by Joann Baker
Georgia smiled through the tears that filled her eyes. “Oh, Rye, I love you so much.”
“And you’ll marry me and live happily-ever-after?” His lips brushed hers in a teasing caress.
Her eyes searched his once more. Satisfied with what she saw there, she nodded.
The ring slid onto her finger, a perfect fit, just as his mouth captured hers in a kiss that was felt clear to their very souls. When they drew apart, both of them were breathing heavily.
“We’d better get out of here, honey, or I’m not going to be able to…”
“Ry?”
“Yes, darlin’.”
Georgia reached for him, burrowing into his strong arms. “Hold me and don’t ever let go.”
“That’s the plan, sweetheart.” Drawing her close, Ryder stared up at the half-painted ceiling, awed by the incredible joy that the woman in his arms had brought into his life. He couldn’t wait to marry her and see what the years ahead held. Happiness, like he hadn’t felt since before his parent’s death, flowed through him. For the first time in a very long time, life was worth living again.
Six Months Later…
Georgia stood before the full-length mirror in the church’s fellowship room. A smiling woman stared back. For a moment, her mind didn’t register the fact that she was the woman in the mirror. She had never looked—nor felt—so happy in her life.
“Are you ready, Sissy?” Lynn’s reflection joined hers in the mirror. Her little sister was just as beautiful as ever, but today, Georgia didn’t feel even a twinge of envy or self-doubt. She was about to marry the man that she loved with all her heart and soul. A man who loved her just the way she was.
How had she gotten so very lucky?
“You look beautiful.” Faye joined them and all three Steven sisters stood side by side. Georgie hoped with all her heart that her sisters could find the happiness and love that she had found with Ryder.
“Let’s get this show on the road,” Faye said. “I’ve got some cowboys to dance with.”
“Yeah,” Lynn agreed readily. “Especially our two new brothers-in-law. That Gabe is to die for.”
“You stay away from Gabe Anderson, missy.” Georgia’s eyes met those of her sister in the mirror. Luckily, all she saw was fascinated wonder in the younger girl’s eyes. No sign of the instant, heartfelt connection she’d had the first time she’d laid eyes on Ryder.
She took a deep breath, the hopes and dreams she had for her future playing out in her mind. She knew there would be good times and bad times, but she also knew Ryder would be right there by her side. “Now, let’s get me married.”
She turned around and was immediately engulfed in two pairs of loving arms. “We love you, Georgia. You deserve every bit of happiness that being with Ryder is going to bring you.”
She returned the hug, blinking back the tears trying to form in her eyes. “Thank you. That means a lot to me.”
A knock sounded on the door.
“Come in,” Georgia called, her voice thick with the unshed tears.
At her welcome, the door opened and in walked a handsome couple in their late fifties. When Georgia had first told her family that she was getting married, her father had immediately protested, saying Georgia had not known Ryder long enough. Georgia thought he secretly believed it was a ‘have-to’ case. By the time the date of the wedding came around, so had his way of thinking. Ryder had proven just as charming and loving with her family as he was with her.
“Oh, baby, you are so beautiful.” Her mother rushed over to hug her, while her father hung back, giving her a huge grin.
After several tear-filled minutes, the women pulled back from each other and her father rubbed his hands together, repeating Faye’s earlier words. “Let’s get this show on the road, shall we? I’m pretty sure that cowboy of yours, Georgie, is about to burst out of his tux if you keep him waiting much longer.”
With a happy grin, Georgia took her father’s arm. Within minutes after her mother had returned to the small chapel, she heard the first strains of the Wedding March.
Ryder stood at the front of the church waiting anxiously for Georgie to appear. He tugged at his collar, suddenly feeling like a hog-tied heifer.
“That noose around your neck bothering you already, bro?” Gabe stood at his side, a grin on his face.
Ryder dropped his hand and turned to Gabe. “So help me if you—”
Calhoun quickly put his big body between the brothers, his eyes a steely flint color that said he wasn’t putting up with crap from either of his brothers. “Gabe, you will behave yourself today, got it?” Gabe might be the oldest of the brothers, but when Calhoun spoke, everyone listened. “And Ryder, you need to greet your bride with something other than that scowl on your face.”
“What?” Ryder turned away from his brothers. He wouldn’t have minded pounding Gabe into the ground and relieving some of the tension eating away at him, but as Calhoun pointed out, he had better things to do.
Much, much better things to do.
Just as he turned, the music changed and the back doors to the sanctuary opened. His heart pounded as he watched Gramps and Pops escort Georgie’s mother down the aisle. The three were smiling to beat the band. Pops gave him a wink as he took his seat on the groom’s side, stretching out his legs. Gramps’ face was a little more solemn. He was sure both men were thinking of their own long past wedding days. He knew both men had loved their wives dearly and missed them every day.
Next came Georgie’s two sisters, identical twins that were turning nearly every cowboy’s head in the room. Including Gabe’s. He caught Calhoun’s gaze and his brother nodded. Ryder relaxed, knowing the man would keep his brother away from the girls. They were much too young and Gabe was much too jaded.
A flash of white behind the lavender of the sisters’ bridesmaid dresses caused his breath to catch in his throat. Time seemed to slow down yet his heart continued to beat at a runaway pace. He’d heard it all his life—that it took only one second for your world to change. For better or for worse. He’d experienced the worst already when his parents had died so unexpectedly. And now, he was experiencing the best. Another life-alternating moment he would remember forever.
The preacher’s words sounded from far away as he asked who gave the bride in matrimony. All he could focus on was the smile on Georgia’s soft, pink lips and the happiness radiating from her face.
She was his, and he was hers.
And that made all things right in his world.
WORD FROM THE AUTHORS
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OTHER BOOKS BY JOANN BAKER
AND PATRICIA MASON
Remember we always give you stand alone books with happily-ever-afters
HEARTBREAK RIDGE (3 BOOK SERIES)
DAKOTA’S DREAM
Dakota Sanders was finally free to live the life he’d given up at an early age to raise his brother and sister after the untimely death of their parents. He was too old and too levelheaded to go wild, but he certainly intended to enjoy his freedom. Having his brother and sister married and on their own meant his only obliga
tion was to keep the Double Heart Ranch running smoothly. The arrival of his new cook just might upset all of his carefully laid plans…
Curvy personal chef, Jesse Kincaid, needed one year of service in order to take her exam to be certified. Having grown up in New York, Wyoming certainly hadn’t been her first choice. However, after meeting her sexy new boss, she’s determined to make the most of her year.
Was the attraction cooking between the two a flash in the pan, or would the ingredients come together to make something lasting?
JERICHO’S PASSION
Marriage and Jericho Sanders went together about as well as oil and water. He was footloose and fancy-free, and he liked it that way. He just couldn’t imagine being shackled to one woman for the rest of his life. So why did the appearance of an old flame—“the one that got away”—make him see those chains in a whole new light?
Curvy girl Abigail Goode had left Heartbreak Ridge after graduation and never looked back. That didn’t mean she’d forgotten the young football hero that had almost broken her heart. She knew that coming home to partner her grandfather in his veterinary practice meant that she’d more than likely run into Jericho, but she’d had years to build up a good defense against his seductive charm. Besides, he had plenty of women to keep him occupied.
But resisting the grown-up Jericho turned out to be harder than she ever imagined, especially when the sexy-as-sin cowboy turned his roguish charm on her once more.
NEVADA’S PRIDE
In spite of losing her parents at a young age, Nevada had never missed a birthday celebration and her twenty-fifth was going to be life-changing. That is if she can convince her protective older brothers, Dakota and Jericho, to loosen the apron strings and let her claim her granny’s land. With it, she just might have a chance at her own life.
An ex-con, Tanner Jessup, needed a job—bad. Down to his last tank of gas, he has little option but to accept Nevada Sanders’ offer of work. Falsely accused of a crime he hadn’t committed once before by the daughter of a wealthy rancher he trusted, he planned to keep his distance from his new boss lady. But as he worked side by side with her through the long summer days, the attraction that sizzled between them was too hot to ignore.
With the vast differences between them, was it time to move on? Or could he come to terms with his past and find a future with the woman who had stolen the heart right out of his chest?
THE COWBOY’S HOMECOMING (3 BOOK SERIES)
LAST CHANCE
Chance Mooreland left home at eighteen to join the army. Somewhere out there—away from the 50-acre patch of land in nowhere Colorado—was the life he was meant to live and he intended to find it. Eight years later, he returned. A lot of things had changed in his absence—except for his feelings for the beautiful but untouchable girl next door.
Katherine Fordham, daughter of wealthy rancher Hubert Fordham, had a life that many envied. But what they didn’t know was that Katie had dreams of her own. She wanted to be more than the pampered only child of the richest family in the county. And she had a plan. But first, she’d have to convince the sexy cowboy next door to take one last chance.
LAST STAND
After his stint in the army, Traynor Paxton hadn’t found a reason to land anywhere long enough to put down roots. It didn’t matter. Everywhere he traveled there was always a willing woman who understood that his affection lasted only until the morning light. Haunted by things he’d seen and done, he never expected to find a job he actually liked—or a woman he just might be falling in love with.
Sara McKinley had been on the run when she’d landed in the quaint little town of Conifer, Wyoming. She’d found a decent job in a local bakery and made a new life for herself. She was content. At least until she laid eyes on the new sexy-as-sin sheriff. Something about the big man made her want… more.
When her past finally catches up with her, will it tear them apart or will they take their last stand together?
LAST HOPE
Former soldier and EOD specialist Kellon Granger had pretty much kept to himself since his last tour of duty ended. Drifting from job to job prevented him from forming relationships, and he liked that just fine. Guilt over his brother’s death plagued him, making him aware that for him, a bond with another human being was too fragile. What if he let someone else down? Still, when his former army brothers asked him to stay and help out a friend, he found himself agreeing.
Curvy baker, Emma Bowden had watched both of her best friends find love and happiness. Although she wanted that for herself, she had to keep her feet firmly planted in the Colorado soil she’d inherited from her grandparents. Between running a bakery and getting her organic vegetable business off the ground, she didn’t have the time for such romantic notions, even if her new employee was ruggedly handsome. In Kellon, she saw a kindred soul and her spirit ached to ease his obvious pain. Could she risk her heart on a man who wasn’t the staying kind?
COWBOYS OF COLTON CANYON (3 BOOK SERIES)
FALLING FOR HER COWBOY BOSS
After a military career that could have ended his life, Jacob McKay came back to his family ranch a different man—physically and emotionally. He was content with running the Triple M and building on the success his father had created. And, of course, the occasional no-strings-attached affair. What he didn’t want was to be attracted to his curvaceous secretary—a woman with emotional scars of her own and an issue with her abundant curves.
Carolyn Adams had suffered her own brand of personal hell after losing both of her parents in a tragic accident that had almost claimed the life of her brother as well. An accident that she had walked away from without a scratch. Taking a job as a secretary at one of the largest ranches in Colton Canyon meant that she’d be able to keep her brother in rehab. It also meant that she would be closer to the man who every day claimed another little piece of her battered heart.
Can two lonely people overcome their personal trials and find a way to heal one another?
After almost losing his left arm in Afghanistan, taciturn rancher, Boone Leland worked hard to make a name for himself and a success of Leland Farms. Sometimes he wondered why since there would be legacy, no children to carry on his name, for who would want to marry a crippled cowboy?
CLAIM ME, COWBOY
Plus-size model, Rebecca Morgan took one look at hard-as-stone rancher, Boone Leland, and knew she’d found her purpose. On his farm to do a photo shoot introducing his new organic vegetable business, the sparks start flying. When Becky realizes the rough-around-the-edges Boone isn’t going to make a move, she sets out to seduce him.
Will the heat be too hot to handle or will it mold their love into something lasting?
THE COWBOY’S CHRISTMAS PRESENT
A curvy girl gets her cowboy!
Quinn Sutton thought he was safe from the matrimonial fever that had ended his friends’ bachelor ways. Even if he did feel a little envious, as the virtual newcomer to town, he wanted nothing more than to concentrate on building the ranch he’d inherited from his uncle and attempt to keep his fledgling law practice afloat. But when his former boss asked him to keep his daughter safe, he found the request impossible to refuse. And once she arrived at his ranch, Quinn was beset with overpowering yearnings for the beautiful Faith.
Faith Greene had grown up trying—and failing—to be the son her father had always wanted. Having lost her mother at an early age, she’d spent her life attempting to find a way to earn her father’s love. When he took a case that put her life in danger, he sent her to the one man whose name she’d gotten sick of hearing—Quinn Sutton. The lawyer turned rancher that had received more of her father’s affection in a few years than she had in a lifetime. She was set to dislike him, but once he touched her, she didn’t want to let go. Could she find a way to stop living her life for her father and learn to please herself? With Quinn’s help, she just might.
A BBW finds romance with a cowboy... what more could you want for Christmas?
THE LADY
AND THE LAW
Emmaline Conway knew only one way to deal with problems and life in general, and that was to rush at them head-on. Dancing around a problem didn’t solve anything – it only made your feet hurt. And she’d had enough hurt to last a lifetime.
Sheriff J.C. Duvall hadn’t just been bitten by love once; he’d been chewed up and spit out. Now the by-the-book lawman wanted only to raise his daughter and live a quiet, peaceful life in the little town of Utopia County, Wyoming. But Emmaline’s constant shenanigans threaten his peaceful existence. Even if they can find a way to put their pasts behind them, can the solitary lawman and the fiery lawyer overcome their differences and build a future together?
THE RELUCTANT RANCHER
“Luke Tanner and women didn’t mix, plain and simple.”
Luke Tanner learned early on that no one cared enough to look past his roughhewed appearance and sour attitude to discover what lay beneath the surface - other than his wallet. When Mary Carter hits him up for a loan, he makes her a proposition she can’t refuse.
Mary fantasized about Luke Tanner since her first glimpse of the veritable mountain of a man. She knows there’s more to Luke than his bank account. Though she tries to hide her feelings, a fire burns between them. Will it end in ashes - or forge a love that would last a lifetime.
THE GRINCH AND MISS GOODY-TWO-SHOES
Mistletoe, falling snow and a six foot Grinch!
Private investigator Nicholas Trent hates the snow and whole sentimental hype of Christmas. All he wanted was to finish his investigation and get the heck out of Winterfall, Nebraska, and back to the sunny beaches of California. But he hadn’t counted on falling for his new assignment. The quiet beauty had a knack for melting his cold heart. But would she forgive him once she found out the secret he harbored?