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shot her a dirty look. “I’m not sleeping on a damn sofa when I’ve got a king- sized bed.
    And don’t call me boy! I’m a full grown man, and if you doubt that I can prove it right now.”
    “No thank you,” she said.
    “ You can live at the ranch. You don’t have to do jack shit in the way of cooking or cleaning. You can go to your café every morning and come back at night when you get finished. Sleep in one of my guest bedrooms and pretend to be my wife. It’s no big deal!”
    “No big deal!” she squealed. “That’s what you think, buster!”
    He shook a finger at her. “Stop being dramatic, Jazzy.” She dropped her hand and glared at him. “Me, dramatic? I’m barely scratching the surface of drama.”
    “Oh, really?” he said coldly.
    “You don’t have any idea what you are about to walk into. My mother will plan a big party and may even make us repeat our vows in front of a Texas preacher so it will be legal in her eyes. And dear Lord, what about Gemma and Austin and Pearl! God Almighty, shit tornado doesn’t begin to cover what’s going to hit you!” He ran a hand down his face, but it didn’t erase the worry. “If we tell them it’s a farce, then Cole will figure OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 35
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    out some damn loophole way to take the ranch and all this will be for nothing.”
    Both phones continued to try to outdo each other. The room sounded like two country western concerts in one bar at the exact same time.
    Jasmine took a deep breath. “Okay.” She sighed.
    “Okay what?” Ace asked.
    “That sumbitch ain’t takin’ the ranch. We’ll just have to suck it up and endure each other. I’ll stay at the ranch but only from bedtime to dawn. Story is that we’ve been seeing each other for a couple of months on the sly and decided on Thursday that we’d fought our love long enough and we decided to get married. Simple but almost true,” she said.
    “A whole year!” he groaned.
    “Ace Riley, you will be celibate for a year. And before you roll your pretty blue eyes, yes, I have mommy issues and no, they are not resolved, and you will understand when you meet Kelly King that she gets her way, so you might as well let her have it to begin with.” He moaned loudly and rolled his pretty blue eyes anyway.
    Blessed silence filled the room for all of five seconds then her ring tone told her that her mother had fished her phone from her purse. If a ring tone could sound angry, it did.
    She answered cautiously. “Hel o, Momma. It’s awful late for you to be callin’. Everything all right?”
    “Jasmine Marie King, don’t you play dumb with me.
    I’ve been callin’ you every two minutes for half an hour.
    Have you seen the news? That is you, isn’t it? Marryin’
    that blond- haired cowboy?”
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    “Yes, ma’am, it is. I married Ace Riley at Cupid’s Chapel tonight. You want to meet him?”
    “I’m damn cussin’ mad right now, girl. Are you pregnant?”
    “I am not!” Jasmine choked out the words.
    “Well, why’d you go off and do a damn dumb stunt like that? We’ve been saving for thirty years for your wedding.”
    “Take the money and go on a cruise.”
    “I hate boats and your dad refuses to sleep anywhere but in his own bed. I knew when you went off on that fool notion to buy a café that nothing good would come of it. We will have a wedding and a reception in Sherman. One of those fly- by- night things in Las Vegas can’t be legal and binding. Besides, I don’t give a damn if it is. It’s not legal and binding in my eyes until the marriage license says Texas across the top, so you will redo it, Jasmine. There’s no room for argument, so either you pick out a dress or I will. That’s all you get to choose since you and your groom decided to elope off to Las Vegas. What in the hell were you thinking? I’m planning it for one month from today. We’d do it