Flint Hills Bride
10TH ANNIVERSARYShe'd Been The Tomboy Heiress And He, The Hired Hand Now things were a little different. He was Jake Rawlings, dedicated lawman, and she was Emily Prescott, woman on the run. But all Jake wanted was to get her to trust him enough to run straight into his waiting arms.Emily had never been denied anything by her family, until now. And if the man they were trying to keep her away from was the man she really wanted to marry, how come Jake was looking better all the time?
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10TH ANNIVERSARY
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For Megan,
our family’s most recent bride
Jake felt too damn good to even
consider apologizing.
He glanced Emily’s way and discovered her scowl had deepened. “What?” she demanded. “Why are you grinning?”
“You first,” he said, making an effort to be serious. “Why are you frowning?”
“You’re impossible,” she said. “I should hate you!”
“Why?” He truly was bewildered now. “Because I left you? Or because I kissed you?”
“Yes. Yes. And for other reasons. I should hate you. But I can’t!” She slammed her gloved hand down on the saddle horn, and it made the softest of thuds.
He laughed. He knew he shouldn’t. He should take her unhappiness seriously, no matter how little sense it made. “You’re angry because you can’t hate me? Of course you can’t hate me. We’ve been friends forever. That’s what friends do. They get angry, and then they forgive each other.”
“I don’t want to forgive you,” she muttered…
Kansas, 1881
“Am I to understand I’m under arrest?” Emily’s gaze went from the deputy’s badge to the serious green eyes.
“Well, I’m not sure, ma’am. You say you’re Emily Prescott, but you don’t fit the description. I was expecting a tomboy in braids.”
“Very funny, Jake.”
His flash of a smile faded as she glared at him.
Noisy activity surrounded them on the train depot’s platform. Emily barely noticed. She wrapped her cloak more tightly around her and regarded Jake Rawlins with growing irritation. “My parents sent you, didn’t they? I can just hear them. ‘Take her to her brother’s ranch, and see that she stays there.’ ‘Telegraph immediately if she doesn’t get off the train.’ It amounts to house arrest, Jake!”
She brushed past him to find her trunk. He followed, of course. She hadn’t expected to get away from him, merely to be out from under his scrutiny long enough to get her temper under control. None of this was Jake’s fault.
“I’m not your guard,” he said softly. “I’m just your ride to the ranch.”
“And that explains why they sent you, Deputy?” She found her trunk. A sudden wave of exhaustion made her turn and sit on it, clasping her gloved hands on her lap.
He moved to stand in front of her. “I volunteered, Emily. I’m headed the same way you are. Remember, my parents live on your brother’s ranch.”
She sighed, regretting her short temper as she always did. “I remember, Jake. But I visit the ranch regularly, and I’ve hardly seen you the last three years.”
A somber nod acknowledged the truth of the statement. “I’m trying to correct that,” he said. “I heard you were coming early for Christmas, and it seemed like a perfect excuse to take a vacation and spend time with…my family.”
Emily noticed the hesitation. Perhaps there was a rift between him and Martha or Perry that she had not been aware of. Perhaps he would be more understanding than she had expected. She cocked her head to one side as she looked up at him. “So that’s all they told you? That I would be coming in today?”
