Total pages in book: 33
Estimated words: 31077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 155(@200wpm)___ 124(@250wpm)___ 104(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 31077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 155(@200wpm)___ 124(@250wpm)___ 104(@300wpm)
“No, remind me what I’m doing here,” Greer, my older brother, grumps from the backseat. He keeps bumping the back of my seat with his knees. Fucker is doing it to get a rise out of me. It’s payback for waking him so damn early. Even by cowboy standards, it’s too early to be out of bed. But I couldn’t wait another second.
I lean forward in my seat and keep an eye on the tiny shop in Asheville. According to what I saw online, any minute now someone should be flipping that sign to open. The moment they do, I’m going to be inside. I finally decide to answer their question as I blink the grit from my eyes. I could barely sleep last night. “I’m book shopping. Y’all are helping.”
“You got me out of bed for a book?” Barrett demands.
“No, it’s a three-volume collection of Pride and Prejudice,” I explain. It took me a few hours yesterday after I left the bookstore, but I eventually found Lizzy on social media. From there, it wasn’t hard to figure out her favorite book.
My friend, Walt, mentioned having a granddaughter. He’s been after me to come to dinner and meet her for a few weeks. The timing didn’t work out, so I never saw her. Not until yesterday.
I only meant to steal a glimpse of her and carry on with my browsing. Her voice was so enchanting I had to see her. Then I spotted all of those beautiful curves airborne, and I instantly grabbed her.
The moment my hands were on her body, I was hit with a lightning bolt. I knew right then and there I’d found the woman I want to marry, the one I want to make babies with. But I probably didn’t win any points by telling her I wanted to put my baby in her.
The back of my seat is thumped again. Hard. “When you came banging on my front door at three in the morning, saying you had an emergency, I didn’t expect that you needed to get a copy of Pride and Prejudice.”
“That’s what the fuck we’re here for?” Barrett sounds even more outraged than he did at two this morning when I woke him up and told him we were going on a road trip to the city.
“We’re here to secure my bride. I can’t ask for her hand until I have her favorite book,” I explain. If she needs a rare three-volume set of books from me to prove my feelings, then I’ll search the whole country until I find it. Hell, if she needs me to build her a library, I will. Whatever she wants, my woman will get.
Greer laughs from the backseat. It’s a deep, hearty one. “You’re fucked.”
He would know. He found his soulmate just a few weeks ago. A little slip of a thing by the name of Evie. He fell hard for her and demanded she marry him on the spot. At the time, I thought he was crazy. Now though, I get it.
When you see your soulmate for the first time, something shifts in your head and heart. Suddenly, you want more than anything to find a million reasons to make her smile. That’s why I brought him along on this adventure. He knows exactly how I feel.
Barrett groans. “What is this? I told you he hit his head in the barn the other day when he fell off that beam.”
He’s still single so he doesn’t get it yet. Fuck, I hope he understands soon. I hope he finds a woman of his own that he can’t stop thinking about. This is the best I’ve ever felt.
“Mom is going to kill us,” Zac grumbles from the backseat. He’s my youngest brother. Most folks who follow country music have heard his name. He’s something of a celebrity in Nashville, but here in Courage, he’s just Zac. My annoying brother.
“It’s not our fault he went through a lucid period and seemed normal for a while,” Barrett says. “Someone has to tell Mom that.”
Greer finally catches his breath from laughing at me long enough to wheeze out, “He’s not brain damaged. He’s in love.”
Zac sits up straight in his seat and meets my gaze in the rearview mirror. He’s been pretending to ignore us for most of this road trip. “Yeah, how long have you known her?”
“Since yesterday,” I answer easily. When a cowboy in Courage County meets his soulmate, he puts a ring on her finger and a baby in her belly. It’s just how things are done here.
“You’re fucking with us,” Barrett hisses. I brought Greer along because he understands why this is important, but I brought Barrett along because he’s the best negotiator I’ve ever met. He could talk a cowboy out of his prized heifer. I know because I’ve seen it happen more than once.