One Hot Cowboy Wedding (37 page)

“My turn.” Holly, Ace’s sister- in- law, squat ed before them and held out her hands.

Reluctantly, Jasmine handed over Jasper and Holly OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 324

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stood up, crooning at him as she carried him toward the other two sisters- in- law, who were sharing a quilt under a different shade tree.

“So what do you think, Mrs. Riley, five or six boys?” Ace tested the waters.

“What do you think, Mr. Riley, five or six daughters?” Ace shuddered. “Rileys throw boys.”

“Tony got a girl unless he and Holly decided to name that last boy Melanie and dress her up like a girl.”

“Melanie is a girl, believe me.” Ace laughed. “But that’s the only one.”

“You’re the odd child. Blond hair, pretty blue eyes.

Maybe that means you won’t be like the other Riley men and you’ll have five daughters? Just think, Ace. Five girls to worry about when they’re sixteen and driving to Bowie on Saturday night and meeting cowboys just like you were at eighteen or nineteen. There are at least two motels down there and those boys will wear their jeans just right and their boots will be polished and they’ll have a lit le red book with their initials on it to write stars in…”

Ace put his fingers on her lips. “Just thinkin’ about that puts a vice grip around my heart.”

Jasmine giggled. “Exactly.”

Lucy’s voice rang out from the parking lot. “Jasmine.” Jasmine turned and saw her coming toward them.

“Hey, Lucy, come on over here and have a seat. Have you eaten?”

Lucy shook her head. “Just got back from the meeting in Wichita Falls. Didn’t have time for lunch before I left. Had a few cookies and some coffee there, though.”

“There’s lots of food left. You can eat here, and OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 325

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besides, I want you to try this new chicken casserole that has potato chips crunched up on top of it if there’s any left. Ace, I’m taking Lucy inside for some food. Do not be kissin’ on the women,” Jasmine teased.

Lucy shot him a look. “What was that all about?

I thought I cremated those women and took care of their remains.”

“One sat right down there and kissed him smack on the lips. Got him to thinkin’ about havin’ five or six little girls to primp for church on Sunday morning,” Jasmine tattled.

“Where is the hussy?” Lucy looked around.

“She kissed and ran,” Jasmine said.

“And I was not thinkin’ about daughters. I was thinkin’ about sons.”

Lucy shook a finger at him. “Something wrong with us girls?”

Ace chuckled. “I’m not even goin’ there. Y’all go on and find that casserole. I haven’t seen Creed all week or my older three brothers since the day after we got married other than to nod at them in church this morning.

I’ll catch up with y’all later.”

The fel owship hal was empty, but there was stil plenty of food on the tables so Jasmine handed Lucy a plate and waited for her to load it up. She started to lead the way back outside when Lucy set her plate on one of the tables and sat down.

“I want to talk, just me and you, not out there with so many people,” she said.

Jasmine sat down across from her. “Okay, shoot. Just please don’t tell me you are leaving the ranch.”

“Oh, no! I love the ranch even more than I liked the OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 326

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motel. Never thought I’d say that but I do. I like the solitude and the job and all of it. I’ve come a long way this past year and a half, Jasmine.”

“That’s an understatement.” Jasmine smiled.

“I’m in love with Tyson,” Lucy blurted out.

Jasmine was struck absolutely speechless.

“But you’ve only known him a couple of weeks,” Jasmine stammered.

“I didn’t say I was going to do anything about it tomorrow. I’m a patient woman. He loves me too, but he doesn’t know it yet.”

Jasmine finally found her voice, but it came out in a whisper. “How do you know?”

Lucy shrugged. “Same way you know that you love Ace. It’s just there. A spark in the air when he walks in the room. I never had it with Cleet or with that Luke fellow I dated. Never would have believed it existed, not even when Pearl fell in love with Wil. But it’s there and I want to know if that’s going to be a problem on the ranch.”

“Hell, no!” Jasmine said.

“Good. This is some really good chicken casserole.

I can taste a touch of mayonnaise and potato chips. We got to get this recipe. The guys will love it with hot rolls and corn on the cob.”

“Lucy, how do you plan to tell Tyson how you feel?” Jasmine asked.

“Same way you’ll tell Ace. When the time is right and it comes up, I’ll just lay it out there on the line for him. We’ve talked about things, Jasmine. Not love things but things that he wouldn’t want me to repeat.

Things that happened over in the war that made him OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 327

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go inside himself. There’s a light in his eyes these past few days. It’s not a big light like one of the floodlights out back of the bunkhouse, but it’s a little flicker like a candlelight. But even a tiny light dispels some of the darkness, don’t you think?”

“Yes, it does, Lucy. But what if you miss the time and the moment is gone forever?” Jasmine asked.

“Not me. I know Tyson. I can see right into his eyes into his soul like you can Ace’s, and when he says something that gives me an opening I will take it. When his hand brushes against mine at the supper table I catch plumb on fire. And when his leg touches mine under the table, it’s about all I can do to keep from kissin’ him.

Wait a minute! You aren’t askin’ me about not speakin’

up. You are talkin’ to yourself. How many times have you let the opportunity get a mile down the road and didn’t chase it down?” Lucy asked.

Jasmine cocked her head to one side and frowned.

“I’ll put it another way. How many times have you already been in that moment and didn’t speak up?” Lucy asked.

“Too many,” Jasmine admitted.

Lucy dropped a piece of salad with red dressing on her white knit shirt. “Well, shit!” She looked up at the ceiling. “Pardon me, Lord. I been livin’ around men folks for nearly a month and I say too many bad words.

Got any ginger ale back there?”

Jasmine pushed the big bottles of soda pop around until she found one of 7- Up and brought it to Lucy. She poured some in a cup, dipped a napkin in it, and had the stain out in no time.

Lucy went on, “Well, don’t let the next one slip by OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 328

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you because you never know when the door will get shut and locked and you don’t get no more. So I been thinkin’ that when the time comes, maybe me and Tyson could get a trailer and put it on the ranch and keep working at our jobs there?”

Jasmine’s eyes popped open so wide that they hurt.

“You haven’t even kissed him and you are ready to move in with him?”

“The heart wil have what the heart wants, but I’m preachin’ to the choir, ain’t I? Great dinner. I’m goin’

on home now and see what’s happenin’ on the ranch.

Thinkin’ about makin’ an apple cinnamon cake for tomorrow’s lunch.”

“Well, cooking all afternoon will put you out in the bunkhouse for sure, and since Tyson will be there, I’d say you’re chasing toward opportunity, not after it when it’s a mile down the road.” Jasmine smiled.

“You got it. And if you’d keep Dalton and Blake out here for a while, that would be good too. I swear raisin’ them grown men is tougher than raisin’ little boys, and I got the living room all straightened up in case the opportunity to take Tyson out there comes up.” Lucy giggled.

“Yes, ma’am,” Jasmine said. She sat in the fellowship hall for a long time weighing what Lucy had said.

The woman had come to Texas the year before, abused, bruised, and not trusting a single soul. She’d certainly learned to speak her mind. Maybe that’s what happened when an abused woman found her confidence.

But what about a woman who’d never been abused?

How did she stand right up to the man she loved and say the words?

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“Jazzy?” Ace said so close behind her that his warm breath made chill bumps on her arms. Yep, Lucy was right; the chemistry was there between them.

She looked up and he bent down and kissed her upside down, his tongue teasing her upper lip.

“I was worried about you. When I came in you looked sad,” he said.

“Lucy is in love with Tyson,” she whispered.

Ace sat down in the chair beside her and threw an arm around her shoulders. “And?”

“She was afraid it would be a problem on the ranch.”

“Don’t think so,” Ace said.

“That’s what I told her.”

“Does he know?”

Jasmine shook her head. “She says she’s patient and she’ll wait until he figures it out.”

“Smart woman.”

“I’m in love with you,” Jasmine blurted out.

Ace’s heart stopped and he could not speak.

“You don’t have to say anything. It doesn’t have to change anything. If I was in love with anyone else, I’d tell you because you are my friend, but I’m not in love with anyone else. I’ve loved you as a friend for a long, long time, but this is more and it’s deeper and…” He picked her up from the chair and set her firmly in his lap and locked eyes with hers. “Shhhh.” He laid a finger on her full lips and traced them gently with his forefinger.

The tingles that raced all over her body were almost more than she could bear.

Time stood perfectly still.

Ace didn’t even blink as he opened up his soul OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 330

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through his sexy blue eyes and let her inside his heart.

He cupped her chin with his hand and gently nibbled on her lip before kissing her with more passion and heat than she’d ever known. It was enough to bring tears to her eyes, and she was sure he was about to say that he loved her as a friend, even as a lover, but not the way that she did him.

When he broke the kiss, he pulled her close to his chest, her cheek resting on his racing heart, and whispered right into her ear, “I love you, Jazzy. I’ve loved you for a long time as the only real gal pal I ever had.

But I fell in love with you when the preacher told me I could kiss my wife. I was afraid to tell you because you said you didn’t want to get involved with anyone in a committed relationship.”

“Guess I was wrong.” She looked up into those mesmerizing eyes again. “I love you like I’ve never loved anyone in my life.”

“Looks like Grandpa was right,” Ace said.

“About what?”

“Everything.”

His lips found hers and the world disappeared again. They were floating somewhere high above the earth on clouds, and nothing that went on below them mattered anymore.

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Ace’s job was to keep the hot dogs turning so they wouldn’t burn, to grill them to a perfect plump brown color, and then put them on the platter. Garrett was the hamburger cook, and Justin took care of the steaks. Tony, the gourmet, was in charge of the enormous shrimp and fish fil ets. Four gril s sending out delicious scents that prepared everyone’s stomachs for the upcoming feast.

Jasmine was in the house with the other four Mrs.

Rileys. Megan, Garrett’s wife; Mary Sue, Justin’s wife; Holly, Tony’s wife; and Dolly. They were hustling about putting the finishing touches on a crock pot of gumbo, potato salad, baked beans, and all the side dishes that went with the meat the men were grilling.

“I love this holiday,” Dolly said. “And just so you know, Jasmine, since this is your first Independence Day in our family, I always do Thanksgiving and this holiday. Easter is hit- or- miss. The Sunday before Christmas is here so that the married kids can have their own holiday at home. I don’t think it’s fair for kids to open presents and then have to leave them to go to their grandma’s house. Usually Adam and I make the rounds on Christmas, seeing everyone for an hour or so and having dinner wherever we land at that time of day.”

“So Thanksgiving and July 4th it is,” Jasmine said.

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Thanksgiving she would still be married. She didn’t know about next July. Sunday after the church picnic when she and Ace declared their love for the first time, she’d figured they’d have a night of sweet but passionate love.

Not so.

He’d gone straight to his office and she’d been asleep when he came to bed. When her alarm went off the next morning, she found a note on his pillow that said he was up early to go to a cattle sale in Chico. He’d see her at supper. Strange thing was that he had not mentioned a sale. She mulled it over until he came into the café that afternoon, all smiles and kisses, telling her about buying five new heifers with calves to add to the ranch stock.

Monday night she’d gotten home just as Lucy called supper. She and Ace had sat on the porch until long after dark talking about changes he’d like to make to the ranch. A new fence around the back forty where he’d like to keep the longhorns away from the Angus, but first he needed to bulldoze the mesquite so their horns wouldn’t get caught in the brush. When they went inside, Monday night wrestling was on television and Dalton and Blake threw a fit for him to watch it with them. He’d kissed her and whispered “love you, darlin’” and plopped down in the recliner to yell for his favorite wrestler. She showered and went to bed with a book, fel asleep with the light stil on, and dreamed of him telling her that he’d been caught up in the moment and shouldn’t have told her that he’d fallen in love with her.

Tuesday he showed up at the café in the middle of the morning with a bouquet of wildflowers in a Mason jar.