Harlequin American Romance May 2014 Bundle: One Night in Texas\The Cowboy's Destiny\A Baby for the Doctor\The Bull Rider's Family (19 page)

A barrel-chested man who wore his long gray hair in a ponytail eyed Buck suspiciously before speaking to Destiny. “I thought you were marrying Daryl? Where’d you find this guy?”

“He’s a whole lot better-looking than Daryl.” A skinny man with gray sideburns and a receding hairline patted his chest beneath his cobalt-blue silk shirt.

“This is...” Destiny sent Buck a blank look.

Holy cow.
She’d forgotten his name—that had never happened to him before. Not only was his moniker memorable, but most ladies thought his face was, too. “Buck Owens Cash.”

“Buck Owens? Why Buck is one of my favorite country-and-western singers.” A blonde lady wearing a strapless rhinestone dress that pushed her wrinkled bosom up to her chin batted her eyelashes.

“Heel, Sonja.”

“Go soak your head in a bucket, Ralph,” Sonja said.

“Whoever thought to name their kid Buck Owens Cash must have been a dimwit.” A man closer in age to Buck moved to the front of the group. Dressed in a gray suit and red tie, he assessed Buck. “Is Cash your real surname or one you made up to go with your Vegas stage name?”

Stage name?
“All three names are for real, and I doubt my deceased mother would appreciate you calling her a dimwit,” Buck said.

“Knock it off, Mark. Buck’s pickup broke down near the chapel and I gave him a lift into town,” Destiny explained.

“You look very...hot.” Sonja handed him a bottled water.

“Thank you, ma’am.” Buck guzzled the drink.

“Where’s Daryl?”

“What happened?”

“How come you’re late?”

Questions were fired at Destiny from all directions, and she raised her hands in surrender. “Daryl was a no-show.”

An elderly man with grizzled cheeks dressed in polyester slacks and a plaid dress shirt appeared at Destiny’s side. He tapped his finger against what appeared to be a toy sheriff’s badge pinned to his shirt. “Want me to bring him in?”

Was this guy for real?

“Thank you for your concern, everyone, but I’d rather Daryl have changed his mind about marrying me now than after we tied the knot.”

The redhead didn’t act the least bit heartbroken, which Buck found hard to accept. Then again a woman who sported a lizard tattoo and biceps muscles was probably as tough on the inside as she appeared on the outside.

“Violet.” Destiny removed her veil and handed it to a lady with blue hair. “I’m sorry I wasn’t able to break the curse.”

What curse?

“Never mind, dear,” Violet said. “I shouldn’t have loaned it out. I probably passed my bad luck on to you.”

“Good Lord, Violet.” A woman standing by the piano spoke. “That wedding veil has made a dozen trips down the aisle and not one of those marriages lasted more than a few years.”

“Eleven, and none of the divorces were my fault.” Violet winked at Buck. “Can’t help it if I’m attracted to bad boys.”

Buck felt his face heat up.

Destiny came to his rescue. “No need to let all this food and drink go to waste.”

“We never celebrated Destiny’s mayoral win,” the sheriff said. “We should turn this into a victory party.”

The biker chick was the mayor of Lizard Gulch?

“Three cheers for Destiny!”

Hoots and hollers echoed through the bar then folks crowded the buffet table, loading their Chinet plates with every kind of casserole known to mankind.

Someone pushed him toward the food line. “Go eat.”

He did as he was told, then stood in the corner and watched Destiny make the rounds, chatting with her constituents and listening to their complaints and concerns as if she really cared.

“Is this your first time in Lizard Gulch?” Mr. Suit-and-Tie held out his hand. “Mark Mitchell.”

After he shook Mitchell’s hand, Buck said, “Until a few minutes ago I wasn’t aware the town existed.”

“Lizard Gulch used to be a lively place in its day.”

“And when was that?”
A century ago?

“Five decades of prosperity before the Interstate took all the traffic north of the town. Lizard Gulch was a popular overnight stop on the old Route 66.” He pointed to a lady a few feet away, whose shoulder-length black bob looked like a wig. “Melba’s parents ran the Flamingo Resort. Travelers stopped here on their way to California, because the motel had an outdoor pool and slide for kids.” Mitchell wiped his brow with a napkin. “Once they finished construction of the Interstate, people drove straight through to California.”

“I’m surprised the town wasn’t abandoned.” How did anyone make a living? Then again, the average age in the saloon had to be sixtysomething. Maybe they were all retired.

“The town sat vacant for years. When Melba’s husband died, she quit her job as a bank teller in Kingman, then took his insurance money and renovated the Flamingo. Turned the parking lot into a mobile home park and invited friends to visit. Her friends told their friends and before you knew it the place filled up with old farts.”

Buck eyed the bride. Why would a young woman want to live with all these gray heads? “How long has Destiny lived here?”

“About a year.”

“Stop hogging the newcomer.” The guy wearing the disco shirt slipped his arm through Buck’s and squeezed his biceps. “We haven’t had a cowboy as handsome as you come through town in...
forever.
”

“Enrick’s one of those homosexuals, but you probably already figured that out,” Mitchell said.

Buck choked on a swallow of water.

“It’s called being gay, Mark.” Enrick motioned to the big man with the ponytail. “Frank’s my partner. We met at a pastry competition in Phoenix and it was love at first sight.”

Buck barely heard Enrick drone on about his partner—Destiny had caught his attention. She’d taken the pins out of her hair and long fiery locks cascaded down the back of her white leather vest. She was nothing like the women he normally dated. Maybe that weekend rodeo in Flagstaff wasn’t so important after all.

“Where are you from?” Mitchell asked.

“Stagecoach. Small town southeast of Yuma.”

Enrick leaned in and sniffed Buck’s neck. “You smell good. What cologne are you wearing?”

Buck inched sideways, inserting an extra foot of space between himself and lover boy. “I can’t remember.”

“I’ve never cheated on Frank—” Enrick sighed dramatically “—but right now I really wish I was single.”

Frank made his way through the crowd toward Enrick and Buck. “Quit pestering the guest,” he said as he turned Enrick toward the buffet table. “Go eat. You’re too skinny.”

“I just love how you worry about me.” Enrich stood on tiptoe and kissed Frank’s cheek then was off to join a group of gossiping women.

“Sorry about that,” Frank said. “He comes on a bit strong.”

No kidding.

“You’re not gay, but watch yourself with Enrick. He has a way of making a man think twice about his sexuality.” Frank walked off, leaving Buck shaking his head not knowing what to think.

The sheriff wheeled a cart carrying a wedding cake across the floor and everyone oohed and ahhed over the green frosting lizards crawling up the white monstrosity. A plastic bride and groom riding a motorcycle sat on the top tier.

“This is beautiful, Frank.” Destiny hugged the pastry chef.

“The lizards were my idea.” Enrick beamed.

Frank wielded the knife. “Who wants a piece?”

After all the guests were served, Destiny brought Buck a slice. “Wild bunch, aren’t they?” She smiled fondly at the group.

He kept his opinion to himself and sampled the cake. “Hey, this is good.” When he finished the dessert, he asked, “Is the town mechanic here?”

“No.”

“I’d better head to the garage and talk to him about my truck. Thanks again for the lift.” Buck handed Destiny his empty cake plate then left the bar. As he walked down the middle of the street he noticed a cemetery tucked behind the miniature golf course. Three marked graves occupied the plot. A sign on the gate read Ghost Tours Daily at Dusk.

A shiver racked his body when he stopped and looked back at the saloon. The people in there hadn’t been ghosts, had they? Shaking his head, he continued to the garage, wondering if he’d just landed in
The Twilight Zone.

Copyright © 2014 by Brenda Smith-Beagley

ISBN-13: 9781460331897

ONE NIGHT IN TEXAS

Copyright © 2014 by Linda Warren

All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical,
now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and in other countries.

www.Harlequin.com

IT WAS FATE…

Destiny Saunders is tough, but being left at the altar makes even the toughest gals do some strange things. When she stumbles upon a stranded cowboy—Buck Owens Cash, the best thing to arrive in Lizard Gulch, Arizona, in a long time—she arranges things so they can have a little fun before he rides off into the sunset. The sexy, shapely auto mechanic is just one surprise after another, so Buck plays along to see what will happen.

What happens is love…the kind that makes a man want to prove himself. Then Buck discovers Destiny’s secret—one that will tie her to another man for the rest of her life. Betrayed, he returns to the rodeo circuit determined to forget Destiny…but fate has other plans!

“Buck, there’s something I need to tell you.”

The despondent tone in Destiny’s voice sent up a warning flag in Buck’s head. Was she ready to come clean about the broken axle? Well, he wasn’t ready to hear her confession—not after their kiss in the desert. “Go upstairs and rest. We’ll talk later.”

“But—”

He pressed his finger to her lips and swore he saw a spark in her blue eyes. There was definitely something happening between them, whether either of them were ready to admit it or not. She gave in and climbed the fire escape to the apartment above the garage. At the door she glanced over her shoulder, and the longing in her gaze stole the air from his lungs. Then she disappeared from view.

Buck had never been with a girl like Destiny—she was everything he’d never wanted in a woman—or so he’d thought anyway. There was no denying the Harley princess made his motor race. He wanted—no,
needed
—to take a walk on the wild side with her.

And let the chips fall where they may.

Dear Reader,

Welcome back to The Cash Brothers series! You’ve watched Johnny Cash fall in love with the girl next door, Conway Twitty Cash fall in love with his best friend and Willie Nelson Cash fall back in love with the girl he got pregnant in high school. Now it’s time for Buck Owens Cash to find his lady love.

After Buck has a falling-out with his brother Will, he hits the rodeo circuit. But he doesn’t get far because his truck breaks down. Buck finds himself at the mercy of a redheaded mechanic who rides a Harley and an old Route 66 town full of eccentric retirees. When their whirlwind ride on her Harley comes to a stop, Buck will never look at life the same way. And isn’t that what love is all about? Seeing life in a new light—a light that leads down the road to happy ever after.

If you missed reading previous Cash Brothers books,
The Cowboy Next Door
(July 2013),
Twins Under the Christmas Tree
(October 2013) and
Her Secret Cowboy
(February 2014) are still available through online retailers. To find out more about my books and where I hang out on social media, please visit
www.marinthomas.com
.

And if you enjoyed this book I’d very much appreciate your help in spreading the word about The Cash Brothers series. The best way to do that is by leaving a short online book review at Goodreads, Amazon or Barnes and Noble, or by recommending this book to a friend or family member. Thank you for your support and help in building my readership one reader at a time!

Happy Ever After…The Cowboy Way

Marin

THE COWBOY’S DESTINY

Marin Thomas