Hitched (Tarnation, Texas Book 1), page 1
HITCHED
Tarnation, Texas
Book 1
By
RHONDA LEE CARVER
2019 Rhonda Lee Carver
Copyright 2019 Rhonda Lee Carver
All rights reserved
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without permission from the author, Rhonda Lee Carver—except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages written in a review. For information, please contact Rhonda Lee Carver @ rhondaleecarver.author@gmail.com.
This work is fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue in this work are from the author’s imagination and creation. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, dead or alive, is completely coincidental.
This book is for your personal pleasure. Ebooks are not transferrable. They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work. If you have enjoyed this book and wish to share with another reader(s) please purchase another copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, purchase a copy. Thank you for appreciating the hard work the author invested into this book.
To read more books by Rhonda Lee Carver check out the list of her books at the end of this book.
DEDICATION:
To my Mom.
I’d like to thank Sandy Ebel for creating the name of the town Tarnation.
Acknowledgements:
This story is dear to my heart.
My mother was diagnosed with Early-Onset Parkinson’s Disease. My siblings and I first noticed the slurred speech and difficulty walking. What we thought had been a stroke, had actually been the first signs of this disease that would not only change our mother’s life, but our lives as well.
The stages seemed to crawl together as her symptoms multiplied, until like a bad dream our mother—the sweet, caring, funny woman—started to fade like a ship in the foggy night. Her eyes that were once vibrant blue turned gray. Her expressions were gone except for one distant, blank countenance. Her hands shook, and she could no longer hold a spoon. Then she started forgetting faces and names. I can’t even begin to express the heartbreak of being forgotten by a parent—and wonder if somewhere inside her body she is fighting to remember. Does she feel caged and the jailer is the disease?
I hate to see the light dim in her eyes. I hate this disease.
I can’t count how many years have passed since my mother has given me a hug. Kissed my cheek. Knew who I was beyond thirty seconds. However, she’s plentiful with saying “I love you” even in these final days. Where tears once monopolized her days, she laughs more, like a giggly toddler. These are the signs that she’s forgotten even the pain.
For those who can relate to this, I’m sorry. My hope is that one day there will be a cure.
Rhonda Lee Carver
Blurb:
Love blossoms in the unlikeliest places…Tarnation, Texas.
Buzz Colt was a liar, cheat, and a scrooge but the one thing he did right was father five sons.
Growing up without a father, Baxter Colt learned how to be a man on his own. He’d written Buzz out of his life until he passed and left a few surprises and secrets—and hoops to jump through.
Fury wasn’t a strong enough word to describe Baxter’s feelings when he heard the stipulations of his father’s will. Five brothers who are strangers are given the choice to live together for six months and work the Grinning Spurs Ranch or give up everything they’ve worked for—including their homesteads.
However, that’s only the beginning. All five must be married before time is up.
Since her mother was diagnosed with early onset Parkinson’s Disease, Abriella Craig was responsible for the family bakery and her little brother. Financially she was strapped and emotionally and physically she was alone, but when a brooding, handsome stranger strolls into town he might be the answer to her prayers.
Abriella is as sweet as the cupcakes she creates and would make the perfect wife, but as secrets start to unfold Baxter realizes he wants more than a marriage of convenience. But is he too much like his father to ever find love?
The Colt brothers will each take a journey in finding love, brotherhood and forgiveness in the small town of Tarnation, Texas where love blooms in the unlikeliest places.
Table of Contents
Front Matter
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Back Matter
Bonus – Wanted by the Lawman (Chapters1 and 2)
CHAPTER 1
Baxter Colt steered his truck onto the country road wishing he was back home on his ranch, setting up to ride. Instead, he found himself making the trip to Tarnation on some half-baked request from his late father’s attorney, Roe Robins. The call had come two days ago when he’d informed Baxter that Buzz Colt had died after battling a terminal illness.
The ride had been silent as Brennan, his younger brother, stared out the window while popping sunflower seeds into his mouth. Neither one of them were happy to make the journey. Back on Dragonfly Spurs, they had two hands to train, a new building to be erected, and Baxter was missing a date with Sabrina Mars. She and Baxter didn’t have anything in common outside of pillow talk, but a grown man needed adult play time and the sexy waitress at Pete’s Honky Tonk always brought her ‘A’ game.
“I forgot to call Sabrina to cancel.” Baxter twisted the knob that turned the AC on high.
“I’m sure she’ll survive.” Brennan spit a seed out the window. “She’s gone five months without seeing you, what’s another few days?”
“Exactly. Five months,” he groaned. Most days he would come in from working the land, dog-tired, and fall asleep the second his head hit the pillow, but on rare occasions he would take a night off and spend it with Sabrina. Robins better have a damn good reason for needing him and Brennan to come to the small town.
“We made it.” Brennan pointed to the welcome sign that read, “Tarnation, Texas. The Friendliest Place in the State.”
“About time.”
“Don’t you think it’s odd that the old man didn’t have a funeral? That’s fishy.” Brennan removed his hat and scratched his temple, then replaced the Stetson.
“What I think is fishy, Bren, is that we hadn’t seen our father in close to twenty years and suddenly we’re asked by this Robins fellow to come to Tarnation for a mysterious meeting about Buzz’s will. Beats the hell out of me why we couldn’t have just settled things over the phone.”
“Do you think he left us something?”
“Pfft.” Baxter would have easily told Robins that they weren’t interested in hearing anything about their father, but when the lawyer warned him that the information was about their homestead, and was of the utmost importance, Baxter felt he had no choice but to find out what their lying, cheating, two-timing seed donor wanted them to hear.
When Baxter and Brennan were kids, Buzz had been a fairly decent father. They were always out on the land together. Feeding the cattle. Riding and training horses. He’d taught them everything he knew about working a ranch. They’d looked up to him. Thought he was a superhero, but that soon blew up and they’d learned his true colors. Baxter was ten when Buzz left. No note. No goodbye. No explanation.
For the first few years, Baxter believed he had been the reason why his father had left. Two days before Buzz walked, he’d gotten mad at Baxter because he forgot to lock the gate to the fence and the prize horse had gotten loose. When they found the mustang, he was tangled up in barbed wire and had to be cut free. It had been a simple mistake, but Baxter had never forgotten the disappointment in Buzz’s expression.
Brennan reached for his guitar and strummed a few chords. He’d been working on a new song. He could sing, but he didn’t like the spotlight. That’s why he turned down an offer by a big recording label when he was nineteen.
Baxter and his brother were only three years apart and they looked eerily similar. People would often say they looked like twins. From bright blue eyes, dimples, and a taste for Bangers and Mash handed down from their mother’s Scottish DNA to their father’s brawny frame, thick dark hair, and the dragonfly birthmark on his back. Brennan’s was located on his bicep and Baxter’s on his neck, but these few physical traits were where the similarities ended.
The last thing Baxter wanted was to be compared to the man who abandoned his family and didn’t look back.
Who could leave their kids?
At fifteen, and curious about the reason why his father left, Baxter Googled his father’s contact information, unbeknownst to his mother and Brennan, and called the man. Baxter got his voicemail and asked if they could meet, but Buzz never returned the call.
That told Baxter everything he needed, or wanted, to know. He decided then that he didn’t need a father and would be fine learning how to become a man on his own.
Graduating high school a year early, he went on to college for a year until he decided to join the Navy. There he learned the ins and outs of being independent and strong. He met new friends—even lost a few—but he’d missed home. Once his contract was up, he came back to Texas and took the leadership rol e at Dragonfly Spurs.
“Where in tarnation are we?” Brennan joked.
“I haven’t seen any sign of life since we stopped for coffee back at that truck stop ten miles ago.” Baxter rolled down his window and stared out into the fields of tall reeds waving in the gentle breeze. A white fence separated the road from a pasture where horses grazed. In the distance he could make out a sprawling farmhouse with a red tin roof and black shudders. The property was dotted with out-buildings and a large red windmill, identical to the one that Buzz had built at Dragonfly Spurs.
Baxter saw the sign about the same time Brennan whistled through his teeth. “Hey, this place is called Grinning Spurs. Do you think—”
“It’s not a coincidence.” Baxter squeezed the steering wheel tighter until he felt his knuckles ache. So, this was where Buzz lived?
The extensive property went on for what seemed like miles before they finally crossed a stone bridge that took them into the town limits. The Tarnation City Park was on the left where a handful of kids played baseball, and on the right was an ice cream shop with a large fake cow in front.
Historical red-brick buildings, wooden benches, and black wrought iron lamps lined Main Street. The first stoplight turned red and Baxter stopped at the same time a crack of lightning brightened the sky followed by a splattering of raindrops on the windshield. He turned on the wipers and headlights.
Cursing under his breath, he rolled up his window and wiped his wet hand across his jeans.
“Have you heard from Ma? I think we should have told her the truth. I feel a little guilty that we lied and told her we were going to look at horses.”
“Bren, would you have been the one to mention Buzz’s name? Didn’t you learn your lesson as a kid? Remember when you asked her if we’d ever see him again, and after, she didn’t get out of bed for a week?”
“Hell, Bax. That was years ago. She’s over him, and don’t you think she’d want to know that he died? They were married. Had kids.”
The light changed and Baxter stepped on the gas. People were dashing into stores to get out of the sprinkling rain. “To her I think he died years ago. She deserved better after he up and left her for another woman. We were all better off. Look at the ranch. That enough should prove we didn’t need him.” He didn’t like talking about Buzz. The day he left was the day that Baxter wrote him off. Brennan was too young to remember how their mother cried herself to sleep many nights because of something their father had done while they were married. All in all, Baxter had tried to shelter his brother from the stark reality that their father was a cheater. “We’re ten minutes late to this meeting. . We’ll get it over with and head back to Dragonfly in time for our evening chores.”
“Yeah, but my gut tells me this ain’t gonna be as easy as that, bro.”
“It’s probably indigestion from those greasy fries you ate earlier.”
Big raindrops smacked the windshield and Baxter switched on the wipers to high. The rainstorm brought everything to a crawl. Within minutes, water covered the roads and the town became a ghost town of sorts.
“The GPS says turn left onto Church and our destination is on the left.”
Baxter made the turn—
“Look out, bro!”
He saw a flash of dark hair and red shirt.
It was too late to slam on his brakes. He swerved to miss her, hit a puddle and came to a sliding stop.
“Ah hell!” he bit out.
Climbing from the truck, he hurried around to the back and was met with a narrowed gaze lit with a storm of emotions. The woman’s mouth twisted as she stared back at him in utter disbelief until she reached up to swipe water away from her face. Unfortunately, the big tires had hit the puddle and drenched the fuming woman.
Her long hair hung in damp strands down her shoulders and wet clothes draped off her. Baxter cringed. “Sorry, lady. I didn’t see you—”
“Are you driving with a blindfold?” she snapped. Her bottom lip trembled, and her bright green eyes glistened with anger. A crack of thunder vibrated the sky.
He forked his fingers through his hair that was soaked along with his clothes. “What the hell were you doing?”
“Crossing the street.”
“This ain’t a crosswalk, lady. I could have run you over.” What started as an apology had turned down a whole different path.
She nailed him with one more raw glare before she stomped her way across the street. Baxter went back to the truck and slammed the door, catching a last glance of the woman as she turned the corner.
“Good way to make a first impression,” Brennan said with a grin.
“We’ll be out of Tarnation before it’ll matter.”
“Let’s hope so.”
Baxter parked on the street in front of the small, yellow house with a sign out front that read “Robins Law Office.”
He slid on his Stetson and they made their way inside to receive a friendly greeting from the bubbly young woman sitting behind the front desk. “Are you gentlemen here to see Mr. Robins?”
“Yes. We’re Baxter and Brennan Colt. We have an appointment. We’re just a few minutes late—”
“It’s not a problem. Mr. Robins just came back from court and is still waiting for the rest of the party. Let me show you to our conference room where the meeting will take place. I have coffee, bottles of water, and freshly baked strawberry cheesecake muffins from the Bluebonnet Bakery. It’s all set up for you inside.” She opened the door to a room and motioned for them to enter.
They stepped in and Brennan went straight for the muffins as Baxter poured himself a cup of coffee, not bothering with any cream or sugar.
“Man, these are good.”
Watching his brother demolish the muffin in two bites, Baxter took his cup and a seat at the end of the table and stretched his tired legs. “The coffee’s not so bad either. Beats that black tar we got back at the gas station.”
“So far I like this town. Pretty women, good food, and in their own words, “friendliest place in Texas’.” Brennan popped crumbs from his palm into his mouth, then reached for another muffin.
“Pretty women?” Baxter pushed back the brim of his hat with one finger and lifted a brow. “You’ve seen two.”
“And both are pretty. That must mean the ratio is in our favor.” Brennan grinned.
“Get your mind off that no end path. We’re only here for an hour. Two at the most. Then we’ll be back at Dragonfly.” He took a long sip of his coffee. “There are prettier women back where we belong.”
“Uhh…the lady on the street. Didn’t you see her, or were you wearing a blindfold like she accused you?”
“All I saw was water and a green death stare.”
Brennan shrugged and pulled out a chair beside Baxter and sat down. “The receptionist isn’t bad either. She was very friendly. Had a nice smile too.”
“That’s her job. Don’t take it personal.”
“Come on, bro. I’m a little surprised at your reaction.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know you’re not that into Sabrina. Isn’t it about time you stopped using her as a salve for your broken heart? What’s it been now? Five, maybe six, years since—”
“Don’t say her name,” Baxter interjected. He refused to talk about the one woman he’d fallen hard for and lost.
“Sorry.” Brennan held his hands up in defense. “I just wanted to point out the obvious. We’re in a new town. Maybe we should hang out a few days and get to know the locals.”
Baxter blinked, swiped off his hat and hooked it on his knee. “Are you listening to yourself? You’ve gone plum crazy. Get your head back on straight and realize Tarnation isn’t the town for us. We have a ranch to get back to.”
With a disgruntled moan, Brennan didn’t say another word but concentrated on his muffin, and Baxter was glad, hiding his smile in his cup that held the best coffee he thought he’d ever tasted. He lifted up the cup and read the name Bluebonnet entwined with dark blue flowers against a white backdrop.
