Gideon (Seven Sons Book 7) Read online

  Gideon

  Seven Sons Book 7

  Kirsten Osbourne

  Unlimited Dreams

  Copyright © 2017 by Kirsten Osbourne

  Unlimited Dreams Publishing

  All rights reserved.

  Cover design by Erin Dameron Hill/ EDH Graphics

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Kirsten Osbourne

  Visit my website at www.kirstenandmorganna.com

  Printed in the United States of America

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Epilogue

  Afterword

  About the Author

  Also by Kirsten Osbourne

  Chapter One

  Gideon headed into the office at the McClain Boys’ Ranch to see his brother. Well, really, he went there to see Brittany, but he would say he needed to see Adam so she wouldn’t realize he still carried a torch for her—if carrying a torch was still a thing. Maybe he just had feelings for her. Whatever it was, he liked to be around her, and he wanted to ask her out, but he knew she’d shoot him down.

  When he got into the office, he saw Brittany sitting at the desk with her back to him. He felt waves of sadness and desperation wash off her, and he frowned. His Brittany was always happy and teasing him, and he could rarely feel her emotions. “You all right?” he asked.

  She turned, swiping away at a tear that was coursing down her cheek. “Yeah, great.”

  He walked over to her and sat in the chair in front of her desk. “Brit, it’s me. Tell me what’s wrong!”

  She took a deep breath. “I think we’re going to lose our house. I didn’t know there were back taxes to be paid, so I haven’t paid them, and I just got a letter saying that we have to be out in fifteen days so the house can be sold.” She grabbed a Kleenex from her desk and blew her nose. Gideon had been one of her very best friends since junior high. They’d gone out for a couple of months in high school, but he’d broken up with her suddenly with no explanation. They’d managed to remain friends. “I have no idea how this has slipped through the cracks for so long, and I’ve been paying them every year…but I can’t pay the back taxes. I just don’t have the money.”

  Gideon wrapped his mind around the problem quickly and logically, forcing himself not to feel her emotions. Normally he couldn’t feel her emotions, but today, they were washing over him in waves. He’d always been drawn to Brittany in a way he had been no other woman—in the way men in his family were only supposed to feel about their destined bride. Maybe she wasn’t the one meant for him, but she was the one he wanted. “Marry me.”

  Brittany gaped at him with shock on her face. “Excuse me?” There’s no way he could have just told her to marry him. He’d dumped her.

  “You know in my family it’s the youngest who inherits the house as soon as he marries. I’m the youngest. There’s a huge house waiting for me within a five-minute walk from this office. Marry me, and there will be a place for you, Madison and Kaeden.”

  “You can’t just ask me to marry you so we’ll have a place to stay! That’s crazy!” Madison and Kaeden were her younger siblings she had been raising since she graduated from high school. They were both teenagers now, and the overwhelming responsibility was enough to make her buckle from the pressure. Her friendship with Gideon kept her going.

  Gideon shrugged. “I can if I want to.” He reached out and took her hand in his. “You’ve always been my closest friend. There’s something special between us, and there has been since the day we met. If we marry, I can help you the way I want to help. Please.”

  Brittany bit her lip. “But that’s crazy. I know all your brothers are marrying fast and furiously, but that doesn’t mean you have to.” The man had to have inhaled something he shouldn’t have on the way there.

  He studied her for a moment. “Let me take you to lunch today, and we’ll talk. Please. I need to be able to present my case.”

  She felt a giggle bubbling up. “Present your case? Are you an attorney now?”

  He sighed. “Why do I even talk to you?” She made him crazy at times, but he knew it was just because he loved her so much.

  “Because I’m your friend.”

  “Lunch today. I’ll pick you up. Diner in town? Or do you want to get all crazy and drive to Nowhere for lunch and eat at the diner there?”

  “Diner in Bagley is fine.” Brittan grinned at him. “You always make me feel better, even if you do come up with crazy schemes.”

  Gideon shook his head at her as he headed into Adam’s office. Adam was the oldest of the McClain brothers, who were all named for the brothers from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. He knocked once, not waiting for a response, and let himself in. Dropping into the chair across from Adam’s desk, he waited for his brother to look up from his paperwork to pay attention to him.

  “Yes?” Adam asked.

  “I just asked Brittany to marry me,” Gideon said, expecting to shock his brother.

  “It’s about time. We’ve all been waiting for it.” Adam leaned back in his chair, studying his brother. “What took you so long?”

  “I’ve been waiting for my destined bride! I thought that’s what I was supposed to do.” He looked back toward the front, even though Brittany was blocked from view. “Do you think she even wants to have seven sons?”

  “That’s for you to talk out with her. What did she say?”

  “She laughed at me. Told me I didn’t have to marry her. I’m taking her to lunch today, and she’s going to hear the whole destiny thing, including my role in it all.”

  “Good. She needs to know before you marry her. You shouldn’t have even asked until you told her everything.” Adam shook his head.

  Gideon frowned at Adam. “Am I allowed to tell her everything? You all told your brides because you knew they were destined to be yours. Can I do that with Brittany?”

  Adam blinked a few times, shocked at his brother’s questions. “You know Brittany is meant to be your bride, right? I mean everyone else knows, so we assumed you did, too.”

  “Well, I know I’ve been in love with her since she whacked me over the head with a stack of books in junior high. I didn’t know we were destined. Did Dad tell you?”

  Adam nodded. “But even if he hadn’t, you two are obviously meant to be together. I’m surprised you’re even questioning it.”

  Gideon sat back down, frowning. “So you think I’m free to tell her everything? You don’t think she’ll run away screaming?”

  “She’s been working for this office for eight years. If she hasn’t figured out there’s a little bit of something unusual going on with our family, then she’s even denser than you are!”

  Gideon sighed heavily. “I guess I am dense.” He looked at Adam, his head tilted to one side. “Think I can convince her to marry me?”

  “If we want the McClains to continue, I sure hope so.” Adam made a shooing motion. “Find someone else to bug. I have to work.”

  Gideon made a face at his brother, but he stoo
d up and left his office. Adam was the ranch psychiatrist, and he had a lot of paperwork to do all the time. Gideon was just the ranch Gideon. He was more a jack of all trades and a master of none.

  He headed to the main house, needing a quick chat with his dad. Was what Adam had said true? Adam wasn’t usually one to lie to him, but all of his brothers loved to harass him every chance they got. This may just be more of his usual teasing.

  He walked into the house, calling out. “Mom, Dad! It’s me!” He’d moved back into the house a couple of weeks before, because his brother Frank had married, and he and Lani, his new wife, were living in the house with the boys. This was where he’d end up anyway. He’d always known it.

  His mother came out of the kitchen. “You and your brothers never learned not to yell when you came in the house!”

  “We always yell after that time Caleb came in and found you two kissing like crazy people. We’re afraid of what we’ll see if we don’t yell!”

  His mother gave him a mom-look. “What do you need, Gideon?” Even though he lived there again, he wasn’t often in the house during the day. He was out working on the ranch.

  He had a feeling he was going to hear those words repeatedly all day. “I would like to talk to Dad, if I may.”

  “He’s in his study.” His mother disappeared back into the kitchen. She spent a lot of time cooking. Sometimes it was sweets for the boys on the ranch. Sometimes it was dinner for the family. Sometimes it was a huge barbecue supper for everyone that lived on the ranch.

  Gideon knocked once and walked in, taking a seat across from his father’s desk. He felt like he was shuffling around from office to office today, but he didn’t mind. He knew his place on this ranch, and he had no insecurities about it.

  “Hey, Dad.”

  His father smiled. “What’s my only unmarried son doing in my office? Shouldn’t you be out scouring the world for the girl who will give your mother seven grandsons, all more precious than the first.”

  “I asked Brittany to marry me today,” Gideon said, watching his father’s face carefully.

  “It’s about time.”

  “That’s what Adam said.” Gideon couldn’t believe that everyone in the family had expected them to marry. Everyone but him. How had everyone seen it when he couldn’t? He had more powers than any of the others!

  His dad shrugged. “I knew you’d marry her back when you came home talking about how she’d hit you in junior high. I just didn’t think you were ready for that knowledge. When the two of you dated in high school, I worried a bit that you’d marry before either of you were ready, but it’s time.”

  “I’m going to tell her everything at lunch today. You don’t mind, do you?”

  “Not at all. I really think she knows some of it. She works too closely with Adam not to know he at least has a greater understanding of others’ emotions than most people. She may not realize he’s a full-fledged empath, but honestly, I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if she did.”

  Gideon shrugged. “If she doesn’t realize it now, she will in a few hours. I’m taking her to the diner in town, and I’m going to tell her everything and ask her to marry me again.”

  “Why did you randomly ask her to marry you? You two haven’t been seeing each other, have you?”

  Gideon shook his head. “No, but I went to see Adam this morning—”

  “You went to see Brittany this morning, and you used Adam as an excuse…”

  “Whatever. I went to the office this morning, and Brittany had been crying. Normally I can’t feel her emotions, but I felt waves of emotions washing toward me. So I asked her about it, and she’s about to lose her house. She didn’t realize her parents hadn’t paid their property taxes in a few years, so she doesn’t know what they’re going to do.”

  “We’ll help her if we need to, but I agree. It’s time to tell her everything and marry her. You probably should have done it before, but since you didn’t, it’s really time now.”

  “All right. Then that’s what I’m doing. Today, even.”

  “I’ll tell your mother it’s time for us to start packing up. The old house on the edge of the ranch is waiting for us, and I’ve had my eye on an RV for a while. I want to get out and travel the country. It’s time.”

  Gideon grinned. “Sounds like you’re ready. I don’t know if Brittany is ready to take on the task of Friday night barbecue.”

  “Oh, I think your mother will usually help. We won’t be gone more than a week every month or so. And you know as well as I do that Claire will help.”

  “She’s a fabulous cook.” Gideon got to his feet. Now that he had a plan in place, he knew Ephraim was hoping for some help in the barn that day. “Thanks, Dad.”

  “You’re welcome.” His father fumbled in his desk for a moment, and pulled out a box. “Give her this. It might help. Used to be your grandmothers.”

  Gideon opened it up and saw an engagement ring that would stun Brittany. It was a diamond surrounded by tiny emeralds that would match her eyes perfectly. “I’ll do it.”

  He ran between the big house and the barn, pleased with how that conversation had gone. He was going to ask Brittany to marry him after explaining all about their family, and hopefully she’d agree. He couldn’t imagine a life without her in it.

  When he got to the barn, Ephraim grinned. “Hey you. I was hoping you’d wander by today.”

  “What’s up?”

  For the next two hours, Gideon lost himself in work. He and Ephraim worked on four different animals.

  At eleven-thirty, he frowned. “I need to go get cleaned up for lunch.” He was covered in blood, sweat, and dog urine. Even he knew better than to show up for a date dressed that way.

  Ephraim nodded at him. “Go. Enjoy. Convince her that she’s meant to be the mother of seven children, one of whom will have a random magical power!”

  Gideon made a face at his brother. “You make it sound so delightful!”

  “I try.” Ephraim frowned. “I need to come up with a nickname for her. I’ll work on that.”

  “I’m sure she’ll be thrilled. You need me this afternoon?”

  Ephraim shrugged. “Nah. I think I can handle things. Ben’s getting ready for growing season. April’s only a week away. You might want to check with him.”

  “All right.” Gideon raised a hand. “Thanks for the work.” And he was gone, running off toward the house where he now just worked, but no longer lived. It was strange not living with the boys, but he certainly understood the reasoning. He could still be there when they got home from school, and he would be…but he wouldn’t be there at night any longer.

  When he arrived, he stood there for a moment. “Why did I come here instead of running home? Now I’m going to be late!” He wasn’t used to living in the big house anymore, and he’d run to where he was used to living by sheer force of habit.

  He took off toward the big house, running in the front door and straight up the stairs with no word to anyone. He ran into his room, showered and changed, and ran out the door to his truck, which he drove the short distance to the office to save a bit of time.

  He walked in to find Brittany still working. “You’re late,” she said without looking up.

  “I forgot I was living in the big house again, and I ran to the house where Frank lives with the boys. I know that’s stupid, but it’s the truth.”

  Brittany sighed. “What are we going to do with you, Gideon McClain?”

  “Marry me?” he asked again.

  She rolled her eyes, grabbed her purse, and followed him out the door. “I hope you’re paying, because I’m broke ‘til Friday. Teenagers eat more than gorillas, I think.”

  Gideon opened her door for her, and then ran around to the other side of the truck. “I don’t know how much gorillas eat!”

  “I don’t either,” Brittany said, “but I imagine it’s a lot, and I know my teens eat a lot more than what I imagine a gorilla would eat.”

  Gideon just nodded at he
r. They were very comfortable together usually, and he was glad it seemed to be slipping back to that while they drove toward town. He needed to convince her to marry him, but maybe they could be friends for a few more minutes before he threw a wrench into everything.

  Chapter Two

  Gideon parked in front of the small diner, running around the truck to open her door for her. Of course, he’d been opening doors for her for fifteen years or more, and neither of them thought a thing of it.

  Once they were sitting in the diner, Miss Mae brought them their menus. “What are you doing here, Gideon? You only come when chicken-fried steak is the special.” She frowned at him, as if she thought he was up to something sneaky. Of course, she’d known him since he was a toddler, so she had reason to think so.

  Gideon shrugged. “A man can change his ways. What’s the special today?”

  “Salisbury steak, mashed potatoes, salad, and your choice of side.” Miss May looked at him expectantly. “Dr. Pepper?”

  He nodded. “Always.”

  “I’ll have a sweet tea,” Brittany said, leaning back against the booth.

  “When we were kids, you always got a Coke,” he said. “What changed?”

  She shrugged. “I couldn’t afford to have Coke at home all the time, so I learned to drink tea. Cheaper and just as caffeiny.”

  “Is caffeiny a word?”

  “Is now!”

  Miss Mae pushed their drinks in front of them. “What else?”

  “I’ll have the special,” Gideon said. He didn’t really care what he ate when he was so nervous about the discussion they were about to have.

  “Me too,” Brittany said, pushing the menus toward Miss Mae. “Thank you.” Miss Mae winked at her and hurried away.