Trish Milburn - The Heart of a Cowboy

If she went home, she wondered if she’d find the nerve to come back to Blue Falls a second time. But if she stayed, what the hell was she going to do with all the free time? What about her job? And was it fair to Owen and Chloe to hit them with this type of news during what was likely the happiest time of their lives? An ache started throbbing in her forehead between her eyes.

Garrett snatched another French fry, evidently oblivious to her inner turmoil. And she needed to keep it that way.

“They didn’t feed you at the wedding reception?”

“Yeah, but there’s always room for cheese fries. So, where you living now?”

“Wichita.”

“That where you moved when you left Blue Falls?”

Natalie resisted the building urge to flee. “Yeah. You still live at the ranch?”

“Yep, just me and Dad now. Chloe and her husband, Wyatt, have their own place on another part of the property. Owen’s living in town, above Linnea’s bridal store, but still works out at the ranch.”

So, Garrett seemed to be the only unmarried sibling, and she tried not to be happy about that. His marital status shouldn’t matter to her at all. It wasn’t as if she had a chance with him, even if hundreds of miles didn’t stand between where they lived their lives. Once she revealed why she’d come back to Blue Falls, he would never want to see her again. And she wouldn’t be able to blame him.

“What do you do in Wichita?”

“I’m a vet,” she said absently, still stuck on why she was sitting here in a town she hadn’t seen in two decades.

When Garrett picked up yet another fry, she slid the plate the rest of the way in front of him.

“Sorry. I’ll stop stealing your food.”

“It’s okay. I realized I’m too tired to eat.” Another glance at him and the resultant pull she felt toward him was enough to propel her to her feet. “I’ve had a really long day, so I’m going to call it a night.”

As she started to step away, his voice, that delicious voice that could so easily seduce, stopped her.

“How long are you in town? I know Chloe would love to see you and catch up.”

The lonely, fragile part of her wanted him to be asking for himself and not Chloe, but she knew her thoughts were irrational. If she managed to get a solid night’s sleep, she’d probably wake wondering what had possessed her brain tonight.

“Not sure. But I’ll get in touch with her when she returns.” She wasn’t positive that was true, but she had to put some distance between herself and Garrett before she cracked and spilled everything too soon, in the wrong place. Before he could say anything else, she pushed her way through the crowd toward the door.

By the time she reached the parking lot, she felt genuinely ill, the kind of ill that came from too little food, not enough rest and nerves frazzled almost to the breaking point. As if to match her mood, it started to rain as she drove back to the motel.

This time, she managed to exchange her clothes for her pajamas and slid underneath the covers. She lay on her side, wondering if she’d made the biggest mistake of her life when she’d promised her father that she would deliver his confession and apology. What could possibly be gained from telling the Brodys the truth? All it would do is hurt them by reopening old wounds.

You don’t know that.

She hated that voice of doubt in her head, the one that said that maybe the wound was already open, that it had never healed and wouldn’t until all their questions had answers, no matter how painful they might be. Plus, she knew herself well enough to realize that if she didn’t fulfill her promise to her father, she wouldn’t be able to live with herself. Lying was one thing, but lying to a person about to take his last breath was something else entirely. She couldn’t let her promise be a lie.

* * *

THE NOISE AND activity around Garrett faded as his thoughts zeroed in on the unexpected meet-up with Natalie Todd. He continued to eat the cheese fries she’d left behind and sip on the beer he’d ordered. He had only a vague recollection of what she looked like when she’d been a kid, but she’d certainly grown up to be a beautiful woman. The moment he’d seen her profile as she sat on the bar stool, it’d been as if he’d known he had to sit next to her, talk to her. The totally irrational knowledge that he might have pushed anyone who got in his way out of his path made him pause with a fry halfway to his mouth.

What was going on? Had some sliver of what Chloe said at the reception wormed its way into his brain, putting him in some sort of primal wife-hunting mode? He shook his head and pushed away both the unfinished plate of fries and the three-quarters-full beer bottle.

“Done already?” James Turner, who was tending the bar, gave Garrett a questioning look that also managed to convey that he knew exactly what was going on.

“Yep. Long day.”

“Takes a lot of fuss to get two people hitched.”

“Amen to that.” Garrett pulled out his wallet and placed a five-dollar bill on the bar before standing. He chose to ignore the grin James wasn’t even attempting to hide. But as he made his way outside, he found himself wanting to smile, too.

Damn if he didn’t feel as he had when he’d been twelve and bumped into Lila Croft as she came out of the girls’ locker room after PE. His eyes had locked with hers for a moment before she walked away as if nothing had happened. But he’d fallen head over heels in love in the space of a heartbeat, a great and all-consuming love that had lasted until he’d asked her to a homecoming dance in seventh grade only to be shot down as if he were the ugliest, stinkiest boy on the planet. That had been the end of his foray into instant love.

Lila was married to the owner of a landscaping company in Austin now. He occasionally ran into her and her three kids when she came back to Blue Falls to see her parents, and each time it was as if he’d never harbored any feelings toward her other than a casual acquaintance.

He hurried out into the rain and had just made it to his truck when he heard the unholiest racket. He looked toward the street in time to see the limo filled with his siblings and their spouses rolling through town, all manner of cans tied to the bumper. He laughed and shook his head before hopping into his truck.

He was leaving the city limits before he realized that Natalie hadn’t answered his question about why she was in town. As far as he knew, she had no family left here. Thoughts of her accompanied him as he drove toward the ranch, eventually passing out of the rain onto a stretch of road with dry pavement. Her eyes were the kind of bright blue that would make you stare even though you knew it was rude. Her long blond hair had been pulled up into a cute ponytail, but he bet it was gorgeous down and flowing free. And her body...well, he hadn’t been the only man in the music hall salivating. It was a miracle she’d made it out of the place without a dozen of them attaching themselves to her like sticky weed.

A flash of lightning in the distance drew his attention a moment before rain started sprinkling on his windshield again. When he pulled into the ranch, he spotted his dad’s truck and did his best to put thoughts of Natalie Todd and her perfectly shaped body out of his mind. Last thing he wanted to do was walk into the house aroused.

Thinking of taking a dunk in an icy lake somewhere cold like Minnesota or the far northern reaches of Canada, he stepped out of the truck. The wind kicked up, whistling around the edge of the house like something with a tortured soul. Even Roscoe and Cletus, his family’s two basset hounds, were not in their usual spots on the front porch. He imagined they’d toddled off to their doghouse out back.