by Stacy Finz
She glanced up at the roping event and went back to eating her dessert, trying to ignore the scent of her cowboy neighbor’s aftershave. Everything about him put her on edge.
The bartender returned to their end of the bar. “Anyone need anything?”
“Yeah, I’ll take a piece of that pie.” He gestured at Joey’s plate.
When the bartender left to put in his order, he asked, “You like pro rodeo?”
“I’m an orthopedic nurse, so no.”
He laughed. “Seen a lot of injuries, huh?”
“My fair share.” Though she’d never treated a rodeo cowboy in the PRCA.
“You work in the emergency room?”
“I did early on in my career. More recently in pediatrics.”
“Ah, kids. That’s gotta suck.” His pie came and he tucked in. “How long have you been nursing?”
She wasn’t sure if he was really interested or fishing for her age. “A lot of years.”
He glanced at her. “A lot of years, huh?”
More than ten. But not anymore. She still hadn’t heard from the board and suspected that meant she wasn’t getting recertified. At least in the meantime, she’d gotten some temp work answering phones and taking orders for a catalog company. The pay was shit but it got her out of the house during the week.
“How old’s your kid?” He began eating the pie the bartender had set in front of him.
“Six.” She didn’t know why she was sharing personal stuff about herself. She chalked it up to boredom. “How ‘bout you? You have any kids? A wife?”
“Nope.” He didn’t offer up any more information than that.
“You live around here?” Joey asked, trying to sound as if she was merely making idle conversation.
“No. I’m a long-haul trucker. Nugget’s on my way through.”
“What do you truck?” She already knew it was livestock but didn’t want him to think she’d paid that much attention.
“Cattle mostly. Sometimes I stay at that inn across the square.” He locked eyes with her, letting the words hang in the air.
Joey hadn’t missed the inference. The invitation. “Oh yeah. Nice place?”
“Very. You’d like it.” Those pale blues eyes of his twinkled and she knew he was testing her.
A woman still in love with her ex-husband should’ve walked away. Later, she would examine that a little closer. But right now, she was enjoying the game too much.
“Maybe I’ll book a room for me and my husband on our wedding anniversary.”
He raised his brows, clearly dubious about her marital status. Of course, a caveman cowboy would find it odd that a married mother of a six-year-old would repeatedly eat in a bar, alone. He clearly had never been married to an orthopedic surgeon.
“I’d say that was an excellent plan.” He waved to the other end of bar. “Hey, Sophie, can I get my bill?” The bartender brought over the check and he slid her his credit card.
When the paperwork was done, he turned to Joey. “It’s been a pleasure.” He grabbed his hat off the rack, put it on, and tipped the brim, then walked out the door.
She fought off a wave of disappointment, telling herself the man was trouble. And disreputable.
“Could I get my check, too?” she called to the bartender . . . Sophie, the cowboy had called her.
“Your friend took care of it.”
Friend? He definitely wasn’t a friend.
She hopped off the stool and stepped outside into the cool air. The sun had gone down and only the street and shop lights illuminated the square. Matthew McConaughey’s rig was parked a few spots down from her Ford. The semitrailer was missing, probably the reason she hadn’t noticed it when she’d first gone into the restaurant.
He was still here.
She stared across the greenbelt at the hulking Victorian that took up the entire street and for a minute considered his proposition. Then she got in her car and headed back to Reno.
* * * *
“This place is amazing,” Lexi said, gazing up at the stained-glass window. “Who would think a little town like this would have such sophisticated accommodations?”
“I wasn’t sure if you’d like it.” Brynn whispered because Maddy, the innkeeper, was only a room away.
One look at Henry and Maddy had ushered him to the den to meet her daughter, Emma. It was like that around here. Parents brought their kids to work and welcomed other parents’ kids as if they were family.
“Are you sure you’re not hungry? We can still go to the Ponderosa for dinner. I feel like a terrible host.”
“First of all, I didn’t come here to be entertained. And second of all, did you expect me to eat after all that cheese and wine?” Lexi put her hand to her stomach. “I’m stuffed.”
“I would’ve had you stay with us but I thought you’d be more comfortable sleeping here, instead of on a sofa bed.”
“Brynn, stop apologizing. I love the inn and I’m here for you. Not the other way around. Come up to my room. Henry will be fine.”
“Okay.” It had been a difficult day and Lexi had been Brynn’s rock. “Let me tell Henry where I am.”
She had just started for the den when a man came through the entrance into the foyer and Lexi’s mouth dropped. Brynn shoved a fist in her mouth to keep from giggling out loud.
“Holy shit,” Lexi whispered. “Did he just come from central casting? You weren’t kidding about the hot cowboy thing going on here.”
Brynn didn’t remember describing the men of Nugget as hot cowboys. But this one certainly was.
He tipped his hat at Brynn and Lexi and continued up the long flight of stairs with his duffle slung over his shoulder. Lexi followed him with hungry eyes.
Brynn elbowed her. “Someone might get lucky tonight.”
She left Lexi at the foot of the staircase to ogle the man’s backside and found Henry in the den with Maddy’s little girl, playing a board game. Brady, the chef she’d met at the barbershop, brought them out a plate of homemade chocolate chip cookies.
“This okay?” he asked her.
She nodded and mouthed, “Thank you” and turned away so Brady wouldn’t see the tears in her eyes. Something about this town . . . the people . . . made her feel optimistic even after getting today’s depressing news.
“Maddy’s in the kitchen. I was just on my way out.”
“Nice seeing you again.”
He grabbed a windbreaker from the closet. “Griff’s pretty revved up about the work you’re doing for him. Thinks he’s going to sell the rest of those houses.”
“I don’t know about all of them but I think we’ll sell a few.”
He gave her a thumbs up and made for the door. She told Henry she was going upstairs for a few minutes to help Lexi get settled. “Don’t eat too many cookies.”
Lexi was unpacking enough clothes for Paris Fashion Week when Brynn got to her room, which was as gorgeous as the public spaces. Furnished impeccably with a Queen Anne bed and highboy chest, it reminded Brynn of a London hotel she’d once stayed in.
“He’s two doors down,” Lexi said.
Brynn rolled her eyes. “You’re bad.”
“But he is oh sooooo good. Come here.” Brynn walked into her best friend’s arms.
“Everything will be okay. I know today was rough but Dr. Hottie’s right. You have to be patient.”
“I know. Thank you for flying six hours across the country to be here with me.”
“Always.” Lexi sat on the edge of the bed and patted the spot next to her for Brynn. “So without Henry’s big ears around, what’s going on with you and the doc?”
“What do you mean?” Brynn feigned ignorance.
Lexi pinned her with a look. “Seriously? You’re planning to keep this from me?”
“You’re imagining
things.”
“I’m not imagining the way he looked at you. Or you at him. If you haven’t already gotten jiggy yet, you’re about to. So why don’t you just come clean and tell me about it?”
Brynn laid back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling medallion. It was quite intricate. Flowers and leaves and swirls. “It’s just something that happened, something to complicate everything else I’m going through.”
“What do you mean? Oh God, you said he was divorced. Please tell me he is.”
“Lex, I wouldn’t lie about something like that. But the ex would very much like not to be his ex. And I have a son who is completely reliant on him to get well. And then there’s the fact that I’m newly widowed.”
“Mason’s gone, Brynn. You’re a beautiful, talented woman. No one expects you not to move on. Does this man make you happy?”
“Yes. But it’s hard to be happy when my son may never walk again. And he . . . Ethan . . . could lose his license if anyone ever found out.” She covered her face with her hands. “It’s a complicated mess. And to add to it, today we got in a fight and I thought he was going to end it with me. And I kind of lost my mind over it, Lexi?”
“What was the fight about?”
“I was one of those mothers we hate. I pushed my way into his clinic and threw a hissy fit because the radiologist was going to take two days to read Henry’s X-rays.”
“What did he do?”
Brynn laughed, hearing the rusty hollow sound of it in her throat. “He called in a favor and got the results today. Such as they were.”
“He sounds like he really cares about you.”
“I really care about him.” She let out a breath. “What am I going to do, Lexi? I’ve fallen for an impossible situation. He’s got a daughter who adores her mother, who isn’t completely out of the picture. And I’ve got a son who is still grieving the loss of his father. And to complicate things further we live on opposite coasts.”
“Can I ask you a question?” Lexi gave Brynn that pensive look she always did when she was about to say something unpopular. “Is there a chance that your feelings for this man are wrapped up in him helping Henry? Don’t get me wrong, when Dr. Hottie came walking down your driveway it was love at first sight for me. But, Brynn, you’ve got a lot going on right now. And here’s this famous surgeon who’s come into your life to fix the things you can’t.”
Brynn sat up and rested her elbows on her knees. “Believe me, I’ve given that a lot of thought.”
“And?”
“It’s real. As much as I wish it wasn’t, it is.”
Lexi seemed to take that at face value and didn’t try to argue or analyze Brynn’s feelings further. She simply knew her too well. Even in college, while Lexi and Brynn’s other dorm mates had fallen in love with the same ease as changing a lightbulb, she’d been cautious to the point of staying a virgin until she was twenty-one. Mason had been the second man she’d slept with.
“What are you going to do?”
“Nothing.” Brynn stared at the pattern in the needlepoint rug. “What can I do?”
“Enjoy it. Think of it as the ice breaker to your new start in life. Your rebound man so to speak. And keep the lovely memory of him with you when you leave.”
Lexi made it sound so simple. You just walk away. No regrets. No heartbreak.
Unfortunately, Brynn wasn’t made that way.
Chapter 20
Lexi went home on Thursday. After their trip to the airport, Brynn sat in the car long after Henry had gone into the cottage and cried. Her parents would come without hesitation if she asked them. But she was saving their visit in case Henry’s situation hit rock bottom.
Other than a brief text asking how she and Henry were doing, she hadn’t heard from Ethan in two days. She had, however, noticed Joey’s red SUV in the driveway every evening this week. The possibility that he was going back to his ex was too painful to bear.
She told herself that she had no right coming between a family. That if Ethan and Joey could make things work it would be best for Veronica.
Absurdly, she wondered what she would do if Mason came back from the dead. Could she go on living in her empty marriage for the sake of Henry after experiencing a real emotional connection again? No, she didn’t think so.
She spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on Barnes Group work. Rich had signed two new clients: a startup air-fry chip company that was about to go public and Ohm, who in the eleventh hour had decided to do a Super Bowl ad for its latest electric car. Though the biggest single day in advertising was nearly a year away, it took months, even years, to hammer out the right campaign. Especially with a social media component.
Fatigued from working on food and car messaging by the late afternoon, she turned to Griffin’s campaign. It had become a project of her heart. She pushed herself hard, hoping she’d chosen the right target audience.
At five she checked her phone one last time before giving up on Ethan and deciding on dinner.
“Should we stay in tonight, Henry? Or eat at the Ponderosa?”
“Pizza,” he shouted from the couch while playing a video game on his smart watch.
“The closest pizza place is Reno. I don’t want to drive all the way to Reno. How about we go to the market and buy a frozen one?” She should’ve gotten one when she’d gone shopping for snacks for Lexi’s visit.
“Can I stay home?”
As safe as it was here, she wasn’t about to leave an eight-year-old home alone. “No. Come on, it won’t take long.”
“I’m tired,” he whined, throwing his head against the back of the couch.
“Now how can you possibly be tired? You’ve been sitting on the couch all day.” As soon as she said it, she wanted to kick herself.
In the last months, she’d been careful about her word choices. She never wanted Henry to feel less because he couldn’t walk. And she had just made him sound lazy and listless. But to suddenly correct herself would come off patronizing. Her son might only be eight but he was pretty damned intuitive.
“Come on, Henry, I could use the company.”
“Why? Are you sad that Lexi’s gone?”
“I am. I miss her already. But I have you.” She leaned over the back of the couch and kissed him on the forehead.
“What about Dr. Ethan. How come he doesn’t come over anymore?” It had only been two days, yet Henry had noticed.
“Dr. Ethan is a very busy man. He has patients all over the country and other doctors rely on him to help them with their patients.” If only she could convince herself that that was the reason he’d been missing in action.
“What about us? We’re his patients, too.”
She gave him a watery smile. “Yep, and we get to live here, right next door to Dr. Ethan. Not all his other patients are that lucky.”
“Can we go see him?”
“Ah, honey, Dr. Ethan needs to spend time with his own family.”
Henry seemed to accept that. Still, Brynn wondered whether she’d done her son a disservice by letting Ethan get so close.
“You ready to go?”
She helped Henry into his wheelchair when her phone dinged with a text. Her heart raced as she reached for the phone. It was him. Ethan.
Did Lexi get off okay? What are you and Henry doing for dinner? I’m about an hour out but if you can wait that long I’d love to see you.
Two hours later, they sat outside the Bun Boy at a picnic table, eating burgers and fries. Though it was a little chilly, the fresh air was lovely. And Henry latched on to a dog named Max. The dog’s owners sat at a table next to them and according to Ethan, the man was the local carpenter who made the rocking chairs. His wife owned the Nugget Tribune, the online news site Brynn read every morning with her coffee. They didn’t seem to mind that Henry and Roni had made themselves at home at their table
.
“I guess you must’ve been overwhelmed with work these past few days.” She tried to sound conversational and not like a bottomless pit of need. Though it hadn’t escaped her that he’d come calling on an evening when Joey’s Ford was missing from the driveway.
“It hasn’t been too bad.”
She hoped his idea of “bad” was a commentary on the criticalness of his patients and that the dark stubble that covered his chin proved he’d been too swamped to call. Just ask him. “I was surprised I didn’t hear from you” was the best she could muster, afraid a direct question would force his hand. Brynn, I didn’t call because we need to shut this down.
“I didn’t want to get in the way of your time with Lexi.”
She studied his face, trying to determine whether it was a handy excuse. Or just a flat out lie. But she saw no deception there.
“Brynn?” He tilted is head. “Are you pissed off that I didn’t call?”
“Not pissed off. Just worried I guess.”
“Worried about what?” He straddled the bench and pulled her into the V of his legs. “Brynn?”
“I thought you might be exploring getting back with your ex-wife.” She’d gone straight to the heart of the matter. But she wasn’t altogether convinced that her tantrum over Henry’s X-rays hadn’t triggered a come-to-Jesus moment in him about all the reasons they were a bad idea.
He didn’t respond, which in her mind spoke volumes. She’d nailed it. Her heart hammered in her chest.
“Just say it.” His silence was killing her.
“There’s nothing to say, Brynn. Joey has raised the possibility but I’m with you.”
A rush of relief flowed through her and for a few fleeting seconds she rejoiced. But just as quickly a sad sense of remorse filled her, even shame. How selfish was it to keep Ethan from his family? How foolish was it to pretend their feelings for each other could go anywhere?
She forced herself to ask the question. “What about when I leave?”
He ran his hand down his face, looking as pained as she’d ever seen him. “I don’t know. Why do we have to think about that now?”