Lucy was watching the coffeemaker drip slowly while she threw her straight red locks up in a ponytail when there was a knock on the door. Sighing, and cursing whoever was there at this hour, she made her way to the door.

“I have the answer to your problems,” Cooper burst out. Lucy had just opened the door. It was barely six in the morning, good thing she has to get up early everyone morning or the whole household would be up by now with his constant banging. And thank God she was already dressed in a cotton tee and Levis. The best uniform, if you were to ask her.

She was used to seeing Cooper around the ranch ever since he became friends with her father a few years ago, so this was no surprise. Cooper was new to town and was like a lost puppy when Lewis Randall happened to stumble upon him. They became instant friends—but of course everyone became instantly a friend of Lewis’. He was always the warm, welcoming type, even if you weren’t the best person. That was just his nature. And that was the way he raised his kids.

“Um, Coop, come in. I can’t heat the whole world ya know,” she joked lightly as he crossed the threshold. “Now, what is this you’re saying? You’ve got the answer to all my problems?” She raised an eyebrow in waiting.

“Yes. You can keep you’re ranch, get everything in top shape, buy more cattle, whatever you want,” he smiled down at her. She’d never seen him this excited.

“It’s nothing illegal is it?” she asked over her shoulder as she made her way to the kitchen for a cup of coffee.

“Nope.” He accepted the cup she offered him but said no more, his brown eyes not giving anything away.

“Then what is it that I have to do?” He ran a hand through his blond hair, messing up his severely combed part in the process. Something he never does.

“You’d have to…marry me.”

“What?” If he’d said that she had to fly to the moon using her own little arms she might have been a little less in shock. But…marry Cooper? He’s lost his mind. She promised herself that she’d marry for love and she certainly doesn’t love Cooper. He wasn’t even the type of man she thought she’d end up with. He was the nine to five, spending days behind a desk, Dockers and sports jacket type. Not what she went for at all. But her father had told her—on more than one occasion—that Cooper was a great choice for a husband and that he approved.

“Marry me. No, just listen. Lucy, if you were to agree you’d be able to keep the ranch. I’d give you the money for everything you needed—you know I have it. You could pay back all the loans that didn’t help a thing. And you’d be able to even hire more ranch hands to help out around here. Hell, you could hire enough so you wouldn’t have to work at all.”

“But I like to work,” was her only weak reply.

“Okay, sure, you can still work but you’ll have other people here to help. All you have to do is marry me. And you know I love you. You know that right?” he asked, taking her hands in his.

She couldn’t speak…couldn’t think straight.

“C’mon, say something.”

“Um…I—I need time to think,” she said, rubbing her temples in resistance to the oncoming headache.

“Okay, I figured as much. I’ll give you a couple days to mull over the proposition,” he said as he opened the front door. “I call you,” he called before he closed the door quietly behind him, hopefully as not to wake the other two Randall’s.

xoxoxoxox

“Shayne! Shayne, I need to talk to you,” Lucy shouted as she ran after the oldest ranch hand and friend of her fathers. He was like an uncle to Lucy; she could always go to him for help. And boy did she need his advice now. Cooper’s ‘proposal’—if you could even consider it that—threw her for a loop and then some. She had been thinking over everything since yesterday morning when he showed up on her doorstep. She had yet to make right or left of it.

Shayne was the epitome of the word Grandfather. Sweet, smart with a mind full of wisdom, and kind. He had the salt and pepper hair, bushy beard and eyebrows, and most time you caught him in a pair of overalls. She loved him dearly. Without him here with her in the past year since her father’s death she might not have made it as far as she had.

“Hey Goose, what do you need?” She couldn’t help but smile at the nickname. He’d always called her Lucy Goose when she was a child but over the years the Lucy dropped and it became just Goose.

“I need to talk to you,” she stated as she walked along side him to one of the barns. It was the only one they still had that housed any horses.

“Okay, shoot.”

“Well, I have an opportunity to save The Double R,” she started as they entered the tattered doors.

“You figured out a way to save the ranch?” he asked as they began to feed the horses.

“Well…I didn’t figure it out, someone gave me a proposition,” she said skirting around having to come out and say it.

“Goose, just tell me instead of delaying the inevitable. You know I’ll find whatever it is out, I always do.” God, how well he knew her.

“Alright. Cooper Horton says if I marry him I’ll be able to keep the ranch. And even have it in better shape in no time. He will pay for all the expenses.”

“Cooper Horton?”

“Yes.”

“The same Cooper Horton that was a friend of Lewis’? The same Cooper Horton running for mayor come spring?” he asked but his face remained blank.

“Yes! You know what Cooper freaking Horton I’m talking about. Now what the heck am I going to do Shayne? Please help me here,” she pleaded.

“What do you think you should do?” he asked, searching her face with his soft, soulful brown eyes.

“That maybe…I should do it,” she replied with a voice that sounded as if she were a kid apologizing for doing something wrong. “I mean, Shayne, just think. We could have cattle again—maybe more than before, we could hire ranch hands, Selena and Blake would be ecstatic to have this place like it was. I wouldn’t have to worry about the money anymore and the ranch would be the way it was meant to be.”

“Well,” he spoke up after a moment of silence. “I can’t stop you from marrying anyone. All I can do is disagree with it—which I do. But ultimately it is your decision and I’ll stand by you no matter what you know that honey. I just don’t want you to feel as if you have to do this. We will be able to find another way.”

“It’s been a year Shayne. A year. I still have no way to pull everything together and get this place going. If we haven’t figured it out by now, we may never figure it out.”

“If you feel that way then go with what your gut is telling you. Like I said, I can’t stop you but I will be here for you.”

“Thanks,” she smiled warmly and hugged him fiercely.

xoxoxoxox

“Selena, Blake, come down here please!” Lucy yelled up the stairs for her younger siblings. She’d called Cooper over to tell him that she’d agree to the marriage but she had a few ‘ground rules’ to set before they moved any further. She got him to accept them, although reluctantly—especially the one stating that they were to have separate bedrooms.

Now it was time to tell her brother and sister.

“What did you need Luce?” Selena asked, walking into the living room, Blake right behind her.

Selena was the middle child at age fifteen. She looked nothing like Lucy or Blake. Lena was blessed with the wavy brunette hair of their mother and the green eyes to boot. She was considerably curvy for a young woman and no doubt would fill out nicely in the years to come. Lucy was foolishly jealous of her little sister for getting the looks in the family.

Blake, the youngest, at ten shared Lucy’s auburn hair—though his somewhat lighter in shade. They both had freckles, his more pronounced. The only differences in the looks were the eyes. Lucy had bright blue green eyes whilst Blake’s were just blue. Not that his eyes were dull. No, on the contrary, Blake’s eyes always seem to sparkle with some sort of mischief that little boys where constantly known for.

“Hey guys, I have some important news to tell you.”

“What is it?” Lena asked warily.

“Are we moving?” Blake blurted out, eyes going wide in fear. He loved this place as much as Lucy, maybe even a little more. We was forever playing cowboy and trying to rope fence posts out in the field.

“No! No, no, honey, we aren’t moving. In fact, we get to keep the ranch and I’m getting married,” she put on a false smile that would hopefully fool them.

“Married!” they chorused.

“Yes, to Cooper. You guys like Cooper.”

“You guys aren’t even dating,” Lena said incredulously.

“Well…he loves me and we’re getting married. We get to keep the ranch and we can start it running again. Aren’t you guys happy about that?”

“But…Lucy do you love him?” Blake asked, in a shy voice.

“Y-yes, I love him,” she spoke around the constriction in her throat. She’d never lied to them before and hated to start now. But there was no other way that she could see. She had to make everyone think they were in love or there would be problems. Cooper had to look like a family man for the election—which is part of the reason he chose to help her he admitted.

“Are you sure this is what you want to do?” Lena looked skeptical.

“Yes. Now, if you have no more questions then go wash up and you can help me with dinner,” she stood and marched to the kitchen without waiting for an answer.