One Hot Cowboy Wedding (16 page)

“What are you doin’ in town?” she asked.

“Came after a good mornin’ kiss from my new bride.

Might sweeten up her attitude. What happened to make you look like you could chew up a full grown steer and spit out hamburger meat?” he teased.

“Cole ordered steak and eggs yesterday. The noise of the steaks hitting the grill reminded me. Why in the hell did your grandpa put that in his will anyway, and why is he makin’ you stay married a whole year?”

Ace chuckled. “Want me to go to Dallas and whip his OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 132

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ass for makin’ you mad? If I leave now I can wipe up the streets of Dallas with his sorry old ass and be home in time for supper. Would that make you feel better?” Jasmine’s face broke into a brilliant smile. “No, but picturing you doing that is funny. And you didn’t answer me about the will.”

Ace shrugged and stood up. Spurs jingled and she looked down at his boots.

He poured a cup of coffee and sat down at the small kitchen table. “I promised Raylen that I’d help break a few horses today. Gemma usually helps, but she’s got hair fixin’ goin’ on all day. I’m on my way to Raylen’s place. Now to answer your question about the will, Grandpa never told me why or even that he had put that in his will, but things he said that year before he died kind of make sense now. He kept telling me that a ranch needed a woman; that she was the icing on the cake. Ranch could run without a woman, but it was a hell of a lot sweeter with one on the place. And he said that first year of marriage was a booger bear but that if a man could make it through the whole year, then he could make it through fifty and each one got sweeter.

Guess he figured the Double Deuce needs a woman and if I stay married to her a year then by damn, it’ll last fifty.”

She cracked eight eggs into a bowl and whipped them frothy before pouring them out onto the grill. “He was telling you without telling you, wasn’t he?”

“Looks like it. Been a lot easier if he would have just spit it right on out and hadn’t beat around the bush,” Ace said.

“Steak and eggs, and pancakes,” Jasmine said as she OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 133

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set four plates on the shelf between the kitchen and the dining room and took down the next order.

Bridget waved through the window at Ace and set two plates on a tray. “Couldn’t stay away from her, could you?”

Ace grinned. “You got it. Got to make sure all the other cowboys in Ringgold know that she’s my wife.”

“You fell into the husband role pretty damn fast,” Jasmine whispered.

“And you are doing a fine job too, thank you very much, Mrs. Riley,” Ace threw back.

“Two days down, three hundred and sixty- three to go,” she said.

He turned up his cup and gulped down the last of the coffee. “Got to run, darlin’. Horses got to be broke.

Hay’s got to be raked. See you at suppertime. Now don’t be beggin’ me to stick around and kiss on you all day just because we are still newlyweds. A man has to make a livin’ for his woman and there’s things he has to do in the daytime other than sit around dreamin’ up new ways to have sex in the evenin’ when she gets home from work.”

She looked up to tell him that he’d better get out the back door or else take a beating with a egg turner for that little speech just in time to see his lips coming toward her. She didn’t have time to turn or run, or even get ready for the electricity that zapped her when his tongue teased her mouth open. The kitchen got fifty degrees hotter, her belly clinched up in knots, and her knees went weak.

Then he strolled out the back door as if it hadn’t affected him at all.

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She melted into a chair. “And I’ve got three hundred sixty- three days more until the divorce. I’ll never make it that long, not without seducing him or letting him seduce me. And then I’ll fulfill every one of his dreams.” Q

Ace’s hands were trembling as he gripped the steering wheel. Blake Shelton had a song out a couple of years before titled “Delilah” and it fit that day perfectly. The song talked about a girl who had a best friend who was always right there to listen to her and listen when her love life went south. Only the best friend was in love with her and really wanted her to love him.

That’s where Ace was that morning. He’d realized after he married Jasmine that she was his Delilah. She’d never let him down. She’d been right there in front of him, every day for a year and a half, while he moaned and groaned about the women in his life and how they were all so clingy and he just wanted a good time, not a permanent commitment.

Ace looked at the barbed wire tat on his arm. He’d bragged about no woman ever getting across his barbed wire fence and into his heart. How in the devil had Jasmine snuck under it without him even feeling a twinge?

He slapped the steering wheel. “It’s going to be a long year.”

Q

At the close of the day, Bridget locked the doors and began her daily ritual of getting things refilled and cleaned up for Wednesday. Jasmine picked up the broom OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 135

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and started at the back side of the dining room, sweeping crumbs and sweetener wrappers from under the tables.

“Guess what? I’ve got a date for Saturday night.

Divorce is final. Ex- husband has put out the word that he’s going to marry that floozy he’s been livin’ with, and I’ve got a date. Who’d have thought that when I walked in this place six months ago?” she said.

“That’s good. Just don’t be fallin’ for the same abusive type you got in trouble with before,” Jasmine said.

“Not me. That man done broke me of bad boy types.

Daddy likes Frankie James, even, and Momma thinks he hung the moon. He was this bashful kid in school who never said a word. Made good grades but didn’t play sports or go out drinkin’ and partyin’ on Saturday night. We’re going to dinner at a steakhouse and then to a movie,” Bridget said.

“Where did you meet him?” Jasmine asked.

“At a softball game. I ain’t played since I married because my ex was too jealous to let me play that first year and the second I was too fat. Me and Frankie are on the same co- ed team and we play on Friday nights. Frankie said that he liked me in high school but he was afraid to ask me out because he knew I’d say no. And he’s right. In high school, I would have never gone out with him, but things is different now,” Bridget said.

“Well, I hope you have a wonderful time. But save the second weekend in July for me, please. That’s the weekend of the wedding.”

Bridget’s eyes went wide. “I got that marked on my calendar. I wouldn’t miss that for nothing. Who all is standing up there with you, again?”

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“Austin, Pearl, Liz, Gemma, Colleen, and Lucy. I think you should wear the silver dress. It would look good on you. What do you think?”

“What other colors is there?” Bridget asked.

Jasmine leaned on the broom. “Momma is picking out metal colors like gold, bronze, pewter, and silver.

She’ll insist that Pearl wear the gold.”

“I don’t care if I have to wear orange with purple spots on it, I’m just so tickled that I get to be one of the bridesmaids. Can I bring Frankie if things work out between us?” Bridget asked.

“Sure you can, and to the rehearsal dinner, too.”

“Wow!” Bridget shook her head as if she couldn’t believe it.

Both of them looked up when they heard a hard tapping on the door window and saw Gemma and Austin on the porch. Bridget was closest to the door so she unlocked it.

“We was just talkin’ about the weddin’. Y’all decided what color you are wearing?” Bridget asked.

“You were serious about that wedding? You are already married,” Austin said.

“I know that. The state of Nevada knows that, but my momma, Kelly King, says it’s not legal without the white dress, seven bridesmaids, and a reception that is so gaudy that no one will ever forget that I’m married,” Jasmine said.

“You weren’t kidding on Sunday, then? We all thought you were making a joke about your mother planning a wedding. Figured it might be a reception.

I never heard of getting married before the wedding,” Austin said.

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“Second Sunday in July. I’ve got to shop for a dress this weekend and Momma says if it’s not fancy enough she’ll have a backup one on hand.”

“And I get to be one and Gemma is one, and there’s seven of us altogether,” Bridget beamed.

“Of course I will. It’ll be fun. A wedding when the bride and groom are already married.” Austin shook her head. “I bet Ace just loves that idea.”

“If he wants to get along with his new mother- in-law, he’d bet er pretend to love it even if he doesn’t,” Jasmine said.

“How’d you come up with seven?”

“Ace has six brothers and Momma says they are all going to stand up with him to show that they support our marriage. And he’s going to ask Rye to be his best man since they’ve been best friends forever.”

“What about Wil?” Austin asked.

“Eight.” Jasmine rolled her eyes. “Ace has probably already talked to Wil and Pearl is the matron of honor.

“I need one more.”

As if Kelly could read her daughter’s mind, the phone rang.

“Hello, Momma,” Jasmine said.

“You sound tired. You’re doin’ too much, runnin’ a café and a ranch. You’re goin’ to have to quit that café, girl, or you’ll never get pregnant,” Kelly said.

“I’m not quitting my café,” Jasmine said.

“Have it your way, but if you look tired and worn out at my wedding I’m going to be really upset. I called to tell you that we are still looking at invitations. We just can’t make up our minds. Oh, and how many dresses are we going to need to order?”

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“Looks like we need one more than I told you. I forgot a groomsman. How about Marcella’s daughter, Jenny?

Think she’d like to be in the wedding? And Momma, you can pick out a couple of flower girls. How about Marcella’s two granddaughters?”

“Oh, Jasmine, that is so sweet of you. Marcella will be so tickled. I’ve got to go to the kitchen and tell her all about it. Jenny is going to be dancin’ on air. Good- bye, now.” Kelly hung up.

“I’ll need that Jenny’s name for the bachelorette party,” Gemma said.

Jasmine threw up both palms. “Oh, no! I’m already married. No party, please!”

“Oh, okay,” Gemma grumbled. “But you won’t talk me out of a baby shower when the time comes.” Jasmine did a fake shudder from her shoulders to knees. “I’m only married a few days. Don’t be talking baby showers to me now.”

“Pearl is having twins. Your momma is already behind,” Austin reminded her.

Jasmine shuddered again, this time for real.

“Bachelorette party don’t sound so bad now, does it?” Austin laughed.

“Hey, you and Rye went to the courthouse. How’d you get away with that anyway?” Jasmine asked.

“We didn’t altogether. My two little elderly friends in Ryan threw us a big reception. Ask Gemma about Mol y and Greta.”

Jasmine looked over at Gemma.

Gemma smiled. “They were all thrown out of the same mold as Pearl’s Aunt Pearlita and Austin’s Granny Lanier about eighty years ago. God made women OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 139

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even more sassy and bossy then than he does now. We couldn’t begin to be as tough as those women.” Bridget changed the subject. “So what color dress are y’all going to wear?”

“Better be decidin’ before next Sunday. We’re meeting at Pearl’s to choose colors and get sizes,” Jasmine said.

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Jasmine was dragging by Wednesday night.

Everything was set up for the first morning rush at the café. Bridget had gone home and Jasmine looked forward to a quick shower and a long nap when she reached the ranch. It hadn’t rained since before the Las Vegas trip, and she broke a sweat just going from café to truck. She looked forward to a long, lazy bath in the big claw- foot tub while the guys were all out of the house. Put on some Josh Turner music and sink down into a foot of bubbles and think about absolutely nothing. She needed a couple of hours to refuel after running out every ounce of emotional energy the past week.

“Lord, has it only been a week? It seems like a month.” She talked to herself on the way to the gravel parking lot.

The air conditioner in her little truck had barely cooled the cab down when she reached the ranch house.

Normally, Ace’s two old Catahoula cow dogs were either out with him or else they’d meet her at the truck.

That day they were lazed out on the porch, tails thump-ing on the wooden porch in unison, but they didn’t offer to move out of the shade.

“Too damn hot to work this afternoon, ain’t it?” Jasmine stopped long enough to pet them. She’d couldn’t tell them apart, but Ace said that Old Bill was OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 141

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fatter than Little Joe. She eyed the two dogs and they still looked like identical twins to her.

“A set of bathroom scales would have trouble telling the difference in you two,” she said. “I bet he can’t tell the difference either. He just says that he can.” She didn’t stop in the living room but went straight to the bathroom, turned on the water in the big deep tub, and added vanilla- scented bubble bath. She was glad that whenever Ace’s grandfather remodeled the bathroom and put two sinks in the vanity and a shower in the corner that he’d left the tub. She stripped out of her jeans, Nikes, socks, and shirt and left them in a pile on the floor. She added panties and bra to the pile and sunk down into the water, letting the bubbles cover everything but her head.