He could already have a girlfriend.”
“That would make your job easy.”
“If she had children already,” Cricket reminded him. “Just getting him to the altar would be incredibly difficult, but fixing him up with a single mother who would suit him is likely beyond impossible.” Cricket tried to ignore her own racing heartbeat. There was no way she could honestly match make for Jack Morgan—not with the way her heart jumped every time she saw him. Ever since January, when she’d seen him in the bull-riding ring at the rodeo, she’d known she had the man in her sights who could undo everything rational she thought about men and marriage. A rodeo cowboy could never be the perfect man for her, and yet, her heart was drawn to the devil-may-care in him. “I can’t do it, Josiah. It’s not my place to do so.”
“Hell’s bells,” Josiah complained. “A family would settle my son down, and that would be best for everyone.”
“What if he met a woman he fell in love with and then made a family? Wouldn’t that be better?”
“No,” Josiah said stubbornly. “Because Jack will never marry unless he has to. It’s kind of like visiting his old man—it’s costing him a kidney. Whatever woman catches him is going to have to rope, drag and throw my son to the altar, and he’ll yowl like he’s trussed on a Fourth of July grill.”
That was probably prescient. And she didn’t want Jack “yowling” if she was the one tying him down—what woman wanted to catch her man that way? “I’ll just finish the drapes for your house that you’ve been wanting, which Suzy and Priscilla and I promised you months ago. How about that? Wouldn’t new drapes give you a reason to come home healthy?”
He shook his head. “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. You are no good at negotiating, Cricket Jasper, particularly as I know you have a thing for my son. However, you’ll never catch him if you’re planning on wrapping yourself in drapes like Scarlett O’Hara, my girl. No, to catch Jack, you’ll have to be willing to lay body and soul on the line. He’s not exactly the curtains type, more like cots and coyotes, if you get my drift.”
Cricket did, indeed, get Josiah’s drift, and considered herself well warned.
Chapter Two
Jack hesitated outside his father’s door, realizing he was the topic of conversation between the pretty deacon and his father. He heard his father sneakily trying to get Cricket to romance him; he heard Cricket backing away from the idea and offering up her services as Martha Stewart instead. Part of Jack wanted to snicker at his father’s failed attempt at matchmaking, the other part of him was seriously annoyed Pop couldn’t just give the whole family-expansion thing a rest. But that was typical of the old man. He couldn’t be happy knowing he had a chance to get well. It had to be the family and kids and happily-ever-after for Pop—as if Jack and his brother’s had ever had that for one single day in their lives.
Thankfully, the good deacon was too angelic for Jack—and too crafty for Pop. Still, it shocked him that Pop thought the deacon had the hots for him. Then again, Pop was entitled to a delusion or two.
“Josiah, I’ll play cards with you, but only if you quit sipping out of that bottle,” Jack heard Cricket say. “Because if you don’t quit, you’ll be too relaxed to tell Jack that you don’t want his silly old kidney.”
Jack leaned close to the door, amused by Cricket’s coddling.
“I hadn’t thought of that,” Josiah said.
“And the liquor will skew the blood tests,” Cricket said practically. “It will mess up your medication, and the next thing you know, you’ll be at Jack’s mercy.”
“You have a point.” There was silence for a long while. “I do not want to be at anyone’s mercy.”
“Of course you don’t. Who does?”
“Not me, durn it. Toss this bottle into your purse and take it home to the ranch for me, would you? Store it in my liquor cabinet.”
“I will. It’ll be waiting safe and sound for your return.”
“And when will that be? C’mon, Deacon, I want you to spring me from this place.”
“Aren’t you happy here? You seem to be getting plenty of attention from the ladies,” Cricket said, her tone soothing.
“My heart is already taken,” Josiah said. “Anyway, I was hunting for a girl for Jack.”
“When I saw him ride in January, there was a rumor going around that your son has all the female attention he wants,” Cricket said. “Let’s just focus on you.”
“Was he any good at rodeo?” Josiah asked. “I’ve never seen him ride.”
“He was average,” Cricket said.
Jack straightened. Average! That day he’d placed first with his highest score, the best ride he’d ever had.
“Oh,” Josiah said. “I was kind of hoping he was good at the one thing he’s chased all his life.”
“Well,” Cricket said, “some men are late bloomers.”
Jack blinked. The woman was crazy! She didn’t know what she was talking about. He hadn’t been a late bloomer at anything.
“Later on, Jack mentioned he was considering giving up rodeo,” Cricket said, her tone serene. “Let me see…what did he say he was going to do?” Jack strained, listening to the deacon spin her incredible yarn.
“Oh,” Cricket said, “I remember. He said he’d decided to go into ranching. And do a little math tutoring at the high school. Did you know he got a college degree by correspondence course?”
“He did?” Josiah demanded.
I did? Jack mouthed.
“Yes,” Cricket said. “From what I could tell, he’s very smart and a huge believer in education.”
“That makes me very happy,” Josiah said. “I wish I’d known all this so that I could have told him how proud I am when he was visiting me. I didn’t have a chance,” he said sadly. “We always seem to get into a fight right off the bat.”
“Oh,” Cricket said, “Fathers and eldest sons do that.”
“They do?” Josiah said.
“Sure. And eldest daughters sometimes scrabble with their mothers. I argued a time or two with mine. And my brother.” Jack heard cards being shuffled. “Anyway, you can tell him how proud you are tomorrow.”
“Yes,” Josiah said, sounding happy. “I can. And you know, if he really wants to go into ranching, his brothers have started a new breeding business between them. They’d probably really appreciate the help. Heavens knows I’ve got the land. In fact,” he said, lowering his voice so that Jack had to really bend an ear to hear, “it’s time for me to rewrite my will.”
“Oh, dear,” Cricket said, “let’s play Twenty-one and not think about wills, Josiah.”
“Are
