Jinx smiled, thinking how strange life was that she was here again. Only this time, she couldn’t wait to see that cowboy she’d pushed out that barn window all those years ago. Time heals all wounds, her father used to say. To some extent that was true. She still missed her father just as she missed the Flying J Bar MC Ranch she’d grown up on.
But it was a dull ache overpowered by the excitement she felt to be on the Cardwell Ranch again. She actually had butterflies flitting around in her stomach at just the thought of seeing Angus after these months apart. They’d talked on the phone for hours every day about everything but the future. Angus had left the door open.
“I’ll be here if you ever want to come north again,” he’d said. “I’ll be waiting.”
ANGUS WAS IN the barn when he saw the truck and horse trailer coming up the road. He stepped out, pulling his Stetson down to shade his eyes. He couldn’t see who was behind the wheel. His heart leaped anyway. He’d been waiting for this day for too long not to know it had finally come.
As Jinx pulled up into the yard, he strode toward her truck, trying hard not to run. She opened the door and stepped out. Her beautiful copper hair caught the autumn sun. She reached back into the pickup for her straw hat and putting it on, looked in his direction.
By then, he was closing the distance between them, running toward their future. When he reached her, he grabbed her, wrapping his arms around her and lifting her into the air. She laughed, a sound that filled his heart with joy. Slowly, he lowered her back to the ground and looked into her beautiful freckled face. Now he would have all the time in the world to count every one of them, he thought and glanced into the warm honey of her eyes.
“Jinx,” he said on a breath as light as a caress.
“Angus.” She smiled, those eyes glinting. “You said to just drive up when I felt like it. I felt like it.”
He laughed as his heart swelled to overflowing. “I’m so glad. Wait until you taste my biscuits.”
She laughed. “You still have that bet going with Max?”
He nodded. “He promised to come up to the ranch.” Angus looked into her eyes and knew that if he’d had a preacher standing by, he’d have married this woman right here and now. Looping his arm around her waist he pulled her to him and kissed her as if there was no tomorrow.
At the sound of the front door of the house banging open, he let her go. “Two seconds from now we are going to be mobbed by my family. Before that happens, I need to tell you something. I love you.”
She nodded. “I love you, Angus.”
“That’s good because I don’t have to look over my shoulder to know that the woman hurrying this way is my mother. She’s going to want to know when we’re getting married. I don’t want to rush you but...”
Jinx looked over his shoulder, then back at him, grinning. “If that’s a proposal—”
He dropped to one knee, pulled out the small velvet box he’d been carrying around for months. “It certainly is. Say yes. Please. The engagement can be as long as you want, I promise.”
She laughed and nodded. “Yes.”
He opened the box, took out the ring and slipped it on her finger. He heard his mother’s cry of glee behind him.
“It’s beautiful, Angus,” Jinx said and kissed him as he rose to his feet again. “I don’t need a long engagement since I’ve known for a long time I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
“Oh,” Dana cried. “That is so beautiful.” Then she was hugging the two of them as more family members began to show up.
Angus introduced his large family and extended family until the yard was full of Cardwells and Savages. It was as if they’d known today was the day to be on the ranch. He wondered if his mother had anything to do with this.
“I should have warned you about my family,” Angus whispered to Jinx. “You can still change your mind.”
Jinx shook her head. “Not a chance, cowboy.”
“I’d like to tell you that it won’t always be like this,” he said.
“I love it.” She looked around at all of them, most talking over the others as if her arriving had turned into a party. “I remember you telling me about your mother wanting all of your boots around her big dining room table. I want my boots under that table.”
“You’re killing me, Jinx,” he said as he pulled her to him again for a kiss. “I can’t tell you how long I’ve wanted this with you.”
She nodded, her eyes bright with tears. “It’s strange but I feel as if I’ve always been headed back here. I know it sounds crazy, especially knowing how hard it was for me to sell my family’s ranch, but driving in just now, I had the strangest feeling that I’ve come home.”
Angus pulled her closer. “Welcome home. Trust me, now that you’re going to be a part of Cardwell Ranch, you should know it’s going to be a wild ride.”
Gun-Shy Bride
From the beginning my husband, Parker, has been there for me. He was the one who encouraged me to quit my paying job even though he knew how hard it would be for us financially. He’s always believed in me and takes up the slack so I can just write. He’s my hero. This book, which may be my all-time favorite, is for him.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Epilogue
Chapter One
The wind howled down the ravine as Deputy Sheriff McCall Winchester poked what appeared to be a mud clod with the toe of her cowboy boot.
The thunderstorm last night had been a gully-washer. As
