Chapter One
Diamond W Ranch
Twenty-eight-year-old Garrett Mercer looked anxiously around his newly built adobe house, hoping it was enough.
His dark brown eyes scanned the clean, sand-brown walls and pinewood floors he’d constructed himself, his large, deeply tanned muscles still aching from weeks of work it took on top of his cowboy duties.
Logan and Dean had been a great help constructing the small house, teasing him as they did so; stating that old Mr. Dawson’s was no longer good enough for him now that the once great man had gone to God and to everyone’s surprise, left his failing ranch to Garrett.
He’d taken their teasing with ease and went along with it, but truth was, he’d built the new house for multiple reasons.
For one, as Mr. Dawson got older, his repairs to his adobe house became more infrequent.
Garrett had tried to keep up with them, but with the last rainy season after his passing, the thing had all but come apart.
It just wasn’t livable anymore, especially for who Garrett was about to go pick up from the Twin Rivers Boarding House and Stagecoach Station.
That was the second reason. Who he was going to pick up.
It had been a mail-order bride ad he’d posted in the papers over a year ago that had started his communication with twenty-one-year-old Hannah Bennett.
He’d done so after starting to worry that he’d run out of time finding a wife and break the oath.
Not only that, but now that Mr. Dawson was gone, Garrett remembered just how lonely he used to feel when he was on his own.
He wanted company. Someone to come home to and talk with.
Someone he could care for and in turn, they would care for him.
After a year of writing letters to one another, a genuine fondness had grown between him and Hannah, and he’d finally decided two months ago that Hannah could be that person, and had extended the invitation to join him on the ranch in matrimony.
To his relief, Hannah had accepted, but with a caveat: she wouldn’t be alone.
Which was another reason why he was fretting about the new house.
She was bringing her two younger sisters with her, Rebecca and Maria, and he wanted all three of them to be comfortable.
Which was why instead of only building three bedrooms along with the main living area and kitchen space, he’d taken the time, using up the midnight hours to build on a fourth room.
They were all small, and plain, but they could each hold a bed, table, and bureau.
He’d also made sure to carve out room for a push-out window in each, so that everyone could get fresh air.
Texas heat was no joke, and he had no doubt that Hannah and her sisters were going to need time to adjust since they were used to living up North in vastly cooler temperatures.
Logan and Dean’s sisters, Grace and Amanda, had even been kind enough to make curtains for the windows and donate some of their handmade quilts for the beds, even though he had not told anyone yet that he would be receiving such important guests.
The curtains were white, with little desert flowers stitched into them in hues of pink, yellow, and orange.
The quilts had been designed in similar fashion; only the embroidered flowers were much larger, adding small splashes of color to the otherwise bare rooms.
Still, he had no doubt that the earthen house was vastly different compared to the one Hannah lived in in Eagle Harbor, Michigan, and though she seemed down to earth in her letters, Garrett still worried it wouldn’t be good enough for her or her two siblings.
In the room he’d picked out for her, he picked up the potted, flowering cactus he’d transplanted for her from her end table for the dozenth time; still debating if he was to give it to her or not.
He wanted to make her room a little extra special, so he’d brought the bright-green plant in.
One day, after they’d settled into their marriage, perhaps they would share a room.
For now, though, he did not want to put any pressure on her to join him.
That was a decision they each had to make, not just him.
However as far as a welcome gift, he worried about making a mistake.
What if she did not know what a cactus was, or if she knew that its needles were sharp and a little poisonous?
What if she pricked her finger? What if one of her little sisters did?
He couldn’t put something so dangerous in her room, could he?
Shaking his head, he decided against the plant and placed it back down on the end table.
He gently plucked the bright pink flowers away from the stinging barbs surrounding them, and sprinkled them on the crisp, clean white bedding.
He cocked his head and looked at his work.
He arranged a few of the flowers so they weren’t so clustered, then stood up again to view it from the doorway.
Deciding that was far better than leaving the entire plant in her room, he picked up the potted cactus and walked from her room to his, which was situated directly across the small hallway.
Inside, he set the pot down and reached for the worn Bible that Mr. Dawson had also passed down to him, and opened up the worn Book to his desired page.
He ran his calloused hand lovingly down the thin paper, recalling the many hours Mr. Dawson had sat by his side, teaching him not just to read, but to understand the Word of God.
Taking a deep breath to steady his erratic heartbeat, Garrett began to read aloud to himself from the Book of Philippians.
“Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
Garrett drew in another deep breath as he let the words center him, and slowly his heartbeat fell back into its steady rhythm.
He didn’t have to be nervous. He just had to trust that God was leading him properly.
He’d prayed on Hannah. On her situation and his own.
He’d given his request for God to guide him to the right decision and here he was, just a couple hours away from meeting his new wife. All he had to do was trust.
Setting the Bible carefully back down on the end table, he stood up and walked through the small house, grabbing his worn, brown cowboy hat off of one of the pegs he’d placed by the front door. He paused when he stepped outside onto the front porch, surprised to see Dean there waiting for him.
“Howdy friend,” Dean greeted cordially, tipping his light brown cowboy hat toward Garrett.
Just as Garrett had grown out of his childlike state, so had Dean. Now they were both tall, heavy-muscled, and sharp-jawed from their years of hard work. Logan was the tallest and broadest of them all though, which served him well since he was now the Sheriff and protector of Twin Rivers.
“Howdy back,” Garrett said, moving from his frozen spot and off of the porch; walking past Dean toward the horse and small buggy he’d already had hitched up.
“What’s brought you over so early in the day? Don’t you got enough work over at your own ranch?” Garrett teased, trying to sound nonchalant as he loosened the horse’s rope from the hitching post.
Dean had bought out his father Henry’s ranch a year ago, and though the place hadn’t been suffering at all like Garrett’s ranch, he’d taken what his father had built and amplified it tenfold. Now, he was one of the most sought-after cattle breeders in the entire state.
“Well, I do,” Dean chuckled, coming up beside Garrett. Garrett caught Dean’s bright blue eyes and found them twinkling with excitement. “But I figured I’d take some time and check on my good buddy. And I don’t know, maybe talk him into a deal?”
Garrett raised a single, curious dark brow.
“A deal, huh?”
Dean nodded, his grin growing.
“Listen, bud, I know you’re proud, and you want to get this place back on its feet on your own. And I know this place didn’t start to go downhill because of bad management, just bad luck. I respect that. But the truth is your sellable cattle numbers are dwindling and ya need a hand.”
Garrett sucked his teeth, not comfortable with such charity. Even from a close friend.
“Doesn’t sound like a deal, it sounds like a handout. Whatever it is you’re talking about,” he replied curtly.
“It’s not. It’s a trade off and a payback,” Dean assured him, “When I was trying to buy out my father, you gave me work so I could get there faster. You didn’t have to do that, but you did.
You had Mr. Dawson’s failing health to worry about, you were learning how to run things on your own here, and despite all of that you still chose to give me a hand up, even though this place was starting to slow down. ”
Garrett’s jaw tensed. The ranch wasn’t in the red. Yet. If he didn’t do something soon, though, it would be.
“Now, my last breeding fee from my prized bull brought me the prettiest penny I ever did see if you know what I mean, and now I’m more than square,” Dean went on, “so now I want to return the favor. You take that said bull and breed him with a few of your heifers free of charge; get your numbers back up. And as for the deal, you join this year’s cattle drive.
You know how it is. The more cowboys and cattle we got, the easier it is to get them to all stay in a train.
We’re taking them to Kansas where the stock yards will pay us a small fortune. We’d both walk away happy.”
Garrett’s brows flew up in surprise. Dean’s bull truly was prized in not just Twin Rivers but the entire tri-county area.
The beast was of sturdy stock and every cattle rancher around wanted a piece of him in their herd.
For Dean to offer free breeding services was taking good money right out of his pocket.
It was also something Garrett sorely needed.
With his own last breeding bull dying a few months ago and not enough money to replace it, his small herd of heifers had been unable to produce any calves.
However, the cattle drive gave him pause.
It was an investment that was almost guaranteed to work out if all the cattle made it through the long journey; however, his herd was so small now that even if only a handful were lost along the way, it could further damage his already precarious financial situation.
Yet when he looked into Dean’s eyes, so full of trust and determination, he realized he needed to have faith. Dean wouldn’t lead him in the wrong direction, and neither would God.
“You got yourself a deal,” Garrett agreed.
Dean’s grin spread wide as he slapped his hands together in excitement.
“Yeah, we do!” He said eagerly, snatching Garrett’s hand up to seal the deal with a shake.
Garrett couldn’t help but chuckle as he accepted his friend’s handshake.
“Come on,” Dean urged, going to the leather straps of Garrett’s horse, “Whatever you were about to do, let it wait until later. You and I are going into Granny’s and having us a celebratory dinner.”
Garrett’s anxiety spiked again as he hastily stopped Dean from loosening his horse from his buggy. Dean was wary of outsiders, and a bit on the overprotective side when it came to his friends.
I can’t tell him. Not yet. Not until Hannah and her siblings are settled and he can see how right she is for me.
“Listen, bud, I’d love to,” Garrett replied, “But I made other plans for this evening. Another time, though, I promise.”
Dean raised a curious brow, but before he could ask what Garrett was up to, they both heard the pounding of hooves approaching.
They looked down the long drive that led to the main road that would take them to town, and saw the approaching cloud of dust and what appeared to be two riders coming up on them fast.
“Friends of yours?” Dean asked warily.
Garrett shook his head as his shoulders tensed with apprehension and the muscle in his square jaw ticked. He was already worried about being late to pick up Hannah and her sisters. The last thing he needed was another unexpected delay.
“Don’t think so,” Garrett replied, his hand moving down to the pistol on his holster.
He let out a grunt of frustration as he found it empty, remembering that he hadn’t wanted to frighten Hannah or her younger siblings.
Through their many correspondences, he’d learned they were not used to living around guns in their small but busy Michigan town.
Unfortunately, in Texas they were a necessity.
Not just for the rustlers, but for the ample amount of predators that lived in the desert.
Still, that didn’t mean that he wasn’t going to respect their fears of them and had planned to ease them into being around them slowly.
“I got your back, brother,” Dean said, pulling his pistol from his holster as the riders drew closer.
Garrett shot him a grateful look, but put his hand over Dean’s, urging him to put his gun back in his holster.
“Let’s see what they want first,” he said calmly, then looked toward the riders as they slowed their horses a few yards away. “Hopefully they’ll be quick about it,” he grumbled under his breath. “I’ve got places to be.”