The sheriff was being deliberately obtuse, prickling him because he could. Nobody understood him the way Dennis did. The man had been elected sheriff after Ty’s adoptive father, Terence, had given up the sheriff’s job—fifteen years of being a great sheriff undone by one rumor. A rumor that had never gone away. But Sheriff Dennis had always supported Terence Spurlock, and Ty appreciated that more than he could say. Maybe only another sheriff could understand how loose lips and bad information could strike down a career and a man. “Or I could just ask you, since nothing goes on in Bridesmaids Creek that gets past you.”
Dennis chuckled. “True enough.”
“So? Is there?” Ty asked impatiently.
Dennis crossed his arms and smiled. “Didn’t you bring those four cowboys here to find them brides? Sam Barr, Squint Mathison, Justin Morant and Francisco Rodriguez Olivier Grant, otherwise known as Frog?”
“What does that have to do with Jade?”
Dennis laughed. “Ty, you can’t blame her for dating someone. Jade thinks you don’t know she’s alive, except for her occasionally scooping you some ice cream in her mother’s shop. You haven’t exactly pursued her.”
Ty grunted, glancing around the main square of the town he called home, even as an adopted son, and the town to which he owed so much. Owed them everything because they’d helped raise him, and because he’d had a great childhood because of them.
He owed them everything but his bachelorhood.
“Is there a problem?” Dennis asked.
“No.” There was, but he knew Dennis wouldn’t needle him about it further. Except he did.
“You could always try talking to her,” he said, surprising Ty. Dennis prodded him in a gentle, fatherly way that made him miss his own dad.
“I’m good at talking,” Ty said, “but I’m a couple weeks away from trying to make it into the SEALs. I have nothing to offer Jade.” He’d be gone for six long months of training, and then a little longer, if he made it.
No. When I make it.
Mentally, he reviewed The Plan, which was so far working like a charm.
Bring home eligible, trustworthy, elementally studly bachelors with the intent of pressing some of the ladies—not Jade—into marriage. This would start a rollerball of reactions: namely, babies and families, new blood in Bridesmaids Creek.
Which was very important in a town that was one step away from dying off completely.
He wasn’t about to let that happen. No, everything was working smoothly, with Mackenzie Hawthorne and her four darling little girls now married to rodeo rider Justin Morant. That was the beauty of goals and plans—they worked like charms because they were road signs pointing the way to the future. One needed merely to stick to a plan and not deviate; that was the key.
Victims number two, three and four—those being Sam, Frog and Squint—were certainly catnip to the many ladies in town. So there was no reason under the clear blue sky of Bridesmaids Creek, Texas, that Sam should settle on Jade Harper.
“Eat your heart out much?” Sheriff Dennis asked, jarring him back to the present.
“I’m fine.”
“I think Jade would understand the whole BUD/S training thing, Ty. She’s an independent girl. She works hard. Don’t you think it might be better to speak than to hold your tongue to the point that you lose her forever?”
Lose her forever? Ty chewed on that a moment. He wasn’t going to lose Jade, because he’d never had Jade. What he had was The Plan. Nothing could disrupt it, because you didn’t get into the SEALs by being an indecisive doorknob. You accomplished that by having determination and focus, and by serving one master. And the only way to clear his father’s name, to rebuild the Spurlock brand, was to return home a man of his word. The people of BC—Bridesmaids Creek—had ceased believing that Terence Spurlock was a man of his word when a stranger to BC had been allegedly murdered at the local haunted house, the Hanging H, Mackenzie Hawthorne’s place. Folks said Terence had been bought off by the town’s evil shyster in big boots, Robert Donovan, who owned significant chunks of town and was determined to own more, carving it up into retail parcels that enriched his considerable wealth. If he could get the Hawthornes to sell, along with the owners of the ranches surrounding Jade’s place, Donovan would have the kingdom he desired. But because the people had mostly grouped together against him, refusing to sell, Donovan currently held smaller, disconnected and farther-flung chunks of land not suitable for his grand visions.
Ty’s father would never have been bought off by anyone. It burned Ty’s gut that some folks—not everyone, but enough—had put such a rumor out there. More than anything, he hated that Bridesmaids Creek was held hostage by Robert Donovan and his coterie of greedy swindlers.
“I understand the mission,” Dennis said softly. “I’m just saying you don’t have to pay for what happened to your father by losing something you love dearly.”
Ty moved away from the voice of temptation, which was intended to be the voice of reason. Sheriff Dennis was a good man. He wanted to help. When Ty’s father had died of a broken heart from losing the town’s trust—and Ty was sure as the setting sun that that’s what had driven his father to his grave—Dennis had been there to remind him of what a very good man his father had been.
Ty clapped Dennis on the back and walked in the opposite direction from The Wedding Diner—and Jade.
* * *
“IT’S A DUMB IDEA,” Ty said a half hour later, relenting on entering The Wedding Diner, because his curiosity was killing him. He inserted himself at the table in The Wedding Diner with his buddies Squint and Frog so he had an excellent visual on Jade and Sam, but whether he was torturing himself on purpose he couldn’t say. “In fact, that idea is so dumb it makes me wonder if you’ve poured something strong in your coffee.”
Squint shrugged. “You don’t want a family. We do.”
Frog nodded. “You brought us to BC to find women. We want what Justin got when he married Mackenzie. He got a family.”
Ty swallowed, not about to admit that the idea was very appealing. “You wouldn’t know what to do with Justin’s four babies.”
“I don’t care how many babies are involved,” Squint said, sipping his coffee thoughtfully. “I just care that babies are eventually involved.”
“So let me get this straight. You’re going to propose pregnancy to a couple of ladies. Not marriage, just pregnancy.”
“That about sums it up.” Frog eyed with pleasure the plate of steaming eggs, toast and bacon a waitress set down in front of him. “Women aren’t looking for a ring anymore, Ty. They want to know that the man they choose can give them a family. And personally, I want to know that I have children in my future. So it’s a win-win.”
“We’re not saying we couldn’t love a woman who didn’t want children,” Squint said. “But we think Justin’s got a pretty good setup, and it inspires us. Plus we’re pretty good father candidates.”
Ty grunted. “Have you chosen your victims?”
