One day, I expected I would settle down and Maddie was a part of that. She was mine. For life. And I was goddamn okay with that. We were a package deal. A woman had to work for both of us.
Delsey wasn’t right for us. In every possible way. I let a quick breath go, it would be easier to let Maddie down when I explained how it made no sense for me to date a woman who lived in Houston.
“Why were you holding Delsey’s face like you were gonna kiss her?” Maddie said, still staring at me.
“Well?” I cleared my throat. “We just got caught up. That won’t be happening again.”
“Oh,” she said and looked down, a sad grimace on her face that damn near brought me to my knees. Delsey may not break my heart, but she could break the heart of a little girl who considered her a hero. Shit.
“And I was trying to be extra nice to her. See, I kind of picked on her in school.”
Maddie’s face went all cockeyed and caddywonked at me.
“Oh my God, these cookies smell amazing.” Delsey flounced into the room as if nothing happened. She set the white bag down on her kitchen island and looked at Maddie. “Wanna come have a sniff?”
Maddie bounded toward Delsey, and I didn’t know if Maddie was fascinated with the woman or the cookies. Either way, I couldn’t compete with the magic I saw happening between them, so fast and out of nowhere.
“Wow, those do smell good,” Maddie said, swooning.
“Touch the bag, they’re still warm, too. She baked these just for us, I bet.”
“Is my cupcake in there?”
“Oh shoot,” Grace jumped in. “I forgot to ask for the cupcake.”
Maddie shrugged her shoulders. “That’s okay.”
“I owe you a cupcake and I’m gonna deliver,” Delsey said and raised her dark green eyes to me with the smile that made the floor spin beneath my feet. “I promise you.”
Damn deadly woman. She knew how she’d get to me now. How to draw down my defenses. And harder than nearly grabbing my package.
Fuck.
“As I said, we’ll take some to go. We have to go get some supper.”
Maddie whipped her head around. “Can Delsey come to supper with us?”
I bit my lip and grunted. “I’m sure Delsey ate already.”
When Maddie looked her way, I tightly shook my head at Delsey.
She smiled wickedly. “Why no, I haven’t eaten yet. And we still have business to discuss. I’d rather not negotiate on an empty stomach.”
Grrr.
“Please, Uncle Logan, can she come with us?”
I supposed this was going to happen sooner or later. A woman would come along and capture Maddie’s heart, even if it was a little on the insta-love side.
But Delsey was going back to Houston. That was life, wasn’t it? Disappointment came in all shapes and sizes. And I didn’t want the kid to have any more heartbreak.
Me neither, for that matter.
I had a feeling both me and Maddie could get destroyed by this devil woman who was sneaking half a chocolate chip cookie to Maddie while I had a nervous breakdown.
They were both hungry, weren’t they?
And I’d learned one thing from my mama and sister, don’t let a lady go hungry.
“Okay, girls, get in my truck. Let’s go get some food.”
Delsey
I WATCHED LOGAN ZIP up Maddie’s coat because she was too busy licking chocolate off her fingers. I found myself jealous of Maddie. Only, I wanted Logan unzipping me. My head was spinning, I didn’t expect these feelings to pop back so strong.
Sliding a coat across my shoulders, I glanced at Grace. “Do you want to come, too?”
“Oh, no.” The way Grace scoffed like she thought Logan and I were going on a date, made me stop zipping up my coat. “I’m having supper with Emma and Walker,” she added.
Jealousy snagged at me. Talking to Walker earlier made me miss him. Part of me wanted to tag along with Grace, get to know Emma. Then I caught Maddie’s expressive blue eyes.
Nah, I wanted to get to know her first.
Maddie hobble-skipped to Logan’s truck while he and I remained in the mudroom.
He pulled me into his hard body. “Darlin’, if you want my mouth or any other part of my body...”
“No.” I shook my head. Well, duh, yes. My quick answer stilled him like I’d insulted him. He didn’t realize I was lying through my teeth.
Narrowing his eyes at me, he said, “Then do not get that close to me again.”
The contempt in his tight lips told me just how much my going to supper with him and Maddie stung. Like he couldn’t handle it.
I stepped back. “I can fake a business call and bow out of this. I’ll let you off the hook, Logan.”
His cheeks twitched like he was considering it. Arg, he really didn’t want me to go with them, did he? The little game I played, worming my way to supper, just to piss him off, didn’t feel so victorious right now.
Logan’s turquoise stare moved across my face and then down to my mouth. I had to look back carefully, not to get drawn into the fire that spread through me whenever those amazing eyes found me.
Nodding, I grabbed my phone, ready to fake a call to...anyone. Even Truitt, if I had to. A warm hand closed around my wrist sending sparks up my arm.
“No. Come with us. I...want you to.”
“You do?”
“Doesn’t matter what I really want.” He swore under his breath. “But Maddie does, and I’m figuring out I’ll do anything for her.”
Even go to supper with a woman he hates...
“IS MADDIE OKAY BY HERSELF over there?” I asked when she ran off to the game room in The Whistling Frog, a little dive of a restaurant/honkytonk with excellent food.
The vintage-style booths with cracked burgundy vinyl seats felt cozy and Wild Heart team jerseys lining the walls screamed hometown pride. All while country music played on the jukebox.
“I can see her.” Logan leaned over and then caught my stare. He held it for a moment as I prayed the smile would reach his eyes. Only, he looked down. “Plus, you know this town. Eyes everywhere.”
I sipped my after-supper chamomile, watching people stare at us. “I hear that.”
“For one, they’re good eyes. Everyone here’s been super supportive. Since the accident.”
“I really had no idea, Logan.” I put my tea down. “I actually don’t talk to Grace too often. Months go by. She does her job. I don’t need to intervene.”
“I believe you.” He glanced at my fingers sliding along the rim of my mug like perhaps he was checking to see if I was wearing a ring. “But how do you know Grace is doing a good job? Do you even check your finances each month?”
“I trust Grace.” I shrugged. “She’s my eyes here. Plus, this is small potatoes. Not to sound pretentious, but compared to my business, what rolls in from Wild Heart is pennies.”
“So divest. Let people buy their homes.”
“No one’s asked.” I folded my arms. “If someone wanted to buy the property, I’d sell.”
“Maybe people think you’ll take them for a ride.”
“Based on what?” I shrieked, leaning back. “My parents do a lot for this town. They contribute to the Christmas Parade fund each year. They gave money toward the new nativity scene at the church. The problem with bullies like you, Logan, is you think everyone else is just as cruel.”
His face reddened. “Do you want your long overdue apology? Because here it is. I’m sorry, Delsey. Really. I’ve grown up. And I’m not just saying that to solve our problem. That’s the difference between me and you. Right now, what you’re doing to me, throwing me out, is one hundred percent because I picked on you. Meanwhile, my not paying my rent had zero to do with our history.”
“History,” I whispered. “Newsflash, Mr. Grady, I guess you can make all these assumptions about me because you don’t know me. You never knew me. You were too busy bullying me to get to know me. Until you wanted...”
Fire rose up in his eyes when I dared to bring up our kiss. Then he let a breath go. “Never mind.” He rubbed his eyes. When he pulled his hands away, I saw pink veins and red rims from exhaustion. Working on a ranch wasn’t easy work. “Again, I’m sorry,” he said when he looked back at me.
“You’re right, Logan. I showed up this morning to kick you out just to get revenge. And you’re also right that you’ve grown up. You were dealt a blow and from the looks of that happy little girl, you’ve stepped up.” I stared at him, his heavily-laden lids suggested his brain fought him to take credit for something his heart had done probably out of pure instinct. “Tell me what to do here about our situation. I don’t need your rent money. And if yours was the only property, I’d let it go. But I have other tenants. I don’t need their money either, and when they’ve asked for extensions, they’ve gotten it. But I can’t send a signal it’s okay to not pay the rent ever.”
“I get that. I need a few more months.”
“Done.” That was easy. “What will you do in the meantime?”
“What do you care?”
“I like that little girl of yours.”
“She ain’t mine.” He exhaled. “I mean... You know what I mean.”
“She is yours, though. Now. I can see how she adores you.”
“She likes you, too.”
I smiled. “I want to help her. Let me help her. She doesn’t walk right, Logan.”
He shook his head like I insulted him. “That leg was the best I could afford. The insurance is all backed up. It took months just to get me named as a guardian so I could put her under my insurance and every chance those claims bastards get, they deny, delay, destroy.” He took a sip of his drink from a plastic cup, his fingers digging into the sides. “Besides, my crappy leg guy is fifty miles away. How will you help her? You gonna send a limo each month?”
“Fifty miles between here and Houston?”
He shook his head. “Other direction, darlin’.”
I shuddered from him calling me darlin’, even though you couldn’t swing a dead cat in Texas without hitting a sweet-talking cowboy. Clearing my throat, I said, “She goes every month?”
“Now, yeah, ‘cuz she’s still growing and healing.”
I nodded. “There has to be someone closer. What about Cambridge Hospital?”
“The surgeon hooked me up with the guy in Colony.”
I tapped my index finger against my cheek, wondering if that had to do with money. “I’m putting Grace in charge of figuring this out. And if it’s okay with you, she’ll take Maddie to her appointments. This way you can work more.”
“You’re delegating?”
“I don’t live here, Logan. I can’t do it. Not that I wouldn’t want to if I did. I’d do it in a heartbeat.” I looked away, a thought swiping through my mind. “Hang on.” I snapped my fingers. “There’s a guy on my security team with a prosthetic arm. I’m sure Houston has a top-notch practice, or two. Maybe you can bring Maddie there and we can just get her set up with something new and then someone in Cambridge can maintain it.”
Logan cursed and pushed his way out of the booth. “No. She ain’t going to Houston. You’re gonna show her that amazing city and then she’ll come home and hate it here. Like you.”
“I don’t hate it here.”
He fingered inside his wallet and green bills tumbled onto the table. “This should cover the entire bill.”
“I got it, Logan.”
“No!” He slammed his fist on top of the bills before I could pick them up and fling the wad back at him. “I pay my own way.”
Just not his rent. Damn. I hated how I kept thinking like that. He had legitimate issues. He deserved some kind of bailout.
“Fine.” I sat back. “You can go, I can get myself home.”
“You’re gonna make me leave you here in front of Maddie? You want to make me look even more like a piece of shit?”
“Tell her I’m meeting with...” I looked around, I didn’t know anyone anymore. I was a celeb they gossiped about. Standing, I said, “I’ll tell Maddie myself that I need to stay. She doesn’t need to know why.”
“Don’t.” He took my arm and rammed me up against his chest. His jaw quivered, but he kept me against him. His blue eyes were on fire looking down at me, his pupils dilated with lust.
“Is that what all the anger is about? This misplaced attraction to me that you don’t know what to do with? That I’m a woman with power over you and instead of hating me you want to...”
“Yes. And yes to the words you can’t say. But I know you feel this, too.” His free hand slid down my back, ready to cup my ass, but he stopped at my waist. “I’m glad we understand each other, darlin’. Under another circumstance, we’d be in my bed right now, wouldn’t we? Getting this misplaced white-hot attraction out of our systems once and for all. Again and again and again. I’d put you back on your broken plane a worn-out happy woman, Delsey. And I wouldn’t fall for you, and you wouldn’t fall for me because we both know we’d never make it as a couple. We have nothing in common. Your life is in Houston now. You did good for yourself, and I respect that. I won’t drag you back here and make you go backwards. And I won’t hurt Maddie in the process, letting her get attached to you. ‘Cuz it’s tempting, darlin’. That little girl over there is wicked smart. Top of her class. She can use someone like you guiding her. Like you helped me when you tutored me. I know what magic you have when you teach someone.” He let go of me and smashed his hat down on his head, hiding those killer eyes from me. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m taking Maddie home. It’s a school night. If you’re coming, get your behind in my truck right now, if not, that’s your call.”
Logan’s speech wrecked me. Every part of it. How he wanted me in his bed. Again and again. And how Maddie needed a mentor, someone who knew what it was like to be smart when everyone saw her as a nerd.
And the poor little mite only had one leg on top of it.
What was I doing to help society at my company?
You’re making women who aren’t perfect look and feel perfect.
You use expensive ingredients because they’re good for the skin, but you don’t gouge customers.
You’re kind and generous with your money. Because of your company.
I had enough money to fix any problem.
I trusted Logan would walk through fire for that girl. And I trusted the people of Wild Heart would force their help on him if he hit rock bottom. Somehow.
Somehow...
If I somehow signed the house over to him. A gift. Something that could be used to donate money to a...a foundation for Maddie. Hmmm. A long conversation with my accountant was in my immediate future.
Maddie bounded over to me and I gave her a hug. To her confused eyes, I told her I was staying to discuss some business with a tenant.
At eleven years old, she knew I was lying...
Logan
“EVEN I KNOW YOU DRIVE your date home,” Maddie said, frowning from the backseat.
“She wasn’t my date, first of all. And you heard her, she had a tenant who needed to talk to her.”
“Then you wait.”
I twisted my head around, horrified. Where was she getting dating information from? If it were up to me, she also wouldn’t have a damn phone. Only, it became a necessity with all her appointments and me going back to work full time.
“Mads, she didn’t want me to wait because she knows it’s a school night. She let me leave for you, peanut.”
Maddie harrumphed loudly.
Ha! Gotcha kid.
“Will I see her again?”
I growled in my chest. A burning sensation rushed through me. Guilt. Embarrassment. Pride eating away at me from the inside out. I’d done all I could do without taking help and my pride threatened the roof over our heads.
Gnawing at the inside of my mouth, I said with a rock-steady voice, “She wants to help you with your leg.”
“She knows about my leg?” That
terror in her voice rocked me. “How?”
“’Cuz of how you walk.”
“I walk funny?” She hiccupped.
“Maddie, you lost your leg a year ago. You’re still growing. It’s normal.”
“Everyone thinks I’m a freak?”
Son of a bitch. I pulled over and got out of the truck. I opened the back-passenger door and leaned in. “No. No way. Everyone is pulling for you.”
“Then what do I need help with?”
“I’m sure we can find a better guy than that one all the way in Colony. Delsey wants to help you. Looks like she likes you, kid.” I gave her shoulder a nudge.
Despite acting like an idiot, I think she likes me, too...
“Oh,” she said and looked down. “She’s so nice, Uncle Logan. She’s famous. But she’s so real. You saw that, didn’t you?”
“Sure did.” She felt really nice, too. “While she’s here in town, if you want to go with her to see someone else about your leg, I’m okay with it. But only if you’re comfortable. Only if you trust her.”
“Do you trust her?”
Trust a warm beautiful woman with a kiss to stop my heart? Shit. “Yeah, I do.” Miracles really happened, I guessed.
“Then I trust Delsey, too,” Maddie said quietly and it damn near brought me to my knees.
I already figured out I could fall hard for Delsey, even if that surprised the hell out of me. The bigger surprise? Maddie might fall in love with her, too.
Chapter Six
Delsey
“We’ll need to review the estimates for a new ventilation system for Willow’s dog grooming salon and we need to pull the property reports for Damien’s hardware store and apply for a variance so he can add another truck bay.” I ticked off our to-do list to Grace as she and I walked down Main Street.
Those two appointments on Tuesday had taken four hours, making my head spin.
Grace tapped away on her phone and nodded.
I made her wait to hit Iona’s bakery last. That was becoming my new indulgence. Whatever Iona wanted to do I was fully on board if she made more donuts, scones, and...
The Cowboy's Rebel Heart: An Enemies to Lovers Second Chance Romance (Wild Texas Hearts Book 4) Page 6