Forever Wishes (Montana Brides Book 4) (30 page)

The bouquet of roses fell to the ground. Jake held her hands, clasping the little box between them. This was the moment she’d been waiting for her entire life. Her past, present, and future were so entwined with the look in Jake’s eyes that she couldn’t think beyond the need to be close to him, to be a part of his life.
 

“Erin Reynolds. I think I’ve loved you from the first moment I saw you.” The beginning of a smile touched his face. “I loved you for putting up with my insecurities about marriage and babies. But most of all, I love you. For you. I love everything about you, and I want to spend the rest of my life discovering more. You were willing to give up your dreams to make me happy, and I know how difficult that decision was for you. I love you even more because of it.”
 

He took a deep breath, flexing his hands around hers. “I want to have children with you, and I know we’ll make great parents.”

Tears streamed down her cheeks, blurring her vision. Jake looked solemnly up at her. “Erin Reynolds, would you do me the honor of becoming my wife? Of sharing all the ups and downs that come our way and being the mother of our children?”

With shaking hands, he opened the white box. Nestled on a bed of silk sat a beautiful emerald and diamond engagement ring, twinkling in the overhead light.

Erin couldn’t speak. She looked at the man kneeling at her feet. She loved him more than she thought it was possible to love another human being. She’d loved him even when she knew he didn’t want children. When he refused to believe that two people could grow old together, and love each other for their entire lives. “Oh, Jake. Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you. I love you so much.”

He swept her up in a big hug, crushing her body to his chest.
 

A huge cheer rang out from above them. They both peered into the darkness. One by one, the upstairs balcony lights came on to reveal a large group of wedding guests standing outside, watching Jake’s marriage proposal.
 

Erin laughed at their audience. Reaching down, she picked the bouquet of white rosebuds off the ground. She ran her hand over the soft petals, smiling at the absurdity of fate.
 

With one last look at the flowers, she threw the bouquet onto the balcony, turning in Jake’s arms to give him the biggest kiss of his life.

As more whistles and cheers rang through the night air, the bouquet spun upward in a perfect arc…landing with a quiet thud in the hands of a grinning five-foot-three redhead.

The End

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Turn the page for a preview of
Forever Cowboy
, Emily and Alex’s story, available in August 2014!

Forever Cowboy

BOOK FIVE IN THE MONTANA BRIDES SERIES

Excerpt

Chapter One

“Drop everything. I’ve found the perfect building.”
 

Emily looked up from her work table at her sister, her scissors hovering in mid air. “That’s what you said about the last one.”
 

“It had potential.” The gleam in Nicky’s eyes brought a smile to Emily’s face. “If you discounted the noisy neighbors.”

“Hard to ignore them when they taught kids how to play the drums and the electric guitar.” Emily went back to cutting the fabric in front of her, allowing a little extra grow room for the pregnant body that would wear the dress. “They wanted far too much for the lease, anyway.”

“That’s why this is so much better. They aren’t looking for tenants, they want to sell it. It’s two stores down from Angel Wings Café.”

Emily stopped cutting. Since Tess had opened the café, it had become one of the busiest eateries in downtown Bozeman. The food was so good that it had come third two years in a row in Montana’s Supreme Café Award.
 

 
The location was perfect. The foot traffic was huge. But what she liked most was that it was in the historic district. It had character, a place in the founding stories of Bozeman. All of the things she wanted her fashion boutique to be part of.
 

She’d walked past the businesses either side of the café each week, admiring the handcrafts on one side and the florist on the other. She tried to remember what stores were beside them. “It can’t be the bookstore. I was in there last week and Anna didn’t say anything about selling. Tell me it’s not the old library?”

“I’m not telling you anything until you see it for yourself.”

 
“You can’t be serious?” Nicky smiled and Emily shook her head. Her sister had officially gone nuts. From the photos that had made the front page of the Bozeman Chronicle, there wasn’t much left inside that wasn’t burned to a crisp. “I thought the insurance company were still investigating the fire?”

“All finished. As of this morning it’s officially for sale.”

Even though her stepfamily owned one of the biggest construction companies in Montana, Emily wasn’t about to pull strings and get the building rehabbed by someone else. She couldn’t afford to.
 

“How much do they want for it?” That was the crunch question that had kept her working from her two bedroom apartment for the last year.
 

“Ask me again after you’ve seen it.”

Emily started getting a little worried. Nicky was a hot-shot business consultant. She always had the facts and figures of each property engraved on her brain before they went to look at them. “I’m not going to see it if it’s too expensive.”

“Where’s the creative designer gone? I thought you’d be in your truck and across town before I got the chance to take another breath.”

“She disappeared after we’d seen our fourteenth property,” Emily sighed. “I can’t stay here, but I can’t afford to go anywhere else. And before you mention it again, I’m not coming out to your ranch, or mom and dad’s either.”

“You won’t need to, not after you see this building. It’s got potential with a capital P. Now put those scissors down and come with me.”
 

Emily looked around her spare bedroom. Rolls of fabric lined one wall, and the shelves her brother had made were loaded with clothes in five different sizes. Space was so tight that she usually set her cutting table up in the kitchen. Except the kitchen was full of boxes ready to post to her online customers across America.
 

She thought about what Tess had done with Angel Wings Café, how Anna had transformed the bookstore. They’d turned the old musty stores into something they were proud to call their own.
 

Nicky took Emily’s coat out of the closet. “If you don’t come and take a look you’re going to regret it.” She held the coat toward Emily. “I’ll have you back here in under an hour.”

Emily left the scissors on her table and grabbed her coat. “Okay, I’ll come with you. Just give me a couple of minutes to tidy up.”

“You’ve got fifteen minutes before we meet the realtor.”

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re bossy?”

“All the time.” Nicky grinned. “It runs in the family.”

Alex buttoned his shirt, frowning at Doc Johnson’s back. “You can’t be serious?”

The grey haired doctor turned around. The scowl on his face didn’t look promising. “I’ve never been more serious in my life. I’m not giving you a medical clearance so that you can get pummeled by another bull.”

“It’s been four months. The doctor in Vegas said I should be good to go in a few months’ time.”

“He’s not here now and I’ve just seen your latest surgeon’s report. If you don’t stay off the circuit for a few more months you’re going to end up with a permanent injury.”
 

“I’ve already registered for the Livingston Roundup in July,” he said stubbornly.
 

“Well, I suggest you unregister yourself,” Doc Johnson said in an equally stubborn tone. “If you go anywhere near that rodeo without my clearance you’ll be banned for half the season.”

“It’s three months away.”

“Makes no difference. You’re not ready now and you won’t be ready then.”

Alex worked his way off the bed and swallowed the pain that shot through his leg. “I’ve done everything I can, but it isn’t enough. I’m a bull rider. It’s what I do.”

Doc Johnson’s face softened. “I know it’s been hard, but you’ve got to give your body time to heal.” He scribbled something on a piece of paper and handed it to Alex. “I want to see you in four weeks’ time.”

Alex jammed the paper in his pocket without looking at it. When he got home he’d throw it in the same drawer with the other prescriptions he hadn’t filled.
 

“And this time make sure you take the drugs.”

Alex thought he was too old to blush, but a rush of heat hit his face. “How did you know?”

“I’ve been looking after you since you were knee high to a grasshopper. I can tell when you’re in pain. There’s still too much inflammation in your leg to be anything but uncomfortable.”

That had to be the understatement of the year. Some days the pain was so bad that he felt as though his leg was on fire. And it didn’t seem to be getting any better.
 

“Tell your mom that I’m looking forward to sampling her sweet cherry pie at the school fair.”

For a man in his early seventies, Doc Johnson seemed to have an ear to every conversation and event in Bozeman. “I’ll tell her. She’s got some stiff competition this year. Doris Stanley’s entering her lemon meringue pie and both of them want to go home with the gold ribbon.”

“Just between you and me, my money’s on your mom.”
 

Alex glanced at Doc Johnson before picking up the metal crutch leaning against the bed. He hoped Doc was right, otherwise they’d be eating cherry pie for another month while his mom perfected her recipe.

He gripped the crutch and took a tentative step toward the door. The metal rod felt flimsy in his hands. As if it would snap if he leaned too heavily against the armband. He hated using it, but after spending more than an hour riding this morning, his leg wasn’t up to holding any more of his weight than it had to. “I’ll make an appointment with the receptionist.”

“You do that,” Doc Johnson said. “And remember what I told you. No bull riding. If I hear even a whiff of gossip about you parading around a bullring, I’ll get in my truck and find you.”

Alex left the hospital feeling like a hangman had just tightened the noose around his neck. For the last five years he’d ridden as a professional bull rider, notching up more prize money than his father or grandfather combined. Being relegated to sideshow status hadn’t been easy, but then standing up for more than a couple of hours didn’t go down too well either.

He limped across to the bright red truck parked under the shade of a tree. Gracie, his happily married half sister, had a book propped open between the steering wheel and her pregnant belly. For the first time that afternoon he smiled as he listened to her read out loud.
 

“When the light turns green, you go. When the light turns red, you stop. But what do you do when the lights turns blue with orange and lavender spots?”

“What are you reading?”

Gracie jumped. “You’re going to send me into labor if you sneak up on me like that.” She took a deep breath and closed the book. “It’s called
A Light in the Attic.
How did your appointment go?”

“Not good.”

“Want to talk about it?”

“Nope.”
 

Gracie shrugged her shoulders. That’s what he liked about her. She knew when to leave a man alone. She wiggled back in her seat, trying to get comfortable. Only he didn’t know if that was possible.
 

She pulled her sunglasses down over her eyes. “Are you ready to go back to the ranch?”

He shook his head. His mom was going to pick him up from Gracie and Trent’s ranch, but he didn’t want to see her just yet. She’d want to know what Doc Johnson said, and he’d have to repeat the whole story again. Before he talked to anyone he needed to work out what he was going to do with himself for the next few months. He sure as hell didn’t want to limp around his parents’ ranch like a third wheel, getting in everyone’s way.

“In that case, I vote for hot chocolate and cake. It’s Mud Cake Monday at Angel Wing’s Café and if we hurry Tess should still have some left.”

And that was the second thing he liked about Gracie. She knew the way to a man’s heart.

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