Join Elana’s newsletter to get THE HELICOPTER PILOT’S BRIDE for free.
Sneak Peek! Rugged Cowboy Chapter One
Dallas Dreyer breathed a silent sigh of relief as he saw the city limits sign for Sweet Water Falls. He’d been driving for hours, and he was so ready to be out of the car.
At the same time, the temperature gauge on the dashboard told him not to get out of the car unless he wanted to be instantly incinerated. How Nate could get married in weather like this, Dallas didn’t understand.
Why Nate wanted to get married at all eluded Dallas. Bitterness gathered on the back of his tongue, and it was new and hard to deal with.
He’d had no idea Martha was so unsure about their marriage. She’d been coming to River Bay for over two years—every week—and she’d brought the kids many times.
Her departure from their life had surprised him. Shocked him, actually. Rendered him speechless.
He could clearly remember when he’d gotten the news, and that he’d sat on the bottom bunk where he’d been sleeping for twenty-seven months and just stared.
Even when Slate had come to tell him it was time for dinner. Even when Luke had gotten him a special pass for an extra hour in the library, without anyone there, Dallas had just stared at it.
He didn’t know what life would be like on the outside as it was. And without Martha? Dallas didn’t know how to function.
She’d been in Louisiana for the past three months, and her sister had been taking care of his two children. Martha had left them behind too, and Dallas honestly didn’t comprehend her behavior.
He’d been released five days ago, and Amy had been kind enough to come pick him up. She’d brought Thomas and Remmy with her, and Dallas had held his children tightly for several minutes right on the sidewalk outside the River Bay Federal Correctional Facility.
He glanced to Remmy, his six-year-old asleep in the backseat of the used sedan his brother-in-law had helped him purchase.
Dallas had money from before his time in prison, but not a whole lot. Enough to buy new clothes and this car and food and gas for the trip to Sweet Water Falls.
He’d stayed with Amy and Brent for a couple days to get the essentials in order, and then he’d set his app to direct him to Hope Eternal Ranch.
He would not miss Nate’s wedding. The man had done more for Dallas than anyone else on Earth—save Martha. But now that she was gone, Dallas’s only fall-back was Nathaniel Mulbury.
Ted Burrows was at the ranch too, and Dallas couldn’t wait to see his friends. The pull to them was all he had left, and he’d embraced it. After they’d come for Family Weekend and treated him exactly like one of their brothers…Dallas got choked up just thinking about it.
“Turn right in a quarter mile,” the cool female voice of his navigation app. Dallas started to slow down, and his son lifted his head from his game machine.
“Almost there, bud,” Dallas said, surprised at how chipper his voice came out.
Thomas nodded and powered down the game. Dallas felt like he didn’t know his ten-year-old. He’d missed all of his eighth and ninth year on the planet, and though Dallas had seen his son start to grow in his permanent front teeth and he’d gotten emails with attachments of the boy’s art, it was completely different than being with the child day in and day out.
Dallas had never considered the fact that he might be a single parent one day. Martha had been the perfect surgeon’s wife, and she’d charmed hospital administrators, kept the house tidy and the bills paid, and the children in appropriate, wholesome activities. Dallas had loved coming home to her and the kids, and until the lawsuit that had diverted his life onto another path, he’d been blissfully unaware of any of the things he was currently dealing with.
He made the right turn, and the road started to wind out of town. Dallas glanced at his new phone, the concept of even owning a device like this that could make calls at any time a bit novel to him.
“Just a couple more miles,” he said more to reassure himself than Thomas.
And just a couple more miles and a few more minutes down the road, Dallas made the right turn onto the road that had Hope Eternal Ranch at the end of it.
The road turned from asphalt to dirt, and the sedan bumped over the new surface. He crossed a bridge, and passed the trees, the ranch spread in front of him.
A massive house sat just beyond a small patch of grass, which had a fence separating it from a large gravel pad, where Dallas pulled to a stop.
He peered out of the windshield, taking int the house that was really two houses—one on each side of a three-car garage. Nate and Ted had told him all about it, and Dallas could see the appeal of it.
And then Ted was walking toward him, a giant smile on his bearded face. Dallas started laughing and said, “Come on, guys. Let’s get out.”
He got out of the car and met Ted at the opening of the fence. The other man had four inches on Dallas, and at least fifty pounds. He really was like a big teddy bear, and Dallas clapped him heartily on the back.
“Look at you,” Ted said, and that was all. Dallas didn’t need more; he knew what Ted meant.
Look at him outside the fences of River Bay. Look at him in regular clothes. Look at him, a single dad to two kids.
Those kids came up beside him, Remmy clutching her blanket though it was far too hot to cart that around for long, and rubbing her eyes.
“Guys,” he said. “This is Ted Burrows. Do you remember him?”
“Yes,” Thomas said at the same time Remmy said, “No,” and shrank into Dallas’s side.
He put his palm on her back and gave her a quick squeeze.
“He’s one of my best friends,” Dallas said. “Ted, these are my kids, Thomas and Remmy.”
Ted crouched down, his smile bright and genuine. “Hey, guys. I’ve got something for you in the West Wing. It involves chocolate. You want to come see what it is?”
Remmy edged away from Dallas, and Ted straightened as he took her hand. Thomas looked up at Dallas, and he nodded. I’m coming in too.”
Thomas went ahead of him, and Ted chatted with Remmy about her blanket and the character on her T-shirt.
“Oh, our clothes.” Dallas turned back to the car to get the small suitcase he’d brought with their dress clothes for the wedding. “I’ll catch up. I’m grabbing our clothes.”
He retrieved the bag and turned to follow Ted, but they’d disappeared. A flash of panic hit Dallas, and he worked to tamp it back. He hadn’t been alone for so long, and he didn’t like the feeling of not knowing exactly where to go.
The panic itself was new, and Dallas loathed it. He’d never had a confidence problem or been plagued with anxiety or other mental illnesses. But his incarceration had changed a lot more than the status of his marriage and the age of his children.
He walked down the driveway toward the wide garages, and Nate came out of a doorway, clearly looking for Dallas.
Relief rushed through him, and to his great surprise, tears pricked his eyes. “Nate,” he said, and Nate’s face burst into a grin.
“You made it.” He came down the few steps and engulfed Dallas in a hug. They embraced for several long moments, neither of them saying anything.