Page 29 of The Rancher’s Ecstasy

“Remember what I told you and brace yourself.” Cole chuckled as Beth rushed to them.

Emily gasped at how beautiful this little blonde woman was. Emily could see her blue eyes from several feet away. Her eyes were so pale they looked colorless when the light shimmered across them. Within a second, the little ball of energy was in front of them. She pulled Emily from Cole’s arms and into a tight bear hug, trying to jump at the same time. Emily giggled and held on, afraid they were both going to fall.

Beth laughed and backed off a bit but held Emily’s shoulders.

“I am so excited to meet you. Cole has told us all about you. But there is so much more I want to know.” Beth clapped her hands and laughed. “I have so many questions. Where are you from? Where are your daughters? Do you have siblings?”

Emily tried to keep her footing when an arm banded around her middle, holding her against a hard chest and keeping her steady.

“Jesus Christ, Sparky, don’t you think...”

Beth frowned up at Cole and waved her hand as if to shoo him away. “Not now, Pinky, I’m meeting my new friend.”

Emily looked up and back, catching Cole's attention, and whispered, “Did she just call you Pinky?”

Beth squealed again, making Emily jump, and held an arm straight up in the air. “Oh, me. Pick me. I have the answer.”

Emily laughed. This woman’s energy and happiness were contagious.

“Okay, Beth, why did you just call him Pinky?”

Beth clapped. “Okay, when we were ten or eleven, Cole used to pick on me something fierce.” Both women ignored the snort that came from Cole. “Anyway, he started calling me Sparky. I don’t know why.” She frowned over her shoulder when several people laughed at the table behind them. “I kept telling him to stop it, that he was hurting my tender feelings, but he wouldn’t.” Beth leaned close to Emily and in a loud whisper said, “He was a mean child.”

“Jesus, Beth, I was not,” Cole sputtered.

Beth nodded but otherwise ignored him. A sweet smile crossed her face. “Then Brant came to town.”

The look of unadulterated love was a little overwhelming. Emily had never seen such a raw display of such intense emotion.

“Well, one day Brant heard Cole be mean to me, came to my rescue, and punched him in the nose. It bled something fierce.”

Beth slapped her hands over her mouth when a giggle slid out. “That was the day I fell in love, and those two became best friends.” A huge smile spread across Emily’s face.

“But why do you call him Pinky? You haven’t told me yet.”

“Well, unbelievably, Cole still found time to call me Sparky when Brant wasn’t around, of course, until one day I got really mad. I couldn’t cuss because I was forbidden to, but I thought of the worst name I could call him, and I came up with Pinky. You see, he hates the color pink. His mother had washed one of his white shirts with something red so the shirt came out light pink. Well, he wanted to throw it away, but his mom made him wear it. He’s hated the color pink ever since.”

Both women laughed. Beth leaned forward and whispered something in Emily’s ear, and their laughter became louder. “Guess what he did with the shirt?” Beth giggled and clutched her stomach.

Emily laughed. “What?

“He picked a fight with my Brant. You see, my man was the biggest boy in school, and Cole knew if he fought with him, his shirt was probably going to get trashed, and it did. Oh, his mother was mad.”

Cole groaned. “Great. I can already see you two getting into trouble. Maybe Brant and I should separate you.”

Emily watched a large man, clearly several inches over Cole’s own six-foot-four frame, walk up behind Beth and place his massive hands on her shoulders. Not only large, but everything about him was dark. Dark hair, his eyes so dark brown they looked almost black. His skin was tanned to a rich mahogany, from his face to his hands, and in the open, unbuttoned part of his shirt at the top, he showed he spent a lot of time outside in the sun. He was in a western shirt, nice jeans, and boots like Cole wore.

“What’s she up to now?” The tone of his voice was low and gruff.

Emily guessed that this would not be a man anyone would want to mess with.

“Causing trouble and making me look bad,” Cole grumbled.

Brant laughed. “Ahh. She told the story about when you bullied her?”

Cole groaned. “Oh, for God’s sake. I was teasing her.”

Brant shrugged and smiled. “You know that, and I know that, but she won’t let it go.”