by Emmy Eugene
“I love it,” she said. “Just like I love you.”
“I love you too,” Russ said, in awe that this was his reality. But it was, and he’d never been happier or more hopeful for his future.
“We should hire Millie,” Janelle said.
“And get married at the ranch,” Russ added.
“Deal,” Janelle said. She gazed up at him, and Russ wanted to be the best man he could be—for her. “I can’t wait to marry you.”
“I can’t wait for that either, baby. Are we still thinking the end of May?”
“Yes,” she said. “The end of May should work out just fine.”
Russ thought everything between them would work out just fine too, and he couldn’t wait to live his life with this woman at his side.
Keep reading for Travis and Millie’s wedding, as told by Travis’s brother, Rex!
COWBOYS NEVER HAVE A SECRET BABY.
Or, if you want to read Russ and Janelle’s wedding, there’s another delicious cowboy billionaire brother romance for you in COWBOYS NEVER MARRY THEIR BOSS, where you’ll get to see what happens with Griffin and his boss, Toni!
It all starts at Russ and Janelle’s wedding, with the guest that’s late… Be sure to preorder COWBOYS NEVER MARRY THEIR BOSS too!
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Sneak Peek! Chapter One of Cowboys Never Have A Secret Baby
Rex Johnson liked weddings, because there was always a lot of available women clamoring for the bouquet. They had their hair done up, their makeup perfect, and those high heels he liked a whole lot.
He sat in the front row with the rest of his family, his mother already weeping and Travis hadn’t even come out to the altar yet. As the baby brother, Rex had a special relationship with his momma, and he reached over and took her hand in his.
She squeezed his hand, and he knew she wanted this marital bliss for all of her sons, including him. He didn’t want to disappoint her, but he wasn’t going to get married. That was why he kept the women he dated at arm’s length, why he only went out with them for a maximum of two months, whether he liked them or not. And most of the time, he knew after the first or second date if a woman would even get that long on his arm.
His brothers thought he was a player. Even Griffin, the next oldest brother and the one Rex lived with full time in town, thought Rex was a bit cruel to women. What they didn’t know was that Rex had given his heart away six years ago. He couldn’t give away what he didn’t have, but he didn’t want to stay home every weekend either.
Most of the women he went out with knew what they were getting, and those that didn’t, Rex told them the rules.
Yes, he had rules, and he wasn’t sorry about them.
The twittering in the crowd increased, and Rex looked to his right to see Travis had come outside. Finally. The sooner this wedding got started, the sooner it would end. His brother took his spot at the altar, shook hands with the preacher, and nodded as the other man said something.
Rex hadn’t gotten the fancy ranch wedding, with miles of flowers and lace and the rich, black tuxedo with the matching cowboy hat. He hadn’t had people rushing around to make sure all the chairs were perfectly aligned or that the guest book sat at a perfect forty-five-degree angle from the five-tier cake.
He’d dressed in the nicest clothes he had and met the woman of his dreams at City Hall in downtown Bourne. Her sister and her husband had been there as witnesses, and Rex had smiled through the whole thing.
He’d smiled when Holly told him she was pregnant. Smiled at her parents when they’d gone to tell them. Smiled, smiled, smiled.
Rex was tired of smiling.
He hadn’t been smiling when Holly had lost their baby. Or when she’d said she’d made a mistake and then filed for divorce only two months after they’d said I-do. Or when she’d left for work one morning and never came home.
He’d packed up everything they’d owned and put it in storage, where it still remained in a facility on the outskirts of Chestnut Springs. He wasn’t sure why he’d chosen to store it so close, as he hadn’t heard from Holly in the five years since all of that had happened, and he wasn’t living in his hometown at the time.
Maybe for distance. In the end, he’d returned to Chestnut Springs, and he’d been living with Griffin in the downtown home they’d gone in on together for four years now.
The music started, and a hush fell over the crowd as they stood. Rex did too, going through all the motions. He was happy for Travis and Millie. He was. They made the perfect couple, and Travis had always been a bit quiet when it came to women.
Rex, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. He smiled at Millie as she came down the aisle with his father. Hers apparently lived somewhere else, and they didn’t have a great relationship.
Every step his father took over the white river rock was slow and looked painful. Rex really didn’t know how he was going to leave in a few short months to work a service mission in the Dominican Republic, but Mom insisted they were going, that the doctors said it was okay.
Daddy kissed Millie’s cheek and passed her to Travis, who hugged him. Rex’s heart—the little he had left—swelled, and he felt a brief flash of the perfect family love he shared with his parents and brothers.
He did love them, and he enjoyed the Thursday night dinners at his parents’ house and the Sunday afternoon meals and activities that still took place at the ranch. Seth and Jenna came every week, and with Travis and Millie living in the front corner of the ranch, Rex assumed they’d keep coming too.
“Sit down,” Griffin hissed, pulling on Rex’s sleeve. He practically fell backward into his seat, and his face heated.
“Pay attention, baby,” his mom whispered to him, and Rex tried to focus on what was happening in front of him. The pastor spoke about nice things, about keeping the lines of communication open, of working through problems instead of letting them fester into bigger things.
Mille and Travis each read vows while the gentle spring breeze blew under the tent, and then the pastor pronounced them husband and wife. Travis grinned at his new wife, dipped her though she squealed, and kissed her.
Rex cheered and clapped the loudest, as always. He knew he had a loud voice, and he didn’t even try to quiet it. The new bride and groom went down the aisle to the applause, and everyone stood up.
It seemed like a whole lot of work for a ten-minute ceremony. At least to Rex, and he once again found himself thinking about the simplicity of his marriage. He’d known it wasn’t what Holly wanted, but with the time and money constraints they’d had, it was all Rex could give her.
Now that his bank account was considerably bigger, he wondered what kind of wedding they’d have now.
You’ve got to stop, he told himself sternly. Most days, he did just fine not thinking about Holly and the baby that wasn’t meant to be. He’d kept the secret from everyone he knew for six long years, and if he didn’t think about it, the burden was easier to carry.
But weddings—especially his brother’s—had really brought back the memories in full force. He followed his parents down the path toward the butterfly gardens at Serendipity, thinking he’d probably like an outdoor wedding now too.
That so wasn’t banishing the thoughts of marriage and weddings and Holly from his mind, but Rex couldn’t help it. He stayed quiet, his cowboy boots making the most noise as they walked through the gardens and out to the parking lot.
Jenna had a sprawling patio that was heated and cooled, and the wedding dinner would take place over there. After that, Millie and Travis had decided to forgo any type of formal dance, and instead, they’d rented a couple of hot air balloons for guests to enjoy as they celebrated with an ice cream bar for anyone who hadn’t been invited to the family dinner.
“See you over there,” his mother said, and Rex looked up from the ground to find Griffin helping her behind the wheel of the minivan she drove now. Daddy couldn’t drive with his leg, and most of the time, Rex thought his mother shouldn’t be driving either.
“Ready?” Griffin asked as he closed the door behind their mother.
Rex handed him the keys in response. “You drive.”
“What’s goin’ on with you?” he asked. “You’ve been real quiet during all of this.”
Rex shrugged, because he didn’t want to say what was going on with him. Maybe he should just try calling Holly again. He’d done that for the first few months after she’d left, and she hadn’t answered once. He hadn’t known if her number was the same, and he was certain it wasn’t now.
He didn’t know if she was still in the state, though he suspected she was. She’d been born and raised in the Texas Hill Country, and she’d told him once during their year-long relationship that she couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.
“Not even Dallas or San Antonio?” he’d asked.
“Definitely not,” she said. “I’m a country girl, Rex.”
He’d laughed, because he was a country boy too, and he sure had loved Holly Roberts. With effort, he pushed her out of his mind and focused on the radio station Griffin had set.
He liked country music as much as the next red-blooded cowboy, but Rex’s tastes were more on the modern side than Griffin’s. He didn’t reach over to change the station, though, something he’d done in the past. He and his brother could argue the whole way to the ranch about what to listen to.
“I’m going to apply for that camp counselorship again,” Griffin said, and Rex looked over at his brother.
“Is it that time already?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Applications are due by April fifteenth. Do you want to do it with me?”
“Maybe,” Rex said. He and Griffin had both gone to Camp Clear Creek out near Lake Marble Falls and Horseshoe Bay in the Hill Country. It was beautiful country, and Rex liked being outside. He’d had a group of six boys every two weeks for three months, and he loved boating, hiking, fishing, and hunting.
“Just fill out an application with me,” Griffin said. “You can change your mind later.”
“You don’t need to fill out an application,” Rex said. “You can just email Toni.” He swung his gaze to his brother and found Griffin’s face turning bright red. He burst out laughing, connecting all the dots in an instant.
“What?” Griffin asked, obviously not amused.
“You still have a thing for Toni.”
“I do not,” Griffin said. “First of all, the word still is all wrong. It implies I had a thing before and now I still do, which is totally not true.”
“Mm hm,” Rex said, because he knew Griffin better than anyone. And whether or not Griffin admitted that he’d had a cowboy crush on their boss last summer didn’t mean he didn’t. Because he totally did. “Well, I’m sure she’s always looking for good counselors.”
“So maybe you shouldn’t apply,” Griffin quipped, and Rex laughed again. “Besides, I heard she left Clear Creek, which is why I do need to apply.”
“All right,” Rex said. “Apply then.”
“You don’t want to?”
Rex watched the last of the town go by before Griffin started down the curvy road that led to the ranch. “You know what? I’m going to stick closer to home this summer. I’ll handle all of your chores at the ranch.”
Griffin snorted. “Right. You’ll hire someone the moment you can. You can’t even get out of bed before nine-thirty.”
“I can,” Rex said. “I just don’t like to.”
“You’re not even a real cowboy,” Griffin said with a chuckle.
“Getting up at the crack of dawn isn’t a characteristic of a cowboy,” Rex said, reaching up and settling his hat on his head. He had all the proper attire to make him a cowboy, and that was good enough for him.
Griffin eased up on the gas pedal, and Rex looked over at him. “What?”
“I don’t know where my phone is.”
“Are you kidding me right now?” Rex started lifting up the sunglasses cases in the console between them. “It’s not here.”
Griffin was notorious for losing his phone. Leaving it places. Not knowing where it was. Another round of annoyance pulled through Rex, especially when Griffin slowed and pulled over. “I know where it is. I left it in the groom’s dressing room. On the windowsill.”
“Do you need it right now?” he asked
“Yes,” Griffin said, no room for negotiation.
“We’re going to be late,” Rex said.
“Text Seth with your phone,” he said. “It’ll be fine.”
“Fine.” Rex scoffed and pulled out his phone and texted their oldest brother. He was so changing the radio station while Griffin ran back inside the fancy building at Serendipity Seeds to get his device.
Several minutes later, Griffin pulled up to the curb and dashed off without even closing the driver’s side door. Rex promptly leaned over and changed the radio station to something that played more of the country rock he liked and sighed as he settled back into his seat, reaching to put his window down so the breeze would blow through the cab of the truck.
“Come on, baby doll.” The woman’s voice stirred something in Rex, and he turned to look out his window.
A little girl had crouched down on the path, her dark hair curly and wispy as she examined something on the ground.
Rex couldn’t see her mother, but he heard her say, “Sarah, come on. We’re going to be late.”
That voice.
Rex got out of the truck and looked further down the path to find a dark-haired woman standing there, wearing a pair of jeans and a T-shirt with a lightning bolt on the front.
“Holly?” he asked, his voice barely meeting his own ears. But it couldn’t be Holly. Not his Holly.
She sure did look like her, though, and Rex took another step toward the little girl. “Hey,” he said, making his voice as gentle as he could. The girl, who’d ignored her mother completely, looked up at him. She was beautiful, with deep, dark eyes and the same olive skin Holly had possessed. She couldn’t be older than four or five, as her face still carried some of the roundness that chubby babies had.
“What’re you lookin’ at?” He crouched next to her, the sound of the gravel crunching as the woman came closer.
“Sarah,” she said, her voice almost a bark.
Rex straightened, and now that Holly was closer, he totally knew it was her. Number one, his wounded heart was thrashing inside his chest, screaming about how this woman held the missing bits of it.
“Holly,” he said, and it wasn’t a question this time.
Pure panic crossed her face, and she fell back a step, one hand coming up to cover her mouth. He still heard her when she said, “Rex.”
He looked back and forth between her and the little girl, beyond desperate to know what in the world was going on. But for maybe the first time in his life, he stayed quiet, giving his ex-wife the opportunity to explain.
Sneak Peek! Chapter Two of Cowboys Never Have A Secret Baby
Holly Rasmussen stared at the tall, dark, deliciously handsome cowboy in front of her. Rex Johnson, the man who’d been haunting her for five long years. The man she saw every time she looked into her daughter’s eyes. The man she’d hoped to never see again.
“Well?” he prompted, and Holly blinked her way out of the trance she’d fallen into.
“How are you?” she asked, but he shook his head.
“Try again.”
She reached for Sarah’s hand, the tears coming more easily than her daughter did. Thankfully, the little girl slipped her dirty hand into Holly’s, and she glanced down at her. She’d just turned five, and if Holly’s memory was right, Rex was very good at math.
And her memory
was right.
“Baby doll,” she said, her voice tight, scared. She hated that seeing him made her feel this way. He’d once made her feel loved and cherished, like nothing in the world could go wrong.
She’d showed him, though. With her, disaster always struck.
“This is Rex Johnson,” she said, and the little girl looked up at her father. “Rex.” She cleared her throat, cursing herself for agreeing to come to Chestnut Springs. She knew Rex was from this town, but she’d reasoned that she’d be here for less than a day, and surely she wouldn’t run into him.
“Holly,” her mother called, and Holly pressed her eyes closed. Wow, she didn’t want her mom to see Rex. Everything started crashing around her, every half-truth she’d told. Every lie. Every secret. Every day for the past five years.
She turned around and said, “Go tell Gramma I need a minute,” to Sarah. She gave her a quick kiss, glad when the little girl did what she’d asked.
“Gramma,” Rex said. “She’s your daughter.” He took a step closer to her, those dark-as-midnight eyes sparking and catching hers. “Is she my daughter?”
Holly couldn’t lie about this. She also couldn’t vocalize it, so she just nodded.
Rex searched her face, more and more anger entering his expression than Holly liked. She’d expected it, of course. Or had she? She’d never imagined seeing Rex again, and she honestly didn’t know what to expect next.
“You didn’t lose the baby?” he asked, his voice hoarse and cut to shreds.
“No,” she whispered.
He stepped back and blew out his breath. “You just didn’t tell me. You disappeared in the middle of the night. You hated me that much?” He shook his head, his fists clenching and unclenching. “You know what? I don’t care.” He leaned closer and closer, his fury a scent in the air. “You’re a terrible, terrible person. I can’t believe I’ve wasted six years of my life thinking about you.”