The Comeback Cowboy

by Cathy McDavid

  For a moment, she imagined them together always.

  Then, too soon, reality returned.

  “I SUPPOSE WE SHOULD GET to the bar,” Adele said, easing away from Ty to look for her clothes. “Mike and Sandy are expecting us.”

  “Do you really want to go?”

  She shook her head. “But I’m not sure I want to stand here all night. Naked, at that.”

  One corner of his mouth tilted up in a wicked grin. “The table converts to a bed.”

  She liked that idea.

  Laughing together, they hurriedly removed the tabletop and replaced it with a plank, then arranged the cushions into a mattress. Ty pulled a worn sleeping bag from the overhead cupboard, and they cuddled beneath it, his arm draped over her protectively and their fingers linked.

  “Come with me to Ogden,” he said out of the blue.

  “Utah?”

  “The Pioneer Days Rodeo starts the third weekend in July.”

  “That’s only two weeks away.”

  “Plenty of time to pack.”

  “I’d love to go with you.” She rolled over to face him. “More than you know. But I have to work. I can’t just up and leave, not on such short notice.”

  “There’s no one to cover for you?”

  “It’s our busy season.”

  “Then I’ll skip Ogden.”

  “No, you won’t.” She pressed a light kiss to his lips. “You’re winning again. You have to ride the momentum all to way to Nationals.”

  “I’m winning because of you.”

  “You always had the ability. I just helped you realize it.”

  “I’m coming back to Seven Cedars.” He moved suddenly, throwing a leg over her and pinning her to the cushions. His hand boldly roamed her buttocks and thighs. “Don’t think I’m not.”

  She arched into him. “I’ll be waiting.”

  “Promise me.”

  A vulnerability she hadn’t seen before shone in his eyes.

  “I promise.” The vow came easily.

  “I know long-distance relationships are difficult, but we can make this work. There isn’t anything I want more.”

  Hearing his conviction, she almost believed they could succeed where her parents had failed. Ty spent the next hour convincing her, with actions that left no doubt as to his sincerity.

  HAMM ENTERED THE horse trailer without his customary balking, as if he couldn’t wait to leave Cowboy College and Seven Cedars Ranch.

  Adele would have preferred he put up a fight.

  She’d been dreading this moment for the last five days, ever since the night she and Ty had spent together in his trailer. Standing off to the side, she watched him shut the trailer door, latch and lock it, then check the lock again just to make sure. Was he really worried that the door would swing open during the drive or simply delaying their final goodbye? He’d already missed his planned 9:00 a.m. departure time by almost an hour.

  If anyone had noticed she’d spent the last four nights in Ty’s cabin rather than her apartment, they said nothing. Probably because they approved of her and Ty’s relationship, albeit for different reasons. Pop had more than once vocalized his desire to see Adele settled, and the employees were, she suspected, glad their boss was enjoying something other than work for a change. Reese had openly expressed her joy during Ty and Garth’s first official team roping practice on Tuesday. But then, she was happily engaged to be married, and wanted all her friends to be happy, too.

  “You drive careful, you hear?” Cook said. She was among the small crowd that had gathered to see Ty off.

  “You’re welcome back anytime.” Pop’s voice had a slight catch in it.

  So, Adele thought, did Ty’s when he answered. “I’m taking you up on that offer.”

  The two men started out shaking hands, but Ty pulled Pop into a bear hug. Adele felt her throat close. Five days of mental preparation obviously wasn’t enough. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d done anything half this hard.

  “Stick, I’m counting on you to watch out for Adele and Pop while I’m gone.” Ty hooked an arm around the skinny teenager’s neck.

  “Sure thing.”

  “You’re a good man.”

  Stick’s perpetual goofy grin widened.

  Ty spoke to each person there, dispensing handshakes, hugs and pecks on cheeks, including one for Lani. Adele and she were on better terms, thanks in large part to Pop’s recent revelations, but Adele continued to be guarded around her, unconvinced her mother had changed her ways.

  Watching Lani hug Ty, Adele thought she saw genuine tears well in her mother’s eyes, and she was struck with a sentimental pang. The next moment, she dismissed it. Lani knew how to put on an act with the best of them, especially around men.

  Tipping his hat in one last farewell to all, Ty went to Adele and took her hand. “Walk me to my truck.”

  Though she generally shied away from public displays of affection, no way was he leaving without a last, lingering kiss.

  Ty was of the same mind, except he carried it one step further. Amid good-natured hoots and hollers, he bent her over his arm and planted a kiss on her mouth to beat all kisses. Adele’s toes were still tingling when he released her.

  “I’ll call you tonight.”

  She nodded, afraid she might cry if she tried to talk.

  He reached for the door handle. “Wait!”

  Throwing her arms around him, she stood on tiptoes and pressed her face into the curve of his neck. “I’ll miss you.”

  “Me, too, sweetheart.”

  Two minutes later, he was gone, his truck and trailer pulling out of the open area and heading down the long drive that would take him past the main lodge and to the highway beyond.

  Adele stood there watching until the last plume of dust had dissipated. During her vigil, the others left, perhaps sensing her need to be alone.

  Not yet ready to return to work, she strolled to the small barn. It had been several days since her last visit with Crackers. More than that, the quiet solitude would enable her to fortify her defenses before having to deal with people and the inevitable well-intentioned platitudes or personal questions.

  Crackers nickered hello. The filly—Adele had named her Ritz—pushed her nose up, seeking a petting. Naturally curious and playful, Ritz couldn’t get enough attention.

  It was exactly the balm Adele needed to soothe her aching heart. She’d done her best to resist Ty, and yet she’d fallen for him. Head over heels and faster than she’d ever imagined possible. The three weeks until he returned were going to seem like three decades.

  “There you are!”

  Adele winced. Oh, no! Why now?

  “I’m glad I found you.” Lani scurried toward her, a big, bright smile on her face.

  “Hi, Mom. I was just about to get ready for class.” Yes, it was a lie, but Adele felt she’d be forgiven this once.

  “There’s something I need to tell you.” Lani came to a stop, looking chagrined. The expression took several years off her face, transforming her into the attractive woman she’d once been. Adele also noticed her mother had filled out a little recently, the extra weight adding a softness to her previous bone-thin frame. “I’ve been stalling and stalling, and I just can’t anymore.” She’s leaving! Adele had been anticipating just such an announcement for weeks.

  “I’m moving.” Lani’s smile reappeared.

  “Where to?” Adele didn’t add, “this time.”

  “Right in town. I found an efficiency apartment to rent. It’s not much, but will do for a while. I need to get my own place and stop mooching off you and your grandfather.”

  “Oh.” When did her mother start worrying about being a mooch?

  “And it’s close to the feed store.”

  Adele’s stomach dropped to her knees. She should have guessed Lani wanted her own place nearby in order to carry on her affair with Henry.

  “He’s a married man, Mom.”

  “Who?”

  “
Henry.”

  “I know that.”

  “And it doesn’t stop you?”

  “From what?” Lani shook her head in confusion.

  “Sleeping with him,” Adele all but spit out.

  “Good heavens! Is that what you think?”

  “I saw you and him at the Spotted Horse.”

  Hurt—and disappointment?—glinted in Lani’s eyes. “He offered me a job.”

  “A job?”

  “At the feed store. His assistant manager gave notice.” Lani sniffed. “I don’t take up with married men. And I certainly don’t take up with my boss.”

  “I—I…” Adele was speechless.

  “I thought if I got a full-time job and my own place, that maybe you and I could, well, work things out. I’ve made a ton of mistakes over the years and was just trying to fix a few of them.” She sniffed again. “I guess I was wrong.”

  “Mom.” Adele struggled to find the words—any words—to say. “I’m sorry. I jumped to the wrong conclusion.”

  Lani’s face crumpled. “I’m sorry, too. I really did want to do the right thing for once. And when Henry offered me the job, I figured it was a good place to start.”

  A job and an apartment. One Lani paid for herself. Not an affair. And a chance to repair some of those burned bridges. Small steps in a very right direction.

  Part of Adele resisted. Lani had never been much of a mother, disappointing her one too many times for her to be sucked in by the promise of change.

  But if she didn’t acknowledge her mom’s efforts and support them, then perhaps she wasn’t much of a daughter, either.

  “It is a good place to start. I’m glad for you.”

  “Really?” Lani’s teary eyes shone.

  “And…proud.”

  “Oh, baby.” Lani pulled her into a fierce hug. “I’m so proud of you, too. Everything you’ve done, the ranch, Cowboy College. Much as I tried to screw you up, you still turned out to be this incredible woman. Smart and talented and…oh, that Ty Boudeau is one lucky fellow to have you.”

  Slowly, very slowly, Adele returned her mother’s hug. After a moment, she increased the pressure.

  Maybe it was having a wonderful man like Ty in her life. Maybe it was being secure at Seven Cedars and knowing her place in the world. Whatever the reason, Adele felt some of the resentment she’d carried around for over twenty years fade, and her spirits, which had sunk so low when Ty left, gradually lift.

  Chapter Twelve

  All Ty wanted, all he’d been thinking about for the last eight hours and the last four hundred miles, was seeing Adele. Holding her, kissing her, unraveling that long braid of hers and running his fingers through her silky hair. Seven phone calls, starting this morning and ending just outside of Markton, hadn’t slaked his desire to see her. If anything, they’d increased it.

  The sight of the main gate leading into Seven Cedars hit Ty like a drink of cool water after a long walk in the hot desert.

  He was home.

  Wait a minute! When had he started thinking of Seven Cedars as home?

  Since he’d left three weeks ago. Not an hour passed when he didn’t imagine returning to Adele and everything he’d come to hold dear.

  His gaze scanned right and left as his truck bumped along the drive and into the open area in front of the barns. He was early, but had hoped Adele would be waiting for him. They’d agreed during one of those seven phone calls that he would take Hamm to the small corral east of the arena and let him run around a bit before putting him up for the night.

  A night Ty intended to spend every moment of, waking and sleeping, with Adele.

  Hamm, impatient as always to be free, banged a foot on the trailer door the instant the truck came to a stop. Three minutes later, the big gelding was trotting off steam, tossing his head, and strutting his stuff for the other horses in the nearby pasture.

  Ty took out his cell phone, intending to call Adele.

  “He looks happy to be out.”

  He spun at the sound of Pop’s voice behind him, and grinned broadly. “He’s not the only one.”

  “Long drive?”

  “Too long. My legs are killing me.”

  “How about I trade you for mine?”

  Ty had noticed the older man’s limp was more pronounced than before. “Hip bothering you?”

  “Some. But not, I hope, for long.”

  “I heard you finally agreed to the replacement surgery.”

  Adele had given Ty the news the day after he left. It seemed Pop had postponed telling her so as not to interfere with her and Ty’s time together.

  “A week from Thursday,” Pop said. “I wanted to wait, but that granddaughter of mine is a hard one to resist.”

  Ty concurred wholeheartedly.

  “She’s in her office if you’re looking for her.”

  “I don’t want to disturb her if she’s working.”

  “I’m thinking she won’t mind.”

  “Hamm needs to—”

  “Go on. I’ll take care of your horse.”

  “You sure?”

  Pop scowled. “I’m not a cripple yet.”

  Ty needed no further persuading.

  As he walked across the lobby’s hardwood floor, he was reminded of his first day at the ranch and of how much had changed during the last seven weeks. He and Hamm were in perfect sync, with three shiny new buckles to show for it. Two in tie-down roping and one in team roping with Garth. That didn’t count the two second-place finishes Ty had taken in steer wrestling. Altogether, the winnings were enough to bankroll him for the next six rodeos, as well as make a small but overdue payment to his parents.

  And then there was Adele. He hated being apart from her, but knowing that what he was doing would eventually give them the means for a life together fueled his determination and made the long, lonely days without her bearable.

  He hurried his steps, their echo resounding through the empty lobby. She must have heard him, for she appeared in the office doorway just as he was rounding the registration counter.

  “You’re early,” she said, her face alight with excitement.

  “I broke enough traffic laws to put me away for years if I’d been caught.”

  “I’m glad you weren’t.”

  Not caring if anyone walked by and saw them, he clasped her in his arms. The next instant, his mouth was where it had wanted to be for hours. Days. Weeks. And he didn’t hurry, despite them having only until the morning before he had to leave again for the next rodeo. This moment was worth savoring.

  Except Adele had other ideas.

  She didn’t merely return his kiss, she took control of it, giving him a hint of what to expect later.

  “That’s some greeting,” he said, his entire body responding to the fire in her eyes and the heat in her touch. “Mind if I leave and come back for another one?”

  “Don’t worry, cowboy. There’s more where that came from.”

  He laughed, his first real one in weeks. Did she have any idea how good she made him feel? “I’ve missed you.”

  Her features abruptly crumbled, and she shielded her face with her hand.

  “You’re not crying, are you?”

  “No.” But she was.

  Ty escorted her into her office, shutting the door behind them. “What’s wrong, sweetheart?”

  She wiped her cheek with the back of her hand. “I’m just happy to see you.”

  He sat down in her desk chair, then pulled her onto his lap. The chair groaned under their combined weight. “I’m happy to see you, too.”

  She curled into a ball, combing her fingers through his hair while he stroked her back.

  “This isn’t how I wanted it to be,” she murmured. “I had other plans.”

  “From what I could tell earlier, I like your plans.”

  She tilted her face up to his, and he kissed her again. This time tenderly. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me lately. I’ve been so emotional.”

  “You have
a lot going on. Pop said his surgery’s next Thursday.”

  “Yeah. And while I can’t wait for him to have it, I’m not looking forward to it.” She outlined some of the details of the procedure and the daunting challenges she and her grandfather faced.

  “Pop will do fine. He’s not about to let a little thing like hip-replacement surgery get him down.”

  “You’re right. I’m just not sure about me.” She nestled closer with a soft sigh. “Are you hungry yet?”

  “Yes.” Ty lowered his head and nibbled her ear.

  She wriggled away. “I meant for food. We can have an early dinner in the dining hall and then…” She ended the sentence with an inviting smile.

  “Or we could ‘then’ first, and have a late dinner.”

  He’d been joking—sort of. Adele surprised and delighted him by agreeing.

  After stopping briefly to check on Hamm, they sneaked off to her apartment. Or tried to. Every few minutes they ran into someone glad to see Ty and wanting to chat. A half hour later they were finally alone, secluded in Adele’s bedroom and tearing off each other’s clothes.

  When Adele would have hurried, Ty restrained her, determined to prolong the enjoyment. Afterward, they lay with their limbs entwined in her antique brass bed, her lavender sheets strewn across their bodies, the last rays of sunlight streaming through the parted curtains of her window.

  “I talked to Garth yesterday,” he said, his lips brushing the soft tendrils at her temple. “Mmm?”

  “His parents and Reese are flying out to the Steamboat Springs Rodeo this weekend. They’ve invited you to come along.”

  She shook her head. “I can’t.”

  The conversation sounded a lot like their previous one. Regardless, Ty continued. “Why not? You’d only be gone three days.”

  “Pop’s having his surgery.”

  “Next Thursday. You’ll be back in plenty of time.”

  Adele shifted. Only a little, but the two inches felt like two feet.

  “There are tests he has to have. Blood work, X-rays, consultations with the doctors. The medical center’s a two-hour round trip. He can’t drive it alone.”