How West Was Won (Haven, Texas Book 7) Read online

  How West Was Won

  Laylah Roberts

  Laylah Roberts

  How West Was Won

  © 2020, Laylah Roberts

  [email protected]

  laylahroberts.com

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher.

  Cover Design by: Allycat’s Creations

  Editing: Eve Arroyo

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Let’s keep in touch!

  Books by Laylah Roberts

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  Excerpt from Daddy Bear

  Let’s keep in touch!

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  Books by Laylah Roberts

  Doms of Decadence

  Just for You, Sir

  Forever Yours, Sir

  For the Love of Sir

  Sinfully Yours, Sir

  Make me, Sir

  A Taste of Sir

  To Save Sir

  Sir’s Redemption

  Reveal Me, Sir

  Montana Daddies

  Daddy Bear

  Daddy’s Little Darling

  Daddy’s Naughty Darling (in the Dirty Daddies Anthology)

  Daddy’s Sweet Girl

  Daddy’s Lost Love

  A Montana Daddies Christmas

  Daring Daddy (coming Feb, 2020)

  Haven, Texas Series

  Lila’s Loves

  Laken’s Surrender

  Saving Savannah

  Molly’s Man

  Saxon’s Soul

  Mastered by Malone

  How West was Won

  Men of Orion

  Worlds Apart

  Cavan Gang

  Rectify

  Redemption

  Redemption Valley

  Audra’s Awakening

  Old-Fashioned Series

  An Old-Fashioned Man

  Two Old-Fashioned Men

  Her Old-Fashioned Husband

  Her Old-Fashioned Boss

  His Old-Fashioned Love

  An Old-Fashioned Christmas

  Bad Boys of Wildeside

  Wilde

  Sinclair

  Luke

  1

  Flick O’Malley liked fairytales.

  The sweet version, not those dark, scary ones. She had enough darkness in her life already.

  She flung her crutches out with practiced ease, swinging her way down the pavement. She was on a mission. She was going to have that happy-ever-after that came at the end of a fairytale. It wasn’t going to be easy. There were obstacles, and a bad guy intent on harming her. But she was going to get it. Only thing was, she just couldn’t achieve it on her own.

  She sang out a hello to Aspen, who was crouched on the pavement next to her adorable sons, Caleb and Jamie. Aspen waved back with a smile. Flick loved living here in Haven. It was a special place where women were taken care of, cherished, and protected. These were some of the most content women in the world. They knew they were loved. They knew they were safe and it gave them all a confidence that was beautiful.

  She wanted that.

  This was her shot. Her chance to break free. She just had to find a prince to help her. She knew exactly the sort of guy he would be. He would be brave. Big. Tough. Fierce and protective. Possessive.

  Most of all, she needed him to be a little bit mean. And she’d found the perfect man.

  West Malone.

  West had just taken a bite of his burger when he heard a commotion at the door of the diner.

  “It’s okay, I got it! I’m all right.”

  Don’t look over. Don’t look over. Don’t look over.

  He hoped, prayed that if he didn’t look at her, she wouldn’t see him.

  Right. Fat chance.

  And, like a fool, he looked anyway. He sighed as he spotted her attempting to make her way through the swinging diner door on crutches. The bottom of her left leg was now in a bright purple cast, a few weeks ago it had been yellow. She pushed at the door, nearly catching an older man straight in the nose. Luckily, despite the fact he looked like he was pushing ninety, he had sharp reflexes, catching the door before it hit his face.

  “Thanks, Mr. Mac!” she said.

  West wasn’t surprised she knew his name. She seemed to know everyone. He’d lived there for years and he didn’t have a clue who the old guy was. Felicity O’Malley moved here two months and eighteen days ago. And yep, he was counting. Because for two months and seventeen days she’d been a pain in his fucking ass.

  West rarely came into town. He’d probably eaten at the diner less than a handful of times. He should have just sat in the truck and waited for Mia to finish the damn shopping.

  He really wished he hadn’t been in the house when she’d announced she needed to go to town and Alec had told him to take her. Unfortunately, all his other brothers had disappeared—leaving just him.

  Don’t come over here. Don’t come over here.

  She managed to navigate her way through the door, but in her haste to move across the room, her crutch slammed against a chair leg. She wobbled for a moment and he tensed, too far away to catch her if she crashed.

  Thankfully someone closer leapt to their feet and grabbed her around the waist, steadying her. Felicity smiled up at him. A sweet, friendly smile he did not like.

  And what he really didn’t like was her aiming it at the younger guy, who was practically panting as he stared down at her. West clenched his hands into a fists.

  This was a good thing. If someone else caught her eye, she’d leave him alone. And he needed her to leave him alone.

  “Thanks, Jimmy!” she said cheerfully. “I’m good now.”

  “You sure, Flick?” the other guy asked doubtfully.

  West snorted. Of course she wasn’t good. The girl was a walking disaster. Since she’d moved here, she’d been in a series of calamities, the latest was falling out of a tree and breaking her foot. What the hell had she been doing in a tree? Her guardian wasn’t doing a good job of looking out for her. Or even a somewhat decent job. She needed rules and boundaries. And a firm hand applied to her ass to enforce those rules.

  Nothing to do with you. She’s just a nuisance, remember?

  “I’m fine. Although you’d think I’d have the hang of these crutches after five weeks on them, wouldn’t you?” Her laugh filled the diner. His gut clenched. He shouldn’t find that laugh attractive. It was just like the rest of her. Young and naïve.

  He forced himself to concentrate on eating his burger. The sooner he finished, the sooner he could get out of there, away from her.

 
; Please, God, don’t let her come over here.

  “Hi, West.”

  Yep, that was proof. God was not listening to him. In fact, he was pretty certain God was pissed and working against him.

  Maybe he should try reverse psychology. Right. Had he just thought that? He was going to use reverse psychology on God? He was losing it. And he knew exactly whose fault that was.

  He grunted out a greeting.

  If he was rude to her, surely she’d get the hint and go away. He tried his best to avoid her, but unfortunately for him, he had rotten fucking luck. Because Felicity O’Malley wasn’t just his next-door neighbor, she was also his sister-in-law’s friend. And she kept turning up at his house with such regularity, that, sometimes, he wondered if she’d moved in and no one had told him.

  Which was something those asshole brothers of his would actually do.

  It was a sad state of affairs when a man couldn’t even get a bit of peace at his own house. He didn’t really think it was much to ask for. Then, again, God was pissed at him.

  “Do you mind if I sit here?”

  He toyed with the idea of telling her he did mind. He’d been holding back, not getting as nasty as he was capable of being because she was Mia’s friend. But it was getting to the point that he was going to have to be blunt. Fuck him. Was he really going to be an asshole to the sweetest girl he’d ever met?

  Yep, God definitely hated him.

  Before he could answer, she was swinging her ass up onto the stool beside him. Which wasn’t an easy thing to do considering she was five-foot nothing and had a heavy cast on her foot. Not to mention a pair of crutches to deal with. He turned as she leapt onto the stool, slid over to the other side, and then crashed into him.

  He grabbed hold of her, wrapping one arm around her waist. He hauled her onto the stool, holding her until she was steady.

  “Whoops!” she said with a laugh. “Think I overshot that one a bit. Getting onto these stools isn’t the easiest with this thing on my foot.” She tapped a crutch against the cast. “Luckily, it comes off next week.”

  He snatched his hands away as soon as he realized he was still touching her. This is why he tried to avoid her. She had some sort of weird effect on him.

  “Anyway, thanks for catching me.” She sent him one of her bright smiles. He didn’t answer. Instead, he turned back to his burger and shoved another bite into his mouth.

  He didn’t know how to do small talk. Even if he wanted to do small talk. Which he didn’t.

  She didn’t say anything. Neither did she move away. Instead she reached for a menu and opened it.

  Doris, one of the waitresses whose names he actually did know, because it was written on her nametag, stopped in front of them. “What’s it gonna be, Flick?”

  “I’ll take the vegetarian burger,” she said with a grin.

  Doris just grunted. Seemingly as unimpressed by Flick’s cheerfulness as West was. “Mushrooms on toast it is.”

  Flick sighed. It was the closest he’d ever heard her sound sad. He shifted his gaze over to her. She gave him a small smile. “There’s no vegetarian burger on the menu. Just a little joke between Doris and me.”

  She lived in small-town Texas. They were surrounded by cattle ranches. This was a small diner. He wondered if she was really seriously surprised there was no vegetarian burger on the menu.

  She leaned into him. “The thing is,” she whispered. “I can’t actually stand mushrooms.”

  Don’t ask. Don’t ask. “So why don’t you tell Doris that?”

  Her eyes sparkled with humor. Shit. Talking to her was a mistake. He should have learned that by now.

  “Because mushrooms on toast isn’t actually on the menu, so I figure I’m already being enough of a nuisance. She’s trying to be nice. I just scrape off the mushrooms and eat the toast. No big deal.”

  He still didn’t get it. Even though there was no such thing as a vegetarian burger on the menu, there were other things without mushrooms or meat she could eat. “You could ask for the grilled cheese.”

  “I could. But I don’t want to hurt Doris’s feelings.”

  He didn’t see that Doris had much in the way of feelings, considering he’d never seen her look anything but grumpy. He had no idea why Peggy, the diner’s owner, had hired her. It certainly wasn’t for her excellent customer service skills.

  “I love animals. I would’ve liked a job working with them. And I just can’t bring myself to eat any animal products, you know?”

  He was about to ask her why she didn’t go get a job like that when a plateful of thick toast covered in a huge glop of mushrooms landed in front of her. Jesus, it looked so bad it almost turned his stomach.

  She reached for a knife and fork, ready to cut into it. Without thinking, he grabbed the plate and slid it away from her.

  “Doris,” he barked.

  “Yeah?” Doris snapped back. “What you want?”

  “Grilled cheese sandwich for Felicity.”

  “She’s got mushrooms on toast,” Doris told him.

  “She doesn’t like mushrooms on toast.”

  Doris slammed her hands down on her hips. “Well, if she doesn’t like it then why she been ordering for the last two months?”

  “Fuck if I know,” he snapped back. “Just get the damn grilled cheese, will you?”

  Doris let out a huff and turned away, but he knew Felicity would get her grilled cheese. He turned to Felicity and saw his mistake. He should have just gone with his first instinct and ignored her. Should definitely not have bothered himself about what she ate for lunch. He was supposed to be working on ridding her of this ridiculous notion she seemed to have that she liked him. Because, right now, she was staring at him with a look of hero worship in her eyes.

  Idiot, West.

  He pulled his wallet out of his back pocket, chucked some bills down and then climbed off the stool.

  “Thanks for doing that, West,” Felicity said to him.

  He grunted, glancing over as the door opened and Mia strode in.

  “You were supposed to call me when you were finished,” he barked at her.

  She paused, slamming her hands down on her hips. Oh, he knew that stance. He was about to be slammed with sarcasm.

  “Hi, Mia. How you doing? You ready to go now or do you want some lunch first?” Mia said to him in a fake gruff voice that was obviously meant to be an impression of him.

  He just grunted at her. “You better not have put those bags in the truck yourself.”

  She sighed. “West Malone, your manners are atrocious.”

  Felicity giggled next to him. Damn it. Laugh like sunshine. His gut knotted, and he knew he needed to get out of there quickly.

  “Well?” he asked Mia.

  Mia narrowed her gaze at him. “I didn’t lift the bags myself; they’re waiting at the grocery store for you. I think I’ll just stay here and get some lunch.”

  “I need to get back to the ranch,” he snapped.

  “I’ll get a ride back.”

  “You will not. You’re coming home with me.”

  She gave him a sweet smile. “That’s fine, if you want to stop every five minutes while I vomit.”

  Fuck. She knew damn well he’d never do anything to put her at risk. This is what a woman did to you. Tied you up in knots. Made you worry about them. Made you care.

  “You’re feeling nauseous?” He placed his hand on her hip. “You need to sit down for a while, have a drink of water. And something to eat.”

  Now that he looked more closely, he could see she was the slightest bit pale. Fuck. Alec was not going to be pleased.

  As if she could read his mind. Mia smiled at him brightly. “I feel fine. Just want some lunch.”

  “What you want to eat?”

  Before she could say anything, Doris slammed a plate down on the counter in front of Felicity. “One grilled cheese, no mushrooms in sight.”

  “Thanks, Doris,” Felicity said in a surprisingly subdued voice.<
br />
  But he couldn’t spare any time for her. His attention was snagged on Mia. Mia was what was important. Mia was a Malone. More than that, she was a female Malone. And she was his responsibility.

  “Mia?” he asked. “You okay? You need to see Doc?”

  “I just feel a little tired and nauseous,” she said quickly. “Nothing that lunch won’t fix. A grilled cheese sounds great. I’ll have the same please, Doris.”

  “Sure, you wouldn’t rather have a plate of mushrooms on toast?” Doris asked her.

  West turned his gaze on Doris, giving her a warning look. Grown men have pissed themselves at that look. The older woman just snapped her gum and gave him an unimpressed look. “She’s sure. She wants a grilled cheese. And she’ll be over in the back booth.” He nodded his head over towards the back of the room. No way was she sitting on one of the stools at the counter. What if she got dizzy and fell off?

  “Flick, you want to join me?” Mia asked her.

  Great, his day was complete.

  “Yep.” Flick slid herself off the stool, but she moved too fast, and would have fallen forward had West not turned and grabbed her around the waist. He held her until she was steady. Mia reached over for her crutches and handed them to her. As soon as she was good, he pulled his hands back.

  “Watch what you’re doing, will you?” he growled at her. “You need to be more careful. You could have knocked into Mia.”

  Around him, everyone went quiet. The diner wasn’t that full, it was early for lunch yet. But he could still feel the censure in people’s gazes. And especially on Mia’s face. No one here really knew him, which was how he liked it. But it was very obvious they knew and liked Felicity.

  “West,” Mia hissed at him. “Don’t be so rude.”