Accidental Mail Order Bride by J. S. Cooper

Chapter Five

“Why, hello there.”A handsome older man with silver-grey hair and sparkling blue eyes opened the door. He looked curiously at me. “Can I help you?” He had a slight accent, but I wasn’t sure what it was from. Maybe it was just a Montana accent. It sounded slightly Canadian, but maybe that was because we were so close to the border.

“Hi. Yeah, I’m Lucy. I’m here to see Amelia and Ranger.”

“Well, hello, Lucy,” he nodded and looked a bit confused. “I’m Ranger Hamilton. Can I help you?”

“Yeah. I’m Lucy from New York.” I gave him my biggest and best smile.

“Okay, Lucy from New York. You’re going to have to give me a bit more information than that.” He smiled, polite but quizzical.

My legs were beginning to shake. “I’ve been emailing back and forth with your wife about …” I suddenly realized that he had no idea who I was or why I was there. “You don’t know who I am, do you?”

“I’m afraid not,” he shook his head. “I thought you might’ve been here for one of my sons, but you’re here to see my wife?”

“Yeah, I guess so. Is she available?”

“Hold on. Why don’t you come inside, Miss Lucy?” He opened the door wider.

“Um, actually if you don’t mind, I’ll stay here.” My brain was racing. What if there was no Amelia? What if this had been a trick? I could feel myself growing hot. Oh dear God, why had I come here? It was obvious to me that he had no idea who I was. What if I hadn’t even been talking to Amelia and Ranger Hamilton whatsoever? All sorts of thoughts were crossing my mind. “I’m here about marrying one of your sons,” I blurted out.

Something must have clicked. He let out a deep sigh and shook his head. “I told Amelia not to go messing around with other people’s business,” he sighed. “Sorry.” He held out his hand. “I’m Ranger Hamilton, Amelia’s long-suffering husband.” He gave me a wry smile. “I think I know why you’re here now.”

“You do?” I asked hesitantly. Was he a good actor or was he being real?

“Yes. My wife has been wanting our sons to get married for a long time. None of them actually want to get married, and so she had this idea, and I told her not to go through with it. But does she listen to me? Does she ever listen to me? No, she does not.” He paused. “Sorry. I can understand your hesitancy about not wanting to come inside, so let me go and get my wife. I will leave the door open so you can see there’s nothing crazy going on in here. The dogs might come and say hello to you. Don’t mind them, they’re friendly. And you might see one or two of my sons, though I think they’re all out on the ranch right now.”

“Okay. Sure.” I just nodded and stood on the front porch.

“Let me go and get Amelia.” He walked back inside. “Amelia! Amelia!” He was shouting through the house and I peeked inside curiously. There was a spiral staircase to the right of the door and a grand piano to the left. I wondered who played. Maybe it was my new husband. Maybe he’d compose and sing me a song. Now, that would be kind of romantic. I grabbed my phone in my hand and pulled it out of my handbag. I needed it easily accessible so that if I had to call the police or Olivia, I could do it quickly.

My long blonde hair hung down my shoulders. I’d thought about putting it up in a bun, but I had told myself that I wanted to make the best first impression possible and that’s why I’d left it down. I squeezed the phone for a couple of seconds wondering what I should do. Maybe I should just leave. I could get a hotel or a motel somewhere and then catch a flight back home. Hopefully, there’d be enough credit on my credit card.

“Oh, Ranger, stop fussing.”

I looked and saw a tall, beautiful older woman heading towards me with a wide smile on her face. “Why, you must be Lucy Kensington.” She smiled as she looked me up and down. “Well, you’re even more beautiful than I thought you would be!”

“Thank you.” I smiled back. “I’m guessing you’re Amelia Hamilton.”

“Yes, I am,” she smiled. “Don’t mind my husband. He knew that you were coming. I told him.”

“You didn’t tell me anything, Amelia,” Ranger grumbled.

“I’ve told you several times, Ranger. Why do you think I’ve been getting the house ready?”

“I don’t know. You’re always fussing here, there, and everywhere.”

“You just don’t listen to me, Ranger. That’s the problem.”

“I’m always listening to you, Amelia. But you’ve got to stop with these plans. Does the boy even know she’s here?”

“Well, of course not. I couldn’t tell him!” She looked back at me. “Sorry about that. Once you’ve been married for 40 years, you’ll understand what it means to be going back and forth with your husband. Come in, dear. Come in.”

“Thank you.”

“Do you not have any suitcases with you?” She looked at my empty hands.

“They’re in my car,” I nodded back toward the car. “I figured I’d just come and meet you guys first.” I hesitated. I didn’t want to say that I didn’t want to take my suitcases out just in case I had to make a quick getaway.

“Totally understandable, dear. Come on, come inside. I’ll make you some sweet tea, or would you like some lemonade?”

“Oh, lemonade would be great. Thanks.”

“I’d like some lemonade too, Amelia.”

“You’re not meant to be on the sugar. You know that, Ranger. But you can have some unsweetened tea.”

“I don’t want any unsweetened tea,” he sighed. “Forget about it.”

“Okay. Now, come on, dear. How was your flight?”

“Oh, it was fine, thank you. It’s quite beautiful here.”

“Isn’t it just?” Amelia said as she looked around. “We’ll have to take you on a tour of the ranch later on this afternoon. Won’t we, Ranger?”

“We’re going to take her or the boy is going to take her?”

“We’re going to take her, Ranger.” Amelia shook her head. “Now, would you like some cookies as well? I’ve got some homemade chocolate chip cookies just out of the oven.”

“Oh, that would be great, thank you.” I followed her into the wide kitchen. It was beautiful. There was a huge island in the middle with a Carrera marble countertop. To the right of that was a French door refrigerator and two gas stove ovens. They definitely had money. I recognized some of the brands of the appliances, and I knew that they didn’t come cheap.

“Have a seat, dear,” Amelia nodded to the bar stools next to the island. “Are you hungry? Would you like something more to eat than just cookies? I can whip you up a sandwich until dinner time.”

“No, no, that’s fine, thanks. I can wait till dinner time.”

“So … this is all a little bit different, isn’t it?” Amelia said as she handed me a glass.

“Yeah, you can say that again,” I laughed self-consciously. “I feel a little bit overwhelmed, to be honest.”

“Don’t be overwhelmed, dear. You’ll be fine,” she nodded. “Don’t you think so, Ranger?”

“I don’t know what the boys are going to say, Amelia.”

“You keep saying that, Ranger. What do you think the boys are going to say? They love their mama. They respect me. They won’t say anything.”

“They love you very dearly, but you’ve never done anything this crazy before.” He shook his head. “And Lucy, you are mighty pretty, I will admit that. But I don’t know that my boys want an arranged marriage. This is not the 1700s, Amelia. We’re not back in the Gold Rush days, you know that?”

“The Gold Rush was in the 1800s, honey.” Amelia shrugged. “I’m sure the boys will be happy.”

“Well, which boy is she for?”

“Which boy do you think, Ranger?”

“Oh gosh. You’re not saying Beau?”

So that was my future husband’s name, Beau. Interesting. I’d never imagined myself dating a guy called Beau. I didn’t even know how you would spell it. Was it B-O? Was it B-E-A-U? Was how he spelled his name really the most important thing I could be thinking about right now?

I giggled slightly to myself and then looked up as I saw Amelia and Ranger were both staring at me.

“What are you laughing at, honey?” Amelia said. “Don’t mind me and Ranger. We go back and forth all day. We squabble like newlyweds.”

“Oh no. I was just thinking to myself that I’ve never met a Beau before.”

“Oh, well I think you’ll like Beau. He’s our oldest.”

“Will I get to meet him soon?” I paused. “Exactly how are we going to handle this?” I looked down at my glass. If they hadn’t told their son that they had sent for me, how exactly was this going to go down?

“Well, I have a plan, you see.” Amelia’s eyes were twinkling. I noticed that her eyes were bright green. She was beautiful even though she was older. I could tell that she had been the belle of the ball in her days. And as I looked over at Ranger, I could tell that he was very handsome as well. If their sons had got any of their looks, then I was going to be one lucky woman. I really hoped that Beau took after his dad because that would mean he would grow into a very distinguished-looking man.

“They’re all out on the ranch right now if that’s what you’re wondering,” Ranger said, looking at me.

“Oh no, I just mean …” I paused. “You know, how is this going to work?”

“I wish I knew, but I guess Amelia’s got that all figured out. Don’t you, my love?” He kissed her on the cheek and she pushed him away.

“Ranger, do not patronize me. As it happens, I do have a plan.” She looked towards me. “Now, you know this is a highly unusual situation. And I know you’re a good sport, Amelia. And I hate to bring you into a complicated situation, but I think it will be best to just introduce you as a family friend at dinner, and then we’ll get into the arrangements.”

“Okay,” I said, sipping on the drink. “So, Beau is not going to have any idea that I’m here to marry him? Is that what you’re saying?”

“Well, he’ll have an idea because we’ll sit you next to him and we’ll have him take you into town later to get you any things that you need.”

“Oh, I don’t need anything, thank you.” I thought about my dwindling bank account. I was not about to go shopping even if it would help me get closer to Beau.

“Well, maybe you don’t need to go shopping then. Maybe you’ll get some ice cream.” Amelia smiled to herself. “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. They can get some ice cream.”

“Amelia, that’s not a good idea. All the boys are going to want to go for ice cream then. I thought you wanted Beau and Lucy to be together alone so that they can get to know each other better and see if there’s any chemistry.”

“Why, Ranger, of course there’s going to be chemistry. Look at her, she’s beautiful. Beau’s never seen a girl like this before.”

“She is mighty fine, but you know our son.”

“I know.” She sighed as she looked at me. “You’ll see, Lucy, that all of our boys are very attractive. So, in case you’re worried that that’s the reason why they haven’t found wives, you don’t have to worry. They’re very good-looking. I think you’ll find that Beau is a mighty handsome young man. But they just don’t want to seem to settle down. They’ve had girlfriends and they’ve brought women home, here and there, you know? But nobody stuck.”

Ranger’s eyes narrowed. “Amelia, they’ve never brought any girlfriends home.”

“Yes, they have. Didn’t Wyatt bring that one girl home?”

“Amelia, are you talking about Sadie Johnson?”

“Yeah, he brings Sadie Johnson over all the time.”

“That’s because Sadie Johnson is his best friend, and they’ve been best friends since kindergarten.”

“Well, I know they’ve been best friends since kindergarten, Ranger. But are you blind?”

“What do you mean, am I blind? Blind to what?”

“Those two are surely in love. She should be his girlfriend, but he’s too blind to see it.”

“Now, Amelia, don’t you go messing with their friendship.”

“I’m not messing with their friendship, Ranger. I’m just telling you they should have been married a long time ago. But you know what? Wyatt’s going to mess up and she’s going to find someone else, and then he’s going to realize he loved her all along.”

“Oh, Amelia.” Ranger raised his eyes to the ceiling as if praying for patience and looked back at me. “Sorry. Wyatt’s our youngest son. Him and his best friend Sadie have been like this for a long time.” He held his two fingers together and up in the air. “And me and Amelia been wondering when they’re going to get together, and they just don’t seem to. I guess they’ll just be friends forever.”

“They’re not going to be friends forever, Ranger.” Amelia pouted. “You know that Sadie Johnson, she’s going to find herself a man and Wyatt’s going to be heartbroken.”

I watched the two as they went back and forth and withheld a smile. I felt like I was in the middle of some country-western TV show. It felt kind of nice. And even though I had no idea who Wyatt or Sadie was, it seemed cute. I would have loved to have had a best guy friend since kindergarten was my soulmate. It felt like it would have been a movie or something. But at least I had Olivia. She and I had been best friends forever. And even though I didn’t swing that way, I knew she’d always be there for me. And well, I guess I didn’t really need a best friend to become a lover because now I had Beau … Sort of, even though I didn’t know what he looked like.

“So how many sons do you guys have?” I spoke up. “I didn’t realize you had such a large family.”

“We got seven boys,” Ranger said with a laugh.

“Yes,” Amelia said, sighing. “So now you know why I’m so happy to have another woman in the house.”

“Seven boys! That’s a lot.” I grinned. “Good for you.”

“Oh yeah. Good for us indeed,” Ranger laughed. “I would have said no after the first two if we didn’t live on a ranch. But hey, free ranch hands,” he chuckled and Amelia just shook her head at him.

“Oh, I hear the horses,” Amelia said as she walked over to the window over the sink towards the back of the kitchen. “Oh, some of the boys are coming. I guess they’re hungry.”

“Oh boy, Amelia. Here we go,” Ranger shook his head and looked back at me. “Well, good luck, Lucy. You’re about to meet some of our sons. Don’t let any of them overwhelm you, you hear?”

“I’ll try not to. Thank you.” Silently, I was praying that Beau would be the first one I’d get to meet. I was curious to see what he looked like and to find out if we would like each other.

Ever since my mom had passed, I had been feeling so lonely, and it was nice to think about being part of such a large family. It was nice to be with people who clearly loved and adored each other. And even though Amelia had certainly overstepped her boundaries when it came to hooking her sons up, I didn’t care. I just wanted to be around people. I just wanted to feel like I was part of a family that really was there for each other. I only hoped that when I met Beau, it would be love at first sight. I hoped that when our eyes met, I’d feel that chemistry, and we could build from there. And obviously, I hoped he felt the same way about me.

I took a deep breath as I heard the sound of men talking from the back of the house. I heard some horses neighing, and I squeezed my glass. This was it. I was about to meet some of the Hamilton sons.