Connor: A Cowboy Stepbrother Romance Novel (4 page)

I blushed at the compliment. I felt like turning and kissing him right then. His seductive voice and beautiful blue eyes were enough to get me to do whatever he wanted. But I knew that wasn’t a possibility. He was Richard’s son. If anything happened beyond friendship, it could only lead to trouble.

I have to remind myself that I’m here for Mom, not for me,
I thought.

So I placed my hand on Connor’s arm and gently pushed him away.

“I’m sorry, but we shouldn’t,” I said. “Our parents are dating and well...anything between us would likely end up being awkward. I don’t want to do anything that could hurt our parent’s relationship.”

A disappointed look crossed Connor’s face. I assumed that I must have been the first girl in history to turn him down. But it’s not like I wanted to. I had to.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” he said, slowly.

He then pulled his hand away from my back, placing it on his knee. I watched as he turned to face the lake.

“You know, it’s kind of strange how things work out sometimes,” he said. “I know that I hardly know you, but I’ll be damned if I don’t feel attracted to you. It’s too bad that I couldn’t have met you a different way, though. Maybe then you and I could have explored this attraction.”

My face continued to blush as he spoke. He was so direct and unashamed of his feelings.

“But I guess you’re right,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to do anything to screw up my dad and Mary’s relationship. I’ve never seen him this happy before.”

As he spoke, I suddenly wished I hadn’t said anything. Here was the most amazing guy. He was a sweet, gorgeous and muscular cowboy. What more could a young girl want? And I shot him down.

At least I denied him for good reason, though...
I thought.
I can’t imagine what my mom would have thought if she had known that I kissed Richard’s son...or worse...if I ended up sleeping with him.

“Well,” Connor said, as he slowly stood. “What do you say we go back to the house and see what my dad has made for supper?”

“That sounds really good,” I responded.

I then stood up and began walking next to him. We only made it a few steps, though, before I grabbed his arm and stopped him in his tracks.

“Wait, Connor,” I said. “I don’t want you to think that I’m not attracted to you. Because I am. Which is crazy for me to say because we’ve only been talking for less than an hour, but I can feel it. I just want you to know that the only reason I’m hesitant to be more than just friends, is because of the situation with our parents. It has absolutely nothing to do with you.”

Connor smiled, flashing his bright white teeth. Once again, I began to melt.

“Of course, darlin’,” he said, as he reached his hand out and grabbed mine. “We can be friends. Do you mind if I hold your hand, though? It would just feel weird for me if I didn’t.”

I shrugged and squeezed his hand as he led me out of the wooded area near the lake and back onto the dusty trail that led to his home.

“Just make sure our parents don’t see,” I said.

Connor chuckled as we walked. The sun was setting behind us and it was quickly getting dark. Normally, I would have been freaked out if I had been walking in the middle of nowhere with the sun going down. But somehow, with Connor’s hand in mine, I felt completely safe.

––––––––

W
hen I woke up the next morning, I was nestled in the guest bed, wrapped up comfortably in a down blanket. The morning sun came in through the window, covering my face and slowly pulling me out of my sleep. I breathed in deep and reached my hands above my head, letting out a yawn.

After a moment, I slowly opened my eyes.

What time is it?

I glanced over to the clock on the wall. It was only eight in the morning, but for some reason it felt a lot later. I guess it was because I had actually slept. The farm was so quiet at night. There were no cars, gunshots, people yelling or any of the noises that reminded me of being in the city. 

Connor had walked me back home the night before and we had a quick dinner with our parents. After that, he showed me to the guest room, where I immediately crawled in bed and went to sleep.

"Wow, I don’t remember the last time that I slept that well," I said, as I sat up in the bed, letting the sheets fall off of me. 

Outside of the bedroom door, I could hear some commotion coming from the kitchen. My mom and Richard were talking over the sound of bacon cooking in the frying pan. A smile crossed my face as I slowly stood up, stretching once again. 

A good, old-fashioned breakfast! That sounds amazing!

I walked over to the mirror that was hung above the dresser in the corner of the room. I reached up and pulled my dark hair into a ponytail. Then I stepped over to the small bathroom at the opposite end of the room and brushed my teeth. I was still wearing my pajamas, which consisted of sweat pants and a t-shirt, but I didn't think anybody would mind if I wore that to family breakfast. 

After wiping the sleep from my eyes, I turned and began walking toward the bedroom door to go out and catch up with every one. But before I could even put my hand on the handle, someone knocked on the opposite side.

"Honey, are you awake?" 

It was my mother. I chuckled as I opened the door. She was standing there in the doorway with an unusually large smile on her face. Her eyes were lit up and she looked happier than I had ever seen her. Of course, I just immediately assumed that she must have gotten laid the night before. 

"Yeah, I just got up, Mom," I said. "I can't believe how well I slept here. It's so quiet." 

My mom stepped into the room and closed the door behind her. I cocked my head to the side, giving her a funny look. 

"Is everything okay?" I asked

She nodded eagerly and her smiled seemed to grow. 

"Everything is incredible, Emily!" she squealed. 

She grabbed my hands and jumped up and down a few times as she let out her excited energy. 

"Richard is amazing!" she continued. 

Her excitement was contagious and I found myself smiling along with her. 

"I'm so happy for you, Mom," I said. "I'm glad things are working out with him so far." 

My mom let out a contented sigh and then led me over to the bed. She sat down on the edge of the bed and then motioned me to sit next to her. 

"I have some really crazy news that I need to share with you," she said. 

"What is it, Mom?"

She paused for a second, her eyes locked with mine. 

"Emily..." she said. "Richard proposed to me last night." 

There was no way that I had heard her correctly. 

"What?" I asked. “Did you just say what I think you said?”

My mom nodded. 

"He proposed, honey," she said, with her smile as wide as I had ever seen it. 

Oh, my God...

My eyes widened and my lips parted from shock. I stayed silent for a few seconds, just letting her words absorb into my mind. 

Richard proposed? But they just met each other! 

"Mom..." I said, hesitantly. "Are you serious?" 

She shrugged and then responded, "Yes, honey. That's not something that I would joke around about." 

If she hadn't looked so happy, I probably would have tried to talk some sense to her. But Jesus, I hadn't seen her that joyous in my whole life. How could I take that away from her? 

"Richard proposed..." I said, slowly shaking my head in shock. "And what did you say?" 

Mom held her left hand up, showing off her new diamond ring. 

"I said yes," she responded, matter-of-factly. 

I didn't even really know how to respond. I was floored. I mean I knew that my mom was sometimes a rash person, but not usually with something as big as marriage. But again, it wasn't my place to try to bring her down. 

"Wow..." I said. "I'm just...wow. Sorry, to sound so surprised. I guess you just took me off guard. This is some pretty big news to hear right when you first wake up in the morning." 

My mom placed her hand on my knee. 

"I know it's sudden, honey," she said. "But Richard and I talked all night last night after dinner. Everything was perfect and we just click so well. We were getting ready for bed, when he told me that he had something he wanted to show me. We walked a little ways away from the house and looked up at the sky, where we could see every single star. The next thing I knew, he was on his knee and proposing to me. I hadn't cried tears of joy like that ever before. Not even when I first married your dad." 

When she spoke, I couldn't help but to smile. She really did seem genuinely happy. 

"Listen, Mom, I really don't want to rain on your parade, but I just want to make sure that you've thought this through..." I said. 

I told myself that I wouldn't bring her down, but I just wanted to make sure that she understood the magnitude of what she had agreed to with Richard.

"Honey, I've never been so sure of anything in my life," she said. "You know, sometimes it's as much of a risk
not
to do something, as it is to do it.”

Her words somehow resonated with me. I stayed silent as she continued. 

"It's important that we follow our hearts, Emily," she said. "And my heart led me to Richard. I know that it's the right thing, because my heart knows that it's right. Remember that, honey." 

Then she slowly stood up from the bed and began walking toward the door. When she got to the entrance, she turned back around to face me. 

"Breakfast will be ready any minute," she said. "Come join us when you're ready! I hope that you're as excited as I am to spend the morning with our new family!" 

As soon as she finished speaking, she turned back around and disappeared down the hall. 

Our new family? I guess I hadn’t thought of it like that...

It wasn’t that I was against her getting married to Richard. But to suddenly say that Richard and Connor were our family? That felt weird to me. I mean we had just met the two men not more than twenty-four hours prior and now I was supposed to think of Richard as my father and Connor as...my stepbrother?

––––––––

T
he rest of the day went pretty normally. I mean as normal as could be considering my mother had just agreed to marry a man whom she hardly knew.

But both she and Richard were on cloud nine. They had smiles on their faces and spent most of the morning dancing around the house in a state of glee.

I hadn’t seen Connor at all that morning and it got to be around noon before I finally just went ahead and asked about him.

“Hey, Richard, where’s Connor?” I asked. “I haven’t seen him at all today.”

Richard chuckled as he responded.

“Oh, well, that’s something you’re going to have to get used to about him,” he explained. “That boy takes his work very seriously. He gets up at four in the morning and starts doing chores around the farm. Then he lifts weights, goes for a run and takes care of the horses. And that’s all before noon.”

“Wow,” I said. “Seriously?”

Richard nodded. “Yeah, I guess I taught him a good work ethic. Maybe
too
good.”

I smiled and then walked toward the front door of the house.

“I’m going to go find him and see what he’s up to,” I said, as I pushed open the screen door and stepped out onto the front porch.

I was excited to get out of the house so that Richard and Mom could have some privacy. I glanced around the farm, looking for Connor as I stepped off of the porch and onto the dirt driveway. Immediately, I heard the sound of metal banging on metal. The noise was coming from the barn.

“What in the heck is that noise?” I said, out loud.

I then started walking that direction. The noise got louder and as soon as I turned the corner, I saw Connor standing in the barn. He was in front of an iron anvil, banging a red hot, metal horseshoe with a large blacksmith’s hammer.

He didn’t notice me as I stepped closer, so I just stood there and watched for a moment. He was wearing a red flannel shirt and the sleeves were rolled up, revealing his muscular arms, which flexed as he hit the horseshoe. A light layer of sweat covered his skin, causing it to shine in the sunlight.

Connor hit the horseshoe a few more times and then picked it up with a pair of pliers. He then immediately dropped it into a bucket of water, which caused a loud sizzling noise and a burst of steam to shoot upward into the air. He then reached into the water and pulled out the horseshoe. Then he lifted it in the air, admiring his work.

“It looks like you’ve done that before,” I said, finally making my presence known.

Connor turned around, looking a bit shocked.

“Damn, Emily,” he said. “You scared me. I didn’t know you were standing there.”

I giggled and then stepped closer to him.

“Sorry,” I said. “I was just watching you do your thing.”

Connor smiled and then motioned me to come closer.

“Come here,” he said. “I’ll show you what I’m doing.”

I walked into the barn, following Connor to one of the horses.

“This one’s Willy,” he said. “The other one is Nelson. I’m sure my dad told you that, though. He thinks it’s the funniest thing ever.”

I laughed and nodded, watching as Connor knelt down next to Willy, grabbing his front hoof and lifting it slightly off of the ground.

“Sometimes, their shoes get all messed up and bent,” he said. “And you have to take them off and re-form them before you nail them back on. A horse can get hurt pretty easily if its shoes aren’t fitting correctly.”

I knelt down next to Connor, watching as he put the horseshoe back onto Willy’s hoof. He then attached it with some tiny nails, hammering them in one-by-one with a small hammer. Within a couple of minutes, he was done.

“And there you go,” he said. “Good as new.”

Connor stood up from the ground and dusted his knees off. I noticed that the top few buttons of his shirt were undone, revealing his muscular chest.

God, he’s gorgeous...

After a moment, I broke my gaze from his incredible body and looked into his eyes once again.