Bearilicious - Collection (20 page)

Bride For The Bear Cowboy

Ashley Hunter

 Copyright 2015 by Ashley Hunter

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced

in any way whatsoever, without written permission

from the author, except in case of brief

quotations embodied in critical reviews

and articles.

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any

person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

First edition, 2015

Chapter 1

Meredith heaved a large breath as she proofread her advertisement. Everything had to be just right, or no one would pay for her. It was a desperate thing to do, but she was finally at the end of her rope. The world had made it clear she didn’t have a place in it.

As a 27 year old woman, she’d still only gone on a few dates and had a serious relationship with one man. A man, she later found, had been cheating on her the entire time. Meredith was too curvy for the men around her to handle.

She’d tried everything: exercise, eating healthy, fad diets. Nothing worked. This was who she was, and there wasn’t anyone out there that would love her for all of her curves.

Her so-called friends always made fun of her for how heavy she was. Even her step-father berated her, calling her names and telling her this was the reason she couldn’t get a boyfriend.

All Meredith wanted was to start a family, but over time she’d become encroached in debt. No matter what she did, it just seemed to get worse, and worse. Finally fed up with it all, she decided to do the only thing she could think of: put herself up as a mail-order bride.

The money would pay off her debt, and she’d be able to start a family. Sure it wouldn’t be with someone that loved her, but at this point she accepted that. All she wanted was to share her life with someone.

After so many years of struggle and failure, she was tired of being alone. She was tired of constantly trying to impress and attract a man and tasting nothing but bitter failure. There wasn’t a price too high for someone to hold her at night and tell her everything would be okay.

As she read her advertisement, she looked for anything that sounded too desperate or meaningless. There were a couple of typos but she caught those easily enough. A terrible sense of dread filled her as she hovered the cursor over the button to send it off.

Once she did this, there was no going back. Was this really what she wanted to do?

Life was miserable, and as she thought about it, a condemning sense of finality swept over her. The realization crushed any hope of finding love. This was the only option left to her. Resigned to her fate, Meredith clicked the button.

Two hours later, she had a message. A man named Greggory Lane had purchased her. For a time, Meredith sat staring at the screen.

Despite what she had felt when sending off the advertisement, there was still the chance no one would take her up on the offer. Deep inside, she was certain no one would. This whole thing was crazy.

Who would buy her based off an ad when she couldn’t go outside and simply attract a man on her own. Yet there it was, a confirmation from the automated system. This wasn’t a joke, it wasn’t a trick. Someone had bought her.

Over the next few days, she and Greggory sent emails back and forth arranging for her flight over. She was welcome to take anything with her that she liked, and he would pay for the expenses of moving her things.

Once she arrived, he would buy her any new clothes or items that she couldn’t or just didn’t bring with her. In one of his emails, he mentioned how attractive he found her and that he was looking forward to making her a part of his life.

That was a line if she ever heard one. It was sweet of him to try, but all she wanted was to get this awkward beginning part over with.

It was two weeks to arrange the movement of her things and the plane ticket. They passed emails back and forth during this time, speaking on the phone a couple of times.

Each was courteous if a bit cold. Neither of them knew exactly how to handle the situation. He had bought her. Did manners fit in at all? She didn’t think so, but he felt differently.

Over and over she tried to tell him he didn’t need to impress her. He’d paid for her. By legal contract, she wasn’t allowed to back out even if she wanted to, and she didn’t want to.

Before her flight, they finally exchanged more pictures so that they would know who to look for at the airport. To her surprise, Greggory was the most handsome man she’d ever seen.

For the life of her, she couldn’t understand why someone like him would be ordering a bride. When she said as much, he said that he spent all day out with his cattle and didn’t have time to meet anyone.

“All you’d have to do is walk around a mall for 20 minutes,” she said.

“Maybe,” he said, “but I wouldn’t find anyone that interested
me.
”

Meredith didn’t pursue it any further, but assumed his buying her was an act of desperation just like putting herself up for sale. Whatever the reason, their fates had devised they would meet.

Chapter 2

The day of her flight came, and Meredith sat nervously in her seat on the plane as they boarded the other passengers. The flight would last six hours, and at the end, she would meet her new husband.

Every step of this felt more final than the last.

Her leg bounced nervously as people walked by her to their seats. An old woman stopped to store her carryon but needed the help of a taller gentleman to do it.

Two young boys, brothers, played a game on their phone. With the way they were yelling at one another, she assumed they were playing together. The air smelled like too many people in a small space.

Soon the doors would close, the plane would take off, and she would be in a whole new world, tied by legal marriage contract to a complete stranger. It was something out of a dream.

The anxiety increased until, two hours into the flight, exhaustion set in and she fell asleep and didn’t wake until the plane touched down on the tarmac.

Meredith woke with a start, looking around. Her first thought was if she’d been snoring or if she had any drool coming out of her mouth.

Like everyone caught sleeping when around other people, she looked around at the other passengers as she wiped at her mouth with the back of her hand. No one seemed to have noticed a thing.

Feeling a touch relieved, she looked out the window to see the new airport coming around into view. This was it. In moments she’d be meeting her new husband for the first time.

Would he be disappointed?

The question was immediately answered with a depressingly certain “Yes.”

Everyone was disappointed in her. It was the only constant in her life. This man would be no different.

Still, just as she was contractually obligated to be here, he was bound by the same contract to marry her. She would be financially stable and have a family. That was the important thing. After their talks, she wasn’t concerned about him being overly mean like her step-father, but she knew he could never love her either.

As resigned as she was to her certainty, she still stopped into the airport bathroom after leaving the plane to straighten up her hair and clothes. After a small debate, she decided to freshen up her makeup.

Maybe he would be disappointed, but it wouldn’t be because she didn’t put her best foot forward. Taking a breath to steel her will, Meredith left the bathroom and found her way to the lobby.

Most of the other passengers had left and gone to baggage check, which left the receiving lobby bare of people. Mostly. There, leaning against a pillar with one foot casually crossed over the other, his fingers in his pants pockets, was him.

The way he stood showed off his strength and confidence. Of course, it was easy for him to be so sure of himself with a face and body like that. This was no corporate cowboy who only had the label on paper.

The muscles on his arms and legs came from hard work. Those eyes of his scanned the area around him, always aware of everyone else’s movements. Likely a habit gained from watching herds of cattle all day.

When his eyes fell on her, she cringed and waited to see the grimace cross his face. He smiled. It was such a warm beaming smile, it disarmed her. That fact scared her even more.

With a slight push of his shoulder, he righted himself and walked over to her.

“Meredith?” he asked, his voice a gravely rasp.

“Greggory,” she said, confirming they had the right people.

He reached up and tipped the front brim of his cowboy hat.

“Mighty pleased to meet you. You’re even prettier than your pictures. Voice is nicer, too. Never liked the phone, myself. Always garbled. The ranch is out in the sticks, and it’s hard to get a decent phone line run out there unless you put in a complaint. Even then they like to give… a… runaround.”

The color rose to his cheeks and he shook his head a little.

“Sorry, I’m babbling. I’m sure you’re tired. Let’s get your luggage.”

“Thank you,” she said, not sure how to respond to the whole phone wire story.

Was his line that bad? She could hear him just fine. What must she have sounded like?

As they walked in an awkward silence through the lobby to baggage claim, he said,

“You must be hungry. We can stop in at this great barbeque place I know, if you like.”

There it was. Meredith knew she shouldn’t have gotten her hopes up that this wouldn’t happen. Any small excitement she had built up during the pleasant first meeting deflated from her in a sigh.

There was no point saying anything about it. It would just start an argument, and that wasn’t how she wanted to start her new life.

“Something wrong?” he asked.

“It’s fine,” she said, unable to look at him.

“Do you not like barbeque? We can get a pizza. There aren’t any good places ‘round here for pizza. Mostly barbeque and Mexican. Do you like Mexican food?”

“My life isn’t ruled by food, okay? I can’t help the way I look. I’m sorry if you were expecting something else. I was very upfront with how I looked.”

“Wait,” he said, gently gripping her arm to stop her.

“Do you think I’m making fun of you?”

“I get it, okay? Very funny. Can we just get my bags, please?”

“Now wait here, I knew what I was getting when I—“ he looked around and lowered his voice, “when I paid for you. You sent me pictures. I’ve been very excited to meet you. I want to make you happy, not make fun of you.”

“It was a six hour flight, and I know they hardly serve anything on those things. I thought you’d be hungry.”

Meredith’s lip began to quiver and she felt a fool for jumping to conclusions so quickly. Still, she didn’t dare to dream that he would be all he was making himself out to be.

Truth was, though, she was starving. It wasn’t just the flight, but the hours waiting for the flight, and then the taxing on the runways.

“I like barbeque and Mexican food, yes. I’m very hungry, actually.”

Greggory nodded his head and put on his best smile.

“Well all right then, let’s get us some grub.”

Grinning at her, he put out his elbow as if escorting her onto a dance floor. Feeling silly for smiling, Meredith did her best not to as she reached up and took his arm.

Feeling the fabric of his shirt under her hand made her laugh. The sound surprised them both and he laughed with her.

As they walked to the baggage wheel, she rubbed her fingers lightly across the fabric, enjoying the sensation. This was the first time anyone had been so polite to her. She didn’t know how long it would last, but she decided she would just enjoy it for now.

The meal was fantastic. They talked and laughed. He continued to babble out stories that had nothing to do with what they were talking about. Always midway through, he would catch himself and laugh.

It became a game she played with herself to count how many unfinished stories he started. By the time they reached his home out on the ranch, she was up to eight stories.