Owen: One Night with a Cowboy

Kira

The last place I want to spend my birthday is at the high school gym in Broken Bend, Texas. When my best friend drags me to a bachelor auction, intent on buying me a man for one last night of fun before I leave the country, I can’t figure out a way to say no. Then I see him… the cowboy with the dark blue eyes.

Owen

Emceeing the charity auction was supposed to be a night of low-key fun. Then I lock eyes with the curvy, dark-haired beauty in the front row. Everything about her screams that she’s completely out of my league. I’m willing to put myself on the auction block to see if there’s more between us than a case of opposites attract. I want to make her mine.

Ever wanted to spend a single night with the bachelor of your dreams? The men of Broken Bend are going on the auction block for a great cause. Find out what happens when the winning bidders claim their prize in the One Night Series. Each book is a complete story and can be read alone.

Hot damn, it was going to be a great night. There was something in the air. Something besides the sweet scent of fresh-cut hay that tickled my nose as it blew past on the slight breeze. Maybe it was the fact my foster brothers had come home for the weekend. Even Grant who one time swore he’d never set foot in Broken Bend, Texas again.

It had to take something big to pull us all back to the town where we grew up. I suppose our foster mom’s retirement party was just the right kind of occasion that would do it. Mama Mae had devoted her life to saving boys like us—boys who’d been abandoned by the people they should have been able to count on.

We’d all found our way to her two-story farmhouse in the middle of Texas along with dozens of other kids over the years. She’d saved me from the future I was hell-bent on claiming and showed me there was another way. A shiver raced through my limbs at the thought of where I’d be today without Mama Mae taking me in.

My brother Brody stepped out onto the front porch that wrapped around the farmhouse where we were raised. “You ready for tonight?”

“Yeah, how about you?” I turned from the railing and gave him a once over. He had on a pair of jeans and a button-down plaid shirt, but he didn’t fit in with the guys around here. His spine stood ramrod straight, making him look every inch the military guy he was. If his posture didn’t give him away, his high and tight haircut would.

“Are you sure I need to go on the auction block? I’m only here for the weekend, not really time to—”

“It’s for Mama Mae.” That would shut him up. All of us would do anything for the woman who’d been a mother to us.

He reached a hand up to scrub at the back of his neck. “Yeah, okay.”

“That’s the spirit.” I threw a fake punch at his shoulder. Before I made contact, he grabbed my fist in his hand and twisted my arm. “What the hell?”

“Sorry, man. Instinct.” Brody dropped my fist and rolled his shoulders.

“What kind of training have they been putting you through?”

His lips curled into a grin and he served up an exaggerated wink. “That’s classified.”

“Whatever.” I shook out my hand. We’d had plenty of scuffles and some nasty fist fights growing up together, but I’d always been able to take Brody. Looking at him now, I wasn’t sure that would be the case any longer.

“You got your eye on anyone in particular tonight?” Brody leaned his forearms onto the railing next to me. “I heard you were seeing a gal from over in Dumont for a while.”

My jaw tightened at the reminder. “Nah, that’s been over for a long time now.”

“Well then, I hope some horse-lovin’, cow-wrestlin’, down-home-country-cookin’ woman scoops you up off the auction block.” Brody nodded. “You deserve to be happy, Owen.”

“We all do,” I muttered. Each one of us had come to Mama Mae’s because someone had failed us. We all had baggage, but Brody’s might have been the heaviest.

“You boys ready to escort me to the party?” Mama Mae pushed through the screen door to join us on the porch. The hinges creaked and I added “oil the hinges” to my never-ending mental to-do list.

Keeping up with her place and mine made for some long days. Most of the time I got started before the sun peeked over the horizon and didn’t kick my boots off until the moon hung high in the sky. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. Broken Bend would always be my home.

“You look gorgeous, Mama Mae.” I pressed a kiss to her soft cheek, inhaling the jasmine-scent of her perfume—the same one she’d been wearing all the years I’d known her.

“The two of you don’t look too bad yourselves. Where are your brothers?” She took the hand Brody offered and made her way to the stairs.

“We’ll pick Grant up from the motel on the way. Kane and Devin will meet us there.” I pulled the front door closed, not bothering to lock it. Broken Bend wasn’t the kind of place where doors needed to be locked for people to feel safe.

“Then what are we waiting for? We’ve got a party to get to, and I can’t wait to see how much my boys bring in on the auction block.” She let Brody help her into the front seat of my truck.

I had my reservations about the bachelor auction she’d planned for tonight. As part of her retirement party, she wanted to raise money for the non-profit organization she’d been working for all these years. Pups for Progress had played an instrumental part in my teen years, so I was all for raising awareness and funds.

But why a bachelor auction? Though I’d volunteered to emcee the auction part of the night when Mama Mae asked, I wasn’t very excited about putting myself on the block.

Though, I’d do anything for Mama Mae. I could spend my whole life trying and never be able to repay her for the kindness she’d shown me. She taught me how to love. She taught me how to be loved. She was the reason I had family.

My brothers and I would bend over backwards for her, even if it meant selling ourselves to raise money for her favorite charity.