How to Marry a Cowboy (Cowboys & Brides) (25 page)

Annie Rose awoke in a bathtub of cool water, the air-conditioning vent blowing cold air down on her wet hair and body, and chills running down her arms at a breakneck speed. She quickly pulled the plug and crawled out of the tub, wrapped a big white towel around her head, and another one around her body.

She pulled on a pair of pajama bottoms and an oversized knit shirt and headed for the recliner. It was too early for Mason to show up in her room. He would be tucking the girls in and making sure they were sound asleep before he rapped on her door. Moses was sleeping soundly in the throw on the sofa. She started to wake him and carry him over to her chair, but something her mother said about never waking a sleeping baby kept her from doing so.

It was when she started back across the floor that she noticed another one of the girls’ booklets on the coffee table. A smile covered her face as she bent to pick it up. The title of the newest one was
How
to
Marry
a
Cowboy.

She smiled at all the stickers on the outside of the new book: cowboy boots, hats, bull riders, ropers, horseshoes, and lassos.

The smile widened when she opened the first page and realized the booklet had been written by Mason and not the girls.

My dearest darling, Annie Rose,

It appears that the three books that Lily and Gabby wrote for you worked very well, so I’m going to make you one from me and hope that it works as well as theirs did.

All my love,

Mason

He’d signed his name in red and drawn a loopy heart around it.

Like his daughters, Mason wrote in the same style. The normal rule program was all lined out for her, but evidently this was more important than learning how to remember, how to be a mama, and how to be a rancher, since there were more rules than in the other books.

Number
1:
You’ve got to run slow enough that the cowboy can catch you.

Number
2:
You have to go buy a new wedding dress, because the one you got is all dirty and torn up.

Number
3:
You have to get married in the church or the cowboy’s twin daughters won’t believe that it’s legal.

Number
4:
You will have to kiss him in front of everyone in the church, including aforementioned daughters after the preacher says that you are married.

Number
5:
You have to say “I do” when the preacher tells you to or else Damian’s mama might call you a slut, and it’s not proper to get ticked off when you are the bride at a wedding.

Number
6:
After you marry the cowboy, you have to move upstairs and sleep with him. He snores but not too loud.

She read through it four more times and had laid it back on the coffee table when her phone rang. She hurriedly picked it up, expecting it to be one of the girls calling from upstairs to tell her that they couldn’t sleep and needed something important, like a drink of water or warm milk.

“Hello,” she said.

“Annie Rose,” Lorraine said.

“Yes.”

“I called to apologize for being such a bitch. I talked to Mason for almost an hour, and I was never more wrong in my whole life. I’d like it if we could start all over and be friends, and when the wedding happens, if you’d let us attend.”

“Thank you,” Annie Rose said. “But if and when we do take that step, you will definitely be invited. Nash said that he’d walk me down the aisle and even come to Sunday dinner if I married Mason.”

“Nash offering to do that is a big thing, Annie Rose. He’s one very fine judge of character. If he told Sam not to hire someone, then Sam didn’t. And if the sorriest old cowboy in the county came up on the ranch lookin’ for a job and Sam didn’t want to hire him, there were times when Nash said he’d make a good hand. And he was always right. Let us know if it’s anytime soon. We’ll make arrangements to come home early. Just give us three days.”

Annie Rose nodded then remembered to say, “I reckon we can manage at least a three-day notice, but like I said, he hasn’t asked. It could be a year.”

“I hope not. It seems to me that the girls won’t be so afraid that you’ll leave if you are really married to my son. I didn’t realize how much not having a mother has affected them until we were there and I saw them with you. And what I misjudged as infatuation is love. I can hear it in Mason’s voice. Good night now, and keep me in the loop. Oh, and we watched the goat DVD. It was a royal hoot.”

“Thank you for calling,” Annie Rose said. “Good night to you.”

She checked on Moses one more time before she padded barefoot through the foyer and out to the front porch. She sat down in the swing, pushed it off into motion with her foot, and lay back on one of the two bright-colored throw pillows that had been left there when the girls had played outside that day. The moon hung in the sky like a queen, with the stars acting as her subjects. The one right below the moon was the one Mason had said was the fate star that had brought her to the ranch. As she stared at it, the steady movement of the swing and pure old exhaustion from the day put her to sleep.

***

Mason paced the floor in his bedroom. The girls were asleep. O’Malley had curled up on his pillow and he imagined that Moses was sleeping somewhere in Annie Rose’s room. The little cobalt-blue velvet box on his dresser kept calling his name, and each time he passed it, he stopped long enough to open it and look at the sapphire-and-diamond ring inside.

Should he wait until the end of summer to ask her or pop the question at the rodeo the next night? He wanted Annie Rose to be his wife in every sense of the word, to be the mother to his girls, but he didn’t want to rush her.

Finally, he picked up the box, crammed it in the pocket of his lounge pants, and carried it to her room. The door was open. Moses was sleeping on the sofa and the booklet with lots of cowboy stickers lay on the table. Mason smiled. She had obviously read it.

He checked the bedroom, but she wasn’t there, so he padded out to the swing on the front porch. The story of Sleeping Beauty came to mind when he found her sleeping on the swing. This time the girls weren’t dancing around, yelling about him getting them a mother for their birthday. This time she wasn’t wearing a tattered wedding dress but a pair of cotton pajama bottoms and one of his T-shirts.

He’d known Annie Rose a little less than a month.

He’d known Holly her whole life.

He’d planned a romantic getaway and proposed to Holly on a riverboat dinner cruise in Savannah, Georgia, with violins playing in the background.

It wasn’t fair to ask Annie Rose to marry him right there on the porch with crickets and tree frogs singing in the distance. But it felt right, as if fate had worked in a perfect circle and brought the moment to him.

What’s not fair is that you are comparing two very different women and two very different times of your life,
his inner voice said.
You’ve been blessed with a new love and a new start. Stop living in the past and get on with the future.

He dropped down on one knee and carefully leaned toward Annie Rose until his lips brushed hers. Her eyelids opened slowly and she smiled, wrapped her arms around his neck, and pulled him closer for a longer kiss.

“I fell asleep looking at our fate star,” she said when the kiss ended. “You must be my prince.”

“No, I’m just your cowboy,” he said.

“I like that better. I love the booklet you made for me.”

Mason cleared his throat and said, “Annie Rose Boudreau, I believe with all my heart that we are meant to be together until death parts us. And I believe with all my heart that you are my soul mate.”

She started to say something, but he put a finger over her lips. “Annie Rose Boudreau, I love you, and I’m in love with you. I’ve played out scenarios in my mind to do this, but this feels right, like it feels right to have you in my life, my heart, and my soul.”

Her eyes popped wide open and she sat up.

“Will you marry me?” he asked as he popped the box open. “I chose a sapphire because of your gorgeous blue eyes. We can be engaged for a year, ten years, or we can go to the courthouse tomorrow.”

“Yes!” she said without a second’s hesitation and threw her arms around his neck. “Yes, yes, yes!”

He put the ring on her finger, picked her up, and carried her back into the house. “I love you,” he murmured again.

“I love you,” she whispered back as he gently shut the door into her quarters with his bare foot and laid her on the bed. “And I think two weeks is long enough for an engagement, Mason.”

A bouquet of wildflowers that Nash had gathered fresh that morning from the pasture lay on top of the
How
to
Marry
a
Cowboy
booklet. Fortunately, he had left out the red Indian blanket blossoms, so no one had to worry about chiggers. Bright blue ribbons, that matched the forget-me-nots in the bouquet, cascaded from the flowers to the floor when Annie Rose picked it up. A circlet of the same flowers and ribbons, with a pouf of illusion created by a short veil at the back, sat on her blond hair like a crown.

The girls said that she had to have a veil, because all brides had one, and she couldn’t refuse them anything. This was their wedding as much as hers.

She wore a white eyelet dress with a hankie hem, and the traditional white satin high-heeled shoes. She expected to see Nash when someone rapped on the door of the bride’s dressing room, but Gina Lou poked her head in the door.

“Hey, I hear there’s a bride back here,” she said.

“Gina Lou!” Annie Rose gasped.

Gina Lou crossed the room in a couple of long-legged, easy strides and hugged Annie Rose. “We got in from Africa last night and drove like hell to get here.”

“I’m so glad to see you. If I’d known you could make it, you would have been part of the wedding party.” Annie Rose grabbed a tissue to dab at her eyes.

“I know you would have, but hey, I didn’t know until the last minute, and besides, I want to watch. I’ve never heard you as happy as you sounded on the phone. I’m so glad everything is working out.”

Annie Rose tossed the tissue in the trash. “I can’t tell you in words how I feel, Gina Lou. Having you here puts the icing on the cake.”

“And are these your new daughters?” Gina Lou asked.

“I’m Lily and this is Gabby and you have to be Gina Lou. Mama told us all about you.”

Gina Lou smiled. “Well, I bet she’s told me more about you two. I’m so happy for all of you. We’ll talk later. It’s almost time for the ceremony to start, so I’m going to get seated.”

Gina Lou winked at Annie Rose and slipped out of the room seconds before Nash peeked in and grinned. “You are a beautiful bride, Miz Annie Rose, and I’m glad you are coming to the ranch to be the mistress of it.”

***

Mason stood at the front of the church with Colton, Lucas, and Greg beside him. He shifted his weight from one leg to the other and wished they would have gone to the courthouse the morning after he proposed. But Annie Rose said that the girls needed the wedding as much or more than she did. They needed to know that it had been done right so they wouldn’t fear that she would leave anymore.

Laura was the first bridesmaid down the aisle. Emily followed her and then a very pregnant Natalie, serving as maid of honor, took her place next as the pianist played soft music. Mason thought that Gabby and Lily, in their blue lace dresses, would take forever getting to the front of the church. They smiled at him, held their heads high, and marched up on the stage like princesses to stand beside him.

Then the traditional bride’s march began and all the people rose to their feet. From that moment, he didn’t see another person. Just Annie Rose as she floated toward him on Nash’s arm. Tears welled up in his eyes and he bit his lower lip to keep them at bay. A full-grown cowboy didn’t cry.

“Who gives this bride to be married to this man?” Henry asked.

“Gabby, Lily, and I do,” Nash said in a loud voice and handed her off to Mason. “We’ve waited a long time for this, Mason. You be good to her. And, Annie Rose, you be good to him. The ranch needs a family.”

“Yes, sir,” Mason said.

Nash kissed Annie Rose on the forehead and stepped back to the front pew of the packed church to join Lorraine, Sam, and Skip.

“You may be seated,” Henry said. “We are gathered here today to join Annie Rose Boudreau and Mason Harper together. But we are also joining Gabby and Lily Harper to this couple and making a family as well as a new bride and groom.”

***

Annie Rose heard a sniffle behind her and caught a flutter of white as Lorraine dabbed at her eyes. She swallowed the lump in her throat in time to say her vows and then to say “I do,” since those were very important words to the girls.

“And now Gabby and Lily have some vows,” Henry said.

“I’ll go first,” Lily said.

Henry looked down at her and asked, “Do you, Lily Harper, take this woman, Annie Rose, to be your new mother. Will you treat her like a mother and not a nanny? Will you promise to love her forever, like you do your daddy?”

“I do,” Lily said.

Annie Rose picked a small box from behind her bouquet of flowers, opened it, and fastened an open-heart necklace around Lily’s neck. “I promise to be your mother, and I promise to love you forever too.”

“Gabby Harper,” Henry said, “Will you take this woman, Annie Rose, to be your new mother. Will you treat her like a mother and not a nanny? Do you promise to love her forever, like you do your daddy?”

“I do,” Gabby said.

Annie repeated the process.

Lorraine sniffled again, louder this time.

“Okay, by the authority given to me by the state of Texas, I pronounce Annie Rose and Mason husband and wife as well as a new family. Now, Mason, you may kiss the bride,” Henry said.

“That was beautiful,” Mason whispered before his lips landed on hers.

When the applause quieted, Henry spoke up. “There’s a reception out at Bois D’Arc Bend and everyone is invited. I hear that Nash and Skip have been smokin’ beef for two days and that Lorraine made the cake, so if you don’t attend, you’re going to miss a good party.”

***

“I love you doesn’t begin to cover how I feel right now,” Mason said when he and Annie Rose were alone in his truck.

“I know. Let’s go home. Wait, where are our girls?”

“They are going with their grandparents. It was their idea.” He chuckled. “I think they were serious about that new-sister idea.”

“How do you feel about the new-sister idea?”

“I always wanted a whole yard full of kids. You decide how many it takes to make up a yard full and I’ll be satisfied with your decision,” he said.

They led the procession of vehicles from the church to the ranch. Mason hopped out of the car, shook the legs of his freshly starched jeans down over his boots, and removed his Western-cut jacket. He tossed it into the front seat of the truck, along with his string tie, and was on the way around the truck when the door flew open and Annie Rose stepped out.

“Look at that.” She sighed.

The porch swing had been decorated with garlands of roses, wildflowers, and white ribbons, and O’Malley and Moses were curled up right in the middle of a long white satin pillow with lace edging.

“Do you like it?” Mason asked.

“I love it,” she said.

“It’s where I found you and I thought it would make a wonderful place for wedding pictures.”

Her arms snaked around his neck and he carried her to the porch, pushed the cats to the floor, and set her down on the pillow. “Oh, Mason, this is perfect. Just absolutely perfect. Thank you.”

He sat down beside her and pulled her close to his side. “It’s where it all began, and when we are old and gray, it’s where it will end. I’m glad we have a few minutes before they all get parked and out of their vehicles. I want to tell you that I love you and I’m glad you are my wife and that things still feel right and that we are going to make lots of happy memories right here on the ranch.”

“I love you too and, Mason, we’ve already got a thousand memories. We’ll add to our collection as the days and years go by.” She laid her head on his shoulder.

***

After the reception, multiple toasts, and their first dance together as man and wife, Mason led her out of the house amidst a shower of birdseed and drove away from the ranch toward Savoy.

A quarter of a mile down the road he made a sharp right, opened a cattle gate, and headed across the pasture on a rutted lane with grass growing up between the ruts.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“On a two-day honeymoon. Mother and Dad are taking care of the girls until Sunday morning. We’ll meet them and Nash in church. Later, maybe in the fall, we’ll go somewhere on a real honeymoon,” he told her.

She squealed and clapped her hands when she realized that they were at the bend of the river, right where they’d gone that night to make love under the stars. And back under the willow tree was an RV. A wreath of wildflowers hung on the door with a bright blue ribbon. Written in gold letters across the ribbon were the words, “Just Hitched.”

He carried her from truck to the door. “If you’ll open it please, ma’am?”

She turned the knob and the scent of fresh roses wafted out to meet her. A path of petals led the way from the door to the king-sized bed at the back of the trailer.

“Oh, Mason, this is perfect. I don’t need another honeymoon, but when we have a couple of days free, we can always come back here,” she said.

“A perfect honeymoon for a perfect bride that I found sleeping on my porch swing a few weeks ago,” he said.

She pulled him down on the bed beside her when he gently laid her down. “I love you so much.”

He pushed a blond curl away from her face and kissed her with so much promise that it brought fresh tears to her eyes. They would grow old together. The fate star wouldn’t have brought them together if it hadn’t been willing to give them a long future together. She believed it with her whole heart.

“According to a famous author I know, there is only one thing left to do if I follow the directions in the new bestselling
How
to
Marry
a
Cowboy
book,” she whispered as she unbuttoned his shirt.

“What’s that?” He grinned.

“I have to sleep with the cowboy, even if he snores a little bit.” She threw a leg over his body and straddled him, leaned forward and planted kisses all over his face as he reached around behind her and unzipped her dress. “But it doesn’t say that I have to go to sleep as soon as my head hits the pillow.”

“No, it doesn’t, and we will sleep, darlin’,” he drawled. “But not until much, much later.”