Accidental Mail Order Bride by J. S. Cooper

Chapter Seventeen

“Olivia!Oh my gosh, I had the weirdest day. I just got back from riding.”

“Oh, are you back from the stables with Mr. McHottie now?”

Olivia’s voice sounded weird, and I wasn’t sure she was being sarcastic or serious. “Yeah, it was a really fun day, but I’m so confused.”

“Oh, why?”

“So, Beau had to go and do some work earlier and so Austin took me riding. We went to this cool log cabin that they have, and … he kind of kissed me again.”

“Oh my God. Again?” Olivia gasped. “Lucy, what is going on here?”

“I wish I knew,” I sighed.

“You don’t think they’re some sort of freaky-deaky cowboys, and they’re trying to share you or something, right?”

“Ew, no!” I laughed. “That’s gross.”

“It happens, Lucy. You know that.”

“Well, I don’t know that personally, but sure, it happens in New York, not here in Montana. Definitely not here in Horseshoe Ranch. There’s just no way.”

“You’re really drinking the Kool-Aid, aren’t you, Lucy? You barely just got there.”

“What does that mean?”

Olivia, let out a deep sigh. “Don’t mind me, I guess I’m just a little bit jealous. Here I am sitting in New York while you’re carrying on a love affair with not one but two hunky cowboys.”

“Olivia!” I snorted. “I’m not carrying on a love affair with either of them.”

“You know what I find weird, Lucy?”

“This entire debacle?” I asked her.

“No,” she laughed. “The fact that Beau is just going along with it. Like, if your parents sent off for a mail order bride and never told you, would you be showing her around your ranch all happily?”

“Yeah, I guess not.” I chewed on my lower lip. “I guess I didn’t really think about that.”

“And didn’t you say that the reason why his mom even created the ad was because all of her sons were confirmed bachelors and she was worried that none of them would ever get married and have kids?”

“Yeah. That’s what Amelia said.”

“Yet, Beau, who is super-hot by the way, didn’t even tell his mom off. Right?”

“Well, not in front of me he didn’t.”

“That doesn’t strike you as odd, Lucy?”

“I mean, I guess so. I didn’t really think about it like that, but the more that I am thinking about it, yeah, it’s weird.”

“Like, do you think he’s seriously entertaining the idea of marrying you?”

“I don’t know.” I let out a deep sigh. “I mean … Part of me thinks that we’re trying to get to know each other, yeah. But the more we get to know each other, the more I feel like he’s not the one for me.”

“Why do you say that? He’s absolutely gorgeous.”

“Yeah. He’s definitely cute, but I don’t have the same attraction to him as I do …” I let my voice trail off.

“You really have the hots for that Austin, huh?”

“I hate to say it, but yeah. We just have this chemistry. We vibe and we just seem to have so much more in common. Oh, why is this so complicated?”

“Don’t you think you should let Beau know?”

“What am I going to say? Hey, Beau, I came here to marry you even though I’ve never seen you before, but now I’ve seen you and I’ve seen your brother, I want him instead. And oh, by the way, we’ve kissed a couple of times and I like it and I want to bang him?”

“You did not just say you want to bang him!” Olivia started giggling.

“I know, but hey, you’re my best friend. I can be honest with you. He’s totally gorgeous. He’s tall and handsome, and he just has a body to die for. I totally, totally …” I paused. “Anyways, I’m not going to finish that sentence in case it incriminates me.”

“Oh girl, you’ve already incriminated yourself,” she laughed. “And I can’t imagine that he’s better looking than Beau.”

“You really think Beau is hot, huh?”

“Not going to lie, when you put me on FaceTime and I saw him, my heart stopped beating for a second.”

“Oh, Olivia. You’re so dramatic.”

“I know,” she laughed. “By the way, I checked my finances, and I asked at work and they said I can take some time off, but of course it won’t be paid.”

“Are you sure you’re okay with doing that?”

“Yeah. I want to come out there and make sure everything’s okay. I can come as soon as you want me to.”

“Girl, I want you to come right away.”

“Are you sure it’ll be okay?”

“I think so. I should ask Amelia, though, to make sure.”

“Will you go and ask her now? I’ll wait.”

“Sure.”

With Olivia still on the line, I went to the kitchen to find Amelia. That was where she normally seemed to be. She seemed to spend her days cooking up delicious delights for her family. She absolutely loved cooking and she was really good at it as well, so her family was doubly lucky.

Sure enough, there she was.

“Hi, Amelia. Hi, Ranger.”

“Hey, Lucy.” Amelia beamed at me. “How was riding?”

“Oh, it was absolutely great. Thank you. Austin showed me the log cabin and wow, it’s just amazing.”

“Yeah. He wants to live there. Did you know that he and his father built it themselves?” Amelia looked over at Ranger, pride in her expression.

“No way. Really?”

“Yeah,” Ranger said gruffly. “Austin’s the handy one around here. He did most of the work.”

“Wow. I didn’t realize he was so handy.”

“Austin is not the sort of guy he appears to be on the surface,” Amelia said. “So how can I help you, dear?”

“Oh, my best friend Olivia is on the phone.” I held the phone in my hand up. “And she got a couple of days off work, and she was wondering if perhaps she could come and visit the ranch? I’ve been telling her about how amazing it is. I mean, if it will be too crowded here, then definitely it’s okay if she—”

“Oh, of course. I would love for your friend to come,” Amelia beamed. “That would be absolutely lovely. When can she fly in? We can pick her up at the airport.”

“Oh, you don’t have to go out of your way.”

“Like I said to you before, my darling Lucy, it won’t be out of the way. Ranger and I can drive you to the airport to pick up your friend. Just give us the flight information and I’ll make sure we’re there on time.”

“Thank you. That’s awesome.”

“So you and Austin had a fun time at the cabin?”

“Yeah, it was great. An absolutely beautiful day.”

“Didn’t you go on a picnic with Beau?” Ranger looked confused. “I thought you spent the day with Beau?”

“Oh, yes,” I said quickly. “I did get to hang out with Beau as well, and the picnic was really good. Thank you so much for the food, Amelia.”

“No worries, dear,” Amelia smiled. “Was there anything else?”

“Oh yeah. Beau said that there was a ring that your grandma or his grandma had, and that I should ask to see it or something. I don’t know.” I shrugged, feeling uncomfortable and not really knowing why I brought it up.

Well, I knew why I brought it up. I brought it up because I’d sounded so much more enthusiastic about hanging out with Austin than I had about hanging out with Beau, and I didn’t want his parents to get suspicious.

“Oh yes. The old ruby ring,” Amelia smiled. “Beau told you about it?”

“Yeah. He said I should just have a look. Not that he’s going to give it to me or anything,” I said quickly.

“Oh, sure. Hold on, dear. Let me go and get it. Do you want to tell your friend that you’ll call her back?”

“Sure. Hey, Olivia,” I put the phone to my ear.

“Yeah.”

“So Amelia and Ranger said it’s okay for you to come, and we can pick you up at the airport as well.”

“Oh, I don’t want them to go out of their way. That seems too much.”

“No, it will be fine. We’ll pick you up.”

“Well, if you’re sure it’s okay.”

“Yeah, come whenever.”

“Okay. Well, I’m going to look for a flight. Maybe I can get there in a couple of days.”

“That would be amazing.”

“And what was that thing about a ring you were saying?” Olivia’s voice sounded a little bit dry.

“Oh, Beau had asked me to ask his mom to show me some family heirloom, some ring that I guess whoever marries into the family first will get it.”

“Oh, so you are serious about marrying Beau, even though you’re hooking up with his brother?”

“I’m not hooking up with his brother,” I whispered into the phone. “It was a couple of kisses.”

“Okay. But you said you wanted to bang him.”

“I didn’t mean it like that. I—” I glanced over at Ranger, and I couldn’t tell if he was trying to listen to my conversation. “Anyway, I’ll call you later. Okay?”

“Okay. Well, I’ll check out flights now.”

“Bye.”

I hung up quickly and just stood there slightly awkwardly. I didn’t really know what to say to Ranger. He was a nice man, but he was very quiet. And while he hadn’t said anything that made me feel uncomfortable, I did wonder if he wasn’t judging me in some way. Some flighty, random girl had shown up on his ranch to marry one of his sons—what could he really think about me?

Amelia walked back into the kitchen then, a piece of jewelry in her hand. She showed it to me and I could see that it was a beautiful gold and ruby ring with diamonds around it.

“That’s absolutely beautiful,” I said, letting her put it in my hand.

“Isn’t it just?” Amelia said. “In fact, it’s promised to the—”

At that moment, Austin walked into the kitchen. “Well, what’s going on here?” He looked at me and then he looked at his mother. Then he looked back at me and the ring in my hand. “You’ve got the ruby ring?” His eyes narrowed. “Why do you have my Grandma’s ruby ring in your hand?”

“Your Mom was just showing it to me. I—”

“Yeah, I was just showing it to her. She asked to see it and—”

“You asked to see it. Why?”

“Well, Beau had mentioned it to me and—”

“Oh my God, you’re nothing but a gold-digger aren’t you?” Austin exclaimed, and the room went quiet.

“Austin Hamilton, you apologize to Lucy right now!” Ranger snapped. I looked at him in surprise.

“Dad. I—”

“Austin!” Ranger’s voice was deep and angry.

I looked at Amelia who was glaring at her son. “That is absolutely unacceptable. You do not speak to our guests like that Austin. I’m ashamed of you.”

“Mom, let’s be real. She just got here from New York. Now she’s already looking at Grandma’s ring and she wants to marry Beau. Like, you don’t even know Beau.” He stared at me. “You really want to marry him? How far are you going to take this, Lucy?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I just—”

“You know what? Forget about it. You do whatever you want to do. If you want to marry my brother, go right ahead. I just don’t even care anymore.” And then he left the kitchen in a huff.

I handed Amelia back the ring. “Sorry, I wasn’t saying that I wanted the ring. I just wanted to look at it. I mean, Beau had mentioned it to me and—”

“Oh, my darling, do not worry about Austin. He is a moody, moody man,” Amelia apologized to me. “He has no idea what he’s talking about. He wouldn’t know love if it hit him in the face.” She shook her head. “Sometimes I really wonder about that boy.”

“I’ve never known him to be like this before,” Ranger said. “He’s not normally rude like this to women. I just wonder what’s going on. Maybe he’s jealous. Maybe he—” Amelia shot him a look, and his eyes narrowed. “Is there something I need to know, Amelia?”

“Not right now, dear. Not right now. Now, Lucy, you go ahead and get ready for dinner, and I’ll make sure that Austin apologizes to you.”

“Oh, you don’t have to do that. I mean, if he doesn’t like me, it’s fine. There’s nothing I can do about it.”

“Oh, I think you’ll find that the problem is quite the opposite, my dear,” Amelia said with a small smile. “Now run along and get ready. Dinner will be ready soon.”