The Pastor had barely started his sermon when a loud shot rang out. The pastor’s voice came to a stop as he stared, open-mouthed toward the door.
Brooke released a scream as her brothers, each carrying a rifle, came to the front of the church, all three aiming their rifles at Cash.
“Cash Adams, we have some talking to do!” Tate yelled.
“What do you want?” Cash didn’t seem worried about being cornered by her brothers.
Rachel wanted to warn him that her brothers only picked up their guns when they were ready to shoot.
“I heard you knocked up my sister!” Greer roared.
Rachel paled, getting to her feet.
“What are you going to do about it if I did?” Cash taunted.
The man had lost his mind. Rachel frantically started fighting her way out of the pew.
All three of her brothers pointed their guns at him, but it was Tate, as head of the family, who spoke.
“You’re going to marry her and make her your wife. Then, we’re going to make her a widow.”
As Cash laughed in their faces, Rachel barely managed to step in front of him before her brothers filled him with holes.
“Tate, Greer, Dustin, go home. I’m not pregnant!” Rachel yelled, wanting to hide. The whole church was witnessing her embarrassment. She’d thought Mrs. Langley’s party had been humiliating, but that couldn’t touch this horror in the making.
“That’s not what you told me,” Mag hollered from a few feet away. “Told me I needed to live for my great-grandbaby.”
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.