Saddles and Sin, page 21
She laughed even as tears filled her eyes. “Worse?”
“In the good way,” he hurried to say, grinning that easy grin of his even as anxiety crept into his eyes. “Hell, I had this all planned out, but now that we’re up here, I just want you to say yes so bad I can’t think of any of the romantic things I was going to say. I guess I’ll just ask if you’ll do me the honor—”
“Yes,” she said, putting them both out of their misery. “Yes, of course, yes!”
“Thank God.” He surged to his feet, wrapping his arms around her and hugging her hard enough to lift her off of her feet, before setting her down to slip the ring on her finger.
“You’re shaking,” she said, shouting to be heard over the cheers of the crowd.
“I was nervous,” he said with a laugh. “This seemed like such a clever idea, but a few seconds ago it hit me that I was going to have a few thousand witnesses to watch me bawl like a baby if you said no.”
“You’re crazy.” She shook her head, before leaning in to kiss him on the cheek. “You know I’m way too smart to say no. And I love you too much.”
“I love you, too,” he said. “What do you say we say good-bye to the fans, and take our celebration somewhere more private?”
“I say Mia and Tulsi will kill you if you don’t let them celebrate with you,” Marisol said, shifting out of his arms as she spotted John and Laura Mae stepping onto the other side of the stage. “And I think there are two other people who want to congratulate you.”
She motioned over his shoulder, knowing she’d made the right choice reaching out to his family when Robert’s surprise transformed into an expression of profound joy and relief. For a second, he looked like he might actually break down and cry, but he pulled himself together, welcoming John with a hard hug before accepting the flowers and guitar his mother had carried on stage and leaning down to give her a kiss on the cheek that sent a long “awww,” echoing through the crowd. Then Robert handed the guitar and flowers over to a roadie and pulled his mom in for a big hug and the “awww” became another round of applause as the collective ovaries of every woman in the audience exploded simultaneously.
Marisol hung back, wondering if she should leave the stage so the family could have their moment, but then Laura Mae pulled away from her son and held her arms out to Marisol, shouting, “Get over here, girl,” loud enough to be heard over the roar of the crowd.
A moment later, Marisol was tight in the grip of her first mama-type hug in years, fighting the urge to cry. And then Laura Mae kissed her on the cheek and said, “Welcome to the family, sweetheart,” and dry eyes were a thing of the past.
But even as she cried, Marisol was filled with the kind of happiness that came from being in love with the right man, the kind of man who saw the beauty of her heart, not the scars it had acquired throughout the years. The kind of man who had taught her that people might not be perfect, but love could be, and that sometimes all you needed to have the strength to face the cruelty in the word was one pair of strong arms and one heart that believed in your dreams.
As Robert kissed her tears away, moments before hustling her offstage, she knew she’d finally found the place where she belonged, and that every dream that mattered had already come true.
***
THE END
Keep reading for an excerpt from DIAMONDS AND DUST, Pike and Tulsi’s story.
Join Jessie’s newsletter to be notified of all new releases and be automatically entered to win free books: http://bit.ly/1swaXYv
A Letter from the Author
Dear Reader,
I hope you enjoyed SADDLES AND SIN. The Lonesome Point books mean so much to me, and I’m thrilled to share these stories of sexy Texas cowboys and the women tough enough to tame them with all of you. I treasure every email I receive, and hope to have more to add to my collection in the coming months as the rest of the series releases.
If you’d like to chat about your reading experience (or Bubba, who is one of my favorite sweet and naughty heroes of all time) please drop me a line at Jessie.d.evans@gmail.com. You can also catch me on Facebook (my favorite place to hang out with readers) https://www.facebook.com/JessieEvansRomance, or sign up for my newsletter so you’ll never miss out on a new release or giveaway again http://bit.ly/1swaXYv.
And while I’m tugging your ear, I wanted to let you know how grateful I am to everyone who has taken the time to review my books. Reviews can really make or break an author and I appreciate your feedback so much. If you have a moment to leave a review for SADDLES AND SIN at the retailer where you purchased the book, Bubba and I would both really appreciate it.
My husband keeps telling me Bubba is fictional. And I keep telling him, “Lucky for you,” ;).
Wishing you many good reads, and thank you for the chance to tell you stories,
Jessie Evans
More About the Author
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Jessie Evans, gave up a career as an international woman of mystery to write the sexy, contemporary Southern romances she loves to read.
She's married to the man of her dreams, and together they're raising a few adorable, mischievous children in a cottage in the jungle. She grew up in rural Arkansas, spending summers running wild, being chewed by chiggers, and now appreciates her home in a chigger-free part of the world even more.
When she's not writing, Jessie enjoys playing her dulcimer (badly), sewing the worlds ugliest quilts to give to her friends, going for bike rides with her house full of boys, and drifting in and out on the waves, feeling thankful for sun, surf, and lovely people to share them with.
Learn more at www.jessieevansauthor.com.
More sexy contemporary romances by Jessie Evans
Lonesome Point, Texas Series
LEATHER AND LACE (Book One)
SADDLES AND SIN (Book Two)
DIAMONDS AND DUST (Book Three) Nov 2014
GLITTER AND GRIT (Book Four) Dec 2014
Always a Bridesmaid Series
BETTING ON YOU (Book One)
KEEPING YOU (Book Two)
WILD FOR YOU (Book Three)
CATCHING YOU (Four-Short Story)
TAKING YOU (Five-Novella/Short Novel)
Fire and Icing Series
MELT WITH YOU (Book One)
HOT FOR YOU (Book Two)
SWEET TO YOU (Book Three)
PERFECT FOR YOU (Four-Short Story)
SAVING YOU (Five-Novella/Short Novel)
Cupid Island Novellas (Short Novels)
AUDITIONING YOU (Cupid Island Two)
A Cupid Island Christmas Anthology by Jessie Evans, Lila Ashe, and Ruby Laska
DARING YOU (Cupid Island Weddings)
Edgy, New Adult Reads
ONE WILD NIGHT-Wild Rush prequel
THIS WICKED RUSH-Wild Rush Book One
ONE PERFECT LOVE- Wild Rush Book Two
THIS SWEET ESCAPE-Wild Rush Book Three (Danny and Sam’s story)-October 2014
Please enjoy this excerpt from “Diamonds and Dust” Lonesome Point Book 3
PROLOGUE
Seven years earlier
Some people fall in love a hundred times between the cradle and the grave—their fickle hearts flitting from one infatuation to the next like bees buzzing from flower to flower.
And then there are people like Tulsi Hearst.
Since the day ten-year-old Pike Sherman dove into the river at the annual church float trip to pull six-year-old Tulsi out of the current before she was swept downstream, she had adored only one boy. It started as puppy love, transformed into an angsty pre-teen crush, and by the time Tulsi became a senior at Lonesome Point High School, four years behind the object of her affection, it had become a brightly burning torch of unrequited love.
She knew Pike didn’t return her feelings. Heck, if Tulsi hadn’t been his sister Mia’s best friend, she was pretty sure he wouldn’t have known she was alive.
Tulsi was so shy she rarely spoke to anyone but her two best friends; Pike was the town golden boy with too many friends—and ex-girlfriends—to count. Tulsi preferred the quiet shadows of the family barn; Pike lived for the floodlights illuminating the baseball field as he led his team to victory. Tulsi treasured the long weekends when Pike came home to visit from the University of Texas; Pike couldn’t wait to start his professional baseball career and be free of Lonesome Point, and his controlling father, forever.
Tulsi had spent enough time at the Sherman house to know that Pike and his dad were like dynamite and a lit fuse, and other things best kept apart, and realized her days with Pike were numbered. Still, when she learned he’d been drafted onto a Minor League team, and would be spending spring break training, instead of joining her and Mia on their annual camping trip, Tulsi was devastated.
After a long cry in the hayloft and hugging her horse Velveeta’s neck for longer than a nearly grown woman should need to, she decided it was time to let her infatuation with Pike go. She was eighteen years old and going to college to study equine business in the fall. She was becoming a woman, and it was time to put little girl dreams on the shelf.
With those noble intentions in mind, she signed up for an internship at a busy working barn in Springfield, Texas, and went to stay with her Aunt Willa for the week of spring break. She showed up for her first day at work determined to make a fresh start. She was going to be a new Tulsi, a Tulsi who was focused on career and friends, not crushes on boys who saw her as a little sister to be teased, tormented, and protected, but never loved the way she yearned to be loved.
She could feel New Tulsi blossoming inside her as she helped out around the barn, her usual shyness vanishing as she taught little girls to groom and saddle their horses, and led toddlers around the ring on docile ponies.
Then she joined her co-workers for lunch at the picnic tables at the edge of the property and saw the baseball diamond across the street…
Even before her new boss explained that the field was where the Springfield Cardinals minor league team held their annual training, Tulsi’s stomach was twisting into knots around her bite of potato salad. She’d already seen the familiar silhouette on the pitcher’s mound and realized that Pike Sherman was right across the street. Right across the flipping street, after she’d left home, missed the camping trip she’d been looking forward to for months, and stepped out of all her comfort zones in an attempt to purge her unrequited love from her system.
Tulsi rarely got angry—her father and big sister were the loose cannons in the Hearst family. She was a pacifist by nature, and believed kindness was the greatest virtue any human being could possess, but the fact that Pike had dared to stick his handsome nose into her fresh start made her mad enough to spit.
She stewed in her anger all day, and by the time Pike pulled up beside her in his red pickup truck as she was walking back to her aunt’s farm for supper, she was in a truly foul mood.
“Tulsi?” Pike frowned at her through the open passenger side window. “What the heck are you doing here? Did you and Mia come up to watch spring training?”
“No, I’m alone, and I’m working, Pike Sherman,” Tulsi said, losing the last of her cool. “I have a job that has nothing to do with you, your sister, your family, or baseball. I am a person, and I have my own dreams, my own interests, and my own life!”
“Okay, okay.” Pike blinked in obvious surprise. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to insult you.”
“Well, you did,” she said, still so angry she couldn’t seem to control her mouth. “You’ve been insulting me for years.”
His eyebrows lifted. “What? When have I ever—”
The black car behind him on the two-lane country road blared its horn, but instead of driving away, Pike pulled over on the gravel shoulder in front of her and got out of the truck.
Tulsi watched his long, lean form emerge from the driver’s side, refusing to notice how amazing he looked fresh out of the shower, with his brown hair hanging in thick chunks against his forehead and a gray tee shirt molding to his impressive chest. Instead, she focused on the fact that Pike was an entire foot taller than her five foot three inches, and how stupid she was to have spent years crushing on a boy who would have put a terrible crick in her neck if she’d ever actually kissed him.
“Have I done something wrong?” he asked, waiting for her response with a lost expression on his face.
Tulsi rolled her eyes, wondering how a boy smart enough to graduate with a three point five from college could be so stupid. It wasn’t like her crush had been particularly subtle. Even her big sister knew Tulsi had it bad for Pike, and Reece rarely paid attention to anything that wasn’t about Reece, still considered Tulsi a baby, and hadn’t been home to Lonesome Point in three years.
“Because if I have, I’m sorry. You know I love you,” Pike continued, his words sending an arrow slicing through her already suffering heart. “You’re like the sweet, less irritating little sister I never had. I really… I care about you.”
Tulsi sucked in a shaky breath, pain and frustration warring in her chest, making her brave enough to step closer, and pin him with a hard look. “I care about you, too, Pike, but I’m sick and tired of being treated like your little sister.” His eyes went wide with surprise, but there was something else there, too, a flicker of interest that made her bold enough to take another step toward him and add in a softer voice, “And maybe I’m not as sweet as everybody thinks I am.”
“Is that right?” he asked, brow arching.
“That’s right.” Something wild and brave inside of Tulsi raised its head, insisting it was time to make her stand, to grab for what she wanted before Pike was forever out of her reach. “So, as far as I’m concerned, you have two options.”
He nodded slowly, holding her gaze with an intensity that made her shiver. “I’m listening.”
“Either get out of my way and let me forget you,” she said, adrenaline making her pulse pound in her throat, “or shut up and kiss me.”
Oh, boy. That did it…
Tulsi watched the spark in Pike’s eyes kindle into a flame with equal parts fear and excitement. There was no doubt she’d captured his attention, but when he reached for her, the moment still felt surreal. She’d been fantasizing about Pike taking her in his arms for so long, that when he finally did it, it felt like a dream, a scene from a movie she’d watched too many times to believe she would ever play the starring role.
But then Pike’s lips dropped to hers, the soap and grass smell of him swirled through her head, and things got very real, very fast.
Tulsi had never exchanged more than a few experimental kisses with boys during seven minutes in heaven back in junior high and was, for all practical purposes, a kiss virgin. But her response to Pike’s tongue slipping between her lips was anything but timid. She welcomed his invasion with a moan, parting her lips and pressing up on tiptoe to deepen the kiss, mating her tongue with his, tasting mint and something intoxicating that was all Pike.
He tasted like dessert for dinner and midnight on New Year’s Eve, like sinful indulgences, bright new beginnings, and impossible dreams coming true. By the time he palmed her bottom in his hands, drawing her up his body so they could kiss without Tulsi standing on tiptoe, she was thoroughly addicted. Kissing Pike was even better than she’d imagined it would be. Her body felt like a hot air balloon, soaring into the sky on the heat they generated together, and she never, ever wanted to come down to Earth.
Mercifully, it seemed he felt the same way.
“Shit, Tulsi,” he said, breath coming fast against her lips. “Where did you learn to kiss like that?”
“Hours of imagining what it would be like when you finally kissed me,” she confessed, tightening her arms around his neck. “I’ve been crazy about you since I was a kid, you big dummy.”
Pike laughed, his hazel eyes sparkling as he gazed into her face, studying her like an unexpected gift discovered beneath the Christmas tree. “Why didn’t you ever say anything?”
She rolled her eyes but couldn’t keep a smile from her face. “I did! I said it a thousand times, in a thousand different ways. You just weren’t listening.”
“Well, I’m listening now.” He hugged her closer, sending a thrill of awareness racing across her skin. “Can I take you out tonight? We have training early tomorrow, so I can’t stay out too late, but we could get dinner and talk, or…whatever.”
Tulsi sighed dreamily. “I would love to get dinner and talk. And definitely whatever. I want lots and lots of whatever. As much of it as I can get.”
Pike shook his head, that wonder-full glow still lighting his face. “I really am an idiot, aren’t I?”
“Yes.” She laughed. “But I still like you.”
“I like you, too,” he said. “I more than like you. I just thought…”
“What?” she asked, heart still floating even when he set her back on her feet.
“I thought there was something wrong with me, thinking about you the way I did,” he confessed, his gaze shifting to the ground. “You’re Mia’s friend, and I’ve known you since you were this tiny little thing. I felt like I should be protecting you, not noticing how good you looked in your swimsuit.”
“God, Pike,” she said, her head spinning. “You don’t know how much I wanted you to notice me. Seriously, I’ve been crushing on you since I was practically a fetus.”
“That’s a long time.”
“You’re telling me,” she said, loving the way his eyes sparkled when he laughed.
“I wish I’d gotten the hint sooner,” he said, smile fading. “I’ve wasted so much time fighting the way I feel, when I could have been kissing you, instead.”
“It’s okay.” Tulsi fought the urge to weep with relief, not wanting to ruin this perfect moment with a runny nose and red eyes. “We’ll just have to kiss more often to make up for it.”
