One Hot Cowboy Wedding (9 page)

Ace squeezed her waist. “How many? Did you say all my brothers? I was thinking maybe just Wil and Rye.”

“Momma may decide we need a dozen of each. It ain’t legal unless it’s registered in the great state of Texas and has enough bridesmaids and groomsmen to OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 70

10/5/11 10:40 AM

One Hot Cowboy Wedding

71

fill up the whole front of the church. And it’s a big wide church, let me tell you. Momma ain’t havin’ grandkids that are results of a questionable marriage license. It could be they might want to run for president and a Las Vegas marriage license wouldn’t be worth the paper it’s written on.”

“For real? Are you kiddin’?” Gemma asked.

Jasmine pointed at Pearl. “It’s the pure unadulterated God’s honest truth. You better have those twins next week.”

Rye clapped a hand on Ace’s shoulder. “We had no idea you two were even seeing each other.”

“Or that you were thinkin’ about getting married.

Was it a big surprise, real y a surprise, when you won that package deal at the chapel?” Austin asked.

Rye and Austin had only been married a couple of years. She’d inherited a watermelon farm over in Terral, just five miles from Ringgold, across the Red River into Oklahoma. She’d intended to come to southern Oklahoma and sell the place, but Rye lived across the road and she fel in love with him and the watermelon farm.

All of the O’Donnell men— Rye, Dewar, and Raylen—

were tall, dark- haired cowboys that had a swagger in their walk and a drawl in their talk. Handsome beyond description, they were. But not a one of them made Jasmine’s pulse race like Ace did when he took her hand in his.

Raylen patted Ace on the back. “Ace has always been the sneaky one of the bunch.”

“You got a lot of room saying that,” Dewar said.

Raylen grinned. “Guess I do. Me and Liz pulled off a sneaky wedding too, didn’t we?”

OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 71

10/5/11 10:40 AM

Carolyn Brown

72

The Christmas before Raylen had married Liz with no family or friends at the wedding. Liz’s uncle left her twenty acres adjoining the O’Donnell horse ranch. She was born and raised in a traveling carnival, but she’d always dreamed of putting down roots. When her mother asked her what she wanted for Christmas every year, she’d told her that she wanted a house with no wheels and a sexy cowboy. Her Uncle Haskell gave her the house; Raylen O’Donnell supplied the rest.

Dewar handed Ace a beer. “Here, man. You probably need something cold after that stunt. And I believe the last number we talked about was a hundred dollars?” Dewar was the last of the O’Donnell male offspring not married. He had jet- black hair, green eyes, deep dimples in a square face, and a scar on his cheek. He and Ace had a running bet as to which one would outrun the women the longest.

Ace let go of Jasmine’s hand long enough to draw his wallet from his hip pocket and put a bill in Dewar’s hand. “You’d better go home and take off them boots and get on some runnin’ shoes because you are the last eligible bachelor in Ringgold.”

“Hell if I am. You still got three younger brothers,” Dewar said.

“Okay, then among the five of us.” Ace recounted and slipped Jasmine’s hand back into his.

Wil grinned. “That is four down and one to go.

Dewar, you got something you want to tell us so we aren’t shocked all to hell again in a few weeks?” Austin grabbed Jasmine’s arm and pulled at her.

“Come on. You can leave your new husband for a few minutes and tell us how this all came about.” OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 72

10/5/11 10:40 AM

One Hot Cowboy Wedding

73

Ace held on tightly. Together they’d work their way through the next year. He wouldn’t forsake her.

“Ace, darlin’, look at that cake. How did y’all get something on such short notice?” she said, changing the subject.

Pearl beamed. “There’s a bakery in the grocery store in Nocona. The minute Gemma saw the news she called over there and she and Liz made a trip over there this morning.”

Gemma O’Donnell was the same height as Jasmine.

She had dark hair, green eyes, and a wide smile that lit up the whole café. She owned the beauty shop next to Jasmine’s café, and she and Jasmine were good friends— both full of spit and vinegar, and together they plowed right through every obstacle that got in their way.

Jasmine kept the whine inside, but she really wanted to let it out. She couldn’t even tel Gemma, and when the year was up, Gemma was going to be livid.

“Bet that fancy hotel didn’t have a wedding cake, did it?” Liz asked.

“No, ma’am, it did not. Who’s goin’ to cut that thing?

I love cake,” Ace said.

He wasn’t sure he could actually swallow a bite, not after what Jazzy had said about the next wedding.

Lord, he’d pictured it as something small with one person to stand up with him and one with Jazzy and a cake and some punch. Not a full- fledged shindig that would last two hours in the church and another five at a reception.

Gemma picked up the knife. “I’m going to cut it and you are going to feed each other so you’ll have lots of OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 73

10/5/11 10:40 AM

Carolyn Brown

74

good luck and this marriage will last forever. Pearl, you pour some beer in these two glasses and they can toast, too. I thought about champagne, but you’ve already had that with the fancy limo and room. Besides, you are back in Texas so it’s beer! But the cake feeding is going by the books because I intend for you to stay married because you couldn’t have picked better soul mates.” She set the top layer of the small three- tiered cake to one side before she cut the next layer. “You have to freeze the top layer and eat it on your first anniversary for good luck.”

“Did you do that?” Jasmine asked Pearl.

“It hasn’t been a year yet, but it’s in the freezer. How about you?” Pearl asked Liz.

“We only been married five months, but I didn’t freeze any cakes. Remember, we got married on Christmas by the judge and we didn’t have all the hoopla. We don’t have a wedding cake topper, but if it’s important I’ll freeze a Ding- Dong and we’ll share it on our first anniversary.”

Wil twisted the top off three bottles of Coors. He filled nine glasses with beer and one with ginger ale for Pearl. Wil’s tall, dark good looks complimented Pearl’s flaming red hair and green eyes. Jasmine had decided months before that she wasn’t having a husband until she could get a cowboy that looked at her like Wil looked at Pearl. Now she had a husband who didn’t want to be married and who damn sure wasn’t happy about a big foo- rah over in Sherman in a month. Yep, it was fool’s gold day for sure!

That
which
does
not
kill
us
makes
us
stronger
, her grandmother’s voice whispered in her ear.

OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 74

10/5/11 10:40 AM

One Hot Cowboy Wedding

75

Well, Granny Dale, I will be the strongest damn
woman or else the deadest one in Montague County in
a year’s time.

She could’ve sworn she heard her grandmother giggle.

Gemma cut one small piece of cake and handed the plate to Jasmine.

“Is this all I get?” Jasmine asked.

She’d married Ace and now had to live with him for a year, in the house with him, and see him wandering around without a shirt showing off his muscular chest and she couldn’t even touch it. And all she got was a piece of cake the size of a damn silver dollar?

“No, that’s what you and Ace are going to feed each other. You go first,” Liz said.

Jasmine used her fingers, broke off a piece of cake, and hurriedly shoved it toward his mouth. The sun was shining but lightning could still come through the window and strike her dead as a doornail.

“You get a drop of that icing on my face and you have to lick it off,” Ace said with an evil grin and a wiggle of the eyebrows. If awards were given out for acting out the role of a love- drunk husband, Ace Riley would have it nailed.

Jasmine slowed down and carefully laid the bite on his tongue. He grabbed her wrist to hold her fingers in his mouth, wrapped his tongue around the finger and thumb, and sucked off all the cake icing.

Liz’s dark eyes widened as she looked at Raylen.

“Now I wish we would’ve had a cake.”

“Bring out the Ding- Dongs when we get home, darlin’.” He kissed Liz right on the lips.

“Now be nice. All that lovey- dovey stuff might slow OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 75

10/5/11 10:40 AM

Carolyn Brown

76

Dewar down and the wrong woman will catch him,” Rye teased.

Ace picked up the rest of the cake and headed toward Jasmine’s mouth, deliberately missed, and got icing on her upper lip. He tipped her chin up and slowly licked every drop of it off, ending with a hard, passionate kiss.

Lights didn’t flash and wedding bells didn’t ring like they did in Vegas when he kissed her, but they didn’t miss it by far. When he broke the kiss and looked into her eyes her knees went weak. So it wasn’t the white dress and the moment after all. Ace Riley, her new husband, had just knocked her socks off.

“Now can we have a real piece of cake?” Ace asked hoarsely.

Jazzy was doing a fine job of acting like a new wife.

Too damn fine! That kiss caused a stirring that was uncomfortable. Thank goodness his shirttail was hanging out over his belt and covered the evidence.

“Not until you drink out of each other’s cups,” Pearl said. “The trick is to lock arms and drink out of your own glass.”

Rye refil ed fluted glasses that Austin had brought over for the occasion, making sure Pearl got the ginger ale and waiting until the bride and groom had done the traditional thing, then he held up his glass. “To Ace, a branded cowboy!”

Everyone tossed the beer back like shots of whiskey.

Liz refilled everyone’s glasses with beer and Pearl’s with ginger ale. “Here’s to a lifetime of happiness with your branded cowboy, Jasmine.”

Jasmine looked at Ace. Surprising enough, no hot anger was shooting out of his eyes. She’d figured he’d OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 76

10/5/11 10:40 AM

One Hot Cowboy Wedding

77

be madder than a wet rooster in a thunderstorm, but his eyes were still soft and dreamy from the kiss.

Gemma cut big chunks of the wedding cake and handed the first two pieces to Ace and Jasmine. Liz popped the tops off several more bottles of beer.

Jasmine loved every one of the O’Donnells: Raylen, Dewar, Rye; Colleen who was missing from the party because the previous February she’d married Blaze McIntire and joined the very carnival that Liz had left behind; Gemma; and of course Austin. She really loved Pearl because she’d been her best friend forever, and Wil, because he made Pearl happy. And Liz because she had worked for several weeks for Jasmine when she first moved to Ringgold and they’d become such close friends.

But she wished the whole lot of them would go home.

Her world was upside down and inside out. She needed some time to process it al before she opened the café the next morning.

Shit! Tomorrow morning bright and early I have to
face Bridget, plus all the Monday morning regular coffee drinkers. And Ace won’t be anywhere around, not
until mid- afternoon.

Ace set his empty plate on the table, put his arm around Jasmine’s waist, and drew her close to his side.

“Good cake and good friends. Thank you all for this.”

“You are very welcome,” Gemma said. “And now it’s time to turn out the lights, like that old song says.

I’ll see you,” she pointed at Jasmine, “on Tuesday unless Momma throws a fit to come for lunch tomorrow.” Jasmine nodded. Ace’s hand was hot against her back, sending rippling tingles from his fingertips to her OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 77

10/5/11 10:40 AM

Carolyn Brown

78

neck, her toes, and reminding her that his kiss had been every bit as hot as his hand.

Pearl looped her arm through her husband’s. “Okay, Wil, it’s time to take your fat wife home.”

“My wife is not fat,” he protested.

“You blind or something?” Austin asked.

“I’m with Rye. I think Pearl is beautiful pregnant,” Raylen said.

Liz and Gemma were busy carrying the dirty plates to the kitchen and loading the dishwasher. Gemma wrapped the small top layer of the cake in plastic wrap and then slipped it into a gallon storage bag before she stored it in the freezer. Liz wiped down the table, threw away the beer bottles, and swept up the crumbs. When everything was put to rights, Liz wrapped her arms around Jasmine and Ace in a three- way hug.

“I really hope you are happy,” she said.

“Why wouldn’t we be?” Ace asked.

“It’s so sudden,” she said.

“After what you and Raylen pulled off, don’t talk to me about sudden,” he teased.

“Guess you are right.” She giggled.

Ace kept his arm around Jasmine until the last truck had pulled out of the drive. He was reluctant to remove it even then. It felt as if he was really the branded cowboy and she was his bride, as if they were soul mates who’d finally found each other.

“Was that our horny toad?” he asked.

“That wasn’t even a cricket. The real horny toad is our parents,” Jasmine said.

Ace rolled his pretty blue eyes up toward the ceiling.

“Won’t do a bit of good. Prayin’ or cussin’, either OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 78

10/5/11 10:40 AM

One Hot Cowboy Wedding

79

one. We got to get it done so we might as well get on with it,” she said.

He grinned. “I told you that you were strong as steel!

Throw some things into a bag and we’ll go by the folks on the way to the ranch. If we make a stop there we can always plead that we’re tired and have to get things ready for tomorrow. If we don’t, they’ll come to the ranch and stay until midnight.”

Jasmine stepped away from his arm, amazed that the heat from his hand was stil there even when she was two feet away. “I’ve got most of what I need out in my truck and I’ll go get the rest. Want to come up or wait here?” He shot her a wicked grin. “Need me to undo your bra?”