Beauty and the Bull Rider (Hotel Rodeo #3)(45)

“What are you getting at?” Ty asked.

“When we first made this deal, I asked you if I could buy a share of the business once I sold my place. Well, circumstances have changed, Ty. I’d like to propose something a little different.”

“Go ahead,” Ty encouraged. “You’ve got my ear.”

“I came to ask if you’d consider selling me your half of the double M instead.”

Ty’s brows met, furrowing a deep crease over the bridge of his nose. “You want to buy out my share of the ranch? Delaney would shit a brick.”

“Would she?” Zac asked. “I don’t think so. She knows she needs help and you’ve always said you and she could never run it together. On top of that, you’ve got your hands full with everything you’re doing out here. I think it’s the perfect solution. Hell, we wouldn’t even have to change the Double M brand. Instead of Morgan—McCall, it’d be McCall-McDaniel Ranch.”

Ty eyed him skeptically. “Do you really think you could get along with that woman?”

“Yeah.” Zac grinned. “I think we’d rub along well enough, which leads directly into my second reason for coming here.”

“And what’s that?”

“I wanna marry her, Ty.”

Ty sputtered his beer all over Zac’s shirtfront. “Have you been smokin’ locoweed?”

“You heard me right. I want Delaney. I love her, Ty. Hell, truth be told, I always have.”

Ty sat back with an incredulous look. “You’re really serious? Shit, Zac! Why did it take you eight f*cking years to say it?”

“The timing was never right,” Zac mumbled lamely. He didn’t want to admit he’d been too chickenshit.

“Are you looking for me to give my blessing?” Ty asked.

Zac jutted his chin. “Don’t give a damn if you do or you don’t. I’m having her either way, but I would like you to stand up with me if it’s not asking too much.”

“So this is the real reason you want to buy me out?”

“Yeah. I don’t want to go into this empty-handed. I figure she’s already getting the short end of the stick.”

“I admit I talk a lot of smack about Delaney, but she got a raw deal with me,” Ty said. “She deserves better. She deserves to be happy. Make her happy, Zac.”

“I promised her I would,” Zac said. “And I’ll die tryin’.”





“This is so depressing. We’ve been looking for hours.” Delaney grimaced as Monica held up an ivory-colored sheath. “That would be gorgeous on you with your slim hips and long legs, but my ass would look huge in it. I need something in a darker color.”

“At least try it on,” Monica replied. “It’s not every day you get married. Here. Take these too.” Loading Delaney’s arms with pastel-colored designer frocks, she propelled Delaney toward the fitting rooms.

“I didn’t wear a dress the first time. We went straight from the rodeo to the courthouse. I can’t even remember the last time I put one on.”

“All the more reason to do so,” Monica insisted. “Try the light blue one. It’ll set off your eyes.”

Delaney shed her jeans and boots with a sigh. In truth, she did recall the last dressy dress she’d worn. It was a red sequin-covered body-con Donna Karan she’d worn to the party at the Houston Livestock Show the night she’d met Ty and Zac. She’d unknowingly bewitched Zac that night, but that was at least twenty pounds ago.

She hadn’t paid much attention to her looks in years, not that she’d let herself go completely. She just hadn’t had any occasion to stun. But suddenly she wanted to. She wondered if this soft, bust-hugging blue chiffon would have the desired effect on Zac.

She stripped to her undies and pulled it on over her head. The ruched bodice and hips enhanced her curves while the skirt fell gracefully down her legs to float just above the ankle. She twisted her hair off her neck and pivoted in the mirror. Monica was right. The fit was great, and the color set off the blue of her eyes. She glanced at the price tag and cringed. Once upon a time, she wouldn’t have thought twice about paying five grand for a designer gown, but many things had changed since her beauty-queen days.

She shed the dress and threw it over the fitting room door. “I’ll take this one.”

“You might as well put it back on,” Monica said. “We have less than two hours for shoes, hair, and makeup.”

“Is that enough time?” Delaney asked.

“It is if we go straight to the hotel,” Monica said. “My driver Frankie’s already waiting outside to take us.”

Two hours? Delaney sucked in a breath to calm her racing pulse. Was it only a couple of days ago that Zac had decried her lack of spontaneity? She’d made him eat those words at the Clark County Marriage Bureau, where seventy-seven dollars cash and a simple one-page form had granted them a license to wed. Now, in less than two hours, her life plans would be forever altered. She should be terrified, but the prospect of spending it with Zac thrilled her. The rough-and-tumble cowboy was everything she could have dreamed for—had she ever dared to dream.



Zac nearly wore holes in his boot soles pacing the curb outside the hotel. He glanced at his watch for the sixth time in a quarter hour, his chest tight with anticipation. Where the devil were they? Had she changed her mind about hitching herself to a dumb ol’ Okie bull rider? He exhaled a sigh of relief at the vision of Monica’s black Lexus limo easing into the entrance and halting under the porte cochere. Before Monica’s chauffeur could climb out of the driver’s seat, Zac had already opened the rear passenger door.