Montana cowboy bride, p.1
Montana Cowboy Bride, page 1
Montana Cowboy Bride
A Wyatt Brothers Romance
Jane Porter
Montana Cowboy Bride
Copyright© 2023 Jane Porter
EPUB Edition
The Tule Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
First Publication by Tule Publishing 2023
Cover design by Lee Hyat at www.LeeHyat.com
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
ISBN: 978-1-957748-40-5
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Dedication
Monti Shalosky
This one is for you!
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Epilogue
The Wyatt Brothers of Montana series
More by Jane Porter
About the Author
Prologue
New Year’s Day, Wyoming
Briar Phillips had driven all night to reach the Sundowner Ranch from her home in Paradise Valley, Montana. Her dad thought she was at a New Year’s Eve party. Instead, she was on the highway with a full tank of gas and a turkey and cheese sandwich she’d picked up inside the gas station’s mini market. She’d only discovered where her half brother was a day ago. Now that she knew Cade Hunt managed the Sundowner, she tossed an overnight bag into the car and went.
It didn’t matter that the weather wasn’t the best. It didn’t matter that it was the holidays. It didn’t matter that he was in Wyoming and not Montana. She just had to find him. She’d been looking for him forever.
But now that she was at the Sundowner and one of the bleary-eyed cowboys outside pointed her to an old log cabin, she was finally meeting him, finally face-to-face.
She’d surprised him at the door, and he invited her in, saying it had been a big night. They’d recently welcomed a baby.
Clearly, she’d come at the wrong time, but she’d been waiting years to meet him. Years to find family that was hers, that she belonged to … genetics, DNA, home.
But now that she was face-to-face with him, Briar wasn’t sure what to feel. Cade didn’t look anything like her. He was very tall and broad through the shoulders. He had a big frame, strong face with a square jaw. She was a brunette, but he was fair, with thick sandy-blond hair, light eyes, and a firm mouth that didn’t seem as if it knew how to smile.
Cade introduced her to his wife, MerriBee, and their new baby, and then MerriBee and the baby disappeared into the bedroom, and Cade had Briar join him in the kitchen as he made a fresh pot of coffee. “This is a shock,” he said.
“I probably should have warned you,” she said, “but once I knew where you were, I couldn’t stay away.”
“I’m glad you’re here,” he said, facing her.
She searched his expression wondering if that was how he truly felt. “It’s taken me a long time to find you.” She tried to make it a joke. “Were you hiding?”
“No.”
He didn’t get the joke and her desire to smile faded. “Why did you change your name? I’d spent two years looking for a Cade O’Connell—”
“I changed it after Mom died and I found out that my stepfather was just my stepfather and not my dad.” He gestured to the coffeepot now brewing. “I didn’t even ask if you wanted coffee. Would you prefer something else? Tea, a soda, water?”
“Coffee’s great. My favorite drink.”
“Mom used to drink a lot of it, too,” Cade said.
“Really?” Briar glanced around the log cabin, wondering if there were any pictures of their mom. “I know nothing about her. She left me a letter. I got to read it when I was eighteen. She told me in the letter about you. She said her husband Jimmy wasn’t my dad so I couldn’t live with them.”
“Jimmy wasn’t my dad either and was a horrible human being. You’re lucky to have been raised somewhere else.”
“It was that bad?”
Cade nodded.
She swallowed, uncertain why a lump filled her throat. “Do you have any photos of Suzy? Our mom?”
“I have a couple but they’re all in storage. We recently converted the spare room into the baby’s room and so a lot of things ended up in boxes in the attic.”
“You must miss her,” Briar said.
He shrugged. “She wasn’t happy, and then she wasn’t well. She’s probably better where she is—”
“Dead?” Briar interrupted, shocked.
“Out of pain,” he said. “No longer suffering.”
The heaviness returned to Briar, sinking in her, from her shoulders to her chest and down into her belly. “Did I do that to her?”
Cade grabbed two mugs from an open shelf and filled them with coffee. “Why would you think that?”
“You said she wasn’t happy. That she was suffering.”
“Did she regret giving you up? Probably. But I don’t think she had any other choice. She did what she did to give you a better life.” He handed her the coffee and then gestured to the bruise on her cheek.
It took Briar a moment to understand, and she lifted her hand, lightly touching her cheek. She’d forgotten all about the mark. “Oh, no. That’s nothing. You should have seen it two weeks ago.”
“It’s a pretty ugly bruise. Takes up half your face.”
“Hardly. I should have known better. I was being impatient.”
“Impatient doing what?”
“Training. I work with horses. I like horses. Probably the only thing I like.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “Bad home life?”
“No. My parents are great. I shouldn’t complain about them. I shouldn’t have anything to complain about.”
“But you do.”
Suddenly her chest tightened, and she couldn’t breathe. “Are there some things I’d change? Yes. My mom passed away when I was in high school, and I wish she was still with us today. My dad’s a really good man, and he tries hard, but he misses her terribly and I haven’t been easy on him.”
“That’s part of being a teenager. But you’re growing up, growing out of it now.”
She nodded but the emotion was hitting hard, so much emotion. She’d been looking for her brother for so many years and he didn’t seem all that excited to see her. Perhaps she’d expected too much, wanting so badly to have family that was connected by blood. She didn’t know why it mattered but for most of her life Briar had just felt out of step … different. Problematic. She’d hoped finding Cade would help ease some of that emptiness. Instead, she felt even more alone.
“What’s wrong?” Cade asked, his blue gaze narrowing.
She shook her head, forced a smile, not wanting to be an emotional wreck already. Her brother was thirteen years older and had grown up in a tough family and he didn’t need a half sister to show up bawling on his doorstep. “Just glad to finally find you,” she said huskily, smiling bigger, hoping the smile would hold back tears.
“Not that it’s a competition,” he said, jaw easing, his expression warmer. “I’ve been looking for you a long time, too. I’ve been looking for you even longer than you’ve been looking for me. I’ve been worried about you, worried you weren’t in a good situation, worried you needed me and I was nowhere to be found.”
“My family couldn’t have been nicer. My dad, Patrick, is a pastor. My mom, Joany, was one of the best human beings on this planet. I guess that’s why God needed her back.” Briar swallowed hard, a lump filling her throat. She studied Cade carefully, trying to see a family resemblance. She wasn’t finding what she’d hoped to find in his face. “Do you look like Mom … our mom?”
“No,” he said. “But she was beautiful.”
“She was?”
He nodded, expression somber.
His expression made her chest tighten and ache and her eyes sting, hot and gritty. “What did she look like?”
“You,” Cade said almost grimly. “Just like you.”
Chapter One
The first time Briar Phillips showed up at the Sundowner Ranch, was also the last time.
It had been a little over a year ago and she’d been desperate and emotional, angry and broken. She didn’t know what she wanted from her older brother Cade, except he hadn’t given it to her, and by the time she left three days later, she wished she’d never found him. She’d dreamed about meeting h
No, that first meeting over New Year’s hadn’t been encouraging, and when she’d left, she’d stormed off after telling him in no uncertain terms what she thought of him, and it wasn’t flattering. She was certain she’d burned those bridges but when she’d gotten a birthday present six weeks later from Cade and MerriBee, the card glossed over the fallout, and wished her the happiest twenty-first birthday and sent lots of love.
Briar had been sure the gift was from MerriBee not Cade, but Cade’s signature had been there at the bottom of the card, along with the scrawled message, You’re always welcome here, sis.
Briar hadn’t thought she’d return to the Sundowner anytime soon, but here she was, in her truck, with a suitcase and duffel bag, hauling her horse trailer—with horse.
She’d pretty much arrived at the ranch with everything she owned, and she wasn’t angry and broken this time, but she wasn’t happy, either. The truth was, she wasn’t in a good place, and she didn’t want or need help from anyone, she just needed some time to figure out her next move, a place that could have her and her horse. Briar had put herself in this situation and she’d figure out the next steps and with Dad in Australia as part of a cowboy church outreach, it seemed like a good time to head to Wyoming and come up with a plan without speculation from her dad’s congregation, or Marietta busybodies.
Having been raised by good, kind, generous, God-loving parents, Briar knew right from wrong. She couldn’t have asked for a better family, or a more caring family and knew what responsibility looked like and knew that as an adult what was expected of her. But she’d chosen a different path than the one her family would want for her. To be fair, it wasn’t the path she’d wanted for herself, but she was on it now thanks to her own recklessness, and she’d had to live with the consequences as well.
Those consequences chiefly being a baby and her being single.
It wasn’t the end of the world to be a single mother, but at the same time it added complications as generous measures of pain and regret.
Briar regretted creating pain for her father. She regretted making stupid choices. She regretted her immaturity and hotheadedness, and she was a hothead. She’d been a hothead her entire life. Her late mom used to joke that Briar had to be a redhead; that somewhere beneath all that dark brown hair, there was a little shock of red. But no, it was just Briar … fierce, feisty, and foolishly independent.
From a very young age she’d wanted to do it on my own, and by myself. She could remember roaring at her parents to let her stir something by herself, without their help. She didn’t remember if it was a brownie mix or pancakes, but she’d been stirring something with a wood spoon and making a huge mess and she hadn’t wanted her mother to take the spoon back or try to slow her down. Her mother had been a saint, and she didn’t get angry. Instead, she laughed and kissed the top of Briar’s head, but the laughter didn’t last as Briar grew older and continued to roar at them, demanding freedom and independence, insisting they let her be herself and refusing to be corralled or redirected. She was who she was and not their puppet or doll, and they’d have to accept it whether they liked it or not.
Parking the truck in an empty spot between Cade’s cabin and the ranch’s big barn, she turned the engine off, feeling a sharp pinch of regret.
She hadn’t been an easy daughter, and she’d tried their patience, and their faith, and that was something considering her father was a pastor, and a visible respected man of faith in the professional rodeo cowboy circuit. It couldn’t have been easy for either her mom or dad being challenged right and left. Now with her mom gone, and just Dad remaining, Briar couldn’t stay with him at her childhood home, getting bigger and bigger while her dad struggled to come to terms with her unplanned pregnancy, biting his tongue to hold back his fears, while nightly praying over her, wanting her to get right with the Lord.
No, remaining at home wasn’t the answer, and while she tried to figure out the answer, she needed someplace to live, someplace her horse could live, someplace they could be together.
Briar drew the key from the ignition, took a deep breath, and stepped out of the truck, her boots crunching the combination of gravel, ice, and mud that covered the drive. The last snow had been weeks ago but the cold temperatures at night refroze whatever melted during the day, and while fresh snow was pretty, the dirty patches that remained weren’t.
Briar peeked into her trailer, checked on Judas, and he nickered at her, his impatient let-me-out nicker, and she smiled grimly, feeling his pain.
Turning away, she walked quickly toward Cade and MerriBee’s old log cabin, which had been one of the first buildings on the Wyoming property, constructed of old timber over one hundred and fifty years ago, one of the many facts Cade had told her as he took her on a tour of the Sundowner her first and only other time here. He’d been as proud of the place as if he owned it instead of managing it for a rich old lady who had never married or had kids. It was one of the things that had gotten Briar’s back up—his devotion to this woman who wasn’t family—and his brusqueness with her, Briar, who was family. She’d never had any biological family, no one who’d been hers, until him, and then he hadn’t seemed to care one way or another.
And maybe that wasn’t totally fair, because he’d been so happy to meet her, initially. But as the days passed, he didn’t seem to like who she was. Maybe because she didn’t like who she was, but that was in the past, and she was moving forward. Hopefully, Cade could move forward, too, because she needed a job.
Job hunting was problematic for her seeing as she had a high school diploma but not a lot of business skills. She was skilled with horses, though. She could ride, rope, and train horses, young, old, and everything in between. At home, she spent most of her time in the barn, or over at her neighbor’s horse farm where she exercised the horses, cleaned stalls, and helped groom and feed them.
Briar was happiest in the stables or the paddock, her boots caked with dirt and muck, hat on her head, treats in her coat pockets to win over the stubborn horses and reward the sweet ones. Soft words went so much further than harsh ones. Treats were better than punitive actions. The horses trusted her, even the most fearful.
If only she trusted herself.
If only she wasn’t afraid, because she was. She was afraid that in three and a half months she’d be struggling with a baby, struggling to make ends meet. She didn’t know the first thing about small humans. She’d always preferred dog sitting to babysitting. Yes, she’d had good parents herself, but that didn’t mean she was meant to be a mom—not that fate cared.
Abortion hadn’t been an option. She hadn’t considered it for even two minutes. She just knew she couldn’t do it, wouldn’t do it, and it wasn’t because of her dad, or the church, or God, or some politician sitting in a big office somewhere to tell her it was wrong. It wasn’t right for her because it wasn’t right for her. End of story.
Stopping in front of the cabin’s front door, Briar noted the car to the left of the building, a little navy Subaru with snow tires, but Cade’s truck was missing. Perhaps he was out on the property, or up at the big house. She knew he spent a lot of time with Miss Warner, the owner of the ranch.
Smashing the flurry of nerves, Briar used the bronze knocker on the door, a brisk bang-bang and waited. She couldn’t hear any noise inside, and perhaps it was the thick logs, but it did seem awfully quiet. Briar stepped back and crossed to the window and peeked in. The kitchen was dark. She couldn’t see any lights on in the rest of the house.
“They’re not here,” a deep male voice said behind her.
Briar turned quickly, caught off guard. She hadn’t heard anyone approach and hadn’t realized she’d been seen.
“Do you know where they are?” she asked, her gaze lifting and sweeping over the tall cowboy.
His taupe felt cowboy hat was pulled down low on his head, hiding his hair, but not the dark brown sideburns, the same dark brown as his eyebrows and lashes.
