Romance: Cowboy Way of Love

©Copyright 2015 by
C. J. Rivers
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Cowboy Way of
Love

By:
C. J. Rivers

Cowboy Way of
Love

Hunter Shipman looked like
he was asleep. He was clearly very comfortable, seated on the front
porch of his sprawling ranch home with his boots propped up on the
railing. His well-muscled arms were crossed over his chest, which
steadily rose and fell slowly, in time with his deep, regular
breaths. A khaki-colored Stetson angled down over his face,
perfectly positioned to keep the early morning sun out of his
eyes.

But
Hunter’s blue eyes weren’t closed, and the cowboy was most
definitely not sleeping. He was wide awake – wide awake and
watching. From beneath the brim of his hat, Hunter had his gaze
fixed on every move Peony Washington made as she went through her
morning workout routine.

Peony was the younger
sister of Petunia, a stunning woman who had, for some reason Hunter
couldn’t fathom, agreed to marry Hunter’s brother Seth. There were
three more sisters besides, all named for flowers: Pansy, Poppy and
Primrose. Their mother was an avid gardener, but Hunter was sure
there was nothing she grew in a flowerpot that was half as gorgeous
as her five daughters.

Peony had come down from
Virginia for the wedding a week ago, and Hunter had been instantly
smitten. Peony was beautiful, a tall, dark girl with a lush, curvy
body that made him weak in the knees. She was graceful, too, moving
with an exotic ease that Hunter found intensely erotic.

Most of the women Hunter
knew in Texas moved with a purpose. They had things to do, people
to see, places to be, and their every motion revealed they were
driven by an agenda. They hurried even when they were sitting
still.

Peony was different. She
took her time always, easing her way through life with gentle
gestures; smooth, fluid and almost arbitrary; it was sometimes as
if Penny had no will of her own and that instead an external force
determined that she’d wave with her right hand and not her left;
that she’d walk this way, rather than that.

Her exercise routine
consisted largely of stretches; Hunter thought he recognized both
yoga and ballet poses. His eyes widened when she stood on one foot
and pulled the other up behind her, leaning forward to balance
herself with an outstretched arm. It wasn’t a move she’d seen many
big women do, but she eased into the position as if it were the
most natural thing in the world.

Studying her silhouette,
Hunter became convinced of two things. The first was that Peony was
the most gorgeous woman he’d ever seen. The second, judging by the
swelling he’d seen in the lower part of her stomach, was that the
beautiful girl who’d captured his heart without even trying was
undoubtedly pregnant.

He’d done a little
questioning, trying to find out what he could about Petunia’s
gorgeous sister. Poppy, the most vivacious of the bunch, happily
volunteered the fact that her older sister was single, and appeared
to be on the verge of sharing more on that topic when the girls’
mother, Mama Rose, had shushed her forcefully.

“
If you’re curious about
my daughter,” the short black woman had said, looking Hunter up and
down with an appraising eye, “go and talk to her yourself. I’m sure
she’d be happy to answer your questions.”

“
That’s not all she’d be
happy to do…” Poppy started, falling silent again when her mother
gave her a look.

Seth wasn’t much more
help. “I know she works in costume design,” he said. “Off-off
Broadway kind of stuff. There was a play in Norfolk she did;
Petunia and I were supposed to drive down, but we couldn’t get
away.”

That’s as far as Hunter
had gotten in his inquiries. That didn’t mean the conversation had
stopped. Petunia had wasted no time in letting their sister now he
future brother in law had been making inquiries; she’d pulled her
sister aside to discuss this vital development.

“
Seth says he’s a good
man,” Petunia said. “He’s got this ranch. He’s good looking. And
he’s interested in you.” Petunia embraced her sister, placing one
hand on each of her shoulders. “Isn’t it time you had some sort of
worthwhile man in your life? Someone who could give you some kind
of stability?”

“
I’ll talk to him,” Peony
said. “But I’m not making any promises. Unless he’s a real stand up
guy, I’m not interested. I don’t know about this whole cowboy
thing.”

“
What’s the worst that
could happen?” Petunia asked. “Try it, you might just like
it.”

The wedding photographer
had been engaged for a week. He had lots of ideas, one of which
involved the entire wedding party having their photos taken on
horseback.

“
How this is going to
work,” Petunia explained, “Is that we’re going to have a few shots
taken here, in front of the ranch, and then,” she reached out and
took Seth’s hand, “my sweetie is going to lead us all on a little
trail ride to a scenic spot he knows. We’ll take a few more
pictures there.”

Seth’s side of the family
took this announcement without one eyelid flickering. A morning
spent on horseback was nothing new to any of the Shipmans; while
Hunter was the only one of the boys who still worked the ranch,
they’d all grown up in the saddle. Petunia’s family was another
story. She smiled at the dismayed faces that greeted her
announcement. “Come on, you guys,” she urged. “This is going to be
fun.”

Hunter was fully aware
that his brother spent exponentially more time behind a desk than
on a horse. “Where are we headed on this trail ride, little
brother?” he asked. “Some of the terrain round here’s changed a bit
since you’ve been around..

eth blushed scarlet. “I
was thinking we’d go up on the bluff, where we saw the boars that
time?” Something in his little brother’s voice touched Hunter, and
he remembered exactly when they’d seen the boars – neither of them
had even been twelve years old when a morning ride had brought them
unexpectedly between a Mama sow and her brood of young ones. It was
an encounter that could have very easily gone badly, but the boars
had been just as startled as the boys, and after a few minutes of
awkward staring, each group had bolted back in the direction they’d
come from. “Do you remember?”

Hunter suddenly fully
realized how important this wedding was to his little brother, how
much time, effort, and energy he’d put into making sure everything
was perfect. He gave what he hoped was an encouraging smile.
“That’ll be right pretty,” he said. “You’ll get some good pictures
out of that.”

Seth gave Hunter a nod,
and in that moment, the brothers knew they were seeing each other
in a way they hadn’t in quite a while.

“
You’re not getting my
black behind on no horse,” Mama Rose suddenly proclaimed. She
turned toward Petunia. “I know that’s what you want for your
pictures, baby, and I’m sorry. But I don’t know the first thing
about no horseback riding. I don’t know how to drive the damn
things or nothing.”

Petunia smiled. “Mama,
don’t you worry. I knew you were going to say that, and my baby’s
got you covered.” Seth nodded toward the tree line, and one of
Hunter’s many cousins emerged on a four wheeler. “Check it out. You
can ride up the trail in style.” Mama Rose looked
pleased.

“
And when it’s time for
the pictures, we’ve got a special horse picked out just for you.
Her name is Daisy.” Mama Rose looked less pleased at this, but
Hunter grinned. Daisy was the old, gentle mare they used to take
the very smallest children on their first rides; it would take her
the better part of an hour to move ten feet. “I promise you it’s
going to be okay.”

“
I wish she could make me
that promise,” Peony muttered under her breath.

“
What,” Hunter asked her.
“You don’t like horses?”

“
It’s not that I don’t
like them,” she replied, with a smile that made Hunter’s heart skip
a beat. “It’s just that I haven’t had much of a chance to find out
whether I like them or not.” She looked down at her curves.
“Besides, I might just be a little too big for any pony you’ve got
around here.”

Hunter snorted. “Trust me,
that’s not going to be a problem.”

Peony slid her hands over
her stomach, in an almost unconscious gesture. Then she looked
around, anxious to see who might have seen her make that motion.
Luckily, everyone’s attention was elsewhere. Everyone’s, that is,
except for Hunter.

“
If you’re worried about
what I think you might be,” he said, “I can promise you that won’t
be an issue.” He reached out and took Peony’s hand for a moment.
“I’ll put you on my own mare, LouLou. She’ll behave every step of
the way. And I’ll be right beside you the whole time.”

Peony’s eyes searched
Hunter’s. “You can’t know,” she said.

“
I can guess,” he
replied.

“
And that doesn’t bother
you?” Peony said.

“
Should it?” He let go of
her hand. “If there’s somebody…if I need to step back…”

Peony shook her head.
“There’s nobody.” She laughed. “I mean, obviously, there was
somebody. But not like…well.” Her face fell, and she looked at her
shoes. It was the most heart breaking thing Hunter had ever seen.
He had to strain to hear her words. “Not the way there should have
been.”

“
Hey,” Hunter said gently.
He slid his fingers under Peony’s chin, carefully forcing her gaze
up to meet his. “Life is funny. There’s no such thing as what
should have been. That doesn’t exist, outside of our minds. There’s
only what is, for real, right here and now.”

“
That’s easy to say when
you’re a good looking rancher who’s got everything,” Peony snapped.
“But when you’re looking at life as a single mother…and I don’t
even have a real job yet; it’s just freelance contract work.” Tears
filled her eyes. When Peony looked at Hunter, a single drop slid
out, fat and shining. She angrily wiped it away before it had a
chance to reach her cheek. “That’s my here and now.”

“
No,” Hunter said. He
shook his head. “Your here and now is a beautiful morning in the
Texas hill country. You’ve got a chance to go for a ride on one of
the best looking, best tempered mares between here and the Rio
Grande. You’ve got a cowboy ready, willing and able to meet your
every need…”