That Last Night In Texas

There was a knock on her bedroom door and Cassie jumped, startled. As usual, her father didn’t wait for permission to enter. She had little time to slip her diary into her desk drawer before he appeared.

“It’s getting late, cupcake,” Mac McGuire said, offering her a tentative smile. They had barely escaped an argument earlier this evening, and he was obviously hoping all was forgiven.

She couldn’t leave tonight without trying to make it right between them. Crossing the room, she gave him a hug.

He was a big man, barrel-chested, with skin turned to leather by years of riding in the hot sun. His full name was Donald Alastair McGuire, Scottish through and through, but everyone in East Texas called him Mac. The Flying M wasn’t the biggest ranch in the Beaumont area, and it certainly wasn’t the richest, but her father was well-liked and respected.

Cassie adored him. After her mother’s death, it had been just the two of them. He was a good, loving father, a man of strong opinions, but possessing a tender heart. Especially where she was concerned.

Unfortunately, he could also be unbearably overprotective, and she hated that her marriage to Ethan had had to be planned in secret. When their absence was discovered tomorrow, her dad would be hurt and angry. Better to face him afterward with marriage license in hand. He would come to terms with it, though she couldn’t bear the idea that he might not. But somehow, one day, she would make it up to him.

“I’m heading over to the Wheeler place for a little while,” he said.

“Now? It’s so late.”

Josh Wheeler lived at the next ranch over from the Flying M. He had inherited River Bottom after his parents were killed in a car accident last year. The place was small, but had great potential, and Cassie’s father seemed to have taken Josh under his wing.

“Josh says his prize mare is looking colicky. Probably nothing, but I thought I’d drive over and take a peek. I suspect he’s just lonely and wanting company on a Saturday night.”

Oh, no, you don’t, Cassie thought. You’re not drawing me back into a discussion about how I ought to spend more time with him. Josh Wheeler was twenty-five. He was smart, had sunny good looks and had been her best friend for years. Lately, he’d made it pretty clear that he had a romantic interest in her as well.

Unfortunately, she felt nothing for him except friendship.

In fact, tonight’s near argument had been over Josh, who had asked her out on a date. She’d refused. Her father had thought she ought to reconsider, and Cassie had been forced to dig in and defend her decision without revealing the basic truth of the situation.

How could she go on a date with one man, when in less than twenty-four hours, she’d be married to another?

A sudden niggling worry made Cassie bite the inside of her cheek. In a few hours she was supposed to meet Ethan in the horse barn. The last thing she needed was to run into her father coming in the front door as she was going out. She’d have to be extra careful.

She faked a yawn. “Well, have fun, but don’t stay out too late. Since tomorrow’s Sunday, I think I’ll sleep in.”

“Don’t forget that we’re going to work Bandera at ten. Time for me to see what I’ve gotten myself into.”

Bandera was the new chestnut stallion her father had purchased during his last trip to Dallas. He’d been delivered today, and from the glimpse Cassie had seen of him from her bedroom window, his sleek red coat and her father’s auburn hair would make an arresting, impressive sight.

“Is Ethan supposed to help?” Cassie couldn’t resist asking.

Her father shook his head. “The horse doesn’t need to be broken. He just needs some manners.”

“You will be careful, won’t you? You’re too old to be getting bounced.”

“Brat! Not too old to keep young stallions and impudent daughters in line,” he said, reaching out to tweak her nose. “I know how to keep my mind in the middle. But don’t worry, I told Ethan to make sure Bandera stays tranked until we give him a workout tomorrow. Just a small second dose to keep him calm. I don’t want all that pent-up energy exploding under me before I get a read on him.” Her dad gave her an odd look. “Why do you ask if Ethan’s involved?”

“Just curious,” Cassie said with deliberate nonchalance. Had she been foolish to mention Ethan’s name? “I like watching him work the horses.”

“Stay away from him. He could use some manners, too.”

“I don’t—”

“I mean it. He’s too rough around the edges to associate with anyone but the crew.”

“Dad!”

Cassie couldn’t help that surprised response. Her father never spoke about anyone this way. She tried not to look defensive or hurt, but the remark worried her a little. Once she was married, it would be crucial that the two men she loved most in the world get along.

“He seems very nice to me,” she said quietly.

“I didn’t say he wasn’t nice, although he seems to like horses better than people. I said he was rough around the edges. He’s good at what he does and he learns quickly. He could make something of himself one day when he’s ready to settle down, but that’s a long way off. Stick to men like Josh.”

Predictable men like Josh, she amended in her head.

To cut the conversation short, Cassie produced another yawn and caught the edge of her door. “I’ll see you in the morning,” she said.

He chucked her on the chin and started to turn away.

“Dad.” Impulsively, she caught his arm, and when he turned back, she looked him directly in the eyes. Her senses were dull with misery at the realization that, after tonight, nothing between them would ever be quite the same. “You do know I love you, don’t you?”

He grinned. “Love you, too, cupcake. More than life itself.”

She rose up on tiptoes to kiss his cheek. Her throat suddenly felt tight at the thought of leaving him, deceiving him. But what else could she do?

Her decision had been made. She’d finally gotten up the nerve to follow her heart, and she wouldn’t change her mind.

Not even for a father she loved dearly.

PRECISELY AT MIDNIGHT, Cassie slipped down the stairs, suitcase in hand. She didn’t think her father had returned from the Wheeler place yet. The ranch truck wasn’t parked out front, and there was definitely no snoring coming from his room.

Careful, Cassie. The first real adventure of your life. Don’t blow it now.

She quietly let herself out and hurried along the path to the horse barn. Her heart was pounding in her chest. Not from fear, really, although it would be horrible if she was caught; mostly it was excitement that left her breathless with anticipation. In a matter of hours she and Ethan would be married, starting a brand-new life together. The night felt as though it held magic.

When they’d first met a year ago, he’d seemed so foreign, so different from the usual men who came looking for work at the ranch. He had shown up to apply for one of the wrangler jobs, without a horse, a dog for company or even a well-worn duffel bag. He didn’t look or act like the other hands on the Flying M. The crews who worked the herds were either grizzled older men with a lifetime of scars and tall tales behind them, or college kids playing cowboy until school started again.

Ethan seemed to be neither. At twenty-one, he already had the physique of a man, with the soft edges of boyhood filed down to toned, lean muscle. He was handsome, but in a rough, slightly battered kind of way that actually made him seem better-looking than if he’d been conventionally attractive. And that devilish twist to his mouth—that made him seem slightly dangerous.

She’d heard that he didn’t smoke or drink, and he kept to himself, never joining the other men who went into town on Saturday nights. Her father said he took his job seriously, which was a good thing, because everyone knew Mac McGuire didn’t put up with slackers on the Flying M.

Initially, when their paths crossed, Ethan had been respectful of her position as the owner’s only child, but he still unnerved her. He seemed so self-contained, almost secretive. Sometimes she had caught him watching her—a glimpse of soulful blue eyes under those long, dark lashes that perfectly matched his silky-looking black hair. She’d pretended to ignore his surveillance, but inside she had shivered.

He still made her shiver—though for completely different reasons now.

The barn door creaked open on rusted hinges. Several of the horses along the corridor moved restively and stuck their heads out of their stalls. Midnight visitors were uncommon at the Flying M.

She found Ethan in the tack room, and slipped up behind him to place her hands over his eyes. “Guess who? And if you say any name but mine, the wedding’s off.”

He turned and grabbed her up, grinning. “Hey there, darlin’. What’s your name again?”

She laughed softly and punched his arm. He responded by giving her the kind of kiss she’d never experienced from anyone but him. He smelled of leather and spice and a heated male energy that sent tingles through her stomach.