How to Marry a Cowboy (Cowboys & Brides) by Carolyn Brown Page A

today’s world.
    The faint squeak of porch-swing chains sent him outside. Hopefully there wasn’t another woman sleeping out there. If so, he was going to take the swing down and store it out in the barn.
    A full moon hung in the sky right above Annie Rose’s head with bright twinkling stars gathered around it like subjects around a reigning queen. She moved to one end of the swing and patted the empty space beside her.
    “Plenty of room for two,” she said.
    He sat down on the other end of the swing, and an instant wall went up between them. It was as if Holly was right there between them, reminding him that she still had a place in his heart. And yet, there was Annie Rose with her amazing ability to love his girls, a body that he yearned to wrap his arms around and protect, and eyes that could see all the way to the bottom of his soul.
    “Girls asleep yet?” she asked.
    “No, but they are watching the clock. Honor system, Gabby said.”
    “It worked for me. I didn’t let them swim today, because water makes them sleepy and they were about to drop by midafternoon, so we told stories and folded clothes before the fiddle lesson. Lily has a good musical ear and she’s going to be a quick study. The piano lessons helped. She’s already playing a simple little two-chord song by ear. Gabby has a beautiful voice. She and Lily harmonize well, but Gabby has the better voice. I promised them that every Friday night they can show you how much they’ve learned. It’ll be like a concert in the living room, so get ready for it.”
    “I’d like that,” he said.
    ***
    He’d cleaned up for supper, and the remnants of soap and some kind of masculine-smelling shaving lotion mixed with the night air was a heady combination. A plain white T-shirt stretched over the tight muscles in his chest, and the sleeves strained over his bulging biceps. Mason had arms and a body that were the result of hard work and not a set of expensive machines in the private gym in the basement of an expensive house in Beaumont. Somehow, it was a helluva lot sexier than the toned body produced by trainers and weights.
    Mason wore his shirt on the outside of his snug-fitting jeans. She blushed when she realized that she’d stopped scanning his body where the shirt ended midway down the zipper of those tight-fitting jeans. She quickly followed the faded denim to his feet. He’d kicked off his boots and even his bare feet were gorgeous.
    Her body screamed, yes, yes, yes, you can trust this man. He’s a good person who would never be mean to a woman. Her mind continued to yell, no, no, no, look what trust got you into. Her poor heart cringed and hid from the voices.
    Quickly coughing to cover the squeak that came out when she tried to speak, she covered her mouth with her hand and then asked, “So have you lived here on this ranch your whole life?”
    “I was born in that room where my bedroom is now. My great-grandpa started the ranch. Grandpa built it up further, and then my dad and mother made it grow even bigger. I inherited it when I married the girls’ mother when I was twenty-one years old.”
    “Only child?” she asked, glad that he was staring out across the land and not at her.
    “Oh, no! I have three brothers, all older than me and all hate ranching. When my folks retired, they traveled for two years, seeing everything that they’d missed while they were tied down to ranch and family, then they settled in Florida right on the beach. Mother loves it and Dad stays active on the golf course, and he still works with the National Angus Association, so he gets to be involved in enough ranchin’ to keep him happy.”
    “Do your brothers live near them?” She wanted him to keep talking, not so she’d know everything about his family, but his deep Southern drawl was so soothing.
    Mason shook his head. “My middle brother lives in Germany. He’s career military and will retire in a couple of years. Right now, he plans on joining the folks