The Cowboy Earns a Bride (Cowboys of Chance Creek Book 8)

  The Cowboy Earns a Bride

  By Cora Seton

  Copyright © 2014 Cora Seton

  Kindle Edition

  Published by One Acre Press

  ISBN: 978-1-927036-65-5

  Author’s Note

  The Cowboy Earns a Bride is Volume 8 of the Cowboys of Chance Creek series, set in the fictional town of Chance Creek, Montana. To find out more about Luke, Mia, Fila, Camila and other Chance Creek inhabitants, look for the rest of the books in the series, including:

  The Cowboy’s E-mail Order Bride (Volume 1)

  The Cowboy Wins a Bride (Volume 2)

  The Cowboy Imports a Bride (Volume 3)

  The Cowgirl Ropes a Billionaire (Volume 4)

  The Sheriff Catches a Bride (Volume 5)

  The Cowboy Lassos a Bride (Volume 6)

  The Cowboy Rescues a Bride (Volume 7)

  Visit www.coraseton.com for more titles and release dates.

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  Chapter One

  “That’s close enough.”

  Mia Start lifted the shotgun and sighted down its length, her fingers trembling not from fear, but from the bitter cold of the early morning air. In the field of brightness created by her truck’s headlights, her form-fitting, quilted, pink winter coat was the only splash of color in a quarter mile. Beyond her, the snow-covered fields and forests that lined the icy, back-country road were as black as a Montana midnight, even though it was half-past five in the morning.

  “For God’s sake, Mia—put down the gun.” Ellis Scranton wore a formal gray wool coat over his customary suit and lifted a hand to screen his face from the truck’s high beams. His Mercedes’ lights were on, too, but weren’t nearly as bright.

  He didn’t look armed.

  She still didn’t trust him.

  “Why’d you want to meet me?” She’d been more than a little surprised to get his text late the night before and barely slept in the intervening hours. Today was Valentine’s Day—hardly the time to meet with your ex. In her fantasies she’d imagined spending the day in bed with Luke Matheson, the cowboy whose spare room she currently rented.

  The cowboy she’d never get to be with—because of Ellis.

  She and Ellis had broken off their relationship nearly four months ago when she announced her pregnancy and he announced he’d been lying all along; he didn’t love her, didn’t intend to divorce his wife and didn’t intend to help raise their child, either.

  “We need to talk.” Ellis took a step closer. Mia raised the gun half an inch.

  No, they didn’t. She’d moved on. It hadn’t taken her long to realize she’d been nothing more than a mid-life crisis to the forty-two-year-old man. The difference in their ages had once excited her. Now it disgusted her. She didn’t want him in her life—or in her baby’s either.

  She was struggling with the consequences of their affair. She’d moved out of her parents’ home before they could learn their twenty-one-year-old daughter was dating a middle-aged man—a middle-aged married man. The room she rented from Luke in his cabin on the Double-Bar-K ate most of her earnings from her job at the local hardware store. Soon she’d work for her friends Fila and Camila at their brand-new restaurant, but that wouldn’t involve a wage increase. She knew she should force Ellis to pay child support, but that meant keeping him involved in her baby’s life. She didn’t want that. She just didn’t know how else she could possibly raise this child.

  The worst part of the whole mess, though, was the ache of knowing she’d caused pain to another woman—another mother. She’d been so swept away by the older man’s attentions, she hadn’t thought about his wife’s feelings at all. Ellis had told her he and Elaine were practically separated—that they didn’t talk, didn’t share a bed, certainly didn’t make love. He’d told her he’d divorce Elaine as soon as he could. All lies. And she’d been stupid enough to believe them.

  “Say what you have to say.”

  He lifted his hands. “Are you going to shoot me?”

  She took in his tired, lined face, his thinning hair and felt a wave of revulsion, but not over his looks. It was his deception that killed her—the fact he’d even pretended to love her. If only he’d been honest, she wouldn’t be in this fix.

  If only she’d met Luke first.

  “You’re the one who asked me to meet you on a deserted road at the crack of dawn. Maybe you’re the one planning to shoot me.”

  “Fair enough. I deserve that.”

  Mia narrowed her eyes. This was new. Ellis never admitted he was to blame for anything.

  “I’m here to say good-bye, Mia.”

  She lowered the shotgun an inch. “Where are you going?”

  “Wyoming. Elaine has family there.” He took a deep breath. “She and I, we’re going to try to make a go of it. We’ll start over somewhere new, somewhere no one knows about the way I screwed up. I owe it to her. I owe it to my children. None of them can hold their heads up in this town.”

  “You think I can?” She couldn’t keep her resentment out of her voice. She was over him. Long over him. Yet it hurt to be the one used and discarded.

  “No one knows that’s my baby.”

  “It won’t be hard for them to put two and two together. Everyone’s gossiping about us seeing each other.”

  “All the more reason I’ve got to go. But that doesn’t mean you can’t change the story once I’m gone. Tell them what you want—you had a one-night stand with a stranger. Someone from out of town. Just don’t bring me into it. I’ll deny it all the way.” He took a deep breath. “Look, I’m sorry, Mia. I’ve been an ass from start to finish. You’re right to hate me. When I think about how I came in and ruined your life, I just want to… Well, I think my leaving is the best thing I can do.”

  A chill ran through her that had nothing to do with the weather. “Just like that? You’ll leave me pregnant? Alone? I have no money, Ellis! What about the cost of the birth?”

  “This should help.” He held out a small white envelope.

  “A couple of fifties won’t get it done!” She didn’t recognize her own voice. She sounded desperate, as if she wasn’t over him at all. It wasn’t Ellis’s desire to leave that had her tied up in knots, however. It was fear. Of being destitute. Of having to give up her child. Of failing…

  “It’s not a couple fifties. I wouldn’t do that to you, no matter how big an ass you think I am.” For one moment the old Ellis was back. The confident man who’d swept her off her feet. “Just don’t go and blow it all on pretty clothes and a vacation to Hawaii. Go to Matt Underwood, the accountant—you know him, right? Ask him for help when you make your decisions. It takes a lot of cash to raise a kid right. More than you know.”

  Anger surged through her. He was speaking to her as if she was some dumb child herself. “And this is it? I’ll never see you again?”

  He studied her, as if trying to decide whether she was happy or sad about that. “That’s right. Never again. But you won’t be alone for long. That Luke Matheson will have you married in no time and you can bank on that family. You’ve lived with him since December, right? With a little luck you can pass that baby off as his.”

  “I would never do that. I’m not a liar, like—” She stopped mid-sentence. What was the use? Ellis was leaving. She let the shotgun drop. He stepped toward her.

  “You’re going to be okay, Mia. Let me be okay, too.”

  “Fine.” She tucked the firearm under her arm, strode forward and ripped the envelope from his hand. “But you keep out of my life. Don’t ever come back—don’t ever come looking
for this child. You’ve given up the right to have anything to do with him.”

  Ellis nodded, turned his back and walked quickly to his car. The Mercedes pulled away before Mia even made it back to her truck. Sitting in the cold cab, she tore the envelope open, expecting another of Ellis’s tricks. It was too thin for its contents to amount to much. A few hundred. Maybe a thousand. There was no way—

  Mia stared at the cashier’s check she pulled from the envelope.

  Two hundred thousand dollars. Ellis had given her two hundred thousand dollars. A wave of dizziness crashed over her as she realized what this meant.

  Ellis was out of her life. Forever. But he’d given her the means to do what she’d known for months she’d have to do.

  Raise this baby alone.

  It was several long minutes before she could start the truck and pull back onto the road. As she drove down through the dark, silent country highway toward the Double-Bar-K, Mia decided she needed a cup of decaf coffee before she could face her day. She wished she could get the caffeinated kind, but she’d have to wait a few more months for that. She bypassed the ranch and headed into town.

  She couldn’t sort through her emotions. She was relieved Ellis was gone. She’d lived in fear of being called out for their affair for months, and she knew the minute friends and acquaintances spotted her pregnancy, they’d have a lot to say. With Ellis—and his wife and children—out of the way, the speculation would be easier to bear. Mia would carry her shame for hurting Elaine the rest of her life; she didn’t need everyone in town pointing their fingers at her. She felt hopeful, too. The money he’d given her would go a long way toward raising her baby in comfort. The money brought its own problems, however. Ellis might think Luke would step in and marry her, but she knew better. No man as proud as Luke Matheson would want a pregnant bride. By giving her enough cash to move out from Luke’s spare room, Ellis had unwittingly ended her brief stint in paradise.

  Living with Luke had been a dream, the kind you never wanted to awake from, but she’d never slept with the cowboy—only kissed him once. It had been enough for her to be close to him. To get to see him first thing in the morning and last thing before going to bed at night. To fall asleep knowing only a bedroom wall separated them. That proximity had kept her hopes alive.

  Now it was time to leave all that behind, and with Ellis’s money, she didn’t even have the excuse anymore that she was too poor to move.

  Two hundred thousand dollars.

  She wasn’t poor anymore.

  She parked on the street near Linda’s Diner, which opened early to suit the hours of the hardworking ranchers who lived in these parts. She found a booth where she could escape notice and smiled gratefully when the waitress, Tracey Richards, poured her a cup of decaf without even being asked.

  “Anything else?”

  “No.” Mia thanked her and took a sip of the scalding liquid. She should have known she wasn’t meant for happiness. Men always caused her trouble. Ellis Scranton was only the latest example. She shook her head at the memory of a worse offender—Fred Warner—pushing down the ache of pain it caused. Warner had ruined her beauty pageant career—no great loss except that it had dashed her mother’s hopes of having a beauty queen for a daughter, and ended the closeness between them long before Mia’s indiscretions with Ellis did. Ellis was the root of all her current distress, though. If only she’d never met him!

  No.

  Mia placed a protective hand over her belly.

  No, she’d never wish their relationship away. Not really. If she’d never met Ellis, she wouldn’t have this baby—this baby who already meant the world to her. Yes, in a perfect world, she’d get to have Luke, too, but this wasn’t a perfect world.

  “Coffee and a bagel with cream cheese, please.”

  Mia looked up at the familiar voice and saw Inez Winter take a seat at one of the tables in the center of the diner. Inez caught her eye and quickly turned away, color staining her pale skin.

  Mia looked away just as quickly. She didn’t speak to Inez these days, although they’d once been good friends. Inez had been on the beauty pageant circuit, too. She’d been a contestant in Mia’s last pageant, back when they were both fifteen, but she hadn’t defended Mia when rumors started flying about her and Fred Warner, who was a pageant judge. Inez hadn’t said a word, even though Mia had seen her slip into a supply closet with the man during one of the practice sessions—the same closet he’d tried to lure Mia into before she’d told her mother about him.

  Mia bit her lip, swallowing the pain that never quite went away. Inez hadn’t spoken up. None of the other girls had. It had been Mia’s word against Warner’s and Warner won out.

  No one believed her when she told them he’d tried to kiss her—tried to touch her. Mia swallowed. The truth—the truth she’d told no one, not even her mother—was that he had touched her. She’d figured out pretty quickly that no one wanted to hear that. Just speaking up about Warner and saying he’d lured her into a closet was enough to start a firestorm that turned all the other contestants against her. At first, her mother though she’d lied, too. Mia had realized that if she told the whole truth—that his hands had gone all kinds of places on her body before she fought him off—everyone would hate her even more.

  So she hadn’t said a word.

  Mia took a deep cleansing breath and sipped her coffee. All that was years ago. She wasn’t a vulnerable little girl anymore. She was a woman—almost a mother. And now she had enough money to get her own place and begin a new life. She’d be strong for her son or daughter, and she’d always believe them when they told her things. She’d always protect them.

  “Mia?”

  Mia jerked and her coffee spilled over the side of her cup.

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

  Mia looked up into Inez’s serious face. “That’s okay.” Was Inez really talking to her? After six years of silence?

  Inez took a shaky breath. “Look, there’s something I should have said to you a long time ago. I want to say it now. Can I sit down?”

  Mia nodded, bracing herself for more recriminations. She didn’t know what she’d do if Inez dragged up the past and called her a liar again.

  “Fred Warner raped me.”

  Mia clapped a hand to her mouth and her eyes brimmed with tears. That was the last thing she’d expected Inez to say. “Oh my God, Inez. Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.” Inez blinked rapidly. “Well, actually, no—I’m not really fine, but I’m seeing a counselor and she urged me to talk to you when I told her what happened. I’m so sorry, Mia. I should’ve spoken up back then, but I was too scared. I didn’t want anyone to know what happened.”

  Mia took her hand. “It’s okay. I’m okay. He didn’t hurt me like that.”

  “But he tried, didn’t he?’ Inez scrubbed her eyes with the heel of her hand. “And you spoke up—you told people. I wanted to thank you for that. He would’ve come after me again if you hadn’t, I know it.”

  “I’m so sorry he hurt you. If I’d known—”

  “You couldn’t have known. And I wouldn’t have brought it up now, but I can’t stand the fact that you hate me—”

  “I never hated you,” Mia cried. “I just… missed you.”

  “I missed you, too.”

  Mia stood up, moved around the table and hugged Inez. “You don’t have to miss me anymore. Thank you for being brave enough to tell me. I swear I won’t breathe a word to anyone else.”

  Inez lifted her eyes to hers. “That’s just the thing. I want you to speak up. Fred Warner—he’s still judging beauty pageants.”

  “Did you get a nice gift for that lady friend of yours, Luke?”

  “I sure did, Mrs. Stone.” Luke Matheson smiled at the old woman who leaned on her cane on the front porch of her small house. Bundled up in her white winter coat, hat and gloves, she looked like a grandmotherly snowman. “Got her a real pretty bracelet to go with the flowers and candy I bought h
er.”

  “That’s one lucky girl. ’Course any woman would be lucky to have a man like you.”

  “I don’t know about that.” The compliment warmed him, though, as he shoveled the last bit of snow off her walkway. She’d been one of his favorite people ever since he was just a boy and she and her husband, Thomas Stone, a hired hand, lived at the Double-Bar-K. Back in those days when life on the ranch got too much for Luke, between his brothers’ scrapping and bickering and his father’s legendary bouts of temper, he’d escape to the little log house on the edge of the property the Stones had rented—a house that had long since been torn down. His own mother was no slouch, but Amanda Stone kept the tidiest house Luke had ever seen. Stepping into it, sitting down at her spotless table, and being served a snack on her clean, white china was a welcome change from the chaos at home.

  Amanda had always understood his need for order. Luke liked things in their place. He liked knowing what was going to happen next. He liked being prepared. His father and brothers, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy flying by the seats of their pants. Ned might keep his workshop tidy and Luke’s mother might have been spot on with the ranch’s accounts back when she did them, but the rest of them thrived on disorder and controversy. Sometimes Luke couldn’t stand it anymore. The Stones had moved off the ranch over a decade ago and bought a modest house on the west side of town. Now that Thomas had passed away, Amanda lived there alone.

  “Would you like some breakfast?”

  “Not today. I’ll be eating with the family. It’s Ned’s wedding day, you know.”

  “Tell him congratulations from me and get on home. You shouldn’t be over here messing with my walk today of all days.”

  “Glad to help, Mrs. Stone—and don’t you hesitate about turning your thermostat up if you’re chilly. There’s enough cash in your account to see you through the winter.” A few years back he’d come over to find her shivering and discovered she didn’t have the funds to pay her heating bill. Since then he’d arranged to pay a deposit to each of the utility companies in advance so if she was a little short she wouldn’t lose her services. He figured it was the least he could do. When she had car trouble six months ago, he’d taken the vehicle to the shop only to find the repair bill topped a thousand dollars. He told her it was a hundred and made up the difference because he knew how much independence meant to Amanda.