Grayson turned to find his youngest son standing in the doorway. He motioned Jud in, smiling in spite of himself. Having his sons all under the same roof again, even for a short period of time, brought him more joy than they could imagine.
“I thought you’d want to know we talked and came to a decision,” Jud said.
Grayson held his breath, worried that his foolish plan hadn’t worked. He was torn between guilt and hope.
“We drew straws,” Jud said.
So like his sons. He smiled. “Straws, huh? How did you come out?”
Jud shook his head, grinning. “Wouldn’t you know it? I got the shortest.”
“What do you plan to do?”
“What choice do I have?”
Grayson hated forcing his sons into this, but if he hoped to live long enough to see grandchildren, what choice did he have?
“Think of it as a nudge,” he’d told Kate when he’d revealed his plan to her after finding the letter.
“Oh, Grayson,” she’d said, looking worried. “Are you sure about this?”
Hell, no. But he knew his sons too well. Threats and bribes wouldn’t have worked. All five sons were successful, and telling them they’d lose their inheritance if they didn’t marry wouldn’t work. Making an old-man’s plea to them wouldn’t have worked, either.
He’d raised strong-willed, highly independent men. They were all more like him than Rebecca.
It wasn’t until he found the letters Rebecca had left to be given to each son on his wedding day that Grayson seized on the idea. For years, he hadn’t touched anything of Rebecca’s. Not until the move to Montana. He’d been shocked to find the letters—and grateful. Rebecca, even from the grave, had helped him decide what to do about their wild, incorrigible sons.
Along with a letter to each of the boys, Rebecca had left him a letter, as well. In it, her dying wish had been that the boys marry before the age of thirty-five. She half jokingly had said she hoped that they would marry a Montana cowgirl—just as their father had.
“Don’t look so guilty,” Kate said when he’d told her he’d called the boys to Montana for a family meeting. “You only want the best for your sons.”
Grayson hadn’t been so sure. He’d felt as if he was being selfish by using Rebecca’s dying wish.
“Honey,” Kate had said. “Your boys are like you, strong—stubborn and independent to a fault.”
He knew she was right. The boys had grown up without a mother and in a house without a woman’s touch. They’d seen him live for years without the love of a good woman and with everything on his own terms.
But since he’d fallen for Kate, he’d come to realize how important love and marriage were for a man. He wanted the same for his sons, and he wanted his sons to settle in Montana, close enough that they could be a family again.
“How are they taking all of this?” Grayson asked his son.
Jud laughed. “As expected.”
He laughed, as well. “I can just imagine.” Russell would take command as the oldest. Lantry would look for a loophole. Shane would rebel. Dalton would try to charm his way out of it. And Jud…
Grayson studied his youngest son. The wildest one. What would Jud do?
A TRAIL OF DUST rose on the horizon. Kate Wade Corbett watched the three riders cut across the wide prairie.
The Corbett brothers were racing each other to the corrals. Competition was in their blood.
All five brothers were so much like Grayson. No wonder none of them wanted to settle down. She hoped that her husband’s plan worked, but she couldn’t help being doubtful.
“Hello.”
Kate smiled as he felt Grayson’s warm breath on her neck. As he put his arms around her, she leaned back into him and breathed in his masculine scent.
“The boys drew straws to see who would get married first,” Grayson whispered.
Boys. He still thought of them as boys, but they were grown men. Too bad they often didn’t act like it, she thought as dust billowed up, and the breeze carried their shouts and laughter.
“Jud got the shortest straw,” he said. “He says he’s met someone he thinks we’ll like.”
She sighed and chuckled softly. “And you believe him?”
“Still skeptical, huh?”
Kate turned in his arms to cup his smooth-shaven jaw and look into those incredible blue eyes. “Wouldn’t it have been easier just to tell them the truth?”
He shook his head, smiling down at her before gently giving her a kiss. “I just want them to be as happy as I am,” he said as they turned to watch the finish of the race.
In a cloud of dust and cheers and curses, Dalton reached the corrals first. Lantry and Russell finished neck and neck. As the dust settled, Kate spotted Shane sitting in the shade of the bunkhouse. She hadn’t noticed him before, but she now had the distinct feeling that he’d been watching her and his father.
Shane, she feared, saw more than the others. Of the five, he worried her the most.
Chapter Three
Jud Corbett wasn’t about to tell his brothers, but he’d known this was coming. He was working on a film just to the north in Canada and had overheard Kate and his father discussing the family meeting on one of his visits.
At first he’d told himself that his brothers wouldn’t go along with any crazy marriage pact, but that was before he heard about the letters from their mother. While none of the brothers would want to disappoint the old man, ignoring wishes of the mother they’d heard about their whole lives would be impossible.
Jud had known that this whole situation would be a train wreck. That was why he had immediately started looking for the perfect girl-next-door to bring home. He knew his father and Kate would only approve of a woman unlike the kind he normally dated.
He’d found her on a local online dating service’s Web site. The moment he’d seen Maddie Cavanaugh’s face, he’d known she was perfect.
Imagine his disappointment when he’d found out that the woman’s photo and personal profile had been put up on the site by accident. According to Arlene Evans, who ran the service, Maddie Cavanaugh wasn’t even in the area anymore.
But a few days ago, Jud had seen Maddie coming out of the Whitehorse Drugstore. Her photo on the Web site hadn’t done her justice.
Her long blond hair was pulled up in a ponytail. A pair of silver loops dangled from each earlobe. She wore no makeup. Freckles were sprinkled across her cheeks and the bridge of her nose like tiny stars in a Montana night sky.
