Sherryl Woods - The Cowgirl & The Unexpected Wedding

“Not this quarter,” she said.

He heard the rare insecurity in her voice and wondered at it. “How come? Is it tougher than you expected?”

Even as he asked it, he wondered if he wanted the answer to be yes, wanted med school to be so tough that she’d give up on it and come home. But of course, Lizzy was no quitter and coming home a failure wouldn’t sit well with her. That was no way to get what he wanted, and he knew it.

“Not so tough. I just haven’t been able to keep my mind on my studies the way I should the past few weeks.”

“Since Harlan’s heart attack?” he guessed, knowing how mat would have thrown her. He’d almost called her then to offer support or sympathy or, just as likely, to finally hear the sound of her voice again. That was what had held him back. He hadn’t fully understood his own motives, and that was dangerous with a woman like Lizzy.

She nodded, then faced him, her green eyes with those daggling flecks of gold now clouded with worry. “Do you know how he is?” she asked. “I keep getting the feeling that nobody’s telling me the whole truth.”

He wanted to smooth away her frown, but settled for a teasing comment intended to do the same job. “Hey, you’re the budding doctor. Couldn’t you tell by looking at him that he’s doing okay?”

“He looks good,” she admitted. “But he wouldn’t let me examine him.”

Hank chuckled at her disgruntled tone. “I’m surprised you didn’t wrestle him down and do it anyway.”

“Believe me, I was tempted.” She regarded him thoughtfully. “And you haven’t answered my question, either. How is he?”

“What did your mother say?”

“Hank, you’re being as evasive as the rest of them,” she accused.

“I’m just saying if you want answers, the best people to ask are those around him, not me. Your mother doesn’t lie to you, does she?”

“No, but—”

“No buts. What does she say?”

“That he’s recuperating nicely and he’ll be fine if he takes it easy.”

“Well, then, that’s your answer.”

“No,” she said, clearly unconvinced. “He should be up and about by now. You know Daddy. He never was one for sitting still for more than a minute.”

“Maybe he’s just hoping to get a little sympathy from his baby girl.”

“Maybe.”

He could tell that she still wasn’t reassured. “You’re really worried, aren’t you?”

“Not worried,” she said slowly, lifting her gaze to his. “Scared.”

He saw now what he should have seen all along. “You’re scared of losing him?”

Tears welled up in her eyes and came close to breaking his heart. She nodded.

“The others have all had him for a long time,” she said in a choked voice. “Not me. Twenty-four years isn’t nearly long enough.”

Hank reached out and brushed away the tear that was tracking down her cheek, barely resisting the temptation to pull her into his embrace and comfort her. “Something tells me Harlan will be around a long time yet.”

“Is that guesswork or wishful thinking?”

“Oh, I don’t think he’s going anywhere until he’s had a chance to dance at your wedding. It wouldn’t be like him to give up before getting his way.”

A smile trembled on her lips. “He does seem to be fixated on getting me married off and pregnant. You’d think all those grandbabies and great-grandbabies already overrunning the place would be enough to suit him.”

“But none of them belong to his precious baby girl,” Hank countered. “You were the surprise and the blessing of his life. Naturally, he wants to see you settled.”

“Whose side are you on?”

“Yours, of course. Always have been.”

She regarded him with an unblinking gaze. “You have, haven’t you? Even when you thought I’d lost my mind for running off and getting on the rodeo circuit.”

“Now, that one did take a few years off my life,” he said, recalling the heart-in-his-throat moments she’d put him through every time she’d climbed onto a bucking horse. “But nobody’s ever been able to change your mind once you got something into your head. I figured it made more sense to make sure you could stay on a horse than to fight you.”

“If it had been up to Cody, Jordan and Luke, they would have locked me in my room until I came to my senses,” she recalled, grinning. “You and Daddy were the only ones who didn’t try to stop me.”

“What would have been the point? You’d have climbed out the window.”

She leaned back against the trunk of the tree and gazed around, then sighed. “Do you have any idea how much I’ve missed all of this?”

“Not enough to come home for more than a minute at a time the last five years,” he retorted.

Her gaze locked with his. “You noticed? I’d wondered if you had.”

“I noticed,” he said.

“You didn’t exactly burn up the phone lines between here and Austin or here and Miami.”

“Did you want me to? I thought the whole point of going away was so you could try your wings away from all the overprotectiveness around here, mine included.”

“Maybe it was, at the beginning,” she conceded. “Rebellion seems to be one of those Adams traits.” Her lips curved. “But I missed this. I missed—”

Hank held his breath.

“—you,” she said softly, as if she were testing it. “I missed you.”

Damn, but it was good to finally hear her say the words. But missing wasn’t loving. It wasn’t saying that this time she’d stay and make a life with him. He couldn’t put his heart on the line for that. “I missed you, too, kid.”

She glared at him, just as he’d known she would.

“Kid?”

Hank winked. “You’re still younger than me.”

“Oh, yeah. What are you now? Pushing sixty, right?”

“Not even half that, smart aleck.”

“Twenty-nine isn’t all that old, Hank.” She looked him over with a deliberately provocative gleam in her eyes. “Looks as if you have a few good years left in you, if you’d work a little to get yourself in shape.”

“What’s wrong with the shape I’m in?” he demanded. “It can’t be all that bad. You’ve been ogling me since you came out here.”

“Have not.”

“Have, too.”

She chuckled. “Listen to us. We’re back to bickering the way we used to.”

“Some things never change.”

“I wish nothing had to change,” she said with a sigh.

He sensed the shift in mood went beyond the bickering of two old friends. “You’re thinking of your father again, aren’t you?”

She nodded, then forced a smile. “But all the worrying and wishing in the world won’t change things.”

“Have you talked to his doctor?”

“Not yet.”

“Then go. Do that this afternoon. Maybe it’ll put your mind at ease.” He touched a finger to her cheek, watched the color bloom at the light caress. For an instant, her gaze clashed with his and he thought for sure she was going to turn her face ever so slightly and press a kiss to his palm.

But she drew in a deep breath and shot to her feet instead. “I think I will go see the doctor.”

“Still want me to pick you up at six?”

She gave him a sassy grin. “Unless you’re having second thoughts.”

“Oh, no, darlin’. Where you’re concerned, I’ve always had a one-track mind.”

* * *

Hank’s words lingered in Lizzy’s head for the rest of the afternoon. There’d been a challenge there, no doubt about it The man had actually been flirting with her, which had to be a first She couldn’t help wondering whether that was because he’d finally seen that she was all grown up or whether something else was going on. living with a houseful of manipulators had made her wary of sudden shifts in attitude.