I can’t wait for the next book.”

  ~Reader review

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  About the Author

  New York Times and USAToday bestselling Texas romance author of the popular TEXAS HEROES series and over 40 other novels in romance and women’s fiction, a five-time RITA finalist and RT BOOKReviews Career Achievement Award winner, Jean Brashear knows a lot about taking crazy chances. A lifelong avid reader, at the age of forty-five with no experience and no training, she decided to see if she could write a book. It was a wild leap that turned her whole life upside down, but she would tell you that though she’s never been more terrified, she’s never felt more exhilarated or more alive. She’s an ardent proponent of not putting off your dreams until that elusive ‘someday’—take that leap now.