Cowboy Strong - Includes a bonus novella Read online

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2020 by Carolyn Brown

  Sunrise Ranch copyright © 2020 by Carolyn Brown

  Cover design by Elizabeth Turner Stokes. Cover images by Rob Lang.

  Cover copyright © 2020 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

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  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

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  First Mass Market Edition: June 2020

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  ISBNs: 978-1-5387-4878-7 (mass market); 978-1-5387-4880-0 (ebook)

  E3-20200401-DA-NF-ORI

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Discover More

  Don't Miss A Little Country Christmas

  Sunrise Ranch by Carolyn Brown Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Don’t miss all the Malloy sisters’ stories

  About the Author

  Also by Carolyn Brown

  High Praise for Carolyn Brown

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  Chapter One

  The only thing Alana Carey’s father ever wanted was to live long enough to see his daughter, Alana, get married and settled down. Alana was only twenty-nine years old, so she had plenty of time to make her daddy a happy man—right up until she came in at noon on a bright, sunny day in the middle of the week and found him sitting in the kitchen in his Sunday jeans and shirt.

  “Where have you been, all dressed up?” She rolled the sleeves of her chambray work shirt up to her elbows and washed her hands at the kitchen sink.

  “Been to Amarillo.” His voice sounded like it was about to crack.

  Matt Carey was an old-school rancher and a cowboy. His kind were as tough as nails, and they held their emotions inside their hearts. They didn’t cry or whine about anything. He was Alana’s rock and had been her only parent since her mother’s death when she was a girl. He was all the family she had left—no siblings, no grandparents, and only a handful of cousins that were scattered from coast to coast. He was also her mentor—he’d taught her everything about how to operate a ranch from the ground up.

  She’d heard sadness in his voice before, had seen him worry, but she’d never seen such a bewildered expression on his face.

  “You didn’t tell me about a cattlemen’s meeting.” She opened the refrigerator and got out some cold cuts to make sandwiches.

  “Leave that and come sit down.” He used his boot to slide a chair out from the table. “I didn’t go to Amarillo for a cattlemen’s meeting. I went to talk to a doctor.”

  Alana felt as if someone had dropped a chunk of ice down the back of her shirt. “Why did you go all the way up there? Doctor Wilson has taken care of us forever.”

  “I haven’t been feelin’ too good lately, so Doc Wilson sent me to a specialist for some tests. I didn’t want to worry you until the results came back,” Matt said. “I never was any good at beating around the bush, so I’m just going to spit it out. I’ve got stage four cancer, an inoperable tumor in my brain. They told me it’s very aggressive, and even if they managed to take it out I might live six months, but there’s a high probability I’d be in a coma all that time.”

  Alana’s chest tightened, her breath came in short gasps, and words wouldn’t form in her mouth. Matt Carey was a big strong man. He couldn’t have cancer, and what did “stage four” mean anyway?

  Matt reached out and took both of her hands in his. “If it continues to grow the way it has been, I’ve got about six weeks.”

  “Oh, Daddy, what…” A sob caught in her chest. Her mind couldn’t begin to process the words he’d said. Her heart seemed to understand better and had tightened into a ball of pain in her chest. Her hands shook, and for a few seconds she thought she might faint.

  “Promise me that you’ll let me do as much as I’m able and not mollycoddle me in the time I’ve got left.” Matt squeezed her hands. “I want to go out with my boots on, not in a hospital gown with no dignity. Promise me that much. Let me do what I can on my own terms as long as I can.”

  “I’ll do whatever you want, Daddy,” she said, tears streaming down her face. “But…” Her voice caught, and the heaviness in her chest felt as if rocks had been piled up on her heart.

  He stood up, rounded the end of the table, and gathered her into his arms. His warm tears mingled with hers. “I hate this for you, sugar. On one hand I want to go be with your mother. On the other, I can’t bear to leave you.”

  “Daddy, isn’t there anything…” She dried her eyes and straightened her back to try to get her composure. Her father needed her to be strong, but she couldn’t do it. She sobbed until the front of his shirt was wet, and she had the hiccups.

  “Honey, think of it this way,” Matt said as he took a step back from her. “If I’d had a heart attack or a stroke and dropped out in the barn, you would have had no forewarning. The way it is, we’ve got six weeks. The doctor says that last couple of weeks, I’ll sleep a lot more, and then one time when I take a nap, I’ll take that final step from earth to eternity.” He went to the bar and started making sandwiches. “We’re going to live each day to its fullest. Now, let’s have some dinner and then get back out there in the hay field. I’ll drive the truck, and the kids who’ve got hired for summer help can throw the
bales.”

  He didn’t have to say the words. She had heard them often enough that they echoed through her heart and her mind. “If I can live long enough to know that Alana is settled down with a good man, I’ll be happy to go on to heaven with my sweet Joy.” The fact that he’d said those words so often the past year made her wonder if somehow in his subconscious he’d known that his time was limited, and he’d soon be in eternity with his beloved wife. “I’ve had a good life, and my only regret is that I can’t walk you down the aisle at your wedding. I’d like to leave this world knowing that you’ve got a partner in your life, like I had with your mama. You’re a strong woman, Alana, but I’d rest easier knowing that someone was beside you to share in your joys and halve your sorrows.”

  What he said wasn’t anything new. The same thing had come up often in the past, more so this last year. She’d figured it was because she was getting closer to thirty years old. Alana couldn’t snap her fingers and give him more than six weeks to live. She couldn’t wish the tumor away or even make it less serious so the doctors could remove it. She sure couldn’t pull a boyfriend out of her cowboy hat and plan a wedding so he could walk her down the aisle. Or could she?

  The only trouble with the plan that popped into her head was that it would involve a huge lie. Still, it would make her father rest easy, and he’d never have to know she hadn’t told him the truth.

  No, she told herself. I need to spend every waking minute with my daddy, and Daddy would be so disappointed in me if he found out. The little devil in her head kept showing her smiling, happy pictures of her father’s face as he walked her down the aisle and left her in the care of a loving man.

  I don’t need a man to care for me, she argued.

  No, but think how happy it will make your dad, the pesky voice whispered.

  There was only one man who might be willing to say yes to such a wild plan—Paxton Callahan. Her father liked him as a man and a cowboy, but Pax had a wild reputation. Scenarios played through her head—one after another until she couldn’t think about anything else.

  She dried her tears, took a deep breath, and pushed back her chair. She got out a jar of pickles from the refrigerator and set out a banana cream pie she’d made the day before.

  She draped her arm around her father’s shoulders. They did seem a little bonier than they had been. Why hadn’t she noticed that he was losing weight?

  Because you see him as the big, strong cowboy he’s always been. The voice in her head was definitely her mother’s that time. Make him happy, Alana. Don’t let him leave with a single worry.

  She hugged him a little tighter and then sat down in her chair. “Have you gotten a second opinion?”

  “Don’t need one,” her father said. “I trust our doctor and the team that took care of me in Amarillo. Besides, I can feel it.”

  Alana took a deep breath. “I have something to say, and you might not like it.” Her father was going to have his wish, and by damn, Paxton had better agree or else.

  “It’s not bad news, is it?” All the color had left his face.

  Alana stood up, crossed the kitchen, and picked up the coffeepot and two mugs. That gave her another minute to put into the hardest words that would ever come out of her mouth. “It all depends on how you look at it, I guess, but it doesn’t have anything to do with my health.” She set the mugs on the table, filled them, and then returned the pot.

  “All right then.” His blue eyes stared right into her brown ones.

  She sat back down, took a deep breath, and said, “Daddy, don’t get mad, but I’ve been dating Paxton Callahan since he came home a few months ago. We both got tired of the way we were running from the attraction we’ve kind of had for each other for all these years, and well…” She let the sentence trail off.

  “Why would I be mad?” Matt asked. “Paxton and I get along fine.”

  “Well, he and his brother were pretty wild before Granny Iris turned the ranch over to them.” She was amazed that she could talk rationally about anything after the emotional bomb her dad had dropped on her. But she knew she had to stay strong to pull this off. She had to be strong for her father.

  “I wasn’t a saint either until I married your mother.” Matt smiled for the first time. “So how serious is this relationship?”

  “Very serious.” She stood up and and got the chips from the cabinet to keep from meeting her father’s gaze. “We’ve kept it secret because you know how people in Daisy are with their gossiping and spreading rumors. They’d have me pregnant and married by the end of summer.”

  “I wouldn’t mind that one bit. I could walk you down the aisle, and to know I have a grandchild on the way would be the icing on the cake.” Matt’s tone got lighter with every word.

  “Daddy!” Alana rolled her eyes.

  How could they be talking about anything but what was going to happen and what needed to be done the next six weeks? There was all kinds of legal stuff to take care of, she thought, and they’d never discussed things like funerals. That last word put a lump the size of a grapefruit in her throat.

  “Don’t take that tone with me,” Matt chuckled. “I’m telling the truth. If y’all are very serious like you say, then you could move things along a little faster, couldn’t you?”

  “How can you laugh when…” Tears flooded her cheeks again.

  He handed her a napkin. “We’ll talk about serious things like my will, the ranch, and my burial another day. Right now, I want to feel alive and not think about the end. I don’t mind checking out of this life, but I sure hate to leave you alone.”

  “You won’t.” She took a deep breath and forged ahead. “Pax proposed to me a week ago and we planned to elope to Las Vegas this summer, but if walking me down the aisle will make you happy, then we’ll have a wedding right here in Daisy. How about we have a small, family-only type ceremony at the church?” She glanced at the calendar on the wall to the right of the sink. “Does June sixth sound good? That gives us a month.”

  “That’s the day that me and your mama got married.” Matt’s eyes welled up, and he took the napkin from her. “I can’t think of a better going-away present. I don’t see a ring on your hand. Didn’t he give you one?”

  “Don’t talk about going away.” She wiped her new tears on her shirtsleeve. “We were going to pick out a ring this weekend.”

  “All right then,” Matt said. “I’d love it if you used your mama’s engagement ring. It’s in the safe. I’ll get it out for you right now. And, honey, for the next month, we’re going to focus on your wedding. Your mama made me promise that you’d have a wedding to remember, and I’ll see to it that you do. This shouldn’t be a little family affair at the ranch. We’re goin’ to have a big event that folks will talk about for years and years.”

  Oh boy. How was Alana going to convince Paxton Callahan that they were getting married in a month when they hadn’t even been dating?

  * * *

  Paxton Callahan was soaked in sweat when he brought the last load of small hay bales to the barn. The calendar might say it was the first week in May, but the temperature disagreed and insisted it was the middle of July. At least the heat wave had dried the hay that was down in the field so they could get it baled. He and his brother, Maverick, had noticed dark clouds over in the southwest, so they hadn’t even taken a noon break. Maverick’s wife, Bridget, had brought sandwiches and a gallon of chilled sweet tea to them right out to the field so they could eat and keep on working. The first big drops of rain hit as he drove the truck into the barn.

  Pax removed his cowboy hat from his head and wiped his forehead with a red bandanna. “That was close, but at least we’ve got it all inside.”

  “Luck is with us today, brother.” Maverick jumped out of the passenger seat of the old farm truck.

  “Luck,” Pax whispered under his breath as he pulled his work gloves from the hip pocket of his Wranglers and grabbed hay hooks from a nail on the barn wall. “I’ll finish this if you want to
go on to the house,” he said. “It’s only forty bales, and Bridget has an appointment up in Amarillo, doesn’t she? If you hurry, you’ll have time to get cleaned up and go with her.”

  “Thank you. I’ll sure take you up on that. Getting U.S. citizenship takes a lot of paperwork. I’m glad we’ve got a good lawyer working with us.” Maverick hung his pair of hooks back on a nail and took off his gloves. He removed his hat and wiped his brow, then resettled it. “We might have supper up there, and maybe even take Laela to the park before we come home.”

  “I can fend for myself.” Pax sunk the hooks into a bale and tossed it off the side of the truck.

  “All right then, see you later.” Maverick jogged from the open barn doors out to his pickup.

  Pax tossed off a few more bales, then hopped over the side of the truck bed and started stacking them. That word luck kept playing through his mind. Little Laela was lucky to have parents like Mav and Bridget in her life. His own father had died when he and Mav were young, and then their mother remarried and handed them off to their grandparents to raise. Fortunately, their grandparents were amazing people who did their best to bring them up right.

  “Laela won’t have a mother who ever leaves her behind for another man,” he muttered as he stacked the last bale.

  He was jumping out of the back of the truck when he caught a movement in his peripheral vision.

  “Hey, Pax.”

  He’d know that husky, sultry voice anywhere. He glanced up to find Alana Carey not two feet from him.

  Like he’d been doing since high school, he paused to take in her beauty: blond hair and big brown eyes and legs that seemed to go on forever. She was so tall that she looked him right in the eye, and he was over six feet. But even more awe-inspiring than her looks was her attitude. She could outride, out-ranch, and out-dance every cowboy in the Texas panhandle—and she could most likely out-drink all of them, too. Truth be told, she intimidated the hell out of him—and yet her presence was like a magnet at the same time.

  But the pain and misery in her normally sparkling eyes brought him up short. “Alana, what’s wrong?”