“Will you take Elizabeth away from here?” she asked.
Fletcher tried to move but winced with pain. His face had no color. His eyes were underlined with dark circles. Jo felt suddenly guilty for being so selfish right now, for wanting to know what he planned to do with his future, and whether or not that future would involve her and Leo.
“Can I do anything for you?” she offered, rearranging his pillow under his head.
He touched her cheek. “You already have. You’ve helped me. I…I feel like I understand things better now.”
“What things?” she asked.
He wet his dry lips. “I’m not a lawman, Jo. It’s just something I’ve been doing to make up for what my father did, to prove I’m not the same as him. But I am like him. I know that now. I’m his son and I’m darn proud of it, because he was a good man. It’s time I acknowledged that. I’m not saying that what he did was right—there were probably other ways he could have handled it, and the outcome might have been different. But at least he was honest about everything. And he let those men go free because he loved us so much, he was afraid of something bad happening to us. I understand it now, because it’s just like how I feel about you.”
Jo squeezed Fletcher’s hand. “Can you forgive him?”
“I already have. I did a lot of thinking after you left, and now…I just miss him. I wish he was here. I wish he could have met you.”
Hearing him speak those perfect words only made her love Fletcher more, but that didn’t make this any easier, not if he still planned to take his sister away, and leave Dodge City for good.
“Since you’re handing out forgiveness today,” Jo said, “do you think you could forgive me, too? I know I went against everything you believed in and I even asked you to break the law to set me free, but I’m sorry for that. I just want you to know that.”
He pulled her closer to cup her cheek in his hand. “God, Jo, how can you even ask that? You thought you wanted to kill Zeb, but you didn’t, and I know you never would have been able to. You even dragged him back here to save his wretched life. You were willing to confess everything just now, to go to prison because you felt it was the right thing to do. I don’t know anyone with more integrity than that. There’s nothing to forgive.”
She laid her cheek on his chest and closed her eyes with gratitude. Everything she had feared so deeply—that she was a killer…that Fletcher would never be able to forgive her—it was all gone now. There was only the warmth of the man holding her in his arms, and a feeling in her heart that was so sweet, so complete, it was almost painful.
Perhaps now, she could live with letting him go.
“Still, I’m sorry that all this had to happen,” she said, wiping a tear from her cheek. “I’m sorry that you were shot, and that you had to arrest your brother-in-law, and that things didn’t work out for Elizabeth.”
“I’m not sorry,” Fletcher replied. “Zeb was cruel to her. Now she has an excuse to be rid of him. And as for you and me…” He raised her chin with a finger. “I don’t think I ever told you that I loved you.”
She stared blankly at him, numb with shock, until a cry of joy broke from her lips. “You do?”
He nodded. “Oh, yes.”
“I love you, too,” she whispered with laughter. “More than I ever thought I could love any man. I didn’t even know feelings like this were possible.”
Fletcher raised her hand to his lips and kissed it. “When I saw you in that noose, Jo, I thought I’d lost you forever. Then, I thought I was dying, and all I could think about was how I’d been wasting my life doing something that just wasn’t me, and how you’re everything that I want, and you make me see everything I want to be. I don’t want to lose you, Jo.”
Jo sat back, almost afraid to believe this could be happening, that he could be saying these things to her. “I don’t want to lose you either.”
“Is that a promise?”
“Yes.” She kissed his hand, again and again.
“But there’s only one thing that still bothers me about all this,” Fletcher said, frowning. “Actually, about you.”
At his words, Jo’s heart flinched a little, but she forced herself to speak. “What is that?”
He stared at her for a moment, looking reluctant to tell her. “Well…if you really want to know…it’s your name.”
“Josephine? You don’t like it?”
“Oh, I like Josephine fine. It’s the Mrs. O’Malley part that I’m gonna have a problem with. You see, I was kind of hoping you’d change it—to Mrs. Collins.”
Jo’s heart swelled with happiness as Fletcher grasped her hand in his and brought it to his lips.
“Will you?” he asked. “Will you marry me, Josephine? For real?”
Laughing and crying at the same time, Jo flung herself at Fletcher and planted her mouth on his.
“Ow! My side!” he groaned, peeling her off him and laughing. “Have pity on an injured man. I take it that’s a yes?”
“Yes,” Jo sputtered, still wiping at the tears that flowed freely down her cheeks as Fletcher reached up to kiss her.
“I can’t wait to tell Leo” she said. “He’ll be so pleased, because you know he thinks the world of you, Fletcher. As do I.”
Their lips met, and her mind spun with joy.
“Hey,” Fletcher said softly, gazing into her eyes with a love she never imagined she would ever know. Not in this lifetime. “I guess that old saying is true after all.”
“About what?”
He tilted his head and smiled. “A rose by any other name does smell as sweet.”
Jo grinned and leaned closer to touch her lips to his. “Everything smells sweeter with you in my life.”
And with that, he drew her into his arms, and the future, like the wide-open prairie, felt absolutely dazzling and full of promise.
Author’s Note
Dear Reader,
I hope you enjoyed book two in my Dodge City Brides Series. If you haven’t read book one yet, please continue on for more information about MAIL ORDER PRAIRIE BRIDE. You’ll also find an excerpt for the third book in the trilogy, TAKEN BY THE COWBOY, which provides an interesting twist on the Dodge City setting, because we see it through the eyes of a modern twentieth-century woman who inadvertently stumbles across a portal through time. It’s quite an adventure!
If you enjoyed this romance novel, I’d love for you to check out my Highland romances as well, which feature rugged alpha male heroes in a Scottish setting. For more information about those books, please visit my website at www.juliannemaclean.com, and while you’re there, don’t forget to sign up for my email newsletter if you would like to be notified about future new releases and my monthly autographed book giveaway, which is available to my newsletter subscribers.
And if you would like to know when an ebook edition from my backlist goes on sale for 99 cents (or is occasionally offered for free!), please go to my author profile on BookBub and click the blue “follow” button. You’ll be sent an email whenever there’s a flash sale.
Thanks again for reading one of my books, and as always, happy reading!
Julianne
OTHER BOOKS IN THE DODGE CITY BRIDES SERIES:
Dodge City Brides: USA Today bestselling author Julianne MacLean delivers three breathtaking and passionate full-length novels featuring rugged, alpha-male heroes of the West, all sworn to protect the women they love…
MAIL ORDER PRAIRIE BRIDE
(Dodge City Brides – Book One)
A loveless marriage of convenience on the Kansas prairie turns out to be far more than she bargained for…
HE’S PART OF THE WEST
Briggs Brigman has been burned once before, and the last thing he needs is a beautiful wife who will spend hours in front of the mirror, primping herself. He knows how hard the prairie can be on a woman, and all he wants is a stalwart bride who won’t complain about hauling water from the creek….
SHE’S A CITY GIRL WITH NO IDEA WHAT SHE’S
IN FOR…
All Sarah MacFarland wants is to escape her fearful life in Boston and start fresh with a new identity. Answering an advertisement for a mail order bride seems like the perfect solution, until she meets her soon-to-be husband—a ruggedly handsome, strapping farmer who leaves her breathless on their wedding night. But is it possible that two tormented souls can find happiness, when all they know is betrayal, and when trust is the only way out of a tumultuous past that simply won’t stay buried?
(Originally published under the title PRAIRIE BRIDE in 2000)
“You can always count on Julianne MacLean to deliver ravishing romance that will keep you turning pages until the wee hours of the morning.” —Teresa Medeiros
Purchase MAIL ORDER PRAIRIE BRIDE
Add to Goodreads Shelf
TAKEN BY THE COWBOY
(Dodge City Brides – Book Three)
HERO AND PROTECTOR
Former bounty hunter, expert gunslinger, and the toughest sheriff Dodge City has ever known, Truman Wade is a real man from the tip of his black Stetson right down to his spurs and leather boots. He’s never met his match in a gunfight, but he’s never met a gorgeous, gutsy woman from the twenty-first century either…
TORN BETWEEN TWO WORLDS
Newly single after a rocky breakup with her self-absorbed fiancé, newspaper columnist Jessica Delaney crashes her car in a lightning storm and soon finds herself dodging bullets in the Wild West. Before the night is out, she’s tossed in jail for a murder she didn’t commit, and if things don’t seem complicated enough, the impossibly handsome sheriff in charge of her arrest has danger written all over him—and a sexy swagger to die for. Jessica knows she needs to get home, but when Sheriff Wade’s enticing touch sets her passions on fire, she begins to wonder if fate has other plans for her, and soon she must choose between the life she longs for in the future…and the greatest love she’s ever known.
Purchase TAKEN BY THE COWBOY
Add to Goodreads Shelf
Read on for an excerpt…
Excerpt from
TAKEN BY THE COWBOY
Dodge City Brides Series – Book 3
Copyright © 2011 by Julianne MacLean
Prologue
Dodge City, Kansas
Present day
Jessica Delaney sat in the waiting room outside the Operating Room, barely able to move, much less comprehend what had just happened to her brother. “How much longer?” she said to her parents. “He’s been in there for two hours.”
Jessica’s mother blew her nose, while her father sat in silence, squeezing his wife’s hand. “I’m sure they’re doing their best,” he said. “We’ll hear something soon.”
Jessica rose from her chair and walked to the edge of the waiting room to peer down the long hall at the surgery doors to the O.R. She thought of Gregory lying on the table under the lights, a team of masked surgeons working over him. What were his chances? Did anyone ever survive a bullet wound to the chest?
Feeling nauseous all of a sudden, she returned to her chair and sat down. She stared at a framed painting on the wall and wished this day had been different. Gregory didn’t deserve to be lying on that table. He was too young, and such a good person.
At least the gunman was behind bars. The convenience store clerk had noticed the out-of-state license plate just before he called 911.
An orderly in a white uniform walked by pushing a cart stacked with folded blue hospital gowns. Jessica watched him while he steered the cart onto the elevator. When the doors slid shut behind him, she thought of Liam, her fiancée.
Should she call him and tell him they were still waiting for news?
Jessica chewed on a thumbnail and recalled their conversation hours ago, when she’d called him at work….
“Liam, something terrible just happened. Can you come with me to Dodge?”
“When? Now? I’m in a meeting. I can’t just skip out.”
She fought to keep her voice steady. “Gregory’s been shot. He’s on his way to the hospital. I need to go right now, and I’d really like you to come with me.”
He was silent for a moment. “God, Jessica…is he going to be okay?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I need to go now—to be with Mom and Dad.”
“Of course. You should go.”
“Can’t you come?”
She heard him sigh heavily on the other end of the line. “It’s a really bad time, Jess. We’ve got clients coming in tonight. It could be a million-dollar deal. If I’m not there, it might cost me my job—and you don’t know what kind of day it’s been for me.” He began to tell her about the mountain of emails and texts he still had to get through.
Jessica covered her forehead with her hand. She didn’t want to hear the details. Not now.
She interrupted him. “Look, don’t worry about it. I’ll go alone.”
“Let me know how he’s doing. Call me later.”
“Sure.” She hung up without saying goodbye and drove from Topeka to Dodge alone….
The squeak of the surgery doors swinging open pulled Jessica from her thoughts. She stood up to look down the hall again and saw a doctor in O.R. greens walking toward them. His shirt was drenched in sweat. “Mom, Dad…someone’s coming.”
Her parents stood up.
The doctor, who looked to be in his mid-thirties, kept his eyes on Jessica as he walked the length of the hall. A terrible rush of anxiety exploded in her belly as he came to stand before them.
“Mr. and Mrs. Delaney,” he said, “I’m Doctor Jake Spencer.”
He shook her father’s hand, while Jessica put her arm around her mother.
“I’m sorry to tell you this,” the doctor said. “We did everything we could for Gregory, but I’m afraid he didn’t make it.”
Jessica stared blankly at the doctor, who kept his gaze fixed on hers. His eyes filled with empathy, while hers filled with tears.
Her parents said nothing for a moment, then her mother let out a sob. “Please, no.”
The doctor put his hand on her shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Mrs. Delaney. The wound was deep. The bullet entered his chest and punctured a lung. It lodged in the wall of his aorta. We tried to stop the bleeding and put a graft in place, but it bled too heavily, and we couldn’t stop it. We did all we could do. I massaged his heart to pump it manually, but…I’m very sorry.”
Jessica’s mother leaned into her husband and buried her sobs in his chest. All Jessica could do was stare at the doctor while she listened to her mother’s weeping and the sound of her own blood rushing through her veins. She still couldn’t believe what the doctor was saying.
“Will you be all right?” he asked. His voice was caring. Almost shaky. His green eyes were compassionate and sincere. He reached out and touched her shoulder.
Jessica managed to nod.
“If you need anything or have any questions,” he continued, “you can contact me at any time.” He handed her his card.
“Thank you,” she replied.
He made a move to leave but turned back. He shook his head in frustration. “I’m sorry, Jessica. I did everything in my power to save him. I wish I could have done something to prevent it from happening.”
His expression was tight with strain, as he bowed his head and walked away.
Her grief swelled as she stared after the doctor, until the doors to surgery swung closed behind him. She choked back a sob and turned to embrace her parents.
It wasn’t until many hours later, after they left the hospital and went home to call their friends and relatives, that Jessica wondered how the doctor had known her name.
Chapter One
One year later
Jessica shifted nervously in the driver’s seat, her fingers like vice grips around the steering wheel. She’d driven for two hours, slicing through a rain-battered dusk, wishing that she lived closer to Dodge and her parents. If she did, she wouldn’t have to spend so many hours traveling from one city to the other.
&nbs
p; Maybe it was time to move home, she thought, for the tenth time that month. There wasn’t much keeping her in Topeka anymore—not since she broke off her engagement to Liam.
She was self-employed and could write her fitness column from wherever she pleased. All she needed was a good pair of sneakers for running, her laptop, and wireless Internet at a nearby Starbucks. Her apartment was a sublet. She could give a month’s notice and be out of there in a heartbeat. The change would do her good.
Not that she wasn’t happy in her work. She loved what she did. There were no problems in that department, but everything else seemed so uncertain and unpredictable.
Her brother had gone out to buy ice cream after supper one night, and he never saw another sunrise again.
Jessica had imagined she’d be married by now with a kid on the way, but the man she chose for a husband turned out to be a self-absorbed child, and she was suddenly single again, paying off debt from a honeymoon she had no choice but take alone.
Yet, she was ever hopeful, waiting for a sign from above, a clue to suggest what she was meant to do with her life. There had to be some greater purpose.
Should she stay in Topeka, or move home to Dodge to be closer to her parents?
They weren’t getting any younger and wouldn’t be around forever. If she’d learned anything over the past year, it was to make the most of each and every day, because you never knew when it could all end—just like that—with no warning whatsoever.
Tempting the Marshal: (A Western Historical Romance) (Dodge City Brides Series Book 2) Page 24