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  The Cowboy’s Sweet Elopement

  The Cowboys of Sweetheart Creek, Texas Book 4

  Jean Oram

  From the Back Cover

  The Cowboy’s Sweet Elopement by Jean Oram

  April MacFarlane wishes her best friend, veterinarian, Brant Wylder would see her as more than another rescue. Someone he might choose for his own happily ever after.

  * * *

  Can she convince him the only thing in need of rescue is her heart?

  * * *

  Brant knows April’s life is a mess, and figures the last thing she needs is her BFF hitting on her. After all, he just extracted her from a loveless marriage, gave her a job, as well as a home for her and her four-year-old son. Plus, she’s got to be freaking out over the sudden return of her first love, the man everyone believes came to win her back…

  * * *

  There’s no way April’s ready for love.

  * * *

  But when Brant and April find themselves on the doorstep to the local chapel on New Year’s Eve, ready to say “I do” for reasons of practicality, will this cowboy find a way to move out of the friend zone and into the husband zone?

  * * *

  Find out in The Cowboy’s Sweet Elopement, a friends to lovers sweet romance which can be read alone or within The Cowboys of Sweetheart Creek, Texas series.

  The Cowboy’s Sweet Elopement

  The Cowboys of Sweetheart Creek, Texas Book 4

  By Jean Oram

  * * *

  © 2021 Jean Oram

  First edition

  All rights reserved

  * * *

  Thank you for downloading this ebook. Although in electronic form, it remains the copyrighted property of the author, and it cannot be reproduced, modified, copied and/or distributed by any means for commercial or non-commercial purposes whether the work is attributed or not, unless written permission has been granted by the author, with the exception of brief quotations for use in a review of this work. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy from their favorite online vendor where they can also discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support. Keep reading!

  All characters and events appearing in this book are fictitious unless you’re a Nestner. Then you’re still fictitious. Any resemblance to real people, alive or dead, as well as any resemblance to events is coincidental and, truly, a little bit cool (and maybe on purpose if you are a Nestner—but you’re still fictional).

  * * *

  Cover created by Jean Oram

  ISBN: 978-1-989359-37-2

  0121p2

  Contents

  A Note from the Author

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Epilogue

  Sneak Peek from THE COWBOY’S SURPRISE RETURN

  More Books by Jean Oram

  About the Author

  A Note from the Author

  When you write a book you never know when and where real life and fiction will converge.

  * * *

  When a friend will tease you and accidentally name the ranch of your new series.

  * * *

  When your own washing machine will kick the bucket (slowly and in the most agonizing way over a period of months) and your own real life hero will buy you a new one while you work on finishing up a book. But honestly… why is the machine MINE anyway?

  * * *

  You also never know when going to a county water wellness workshop for well owners will give you a small slice to add to a story—such as Tadpole. (Animals do sometimes get caught in well pits, and Brant’s quest to have them banned is a real thing.)

  * * *

  I hope you enjoy the slices of real life merged with fiction, and that Brant and April’s story sweeps you up in the most magical way.

  With love,

  Jean Oram

  Alberta, Canada 2020

  Acknowledgments

  I’d like to thank Nathan for naming Tadpole for me. With the shutdown of schools during COVID-19, the 2020 autumn edition, I’d often turn to him where he was sitting at his own desk beside mine and ask him for a character name. Tadpole was the perfect name (and very Brantlike) for the kitten found in the well pit.

  * * *

  I’d also like to thank my real life hero for arranging to have our piece of crap washing machine hauled away while I worked on edits for this book. I got so much more done while writing when I no longer had to sprint up to the main floor to stop the washing machine from refilling with water again and again while I fought with it to spin our clothes. Although, come to think of it, what are the kids and I going to do in the evenings if we aren’t standing in the laundry room, babysitting the machine while watching Netflix on my iPad? (I’m sure we’ll think of something.)

  A heartfelt thanks goes to Margaret Carney and Tessa Shapcott for their edits and suggestions. I’d also like to thank my beta team: Margaret C., Sharon S., Donna W., Erika H., and Lucy J. for making sure I didn’t forget to mention things like where on earth the scenes were actually taking place. And finally, to my HEAs for their last minute catches—thank you!

  1

  “Where’s the gift for Brant?” April MacFarlane asked her four-year-old son, as she sifted through the torn wrapping paper under the small tree by the front window. It was a slim blue package, and she feared it might have gotten shredded or lost in the Christmas-morning mess.

  Kurt beamed up at her, his face smeared with the chocolate he’d eaten from his Christmas stocking. He’d barely stopped moving since six that morning, his belief in Santa and everything good still strong despite the recent divorce of his parents. Christmas was truly magical.

  Even Heath, Kurt’s father, had paused his battle with her long enough to get their son a gift—though he hadn’t yet arrived for a quick morning hello as promised, and it was nearly noon.

  “Here it is,” April exclaimed, pulling the wrinkled package out from under a yellow tractor. She smoothed the wrapping paper, knowing her son had worked hard on this gift for their family friend Brant Wylder, who was due to pop by shortly.

  Kurt bounced his way across the couch and snagged it from her hands. “I want to give it to Daddy Brant.”

  “Daddy Brant?” she repeated, her body stilling.

  It was true the two of them had spent more time around Brant lately, and that her son looked up to him. But there was no reason for him to grant the sweetheart of a man daddy status. Even though there had been the odd heated look passing between her and Brant lately.

  But he wasn’t about to be Kurt’s new daddy anytime soon. Brant had a habit of rescuing women like the strays that came into his veterinarian clinic, and sadly, that was April’s current status. So if he did make a move, it would likely be borne out of his need to save her. It wouldn’t be because he saw her as a sexy and appealing woman he wanted to date.

  But that’s what New Year’s resolutions were for. Even though the holiday was a week away, April had already made hers. She was going to straighten out her life, and prove to herself and the community that she had become more than the impetuous gal Brant had grown up alongside on the ranch. More than some female who cried on his shoulder when life and her whirlwind romances didn’t turn out like her fantasies. More than a woman down on her luck and in need of a hand up.

  “When’s he gonna get here?” Kurt asked, bouncing across the
cushions again.

  April picked him up and set him on the floor. “No jumping on the couch. And you can’t call Brant ‘Daddy.’ He’s just a friend.”

  “Colby got a new daddy. Why can’t I?”

  “You have one,” April said firmly. Heath just didn’t act like a dad very often. Partly because his job as a rodeo stock contractor kept him on the road a lot, and partly because he hadn’t been quite ready to be a father. Or a husband.

  “I never see Daddy,” Kurt whined.

  April sighed, and whispered, “I know, sweetie.”

  “Why can’t Brant be my daddy?” Kurt asked with a stubborn pout.

  “It doesn’t work that way.” Although she had to admit the man would make an amazing father. He’d been the one to teach Kurt how to tie his shoelaces and had been there when he’d counted to ten for the first time, last week. He was sweet, kind, and made both her and Kurt happy.

  “Brant’s just a friend,” April repeated, her heart sinking as she admitted that truth.

  “Is he a firefighter?”

  “What? No. He’s a veterinarian and a rancher. You know that.” Kurt spent time on the Sweet Meadows Ranch as well as at Brant’s clinic, Call of the Wyld(er), where she worked as a part-time receptionist.

  “Mrs. Fisher said Daddy Brant is good at rescuing you.”

  April rocked back on her heels. All the more reason to get her life on track again if even the gossips at the diner saw her in the same way she feared Brant did, and were talking about it in front of her son.

  “He’s a helpful friend,” April said patiently. “You ignore what you hear from others, okay? And you need to call him Brant, sweetie. Not Daddy Brant.”

  She could only imagine the gossip that would start if that name got out. Brant had been instrumental in helping her leave her marriage to Heath just before Christmas, and some people were already speculating about her and Brant, even though she’d spent two years on her own working up the courage to quit.

  “Now go wash your face. He’ll be here soon.”

  Kurt ran around the couch, making revving sounds. “I hope he gets here right now!”

  “Wash your face.”

  Her son spun off into the bathroom, but when the doorbell rang moments later, he ran out again, dripping chocolaty water.

  “Dry your face!” April said, watching the drops hit the floor. “But wash better first, okay?”

  Kurt pivoted sharply, returning to his task. April took a moment to smooth her red sweater before heading to the door. One hand on the knob, she inhaled, then exhaled, calming the butterflies in her stomach. When she and Brant were teenagers, he’d been a strong, dependable friend, and nothing more.

  But somewhere along the line things had changed for her. Somewhere between all the tears Brant had dried when she’d whirlwind dated his older brother Cole, breaking up so many times and making up again during their early twenties that April had lost count. Somewhere between then and finding out she was pregnant, after what was supposed to be a rebound relationship with Heath Thompson. Or maybe it had changed more recently, when she’d walked away from her marriage to rebuild her life, and had found Brant there, hand extended, ready to help.

  He had always been there for her, encouraging her to laugh, supporting her decisions, making her now-generous curves feel downright sexy despite how tightly her clothes fit. But she’d only recently realized that he was exactly what she’d always been looking for. And that he was returning her lingering gazes.

  All she had to do was straighten out her life and be a strong, self-sufficient woman who could stand as an equal in front of him, ready to offer her heart.

  With one last inhale to battle the butterflies, April opened the door, unable to hide her cheerful smile at seeing a handsome Brant Wylder on her doorstep.

  Brant straightened his collar as he waited for April to open the door. She had hung the wreath she’d made with his mother and his brothers’ girlfriends, Laura Oakes, Karen Hartley and Carly Clarke, plus family friend Jackie Moorhouse. They’d collected boughs and pinecones out on the ranch’s back forty last week, then taken over the kitchen table to hot glue it all together into festive wreaths. Hers swung outward on its hook as the door opened, before thumping back into place.

  April, in a V-necked woolly sweater that hugged her curves, looked as irresistible as always. Then again, he figured she could be in pajama pants and a sweatshirt, her hair in a sloppy ponytail, and he would still think she was the prettiest woman in all of Sweetheart Creek.

  He’d always thought that, but growing up beside each other and being her confidant, he’d found himself solidly in the friend zone. It hadn’t helped that she’d been seduced by adventure and the need to get noticed by her ranch-hand father, who’d been more than happy to let Maria and Roy Wylder, Brant’s parents, do the upbringing while he kept their cattle in line.

  Sometimes Brant wondered whether he’d have caught April’s eye in their teens if he’d been more like his brother Cole, more determined to stand out from the Wylder pack. He had a feeling the timing wouldn’t have been right, and that it would never have worked.

  But now…

  Now things were different. They were different.

  There was a strength and heat building between them that hadn’t been there before. They had a solid friendship to build on, and while he knew it was early for her to be thinking about another romance, he wanted to be part of her life and her family. He wanted her to rely on him, wanted to be the one she kissed at night. He wanted to be the man she woke up next to each morning.

  He just needed to be patient.

  Today her smile was shy, but not so much he didn’t see the hint of her dimples or the sparkle in her glance as she ushered him into her home. He lifted his cowboy hat with a nod and a “Ma’am” that caused her to roll her eyes and give him a playful swat.

  He grinned, and she smiled back, even though he knew she didn’t want to reward his “ma’am” behavior. That quick forgiveness told him there was definitely something brewing between them, and that it wasn’t one-sided.

  Not at all.

  Especially when her slow gaze drank him in from boots to belt buckle and on up to his carefully chosen hat.

  “Daddy Brant!” Kurt called, ripping around the corner, a wrapped gift clutched in his hands. His eyes were wide with joy, his face red as if he’d just given it a good scrubbing. His words swelled Brant’s heart to a dangerous size. Was there anything he wouldn’t do for this kid?

  Or his mother?

  April gave Kurt a warning look as he slid to a stop in front of Brant in his blue-and-red firetruck pajamas.

  “Just Brant,” she said firmly.

  “Just Brant,” he said solemnly, causing Brant to chuckle. “I made you this. It’s a present.”

  He ruffled Kurt’s brown hair and shot April a questioning look. What was with the Daddy Brant thing? He sure didn’t mind, but he also knew it wouldn’t help the rumors floating around town that she’d left Heath in order to be with him.

  Yes, the two of them were close. Yes, they’d spent a lot more time together lately. But so far nothing had happened other than him saving her from a loveless marriage by setting her up with a home and a job so she could take care of her son while starting over.

  Brant was still in the friend zone. And if the town couldn’t see that, then he doubted there was much he could do about it.

  “What do we have here?” he asked, turning over the floppy gift. There was a lot of jaggedly cut wrapping paper and plenty of tape. “Is this from you?”

  Kurt’s breath quickened as he nodded. “Open it!”

  “Why don’t you come in and take your coat off?” April gestured to the living room. Brant had made it about three feet into the house, just far enough to close the door behind him.

  “I think I’d better open this first,” he said seriously, and she gave him a soft look that made his swelling heart expand once again.

  Kurt reached up. “I’ll help
you!”

  “Kurt,” she warned, “it’s Brant’s gift.”

  Her son’s excitement dampened, and he put his hands behind his back.

  “What is it?” Brant asked, slowly peeling away the layers of wrapping to reveal a piece of water-wrinkled computer paper. He turned it over to see a bright painting.

  “It’s a picture! I painted it. It’s of you. See all the animals?” Kurt crowded close, pointing at various swatches of color.

  Brant pulled the rest of the wrap away. “Well, look at that. It is me. And a lot of animals. I must be at work.”

  “You are. You just undeaded that cow. And this one had babies. And this kitten is the one you saved from a burning barn. See the barn over here? It’s on fire.” There was a swath of red and orange in the corner.

  Brant smiled at the heroic version of himself. “Wow. There’s a lot going on in this painting. Thank you, Kurt.”

  “You can put it on your fridge.”

  “Thank you. I will.” He held it up to admire it further. “Which fridge? The one at the ranch or the one in my veterinarian clinic?”