Accidental Mail Order Bride by J. S. Cooper
Chapter Eleven
“So,I really want to hear what brought you here,” Sadie asked me with wide eyes. “I hope I’m not being too forward, am I?”
“No, it’s fine. I’m pretty sure everyone at this table wants to know what got me here, aside from Amelia, of course.”
“Oh, so you were speaking with Amelia before you came?” Sadie asked.
“Sadie, let the girl speak,” Wyatt cut her off. “Please.”
“Excuse me, I’m just asking questions. You want to know the answers as much as I do.”
“Yeah, but I’m not a nosy parker like you. I’ll wait until she volunteers some information.”
“You’ll be waiting all your life,” Amelia muttered.
“What, Mom?” Wyatt looked at her.
“Nothing, son, nothing.” Amelia looked at me with a soft smile. “Lucy, don’t feel pressured to have to say anything. Obviously, my children want to know what’s going on, but you only have to speak when you’re good and ready.”
“No, it’s fine.” I took a deep breath as looked around at everyone at the table. “I’m sure that you all want to know why I came here from New York City to marry Beau, even though Beau and I had never met and we didn’t even know what each other looked like.”
“So you never even saw Beau before you decided to come?” Sadie’s eyes widened even more. “Wow. I don’t think I could ever do that.”
“But you don’t have to worry about that, Sadie.” Wyatt interrupted. “Because there’s no guy out there that wants to marry you.”
“That’s not true, actually.” Sadie looked prim. “In fact, I was asked out just last night.”
“Asked out by who?” Wyatt’s eyes narrowed.
“Guys!” Beau spoke up. “This is not your moment. Lucy said she wanted to tell us some stuff. And I, for one, I’m very interested to find out exactly what’s going on.”
“Sorry,” Sadie said, shooting a sideways glance at Wyatt. “But I do have a date, so there.”
“Who do you have a date with? The postman?” He rolled his eyes.
“You wish! I have a date with—”
“Guys!” It was Austin’s turn to interrupt them. “If you guys want to continue having this conversation, take it outside.”
“We’ll talk later,” Wyatt said with a glare.
He was obviously annoyed, and I looked at the affectionate looks on both Sadie’s and Wyatt’s faces and smiled to myself. It was obvious to me that they should be together, just as it was obvious to Amelia and Ranger. I could tell though, that Wyatt and Sadie had absolutely no clue that they were made for each other.
I wondered what it must feel like to be best friends with someone and be so comfortable with them but not realize that there was actually more there. I’d never had that sort of relationship with any man. It would be nice to have a male best friend. Even though I loved Olivia, and no one could ever take her place.
“So …” I cleared my throat. “As most of you know, I came from New York …”
Austin rolled his eyes. “Tell us something we don’t know.”
“Austin!” Amelia said, chiding him. “Don’t be rude to our guest.”
“Yes, Ma.” He sat back and pressed his lips together.
“So, I actually was born and raised in Brooklyn in the Prospect Park area. I don’t know if any of you guys know it.” They all stared at me blankly. “Well, it’s kind of a nice area now. It wasn’t really that great when I was growing up. My mom’s family lived there. Um, my grandparents passed away a while ago.” I bit my lip. “I didn’t really know my dad. He was my mom’s boyfriend. But when she told him she was pregnant, he took off.”
“Oh, that’s horrible!” Sadie said. “I can’t stand men like that.”
“Yeah, it was very unfortunate. But my mom was the best. She took care of me and she loved me and …”
“She sounds amazing,” Sadie said. “Is she going to come and visit as well?”
“No,” I said softly. I could feel myself becoming overwhelmed with emotion. “My mom actually passed away about a year ago.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry.” Sadie put her arm around my shoulder. “I didn’t know.”
“It’s okay.” I looked across the table and I could see Beau and Austin, both staring at me. I couldn’t tell what they were thinking from the expression on their faces, but they didn’t look like they hated me, which was good. “So, when my mom passed away, it was very sudden. We didn’t know she was sick, and I felt kind of lost. I was dating this guy at the time as well.”
“Oh, so you have a boyfriend.” Austin rolled his eyes. “Really?”
“No,” I said. “At the time, I was dating someone. I’m no longer dating him.” I sighed. “And he was a mistake in the first place. His name was Mikey. And I found out that he had ties to the Mafia.”
“No way!” Sadie said. “Like the Godfather or Goodfellas?”
“Well, not exactly.” I grimaced. “I mean, I didn’t really know his family that well, so maybe? We weren’t in a very serious relationship, and I didn’t really find out until I was getting ready to break up with him. And he was like, ‘You can’t break up with me.’ And I was like, ‘Well, I am breaking up with you.’ And he’s like, ‘Once you date me, you can never leave.’ And I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ And he’s like, ‘I’ll have my people get you.’” I stopped
Sadie’s mouth was hanging open and everyone else was looking at me in shock.
“Basically, he told me that he didn’t want to let me go, and that no woman could ever leave him,” I added. “And he’s sort of been harassing me ever since.”
“What do you mean by harassing you?” Beau sounded angry. “Is this something you want us to help take care of? Is that why you’re really here? Because you’re scared of this guy?”
“I think it’s a lot of different things,” Amelia said. “She’s missing her mom, and she wants something new in her life.”
“So did you, or did you not, come here to marry Beau?” Austin said. “Because I very clearly remember you in the bar going on about your in-laws and your boyfriend that was in love with you.”
“I mean, obviously I was embarrassed to tell the truth in the bar to two strangers!” I snapped at Austin. He was really starting to get on my last nerve. “Of course, Beau doesn’t love me. He’s never met me before, but—”
“But are you interested in seeing if you and Beau could have some sort of relationship?” Austin said again. And I swallowed hard, I looked over at Beau’s face and I could tell that he was wondering the same thing.
“Don’t get me wrong, Lucy.” Beau gave me an awkward smile. “I do think you’re very beautiful, but I’m really not in any position to get married anytime soon. And that’s sort of just a lot of pressure, you know?”
“I understand that. I mean, I don’t really know the plan.” I looked at Amelia for help. “It was your mom that invited me here.”
All eyes turned to Amelia, who just smiled.
“Well, you all know that I wanted you boys to settle down. I want at least one or two or all of you to get married, you know. I want grandkids, and your father and I—”
“Don’t bring me into this, Amelia!” Ranger interrupted. “This was not my idea.”
“I wasn’t going to say it was your idea, honey. I was just going to say we had been talking about different ways to try and get you boys to get married.”
“And when you brought up the idea of a mail-order bride, I said no,” Ranger said firmly.
“Yes, honey, you said no, but it was worth a try.” She shrugged. “I put a small advertisement in a couple of papers and corresponded with people who responded.”
“You mean, more than one person responded?” Sadie said, looking surprised.
“In fact, I had over a hundred responses.” Amelia nodded. “It seems like there are a lot of women that would love to come to Montana and marry a cowboy.” She smiled at me. “But I knew immediately from talking with Lucy that she was the only one who would do for my boy.”
“So, you think she’s a perfect match for Beau?” Austin raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
Amelia just looked at him. “Austin, why do you always have to argue? Why is it that you’re my most argumentative son?”
“I’m not argumentative, Mom.” Austin’s voice rose. “I’m just—”
Beau patted him on the shoulder. “It’s okay, dude. You don’t have to fight my battles for me. It’s cool. I know Mom’s wanted one of us to get married for a long time. And I’m the oldest.” He shrugged. “This is not exactly what I had in mind or what I was looking for. But I mean, it does make things easy on me.” He looked over at me. “I mean, I guess we could go on a date or something.”
“You’re really going to go on a date? Really?” Austin spoke up, sounding annoyed. “This is really not cool!”
“What is your problem, dude?” Wyatt said. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d—” Amelia cut him off.
“Enough! Everyone, we’ve had enough about talking about this. Let’s all enjoy our dinner, and then after dinner, we can play some games. I’m sure Lucy doesn’t want to continue talking about this the entire dinner. Let’s give her some time to enjoy and relax.”
“Yes, Mom.” Wyatt rolled his eyes. Austin shook his head and Beau just nodded. I sat there feeling very uncomfortable.
Sadie leaned in close to me. “It’s okay,” she whispered. “They’re always like this. Even when it’s not mail order brides.” She giggled. “You’ll get used to it. It’s the Hamilton way.”
“Oh, thanks,” I said, grateful for her encouragement. “I don’t want to be the one that was causing trouble in the house.”
“Oh, trust me, girl. Just wait until the other brothers get here.” She started laughing. “This is an absolute madhouse, but I’m glad you’re here. It’d be nice to have another woman aside from Amelia in the house with me.”
“You really spend a lot of time here, huh?” I asked her.
“Oh, yeah. Wyatt and I have been best friends for years and years and years. This is like my second home.”
“Oh, that’s awesome! Um, you guys don’t date, or you’ve never dated?”
“Oh, no way!” She shook her head. “I could never date Wyatt.” She looked over at him but there was something in her eyes that made me wonder if that was the truth.