ROMANCE: Badass Boss (Billionaire Alpha Bad Boy Romance) (Western Mail Order Bride Calendar Contemporary) (57 page)

Chapter 5

Compare and Contrast

The first week that Ruth lived with Junior was eventful to say the least. She was unlike any woman that Junior had ever met, and he was unsure how to relate to her. The two of them sat and spoke about their comparative histories. Junior spoke of growing up without a mother, and how his father had been a career cavalry soldier with West Point credentials, and received multiple citations in Mexico. He also shared how Bob was killed by the Yankees during the War for Southern Independence at Lookout Mountain. 

Ruth’s father, of course, had been in the Southern Army of Tennessee, and as such was involved in the fighting around Chattanooga as well, albeit in the Infantry. This was one of the few ways they found that they were similar.

Junior was a cattle rancher whose childhood had been spent in Atlanta and Missouri, before moving to Texas on his daddy’s ranch. Ruth, on the other hand, was born and raised in South Carolina, where many were still bitter over the defeat at the hands of the Northern invaders. She came from a much poorer background than did Junior, as her daddy had been a sharecropper, while his father had a much more steady form of income, being a career military man. Junior was his daddy’s only child to survive childbirth, while Ruth was the youngest of 12 children.

She is brash and no less willing to speak her mind when upset than a rattlesnake is to bite when provoked. As a matter of fact, that first week demonstrated this simple fact when one of Junior’s ranch hands made an uncalled for remark regarding Ruth’s body type.

Needless to say, the rattlesnake’s venom cannot compare to the withering remarks Ruth made regarding the unsuspecting cowboy’s manhood… or lack thereof. Junior has always been a very mild mannered man, and while he is unafraid to stand and fight if the need arises, he has always been the kind to search for a more diplomatic solution first, while Ruth’s attitude is more akin to a “shoot first, ask questions later” mentality.

Another striking difference between the two is obvious… their age. Junior is already passed forty, while Ruth is still nineteen. Junior is smitten with the beautiful young woman almost immediately, and is certain by the end of the first week of her company that she is the woman he has been waiting to meet for so many years.

She stands about five foot six, possesses long, wavy brown hair, and piercing hazel eyes that seem to flash when her temper flares. Additionally, despite the long dresses and exceedingly modest dress of the age, Ruth is unable to hide that she has a ravishing figure, including large breasts, narrow waist, and attractive thighs and legs.

While he is by no means unattractive, Junior bears all the marks of a man who has spent his life working. He bears few of the marks of aging, as his active lifestyle has kept any unnecessary weight from his frame, whilst also building his muscular body into something men half his age would envy. He does have scars that have come from his years of riding the range and driving the half-crazy longhorn, and from numerous encounters with the Indians who have either attempted to raid his ranch or have attacked while on a drive.

On one particularly memorable occasion three years previously, he took an arrow to the face while he was bellowing orders to his men in the Indian Territory. The arrow pierced his left cheek, went through his open mouth, and out his right cheek. One of his boys shot the Indian immediately. He then broke the head off the arrow, allowing Junior to pull it through, leaving behind minimal scarring. It did, however, make it harder for Junior to eat or drink until the wounds had completely healed.

Despite these scars, Junior is still universally considered handsome by the women in the county, and for good reason. At almost six feet, six inches tall, a head full of black hair that is just beginning to turn to gray, and a full, thick black beard, he easily looks like a man ten to fifteen years younger than he is. The beard has the added benefit of masking the scars on Junior’s cheeks. He has electric blue eyes, and he weighs more than most men, at 200 pounds, of which almost all is muscle. The only man in Coleman who comes close to approaching Junior’s size is Big Dave.

The most notable difference between the two was how unashamed Ruth was in that first week when compared to the much more modest man that Junior is. Sure, Ruth may wear the flowing dresses common to the era, but she does not stress herself over how she looks when she first rises in the morning.

For example, the morning after she arrived, she awoke to the smell of bacon and eggs provided by Junior’s hogs and hens. Having lived with her sisters in their small home in Charleston, she thinks nothing of going out for breakfast wearing nothing but a chemise. When she walks into the kitchen, Junior is drinking coffee and cooking breakfast, and (most importantly) is fully clothed. When he turns around to tell her “good morning,” he is shocked to see a gorgeous woman wearing nothing but a single undergarment. If anything, this increased his desire for her… a desire that he could not acknowledge, because he was unsure whether she would want to stay with him.

Ruth was not sure what she wanted to do: she could either go back to Charleston, or stay here on the ranch. Junior seemed (to her) to be a man of no significant means, but she finds herself asking herself if she could make a life out here with an old cowboy. She does not know what Junior desires from her, or if he desires anything. She is of the opinion that he has been nothing less than a perfect gentleman in the time she has been here, but she is convinced that he would be the perfect gentleman to any lady that he came into contact with.

After a week of living together, they were both grateful for the mystery match maker that had brought them together. They, too, were both beginning to plan a future with the other, but neither knew what the other was feeling. This would quickly be rectified.

Chapter 6

Weighing The Options

Ruth had been in Atoka for three weeks when the first person came by from the church. “‘Lo Miss Stafford,” a gentleman on horseback said, tipping his hat. Ruth was feeding the chickens, and had not heard him approach. “Is Mr. Parker available?”

“That depends on who’s asking, sir. What’s your name?”

“My name is Tyson Abrams, and I’m a leader at the church Mr. Parker ‘tends in Atoka.”

“Okay, give me just a moment, and I will see if he is available to speak with you Mr. Abrams.” Walking from the chicken coop that is on the side of the house to the barn behind the house, Ruth wonders why someone from the church would be calling on a Tuesday. She is suspicious of the surprise visitor, but cannot determine why.

“Mr. Parker?” she calls into the barn.

“Yes, Ruth? I am up here!” comes a voice from the hayloft sixteen feet above her. Ruth walks further into the barn, turns, and sees Junior standing in the hayloft, pitchfork in hand, clearly cleaning the loft… shirtless. An unexpected pang of longing goes through Ruth’s chest… a feeling she has never become acquainted with previously. She is staring at Junior’s chest, glistening in the light that is streaming through the cracks in the barn walls.

Breathless, Ruth forgets why she came into the barn in the first place. Junior’s voice jerks her back to the present.

“Ruth? Is everything okay? You look heat stricken!”

“What? Oh… oh yes, everything’s fine…”

“What do you need?”

“Wha—oh, yes… a man is here, asking for you. A Mr.… Abraham I think it was.”

“Mr. Abraham… is it Mr. Abrams, Ruth?”

“Yes!” Ruth answers, still gazing at Junior’s sweaty body. “Yes, Mr. Abrams is right, silly me! I’m sorry!”

“It’s okay, Ruth… you look like the heat is playing tricks on you. Why don’t you head inside, and I’ll bring you a cold bucket of fresh water when I’m done talking to Mr. Abrams, okay?”

“Oh… okay,” Ruth answers, still staring. Junior comes down from the hay loft via the permanent ladder on the barn wall and puts his shirt on, bringing Ruth back to her senses. Junior takes her hand, and he walks with her to the house, and leads her to the porch, and she goes inside.

Junior then turns to Tyson Abrams, holds out his hand to shake, and greets him: “Hello Tyson. Don’t see you out this way very often.”

“No, unfortunately my duties in with the county in Coleman keep me from performin’ my church duties more often than not, I’m ‘fraid,” Tyson responded, refusing to shake Junior’s hand. Sensing that this was not a normal call from a fellow church member, Junior sought to diffuse the situation.

“Oh yeah, that’s right!  I forgot you were workin’ as the county jailer now! Congratulations!”

“Thank ya.”

“Is everything okay, Tyson?” Junior asked, probing. “You don’t seem like yourself.”

“No, I’m ‘fraid that ev’rythin’ is not okay, Junior.”

“Oh?  And what seems to be the problem?”

“Well…you. Or, well, the woman that you have here livin’ wit’ ya.”

“And who is saying that Ruth is a problem?”

“Well, e’rybody is, Junior. You see, we at the church don’t think that you ought to be coming back, unless she is gone.”

“And why is that?”

“Yer livin’ wit’ a woman who ain’t yer wife. You ain’t got no chil’ren, so she ain’t no nanny. Can’t none of us figure why she’d be here ‘less you’s sleepin’ wit’ her. Now I know she’s pretty, but that ain’t no reason to go throwin’ your reputation out the windo’. And while we don’t know who sent for her in your name, we are go’n try to find ‘em so we can lets ‘em know what we think of ‘em meddlin’ in things that ought not be meddled in.”

Junior’s temper flared up in a way that it rarely does, and he retorded, “Listen here you self-righteous son-of-a-bitch, I know the good book as well as any of you hypocrites at that church! The real reason you don’t want her there is because your wife is telling you that she shouldn’t be here, and the simple fact is, the book says that only him who is without sin should cast the first stone. Do you think that’s you Tyson? Or maybe, Tucker? Ed? You already know that the only reason Tucker don’t work for me anymore is because I fired him after he made me go on a drive short a guy because he was whoring at the saloon, and I fired Ed because he was always drunk and trying to start a fight with my other guys. And you, Tyson? Do you remember why I fired you?”

“Well, I… I…” Tyson stammered, at a loss for words.

“That’s right,  you pompous prick. And unless you want me tellin’ Emily what happened, you will leave my property and say not another word! Ruth has just as much right as anyone to be in that church, and more than some! So if I want to bring her to church with me, I will! Hell, if I want’a marry her in that damn building, you can bet your ass that I will! Whose money built the building? Whose land it’s on? Who pays the preacher’s salary? The simple fact is, it’s none of your business who I’ve fallen in love with, or what I do with ‘em!”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Parker… I think I’ll just go. I’ll see to it that none of the others will bother you anymore.”

“That is the best idea you’ve had since you rode on my property. Good day to you, Tyson,” Junior finished, and promptly turned around and walked to the well. When he had drawn up a bucket of cold water for Ruth, he carried it in to her, and found her sitting at the kitchen table.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey, you,” he answered.

“I heard your conversation.”

“Listenin’ in?”

“Well, kind of.”

“And what did you think about what was said?”

“My heart jumped when you mentioned marryin’ me in that church.”

“Anything else?”

“I want to know if you really love me.”

“Well,” Junior said before stopping to clear his throat, and then pausing altogether. It seemed to him that his entire life would hang on this one question. Either he answers it correctly, and she stays, or he answers it wrong, and she leaves. Weighing the options, he looks into her fiery green eyes, and says, “Well, the on’y ‘onest answer I can give you is that I think so. Having never been in love before, I can’t be sure, but I def’nitely think I am. After all, I knew that you’re beautiful when I first met you, and I know I love that about you. You’ve been livin’ here for three weeks, and I have heard you talk, and listened to how funny you are, and I love that about you. What I mean to say is, you aren’t like girls that are from around here. They’ll say they want to be with me, but they really don’t. But you don’t know what they know about me, and yet you are still here. So… yes, Ruth; I have fallen completely in love with you.”

Ruth smiled at him, but did not reciprocate. Junior finally broke the silence, “Well? I guess I’ve made a fool of myself? Should I take you to the train station now, or in the morning?” Ruth simply continued to smile her gorgeous smile, and moved in to put her arms around him, and kissed him deeply.