The Cowboy Wins a Bride (The Cowboys of Chance Creek)
Read The Cowboy Wins a Bride (The Cowboys of Chance Creek) Online
Authors: Cora Seton
Author Note
The Cowboy Wins a Bride
is Book 2 in the
Cowboys of Chance Creek
series, set in the fictional town of Chance Creek, Montana. To find out more about the Cruz Guest Ranch, and how Ethan Cruz met Autumn Leeds, look for Book 1 in the series,
The Cowboy’s E-Mail Order Bride
. Other books in the series are:
The Cowboy Imports a Bride
Bella Beats a Billionaire
The Cowboy’s Eco-Bride
Visit www.coraseton.com for more titles and release dates.
The Cowboy Wins a Bride
By Cora Seton
Copyright 2013 Cora Seton
Published by One Acre Press
ISBN-13: 9781927036426
CHAPTER ONE
"Why don't you ask her today?" Ethan Cruz said, hauling a pile of folding chairs for the wedding out of the Party Plus Event Rentals delivery truck. In his jeans and t-shirt, his dark hair standing up every which way, you'd never know he was getting married in a few hours. He looked like he'd climbed out of bed a minute ago.
Jamie Lassiter snapped the velvet box shut, hiding the tasteful diamond ring he'd just showed to his friends, and shoved it back into the pocket of his jeans. He grabbed an armful of chairs, too, and followed Ethan toward the front lawn of the Cruz Ranch's Big House – where he was helping to set up for Ethan's wedding to Autumn Leeds, the city girl who'd only come to Chance Creek a month ago, but now was here to stay.
"It's not time yet," he said. He wasn't in a rush like Ethan and Autumn were, and he never jumped into things the way those two did. The only reason they even met was because of a practical joke. By all rights they should have taken one look at each other in the Chance Creek Regional Airport and gone their separate ways.
Instead, they'd fallen head over heels in love, and rumor had it Autumn was pregnant with Ethan's baby. Talk about taking chances. Jamie liked Autumn, and he figured she and Ethan might just make a go of this marriage, but when he proposed to Ethan's sister, Claire, he wanted to be sure of everything ahead of time – including her answer.
He definitely wasn't sure of that yet.
"For heaven's sake, you've carried a torch for her for what – ten years? Twelve?"
Try twenty. Jamie had decided to marry Claire back when he was eight. He'd practically grown up on the Cruz ranch, since he loved horses and his family lived in town. Ethan's father, Alex Cruz, welcomed his interest and even nurtured it. Jamie learned to ride alongside Ethan and Claire, did chores with them, worked just as hard as they did to build the ranch by their father's side. Sometimes Alex felt more like a dad to him than his own father did.
"Why you'd want to marry my sister is beyond me," Ethan said, breaking into his thoughts, "but if you're going to do it, it might as well be soon. Heck, if you'd hurried up a bit we could have had a double wedding."
Rob Matheson came up behind them, hauling another load of chairs, his blond hair falling into his eyes. "Yeah, Jamie, you should have planned ahead. That way we'd only need to lug these chairs around once."
"What about your wedding?"
Rob snorted. "I'm never getting married. Plus, if I ever did – which I won't – I'll be married from my own spread. Not Ethan's."
"So? Why not ask her today?" Ethan pushed. "Weddings are romantic. You might have a better shot getting the answer you want."
Cab Johnson lumbered up behind them, carrying more chairs than the rest of them combined. The large, quiet sheriff had obviously been listening to their conversation. "Jamie's got a plan," he said. "And the plan doesn't call for any proposals today."
Jamie knew he was laughing at him. They all were. But his careful planning had taken him from hired hand on the Cruz ranch to part owner, and it would lead him to the rest of his dreams as well – he was sure of it.
"What does Jamie's plan call for today?" Rob said wryly.
"Planting the seeds," Jamie said. "I've taken the first steps. I always knew Claire wouldn't look twice at a man who wasn't a rancher, so here I am – a legitimate rancher now."
"Amen," Ethan said. Jamie had only bought into the Cruz ranch a week ago, but by doing so he'd saved Ethan from losing it all. He knew Ethan was more grateful than words could say. He didn't want his friend's gratitude, though. He just wanted a steady business partnership that would last for the rest of their lives.
"That's all fine and dandy," Rob said. "You're part owner of a ranch. But Claire still lives in Billings and she hasn't wanted anything to do with this place for years."
"She will – you wait and see," Jamie said, but he had to acknowledge the truth of Rob's words. When he was fifteen and Claire seventeen, he was just working up the nerve to ask her out when she fell head over heels for Mack Mackenzie, the Cruz's much older horse trainer. When her mother pointed out that no thirty-year-old man was going to look twice at a little girl, they'd had their biggest fight yet, screaming at each other so loudly they frightened the horses out in the corrals. Claire left in a raging huff, and so far she hadn't shown any sign of moving home, even after her parents died in a car accident last year.
"Planting seeds, huh?" Rob said. "You know, if I was going to plant something in Claire, it wouldn't be…"
Jamie dropped his chairs on the lawn and turned on Rob, his fist raised, but Cab stepped in between them. "Wedding," was all he said and both Rob and Jamie backed off. Rob wasn't worth getting worked up over anyway. The man ran off his mouth without ever thinking first. He bent down, grabbed the chairs and hauled them closer to the piles they'd dropped off on earlier trips.
"If you ever so much as touched my sister I'd deck you," Ethan said, putting his chairs down, too, and starting back toward the truck.
"So Jamie gets to touch her but I don't?" Rob complained, as he dumped his chairs and followed Ethan.
"That's about the size of it."
Jamie appreciated that his friend didn't mind the crush he had on his sister. He couldn’t remember ever telling Ethan about it in so many words. Somehow Ethan just knew, and Jamie knew that he knew, and they both knew that it was okay.
Claire was the only one who had a different opinion.
A few years ago, just after New Year's, he thought she might be coming around, though. Finally. As if she'd made a resolution to patch things up with her mother, she'd begun to make the two hour drive from Billings almost weekly, staying over in her old room in the Big House, spending whole weekends at the ranch. She'd been friendly to him. Smiled at him sometimes. Even flirted with him a little.
"She doesn't want a rancher, she wants a hot-shot city guy," Rob said when they reached the truck again. He lifted his cowboy hat, and swiped his arm across his brow.
Jamie tamped down his anger and grabbed another pile of chairs. Rob knew all too well how to get under his skin. Growing up on the spread next door, he was here on the Cruz ranch almost as much as Jamie was. He was right, though; last time Claire did pass him over for a city guy. After a month of her weekend visits to the ranch, he'd decided this was his chance. He'd dumped his current casual fling, Hannah O'Dell, and readied himself to ask Claire out the following weekend when she arrived in town. Valentine's Day weekend.
Unfortunately she didn't come to town on Valentine's Day, and soon after that Ethan let him know – as tactfully as he could – that she had a new boyfriend in Billings. Her boss. Daniel Ledstrom of Ledstrom Designs, the interior decorating business where she worked.
The English language didn't contain words to describe what Jamie felt then. To have been so close – to let himself picture what it would be like to finally hold her in his arms, to finally make love to her – and then to have that dream yanked away from him again…he'd almost despaired of ever carrying the day.
But when Daniel Ledstrom ran off with his secretary, Edie, last May, clearing out the business's accounts and making headlines in the Billings papers, Claire hardly seemed to care.
She may have dated the guy for a couple of years, but apparently she wasn't in love with Daniel, after all.
Once again he prepared to ask her out, but fate intervened against him a third time. When Claire came home to the ranch next it was for her parents' funeral. And his plans went on hold again.
He was beginning to think they'd never work out.
"Bet she shoots you down when you do ask her," Rob said, catching up to him.
"Bet you she doesn't," Jamie said, even though secretly he thought Rob might be right.
"How much? Hundred bucks?"
"You got it."
"Good luck winning that bet," Cab said, overtaking them. "Seeing as how Jamie isn't asking her anytime soon."
Jamie frowned. "I'll ask her soon."
"Bet you can't marry her by Labor Day," Rob said.
"If you're getting married in ten weeks, you better hurry up and pop the question," Ethan said from behind them.
"I'm not marrying Claire on Labor Day," Jamie said. His plan called for using the summer to build her interest in the ranch. At some point, he'd ask her out, and in the fall he'd suggest they move in together. Maybe he'd propose at Thanksgiving. Sure, he'd bought the ring early, but experience had taught him to be prepared. Like Ethan said, some occasions were more romantic than others. If things should move faster than he expected, he didn't want to be caught short.
And…well, he was looking forward to being engaged to Claire.
"You admitting she'll turn you down?" Rob said. They reached the stack of chairs again, and added the new ones to the pile.
"No. I'd just like to go on a few dates before I ask her." Jamie straightened up.
"Chicken."
"I ain't…"
"If you haven't asked her out in the past decade, you aren't going to ask her now. You're blowing smoke up your own ass if you think you're ever going to marry her."
Jamie shoved his hands in his pockets to keep from balling them into fists and punching Rob. "I ain't chicken and I am going to ask her."
"Hundred bucks says that come Labor Day, you're still single," Rob said. "Safest bet I ever made."
Cab, joining them, laughed out loud. "Got that right."
"He's got to think it over for another twelve years," Ethan chimed in. "Doesn't do to rush these things."
Jamie bristled at this group attack on his cautious personality. "Hundred bucks says I'm married to Claire by the end of the summer."
"Deal." Rob grabbed his hand and shook it before Jamie had a chance to reconsider. He pointed across the lawn. "There she is, tiger. Go on and ask her. Just keep your distance from her right hook. You know how cranky she gets."
Already regretting the bet, Jamie turned and spotted Claire. In shorts and a t-shirt, her dark, glossy hair reflecting the morning sun, she made quite a picture as she stood counting tables on the far side of the yard. He wouldn't propose to her, as much as the ring was burning a hole in his pocket.
But he figured he might as well start planting those seeds.
* * * * *
Claire Cruz was counting the circular tables set up on the lawn of the Cruz ranch Big House, but there was only one number that stuck in her mind.
Six hundred thousand dollars
. She could finally start fresh and no one –
no one
– had to know she’d let a bastard like Daniel Ledstrom take her to the cleaners. Her relief made her weak in the knees, and just about made up for the stupid practical joke Rob had played on her this morning.