by Karen Rock
“I think it’s starting to thin out.” Cassidy slid onto the bench seat opposite Sierra.
Sierra shrugged. “I’m more comfortable around the four-legged kind of company anyway.”
Cassidy dropped an elbow to the table and leaned her cheek into her palm. “How’s the orphaned bear cub doing?”
“Forest?” Sierra smiled. “He’s getting big. It’s hard not to get attached since I’ll be letting him go in a few months.”
“I bet.”
“What about you?” Sierra asked.
“Me?” Cassidy straightened in surprise.
“Are you getting attached?”
Cassidy’s heart momentarily stilled. “I’ve always been attached to Noah and Emma.”
Sierra brushed back her long blond bangs and studied Cassidy. “What about my brother?”
Cassidy’s mouth opened, then closed as she worked out a response. “I’m doing my best not to,” she confessed after an awkward beat of silence.
“It might be too late for Daryl.” Over Sierra’s shoulder a spruce tree’s bow shook when a barn owl swooped in and perched.
“W-what do you mean?”
“I’ve seen the way he looks at you.” Sierra reached across the table and briefly squeezed Cassidy’s cold hands. “I’d wager he’s as much in love with you as he’s ever been.”
“No. He loved my sister.” Cassidy cleared her clogged throat. “Loves.”
“Do you love Daryl?” The barn owl swiveled its heart-shaped face in every direction, as if looking for the elusive answer Cassidy sought.
She massaged her now throbbing temples. “I care about him. I don’t know if I’m in love with him.”
“Would it matter if you were?” Sierra pulled off her cat-ear headband and dropped it to the table. “Either way, you’re not planning to stay here, right?”
Cassidy shook her head slowly. It seemed to weigh a thousand pounds, nearly as much as her heart.
Sierra’s hopeful expression faded. “Will you promise me one thing?”
“Yes.”
“If you truly care for him, go before you hurt him. He’s already had his heart broken. Let us help put it back together before you shatter it again.”
Cassidy stared into Sierra’s anguished eyes, understanding a protective sister. She’d been one once, too...until she’d turned her back on Leanne without hearing her out...before she’d tried to understand...forgive.
If she’d chosen Daryl over Bosnia in the first place, and moved to Carbondale right after graduation, none of this mess would have happened. She would have been happy here...at least in the short term. Still, the chance existed her restless spirit could have been stifled.
Sierra was right. To protect Daryl and the children’s hearts she had to avoid getting too attached. After the harvest season, she’d take the next story assignment on offer and leave. “I promise,” she whispered, glancing at the doorway. “Can I ask a favor?”
Sierra nodded.
“Will you drive me to your place? I’d like to see Forest.”
“I have to be up early for the animals. Would you mind staying over and I’ll bring you home after my first feedings?”
Daryl emerged through the door, craning his neck, searching for Cassidy. The naked hope on his face, the yearning, mirrored her own.
Cassidy shoved away from the picnic table and linked arms with Sierra, her chest tight. “I think it’s for the best.”
* * *
“WHERE’S CASSIDY?”
Daryl turned and spied Maverick leaning in the doorway to the Halloween party. “She’s spending the night with Sierra,” he told his brother.
“Why?”
“Something about wanting to see the bear cub.”
“It’s something to see,” Maverick said mildly, striding to a discarded, empty soda can. After picking it up, he dropped it, along with a few others, into a recycle bin. Typical Maverick. He’d always been a caretaker, the family “fixer” who’d cleaned up the messes Daryl’s adoptive mother created when she spiraled, as opposed to Heath, who’d been their mom’s whisperer, soothing her erratic moods. Now that Maverick’s shoulder injury sidelined him from professional bull riding, and the ranch’s usual catastrophes had largely abated, he seemed a bit lost lately. Was Daryl his next “project”?
“I’d better go in and see if Jewel needs help with the costume contest judging.”
“Wonder Woman won.” Maverick dropped into one of the slatted rocking chairs grouped on the back patio and pointed to the empty seat beside him.
Yep. Daryl was Maverick’s next “fixer-upper.”
He smothered a sigh and sat. “Good for Amberley,” he said, referring to his legally blind stepsister-in-law.
Maverick nodded. “She’s a superhero, all right. One of the tour’s best barrel racers. You’d never know she had any kind of challenge.”
“Jared’s a lucky man.”
“Luck had nothing to do with it. He knew what he had to do to win her heart.”
Daryl nodded. “Don’t know many who’d walk away from a pro football comeback.”
“What about Cassidy?”
Daryl slid Maverick a side-eyed glance. Unlike most Lovelands, Maverick hit issues with blunt force. All the better to fix them, he claimed.
“What about her?” Daryl stalled.
“When’s she going back to her job?”
“She hasn’t said.” Just speaking those words released some of the hope locked away in his heart. Maybe she considered staying... One of these days, he said to himself, I’m going to tell her. Tell her I love her more than I could love any woman. Tell her that my life started when she walked into the college bookstore. But not yet. He didn’t want to back her into a corner and make her feel she had to either say she loved him, too, or run.
“Have you asked?”
Daryl shrugged.
Maverick’s chair creaked as he rocked it faster. “You’re afraid to.”
Daryl’s tongue suffered momentary paralysis. He gaped at his brother, mute.
“You’re afraid to ask because you don’t want her to go.” Maverick nodded without tearing his eyes off the distant moon. “Deny it. Go on. See if you can.”
Daryl’s nostrils flared with the force of his exhale. “Leave it, Maverick.”
“If I spotted you behind the wheel of a truck headed over a cliff, shouldn’t I try to stop you?” Maverick quit rocking. In the quiet, wings flapped as a barn owl soared from a nearby spruce.
“That’s what you think I’m doing?” Daryl’s fingertips dented his black slacks.
Maverick’s blue eyes, a deep cobalt unique to their family, pierced Daryl’s. “And your kids are in the back seat.”
An ache flared along Daryl’s clamped jaw. “Low, Mav.”
“Truth hurts, dude.”
“Haven’t done much but hurt since Leanne’s passing.”
Maverick’s thick eyebrows drew together. “Why add on more, then?”
“I’m not,” Daryl denied, though Maverick had a point. Spending time alone with Cassidy was playing with fire, yet he’d been hurrying back to see her when he darn well knew better.
“You don’t have feelings for Cassidy?” Maverick’s voice rose, skeptical.
Daryl hung his head. “She’s just going to leave anyway.”
“If you care for her, then convince her to stay,” Maverick surprised Daryl by saying.
Daryl’s head snapped up. “Tried that once.”
“All I remember is you letting her go, then hooking up with her sister.” Maverick peered steadily at Daryl from beneath the brim of his rancher’s hat.
Daryl flinched. The truth didn’t just hurt. It cut to the bone.
“You want something, you go after it and you don’t quit until you get it.”
“We’re not right for each other, even if I was free to woo her.”
“Last I checked, you’re single. Second, you two didn’t look wrong for each other on the dance floor.”
“You weren’t the only one watching us. I don’t want people talking.”
“Who cares? Besides, if you’re giving them a little joy in their boring lives, then you’re doing them a favor.”
“That’s one way to look at it.” Daryl chuckled.
“Are you in love with Cassidy?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then convince her to stay long enough to find out. Show her all she has to gain with you.”
“I can’t offer her fame. Glory.”
“But you give love. Trust me. I’ve had fame. Glory. It’s not all it’s cracked up to be.”
Daryl nodded slowly. Maverick slapped his knee and they rose. “Your life with Leanne is over. Don’t lose this chance to start a new one with Cassidy.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“Then you weren’t listening. It isn’t easy. It’s necessary. Take her out on her own or with the kids, on the town, in the wilderness...make her see that love is the greatest achievement.”
Daryl eyed his brother, the handsome face and brawny build that buckle bunnies flocked to see from show to show. Beneath his toughness beat a romantic’s heart. “How about you? Anyone special caught your eye?”
“Me?” Maverick scoffed, putting his brother in a headlock that transitioned into a bro hug. “Maybe once I’ve fixed all of y’alls’ lives, I might have time for one of my own. Right now, I gotta get rid of Neil, our wannabe uncle, and figure out why Joy’s taking afternoon naps again.”
“Do you think the cancer’s back?”
“Only one way to find out, but Joy’s being stubborn about seeing the doctor. Claims she always gets tired this time of year on account of losing her son Jesse.”
Daryl thought about Jesse, the Cade son who’d broken his family’s heart with his addiction and resulting death. “Could be true, but better safe than sorry. She’s made Pa the happiest I’ve ever seen him.”
Maverick rubbed his large hands together. “I’m calling a family meeting about it, and Neil, next week.”
“What are your plans for Neil?”
“If Travis will agree to look the other way, murder.”
Daryl laughed. “Can’t see him bending the law that far.”
“Sad but true. I’m thinking we can hire a PI to investigate Neil.”
Daryl turned with his brother and headed back to the party. An infectious beat pulsed from the open doorway. “I’d be on board with that.”
Maverick stopped Daryl with a hand on his shoulder. “What about the rest of my advice? You going to wimp out and let other people’s opinions, or your doubts, stop you from going after what you want?”
Daryl shrugged, noncommittal. “Better put your attention on Pa and Joy. They need your help more than me.”
Maverick leveled him with a penetrating stare. “Not true, but I won’t stick my nose in where it’s not wanted.”
“Since when’s that ever stopped you?” Daryl chuckled, and Maverick joined him.
“True.” He thumped Daryl on the back before disappearing into the party crowd.
Daryl stared after Maverick, grateful for his family. Yet they didn’t help him feel less alone. Only one person chased the emptiness inside away—Cassidy. Her spontaneity, her boldness, her crackling energy got his heart beating fast. Her passion, when he’d kissed her the other night, blew him away. He felt more for her than he’d ever felt for Leanne, and it scared him.
The side-eye looks he was getting from the townsfolk who noticed their closeness, however, reminded him not to stray from the straight-and-narrow path he’d followed to avoid being like his biological parents. He wasn’t born a Loveland, but he’d be the best one possible, a credit to the name they’d given him when he’d needed it most. It carried an expectation of high moral principles, strength of convictions, emotional fortitude.
Sacrifice.
Did that have to include his happiness? He’d given up Cassidy once to right the wrong he’d done. Now he had a second chance to have a relationship based on love, not obligation. How could he pursue a future relationship, though, when he still hadn’t figured out what went wrong in the past with his marriage? He’d failed Leanne somehow and until he understood why, he might repeat the same mistake with Cassidy.
And this time, he was determined to get it right. Maverick was right. Time to fight for what he wanted, and what he wanted was Cassidy.
CHAPTER TWELVE
CASSIDY IGNORED HER screaming muscles, rose on her toes and tiredly swished the duster over the kitchen ceiling fan. Late-afternoon sun streamed sluggishly through a nearby window. It cast a golden glow over the lemon-cleanser-scented room and illuminated minute particles suspended in its warm light. A sneeze built in her head.
“Achoo!”
“Bless you.” Daryl’s muffled voice carried from the walk-in pantry, where he organized dry goods. “Hanging in there?”
“Barely.” She rubbed her aching neck. “Fall cleaning is no joke. I’m never in one place long enough to make a mess, let alone picking up one this big.”
“Hey,” Daryl protested. “Are you dissing my housekeeping?”
“Not the parts that show.”
“I heard that.” He ducked his head around the frame and twinkling brown eyes belied his mock-frown.
“You were meant to,” she laughed. Her stomach did a funny little twist, a familiar reaction when it came to spending time alone with Daryl. Yet despite the unsettled feeling, she enjoyed their new ease with each other, their chemistry and connection even when doing the most mundane tasks.
“Found another crayon.” Daryl emerged holding a green piece in his palm.
“In there?”
She watched him, askance, as he dropped it into the heaping bucket containing crayons they’d begun collecting this morning. They’d decided to give the cabin a thorough scrub before the holidays hit. The kids had school and Daryl had the day off since Travis worked the range while on vacation to give his siblings a break. It’d seemed like a good plan...six hours ago.
“Where haven’t we found one? At this point, I think they’re reproducing.” Daryl hooked his thumbs in his worn Wranglers, and the move drew attention to his broad chest and lean abdomen beneath his white T-shirt. A flush raced across her cheeks. He looked handsome in that rugged, down-to-earth way of his: mussed dark hair and a beard shadowing his square jaw, brown eyes lit with a mix of intelligence, humor and tenderness and an easy smile that tumbled her heart.
“Should we leave to pick up the kids from the bus stop?” It was located on the main road, a long walk from the tucked-away cabin.
“Boyd’s getting them, so we’d have more time alone.” The layers of unspoken meaning infused in the innocuous comment dried her mouth for a wild second.
Since the Halloween fund-raiser a couple of weeks ago, Cassidy’s resolve to keep her distance had met with resistance. Daryl seemed to be launching a campaign to win her over to Carbondale, to Loveland Ranch, his family and him. Every day, he surprised her with thoughtful gestures, some small, like semiprecious stones he’d collected on the range. Others were bigger, like organizing family hikes and teaching the children how to take photos.
Each activity strengthened their bond and it scared her to death. Her editor promised a new assignment soon and it couldn’t come fast enough. Much longer with Daryl and the family she’d begun to think of as hers, and she’d never leave.
If only she could be sure she’d be happy here forever.
“Let’s take a break.” Daryl threaded his fingers in hers, led her to the living room and tugged her down beside him on the couch. “Turn,” he ordered.
Despite her res
olve, she presented her sore back and melted when he began kneading the kinks in her neck. Her eyes closed in bliss. A gal could get used to this. His fingers were strong. Sure. Gentle. The deft touch of a man used to working with his hands. They found the knots and eliminated them as effortlessly as he anesthetized her worries. A dangerous ability.
Her lids flew open, and she skirted to the opposite end of the sofa. “Are we still going to eat—”
“Steak for dinner?” Daryl interrupted. “Yes.” Were they finishing each other’s sentences now? “Did you get the—”
“Potatoes?” she supplied, then bit back a dismayed laugh. Yep. They were at that stage. Lord help them.
She grabbed a pillow and clutched it, needing the barrier. “Joy dropped some off on her way to the country store when you brought the kids to the bus stop.”
“How’d she look?” Daryl’s eyes darkened with concern.
“Pale. I hated leaving her to run the store today.”
Daryl blew out his cheeks as he nodded. “Sierra planned to help once she fed and dosed her animals.”
Cassidy plucked at the pillow’s tassel. “Has anyone brought up her going in for testing again?”
“Maverick’s been on her and Pa’s case, but Joy says she wants to get through the holidays before looking for trouble.”
Worry furrowed Daryl’s brow and Cassidy’s fingers tightened on the pillow to keep from reaching for him. “How will you and the kids do?”
“As far as getting through the holidays?”
“It’ll be their first without Leanne.” Silence thrummed between them. While they hadn’t consciously avoided saying Leanne’s name, it’d been a while since either had spoken it.
Daryl glanced out the living room’s large front window, his face impassive. When she squeezed his tense arm, he swallowed suddenly, audibly, then straightened and folded his forearms across his chest. “Technically, Leanne spent the day with your parents last year...so they only had me. This Christmas, they’ll have both of us.” His gaze swung back to her.
“Daryl.” Her voice cracked as she stared into his hopeful eyes. “There’s a good chance I’ll have my next assignment before Thanksgiving.”