Rachel’s mouth opened and closed like a landed fish.

“Is that true?” Tate demanded.

“Yes… but I lied. I was trying to save her life,” Rachel confessed, sending Mag an apologetic look.

“So, you’re not pregnant? You’re sure?” Tate asked skeptically.

“Of course I’m sure.”

“You’ve been careful?”

Rachel turned brick red. This was going beyond the realm of what her brothers needed to know.

“No, she’s not. We haven’t been using any protection,” Cash admitted.

“Yes, we have,” Rachel snapped. ”I went on the pill.”

“When? You didn’t tell me.” Cash lost his casual attitude. He actually seemed angry she had taken steps to prevent getting pregnant.

“Because I don’t think that your belief that you can’t get pregnant standing up, or in water, or if the weather is too hot is actually considered—”

“You don’t actually believe that you can’t get pregnant standing up, do you?” Tate inquired while Greer and Dustin looked at her in pity.

“No, I didn’t—”

Again, she was cut off. “I told you to let me be the one to give her the girl talk. This is your fault, Tate,” Greer accused.

“No, it’s not. I know I explained sex well enough that she shouldn’t have believed you can’t get pregnant if you’re in water.”

Rachel ground her teeth, losing all patience. “Shut up! Go home!”

“We’re not leaving until he marries you,” Tate answered with Greer and Dustin’s vocal support.

“I won’t marry him. I’m not pregnant!” Her voice rose in embarrassment.

“You might as well marry me; they aren’t going to believe you.” Cash’s amusement had her wanting to commit blasphemy in front of the pastor and the entire congregation.

“If you’re not pregnant, then you are coming home with us,” Tate ordered.

“I’m not coming home with you; I’m moving in with Cash,” she refused.

“Hell no, you ain’t! My sister ain’t living in sin.” Greer cocked his rifle.

“Greer, stop it.”

“Are we having a wedding or a funeral?” Tate prompted.

“Rachel, I love you.” Cash’s words drew her attention to him.

Rachel believed him, or she would never have agreed to move in with him.

“I think that’s a good start to our courtship.” She took a step toward him.

“Courtship’s over. We’re going to see he marries you before the baby’s born,” Greer argued.

“I told you, I’m not pregnant.” Rachel planted her hands on her hips, practically stomping her foot.

“You will be,” Cash promised arrogantly.

“Do you want to die?” Rachel asked him shrilly.

“No, what I’m trying to do is get married.”

“Wait, you want to get married?” Rachel asked in confusion.

“Will you wash my clothes and fix my dinner?”

“Yes.”

“Then let’s do it. Dean’s here. Why not?” He turned to look at Pastor Merrick. “No offense.”

“None taken,” Pastor Merrick replied with a broad smile.

“Will you marry me, Rachel?”

Rachel saw the sincerity in his eyes.

“Yes, but I’m still not going to marry you tonight.”

“Is there anyone not here that you want?”

Rachel looked around the huge crowd. “No,” she admitted.

“Is a dress important to you?”

“No.”

“Then why not?”

Rachel let a smile tug at her lips. He had set this whole fiasco up just to get her to say ‘I do.’

“Let’s get it done, then. The baby needs his father.” Rachel reached out, taking his hand. Then he pulled her closer to the altar.

While her brothers stood by with their guns in hand, Rachel stared down at Mag in the front row. She had tears running down her cheeks.

Cash stood next to her, his expression triumphantly arrogant.

She hid her smile, listening to Dean begin their shotgun wedding. Her hand squeezed Cash’s. Her mama hadn’t raised an idiot. If Cash wanted to marry her bad enough to do it in front of the whole church, she wasn’t going to say no. A wedding dress and a traditional wedding would have been nice, but ultimately, it was the man who was the most important. Besides, there hadn’t been anything traditional about their courtship so far. If he wanted to believe he had caught her, she wasn’t going to disabuse him of the notion.

Dean’s words drew her attention back to the ceremony.

“Rachel, do you take Cash to be your husband?”

“I’ll take him,” she said out loud, adding to herself, and never let him go.

Epilogue

Cash was riding home when he saw Tate’s truck. Slowing down, he turned into his homestead property. Cutting his motor, he got off his bike before going up the steep hill that led to the graveyard. He found Tate standing by their parents’ graves.

Cash stood silently by his side until Tate broke the silence.

“It was a fucked-up situation.”

“Yes, it was.”

“I keep thinking that there had to be a reason they didn’t end up together,” Tate said in rumination.

Cash had lost his faith long ago, thanks to Saul Cornett. The crazy-ass pastor had used the Bible to excuse his sadism. He didn’t believe in coincidences, either, but the chain of events that had led to him returning to Treepoint after vowing not to return had him questioning his belief in both.

If he hadn’t asked Shade’s father to check on Beth and Lily during his travels, then none of The Last Riders would have ended up making Treepoint their home. Four of his brothers and now him had found their women.

Cash stared down at the graves of Tate’s mother and his father side by side in death.

If Lily hadn’t been sitting at the table with the information they’d needed, they would have been too late. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of people would have lost their lives. Maybe that was the reason Tate was looking for. He didn’t know.

What he did know was he had Rachel, and he was a selfish enough bastard to enjoy his happiness. His father had screwed up cheating on Rachel’s mother; he would never be that stupid. Cash knew what he had, and no other woman’s pussy was worth losing his hot-tempered vixen.

“You ever going to tell her you and Greer deliberately pissed her off to get her to move out?” Cash questioned with a quirk of his lips.

Tate looked at him sharply.

“Greer was just a little too obnoxious. You’re an ass, but you wouldn’t have embarrassed Rachel in public like that without reason. Besides,” Cash shrugged, “I know you saw me leave that night. You would have confronted her if you hadn’t planned to use it to your advantage.”

“She still mad?” Tate’s voice was hoarse.

“I think it still hurts her. Tell her the truth,” Cash told him.

“That I did it to force her to live her own life?” Tate said wryly. “I tried to talk to her when she came home from the university, but she just told me we needed her. She never wanted to admit she was homesick, even when she sold her property to pay for those online classes instead of taking that full, paid scholarship. Rachel turned it down because she would have to leave home. She’s a homebody; she doesn’t like to be uprooted.”