Love Under Two Cowboys (37 page)

“Welcome to the families.” The young woman hugged her and then she looked at Brian and Chase. “I think this makes your entire family, going down in wedded bliss.” She softened her statement with a smile and then hugged each of the men.

“Not quite. You’ve forgotten about Greg,” Chase said.

“Not quite, but I’m working on it.”

“Did we also mention that Becky and Greg have always gotten along like oil and vinegar?” Brian asked.

“More like two spitting cats.” David Jessop gave Carrie a hug. She hugged him back, but as always, found her eye drawn to the gorgeous choker necklace that Jillian wore. The woman was never without that piece of jewelry, and Carrie wondered if she was looking at a rhinestone necklace, or if it was real diamonds and platinum she stared at.

Robert gathered her into his arms and kissed her cheek. “Congratulations—although I have heard that it’s the men who should be congratulated for having won such a lovely woman.” Then he met her gaze and his grin sobered slightly. “You like Jillian’s collar. Maybe your cowboys will get you one of your own.”

Brian and Chase both coughed at the same time. Carrie wasn’t stupid. She understood they were trying to disguise their laughter. Her mind focused on what Robert had just said along with all the other little tidbits her men had let slip.

She knew her eyes widened when comprehension dawned. Then, because neither of the cowboys had come to her aid, she shot them each a teasing glance. To Robert she said, “Maybe.”

So many of the people who dropped in to offer their best wishes were familiar to Carrie now. It occurred to her that she’d slipped into the rhythm of life here without even really trying. She’d found her place when she hadn’t truly known she’d been looking for one.

Her glance landed on the sidewalk where the Alvarez-Kendalls, along with Julián Alvarez, made their way toward the restaurant.

There’s a man who hasn’t found his place, yet.

Carrie knew that Julián would likely be a regular visitor to Lusty. It warmed her heart to think of the way he had reached out to his brother, and that the two men together had mended their relationship.

But like her cowboys, she didn’t think Lusty was his place, either.

She was very careful when she hugged him, even though there was plenty of strength in his one-armed embrace. His right arm was no longer in a sling, but it had only been a couple of days since he’d been wounded. Sling or no, she figured it probably still hurt like hell.

Her men were equally careful, not issuing the usual punishing back slaps that men seemed to love.

Carrie hugged Peter, and Jordan, too. Tracy was in the kitchen doing most of the prep work. Emily was giving her a hand and showed a real talent for being a sous-chef.

“Welcome to the family,” Jordan said. He cast his eye around the dining room. It was already full to capacity. Some folks were heading out and others had yet to make an appearance. “Maybe we’ll see if Kelsey wants to expand. There’s certainly room, since the bookstore next door is going to close next month.”

“Maybe you could expand and join them together into one business,” Carrie said.

“That’s certainly something to think about,” Jordan said.

As Jordan congratulated Chase, Carrie turned her attention back on Julián. “I understand you’ve been on the receiving end of some pretty serious teasing the last couple of days.”

Julián grinned. “They zing Peter at the same time they take aim at me. It’s kind of funny, actually.”

“I think it’s totally unfair that no one noticed that this time
I
did
not
get shot,” Peter said.

The showdown the two men had been a part of along with Adam and the state police a couple of days before had been a sudden and very intense situation.

Peter and Julián had been in the sheriff’s office when the call had come in from Hank Stinson asking for assistance.

The entire situation certainly could have ended a lot differently if fate hadn’t decided to smile on them all. Still, Carrie would be willing to bet that some of the people involved would be having nightmares for weeks if not months to come.

“We noticed,” Steven Benedict called from one of the tables by the windows. “Using your brother as a bullet magnet.” The rancher shook his head, his look mournful. “I don’t know what I think about that, Mister Alvarez-Kendall.”

Peter laughed. “You’re just jealous, Mister Benedict, that you didn’t jump off your horse fast enough last year when the metal was flying
your
way.”

“Boys will be boys, won’t they, dear?”

Carrie laughed in response to that softly spoken truism. Peter spun on his heel to grin at the diminutive nonagenarian who arrived and stood behind him.

“Kate! I didn’t see you there.” Peter easily enveloped Kate Benedict in a hug. Carrie could tell he leashed his strength when he gathered her into his arms.

Unlike Brian who fairly lifted the woman clean off her feet.

Grandma Kate giggled like a schoolgirl. Carrie knew from experience that Kate Benedict gave good, strong hugs herself.

She’d come to cherish them as much as she did the ones from Abigail.

Kate had her attention fixed on Julián. “Julián, how much longer until you leave us?”

Julián whipped his hat off and gave Kate a slight nod of deference. “I’ll be heading out in another week or so, ma’am.”

“None of that ma’am stuff, young man. It’s Grandma Kate to you. We’ll miss you.”

Julián’s smile filled his eyes. “Thank you, Grandma Kate. I’m honored. I’m not going far, though. There’s a ranch just getting back on its feet in Divine, run by the Cooks. I’ll be lending them a hand for a time.” Then he looked at Peter, and then her and the cowboys. “I’ll be back to visit. I have family and friends here.”

“Divine is a fine city,” Kate said. “It’s more than just a place on the map to me. My husbands and I sometimes visited the Warner ranch, years ago.” Kate smiled. “I did very much enjoy visiting with Rose Marie Warner, Joe’s late wife. I recall their son, Jack, and his best friends—I think they were family, of a sort—Adam and Ethan. Full of energy and a sense of adventure, the three of them were. One time in particular I recall when we were there, Joe Warner had enlisted the aid of a young man, very gifted with horses. His name, I believe, was Eleazar. That day, he had his two young sons with him.”

“So you met them all—even Angel and Joaquin?”

“They won’t remember me, of course. I was already an old woman at the time.”

“I don’t see how that could be, Grandma Kate, as you’re certainly not old now.”

Kate smiled. “You’re as smooth a talker as your brother.”

Julián grinned. “Thank you. Our
abuela
taught us to treasure our elders.”

“She taught you well.”

Julián held his hand out to Chase, and then Brian. “I’ll still be here when Ricoh Gervais arrives day after tomorrow. I think he’ll be a good fit. He knows a bit more about horses than I do.”

“And we’re certainly grateful to you for sending him our way, and for staying beyond the two months you promised us,” Chase said.

“Seemed the least I could do. And, hey, it’s only a couple of hours from Divine to Lusty. I’m only a phone call away if you need me.”

“We’ll get together now and then, regardless,” Brian said. “We both really do appreciate that you gave us nearly twice as long as you committed to. And you’ll be back for our Commitment Ceremony, right?”

Julián nodded. “I wouldn’t miss it.”

Just then Henry Kendall came out of the kitchen pulling a wagon that he’d set one of the kitchen stools on. He came up to Julián and said, “Don’t worry, Julián, I’ve rigged this up so you can just sit down and relax. Don’t exert yourself. I’ll be happy to pull you along to wherever you want to go.”

Julián burst out laughing. “Kendall, I wouldn’t trust you not to dump me somewhere, and I’d end up breaking my fool neck.”

Grandma Kate patted his arm. “That’s right, dear, it would be a fool’s neck if you trusted the man.”

“Oh, hi, Kate. I didn’t see you there.” Henry looked pretty embarrassed by that fact, too.

Kate Benedict laughed. “They always say that to me,” Kate said. Her eyes twinkled with merriment. “I may be small, but I’m mighty.”

“No one would dispute that, Grandmother,” Chase said.

“I’m going to have to work harder and faster. You three got together before I could even come up with a plan to match you up.”

Ginny’s men came in just then, and Chloe was with them. Carrie was grateful to Lusty’s sheriff for the way he’d been looking out for her sister over the last couple of weeks. There’d been interviews with the state police, of course.

They’d pretty much told Chloe what Adam had. No one could blame her for wanting to be prepared against the possibility that George Lockwood would one day come for her sister. Chloe’s shooting of her assailant had been ruled righteous by the district attorney, and that was the end of the matter, as far as the State of Texas was concerned.

Carrie knew it would take her sister a bit longer to bounce back.

“Oh, Chloe, there you are!” Kate Benedict looked genuinely pleased to see her. “Samantha Kendall and I were talking today and we’re getting so excited about our day spa.”

Kate took Chloe by the hand and began to lead her toward the large table in the rear where Samantha and Tamara Kendall, along with Pamela, Anna, and Heather Jessop seemed to be in conference.

Andrew Jessop got to his feet and took a few steps toward Chloe.

“Now, Andrew, you just sit yourself down there. Chloe wants to come and sit with me. Don’t you, dear?”

Carrie tried not to laugh. Andrew looked stymied, Grant looked curious, and the rest of the Benedict, Kendall, and Jessop cousins just looked confused.

“I thought you told me Kate’s been playing her hand at matchmaking?” Rebecca’s question, just above a whisper, clearly reached Carrie and her men.

“Yeah, what’s with that?” Brian asked. “I was pretty certain she was, too.”

Carrie giggled as she kissed each of her men. “I think your grandmother is a very wise, and a very sneaky kind of matchmaker. And I think Chloe is going to use her to avoid those two firefighters, until Kate decides she’s healed enough to take them on.”

Chase looked from her to his grandmother. Just at that moment, Kate slid a very sly and surreptitious glance toward Andrew and Grant Jessop.

“Why that’s positively Machiavellian,” Chase said.

“It is,” Brian agreed. “And I think she’s going to make those two suffer, too.”

Carrie grinned. “I love it. I love
her
. I hope I grow up to be just like her.”

“Well now, sugar, I think that’s a fine ambition to have.”

Carrie watched as the town’s matriarch slid a delicate arm around her sister’s waist and leaned in close. She saw the way Chloe seemed to relax into Kate Benedict’s embrace, and the way she began to respond, shyly at first, and then with increasing animation, as the other ladies of Lusty—formidable women all, in their own right—showed her what family felt like.

“Yes.” Carrie leaned her head on one fiancé’s shoulder and slid her arm around the waist of the other one as she watched love in action. “I think it’s a fine ambition to have, too.”

Morgan Ashbury writing as Cara Covington

Morgan has been a writer since she was first able to pick up a pen. In the beginning it was a hobby, a way to create a world of her own, and who could resist the allure of that? Then as she grew and matured, life got in the way, as life often does. She got married and had three children, and worked in the field of accounting, for that was the practical thing to do and the children did need to be fed. And all the time she was being practical, she would squirrel herself away on quiet Sunday afternoons, and write.

Most children are raised knowing the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule. Morgan’s children also learned the Paper Rule: Thou shalt not throw out any paper that has thy mother’s words upon it.

Believing in tradition, Morgan ensured that her children’s children learned this rule, too.

Life threw Morgan a curve when, in 2002, she underwent emergency triple bypass surgery. Second chances are to be cherished, and with the encouragement and support of her husband, Morgan decided to use hers to do what she’d always dreamed of doing: writing full-time.

Morgan has always loved writing romance. It is the one genre that can incorporate every other genre within its pulsating heart. Romance showcases all that humankind can aspire to be. And, she admits, she’s a sucker for a happy ending.

Morgan’s favorite hobbies are reading, cooking, and traveling—though she would rather you didn’t mention that last one to her husband. She has too much fun teasing him about having become a “Traveling Fool” of late.

Morgan lives in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, with a mysterious cat, a dog that has no dignity, and her husband of forty years, David.

For all titles by Cara Covington, please visit