Wild Girl (Wild Men Texas #3) - Melissa Belle Page 0,65

and watch as the bull keeps moving.

“Oooh, look Macey!” She gestures to Logan galloping by on horseback with Blake, Reid, Ty, and Jesse close behind on their own horses.

And yeah, all five guys look hot as hell.

“What are they going to do?” Skip asks me as he cowers beneath the porch awning.

“They’re gonna rope him,” I say.

“Cool.” Skip looks at me in newfound awe. “So your husband really is a cowboy.”

My husband.

“He was always a cowboy.” I smile as Logan rides close to the bull’s head and forces him left so Blake and Reid can lasso him. They bring him inside the fence, and Mr. Wild calls out to them to take the bull further back to a different field until he can fix the broken gate.

“Let’s follow them on the outside of the field so we can get some more photos,” Skip calls out.

Everyone takes off after him like a huge wave. I lose Ginny in the crowd and decide to circle back alone to The Cowherd.

When I get inside, I stand in the chapel for a few minutes by myself, enjoying the emptiness and the silence. I remember Logan and me saying our vows up on the altar, and I look down at my ring and exhale happily. It’s not too tight, it’s not too heavy, and I don’t want to rip it off my finger and drown it in the toilet.

I leave the chapel and wander into the saloon where I walk behind the bar and glance at Vivian’s diary. I wonder if it will stay locked up in the museum forever after tonight. I climb up on the counter to take out my purse from the closed cabinet where Mama hid it for me during the ceremony, and then I pick up an untouched glass of Loganiskey off the counter.

“So unsanitary,” I hear as the door opens.

I whip around and laugh as Logan advances on me from across the room.

He climbs up onto the counter, pulls me into his arms, and kisses me.

“How’d you get back here before everyone else?” I ask him as he takes off his suit coat and wipes sweat off his forehead. “Last I saw, you were on the back of a horse playing hero.”

“I told my brothers I had a hot date at the bar.” He grins and takes the glass from me. “And I never got my pre-wedding drink. Come on. Let’s go somewhere private.”

He takes my hand in his free one and we walk down the hall toward the liquor room. As we approach the half-closed door—

Bang!

I freeze and look at Logan.

“That sounds like somebody’s in there,” I say.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

“Stay here.” Logan puts his hand on my arm.

“Are you kidding me? Of course I’m not gonna stay back…”

I push past him to look inside the liquor room. Mr. Bingley is safe in his bed, relaxed as can be, and—

Cell Number One is wide open.

I clutch Logan’s hand.

“What the fuck…” He rubs his eyes and then looks again.

I walk closer to the jail cell.

“Oh, my.”

A blooming cactus flower is growing right in the center of the cement floor.

Logan drops his drink in the doorway, and it splatters everywhere.

I turn my head. And that’s when I see her. Through the large round window behind my desk—

A white form is heading toward the sky.

She stops briefly, and I swear she waves at us. I wave back and she’s gone from view.

Logan and I don’t speak for over a minute.

“Holy shit,” he finally says. “That was weird, right? Did we just see Jane Austen’s ghost? And why did it all kind of make sense?”

“People are going to go crazy when they come back inside and see this.”

“So let’s get out of here.”

I grab his shirt in my fists and kiss him. “You’re such a romantic underneath it all.”

“With you I am. I’m not sure about the rest of it.” He looks toward the hallway. “Did you hear that?”

Stomping feet echo louder and louder.

“They’re coming back inside,” he says.

“But everyone’s supposed to go to the square for the fireworks.”

“They must have decided to stop back for drinks first.” He takes my arm. “Let’s sneak out. We’ll hide out in my cottage for the night until the town calms down.”

I look around, wishing for the millionth time in my life that this room had a side door. My eyes land on the round window over my desk.

Logan helps me unlock the pane from its rusty hinges, and he pushes me out the opening to the