WESTERN ROMANCE: A Ranch to Call Home (Texas Romance, Mail Order Bride Romance, Clean Romance, Christian Romance) (Clean and Wholesome Romance) (6 page)

Alton

           
His new father-in-law liked to nag Alton and Mary Anne to go to these dinner
parties and act like a normal couple. Usually, Alton didn’t care about what
made the old man happy, but after Mary Anne tattled on him—literally tattled on
him to his mother—he asked Mr. Ellison to get himself and Mary Anne invited to
the next dinner party that occurred.

           
Unfortunately for pious Mary Anne, the next dinner party that occurred was that
weekend. Her father’s good friend, a former lawyer, was throwing it for the
sake of throwing a dinner party. Rich people were like that, Alton soon
realized.

           
The mansion where the party took place was on the other side of town. It was
big and lavish, and it was full of people and loud classical music being played
by the orchestra.

           
“This is fun, isn’t it?” Alton asked Mary Anne, who was clutching his arm for
dear life. It wasn’t hard to see that she disliked crowds—perhaps people in
general.

           
Mary Anne continued to glare at him. She had been glaring at him for the past
week now, knowing that he had somehow arranged for this to happen to her.

           
“Let’s go talk to some rich snobs,” he said cheerfully, moving himself forward
and dragging her along in the process.

           
“Do not embarrass my father,” she gritted out.

           
“Of course not, of course not. Don’t worry.” He walked up to the first few
people he saw. They were at the buffet with partially full plates. They were
laughing about something, so Alton laughed with him as he approached. “That’s
hilarious!” he cried out to them. “That reminds me of the time Mary Anne
urinated on the hem of her dress!”

           
He didn’t know where that comment had come from, but he was proud that he had
made it up on the spot.

           
The people he was basically shouting at laughed along with him while staring
judgmentally at Mary Anne.

           
“He’s joking,” she said.

           
“No, I’m not,” he said. “I remember because—”

           
Mary Anne tugged him back and gave an apologetic smile to the rich snobs. “I’m
terribly sorry, but if you’ll excuse us—”

           
She led Alton away. He had no idea where she thought she was leading him
though, for they walked about in random directions for a long while. There were
people everywhere, and every once in a while, they would stop Mary Anne to
greet her. Alton then would go on to tell the fake story of how Mary Anne
urinated on her dress.

           
Finally, Mary Anne shoved him in the closet, and the two were alone.

           
“Your job is to fix my father’s reputation,” she whispered to him, her voice
wrought with hatred. “But you’re just making it worse.”

           
“You’re right,” he whispered back. “And I’ll keep making it worse if you keep getting
in the way of me living my life.”

           
“Get in the way? I’ve left you alone for the most part.”

           
“Yeah, up until you took my booze away.”

           
“You can’t be anywhere near that stuff. It’ll ruin—”

           
“I know, I know, you don’t have to keep repeating yourself.” He took a deep
breath and back away. “Look, if this is going to work out, you’re going to let
me be who I am. Understand?”

           
She stared at him in silence for a long while. It was actually a little
unnerving.

           
“No,” she said.

           
He cocked an eyebrow challengingly. “No?”

           
“No,” she repeated louder. “If you want a war, you have one.” And with that,
she stormed out of the closet.

           
Alton twisted his mouth into a frown. “That didn’t sound good.” Hesitantly, he
walked out of the closet, just in time to see Mary Anne tap a glass of
champagne with an eating utensil.

           
“Attention, everyone!” Mary Anne called out as she tapped the glass.

           
The band and then everyone else got quiet.

           
“Oh god,” Alton said, gaping at his wife. She hated crowds, so if she had the
courage—or the rage—to speak to—

           
“My husband would like to volunteer at the homeless shelter for the foreseeable
future to help those less fortunate than us, like the Bible tells us to do.”
Mary gave Alton a smug smirk. “And he wanted to do this privately, but I can’t
allow such a good man doing a good deed go unheard of. We need more people like
him, don’t we, everyone?!”

           
People clapped. Some seemed embarrassed by Mary Anne’s display, but most seemed
touched.

           
“Yes!” Mary Anne said happily. “Give my husband a round of applause. Or better
yet, join his cause to help the homeless every weekend, like God wants us to
do.” She clanged her utensil against her glass repeatedly, and the people
clapped and cheered.

           
Alton grinded his teeth together, even as he forced himself to smile at the
people staring at him.

           
“I’ll volunteer with you,” someone had said to his right.

           
Alton didn’t look at the man. “Great.”

Mary Anne

           
The day after the dinner party, Mary Anne woke up to the sound of Alton and
many, many volunteers going into her study and taking out her books.

           
“We’re donating them to the homeless,” Alton told her with a grin. “You know,
help them get smart for work and what not.”

Alton

           
Alton didn’t consider himself a vain person, but he did like the way he looked.
He liked his sideburns and the stubble over his lip, his chin, and his jaw.

           
When he woke up to much shorter hair and a bare face, he panicked. Then he saw
Mary Anne’s note beside his pillow. It said that he was starting to look shaggy
and, like any good dog, he needed to be groomed.

           
He crushed the note in his hand.

Mary Anne

           
Alton went outside with his shirt untucked and his pants unbuttoned.

           
Mary Anne actually thought he looked funny, but the embarrassment he had caused
to her father…

Alton

           
Mary Anne and his damn sisters pressured him into getting a tutor for English.
Apparently, he didn’t talk right, and Mary Anne’s father was unhappy or some
nonsense like that.

           
Alton wasn’t sure why he even agreed to it, other than it made his sisters
happy. And the idea that Mary Anne would use them like that—or, well, she didn’t
really use them, so much as team up with them to accomplish a common goal, he
supposed.

           
Either way, it got on his nerves.

Mary Anne

           
Alton told a neighbor some pretty disgusting lies about what he and Mary Anne
did in the bedroom every night. Luckily, Mary Anne heard about this from Betty
before her father could hear about it from someone else.

           
“You need to fix this,” she growled at Alton in the kitchen. “What you said to
him—that, that just goes too far. Way too far!”

           
Alton had the audacity to look indifferent. “If you want this little feud to
end, all you need to do is back off. But I’m sure you won’t because you’re
stubborn as hell.”

           
“I’m stubborn?! You…” Rage enveloped her, and she couldn’t breathe properly.
Huffing, she backed away from and mimed strangling something; the act made her
feel a little better.

           
Alton blinked at her. “What the hell are you doing?”

           
“You drive me crazy, so I’m being crazy. Happy?!”

           
“Oh no, don’t put that on me. You were crazy long before I came into the
picture.”

           
Mary grinded her teeth together and placed her hands on her hips. Taking a
breath, she forced herself to at least appear a little calm. “You know, maybe
that’s true, but at least I’m not a complete ass!”

           
Alton opened his mouth, but he wasn’t the one who spoke next.

           
“What is going on?!” her father roared, enter the kitchen like a crippled
beast.

           
Mary Anne turned around and, in her instinctive fear, she stood in front of
Alton. “Dad, I—”

           
“You know what I just heard from Paul?” her father snarled. His eyes were
burning with anger and disgust. He coughed and shook his head. “Horrible things
about you and your bed and—” He slapped his hand in the air. “God awful
things.”

           
“Dad, I—”

           
“You’re disgraceful. After everything I’ve done for you, you continue to be a
disgrace to my name. How could you do this to me?”

           
Mary Anne swallowed. His words stabbed her heart, but at the same time, she was
so used to it that the pain didn’t bother her all that much. It was familiar.
Tearfully, yet insincerely, she apologized for her supposed wrongs. She knew it
wouldn’t make him feel better, but it might appease him long enough to leave
her be.

           
“Wait,” Alton said, moving to stand next to her while he stared at her father.
“She didn’t do anything wrong. I said some things I should have to Paul, and it
got blown out of proportion.”

           
Mary Anne’s eyebrows shot up as she turned to Alton. This action, slight as it
was, warmed her heart a little.

           
Mary Anne’s father glared at Alton. “Why the hell would you do that? I’m paying
you to fix Mary Anne’s embarrassing life, not ruin it.”

           
“With all due respect,” Alton growled, “you’re paying me for you own selfish
reasons. This never had anything to do with Mary Anne.”

           
“Watch your mouth boy.”

           
Alton took a few steps closer to her father. Mary Anne could sense the rage
radiating off this two, so before anything terrible could happen, she stepped
in between them.

           
“We’ve had a stressful day,” she said, placing a hand over Alton’s heart and
pushing against it a little. She glanced at her father nervously. “I’m so
sorry. Truly. I’ll do what I can to fix this.”

           
Her father curled his lip downward. Shaking his head at her and at Alton, he
turned around and grumbled some hateful things as he walked away.

           
When he was far away enough, Mary Anne sighed with relief and lowered her
hands. She turned to Alton, who was glaring in the direction her father had
left.

           
“He used to be a lawyer,” Mary Anne said, gaining Alton’s attention. “Some of
the laws we live by today—he helped to make those. He is proud of his legacy,
and now that he is older, he wants to make sure that people will remember him
and his name in a good light.”

           
Alton’s eyelids lowered, a challenging frown on his face.

           
Mary Anne tapped her fingers together. She really did want to argue about
anything anymore, and Alton’s expression was making her nervous. Her mind raced
to think of something else to say. When she remembered she forgot to mention
something important, she said, “Oh! And thank you for defending me. I
appreciated that.”

           
Alton’s expression softened. “Well, it was my fault, after all. I might have
gotten a little carried away with our…” He motioned between the two of them.

           
Mary Anne chortled. “Me, too.” Her eyes scanned his bare face and his trimmed
hair. She knew she should feel guilty about violating him like that, but she
couldn’t help but feel pleased with her work. Regardless, he was apologizing to
her…sort of. “I’m sorry about forcing a shave and a haircut upon you.”

           
Alton smirked and ran a hand through his hair. “Forget it. I did need some
grooming. Like a dog.” He raised and lowered his eyebrows goofily at her.

           
She giggled. “Oh Lord, I forgot I wrote that.”

           
He hummed at that, perhaps not believing her. That was fine though. He was
amused, she was amused.... They would get past this.

           
That night, Mary Anne got comfortable in her bed. She had gotten used to
ignoring Alton’s presence on the other side of the large room, but tonight, she
was so focused on it that she couldn’t fully relax. She blinked at the dark,
her skin feeling tingly and her heart beating fast.

           
“Hey,” Alton said from his own bed, his voice quiet. “You awake?”

           
“Yes. What’s wrong?”

           
“Nothing, nothing. I just…I was just thinking about what people would think if
they saw us sleeping like this.”

           
Mary Anne furrowed her bed. And, though she wouldn’t be able to see him, she
couldn’t help but raise her head turn toward the sound of his voice. “What?
You’re thinking about this now?”

           
“Well, yes. I never really cared about your father’s precious reputation until
tonight, so maybe we should…try to sleep in the same bed. In case someone
walked in here and saw us like this.”

           
Mary Anne huffed, smiling. “I suppose you have a point. You never know when a
neighbor could barge in here and see us sleeping in different beds.”

           
“It’s a real threat.”

           
She bit her lower lip to contain her laughter. Falling back onto the bed, she
said, “I guess you better come over here then, just in case.”

           
Mary Anne listened as Alton slid out of his bed and walked over to hers. Facing
the ceiling, she held her breath. When she heard and felt her own covers move
and ruffle, she shivered.

           
“Hello,” Alton whispered, inching closer and closer to her.

           
She turned to him. “Hello.”

           
“Now this,” he said, slowly wrapping his arm around her waist, “is more
believable.”

           
Her heart hammered. “Yes. No one can claim we are being scandalous now.”

           
“Exactly.”

           
The tension was beginning to drive her mad. She could feel his warmth, hear his
soft breaths, smell him—it made everything inside her jitter, and she couldn’t
take it anymore.

           
She moved and pressed her face against his chest and held him close. She heard
and felt him suck in a breath and tense. Warmth bloomed within her, and her
jittery nerves calmed.

           
“Goodnight,” she said, a little nervous how he would respond, even as she
relaxed further against him.

           
Hesitantly, he tightened his grip on her. “Goodnight,” he whispered.