Rancher's Remorse (Culpepper Cowboys Book 2)

  Rancher’s Remorse

  Culpepper Cowboys Book 2

  Merry Farmer

  Contents

  Copyright

  Foreword

  Introduction

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  About the Author

  Acknowledgments

  Excerpt Cowboy’s Conundrum

  Copyright © 2016 by Merry Farmer

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover design by Erin Dameron-Hill (the miracle-worker)

  ASIN: B01DE1O8MM

  Created with Vellum

  Foreword

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  Introduction

  Rancher’s Remorse

  By Merry Farmer

  Faith Quinlan agreed to marry Cooper Culpepper as part of the deal she and her sisters signed to help the Culpepper boys fulfill the terms of their Granddaddy’s will so they could keep the family ranch. But what Cooper doesn’t know might hurt him. Faith is more than willing to help Cooper out—as he discovers, to his delight, on their wedding night—the trouble is, she thinks she’s not able.

  But Faith has more than one secret. Her quaint doll-making hobby is more than just a little fun, her dolls have become a nationwide phenomenon. When a reporter shows up to do a story about Faith, Cooper gets all the wrong ideas…and those wrong ideas could spell disaster for their brand-new marriage. Can Faith face her fears and tell Cooper the truth…before Cooper carts her off to the loony bin or jail?

  1

  Faith Quinlan sat back in the overstuffed sofa in Linda Culpepper’s house, wedged between her sisters, Hope and Joy, heart quivering with fear. It wasn’t the sudden move from Kentucky to Wyoming that bothered her. It wasn’t even the unusual reason she and her sisters had come. The Culpepper boys were handsome, and seemed sweet and well-mannered. All four of them had joined the sisters for a quick bite to eat at their mother Linda’s house shortly after the girls arrived, and had been on their best behavior. They knew how to treat a woman—probably because Linda raised them well. Faith was on board with the idea of marrying one of them to help fulfill the terms of the Culpepper grandfather’s will, as the contract she’d signed with Dr. Lachele dictated. That wasn’t what had her muscles tight with anxiety and her heart thumping away in her throat.

  No, what gnawed at Faith and kept her silent as the rest of her sisters chatted happily with Linda and her sons was the fact that Faith had secrets. Not just one, several. Secrets that she hadn’t mentioned to Dr. Lachele during the interview that led to her promise to marry one of the Culpepper brothers. Secrets that not even her parents knew about. Secrets that would probably be deal-breakers if the Culpeppers ever found out about them.

  Faith was terrible about secrets. They made her palms sweat and her heart race. She sat there on the sofa, hands clasped in front of her, wishing she could disappear into the plush.

  “Faith, are you sure you’re all right?” Linda asked through the volley of conversations buzzing in the living room. “Can I get you some sweet tea?”

  Faith opened her mouth to say she was fine, but her dry throat couldn’t manage anything more than a raspy squeak. She swallowed, cleared her throat, then said, “Yes, ma’am. Sweet tea would be lovely.”

  Linda stood, smiling. She headed into the kitchen, returning less than thirty seconds later with a tall glass of tea. Faith gulped it down. Her throat and taste buds thanked her, but her heart still twisted in her chest. The twisting grew worse when she realized she was being watched.

  Across the living room, Cooper Culpepper sat with his back straight in one of the room’s recliners. His thick, brown hair was cut short, and a day’s growth of beard covered his strong jaw. He had kind eyes—eyes that watched her even though she wasn’t taking part in the flurry of conversation.

  “So you have six horses?” Joy asked at Faith’s side.

  “Eight,” Cooper corrected her, though his eyes stayed focused on Faith. “We occasionally board horses for folks who need it too.”

  “And once or twice we’ve hosted a rescue horse,” Chris, the youngest Culpepper, added.

  “Not that you’d know much about that,” Kolby said, then elbowed Chris in the ribs.

  Chris frowned. In the chair next to him, Chastity bit her lip. Being the youngest, Chastity had set her sights on Chris right from the start. She liked things to line up in order, just like the rows of her knitting. By those rules, Hope, who was the oldest by three minutes, should end up with Karlan—which it looked likely, if what Karlan had announced earlier about he and Hope marrying that day actually happened—and Cooper, the second youngest, would be Faith’s.

  Cooper Culpepper. He was a hunk and a half. A total dream.

  He would kick her to the curb so fast if he knew the kinds of secrets she was keeping.

  “Do you want to take a walk out to the stables?” Cooper’s question was meant exclusively for Faith, in spite of the fact that Joy had been the one to ask him about the horses.

  “That sounds like a great idea,” Joy answered, nudging Faith. “You two head down to the stables. Meanwhile, Kolby, I’d love to see your house.”

  “And I’d love to show it to you.” Kolby stood with a grin as wide as the Wyoming sky and stepped over to the sofa to give Joy a hand up.

  The rest of the boys stood as well. All of them were tall with broad shoulders and larger-than-life personalities, and in an instant it felt as though Linda’s cozy living room was too small and tight. Or maybe that was just the weight of Faith’s guilt pressing down on her. As Hope got up on her other side, Faith took another long drink of her tea to hide her hesitation.

  She couldn’t really go through with this, could she? Wasn’t it, like, false advertising or something to agree to the deal that Dr. Lachele had presented them when she knew full well she couldn’t live up to her end of the bargain? The Culpepper boys needed one of their wives to be pregnant within a year in order for them to inherit the ranch. Dr. Lachele had been specific about those expectations. Faith had said in writing that she was willing to have a baby right away.

  Well, that much wasn’t a lie. She was more than willing. The problem was that she wasn’t able.

  “If you’re finished with that, I can take it.” Cooper’s deep, serious voice snapped her out of her miserable thoughts. Faith glanced up slowly, as if he was the principal and she’d been sent to his office as punishment for being naughty. Heck, looking up at his broad chest, kissable lips, and beautiful, dark eyes, she wanted to do something naughty. Much good though it would do her.

  “I can take it.” Linda swooped in and took Faith’s glass with a wink. “You two go for a walk.” With a happy sigh she added, “It does my heart good to see my boys with such sweet, honest girls.”

  She could have kicked Faith in the gut and it
wouldn’t have hurt so much. But it would do no good to keep dwelling on it when there was so much more at stake than her own happiness. Part of the Culpepper will stated that all four of the boys needed to be married within six months. Her sisters were overjoyed to finally get away from Kentucky and their reputation as the Quinlan Quads, and to start independent lives. She was a vital piece in that puzzle, in everyone’s happiness.

  Forcing a smile, Faith took Cooper’s offered hand—it was a big, warm hand that encompassed hers, as if he would shelter and protect her forever—and stood.

  “Thanks. Sorry if I’m a little out of it. I think it must be jetlag.” It was a lame excuse, but Cooper didn’t seem to mind.

  “I hate traveling myself.” He kept Faith’s hand in his as he escorted her through the living room and out to the back porch. “I have to go for business now and then—to farm shows and the like. I’d just as soon stay home and keep the ranch running. Especially with this nonsense Travis is throwing at us.”

  Faith knew only the bare minimum about the Culpepper cousin, Travis, who was twisting the brothers’ arms to get them to buy out his portion of the ranch, so she settled for saying, “That’s very responsible of you.” Her smile softened to something genuine. She liked a man who took his responsibilities seriously. Men like that were steady, dependable.

  At the far end of the back porch, Chris and Chastity broke into twin giggles over something or another. Faith’s shoulders loosened a little more. Knowing Chastity, they were probably snickering over some off-color joke. Chastity was the wild one of their bunch—totally boy crazy—but somehow she’d managed to stay out of trouble. Faith admired the easy way her sister approached life.

  “You seem a little distracted,” Cooper observed as they stepped down from the porch and headed across the tidy back lawn toward the stable. “I mean, beyond just jetlag.”

  Did he know? Had he figured something out just by looking at her? No, you couldn’t tell what someone’s reproductive capabilities were just by looking at them. But maybe he could sense the other things, guess her other secret? Was her shirt too expensive? Did he know how much she’d paid for her boots?

  Pull it together, Faith. Deep breaths. She shook her head, laughing as carefully as she could. “Moving halfway across the country to commit to marrying someone, sight unseen, is a bit distracting.”

  Cooper grinned. “Yeah, I’m surprised Dr. Lachele found anyone foolish…I mean, brave enough to marry the four of us.” He winked.

  Faith smiled. Cooper was easy to talk to, she’d give him that much. Heck, she’d give him much more.

  “Trust me, marrying you is so much better than the alternative.” Heat infused her face as she realized what she’d said. “I mean…Oh, shucks. I didn’t mean it like that.”

  Forget her secrets. If she kept on like this, Cooper wouldn’t want to marry her because she was a total ninny.

  Cooper’s heart did another one of the flips it’d been doing since he’d zeroed in on Faith Quinlan as the sister for him. She was sweet as honey without, he suspected, being the least bit aware of it. Now she had turned bright pink at her slip of the tongue. It wasn’t any worse than half the stupid things he’d said since they’d arrived, but somehow her blush and the way she couldn’t quite meet his eyes—heck, the way she shied away from the chaos of the entire family together and the way she measured her words before saying them—made him want to wrap his arms around her and keep her safe from all the problems of the world.

  Yep, this whole matchmaker thing was a brilliant idea.

  “I’m not offended,” he laughed. “Well, depending on what the alternative was.”

  Her answering ironic laugh only made him want to don shining armor and be her defender more.

  “Life back home was…restricted,” she explained. The way she let go of his hand to hug herself and rub her arms, in spite of the fact that it wasn’t that cold, told Cooper far more than her words. He was on high alert as she went on with, “My parents are good people, really good people, but Daddy has his own way of seeing things. Part of that way involves women keeping to their place.”

  The way she said it set Cooper’s teeth on edge. “Where does he think that place is?”

  “In the home, obviously.”

  She looked at him with such frankness that the coil of protectiveness in his gut pulled tighter at the same time as it warmed up. She was being honest with him, telling him the way things were, but without saying anything bad about anyone. He admired that far more than he expected.

  Faith took a breath, shrugged, and went on with, “All six of us—the quads and our two younger sisters, Honor and Grace—are expected to find good husbands, marry, keep a tidy house, and raise oodles of children.”

  He leaned closer to her, watching her face intently as they walked slowly across the yard. In spite of her words, she didn’t seem to hold a lot of resentment for the role her parents set out for her. That was a good sign. No, it was almost as if she didn’t mind the narrow path she’d been given to walk because she already knew how to get around it.

  His heart sped up and his skin prickled with excitement. Faith Quinlan was a mystery, all right. One he wanted to solve.

  “Being a homemaker is a noble profession.” He let the comment settle, curious to see how she would react.

  “Oh, I definitely know that.” Her tone was honest, even if she kept her hands wrapped tightly around her upper arms. “And I look forward to being a wife and…and mother.” She sent him a tremulous smile.

  Cooper’s curiosity flared. Yep, there was something she wasn’t saying, all right. And every fiber of his being wanted to find out what it was.

  “I’m glad.”

  He answered her statement a moment too late. She continued to grin at him, and he couldn’t think of anything better to do than to grin right back. Heck, he hadn’t been this awkward around a girl since freshman year of high school when he tried to ask Penny Britten to the Halloween dance by handing her a bouquet of marshmallows on sticks. He scrambled to find a way to salvage the conversation.

  “So anyhow.” Faith beat him to it. “Between Daddy’s rules about what girls could and couldn’t do and the attention we got for being the Quinlan Quads, it kinda felt like we didn’t have many options staying home. Now that we’re here in Wyoming, in spite of how unusual it is to agree to marry someone without knowing them all that well, there’s so much more that I can get done…that we can all do than just sit at home doing crafts.”

  She glanced away, her face bright red. The contrast between that soft blush and her calm and serious exterior not only sent Cooper’s heart ricocheting around his ribs, it pumped a fair amount of blood to regions that he shouldn’t be thinking about before questions were popped and promises were made.

  “I think it’s nice how you all have crafty hobbies,” he said, thrusting his hands in his pockets. He’d rather go back to holding her hand as they walked, but she didn’t look like she was going to uncross her arms anytime soon, and wrestling with her wasn’t…well, he’d save the wrestling for after they were married. “What is it you do again?” he asked before his thoughts could go where they shouldn’t.

  If anything, her blush deepened. She shot him a sideways look, then stared hard at the ground in front of them and said, barely above a whisper, “I make dolls.”

  Cooper nodded, his head filled with images of the Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls his cousins had played with, not to mention the fancier, Waldorf-style cloth dolls owned by some of the homeschool kids Chris taught. “That sounds like the kind of thing that could keep you good and busy.”

  “It is.” It might have been his imagination, but he thought he caught a glint in Faith’s eyes and a twitch as her mouth turned up in a proud smile. She shook it off, let her arms drop to the side, and rushed on with, “Chastity is a big knitter, and Joy makes the most amazing doll houses and furniture out of plastic canvas. Hope is an incredible seamstress, especially when it comes to doll…” she tripped i
n the middle of the word, finishing with a half-swallowed, “Clothes.”

  Cooper chose to let her strange slip-up slide. He nodded. “Good that you all have something productive to keep you busy. Although after what you just told me, I bet your folks would say it kept you out of trouble.”

  He ended with a chuckle, but Faith’s smile grew forced. If her cheeks went a darker shade of red, she’d turn into a beet. For some reason, that fired Cooper’s blood even more. There were few enough women around Culpepper to get his imagination running, but to have a beautiful woman surrounded by mysteries just waiting to be solved walking right there with him? It was more than he ever could have asked for.

  They reached the edge of the stable. It was quieter than usual, what with Karlan off staking his claim on Hope Quinlan and Kolby busy getting to know the other Quinlan sisters. Angus MacFarlane was probably around somewhere. His old friend was the best ranch hand the Culpepper family had ever hired, even if his Scottish brogue was unintelligible half the time. The horses were in good hands as long as Angus was working. Although if the Scot was on the ranch, it was probably best to keep Faith away from the man’s rugged, red-headed good looks.

  Cooper paused and turned to face Faith several yards away from the stable entrance. He rubbed a hand across his jaw, taking a deep breath. It wasn’t exactly romantic, but there was no time like the present.

  “So, I guess it’s a little pointless to beat around the bush when we both know why we’re here.” Cooper winced. He’d been smoother back when he tried to ask Penny out.

  Faith crossed her arms again, alternately glancing up at him and lowering her long, dark lashes. “Um, yeah.”

  Cooper cleared his throat and tried again. “I’m not saying this very well, but what I want to say, what I want to ask is if you’ll marry me, Faith Quinlan.”