Taken by Love (Love in Bloom: The Bradens #7)

by Melissa Foster

  “I know you’ll razz me for it, but, man, Pierce, Daisy…She’s everything. She understands me. She’s smart, and caring, and it’s like we’re made from the same cloth, you know? I can’t get enough of her.”

  “Luke, you’re talking like you love her.” Pierce’s tone was serious.

  “Yeah. I know. I’m falling pretty hard.” So damn hard it hurts.

  “Better you than me. So what’s up?”

  “I need a favor.”

  “Anything.”

  You might not think that once you hear what it is. “I want to track down Buddy.” Luke rubbed the prickling nerves on the back of his neck.

  “Buddy?” Pierce sounded fully awake now. “You sure you want to go there?”

  Luke ran his hand through his hair and paced. “I know that.”

  “Listen, first and foremost, whatever you decide to do, I don’t want you talking to Mom about him. She had a hard time after he left. I don’t remember everything, but there are a lot of arguments that I wish I could forget. There’s nothing good about him, Luke.”

  Luke knew his brother’s efforts to dissuade stemmed from his protective nature.

  “I didn’t imagine that there was.”

  Pierce’s voice softened. “Luke, are you sure you want to go there? I’m happy to do it if you really want me to, but you may find out some things that you wish you’d never known.” Luke pictured Pierce’s dark brows drawn together, his eyes contemplative as he rubbed his clean-shaven chin.

  Luke ran his hand through his hair and paced. “I need to understand why he left and never came back, Pierce. He’s never even fucking met me.”

  Pierce’s voice softened. “I know it hurts, bro, but really, this guy’s not worth your time or energy.”

  “I get that. I don’t know if I’ll do anything with the information, if I’ll actually go see him or not, but I feel like I need to get closure on this whole thing.” He was sure of it now, as sure as he knew he’d already fallen in love with Daisy.

  “I know you need closure, and I’ll help you get the information you want, but you’ve got to know that these things don’t come without consequences.”

  Luke shook his head. “I know. No one else seems to give a rat’s ass about his leaving. Pierce, look at who I am. I’ve never been able to connect with a woman—not until Daisy. That’s strange as shit, isn’t it?”

  “Dude, does it look like any of us are connecting?”

  “Whatever. So maybe he fucked us all up. I don’t know. I only know that I’ve finally found someone I love.” There, he’d said it. Out in the open. “And every time I look into her eyes and think about moving forward, Buddy’s hand lands on my shoulder.” He shrugged. “Look, if you’d rather not help me find him, it’s okay.”

  Pierce sighed loudly. “You love her?”

  “Yeah, man. I do.”

  “Luke, we all carry crap around from our past. I’m actually a little impressed. You must love her to want to dig up this shit.” The compassion in Pierce’s tone was tangible.

  “I never knew I was hiding behind anything until Daisy wanted to know what happened when I was arrested, and I knew if I didn’t tell her, I’d lose her. That’s kind of when it all clicked. I didn’t do anything wrong. There was no reason not to tell her, but something in my fucked-up head made me afraid to say anything. I’m sure that’s because of Buddy leaving. All that psych 101 shit, you know. Father abandonment issues. Will everyone leave me? All that kind of shit. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I was a classic example. I never get close to anyone. I don’t even let women try.” Luke paced and looked up at the house, feeling a sense of pride in all he’d accomplished, despite his father leaving. “Don’t you see, Pierce? I couldn’t walk away from Daisy. It’s time for me to put this guy behind me, and the only way to do that is to face it head-on.”

  “Women can make even the strongest men realize their weaknesses. You sure you want to go down this road? I’ll help you, but you need to be sure.”

  Luke headed back up toward the barn. “Yeah. It scares the shit out of me, but I want to be with Daisy, and I can’t move forward without clearing up the past.”

  “Has anything in your life that was worth a shit not scared you?”

  “Here I thought you’d give me hell for falling in love. It’s not exactly the Braden way.” The fact that all of Luke’s siblings were still single—and he was the youngest of them all—didn’t evade him.

  “Sure it is. All of our Weston cousins have fallen in love and gotten married. We’re just slower to the plate.”

  He heard Pierce’s smile, and he was glad for his support.

  “I’ll talk to Treat and see if we can use some of his sources to track down Buddy, but from what I’ve heard, your girlfriend is only in Trusty temporarily. You know that, right? Word around town is that she’s only there until her dad gets better; then she’s off to bigger and better things.”

  “Yeah, I got the memo.” And I hope she changes her mind.

  “Okay. I’ll see what we can dig up and I’ll call you when I’ve got something to tell you. Just promise me that you’ll think long and hard before you take the next step. I’d hate to see you do this only to find that Daisy’s moved on and you’re stuck knowing a bunch of shit you would rather not have in your head.”

  Luke knew damn well he’d be thinking of it far more than he wanted to. If he had any hopes of a future with Daisy, he had to reconcile his past.

  Chapter Thirteen

  SUNDAY AFTERNOON DAISY and Luke worked for three hours in the hot sun at her father’s farm. They’d cleared the fields of the remaining hay bales that had fallen apart or jammed on the stacker. While they were in the fields, Daisy had seen Mrs. Caden’s car drive down the driveway and she wondered why Janice’s mother was there. She imagined Janice’s mother giving her mother hell for what Luke had done, and the thought sickened her. She was relieved when they’d come back to put away the equipment and Mrs. Caden’s car was gone. She pushed the thought away as Luke came out of the equipment shed. She loved watching him work, all testosterone-laden brawn. Tanned and ripped. Manly, sexy, delicious. She shuddered, thinking about the evening before. Her stomach fluttered as Luke reached for her hand. He pulled her close with a devilish grin, and in that second, his tough exterior fell away. She loved those first moments when they came together. The instant their thighs touched, when his entire body melted against hers before he took a breath and the strength returned and he gathered her in against him. She loved the complexities of him, and she wasn’t sure he even knew how complex he really was. His mind was always churning. She saw it in his eyes, thinking, planning, wondering. The lazy smiles and easy nature ran deep, but he was anything but simple. He held her close, and she felt the heat of his body envelop her as desire replaced the tenderness she’d seen in his eyes.

  “Stop looking at me like that.” Daisy felt her cheeks flush, though the last thing she wanted him to do was stop.

  “Like what?” He nuzzled against her neck. “Like I have an insatiable appetite for you?” He lowered his mouth to hers.

  When they drew apart, she was breathless. “God, you’re good at that.”

  Luke smiled, and a soft laugh escaped his lips. “It takes two to kiss, Dais.” His cell phone vibrated and he pulled it out. “It’s Emily. She has the drawings for the apartment above the barn, but I’ve got another change for her.”

  “You’re going to drive her crazy and she won’t ever get to finish.” Daisy ran her finger down his chest.

  “It’s a simple change this time. I just want to move a wall and create a small alcove.” He texted Emily back, then shoved his phone in his pocket.

  “Do you make those changes to drive her crazy?”

  He shrugged. “It’s like the last bit of restlessness I have or something. It never feels done. Hey, while we’re on the subject of workspace and changes, I know you’re bummed about your boss saying you can’t hold that clinic, but what about do
ing it someplace other than at the clinic? Couldn’t you do it anywhere else?”

  “You’ve been thinking about this, too? I can’t stop thinking about it. Yeah, I can. I mean, I have insurance, and I’m licensed, so it wouldn’t be a big deal, and it’s only physicals, so we don’t need a lot of space. I just need to figure it all out. Maybe I’m biting off more than I should.”

  Luke narrowed his eyes. “Why? Is it too much? Are you too tired after work?”

  “No, but it’s not like the people here really like me that much. I mean, most of the parents of the school-aged kids are the people I went to school with, and you know…They may not even want me to do their kids’ physicals.” It was a painful thought she’d been nursing for the past two days. What if she offered to do the physicals and no one but Kari showed up?

  He folded her into his arms. “You do realize that you’ve been gone from this town for so long that those people have probably matured by now. I’m sure they don’t still harbor the jealousy that made them say all those things.”

  “I think you have Trusty confused with Mayberry.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder.

  “Whether a few people love you or hate you isn’t what this decision should be about, Dais. You studied medicine for a reason, which I assume was to help people.”

  “Of course,” she murmured against his neck, soaking in his strength and support, not to mention his delicious, masculine scent.

  “Here’s the bottom line. Would you be doing the physicals for the parents or for the kids?”

  “Kids, of course.” She pushed out of his arms. “Kids need annual checkups. You wouldn’t let your horses go unchecked, would you?”

  He grinned, and she knew he had purposely egged her on.

  “Then nothing else should matter. Open the clinic, and those who come, you help, and those who don’t?” He shrugged. “Their loss, but at least you’ve done all you can to help the people who matter. The kids.”

  While in medical school and during her three years of residency, Daisy had come up against jealousy and competition. She’d gone face-to-face with some of the most stubborn professors, and arrogant doctors had challenged her. She was used to adversity. Support, however, came less often. She could count those she could always rely on on one hand: her parents and Kevin. And now, she realized, she could add a fourth person to that list. Luke.

  “Thank you for reminding me of what really matters.” She was unable to take her eyes off of him. He had an entire ranch to deal with, and she knew he was wrestling with thoughts of his father, and he was still carrying the burden of his arrest, and here he was, focusing on her issues, and he was right. For a guy who claimed not to know how to connect, he was connecting on so many levels that she couldn’t imagine ever disengaging from him.

  Or ever wanting to.

  “You’re welcome, and I know it’s not my place to be proud of you, but I am. I love how you saw a need and offered to help instead of doing what most people who worked as hard as you might do—help Kari and let the others fend for themselves.” He buried his hands in her hair and cupped the back of her head. “You’re really special to me, Dais. I can’t wait for you to get to know my family better.”

  Her heart did a little dance. Things were moving fast, but everything about being with Luke felt right. She’d dated enough guys to know that what she felt for Luke was completely different, and it wasn’t the toe-curling, mind-blowing sex, or the way her body caught fire every time she saw him. She felt safe with him, respected, happy, and comfortable. She loved the care he took with his animals and the way he respected her father’s ways. Most of all, she really liked who he was. He stood up for what he believed in, and he stepped outside of himself to help others. He trusted. He believed in others, and those were attributes she could learn from. She knew things with Luke were different, because when she wasn’t with him, she never stopped missing him.

  She also knew she had entered dangerous territory. Territory that had her pushing away her decisions about employment and reconsidering all she’d ever believed about her hometown. She should probably put some space between them, focus on the clinic and her offers of employment.

  One look into his dark eyes and she nearly melted on the spot.

  If his family was anything like Emily, she knew she’d love them. A streak of worry skittered through her. Luke must have seen it in her eyes.

  “What is it?”

  She swallowed hard. She was way too old to be worried about this crap. Goddamn Trusty. “I always worry about people who know of me but don’t really know me. All those years of rumors...”

  “Dais, that was years ago. Kick it to the curb.” He pressed his cheek to hers and whispered, “Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone that you can be a very naughty, sexy temptress.”

  After a hot streak raced through her and she caught her breath, she swatted his arm.

  “Look at me.” He waited until she met his gaze. “Seriously, even if those rumors had been true and you’d slept with the whole town, my family wouldn’t care. I adore you, and they will, too.” She opened her mouth to say she hadn’t, and he cut her off.

  “I know you didn’t, but it wouldn’t matter if you had.”

  She couldn’t think of a darn thing to say and couldn’t have pushed words past the lump that had lodged in her throat if she’d wanted to. Instead, she kissed him, and the worry drifted away.

  “Come say hi to my mom?”

  He smiled. “Absolutely.”

  She took his hand, and on their way out of the pole barn, she saw him eyeing the older, smaller barn that they used for storage.

  “We don’t use that barn for much anymore. Once the loft elevator broke, Dad was too busy to worry about fixing it; then he got hurt and, well...”

  “What’s wrong with it?” He squinted, and she felt him pulling in that direction.

  “I’m not sure. The chain or something.”

  “Let me take a quick look. Does he keep his tools in there?”

  “Luke, you don’t have to do that. We can hire someone.” She took a step toward the house, but Luke was already heading in that direction.

  “Why hire someone when I’m here? If it’s really just the chain, I can have that fixed in no time.”

  “You’ve done so much already.”

  “Dais, I don’t mind. Besides, your dad’s hurt. The last thing he needs to do is worry about finding someone to take care of this. It’s probably killing him that he isn’t taking care of everything else. Don’t you think?”

  She didn’t think. She knew. But she was surprised that Luke could understand that. Knowing there was no convincing him otherwise and loving that he’d take his time to help her father, Daisy showed him where her father kept his tools, and while Luke went to work fixing the elevator, Daisy headed to the house to get them cold drinks.

  She found her mother on the porch, drinking a glass of lemonade, and remembered Janice’s mom had been there. She took a deep breath, steeling herself against whatever had gone down.

  “Hi, Mom. Was that Janice’s mom’s car?” Please tell me that she didn’t bitch you out for what Luke did.

  “Yes. She brought a dish of lasagna. Wasn’t that sweet? I swear, you never realize how great a community is until you need them.”

  “Really? I was worried that she came to give you a hard time about Luke and what happened at the fair.”

  “I think she was thankful that he stepped in. What’s all this I hear about you setting up a clinic for school physicals?”

  Daisy’s breath caught in her throat. The Trusty grapevine was fast, but how could the news have traveled that quickly? She hadn’t mentioned the idea to anyone other than Kari, Luke, Kevin, and Ashley. “How do you know about that?”

  “Janice told her mother that you were setting up a clinic.”

  “Janice? How on earth did she hear that?”

  “Well, are you?” Her mother’s face was a mix of seriousness and
hope.

  “I don’t know. Gosh. How does word spread so fast around here and change into plans when I’ve barely had the thought in my own head? Kari must have said something to someone, and by the sound of it, the whole thing is taking on a life of its own. I have no idea what I’m thinking about doing. Ashley won’t let me do it at the urgent-care office, so I’d have to figure out a place to do it, and it’s a big job. I’ll have to order vaccines and schedule times to see them in the evenings and weekends.” Despite her earlier misgivings, she felt the hum of excitement building inside her, similar to the thrill she’d experienced delivering babies during her residency. The birth of something new.

  “If anyone can do it, you can.”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence, Mom. I’m considering it.”

  Her mother had never thrust her opinions on Daisy. She had a quiet way about her, like when Daisy had first mentioned that she was applying to medical school, her mother had simply raised those thin blond brows of hers with a hopeful smile on her lips. Much like she was doing right now.

  “How did it go in the field?” Her mother offered Daisy a drink of her lemonade.

  “Great. We’re done.”

  Her mother patted the chair beside hers. “Sit with me a minute.” She looked more rested today. Her eyes were brighter and the worry lines across her forehead weren’t nearly as pronounced as they’d been the other day.

  It felt good to sit down and relax. “I was going to bring Luke in to say hi, but when I told him Dad’s loft elevator was having trouble, he wanted to take a look at it.” She looked in the direction of the old barn and saw Luke kneeling by the loft elevator engine.

  “Did he, now?”

  “Yeah. I told him that we could hire someone to do it, but he didn’t want Dad to worry. How’s Dad? He goes to rehab tomorrow, right?”

  “Yes. You know your father. He’s not going to tell me if his back gets any worse, so I have to gauge his progress by silent signals. I think he’s doing fairly well. He’s not groaning much these days.” Her mother smiled and then reached for Daisy’s hand. “How are you, sweetie? You’re working long hours at the clinic and then helping here. Are you doing okay?”