Page 78 of Breaking the Cowboy's Rules

Granddad fished a beer out of a bucket, popped off the cap, and lifted up his boots to rest them on a hay bale.

“Evening.” He looked at his three grandsons. “Nice that you could join us.” And then he took a bite of steak like he didn’t feel the mounting tension. Nico bit back the urge to throw up and laugh at the same time.

The shooting had not only traumatized her, it had made her insane. She should be taking control of this runaway train, making sure that Bodhi let Beck speak first, but part of her wanted it, the proposal. It might be the only one she ever got, because she was pretty sure that once she told Bodhi who she was, who her family was and what they’d done and how she’d cooperated to bring them into legal jeopardy, he would be the first to turn his back on her. Family stuck to family no matter what. That was his ethos. And those were the Wentworth rules she’d broken and flung on the floor and crush with a heel.

Bodhi drew in a breath and squared his shoulders. She’d seen him do the same thing before he mounted the chute.

All three cousins looked at each other.

“Before we get started, I have to say this,” Beck said, looking a little nervous. “Ashni, you know I love you, right? I have always loved you. You’ve been the only woman for me since before you were a woman.”

Awkward silence followed the last weird statement.

“What I mean is—” Beck was clearly struggling for words “—this was not my idea. But my intent has always been here. But I know you want…”

“You. I was being ridiculous and childish,” Ashni interrupted Beck’s stumbling soliloquy. “I want you. I want to marry you. I want to build a life with you. I want your children.” Her hand briefly strayed to her abdomen, and Nico, like everyone else in the half circle of Ballantynes, drew in a quick, startled breath. “But I wanted you to make some grand, romantic, really public gesture. And I wanted a big social wedding with so many of my parents’ friends and all the traditions and the food and—”

“And you will have all of it,” Beck said. “I want that for you, and so…”

“No. I wanted all of the drama and glamour of a huge wedding for the wrong reasons. That was for other people. I want this just for us.” Ashni dropped down on her knees in the dirt.

“Beck Ballantyne, I fell in love with you when you nearly passed out the first time you tried to kiss me.”

“It took you that long?” His eyes widened. “I fell in love with you when I heard you sing, and I looked into the choir room window and saw you auditioning.”

“I’m a couple of weeks slower.” She smiled up at him. “But we got there, and we’ve grown up together, and I want to keep growing together. Beck, will you marry me?”

As a ripple went through the crowd, and Nico realized more people had caught on that something epic was happening. The circle of people around the central bonfire had grown with people craning to see.

“Yes!” He pulled her up into his arms. “A thousand times yes.”

Ashni kicked her boots up to her butt as Beck squeezed her. “I even have a ring,” she said. “I made it with Sky.” She began to fumble with a chain around her neck.

Ben Ballantyne clapped and so did the crowd. Then Ben quieted everyone with a wave of his hand and a whistle.

“He can’t wear a wedding band until you’re married,” Ben said.

“We can go tomorrow to the courthouse and get married,” Ashni countered, grinning. “And then have a family wedding after the finals.”

Ben looked at Bowen. “Son, as the eldest, you really should have been allowed to go first, but that’s Beck. Always interrupting, trying to be heard over the two of you.”

People laughed, but Beck and Ashni just stared into each other’s eyes.

He slipped a ring on her finger. Ashni barely looked at it because she was so entranced with her man.

I want that. I have to have that.

Nico hated that she hadn’t confessed to Bodhi who she was. She despised her weakness, but then maybe she wouldn’t have had her week with Bodhi.

Bowen lifted Langston up on the hay bale and gazed up at her, his lean, hawkish features serious.

“Langston, I know we don’t have the love at first sight story going for us.”

“More like intense dislike.” She laughed down at him. “But that was me trying to make an impression.”

“And me trying to not get arrested or run out of town on the business end of a shotgun.” He looked at his granddad and the other man—oh, maybe that was Langston’s father. She’d heard they were estranged, but Langston said he’d approached her at the rodeo, wanting to try to rebuild a relationship.

Would Mom and Dad ever want to mend fences with me?

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