The Cowboy Wins a Bride (The Cowboys of Chance Creek) Read online

  Contents

  Author Note

  Title Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  About the Author

  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.

  She refused to be angry at anybody today – her brother Ethan's wedding day – now that her bank account was out of danger. To have the whole weekend stretching in front of her here at the ranch was a gift she planned to thoroughly enjoy. It had been too long since she'd spent any real time here – too many years since it had been her home – and she was ready to let its beauty heal her soul. Soon she'd leave it behind again – if not for good, at least for a good long while – so she needed to make the most of this opportunity.

  As Ethan's only living relative, it was up to her to take charge of the festivities – with help from Autumn's mother and sister and a few other family friends, of course. Later in the morning she'd cover the tables with the freshly pressed white tablecloths the event rental outfit had dropped off, and decorate each one with an arrangement of candles and flowers. For now, she intended to savor this moment of peace before the chaos of the wedding celebration set in.

  She raised a hand and touched her face, which still felt warm from the scrubbing she'd had to give it. Rob had replaced her moisturizer with some sort of goop that stained her skin a violent orange. It'd taken her half an hour to get it all off and now her skin stung under the heavy layer of foundation she'd applied. Pressing her lips together she remembered the note he'd left pinned to her wash cloth. Once she'd seen the horror of her orange face in the mirror, shrieked and reached for the cloth to clean it off, she'd felt the paper, unpinned it and read his message.

  Claire – you are the beautifullest girl ever. Marry me? Your secret crush – Jamie

  Idiot. She'd recognize Rob's handwriting anywhere. And Jamie wasn't going to propose to her, as much as she'd once hoped he would, because he was too busy sleeping with everything in a skirt.

  No. She wasn't going to let Rob's jokes ruin her morning, and she wasn't going to waste any time thinking about what might have been with Jamie. She'd been hurt too many times to be interested in marriage to any man – at least not one from Montana. When she took off on her round-the-world cruise, however…well, some handsome European might just be the ticket.

  Better get these tables counted.

  One, two, three…

  "Forty-five, eight, one hundred and nine," Jamie Lassiter said, coming across the lawn toward her.

  Speak of the devil. Dressed in the cowboy uniform of jeans, a t-shirt, and a pair of battered boots, he looked far too handsome to be the same scrawny, wiry little kid whom she used to tower over. Now he filled out his clothes nicely and the top of her head barely reached his shoulder.

  "Damn it, you made me lose count," she said, plucking at her collar. It was already hot at nine in the morning. Six hundred thousand dollars. Plenty of money for whatever she wanted to do. She planned to close down Ledstrom Designs as soon as possible. Then she'd forget Daniel Ledstrom. Forget Jamie. Forget Mack Mackenzie and all the other men who'd ever given her grief. Take her round-the-world trip. After that – who knew? Make a home where people didn't lie or cheat or steal or walk out on her.

  Wherever that might be.

  Too bad it wasn't right here on this ranch.

  Jamie stuffed his hands in his pockets, leaned against a table, and looked at her, his cowboy hat cocked back the better to see. With a deep breath, she forced herself to focus on the task at hand. One, two, three…

  "You figure out yet what you're going to do with all that money?"

  She should have known he'd bring up the cash. When Jamie bought into the ranch, he and Ethan were able to re
-mortgage it. That, in turn, allowed them to buy her out. Hence the six-hundred-thousand dollars soon to be deposited in her bank account.

  "Yep."

  His eyebrows shot up. "Really? What?"

  Surprised you there, didn't I, cowboy? "I'm closing down Ledstrom Designs and taking off."

  "Taking off? Where are you going?"

  He sounded angry, which confused Claire. It wasn't like he gave a damn where she went. Sure, he flirted with her now and then, and he'd even invited her to celebrate with the rest of the crowd the night he and Ethan became partners. She'd gone along with it, but made sure they were never alone. And she'd made sure to leave in plenty of time to drive back to Billings. She wasn't going to be another one-night-stand notch on Jamie's bedpost. "Wherever I choose." She moved away from him, beginning her count again.

  "For how long?"

  "A year. Maybe two." At this rate she'd never figure out if she had enough tables set up for all the wedding guests.

  "Damn it! You can't do that!" Jamie's fist hit the table and made her jump. When he took her arm and pulled her around to face him she could only stare.

  "Why the hell not?" Once she was over her shock, anger flooded her. What was he playing at, scaring her like that? She tried to shrug him off, but he tightened his grip around her bicep. He looked furious, too.

  "Because…because you're marrying me on Labor Day," he blurted out. He fished around in his jeans pocket and pulled out small, velvet box. Letting go of her arm, he opened it, yanked out a ring, grabbed her hand and shoved it halfway onto her finger before she could react. She tried to pull her hand away as the ring's setting dug into her skin, but he gripped her wrist with iron fingers and pushed it farther over her knuckle.

  "What are you doing? Stop it!" Claire struck out, batting at his arms and chest. She'd had enough of Ethan's friends' stupidity today. It was one thing to switch the contents of her moisturizer and leave her a dorky note – she expected that kind of crap from Rob – but for Jamie to play along with the gag and take it to this level? She wouldn't stand for it.