Texas on My Mind

by Delores Fossen

  Trisha started to wiggle into the dress. It was a testament to how much pain he was in that he hoped she would hurry.

  “What are you doing here anyway?” Trisha asked. “You were supposed to be on a two-week business trip and shouldn’t be back for three more days.”

  “I wrapped up things early—” He would have continued his own questions if Trisha hadn’t interrupted.

  “But you rarely stay here anymore. I didn’t figure you’d be coming home.”

  So the gossips had picked up on that, too. And it wasn’t just gossip. Logan had indeed converted the third floor of his office building to a loft apartment, and with the hours he worked, it was easier just to sleep there. Besides, it wasn’t as if he had family here now that Anna had moved off to Florida.

  But Logan had no intentions of getting into that with Trisha.

  “Where’s your car?” he asked, hoping he didn’t have to drive her anywhere.

  She hitched her thumb toward the back. “I parked behind the house. I was going for an element of surprise.”

  “Element accomplished.”

  Logan went to the door to tell the reporter and photographer to take a hike, but it wasn’t only them on the other side. It was Riley, too. And he practically punched Logan in the gut because he was reaching for the doorknob.

  “Go,” Logan growled to the news crew. He glared at the photographer. “And if those photos or anything else about this situation show up anywhere, you’ll deal with me.”

  Logan didn’t wait for their reaction. The blind spots were getting even spottier. From the looks of it, Riley wasn’t faring much better in the pain department.

  Riley stepped in right before Logan shut the door, and his brother volleyed glances between Trisha and him. It didn’t help that the front of Trisha’s dress was still hiked up, and he could see that sad excuse for panties.

  “Trisha wanted to surprise you,” Logan summarized. Some people probably would have just let this all play out, but he wanted to hurry things along. “I’ll take a nap while you two have fun.”

  “Thank you,” Trisha said at the exact moment Riley said, “I can’t. I need to talk to you, Logan,” Riley added.

  Shit on a stick. That didn’t seem like an end to a conversation but rather the beginning of one Logan didn’t want to have.

  Riley turned to Trisha. “I haven’t seen Logan in months. We need to get some family things settled.”

  Translation: Riley didn’t want what Trisha was offering behind those red panties.

  “Plus, I’m in pain. It was a rough session of PT today.” Riley rotated his shoulder and winced. Probably not fake, either, like that family-things comment.

  Riley never wanted to discuss family things.

  “I’ll call you,” Riley told Trisha when she didn’t budge.

  Maybe the last bit of her dignity kicked in because the woman finally scurried to gather the rest of her things. Of course, she had on woodpecker heels, too, and they hammered against the hardwood floor. Trisha turned, heading toward the back of the house, but then she stopped.

  “I just thought...” she said to Riley. “Well, I just thought I could cheer you up. I mean, I thought you might be feeling a little blue what with Claire marrying Daniel and all.”

  Translation: pity sex.

  And judging from the way Riley’s expression soured, he might just be in need of pity something. That wasn’t the expression of a man who’d just learned a friend was getting married. No. But then, Riley had always had a thing for Claire.

  “Call me,” Trisha reminded Riley. She dropped a kiss on his cheek. Paused. As if waiting for Riley to do something more than make it a cheek kiss. When he didn’t, Trisha finally left.

  “Sorry about that,” Riley mumbled. He was wearing his uniform, and with the exception of that weary, pained expression, he looked every bit the part of a military superstar. Which from all accounts, he was.

  Logan considered repeating that part about needing a nap, but instead he found himself sinking down on the chair across from Riley. “Want to talk about it?”

  Riley dropped the back of his head against the sofa and let out a long breath. “Which part—Trisha or the PT?”

  “Both. Or neither,” Logan amended. “Or you can talk—briefly—about Claire and Daniel.”

  Riley lifted his head and made eye contact with him, and for a moment Logan thought Riley would question that briefly part. To the best of his knowledge, Riley didn’t know about the migraines, and Logan wanted to keep it that way. Besides, his little brother no doubt had him beat a thousandfold in the pain department.

  “Claire hasn’t decided if she’s marrying Daniel, but he did propose again, and he gave her a week to decide. There’s only one day left on his deadline. Trisha wants a repeat of what we did in high school. The PT’s going nowhere.”

  Logan dismissed the first two topics, went with the last one. “How much time do you have left on your medical leave?”

  “A month, maybe less.” He aimed his eyes at the ceiling, avoiding eye contact. “If I can’t pass a physical, I might be given a medical discharge.”

  Riley said it in the same tone as someone would admit they were dying from cancer or some other horrible disease. But he wasn’t dying. He just wouldn’t be able to lead the life he wanted more than being near family.

  “Are you still having flashbacks?” Logan asked.

  That got his eyes away from the ceiling, and Logan earned a glare for his question. “Who said I was having them in the first place? Hell. Claire told you?”

  “No. One of the ranch hands heard you when you were sleeping on the back porch, but if Claire knows, at least you’re talking to someone about it.”

  “I’m not talking to her about it. Not talking to you about it, either.”

  Logan decided it was a good time to listen. Besides, it was easier to deal with the spots if he didn’t have the sound of his own voice echoing in his head.

  “I can’t get kicked out of the Air Force,” Riley snarled. He motioned toward his uniform. “This isn’t just what I do. It’s who I am. I help people. I rescue them. I save them from dying. Most of the time,” he added.

  Logan nodded. This wasn’t anything new. “Man-rule number two—don’t be ordinary.”

  “It’s man-rule number one,” Riley snapped.

  Right. The headache must have fuzzed his memory up a little. As often as Logan had heard those rules, he should have remembered. “I don’t need to know the number of the rule to know what it means, Riley. You left home because you wanted something more than this place could offer.”

  Logan’s strong suit wasn’t being warm and fuzzy, and clearly he missed the boat this time, too.

  “You stayed because you chose to stay,” Riley reminded him.

  Ah, hell. That was not the thing to say right now. It wasn’t the first time it’d come up, and sometimes Logan just walked away from it.

  Not today, though.

  “I stayed to make sure the business that Dad started didn’t go under,” he reminded Riley. “I’m the one who made it what it is today. The one who went to parent–teacher meetings for Anna—”

  “You stepped up to do that.”

  “Yeah. But Lucky and you could have stepped up, too. You didn’t, and neither did he. When you say you don’t want to be here because it’s ordinary, just remember you’re calling my life and everything that I’ve worked for ordinary, too.”

  Logan stood and said the rest of what he wanted to say while he was walking away. “I need that nap now.”

  The migraine, and this conversation, had caught up with him and was already kicking him in the nuts.

  * * *

  CLAIRE OPENED HER back door to take out the trash, and that’s when she saw it. A creature was just sitting ther
e on the steps. It was in the shape of a ball, with gray fur sticking out in every direction.

  And it had one eye.

  She shrieked, scrambled away from it, banging her hip against the kitchen counter, but all the commotion didn’t stop it from coming closer. It just ambled in the house as if she’d given it an invitation.

  “Whoa,” Ethan said. He scooted down from his booster seat where he was eating his lunch. “Cat.” Or rather “tat.”

  Claire had already picked up the broom to try to shoo it out, but she gave it another look. Maybe it was a cat. It squalled, a sound that a cat might make, so maybe Ethan was right.

  “Don’t get too close, Ethan,” she warned her son. If she could catch it, she’d take it into the vet to make sure he or she was okay and wasn’t the survivor of some radiation experiments.

  But Ethan didn’t listen. He immediately offered the critter a bite of his PB&J sandwich. There was some sniffing involved on both the cat’s and Ethan’s parts before the animal took a bite. Clearly, it was starving if it would go after that.

  With the broom still in her hand and while keeping an eye on their visitor, Claire poured some milk in a saucer, sloshing it all over her and the floor before she managed to put it in front of the animal. It took a lap but went back for another taste of the PB&J.

  “Whoa,” Ethan said again, giggling.

  Well, Whoa was certainly a good name for it, but she hoped this wasn’t an omen. A bad one. Of course, she’d been looking for omens and signs all day since the deadline for Daniel’s marriage proposal was only hours away.

  “Don’t get too attached,” she told Ethan. “We can’t keep it.”

  Claire used the PB&J and the saucer of milk to lure the cat back out onto the porch, and shut the screen door before it could get back in. Ethan sat down on the floor to watch, and she saw something in his eyes that she instantly recognized.

  Love.

  Apparently, pet fever ran in the family, and while this was no cute fur ball, Ethan didn’t seem to mind. Too bad she couldn’t explain that it was a stray and this might be the one and only time they saw him.

  She gathered up the stuff to make Ethan another sandwich, but she heard the *NSYNC ringtone, and it sent her heart banging against her chest. Sheez. She braced herself for the conversation she was going to need to have with Daniel, but she saw a name on the screen that she hadn’t expected to see.

  Logan.

  She tried to hit the button so fast that she nearly dropped her phone. “Is everything okay?” she asked.

  What she really wanted to know—was Riley okay? Logan must not have picked up on that subtext, but judging from the sound he made, he was a little taken aback by her frantic tone.

  “I’ve got a big favor to ask you,” he said. “I have to take another business trip, and I need you to check on Riley for me.”

  No frantic tone for him. It was cool and terse, which pretty much described the man himself. Of course, like the rest of the McCord men, he was hot and gorgeous. Alarmingly handsome. So hot that Claire wasn’t immune to getting a little tongue-tied around him. She suspected that Logan used those good looks to coerce women, like her, into doing favors, like this, for him.

  “But you just got back from a business trip yesterday,” she said, stalling so she could come up with a good answer.

  “Yeah, but something came up, and I need to leave right now. Will you do it? Will you make sure Riley’s okay?” he pressed. “Now?”

  “Uh, you’re sure he wants me to check on him? It’s all over town that he’s not happy about women visiting him.”

  “It’s all over town about Trisha,” he corrected. “And you’re right. He’s not happy about that, but I want you to see to him anyway. He had a nightmare last night. Loud enough to wake me, and when I went in to see if he was okay, he was looking at a picture on his phone. A picture of you. He said it steadied his nerves.”

  So, he hadn’t sent the photo to Anna after all. Claire had known something was up with that.

  “Did it? Steady Riley’s nerves, I mean?” she asked.

  “I’m not sure. He wasn’t fully awake, and he said something about it maybe not working in thunderstorms.”

  She smiled. Then undid that smile. “Look, Logan. I’m in a weird place right now—”

  “Because of Daniel’s proposal. Your or else answer is due today. And, yes, that’s all over town, too. But Daniel shouldn’t mind if you visit a friend.”

  Wanna bet? Daniel was the green-eyed monster when it came to Riley. And for no good reason. Riley had kept his hands off her during the entire time he’d been back in Spring Hill. The entire time before that, too.

  “You’ll do this for me, right?” Logan asked.

  Oh, well. At least Logan hadn’t tried to play the daddy card—he hadn’t insinuated that since Riley might or might not be Ethan’s father that the paternity obligated her in some way to check on him.

  And give him a picture to scare off nightmares.

  “Yes, I’ll check on him.” She was in the middle of saying goodbye when Logan rattled off a thanks and hung up.

  Claire stared at the phone a moment, wondering if she should call him back and say no. Or at least attempt to. Riley was a temptation she didn’t need right now. However, her ringtone went off again before she could finish the debate she was having with herself. And this time it wasn’t Logan.

  It was Daniel.

  She got another slam of her heart and made a quick check of the time. Even though she still had a couple of hours left on Daniel’s proposal-ultimatum, this was a pee-or-get-off-the-pot kind of moment.

  *NSYNC just kept on singing “This I Promise You.”

  The pee was a natural thing, she reminded herself. Marriage to a longtime partner was what women her age did all the time. And getting off the pot could mean there were zero chances of getting a shot at making those fantasies come true.

  More *NSYNC. More debate. Until the singing finally stopped, and the call went to voice mail. She’d have to give Daniel an answer, of course.

  First, though, she needed to prove to herself that Riley wasn’t a reason for her to get off the pot.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  SHE WAS ONLY doing what Logan had asked. At least that’s what Claire kept telling herself on the walk over to the McCord Ranch. Riley had apparently had another nightmare, one so serious that it’d troubled Logan. And serious enough for him to ask her to check on him.

  What Logan hadn’t asked her to do was kiss Riley.

  But that’s exactly what she intended to do.

  Kiss him. Right on the mouth.

  Claire kept going over how her response to Daniel’s proposal would play out. If she said yes, she might regret it down the road. And the reason for that regret was something that was hard for her to admit.

  She might not have gotten Riley out of her system.

  The best way to determine that was to kiss him. If she felt something, then she’d tell Daniel no, that she couldn’t marry him when she might have feelings for another man. Of course, that other man might not have feelings for her, and even if Riley did, it didn’t mean they would ever have a future together. Still, she needed to test this. For her own sake.

  She huffed. All right. Maybe she just wanted to kiss him, and it didn’t have diddly piddly to do with the proposal. She just wanted to know if there was something more to feel than only the lukewarm heat she did with Daniel.

  God, she hoped so.

  Ten minutes into the walk, and Claire was sorry she hadn’t driven over instead. The April sun was bearing down on her, and by the time she made it to the ranch, she was hot and itchy. That didn’t go away when she spotted Riley.

  Her mouth went dry.

  She hadn’t expected to see him out of the house or off the porch,
but there he was—in a corral with two other men and some horses. He wasn’t wearing his uniform today but was instead dressed in jeans and a button-up, and the sun was hitting him just right to spotlight that face. That hair.

  Yes, he was still hot.

  And, yes, she was going to kiss him.

  “Horses,” Ethan squealed.

  Riley looked up, smiled when he saw them and started toward them. He looked like his usual self. No limp, no signs of pain. Not until he got closer, that was.

  He opened the corral gate, his grip on the metal latch turning his fingers white. Now that she could see him better, he looked ready to pitch face-first onto the ground. Claire tried not to seem so obvious, but she hurried to him, slipped her arm around his waist.

  “Thanks,” he whispered. Riley glanced back at the ranch hands, thanked them.

  Ah. She got it then. Riley didn’t want them to know he was in pain. Of course, he didn’t like anyone knowing that, but it would probably break one of his man-rules if he showed any signs of weakness to the hands.

  “Horses!” Ethan squealed again.

  Riley nodded, eked out a smile. “Cutting horses. Logan’s new project,” he added to Claire. “He arranged to have them delivered today, and he needed me to sign for them. Logan’s sneaky like that. He leaves for a trip, knowing I’ll have to get involved.”

  Yes, Logan was sneaky. After all, here she was.

  “Let me guess,” Riley continued. “Logan asked you to check on me.”

  “He did,” she readily admitted. “But I came here to...”

  Heck, she just went for it. Claire came up on her toes to plant one on his mouth. At that exact moment, though, the stars aligned against her. Riley grimaced, turned his head, and her lips landed on his cheek instead.

  He froze. Turned. Looked down at her. “Was that meant to be a real kiss or was it an accident?” he asked.

  Good question. Claire nearly wimped out, but hey, this was her test, her rules. “Real,” she admitted.

  Riley kept staring at her. And staring. Specifically, he looked at her mouth, and the muscles in his jaw stirred like crazy. Then, his gaze drifted to Ethan—who was also staring at them.