The Texan's Future Bride

He made a face, and Jenna smiled to herself. Machismo. He certainly behaved like a cowboy.

She stopped smiling. She was actually taking this man home with her, and she knew darn well that he was as attracted to her as she was to him.

But they weren’t going to act on it. They were both cautious enough not to let it take over. So it would be fine, she assured herself. He would be a recuperating guest, a patient of Doc’s, and nothing more.

She turned on the radio, and they listened to music instead of talking.

Finally, when they were on the private road leading to the ranch, he glanced over at her and said, “Déjà vu,” making a joke about repeating his car-ride experience from yesterday.

She tried to make light of it, too. “Your first encounter with it.”

“That I’m able to remember. I probably had déjà vu in my old life.”

His old life. That made it sound as if he’d become someone new. She supposed that, at least for now, he was a different person. But since she didn’t know who he was before, she couldn’t compare the old with the new.

“I wonder if I should put you in the dream cabin.”

“The cabins have names? Is that part of the B and B thing?”

“No. The dream cabin is what everyone on the ranch has been calling it, for years, amongst themselves. So we call it that, too. It has an old feather bed that used to belong to our great-grandmother. She had the gift of second sight, and her visions came in the form of dreams while she was sleeping in it.”

“Interesting family history.”

“The bed is magical.”

He openly disagreed. “Your great-granny having visions in the bed doesn’t make it magical.”

“Other people have had vision-type dreams while sleeping in it, too. Tammy had dreams about Doc. Then later, he had a life-altering dream about her, and he wasn’t even at the cabin when it happened to him. But we figured that her dreams triggered his, so the feather bed was still part of it.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t put me in that cabin.”

“Why? Don’t you want to have a dream that might come true?”

“It just seems like something that should stay within your family.”

“Doc wasn’t in our family until he and Tammy got engaged.”

“I’m not going to get engaged to anyone.”

Their discussion was barreling down an uncomfortable path. She struggled to rein it back in. “I wasn’t insinuating that you were.”

“I don’t understand the point of me sleeping in the bed.”

“You might have a dream that will help you regain your memory.”

“I can’t imagine that.”

She parked in front of the main house. “Anything is possible. Wait here and I’ll get the key to the cabin.” She went inside, wondering why he wasn’t more interested in the bed. Didn’t he want to regain his memory?

She returned with the key, and he sat in the passenger seat, looking tired and confused.

He said, “I don’t mean to offend you, Jenna, but I don’t know if I believe in magic.”

Ah, so that was it. He was a skeptic. “You just need to recover, J.D. and let the rest of it happen naturally.”

“Magic isn’t natural.”

“I didn’t used to think so, either. But I’ve become open-minded about it since Tammy and Doc had their dreams.”

He didn’t respond, but it was just as well. She didn’t want to discuss the details of Doc and Tammy’s romance with him.

She took him to the cabin. They went inside, and she showed him around.

“This place was locked up for a long time,” she said. “But we aired it out and put some modern appliances in it.”

“Like the gourmet coffeemaker?”

She nodded. “Eventually we’re going to use it as one of the rental cabins. We think people will be fascinated by the magic associated with the bed. Of course we can’t guarantee that they’ll dream while they’re here.”

“You can’t make that guarantee for me, either.”

“No, but I think it’s worth a shot.”

They entered the bedroom, and since the bed had already been presented as a focal point, it stood out like a sore thumb, even though it had been designed to look soft and inviting. The quilt was a soft chocolate-brown, with a sheepskin throw draped across it.

He ran his hand across the sheepskin. “Have you ever slept here?”

A sinful chill raced up her spine. Suddenly she was imagining sleeping there with him. “No.”

“If you believe in the bed’s magic, why haven’t you tried it yourself?”

“There’s nothing I need to dream about. Besides, there’s another story about someone who stayed here that’s been bothering me.”

He frowned. “Who?

Jenna winced. She should have kept her mouth shut. “Someone named Savannah Jeffries. She was my uncle’s girlfriend when they were younger.” She was also the woman who’d had a scandalous tryst with Jenna’s father, but she wasn’t about to mention that part.

“Did she dream while she was here?”

“I don’t know. Tammy accidentally discovered a secret Savannah was keeping, though, and now my family has been talking about hiring a P.I. to search for her.”

“Why? Did she go missing?” He wrinkled his forehead. “Was there foul play involved?”

“No. She left town on her own. When Tammy first discovered her secret, all of us girls—Tammy, my sister Donna and I—tried to find out things about her on the internet, but nothing turned up.”

“Sounds like you want to find her.”

“I’m curious about her, but I’d just as soon let sleeping dogs lie.” She purposely changed the subject. She wasn’t prepared to discuss Savannah’s secret or the possible ramifications of it. “Doc will have my hide if I don’t let you rest, so I’m going to get going. But I’ll come back and bring you something to eat. I’ll bring some extra groceries and stock the fridge for future meals, too. Oh, and I’ll see if I can drum up some clothes that will fit you.” She motioned to his rugged ensemble. “You’re going to need more than one shirt and one pair of jeans.”