Trouble In Dixie (39 page)

"That's because neither of you will turn
loose of them long enough for someone else to hold them, and if
it's not you, it's Dixie toting them around," Karlie said then
slipped her feet into the hot pink thong sandals that matched her
knee-length sarong. "I'm looking forward to having them to myself
for a week!"

Katie smiled thinking of her beautiful blond
daughter, who was going to be their flower girl today. She was so
excited, Katie about had to hog-tie Dixie last night to get her to
sleep. "Where is Dixie anyway? We only have a few minutes, before
the ceremony."

"Getting spoiled by Gerrie and Tommy's
dad...those two are so cute together, and I think she's talking him
into moving back to the ranch with ya'll, so be prepared," Karlie
warned her.

Tommy's dad had come for an extended visit
to the ranch after the babies were born, and hadn't left yet. He
and Gerrie, their new housekeeper, had hit it off, and they been
almost inseparable ever since.

"Have you seen how many people are here?"
Katie asked nervously, then added, "Everyone we sent invitations to
came!"

Karlie snorted again and then said, "Of
course they came, it's a free vacation in
Tahiti
, for God's
sake!" then she shook her head and said, "I still can't believe you
spent all that money."

"A drop in the bucket..." Katie told her
with a grin and tugged up the bodice of her dress again. "Chase has
made me a very rich woman. I could do this ten thousand times, and
still have enough left over for a lifetime."

"Yeah, he's not just a pretty face, that guy
is plenty smart too...but damn if he isn't fun to look at," Karlie
said with a snigger.

"Don't let Tommy hear you say that, Gawd
he'd have me in the bedroom making me tell him I'm only
his...again," Katie told her with a dark laugh, as chills raced
through her at the thought. Her sexy cowboy had come a long way,
since they met, and he was one hot man in the bedroom...and the
kitchen...and the creek...and everywhere else he could think of for
them to make love. He was pretty damned creative, and their 'to-do'
list grew every day. She was hoping to put a serious dent in that
list this next week.

Dixie walked in and ran over to her with
excitement in her light blue eyes. Looking up at Katie, she
squealed. "Paw Paw gave me a bucket!" she said then held out the
wicker basket with gardenia and orchid petals in it.

Katie and Karlie both were reduced to belly
laughing, and Dixie started laughing too, though Katie knew she
didn't know why. They all wound up sitting on the floor of the hut
by the beach, howling and wiping their eyes with tissue.

Katie pushed up to her feet and extended her
hand to Karlie to help her stand, then helped Dixie up. "Let's get
this show on the road girls, before we're late and my not so new
husband spanks me," Katie said and another round of shivers ran
along her spine.

"Are the boys behaving with Gerrie and Paw
Paw?" Katie asked Dixie with concern. Her boys were a blessing, but
they did like to move around.

"They're being angels, Miss Gerrie said so,"
Dixie told her proudly, then added, "My baby brothers are always
angels."

Katie grabbed Dixie's hand and squeezed it.
"You are the most beautiful flower girl and daughter a bride could
ask for."

"Thanks, mama...I'm gonna try to go slow
like we practiced, but it's hard," Dixie said nervously.

"You're gonna do great, sugar...just look at
your daddy like I'm gonna be doing," Katie told her then they
walked to the door, and she took a deep breath, then opened it, and
stepped back. She pushed Dixie out first, then let her sister go,
before finally she grabbed her bouquet off the table by the door,
and walked out behind them.

The soft swells of the Polynesian music
they'd picked for the walk down the aisle started and Dixie bounced
to the beginning of the human aisle their friends and family had
formed for them on the beach. Karlie met Gabe at the beginning of
the aisle and he smiled at her tenderly then took her arm and they
started down the aisle, after Dixie. Once they reached the altar,
which framed the gorgeous teal blue ocean, they parted and stood on
either side of the preacher, with Dixie on Karlie's side holding
her hand.

The band changed to the bridal march,
Polynesian style, and Katie started down the aisle and then latched
her eyes onto Tommy who was standing at the end, his eyes were
moist and his face frozen in awe. She felt the same way when she
saw him decked out in lightweight white drawstring pants and a
loose fitting white linen shirt. He was barefoot too, and she
resisted the urge to run down the aisle and start their belated
honeymoon before the vows were reaffirmed. God, she loved that man,
even when he was at his most irritating, she loved him so much her
heart hurt sometimes.

A soft, gentle breeze brushed over her skin,
and dried the happy tears that pooled in her eyes, as she walked
slowly toward him, her lover, her life. When she got to the end of
the row of friends, she looked to the right and Tommy's daddy
winked at her, then tousled Ethan's dark hair, and he wiggled
trying to get down. Gerrie was holding Eddie who was sucking his
thumb, quietly watching the proceedings with his beautiful hazel
eyes. Her boys were identical in every way, except temperament,
just like her and Karlie. Although she and her sister were a lot
more alike these days than they used to be, Katie thought, then
turned heated eyes back to her handsome husband.

When she reached him, he took her hand and
kissed her forehead, then leaned down close to her ear and said,
"I'd marry you a hundred times...happy anniversary, baby."

Tears burned her eyes and she swallowed down
the lump of emotion that pushed up into her throat, as they turned
toward the preacher, who was back-dropped by the gorgeous aqua
ocean. The gentle waves crashing on the beach lulled her, and the
smell of the gardenias and orchids in her exotic bouquet
intoxicated her. Her head was filled with fluffy white clouds and
sunshine when she turned toward Tommy, and he took her hands and
repeated the vows he said once before, with just as much emotion as
he had then, before slid the platinum band on her finger, and
brought her hand to his mouth and kissed it.

"I love you, Katie, forever," he said in an
emotional voice, then pulled her into his arms and leaned her over
his arm and kissed her forever.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Becky McGraw is a married mother of three
adult children, and a Southern girl by birth and the grace of God,
ya'll. One of several career changes transplanted Becky and her
family to Indiana, where she now lives with her husband and dog
Abby.

A jack of many trades in her life, Becky has
been an optician, a beautician, a legal secretary, a senior project
manager for an aviation management consulting firm, which took her
all over the United States, a real estate broker, and now a graphic
artist, web designer and writer.

She knows just enough about a variety of
topics to make her dangerous, and her romance novels interesting
and varied. Being a graphic artist is a good thing for her too,
because she creates her own cover art, along with writing the
novels.

Becky has been an avid reader of romance
novels since she was a teenager, and has been known to read up to
four novels of that genre a week, much to the dismay of her
husband, and the delight of e-book sellers.

She has been writing fictional short stories
and novels for fun, as well as technical copy for her jobs for many
years. She was a member of the Writer's Guild on AOL during her
last venture into writing romance, as well as a founding member and
treasurer of the first online chapter of the Romance Writers of
America, From the Heart Romance Writers.

With the advancement of online publishing
opportunities, Becky has started writing again as voraciously as
she reads. Be looking for all of the books in her Texas Trouble
Series, a contemporary cowboy romance series, with hot cowboys, a
dash of suspense, and a lot of southern flavor.

***

Be sure to read the first three books in the
Texas Trouble Series, by Becky McGraw,
MY KIND OF TROUBLE
(#1, Texas Trouble),
THE TROUBLE WITH LOVE
(#2 Texas
Trouble),
DOUBLE THE TROUBLE
(#3, Texas Trouble), and
LOOKING FOR TROUBLE
(#4, Texas Trouble)

READ EXCERPTS BELOW

MY KIND OF TROUBLE

by Becky McGraw, Texas Trouble Series #1

Copyright @ June 18, 2012

Cassie Bellamy thought she'd left Bowie,
Texas and Luke Matthews behind for good. She'd been gone for ten
years and in that time had built a successful real estate business,
had a new fiancé, and had all but forgotten about the Texas bad boy
who'd sent her running to Phoenix in the first place.

She wouldn't be going back now, but her
daddy needed her at the Double B.

Driving her old pickup truck "Bessie" back
to Bowie had seemed like a good idea when she'd left Phoenix, but
it didn't seem so good when she was broken down on the side of the
road in ninety plus Texas weather in between Bowie and her daddy's
farm. And it seemed an even worse idea when her knight in brown
khaki turned out to be none other than the bad boy himself, a
Sheriff now, and still as hot as the Texas sun.

Cassie does her best to ignore Luke and
remember her fiancé back in Phoenix, but Luke seems determined to
make her remember his kisses and their nights of stargazing by the
lake instead. And she definitely still has stars in her eyes when
she looks at the delectable Sheriff.

Luke Matthews had worked damned hard to
change the way people thought of him. He wasn't know as the bad boy
son of the town's drunk anymore, they called him Sheriff now. For
ten years, Luke had been living on the right side of the law, and
had forgotten about Cassie Bellamy, the woman who'd left him
dangling on a limb ten years ago.

All that changes when he plays good
Samaritan and stops to rescue a woman stranded on the side of the
road. He finds out the fine behind and illegally long legs sticking
out from under the hood of the beat up old truck belong to Cassie
Bellamy. She was back in Bowie and just as sassy and stubborn as
always...looking better than ever.

Luke is determined to get answers as to why
she left like she did, and she's just as determined to keep him at
arm's length. Taking the choice away from her, Luke takes a
vacation from his job, and hires on at the Double B as a ranch hand
to help out while her daddy's down. The heat and the close
proximity work in his favor and soon Luke has her cornered like a
stray calf...but what was he going to do with her now?

He had a few ideas, and all of them involved
a king-sized bed and his lasso. She might be trouble, but Cassie
Bellamy had always been his kind of trouble...and if it took
hog-tying to get her to believe that, he was definitely game.

THE TROUBLE WITH LOVE

by Becky McGraw, Texas Trouble Series #2

Copyright @ July 2, 2012

Sabrina Roberts has become a reclusive
workaholic, since her husband Kenny, an adrenaline junky cop, was
killed in the line of duty eighteen months ago. Determined not to
let the same thing happen to her after his death, Sabrina makes her
job as a detective with the Phoenix Police Department her life.

In lieu of a social life, Sabrina focuses on
researching her cases, working out to make herself stronger and
staying at the gun range to make sure she is on top of her game.
She knows the life she is living is no life, but doesn't know how
to change it. Since Kenny's death, she doesn't even know who she is
anymore. The only thing she did know was she was never dating a cop
again.

When her new friend, Cassie Bellamy, calls
Sabrina from Bowie, Texas to ask her to be maid of honor in her
wedding, and to help with her horse ranch while she's on her
honeymoon, Sabrina jumps on the opportunity to reevaluate her life
and decompress in the sedate small town.

Almost from the first minute her feet touch
Bowie soil though, Sabrina realizes the small town is far from
sedate, and certainly not a place she is going to be able to
decompress.

Between the infuriatingly sexist, but oh so
sexy, Sheriff Cole Jackson, who treats her like she's incompetent,
and the hair raising events at the wedding, then a surprising call
for help from the older brother she hasn't spoken to in eighteen
months, Sabrina has more action in Bowie than she ever had back in
Phoenix.

After a while, Sabrina starts hoping that
action will include some personal action with the handsome Sheriff,
who lights fires inside of her that have been banked for a long
time.

Cole Jackson has enough on his hands taking
over as Sheriff of his hometown after his friend resigns, without
having to deal with the trouble sexy Sabrina Roberts dumps in his
lap.

Suddenly, his peaceful little town, where
the most he had to look forward to was the rollover of a chicken
truck on the highway, becomes a hotbed of trouble, and it seems
like the beautiful detective he'd met in Phoenix a month ago, is at
the heart of it all. She and her brother are magnets for trouble,
it seems.