Fortune's June Bride (Mills & Boon Cherish) (The Fortunes of Texas: Cowboy Country, Book 6) (17 page)

“Here.” Cabot handed him the prop deed and for what felt like the millionth time, Galen tucked it inside his shirt while the theme music started playing.

Ahead of him he watched Aurora tip her head back in those few seconds before the buckboard would hurtle past the gate, and waited with a knot inside his chest where his heart was supposed to be for her to glance back at him.

She didn’t.

And a moment later, her passionate voice carried through the park. “My daddy will roll over in his grave if the railroad comes through our land!”

Beside him, Cabot and the others were heading through their gate. It was a good thing Blaze knew his part well, too, because if it weren’t for the horse, Galen would have been left behind.

He got through the next ten minutes by rote. Couldn’t have remembered a single thing he did or said until he rode, hell-bent for leather, up Main Street toward the stage and Aurora, whom he could see struggling mightily against Frank’s grip. He heard the
crack!
of Frank’s pistol and Harlan’s Preacher Man’s nervous words. “Take Lila to be your wife.”

“I do,” Frank yelled, pulling Aurora closer than the script had ever called for. She bent almost backward trying to get away, her long red curls nearly sweeping the floor of the stage as Galen jumped from Blaze’s back to storm up the stage and tear her away.

“She’ll never be yours, Frank. Not ever!” He clean forgot about the deed inside his shirt that he was supposed to wave at the man. Forgot everything except the fact that Aurora was going to go off to Branson with the other man. And if she didn’t go to Branson, she’d be going somewhere else. Somewhere else without
him
.

Sal the Sheriff suddenly charged up the stage, ably covering Galen’s gaffe as he dramatically announced that Rusty held the deed to the contested ranch; he’d seen it with his own eyes!

Galen was close enough to see the surprise in Frank’s eyes, but he rolled with the situation and pulled Aurora back to his side with a proprietary leer, lifting her right off her feet. Her legs swung around, kicking in the air. “Wife or not, Lila’s mine,” he vowed and turned the fake pistol on Galen. “
I’ll
be the one kissing her,” he goaded with a truthfulness that had Galen seeing red.

Aurora had always dismissed the man, but Galen knew better. Knew that Frank wanted her. And once he got her away from Galen, maybe he’d even get her.

“That’s right, cowboy,” Frank was continuing. “
I’ll
be the one—”

Galen’s fist plowed into Frank’s chin, and the other man’s head snapped back, his eyes rolling.

Aurora yelped as Frank started to fall backward off the stage, taking her with him, until Galen managed to grab her from behind, hauling her back from midair by her wedding dress, which let out an audible rip while the audience stomped their feet and cheered.

Sal the Sheriff and his deputies were scrambling around, trying to cover the fact that Frank wasn’t acting as he groggily landed in the center of the in-ground airbag well-disguised below the pile of horse poop.

Aurora’s eyes stared into Galen’s, looking shocked.

Suddenly, you could have heard a pin drop.

“I didn’t think you’d catch me,” she whispered.

“I’ll always catch you.” He didn’t care that there were at least a hundred people below the stage hanging on every word. Didn’t care about a damn thing but Aurora. “I don’t want to lose you.”

She blinked hard against the tears turning her blue eyes to sapphire and pressed her hands hard against her breast.
“Why?”

He’d split his knuckles when he’d punched Frank, but that wasn’t what made his hand shake as he gently touched her cheek. “Because I love you.”

Her lips parted. Her eyes searched his. “You...do?”

“Stay with me. I know you deserve more. Want more. But—” His chest ached. “Stay,” he finished hoarsely. “Marry me. And have little girls with red curls and little boys who’ll make us old before our time.”

“Stay,”
someone from the audience yelled out, and Aurora let out a watery chuckle.

She touched his cheek. His lips. Took his hand in hers and gently kissed his split knuckles. “I love you, too. More than I ever thought I could love anyone.”

“He he he,” Preacher Man laughed loudly, waving his Bible in an obvious attempt to get things back on track. “All this
love
going around, anyone wantin’ to get hitched?”

Aurora swiped her hands over her cheeks as Galen’s teeth flashed. He tucked his arm around her shoulders and turned her toward the mayor. “I do,” he said loudly.

“And I do, too,” Aurora agreed.

Harlan gaped for the audience, who laughed. “Well, then, I guess I pronounce you husband and—”

“Wife,” Galen finished, and bowed Aurora deep over his arm. “I love you,” he murmured, and in full view of God and Cowboy Country, he covered her mouth with his.

Epilogue

S
he wore white.

Her red hair danced down her spine in a swirl of curls while she clutched a bouquet of yellow daisies in her hand. And on her feet, below the dress that dragged a little in the grass because there’d barely been any time allowed for planning the wedding they held in his mama’s backyard, she wore her favorite Castleton boots with the blue stitching.

Galen was certain there’d never existed a more perfect bride since she’d stepped right out of his dreams.

The mayor—though Galen supposed he might have had the authority to do so—did not marry them.

A real preacher did that. With a real Bible held in his hands while Aurora and Galen said their vows under a perfectly blue Texas sky, and he slid a ring—a real ring and not that drugstore one, which she still wore on a chain with her grandma’s watch—on her wedding finger.

Fortunately, Jeanne Marie had had a lot of practice of late putting on weddings in her backyard, which came as a relief to Aurora’s folks, who were back from their cruise barely a week and still dazed over finding their daughter engaged and anxious to marry their longtime neighbor. Jeanne Marie knew how to organize her family—even the newer members of it—and everyone had done their part.

So while the time for planning might’ve been short, the results were not.

White chairs were lined up in precise rows in front of his mama’s prized flower beds. Delaney and Stacey had spent an entire hour tying ribbon bows around each of the chairs.

He still wasn’t real sure why, though he had to admit the end effect was pretty enough. And Aurora had looked all misty-eyed over it, so in Galen’s book that counted for a lot more.

Even Deke’s ancient truck had been banished from view. In the spot where it usually sat, there were tables instead. Covered in white cloths and bearing food from not only Jeanne Marie’s kitchen, but Pru McElroy’s, and the Hollows Cantina. And the cake, made by Wendy Fortune Mendoza, was the centerpiece of it all. A towering thing that somehow managed to look as airy as Aurora’s dress, with daisies sprinkled around to match the blooms that were woven into the hair hanging down Aurora’s back.

Galen was looking forward to the time when he could get her alone and he’d slowly tug those flowers free. But that time was yet to come.

When he’d questioned the size of the cake just that morning, Jeanne Marie had assured him the thing had needed to be so large, since it was feeding half the town. Or so it seemed when a person started counting up all the Fortunes, the Fortune Chesterfields, the Fortune Joneses, the Mendozas and every other iteration of Fortune that Galen could imagine.

There were guests who weren’t related at all, of course. All of the cast and crew from
Wild West Wedding
. Even Frank Richter, who’d put off leaving for Branson for a day so he could be there. He still sported an ugly bruise on his jaw, which he could have rightfully held against Galen. But according to Aurora, he’d decided the bruise only added to his appeal with the ladies. There was also Roselyn St. James, who managed to cause a stir among anyone who recognized her from television. She and Anthony sat in chairs toward the back where they tried to keep their twins relatively contained.

It was a futile effort. But Toni and Tiffani weren’t the only tots chasing around on short legs. They had plenty of company.

Galen didn’t know what would happen between Aurora’s ex-fiancé and his wife. Didn’t much care, now that he knew the other man didn’t leave even a lingering memory in Aurora’s heart. Aurora, though, believed the couple would find their way.

But that was Aurora.

For now, he stood with his arms around her shoulders, holding her cradled in front of him where he could smell her hair and watch over this place and these people that he loved almost as much as he loved her.

Not surprisingly, it was his mother who corralled the wildly varied guests together when the toasts started. She dragged Deke up beside her. Galen figured his dad wasn’t as reluctant as he liked to act, though.

Because, like everyone said, he and his eldest son were a lot alike.

“I want to thank y’all for coming,” Jeanne Marie said, holding up a plastic cup filled with the expensive champagne her brother James Marshall had insisted on contributing to the event. “There’s never anything more joyous to bring family and friends together than two people committing themselves to each other.” She smiled up at Deke, who’d closed his big hand over her shoulder. “Except maybe when those two people start bringing children into their lives,” she added pointedly, earning a ripple of laughter.

“Particularly when you’re not getting any younger,” Liam inserted loudly, which earned him an elbow from Julia.

“You’re not far behind him,” she pointed out, which earned another ripple of laughter.

“Don’t you worry,” Galen returned. “I think Aurora and I will manage well enough despite my advancing decrepitude.” He kissed Aurora’s blushing cheek, because she’d already told him she was tossing her birth control pills out the window the moment they left on their honeymoon.

They weren’t going far. Just an hour flight to Red Rock, where there was a resort hotel Amelia and Quinn recommended. They’d take a long weekend there. But then they’d come back. Aurora to her shows and the temporary Rusty until Joey returned, and Galen to the ranch.

“Anyway.”
Jeanne Marie corralled her kibitzing offspring. “To the newest member of our family—” she gestured with her cup “—Aurora. Thank you for making my firstborn happier than I’ve ever seen. If for no other reason at all, that’s enough for us to love you.”

Aurora smiled tremulously. “Thank you, Jeanne Marie.”

“Now.” Jeanne Marie cast an eye over the guests. “Unless anyone has something else they’d like to add, this food here’s—”

“I, um, I have something to add.” Sitting next to Delaney between Cisco and Matteo Mendoza, Rachel Robinson stood up from her chair, looking nervous. Even from where Galen and Aurora stood, they could see her squeeze Matteo’s hand. Then he stood and closed his arm around her shoulders.

“We have something to add,” he said encouragingly.

Aurora lifted her head. “We’re gonna hear about another baby,” she whispered to Galen.

“Probably.” With everyone else’s attention momentarily off them, he let his palm slide across her flat abdomen, imagining it swelling soon with
their
child. “Can we skip out now?”

She laughed softly, going up on her toes a little with that smile of hers. “There’s food to be eaten and cake to be cut.”

“And a wife to bed,” he murmured, brushing his lips over hers. “Which is more important?”

She smiled against his lips. “A valid point.”

“—anyway.” He was vaguely aware of Rachel talking again. “I’m not sure if now’s the right time or not, but there’s already another Fortune in the family.” She hesitated for a moment.
“Me.”

That got even Galen’s and Aurora’s attention.

They weren’t the only ones looking at Rachel with surprise.

Matteo gently patted her shoulder. “You’ve come this far, Rachel, you can say the rest.”

She nodded, then looked from Jeanne Marie to Lady Josephine, who was bouncing her granddaughter Clementine Rose on her knee, to James Marshall who was sitting next to her. “Do, uh, do any of you remember ever hearing about a cousin named Jerome? J-Jerome Fortune?”

“More Fortunes,” Galen murmured, kissing Aurora’s cheek again. As far as he was concerned, his brand-new bride was a lot more interesting. “
Now
can we go?”

She laughed softly, grabbed his hand, and while everyone was still gaping at Rachel and Matteo, they made a run for it.

* * * * *

Keep reading for an excerpt from SUDDENLY A FATHER by Michelle Major.

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