The Cowboy's Summer Love (41 page)

The crowd surged forward as Trent hurried Lindsay toward the carriage. She looked at it in awe, knowing her fairytale wedding was complete, right along with her very own prince charming.

“My goodness, Trent, I don’t know how you did this, but it’s wonderful,” Lindsay said, allowing him to help her inside.

“Nothing is too good for my princess,” Trent said, kissing her cheek. He had to pay extra to get the carriage to come all the way from Portland, but they were licensed to drive at night with lights on the horses and carriage. It was an experience he wanted Lindsay to be able to add to her memories of this very special day. The carriage would take them back to their newly purchased home for the night and in the morning they would leave for the Oregon coast for a week-long honeymoon in a luxury cabin near the beach.

Trent settled into the plush interior beside his bride as the footman closed the door and climbed next to the driver. Trent and Lindsay both leaned out the window and waved as the carriage started down the long Triple T drive. Well-wishers blew hundreds of bubbles at them from the party favors placed in baskets around the yard.

“Thank you so much everyone! Thank you!” they both called until they were out of sight.

The crowd began to thin, although some of the younger group stayed behind and enjoyed the band for a while longer. Soon it was down to family who was staying at the house and some close friends. Brice seemed to have taken a shine to Travis’ cousin Bailey. With honey colored curls and eyes the same striking shade of aquamarine as Trey’s, she was quite a lovely girl.

As Tess helped clean up the monumental mess, she asked Travis about all the extended family that arrived for the celebration. She knew the Thompsons really well and couldn’t remember meeting or hearing about many of the relatives. She knew Drew Thompson was an only child, but she didn’t realize Denni had so much family.

“Mama has three older sisters and one brother, but none of them live around here. Uncle Jack lives in Fort Worth, Aunt Donna lives in San Diego, Aunt Mary lives in Denver and Aunt June spends most of her time in Florida. I’ve never met half of these cousins, and I can only remember seeing the family all together twice at family reunions.”

“I think it’s nice they all came for the wedding. No wonder your mom and Nana have been so excited. Nana must be thrilled to have all her family together.”

“Yeah, she is. I think most of them are planning to stay a few days. We’ll have a big family dinner tomorrow after church. I hope you’re planning to be here,” Travis said, as he helped her fold up linens removed from the tables in their tent.

“I don’t want to intrude,” Tess said, thinking it probably best if she took a few days away from Travis. This wedding had her thinking all kinds of thoughts and none of them were particularly helpful in keeping herself on an even keel where the undeniably gorgeous male at her side was concerned.

“You’re family to us and it wouldn’t be an intrusion.” Travis looked outside the tent and grinned. “Besides, with the way Brice is panting after Bailey like a puppy on a leash, you better bring him along.”

Tess glanced up to see her brother hot on the heels of Travis’ lovely young cousin. Laughing, she snapped the linen in her hand as she folded it. “That’s going to be fun to tease him about later.”

“Now, honeybee, you wouldn’t tease your poor little brother would you?” Travis said, knowing she could spend hours tormenting Brice.

“BB deserves it and then some,” Tess said as they finished the linens in their tent. Travis stood up and leaned on his crutches, following her to the food tent.

It took two hours with all the Triple T hands, family and friends helping, but they finally got everything torn down, put away, packed up, and set to rights.

Walking Tess to her car, Travis stopped her before she got inside. Leaning against the door, he pulled her close to his chest. “Tessa, you look so beautiful tonight. In case I didn’t mention it before, you take my breath away,” Travis said, toying with a curl by her ear.

“You’re more than a little breathtaking yourself,” Tess whispered, as Travis’ lips moved toward hers. She didn’t know how he could have looked any more appealing than he did this evening. Having him attentively by her side, squeeze her hand conspiratorially, and sneak kisses was better than anything she had ever dreamed possible.

When their lips touched, Travis was pretty sure fireworks were exploding behind his eyes and all around them. As the kiss deepened, his fingers somehow managed to pull all the pins from her hair and he wound his hands into the silky curls.

“I think you two have done more than enough of that for one evening. Come on, Tessie, let’s head home,” Brice teased as he walked up to the car.

Tess jerked away from Travis, giving her brother a stern glare that only made him laugh.

“Thanks, dude,” Travis said, shaking his head at his friend, while dropping a bunch of hair pins into Tess’ hand. “Don’t think we didn’t notice you saying goodnight to Bailey a minute ago.”

Brice stopped the snappy retort he was going to give Travis and instead climbed in Tess’ car.

“See you tomorrow, honeybee,” Travis said, holding open her door while she slid inside. “I love you.”

“Love you, too,” Tess said, blowing him a kiss through the open window.

Brice leaned across the seat, mimicking Tess’ action and batting his eyelashes at Travis. “Love you, too!”

Tess elbowed him in the side. As he grunted, she grinned at Travis and waved as they left.

Watching them leave, Travis was standing with a big smile still on his face when his mother came up to him and looped her arm through his.

“Did you have fun, baby?” Denni asked as they slowly made their way to the house.

“I did, Mama. How about you?” Travis asked, holding the mud room door as his mom went inside.

“I had a wonderful time. It pleases me more than I can say to see my boys choosing such fine women to marry. Lindsay made a beautiful bride.” Denni stood looking at her youngest son. For the first time in a very long while, Travis looked peaceful, settled, and happy. She thought part of the reason he couldn’t seem to quit smiling was directly connected to their sweet Tess. “From the looks of things, do we need to start thinking about a third wedding?”

Travis’ neck turned red but he didn’t stop grinning at his mother.

“Now, what gives you that idea, Mama? Aren’t two weddings in a year enough for you? Haven’t we had enough excitement in the past few months to suit you?” Travis teased. In addition to his accident, in the past six weeks they made it through one of the best wheat harvests they’d ever had, purchased the ranch next door, landscaped what seemed like half the country-side under the militant direction of his mom and Cady, and pulled off a wedding a good portion of the county would be talking about for weeks. The county fair was coming right up, school would be starting and then it would be time for the last harvest of hay, fall farm work, and the usual attention required by the cattle.

“We’ve had plenty enough excitement, baby, but I think we could handle a little more, if the timing is right,” Denni said with a wink. “You know I’ve always loved Tess like a daughter.”

With that, Denni stood on tiptoe, kissed his cheek and left him watching her walk off to her room.

Chapter Twenty

Love is not finding someone to live with,

it's finding someone you can't live without.

Rafael Ortiz

“No, I think she was ten,” Brice said, trying to remember exactly how old Tess had been the time she poured syrup into his and Travis’ cowboy boots in retaliation for them putting a garter snake in the box where she kept her hair ribbons.

“That’s right, because it was the same summer she took pink nail polish and painted tutus on all our GI Joe figurines,” Travis said with a laugh. Squeezing Tess’ hand in his, he grinned. “You were a sassy little thing even way back then.”

“That’s because I had to put up with all you rotten boys,” Tess said waving her arm toward Brice, Ben, Trent and Trey as they sat outside around the back yard at the Triple T.

The men labored hard all day with the final cutting of hay and were ready for a break on this pleasant Friday evening in mid-September. It felt good to sit and joke, basking in the perfect temperature and friendly company.

“If you recall, the reason your action figures got the paint job was because you two hooligans gave my favorite Barbie doll a Mohawk and then dipped her in the manure pile.”

“Oh, yeah. Those were good times,” Brice said with a grin that earned him a slap on the arm from his sister.

“How did you put up with them?” Cady asked Tess as she set a tray of cookies on the table. Before she could reclaim her seat next to Lindsay, Trey pulled her onto his lap.

“We’re the ones that had to put up with her,” Trey teased, as Cady looped an arm around his neck.

“I somehow think Tess was the one who had to tolerate more than you boys ever did,” Cady said, looking from her husband to his two brothers. “You boys are still a handful now that you are supposedly grown up. You expect me to believe the five of you took orders from one sweet little girl?”

“You better believe it,” Trent said, joining the conversation. “Tess gave Travis his first taste of military training when she practiced her drill sergeant tactics on us.”

“She was bossy and opinionated and thought we should all listen to her,” Ben threw in, earning a cool glare from his sister. “Oh, wait. I guess that hasn’t changed over the years, has it?”

“Now, she wasn’t all that bad,” Travis said, coming to Tess’ defense, or so she thought. “If you didn’t mind being brow-beaten, treated like a peon, and forced into slave labor.”

Tess popped Travis on the arm and started to get up from her chair. She’d had about enough of the pick-on-Tess-fest that had been going on this evening.

“Don’t get your feathers all ruffled, honeybee,” Travis said in a low voice that made her sit back down beside him. When he started rubbing lazy circles with his thumb up her arm, she felt a familiar tingle start at her toes and work its way up to her head. It was hard to be mad at him when he made her heart pound and her stomach feel weightless.

“You boys have teased her enough for one evening,” Cady said, smiling at Tess. Cass was already in bed, exhausted after a long day at school and then playing hard after she got home. 

Dusk was settling in and it would be dark before too long.

Tess decided she should probably go home. She had a challenging week with patients and a busy day was planned at the Running M Ranch tomorrow as they worked on their own last cutting of hay. That was why Ben was home for the weekend.

“It’s about time we headed for home anyway,” Tess said looking at her two brothers. They shot her a look that said she was being bossy again and shook their heads.

“Not yet,” Travis said, getting to his feet and holding a hand out to her. Making remarkable progress with his therapy, he was able to feel useful and productive once again. Although he still couldn’t ride his horse, he was getting back to what he liked to think of as normal. Able to walk without crutches, his legs grew stronger every day.

Tess said he could officially be done with therapy in another week, although she volunteered to continue helping him for as long as he liked. He liked the idea of that being until he was at least ninety.

 “Come on, honeybee. I want to show you something.”

Travis pulled Tess after him as they left the yard and climbed onto one of the four-wheelers. Before he started it, he turned around and tied a blindfold over Tess’ eyes.

“You idiot, how can you show me something if my eyes are covered?” she asked with a nervous laugh. She could feel Travis’ minty breath on her cheek and smell his aftershave as he leaned close, tying the blindfold behind her head.