Should've Been A Cowboy & Cowboy Up: Should've Been a Cowboy / Cowboy Up

His touch was warm, seductive. She wanted to nestle into his arms and savor the feeling of belonging that she always felt there. “See?” She gazed up at him. “Gabe was right. You’re an honorary Chance and that means you get some of the Chance luck.”

He smiled and stroked her arm. “It seems to be working for me so far. I checked my condom supply and found an unopened box.”

The question was out before she gave herself time to think. “And when was the last time you checked your condom supply?” Then she realized how jealous and possessive that sounded. “Don’t answer that. It’s none of my business.”

His gaze was steady. “It’s been a few months.”

And she shouldn’t be so damn happy about that, but she was. Whoever he’d been involved with hadn’t turned into a serious girlfriend. She didn’t want him to have a serious girlfriend, either, which was completely unfair, but the thought of him falling for someone made her miserable. How twisted was that?

He gave her arm a squeeze. “I’ll be counting the minutes until we can open that box. Now, let’s go face the family.”

Tyler wasn’t worried about that part. If she could handle a cruise ship full of passengers, she could deal with the Chances. In fact, she was looking forward to seeing them all together again and taking note of the changes that two more weddings had brought to the family dynamics.

As they walked into the dining room, all conversation stopped. Tyler glanced around quickly to make sure she recognized everybody. Sarah was at the far end of the linen-draped table, and on her right sat green-eyed Nick Chance and his bride, Dominique, a brunette with a pixie cut. The chair between Dominique and Alex’s sister, Josie, was empty, probably waiting for Alex. Jack was next to Josie.

Gabe and Morgan sat on the far side of the table, and Morgan also had an empty chair beside her, no doubt reserved for Tyler. A pretty blonde woman who looked to be in her fifties occupied the next chair, and a ruggedly handsome man of about the same age sat next to her.

Tyler finally remembered who they were. The woman, Pam Mulholland, owned the Bunk and Grub B and B down the road and was somehow related to the Chance family. The man next to her was Emmett Sterling, the ranch foreman, and he was dating Pam. Coupling up seemed to be the norm around here.

“There you are!” Sarah was the first to speak. “You both clean up real good.”

“Thanks.” Tyler smiled. “It’s great to see everybody again. And I sure hope you all have your thinking caps on, because Alex and I have been trying to figure out how to keep tomorrow’s guests out of the rain. The barn is one option, but we need some more.”

Nick glanced over at them. “I could have sworn you ordered some event canopies, Alex. I remember talking about it.”

“I ordered three,” Alex said. “But only one made it here. I’ve exhausted all the options for getting any more by tomorrow.”

Jack set down his empty beer bottle. “The tractor barn. We’ll move the equipment to a back pasture, temporarily cover it with tarps to protect it from the weather, do some cleanup, and use that space.”

“That’s a great idea,” Alex said. “I didn’t know that was possible, but—”

“Hold it.” Mary Lou bustled in, carrying a steaming plate in each hand. “No more talk of the open house until these two eat. Tyler, I want you over there between your sister and Pam. Alex, you can sit next to Josie.” She deposited the plates at the designated places. “Who needs coffee?”

A chorus of requests went up.

“I’d love some, too,” Tyler said as she walked around the table toward her chair. Before she made it there, Gabe came to his feet and pulled the chair out for her. She thanked him and glanced down the table, noting Sarah’s pleased smile. “I’ll bet you drilled manners into these guys when you raised them.”

Nick rolled his eyes. “Tyler, you have no idea.”

“Remember those Sunday dinners?” Gabe said.

Nick and Jack both groaned.

“Pure torture,” Jack said. “She would use every blessed piece of silverware in the drawer and we couldn’t eat until we’d correctly identified all of them. The forks were the worst. I was the only guy my age who could tell you what a seafood fork looked like.”

“I was not about to raise a bunch of country bumpkins,” Sarah said.

“Sounds like a great idea to me,” Morgan said. “Between Sarah covering manners and Jonathan showing them the finer points of country swing, I’d say the Chance boys got the perfect education.” She patted her tummy. “I want the same for this little...kid.”

“Ah, you almost slipped, Morgan!” Sarah’s face was alight with anticipation. “You’ll tell us the sex of that baby, yet.”

Gabe looked fondly at his wife. “Nope. It’s going to be our secret until July 2.”

“But I’m really serious about the manners and the dancing, Sarah,” Morgan said. “I want this kid to be able to handle a fancy meal and navigate a two-step.”

Tyler put her napkin in her lap. “It’s not a bad idea to know those things. I had to learn on the job.”

“You must have,” Morgan said. “There wasn’t a lot of formal training going on in the O’Connelli van.”

“Lots of ideals, though.” Tyler cut into her steak. Suddenly she was starving. Making love to Alex had taken her mind off food, but now that he was across the table from her and completely out of reach, she breathed in the aroma of a meal carefully prepared, and she settled in to enjoy it.

“You’re right about the ideals,” Morgan said. “We were taught respect—of ourselves, other people and Mother Earth. That was a good thing.”

“It is a good thing.” Dominique looked across the table at Morgan. “That reminds me. Did you take your parents out to the sacred site while they were here for the wedding? It seems like something they’d like.”

“There wasn’t time. When they come back, I definitely will. They would love it.”

Tyler swallowed a bite of the best steak she’d had in ages and cut herself another one. “What sacred site?”

Dominique gave Nick a warm glance before turning back to Tyler. “You should get Morgan to take you out there while you’re here. It’s a large, flat rock that’s big enough for you to park a pickup on, although you wouldn’t want to. The rock is granite laced with quartz. The veins of quartz sparkle in the sun...or in the moonlight.”

Tyler figured Dominique and Nick had shared some moonlit time on that rock. She was intrigued. “And why is it sacred?”

“It’s part of the Shoshone tribe’s belief system.” Emmett hooked an arm around Pam’s chair and leaned forward to look down the table at Tyler. “When Archie and Nelsie Chance moved onto the ranch property, they discovered that the tribe conducted ceremonies out there, even though the land didn’t officially belong to them. So Archie and Nelsie told them they were welcome to continue, but the tribe doesn’t hold ceremonies much these days.”

“Wow.” Tyler glanced over at Morgan. “You have to take Mom and Dad out there next time they visit. They would eat that up with a spoon. I’m surprised you didn’t make time while they were here last summer.”

“I thought of it. I just...didn’t want to encourage any weirdness during the wedding.” She winked at Tyler. “If you know what I mean.”

“Oh, totally. Good call. They could have decided you needed a shaman to bless your union, and no telling what else they would have dreamed up once they were inspired by an ancient Native American ceremonial site.” Tyler turned back to Emmett. “So what’s this sacred stone supposed to do for a person?”

“According to legend, it provides clarity. So if you’re dealing with some issue and you’re mixed up about it, the stone is supposed to help you figure it out.”

“That could come in handy.”

“Oh, it has,” Nick said. Once again he and Dominique exchanged a fond glance.

Jack cleared his throat. “Then again, sometimes it’s just a great place to share a few beers with your brother.”

“That, too,” Nick agreed.

“Well, now I have to see this sacred site,” Tyler said. “I don’t have any large issues I’m dealing with, but I still want to see it. After all, I was raised by flower children, so even though I’ve left that life behind, I haven’t completely rooted out those woo-woo tendencies.”

Gabe put down his coffee cup. “Neither has Morgan. We took a trip out there when we were deciding on names for the baby.”

“Just don’t call her Sunshine or Starlight,” Tyler said.

“Or Moonbeam,” Morgan said with a laugh. “Don’t worry. It’ll be a gender-specific name that won’t make a single person wince. I promise.”