The Rancher Takes a Bride

He’d showed up at the hospital that morning with the news that he would be driving them home. Oregon had allowed it because she didn’t have a car there and because he was Lilly’s dad.

She’d spent a lot of sleepless nights thinking about how everything would change when she told him. It was no longer the Lilly and Oregon show. Duke was now a part of their lives. They couldn’t go back. In some strange way they were now a family unit. They would have to figure out how it changed things, what it meant for the future. She knew he deserved this, to be in Lilly’s life.

Oregon knew it would hurt in ways she hadn’t expected. Because the young cowboy she’d met thirteen years ago had been a force to be reckoned with. He’d had a charming smile, too much confidence and a way with words. He’d melted her resistance. She’d wanted love. She’d wanted forever. All from a man she’d known for a weekend.

Looking back, she knew how wrong that had been.

But present-day Duke was more of a concern. This man now had shadows in blue eyes that once had been carefree, full of laughter. This man now knew how to be a friend. How to be there for the people he cared about.

It didn’t take a genius to know her heart could be broken all over again if she wasn’t careful. Lilly moved, repositioning herself, bringing Oregon out of her own thoughts.

“Yes, Duke, where are we going?” She repeated her daughter’s question.

He’d been pretty mysterious since he showed up in the hospital room carrying a bouquet of flowers with a half-dozen balloons attached. It took up the entire backseat of his truck.

“We’re going to the ranch. I want to show you all something,” he answered. Once again mysterious, but this time with a hint of a smile.

“We should go back to our place so Lilly can rest.” Oregon hooked an arm around her daughter and Lilly snuggled close, probably drifting back to sleep again.

“Yes, rest is a good idea,” Duke answered vaguely and kept on driving.

They turned onto the road to the Circle M. The paved road ended at Jake’s house and became dirt. Fences lined both sides of the road. They drove past Duke’s house and then past a barn. In the field cattle grazed, and near the barn a few horses raised their heads and watched the truck drive by.

“This is pretty,” Lilly mumbled, lifting her head to look around.

“Yes, it is.” Duke pulled up to a stone cottage.

“Duke, what is this?” Oregon felt a twinge of uncertainty bordering on fear.

She’d been in Martin’s Crossing long enough to know he wasn’t going to let her call all of the shots now that he knew about Lilly. A part of her wanted to tell him to back off. Another part of her wanted him to pretend nothing had changed.

“Let’s get out,” he said. He opened the truck door and reached in the backseat for pink crutches, handing them to Lilly. “Come on, kiddo.”

Lilly, suddenly wide awake, grabbed the crutches and allowed him to help her out. No, it wouldn’t take Oregon’s daughter long to adjust to this new situation. Lilly smiled up at him and he leaned, giving her a loose hug. He was everything that any little girl would dream of in a dad. Especially Oregon’s little girl, who had watched with envy when other little girls sat on their daddy’s shoulders or rode bikes down the street together. Oregon knew that type of envy because she’d felt it often growing up.

“Coming?” Duke glanced back inside the truck, and Oregon nodded. Did she have a choice? Duke wasn’t smiling. His mouth was a straight, unforgiving line. His jaw was set. No, he wasn’t giving in.

She climbed out of the truck and met her daughter and Duke on the lawn, standing in front of the little stone house. “It’s nice. This is where you’ve been staying while you remodeled the old house?”

“Yes, and it’s where you’re going to stay now. It doesn’t have any steps. Even the porch is ground level. And the doors are wide.”

Oregon stood there on the freshly mowed lawn, speechless. A black-and-white dog came down the drive. Of course it went right to Lilly, circling her, sniffing, brushy black tail wagging. “Lilly, be careful. Don’t let him knock you down.”

“She isn’t going to knock me down, Mom.” Lilly dropped one crutch and leaned down to pet the Border collie.

“But you can’t fall. You have to be careful.”

“She’s careful.” Duke spoke in a quiet voice of reason. She didn’t want reasonable. Not right now. She picked up the crutch her daughter had dropped, and handed it to her. Lilly took it with a grimace and shoved it back under her arm.

When Oregon faced Duke, he nodded in Lilly’s direction, stopping her from saying anything she’d regret. Oh, that didn’t help. Reasonable, thoughtful, considerate male. How dare he?

“Oregon, I’m moving into the main house. I’ve been remodeling and it’s close to finished. That means this cottage will be empty. It’s quiet. It has room, and it doesn’t have steps.”

She left Lilly and Duke in the yard, Lilly sitting on a lawn chair, the dog practically climbing into her lap. Duke was answering a question about the horses he owned. Lilly had always been horse crazy. And dog crazy. They already had a dog at home. Joe had been taking care of it for them.

Oregon walked through the front door of the house, and her heart ached to claim this place as her own. It had windows that let in the breeze, freshly polished hardwood floors, a kitchen with white-painted cabinets and out the back door, a stone patio with a pretty teakwood table and a gas grill.

She strode out the back door. Alone, she stood on the stone patio and stared out at the grasslands of Texas. In the distance there were the hills that made Hill Country a destination for many travelers. It was late May, and the grass was green; wildflowers bloomed.

Footsteps told her she was no longer alone. Duke touched her back, his hand resting lightly. She had a sudden, overwhelming urge to lean into his embrace, to welcome the comfort he was offering. She wanted to soak up his scent, his strength. She turned to tell him this was too much, that she couldn’t accept it, but when she turned, his arms went around her, and he pulled her close, bending to drop a kiss on the top of her head. It was what she’d dreamed of, and the last thing she wanted.

No, she didn’t want to need him. But she couldn’t make herself pull free from the embrace and all it offered.

“It’s just a house, Oregon. It isn’t a commitment. It isn’t a ridiculous proposal offered on the spur of the moment. It’s a place to live.”

“It’s too much,” she tried to insist.

“You’ve raised my daughter alone for twelve years. I think I owe you a home to live in and more. Let me do this.”

She nodded. “Thank you.”

“Thank you. For bringing her here...and for telling me.”

Behind them they heard the sound of crutches on the tile floor of the kitchen, then the squeak of the screen door. Oregon wiped her eyes and moved away from him to face her daughter. Lilly looked from Duke to Oregon, her eyes wide, suspicious.

“What’s going on?” Lilly asked.

“Let’s sit down out here and we’ll talk,” Oregon said with a lightness she was far from feeling.

“I’ll get us a glass of tea,” Duke offered.

Oregon nodded, accepting the offer as she held out a chair for Lilly. Her daughter sat and was immediately joined by the dog.

“What’s your dog’s name, Duke?” Lilly asked.

“Daisy.”

“Very manly,” Lilly teased. Her smile was back, but she wouldn’t offer it to Oregon.

Duke returned with three glasses of tea on a tray. “I stocked the fridge and cabinets.”

“You didn’t have to do that.” Oregon didn’t want him taking over, feeling as if he suddenly had to provide for them. Her shop, selling handmade creations of her own design, was doing quite well. She hadn’t come here for support, for money. She just wanted her daughter to have what she’d never had. A real dad. A place to call home.

“I know I don’t have to, Oregon. I wanted to make things easier for you.”

“What if I’d said no?” she countered as she lifted the glass, condensation making the outside damp and cold.

“Okay, could we not start some kind of family disagreement,” Lilly said. And then she looked at the two of them. “We’re not a family.”