One Hot Cowboy Wedding (40 page)

“Momma, I trust your judgment. You make it. I’ll love it,” Jasmine said.

“Thank you, Jasmine Marie. I appreciate that. Your dad is in the kitchen with Lucy and Grandma. I swear he looks strange wearing an apron, but I’ve fallen in love with him all over again in the last few weeks. Please think about selling us the café. We need something to keep this retired- type love alive and I think the café would do it,” Kelly said.

“I won’t sell it to anyone else,” Jasmine promised.

Finally, at two o’clock Jasmine locked the doors.

Bridget raced through her afternoon chores and was out by two fifteen, leaving Jasmine forty- five minutes to shower and get dressed.

She was more nervous than she’d been at the Vegas hotel when she dressed for the wedding. Ace had something big up his sleeve. She could feel it and couldn’t, for the life of her, figure it out. She took a quick shower to wash away the sweat and cooking odors, used a dryer on her hair, and ran an iron over the dress she’d worn on Sunday. Shoes, boots, or sandals? The choice was there in front of her. She tried on a high- heeled shoe and a sandal and stood in front of the mirror. She kicked off the high heel and replaced it with the white cowboy boot she’d worn when she married Ace.

She checked her reflection in the mirror and decided on the boot.

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She was walking down the stairs when she looked down and saw Ace staring up at her.

“Well?” she asked.

“You look beautiful. Love the boots. Are you ready?” He wore a pair of creased jeans stacked up over his best Sunday boots and the same shirt he’d worn Sunday.

When he hugged her she got a whiff of Stetson, and a dot of blood on his jawline testified that he’d just shaved.

“You look pretty damn sexy yourself, cowboy. I have no idea if I’m ready because I don’t know what we are doing, but I’m putting my hand in yours, Ace, and trusting you,” she said.

“That means a lot to me today, Jazzy.” He laced his fingers in hers and led her out to the truck where he tucked her safely into the passenger’s seat and whistled al the way around the truck. He turned north instead of south when he backed out onto the highway, then back to the west on Highway 82, went a few blocks, and turned back north.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“Just another minute.” He pulled into the empty church parking lot and got out of the truck.

“We’re going to the church?” she asked when he opened her door.

He looped her arm in his. “Yes, ma’am.”

The front door was open but the church was eerily quiet.

“Ace?” she asked.

“To the front,” he said.

When they reached the pulpit, he dropped down on one knee and looked up at Jasmine. “Jasmine King Riley, I love you and I’m in love with you. I’ve wanted OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 353

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Carolyn Brown

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you all week, but I had to be sure that I needed you as well. Want and need are two different critters. They’re as far apart as black and white. Want is instant gratifica-tion. Need goes deeper. It’s something that comes from the soul, not the body. And I need you in my life and in my heart to be whole. So I’m askin’ you to marry me, Jasmine, right here in this church, right now.” Tears welled up behind her eyelashes. “Yes, Ace, I will marry you.”

He picked up a faded velvet box from the front pew and snapped it open. “I’ve already given you a wedding ring, but on this day of our real marriage, I want to give you the pearls that Granny wore the day she married Gramps.”

Tears streamed down her face. “Oh, Ace, they are beautiful.”

Ace stood up, wiped away the tears with a clean white handkerchief he pulled from his pocket, and gently kissed her eyelids. He removed the pearls, fastened them around her neck, and said, “With these pearls, I promise to give you my love, my respect, and devotion for the rest of our lives. I promise to be faithful and to love you with my whole heart, not only in this life but for all eternity.”

She swallowed hard and touched the string of aged pearls around her neck. “Ace Riley, I accept the pearls and promise to give you my love, respect, and devotion for the rest of our lives. And I promise to cherish these pearls as much as our love, to be faithful and love you forever.”

“And now I can kiss my bride,” he said.

She slipped her arms around his neck and he sealed their marriage with a kiss full of love and passion.

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“Honeymoon will have to wait until fall when things slow down,” he said as they walked together down the aisle.

“Honeymoon, darlin’, begins tonight in our bedroom at the ranch and will go through our whole lives. And Ace, tomorrow at the reception, I’m selling my café to Momma and Daddy. I’m ready to be a full- time rancher’s wife,” she said.

He stopped and hugged her to his chest. “I’m the luckiest man on earth.”

“Tell me that after we have five daughters.” She laughed.

He graced her with his sexiest grin. “Fine by me. Five daughters and five sons. Maybe we’ll start tonight?” She giggled and he scooped her up like a bride and carried her to the truck.

“I love you, Mrs. Riley.” He kissed her long and hard before settling her into her seat.

“I love you, Ace. Now let’s go home and lock the bedroom door.”

The End

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About the Author

Carolyn Brown is a
New
York
Times
and
USA
Today
bestselling author with more than fifty books published, and she credits her eclectic family for her humor and writing ideas. Her books include the cowboy trilogy
Lucky
in
Love, One Lucky Cowboy
, and
Getting
Lucky
, the Honky Tonk series,
I
Love
This
Bar, Hell Yeah,
Honky Tonk Christmas
, and
I
Love
This
Bar
, and her bestselling Spikes & Spurs series beginning with
Love
Drunk
Cowboy,
Red’s Hot Cowboy
, and
Darn
Good
Cowboy
Christmas.
She was born in Texas but grew up in southern Oklahoma where she and her husband, Charles, a retired English teacher, make their home.

They have three grown children and enough grandchildren to keep them young.

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