Beth Cornelison - Rancher's Deadly Reunion

Instead, she forced her throat to loosen enough to wheeze. “I’m okay. L-let go.”

Slowly, his arm slipped away, even though his stare held hers for several more painful heartbeats. Despite her assurances to Brady that she could stand alone, her knees trembled as she stepped back, threatening to give out.

Pull it together, McCall! This moony, love-sick calf act will not help you get through the week and back to Boston with your heart intact. With the steely determination that had helped her survive her freshman year, keeping her grades up while she battled morning sickness and a broken heart, she shoved aside the jittery sparks dancing through her and put some starch in her spine.

“That one?” a young voice asked, and she felt a tug on her shirt. She glanced down at Brady’s nephew and found him pointing behind her. “That one has blue string.”

Blue string...suitcase...airport. Piper blinked several times, bringing her surroundings back into focus. For just a moment, she’d lost track of the rest of the world. Being with Brady had a way of narrowing her scope to just the two of them.

“Grab it, buddy.” Brady stepped past her, a guiding hand on Connor’s shoulder.

The little boy scuttled forward through the crowd with his uncle at his heels. When Connor grabbed the huge suitcase’s handle and struggled to drag it off the conveyor belt, Brady added a helping hand. After the bag thunked to the floor, Brady stepped back, letting his nephew raise the handle and roll the suitcase through the crowd.

Piper shook the tension from her hands and arms and blew out a puff of air, gathering some semblance of composure. Pasting on a smile for Connor, she reached for the oversized suitcase as he dragged it to her feet. “Need some help?”

“I got it,” Connor said and grunted. “Sheesh! How many clothes did you bring? That’s heavy!”

“Oh, that’s not clothes. That’s my bag of rocks.”

Connor frowned for a second before twisting his mouth in a crooked grin. “You’re teasing!”

She flashed a playful grin and shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not.”

Brady approached with her other suitcase in tow and asked, “Is this it?”

She nodded. “Thanks. I think that’s everything.”

“All right then.” Brady dug his keys from his pocket and bounced them once in his hand. “Let’s go home.”

Piper’s stomach swooped. Home . Once upon a time, she’d called the Double M Ranch home. But she had a new life now in Boston. She’d found the independence she’d been looking for when she went to college, but that independence had come at a cost. She’d lost the close family connections she’d taken for granted growing up. She’d stayed away from the ranch for most of the last seven years. Her freshman year, she’d hidden herself at college to protect the secret she carried, afraid of her family’s reaction, running from Brady and from a future that couldn’t be. She’d flogged herself with regret and guilt. Each year that followed, she allowed herself brief visits, but kept mostly to the main house, avoiding the stable and cattle pens at times she knew Brady would be there.

“Wait!” Connor cried as they started for the parking garage. “Don’t forget my pretzel!”

“Oh, right,” Brady said, giving his head a shake and patting Connor on the back. “Sorry, buddy. Now let’s see. Where is Auntie Anne’s?”

A review of the airport map in the lobby showed the only Auntie Anne’s was past the security gates.

“Sorry, buddy. They won’t let us go to the part of the airport where the pretzel store is without a ticket,” Brady told his nephew and ruffled the boy’s hair.

“Where do we get a ticket?” Connor asked.

“We don’t. Not today.”

Connor wrinkled his nose in protest. “How come? You said I could have a pretzel!”

“I know. I’m sorry.” The look on Brady’s face said everything he didn’t. How much he hated letting his nephew down. How hard he was thinking about a way to make it up to Connor. Piper sent Brady a sympathetic smile and tapped Connor on the shoulder.

“You know what? I’ve been craving a big chocolate ice cream cone for hours. What do you say we stop for ice cream on the way home instead?”

Connor looked unconvinced at first, but when Piper batted her eyelashes and clasped her hands under her chin with a “Please?” the boy nodded. “Is that okay, Uncle Brady? Can we get Piper some ice cream?”

“That we can, Con.” He gave her a wink of thanks, and the moment of conspiratorial connection wrapped around her like a hug, warmth burrowing to her core. As they made their way out of the airport, Piper tried to rein in the soft emotions that tugged at her. She didn’t want to let her guard down around Brady or share private smiles that would chip away at her protective walls. Even after seven years, she was clearly still vulnerable to Brady’s lopsided grin and soft-spoken charm, and she was thankful for the buffer and distraction Connor would provide on the drive back to the ranch.

With Connor struggling valiantly to roll one of her heavy suitcases, they strolled down the long aisle of the parking deck until they reached Brady’s mud-speckled pickup truck. After Connor scrambled up onto the back seat of the extended cab F-150, he seized Piper’s hand and tugged. “Sit with me, Piper!”

“Well, I—”

“Pleeeeeease?”

The light green, puppy-dog eyes that beseeched her were impossible to turn down. She glanced at Brady, who only chuckled as he slid behind the steering wheel.

“Sure. Why not?” she said.

Closing the front door and glad for the excuse to move to the back seat, she climbed in next to Brady’s nephew, waved her hand blithely and in a nasal voice, said, “Home, James.”

Connor wrinkled his nose. “James? His name’s Brady!”

“Not when he’s our chauffeur,” she said, wagging a finger, her voice still pinched and snooty.

Connor caught on to her joke and gave a belly laugh. Mimicking her hoity-toity tone, he said, “Drive us home, James!”

Brady loosed an indelicate snort, then returned, “Righty-o, Sir Snoodlepants.”

Connor’s peals of laughter filled Piper with an odd warmth, and she couldn’t stop the giggles that bubbled up.

“Hey, Piper,” Connor asked as they backed out of the parking space, “how do you stop an elephant from charging?”

She cut a glance to Brady, whose cheek dimpled as he grinned. “I don’t know. How?”

“Take away her credit card!” Connor’s eyes lit as he delivered the punch line, and Piper found herself chuckling at the boy’s delight. She didn’t have much experience around children. Most of her friends were either unmarried or putting off starting a family while they launched their careers. Yet Brady had had fatherhood handed to him under difficult circumstances. The notion made her chest tighten. If she hadn’t gotten the scholarship that took her to Boston College, how would her life have been different? Could she and Brady have made their relationship work? Could they have been parents to—

She nipped off the thought before it fully formed. Don’t go there .

Focusing her attention on Brady’s nephew, she asked, “Do you know what an elephant’s favorite vegetable is?”

He shook his head.

“Squash!”

“Squash!” Connor repeated with another hardy laugh. “Did you hear that, Brady? Squash! ”

“Afraid so, little man.”

Connor continued to entertain her with riddles as they drove out of the airport and merged onto the highway.

She mentally thanked Connor for providing an excuse not to make awkward conversation with Brady. The boy’s invitation to ride in the back seat with him also gave her the opportunity to study Brady’s profile covertly, to drink in the subtle changes in his face without him knowing.