Marin Thomas - The Cowboy's Destiny

IT WAS FATE…

Destiny Saunders is tough, but being left at the altar makes even the toughest gals do some strange things. When she stumbles upon a stranded cowboy—Buck Owens Cash, the best thing to arrive in Lizard Gulch, Arizona, in a long time—she arranges things so they can have a little fun before he rides off into the sunset. The sexy, shapely auto mechanic is just one surprise after another, so Buck plays along to see what will happen.

What happens is love…the kind that makes a man want to prove himself. Then Buck discovers Destiny’s secret—one that will tie her to another man for the rest of her life. Betrayed, he returns to the rodeo circuit determined to forget Destiny…but fate has other plans!

“Buck, there’s something I need to tell you.”

The despondent tone in Destiny’s voice sent up a warning flag in Buck’s head. Was she ready to come clean about the broken axle? Well, he wasn’t ready to hear her confession—not after their kiss in the desert. “Go upstairs and rest. We’ll talk later.”

“But—”

He pressed his finger to her lips and swore he saw a spark in her blue eyes. There was definitely something happening between them, whether either of them were ready to admit it or not. She gave in and climbed the fire escape to the apartment above the garage. At the door she glanced over her shoulder, and the longing in her gaze stole the air from his lungs. Then she disappeared from view.

Buck had never been with a girl like Destiny—she was everything he’d never wanted in a woman—or so he’d thought anyway. There was no denying the Harley princess made his motor race. He wanted—no, needed—to take a walk on the wild side with her.

And let the chips fall where they may.

Dear Reader,

Welcome back to The Cash Brothers series! You’ve watched Johnny Cash fall in love with the girl next door, Conway Twitty Cash fall in love with his best friend and Willie Nelson Cash fall back in love with the girl he got pregnant in high school. Now it’s time for Buck Owens Cash to find his lady love.

After Buck has a falling-out with his brother Will, he hits the rodeo circuit. But he doesn’t get far because his truck breaks down. Buck finds himself at the mercy of a redheaded mechanic who rides a Harley and an old Route 66 town full of eccentric retirees. When their whirlwind ride on her Harley comes to a stop, Buck will never look at life the same way. And isn’t that what love is all about? Seeing life in a new light—a light that leads down the road to happy ever after.

If you missed reading previous Cash Brothers books, The Cowboy Next Door (July 2013), Twins Under the Christmas Tree (October 2013) and Her Secret Cowboy (February 2014) are still available through online retailers. To find out more about my books and where I hang out on social media, please visit www.marinthomas.com.

And if you enjoyed this book I’d very much appreciate your help in spreading the word about The Cash Brothers series. The best way to do that is by leaving a short online book review at Goodreads, Amazon or Barnes and Noble, or by recommending this book to a friend or family member. Thank you for your support and help in building my readership one reader at a time!

Happy Ever After…The Cowboy Way

Marin

The Cowboy’s Destiny

Marin Thomas

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Marin Thomas grew up in Janesville, Wisconsin. She left the Midwest to attend college in Tucson, Arizona, where she earned a B.A. in radio-TV. Following graduation she married her college sweetheart in a five-minute ceremony at the historic Little Chapel of the West in Las Vegas, Nevada. Over the years she and her family have lived in seven different states, but they’ve now come full circle and returned to Arizona, where the rugged desert and breathtaking sunsets provide plenty of inspiration for Marin’s cowboy books.

To the 2013 members of The Cash Brothers Cowgirl Posse—Denise, Nancy, Susan, Teresa, Sabrina, Gaby, Renee, Linda H., Linda S., Kim, Granny and junior posse member Karlie—thank you for your friendship and the amazing support you give me and my books. You cowgirls rock!

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Epilogue

Excerpt

Chapter One

Late Thursday afternoon Destiny Saunders stuck her finger beneath her borrowed wedding veil and scratched her prickly scalp.

Daryl Rivers, where are you?

She stared at the open chapel doors willing her fiancé to magically appear.

The bald, rotund minister, who had a habit of clearing his throat every ten seconds, wiped the top of his sweaty head with a handkerchief. The Sunset Desert Chapel did not have central air. A gust of hot August heat blew up the aisle, sending the lace veil soaring into the air.

“Perhaps you’d like to call your young man one more time?” the minister said.

She’d like to call her young man a name that began with a four-letter word. Destiny walked over to the pew where she’d set her purse and removed her cell phone then pressed three.

You’ve reached Daryl. I’m rockin’ ‘n’ rollin’. Leave me a message.

“Daryl, where are you? We were supposed to get married thirty minutes ago. Call—” Beeeep. Ignoring the queasy feeling in her stomach she marched down the aisle and poked her head out the door. She didn’t want to believe Daryl had stood her up.

The sound of a car engine met her ears and relief swept through her—but it was short-lived when she spotted the minister’s Cadillac driving off.

And still she waited.

Waited and watched as the afternoon sun dropped lower in the Arizona sky. Her thoughts drifted to Lizard Gulch. What concerned her more than Daryl abandoning her was losing the town she’d grown to love—the one place she felt she belonged.

She fingered the frayed edges of the veil. Violet Hemp would be upset that she hadn’t married. The older woman had offered the use of her 1950s headdress as the something borrowed part of Destiny’s bridal outfit.

Blast you, Daryl.

Even though they’d known each other only six months, she hadn’t expected him to leave her high and dry. She closed her eyes and recalled their first date. Daryl had taken her to a tattoo parlor in Kingman. And since she’d decided to call Lizard Gulch home, she’d gotten a colorful lizard tattooed on the back of her shoulder. Daryl had picked a two-headed snake for his arm. Afterward they’d stopped at the Sonic for shakes and that’s when she’d discovered they had more in common than new tattoos—they’d both experienced crummy childhoods.

Destiny hadn’t had any contact with her mother in ten years. She’d been thirteen when she’d walked out of the Tomahawk Truck Plaza in Phoenix with only the clothes on her back and ten dollars in her pocket. She rarely reflected on her childhood—growing up in truck stops where her mother entertained men in bathroom stalls wasn’t the stuff of fairy tales.

She rubbed her belly. At barely two months pregnant it would be several weeks before she showed. Destiny admitted she didn’t love Daryl, and he’d never confessed to loving her, but she’d believed they could make a go of a real marriage for the baby’s sake.

Well, crap. Now what?

She retrieved her purse then left the chapel, closing the doors behind her. After stowing her purse and phone in the bench compartment of her 1980 Harley-Davidson Wide Glide hog, she slid on her mirrored sunglasses and straddled the seat, careful to keep her white leather pants from touching the greasy engine. She positioned the two-inch heel of her black biker boot over the kick-starter and jumped down on it with all her measly one hundred and ten pounds. The engine revved to life, and she flipped the stand up then tore out of the parking lot, tires spewing gravel.