This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

ROYAL TROUBLE, Copyright © July, 2013
by Becky McGraw.
ISBN:
9781301146529

All rights reserved under International and Pan American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, 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 the author

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to my wonderful BETA readers: Christine, Lori, Patricia, Kim, Devon, Sandi and Kellie. You ladies are the best, and I appreciate your help and support. Thank you to my biggest supporter of all, my cheerleader, 'Rescue Rick', who always keeps my life interesting and fun. I love you, honey. And last but not least, thank you very much to the multi-talented Jeff Martin, badass med flight pilot and photographer, for the great new headshot.

CHAPTER ONE

Leigh Ann Baker was finished letting her mother run her life. For twenty-six years now, that is what she had done and look where she was because of it. Broke, jobless, useless and almost married to a decrepit old man who would put her on a shelf in his monstrous mansion, right beside his senior night bowling trophy. Because he was rich, just her mother's type. The man only wanted her because she was former Miss Texas. A status symbol for him. Something to pull off the shelf and pin to his arm occasionally to make him feel important.

Lester Fallon was number four in the line of old men she had been engaged to in the last four years. When she dumped Lester, which she was going to do very soon, if Leigh Ann didn't get away from Trudy Baker, her mother would just find another wrinkled old fart to marry her off to.

And Leigh Ann was such a pansy she would agree to it when her mother put the screws to her, reminded her of how much she had done for her. It was true that Trudy had given her a lot. A heck of a lot more than she had ever given Roxanne. Trudy Baker had spent almost every moment of her time, and most of the insurance money she got when Leigh Ann's daddy died, to groom Leigh Ann into her version of perfection. Sometimes, Leigh Ann felt like nothing more than a prize-winning show lamb, or a trained monkey.

That had resulted in Leigh Ann becoming Miss Texas, her mother's lifelong dream, but Leigh Ann had no idea who she was inside, where it counted. Her mother had always made her decisions for her. Leigh Ann had let her make them. No more.

Leigh Ann straightened her spine, shoring up the courage to confront her mother. Confrontation was something she hated. Leigh Ann would rather go with the flow than confront her mother. Or run to avoid conflict. She had done that for years. It was time for her to stand up for herself. Find her backbone, just like her sister Roxanne had been trying to tell her. "No, mama, I'm not marrying Lester Fallon."

"You
are
marrying him. You accepted his proposal, Leigh Ann, and I have gone to a lot of trouble and expense to make this happen. And so has Lester." Her mother folded her arms over her chest, her lips flattening into a thin firm line.

The egg-sized engagement ring on her left hand felt like an anchor. That anchor would turn into a ball and chain shackling her to Lester Fallon, if she didn't get the heck out of Dallas fast. Her wedding day was coming up fast, the countdown was down to months, and Leigh Ann was running out of time. The ceremony and reception were all planned by her mother, from the Waterford crystal water glasses on the table at the wedding reception, to the gaudy southern bell wedding dress with the forty-foot train she could barely drag with her when she walked.

Leigh Ann had no input whatsoever in any of it. Her mother was planning the dream wedding she never had with her daddy. Trudy Baker had gotten pregnant with her sister, and a Justice of the Peace wedding just wasn't good enough for her. So, now she was planning the wedding she never had and Leigh Ann was going to have to walk down the aisle to Lester Fallon and live it.

Leigh Ann's throat closed off and she massaged it trying to drag in a decent breath. Yesterday, Leigh Ann had a fitting and when she tried on that dress, it felt like it was choking her too. She had melt down right there in front of God and the seamstress, all but ripping the dress off of her body, before she ran out of the boutique.

Of course the yellow rose she found on the doorstep of the house when she left for the fitting could have something to do with her panic too. Redmond Jones was letting her know he knew where she was, and that he was watching her. She hadn't told anyone, not even her mother, because she well remembered how that had turned out for her last time. The authorities thought she was being a drama queen. At one point they even accused her of writing the note and sending the rose herself for publicity.

If they hadn't lifted her stalker's fingerprints from the card he left with the rose, and if those prints hadn't matched his when they arrested him for kidnapping another woman, she wouldn't have gotten the restraining order. This rose, the one she found yesterday, didn't have a card with it, but it definitely sent Leigh Ann a message. The man who had stalked her for a year before he went to prison had evidently gotten smarter, he was obviously out of prison early, and he knew where she was.

While she tangled up the sheets in her bed last night, thinking about the wedding and worrying about Redmond Jones, Leigh Ann made a decision for the first time in her life. She decided she wasn't going to be a bystander in her own life anymore, or a victim. She was leaving Dallas to take control of her life, but she didn't know how she would pull it off.

She had no job skills or degree. Leigh Ann had never had a real job before. Her mother had convinced her to quit college in her freshman year for her reign as Miss Texas.

The endorsements her mother had assured her would come from winning the state pageant never appeared. In the national pageant, she had only been a runner-up. All she was now was a washed up state pageant winner with no college education.

Being attractive helped her get a few modeling jobs in the last five years, but as she got older, those would come to an end too. The dew was definitely off of her rose now, and she was not under any misconception the modeling jobs would keep coming. Her mother knew that too. That probably explained her mission for the last four years...to marry her off to the highest bidder. Her mother didn't have any more confidence in her, than Leigh Ann had in herself. She didn't believe that Leigh Ann could make something of herself, without going to that extreme. In her mother's eyes she was worthless, without her beauty.

Leigh Ann realized now her mother was just bitter about her own choices in life, marrying Leigh Ann's daddy and living a modest farmer's life. She wanted better for Leigh Ann and thought that would come from marrying a rich man. Making a lifetime commitment to someone without love was just wrong. Her mother had done it, but Leigh Ann was not going to settle for less than love in her own life. She knew it existed, her sister Roxanne had found it with Ethan Cassidy. That gave her hope that she could find it for herself too. Leigh Ann was determined not to settle for less.

"I'm not marrying, Lester," Leigh Ann repeated then stuffed the last of her clothes into the suitcase on the bed. There was so much in the suitcase, she had to sit on the lid to close the snaps.

"The invitations and announcements have gone out, Leigh Ann," her mother reminded her. "You'll embarrass Lester, he's a very important man. He could ruin us all."

Leigh Ann was already ruined thanks to her mama. She was not going to add to that by becoming the possession of a man she didn't love.

"You marry him, mama. I'm leaving," Leigh Ann told her, as she jerked the heavy case off of the bed and dragged it to the door.

***

"Um, Annie?" Leigh Ann twisted her hands in the skirt of her floral print sundress nervously. Her sister, Roxanne stepped away from the tall, good looking cowboy she had been talking with to face her.

Roxanne's eyes narrowed as she asked, "What are you doing out here?" Her sister sure didn't look or sound happy to see her. Her sister's gray eyes moved over her from head to toe and her lip curled. Leigh Ann knew that she probably should have worn slacks or something out here to the barn, but this was the first thing she found.

She didn't own a pair jeans. She flinched when her mother's voice popped into her head.
Jeans are coarse and sloppy
. She wished she could exorcise her mother's useless advice from her mind. That would be a process though, not something that was likely to happen overnight. She'd only been trained by her for twenty-six years.

Leigh Ann's hand flew to her chest when both of the cowboys standing behind her sister shouted, "Holy
shit
!" Their mouths hung open, and Leigh Ann knew what was wrong with them from the way their tongues were hanging out.

Men always acted like that around her, and it made her uncomfortable. She wished just one time a man would give her an open and friendly smile, instead of leering. A normal conversation once in a while with a man would be refreshing. With him looking her in the eyes, while they talked. Leigh Ann had a brain in her head and could hold a conversation, as well as anyone. But around her men acted like their brains were south of the border. Like they couldn't string two words together. And she couldn't say a damned thing about it, because she had to pretend she didn't notice them raking her with their eyes.

Just ignore it, Leigh Ann, and be polite
.
Be nice
. That was polite, according to her mother.
Bless their hearts, they can't help it if they're dumbstruck by your beauty
. Southern manners were something else her mother had drilled into her since birth. Ignoring how she really felt, repressing what she really thought, in situations while keeping a smile on her face was too.

Leigh Ann gave the men a tight smile, then dragged her eyes back to her sister. "I just wanted to tell you I have all my stuff packed up, so we can haul it up to the big house."

She should probably have waited for Roxanne to come back to the bunkhouse, but it had been two hours. Earlier Roxanne had told her to get her stuff packed, because the men were coming back from the cattle drive today, and she couldn't stay there anymore. Terri Rhodes had agreed to allow her to stay at the big house
temporarily
. Her sister defined temporarily to her too. A couple of days is all she had to figure something else out. If Leigh Ann had to live in her car after that, she would be out of here.

Leigh Ann did not want to cause her sister more trouble.

The commotion she and their mother had caused at the last ranch where Rocky worked had been enough for a lifetime. Before they left, her sister had been fired, and she and her mother had been sent packing. It was totally embarrassing to all of them. Not something she ever wanted to repeat.

"Fine, let's go," Rocky said then grabbed her arm to haul her toward the barn door. Leigh Ann felt two pairs of eyes burning a hole in her back as they left.

Behind them, one of the men said, "Um, holler if you need any help,
Annie
...any help at all!"

"Get back to work, Dylan, I'll be back in a few minutes to help you," Roxanne shouted back, but didn't miss a beat as she dragged her toward the bunkhouse.

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