Boots and Wishes: Ugly Stick Saloon, Book 8 (10 page)

Moving aside, Charli waved her hand toward the Christmas tree. “We know how much you want to have children, and perhaps one day soon, that will happen. But in the meantime, please accept our gifts. We give them with all the love in our hearts to a person who has shown us nothing but the love in hers.”

Audrey’s eyes welled with tears and she pressed a hand to her tightening chest. “Please,” she started, afraid she’d lose it and start bawling in front of everyone. “Y’all are too nice. I don’t deserve a bunch of gifts.”

Charli held up a hand. “Wait, I’m not done. This gift is from all of us.” She nodded to the side of the stage. “Bring it out.”

Connor Mason and Ed Judson came out from behind the curtains, carrying what appeared to be a long, rectangular item big enough to be a twin-sized mattress. It was covered in a black tarp. When they tore off the tarp, Audrey exclaimed, “Oh my God. It’s beautiful!”

The men held a large sign with
Ugly Stick Saloon
written in neon lights. On one corner of the sign was a pair of red neon cowboy boots like the ones Audrey loved to wear. On the other end of the sign was a big red neon heart.

Audrey’s knees wobbled and the tears trembled on her lashes, spilling over. “You shouldn’t have. It had to have been horribly expensive.”

“Don’t cry, Audrey.” Charli rushed forward. “We pooled our money and had it made especially for you.”

Audrey smiled up at Jackson. “Oh, babe, I truly am blessed.”

“Let them finish,” he urged her.

Charli’s lips twisted and then broke into a grin. “The sign was my idea.”

Audrey hugged Charli. “It’s perfect.”

Bunny stepped forward with Cory and Jack, and took the gift she’d brought out from under the tree and handed it to her. “Careful, it has thorns.” She laid it in Audrey’s arms.

Audrey tore off the paper and stared down at what looked like a twig. She gave Bunny a confused look. “What is it?”

“A start from my grandmother’s rosebush. Plant it in your garden and watch it grow along with all the love you and Jackson will share. Just like you’ve done with us, pay it forward to the next generation every chance you get.”

Audrey’s eyes rounded. “Is this a cutting from that huge red rosebush at the side of your shop?”

Bunny nodded. “I planted it from the start my mother gave to me from my grandmother’s rosebush. Roots are important to a family.”

“Thank you,” Audrey said. “I’ll cherish it.”

Mona handed her a wrapped package and stood back. “Open mine.”

Audrey smiled. “Y’all got me a sign. This is too much.”

“Fine, I’ll open it.” Mona ripped the paper off and handed her the gift. It was a beautiful silver hairbrush with Audrey’s initials engraved on the handle.

“I know,” Mona said. “Who needs a silver hairbrush these days?” She shrugged. “No one, but a beautiful woman with a heart of gold deserves a little bling on her dresser. I love doing your hair, not because it’s my job, but because you’re a true friend and I can always count on you to have my back.” Mona hugged Audrey. “I love you, girl. That brush comes with a free cut and style.” She winked and stepped back.

Overwhelmed by the gifts, Audrey wiped tears from her eyes. “Before I open any more gifts and dissolve into tearful puddle, I want to give Jackson his present.”

“I don’t need anything but you, sweetheart. Besides, when did you have time to shop for me?” Jackson laughed and hugged her around the middle. “I love you.”

Audrey dug the tiny box out from under the tree and handed it to him.

He opened it, revealing a key. “What’s this?”

With a grin, Audrey waved toward the door. “Your present is in the parking lot outside. That key goes with it.”

“What is it?” Jackson stared down at the key.

“Come outside and see.” Audrey grabbed his hand and dragged him toward the front door and out into the parking lot.

A soft December breeze cooled Audrey’s heated cheeks as she stood back and watched Jackson’s reaction as, on cue, Nick McBride drove a bright red, vintage Corvette up in front of the saloon.

“This is the gift?” Jackson stood still, staring at the beautifully painted vehicle.

“Yes, silly.” Audrey’s brow furrowed. “Don’t you like it? Mark and Luke said you had one growing up and missed it.” She shot a confused look at her brothers-in-law.

Mark shrugged. “He said he always regretted trading it for the truck.”

Audrey touched Jackson’s shoulder. “If you don’t like it, I can sell it and find something else.”

“No, no. I love it.” He turned toward her, not having taken one step closer to the car. “But it only has two seats.”

Audrey nodded. “I know. It’s a convertible sports car. They usually only have two seats.”

He pulled an envelope out of his pocket and handed it to her. “As much as I like it, a two-seater doesn’t really work with my gift to you.”

Audrey took the envelope. “This is my gift?”

“They say big things can come in little packages,” Charli said. “Open it.”

The intense glance Jackson was giving her made her hand shake as Audrey lifted the flap and extracted what appeared to be a brochure.

When she held it up to the light, she could read the name of a company specializing in…adoptions.

Her heart squeezing hard in her chest, Audrey looked up into Jackson’s eyes. “Are you sure?”

He smiled, pulling her into his arms. “Never more certain. You will make a wonderful mother to a child, so how could I deprive a child of the opportunity to have you for its mother? And I promise to be a good father and love it as much as you do.”

If her heart could swell any bigger, Audrey’s would have exploded out of her chest, she was so happy. “Thank you. This is the best gift ever.” She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him for a long time.

“A-hem.” Charli cleared her throat beside Audrey. “We have something to say as well.”

Audrey shook her head. “I’m so happy, I can’t possibly accept any more gifts.”

“Well, to add to Jackson’s hugely awesome gift, we want you to know we’ll help you do what it takes and even vouch for you if you choose to adopt.”

Audrey reached out and hugged Charli. “This is too much. I would never ask you to do that for us.”

“We know you wouldn’t ask, but we all want to help.” Charli nodded toward the crowd. “Show of hands who would volunteer?”

Libby, Beth, Kendall, Lacey, Bunny, Mona, Isabella and Lucky all raised their hands, followed by all the men in the bar.

Charli faced Audrey. “You see, we love you and want you to be happy. You’ll make a wonderful mother.”

Audrey smiled through her tears. If not for Jackson’s arm around her, she would have sunk to the floor, she felt so loved. “Thank you all. I have the best family a woman could hope for. All of you!” She glanced up through her tears, her stomach picking that moment to turn upside down. “Please, everyone, let’s go back inside and enjoy the party.”

She entered the saloon and held on until the music started and the crowd of friends and family hit the dance floor before she said to Jackson, “Excuse me.” Then she ran to the bathroom, where she lost what little was left in her belly.

Jackson came in behind her and held her hair while she pulled herself together.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” she said weakly.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were experiencing morning sickness.”

Audrey froze. How long had it been since her last cycle? With all that had happened with Beth and Mia and preparing for the Christmas party, she’d forgotten to keep track. “What day is it?” she asked.

Jackson chuckled. “Christmas Eve, babe. Remember? The party?”

Audrey clapped a hand to her forehead. “Could you have Charli get my purse for me?”

Jackson frowned. “Why?”

“Just do it,” she urged. “Please.”

Jackson left the bathroom and returned carrying her purse. “Is there something I can do for you?”

“Yes.” She dug in her purse for the box she’d been carrying since the last time she’d ovulated, as the power of positive thinking. It was still there. “You can pray.” She took the purse into the stall, dug out the pregnancy test, removed the packaging, dropped her pants and peed.

“Are you doing what I think you’re doing?” Jackson asked.

“If you mean am I taking a pregnancy test?” Audrey called out through the door a she held the wand in position. “Then yes.” She straightened and pulled her jeans up with one hand.

The door opened and Jackson stood there. “Well?”

She held the wand up. “We have to give it time to process.”

“No we don’t.” Jackson stared at the screen on the wand.

“What do you mean, no we don’t?” Audrey jerked her hand back and read the display, prepared for the usual disappointment. In the screen was the single word.

Pregnant
.

“Holy hell, Audrey, you’re pregnant!” Jackson picked her up and spun her around. “We’re going to have a baby!”

Still too gun-shy to believe it, Audrey waited until Jackson set her on her feet. When he did, she stared at the stick again. The word
Not
never appeared.

Her heart filled and her chest swelled. “Sweet Jesus. I didn’t think life could get any better than it already was.”

Jackson kissed her and held her close. “Babe, wishes really can come true.”

Audrey couldn’t stop smiling. Yes, indeed, wishes really could come true. She was pregnant and tomorrow was Christmas.

“I know something that could make life even better.” Jackson’s eyes took on a devilish gleam. “That is, if you’re feeling okay.”

Audrey stood straight, feeling better than she had in days. “I’m feeling wonderful. What did you have in mind?”

He grabbed her hand and led her into the costume room behind the stage, where Audrey kept the props for the once-a-month strip shows the Ugly Stick Saloon was famous for. He pulled a pair of chaps off a hanger and handed them to her, then pulled another pair out and grabbed a black leather riding crop.

Audrey’s stomach fluttered in a good way as she led him behind a stage prop. As soon as they were well hidden from sight of any staff member passing by, she pulled off her boots so that she could get her jeans off. Then she put her boots back on, shed her shirt and tied on the chaps. Wearing a lacy black bra and matching black lace, thong panties, she grabbed the crop and faced her man, her heart thumping hard against her ribs.

He had taken off everything and now stood before her in nothing but his boots and the chaps. His cock jutted out straight and hard. A frown dented his brow and he asked, “Making love won’t hurt the baby, will it?”

“No. If anything it will let the baby know how much his mommy and daddy love him.”

“Good, because I couldn’t possibly last nine months without making love to my beautiful wife.” He held out his hand and winked. “I’ll take that crop.”

Audrey lifted her chin and ran the riding crop up the side of his leg. “Are you sure you can handle it?”

Jackson pulled her into his arms, his cock nudging her bare belly. “Babe, I’m only sure of one thing. And that’s my love for you.” He hooked a finger in her panties and dragged them down her leg in a long, sensuous glide, skimming her inner thigh with his fingers.

By the time Jackson pulled the panties over her red boots, Audrey was quivering, her nerves on fire and her pussy damp. “Oh, cowboy, I’m ready to ride.”

Jackson lifted her and sat her on the closest box and stepped between her legs, his cock poised at her entrance. “One more thing.”

Audrey moaned, so ready to have him inside her, fucking her like there was no tomorrow. “What?” She reached for his hips, determined to make it happen.

“Just thought you’d like to know, I found your missing box of whiskey.”

She frowned, barely able to concentrate on his words. “Where?”

He laughed. “You’re sitting on it.” Without waiting for her response, he slid into her, his member filling her. She’d loved this man more than anything, and now she was going to have his baby.

She glanced down at where they were so intimately connected and prayed they would always be together and making love like teenagers in the prop room.

And damned if he wasn’t right. The box she was sitting on had the words Jack Daniels Whiskey written in bold letters.

She laughed out loud, swallowing her mirth as Jackson thrust into her again and again, taking her to the stars in the heavens.

About the Author

Twenty years of livin’ and lovin’ on a South Texas ranch, raising horses, cattle, ostriches and emus, left an indelible impression on Myla Jackson, one she likes to instill in her red-hot stories. Myla pens wildly sexy, fun adventures of all kinds, including historical westerns, medieval, romantic suspense, contemporary and paranormals with beasties of all shapes and sexy sizes. When she’s not wrangling words from her computer, she’s snow skiing, boating, riding her ATV or spending time with family. She lives in the tree-covered hills of Northwest Arkansas with her husband of twenty-plus years and her muses—human-wanna-be canines—Chewy and Sweetpea.

To learn more about Myla Jackson and her stories, visit her website at
www.mylajackson.com
.

Look for these titles by Myla Jackson

Now Available:

Hearts & Heroes

Wyatt’s War

Mack’s Witness

Ugly Stick Saloon

Boots and Chaps

Boots and Leather

Boots and Bareback

Boots and Lace

Boots and Roses

Boots and Buckles

Boots and Twisters

Bound and Tied

Honor Bound

Duty Bound

River Bound

Two ranchers are about to get Lucky—in more ways than one.

Boots and Twisters

© 2014 Myla Jackson

Ugly Stick Saloon, Book 7

Lucky Albright’s unlucky streak is so long and wide that she’s been run out of one town and it looks like it may happen again.

When she finds herself out of money and out of gas in Temptation, Texas, a part-time job from the kind owner of the Ugly Stick Saloon gives her a glimmer of hope that this time things will be different.

Trent Jameson and Isaac Moore have always believed you make your own luck, but a black cloud of disaster seems to hover over their new hand. Under a tumbling stack of hay, Isaac discovers what Lucky’s hiding beneath baggy clothes and a tough exterior. Enough sexy curves to satisfy both men’s appetites.

But it isn’t long before Lucky’s history starts wreaking havoc all over town. It’ll take a force of nature to help the ranchers convince the law, the Garden Club—even Lucky herself—that now is no time to hit the road.

Warning: Hot cowboys meet hot cowgirl, and there’s a whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on in Temptation. Get your twist-and-shout on at the Ugly Stick Saloon!

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Boots and Twisters:

Trent went to work stacking the hay on another wall, one bale at a time. Halfway through the stack, his muscles burned and he’d worked up a good sweat. He was feeling better and had almost forgotten the woman at the saloon.

With several tall columns of bales leaning against one wall, Trent was about to start a stack in front of them when a noise made him turn around.

A slim figure in jeans and a chambray shirt entered Thunder’s horse stall.

Thunder hadn’t been ridden since Dusty the ranch foreman had been tossed and ended up in the hospital.

Trent started to say something to the new ranch hand about the horse and his temperament. Before he could, the hand emerged, leading a placid Thunder out by his lead rope. If the horse had an attitude, it wasn’t on display that morning.

The cowboy had his head dipped, his cowboy hat pulled low. Between the dim lighting in the barn and the shadows from the rim of his hat, Trent couldn’t see the cowboy’s face. Covered in sweat and hay, Trent didn’t feel much like introducing himself yet. But he watched as the young man led the horse out of the barn. A few minutes later, he returned and entered the stall with the wheelbarrow, and soon had a pile of soiled straw loaded into it.

Trent resumed his work on the hay, keeping a watch on the new guy from the corner of his eye.

One stall after the other the young cowboy worked. When he completed the last stall and was pushing the last wheelbarrow load of soiled straw toward the door, Trent decided it was time to inspect the job and introduce himself.

“Wait up, there.” Trent tossed the bale he’d been carrying, dusted the straw off his gloves and crossed to the ranch hand. He glanced past the man’s shoulder into the cleaned stall and noted it was cleaner than he or Isaac usually got it. “Name’s Trent Jameson.” He held out his hand. “Nice work you’ve been doin’ there.”

For a moment the cowboy froze. Then gripped Trent’s hand with his own gloved one. “Thanks.” The cowboy refused to look up, keeping his chin tucked in, his head lowered.

Trent couldn’t look the man in the eye. He didn’t trust a man who wouldn’t look him directly in the eye. “You got a name?”

“Lucky.”

“Lucky.” Trent digested that. “Nickname?”

The ranch hand shook his head and tipped his hat lower over his head. “I better go dump this.” As he hurried around Trent, the wheel ran over Trent’s toe.

“Ow!” Trent yanked his foot back and teetered on one leg.

“Oh my gosh!” The cowboy’s hands flew in the air and the wheelbarrow dumped over, the contents rushing out, knocking Trent backward. He slammed into the freshly stacked hay bales and they swayed.

Trent glanced up, his breath hitching.

Crap.

“Oh no.” The young cowboy launched himself at the hay, tripped over the pile of dung and straw and, instead of catching the bales before they toppled, sprawled out on top of Trent.

The bales tipped and fell, one after the other, landing on or near them.

Several grunts sounded from the cowboy who took the bulk of the pummeling.

His hat flew off and long sandy-blonde hair tangled with the loose hay flying around the interior of the barn.

Trent blinked the hay and dust out of his eyes and stared up into pretty gray eyes, the color of storm clouds. “You!”

The woman he’d been dreaming about kissing planted her hands against his chest and tried to push herself off him.

“Yes, me.”

He opened his mouth to admit he thought he’d never see her again. Thinking better of it, he demanded, “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Working.” Jerking her leg out from under a heavy bale, she managed to roll off him and onto the ground. “What does it look like?” As agile as a cat, she shot to her feet.

“I can see that. But why?”

“Isaac hired me as the new ranch hand.”

“What?” Trent stood and stared at her.

“Is it so hard to believe a woman can be as effective and efficient at ranch work as a man?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“No, you didn’t have to.” She stood, brushing the hay from her jeans but missing the straws stuck in her hair. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get to work cleaning this up.”

“I didn’t say I agreed with Isaac’s decision to hire you.”

She planted her hands on her hips. “You gonna fire me?”

He glared at her. “I don’t know.”

“Well, until you say otherwise, I have work to do.”

Trent climbed over the bales to stand in front of her. “Like I said last night. You’re trouble.”

Something clouded her already stormy eyes. “Maybe, but I work hard and I know my way around a ranch.”

She grabbed a bale and threw it up onto the stack.

“I gathered that.” And she was beautiful with fire in her eyes and hay in her hair. Trent worked alongside her until they had all the hay stacked in neat rows. When they were done, he brushed straw off his body and grinned. She’d worked hefting as many bales as he had. So, she could lift bales.

Lucky flicked hay off her shoulders. “If we’re done here, there’s a fence on the northeast corner of the property I intend to fix.”

“You can’t do that.”

“Why not?” she asked.

“Because it’s a two-man—person—job.”

“I’ve strung fence with and without help. I can handle it.”

“Maybe so, but we use the buddy rule around here. Unless you’re working around the house or barn, you always take a buddy with you. That way if one or the other is hurt, you have someone there to help.”

She looked at him through slitted eyes. “You’re making that up.”

He held up two fingers. “Scout’s honor.”

Her eyes narrowed even more. “When were you ever a Scout?”

His lips twisted. “Okay, so I’ve never been a Scout. But we do use the buddy system. I’ll go with you.”

Her full, soft lips tightened. “How do you usually get there?”

“I take the four-wheeler. You can ride on the back.”

“Is that how you and your partner…er, brother ride out?”

“We usually take a couple of four-wheelers, but one of them is in the shop for repair.”

She hesitated then nodded. “Okay. Let’s go.”

Trent gathered the come-along, a roll of barbed wire, pliers, a hammer and a couple of metal fence posts and the heavy pounder used to drive them in.

Lucky took half of the supplies and carried them out into the open, then went back for the other half while Trent pulled the four-wheeler out of one of the storage areas in the barn.

Loading what she could in the box on the back, she settled the fence posts over the box and Trent strapped them down along with the pole pounder.

“I’ll get my hat and be ready to go.” Lucky disappeared into the barn.

Isaac joined Trent, carrying two water bottles. He settled them in the box with the tools. “I take it you’ve met our new ranch hand.”

Trent gave Isaac a withering look. “Yeah. You could have warned me.”

“She has the experience and know-how. And from the looks of it, the stamina.” Isaac’s lips twitched.

“Don’t go there.”