Courted by a Cowboy

by Mindy Neff

  His eyes softened, acknowledging the shared memory. That “someone” had been him. For a long moment, he stared at her like a grateful man who’d finally fought through the fog of amnesia.

  “I’ve missed you, Sunny.”

  Those four quietly reverent, simply stated words touched her heart.

  He covered her with the sheet. Then he scooted up on the bed next to her, propped his head against the headboard and stretched out his long legs.

  “Okay. Start at the beginning and tell me all about the truck mishap.”

  His lips twitched. “You’re such a ghoul.”

  “Of course I am. That’s why I aced surgical training. One of the biggest guys in the class fainted dead away when we opened up the belly of a donkey.” Sunny wasn’t treating the devastation of the accident lightly. But she knew Jack, knew he would walk around for days with emotions bottled inside him if he didn’t talk them out.

  And so he did, his deep voice hushed in deference to the subject matter.

  If she believed in magic, she’d swear the years had suddenly melted away. As she had countless times in the past, she listened while he purged his mind and soul.

  He was a tough guy, but he took sadness and injury to heart. It was one of the things that had made her fall in love with him all those years ago.

  Typically, men internalized and women went batty prying details out of them. It hadn’t been that way with Sunny and Jack. When they were young, they’d talked for hours, about anything and everything. She’d thought she knew him so well….

  Then, in a matter of seconds, their lives had fallen apart. The way it had for that trucker tonight when a careless driver had misjudged his distance and tried to pass. The trucker had had to make a split-second decision in panic and disbelief, desperately yanking the wheel, steering clear, fighting to stay on the road, only to crash and burn in the end, alive but gravely injured.

  Metaphorically, that pretty much summed up Sunny’s collision with fate ten years ago.

  Jack reached over and squeezed her hand. She jolted, realized she’d zoned out for a minute.

  “Am I putting you to sleep?” he asked.

  She smiled and carefully slid her hand from beneath his. “You know better than that.” He was staring at the ceiling, but she could tell by the relaxed set of his shoulders that talking had helped.

  “Thanks for listening…and for remembering.”

  “You’re welcome. That’s what pals are for.”

  He shifted his head against the pillow, and studied her for a long moment. “Sometimes when I look at you, I forget what’s behind us. I know we can’t go back and I know we’ve both moved in different directions in our lives….” His voice trailed off as though he wasn’t sure how to continue.

  Her pulse skittered at the new subject, a topic she hadn’t anticipated. She nodded, part of her glad that he’d acknowledged their differences and another part sad that they had ended up this way.

  “I’ve got regrets, Sun,” he said softly, “but I have Tori. And I’ll never regret her.”

  “She’s a great kid.” Sunny shouldn’t ask, shouldn’t dredge up the past. But the door was open and she doubted she’d get a better opportunity. “Since we’re on a roll here, I guess I’ve always wondered what Lanette had that I didn’t.”

  “Don’t do that, sugar bear. What happened was my fault, not yours. You were perfect.”

  “So perfect you married someone else?”

  Jack ran a hand over his face, the quiet unsteadiness in her voice ripping at him like barbed wire gouging exposed skin.

  “I screwed up. If you’d stuck around that day, I would have told you that Lanette was kissing me—I wasn’t kissing her back. You just happened to walk in at the exact moment she jumped me.”

  “You’re a big guy. It’s a little hard to understand why you didn’t turn your head or hold her away.”

  “In hindsight I realized I probably could have done that. But she caught me by surprise.” He didn’t think he would ever forget the look of betrayal in Sunny’s eyes when she’d seen him with Lanette plastered against his body.

  He’d wanted to defend himself, had almost done just that. But she’d called him a son of a bitch, whirled and run. His own pain had kept him silent, but he’d been plenty ticked off at her, too.

  Sunny was the first person in his life he’d trusted with his secrets, with his true self, with his heart.

  And she’d let him down.

  She hadn’t given him the benefit of the doubt, hadn’t let him explain. He’d worked himself into a state, told himself that if she’d really loved him, she would have stuck by his side, believed in him.

  Years of being “that Slade kid,” of expecting to be slapped in the face because he was a misfit, had colored his thinking, and he’d let her walk away. All he’d been able to see was a red haze of righteousness because she hadn’t trusted him. Because she’d judged him instantly, tried, sentenced and hanged him without ever giving him a chance to mount a defense.

  Stubbornness had kept him from going after her. And by the time he’d cooled down enough to try to mend fences, he’d run up against a solid wall of protective family members and friends, who’d told him that Sunny was gone, but wouldn’t tell him where.

  What had come after that was pure stupidity and pride. He had to take full responsibility for his actions. No one had held a gun to his head and made him drink that bottle of Scotch.

  “If the kiss didn’t mean anything,” Sunny said, “why did you go ahead and sleep with her? Marry her?”

  “I slept with her because I was mad at every sorry minute of my life up until that point. I was a fool and I was flat-out drunk.” He heard Sunny inhale sharply, but he kept talking, even as shame tightened like a fist in his belly.

  “Lanette showed up with more determination than a drunken, self-pitying twenty-two-year-old guy could stand tough against. You were gone. I rationalized that I wasn’t cheating on you, that you leaving town was your way of breaking up, and I just said what the hell. That’s not an excuse, Sunny. I took those drinks, I made that choice. I regretted it like hell the next morning.”

  “You drank?”

  He wondered if she’d heard anything past that admission. His mother had died in a car accident with his father at the wheel. Drunk. Jack had sworn he’d never be like Russell Slade. As a teen, guys had needled him about choosing soda over alcohol, but he never let it phase him.

  “First and last time in my life. I haven’t had anything since.”

  “That was my fault, wasn’t it?” Sunny gripped the edge of the sheet, guilt rearing its ugly head. She’d known how important sobriety was to him, and their breakup had obviously opened the dam, drowning his control.

  “No. It was mine. I made the choice. And it was a hell of a wake-up call for me. I had a lot of issues to work through, and I needed to do it alone. But I couldn’t concentrate, not knowing where you’d gone. I badgered your mother until she finally told me you’d enrolled in college. She wouldn’t tell me which college or what state.”

  “I’d asked her not to.”

  He nodded. “That’s one of the reasons I didn’t push. I decided not to distract you, to give us both some space to cool off. I’d intended to find you, try to make things right, thinking I had a better chance once the initial emotions settled down. Then a month later, Lanette told me she was pregnant. The one thing my mom had drilled into my head and Linc’s was to take responsibility for our actions. I married her the next day.”

  “Oh.”

  His gut burned like leather stuck to a branding iron, but he had to finish this. “Your friends wouldn’t have anything to do with me after you left, and I didn’t blame them. They’re loyal to you. But I ran into Donetta one day, and she blasted me, said some things that I hadn’t considered, made me realize how self-absorbed I’d been.”

  “What did she say?”

  “I don’t even remember now.” He remembered exactly. How could you think her
emotions and reactions were only anger? Are you blind? Or just plain stupid? You’ve been her future for so long, Jack—how would you expect her to cope? Sure, she wanted to be a vet, but the main thing she wanted, what you led her to believe she could expect, was to be your wife. And today, I had to call my best friend and shatter her heart the rest of the way by telling her you married Lanette McGreavy and are expecting a kid.

  “I just know that I let my pride stand in the way that night when I should have come after you. I’ve never deliberately hurt anyone, Sunny. But I hurt you. And if I could go back and change things, I would. I’m sorry.”

  The utter sincerity in his voice moved her. She reached over and slid her hand beneath his. “Me, too, Jack.”

  The rain had started again, tapping against the closed window. The air conditioner kicked on, whistling softly through the vent.

  Talking about the past forced her to look at it in a different light, one that wasn’t colored by her emotions. They’d both had a part in the split. She had run away, stunned and devastated. But deep down in her romantic heart, she’d expected him to chase after her. As the hours had passed and he hadn’t even called, she’d assumed he’d made his choice—and she wasn’t it.

  It had been the blackest moment in her life.

  From there, the night became a blur—sobbing on Tracy Lynn’s father’s shoulder while her girlfriends helplessly gathered around; snatching clothes and toiletry items and shoving them into the trunk and back seat of her car as Mama dogged her footsteps, offering advice that had only made the pain worse.

  Sunny had driven to California with no guarantee she could even get into UC Davis—nor had she considered finances. She’d been too numb for rational thought. But Tracy Lynn’s father, Mayor Randolph, had had a powerful contact. On the strength of his phone call and Sunny’s impressive four-point-three average, not only was she accepted, but she was offered a sizable grant to cover tuition.

  The ensuing years had been rough, but her career had made the struggle worthwhile.

  Perhaps she and Jack had simply been too young to handle the rough bumps that invariably arose in relationships. Maybe going their separate ways had been for the best.

  At nineteen, her heart and mind had been overflowing with love, with images of a fairy-tale house and white picket fence. With her young emotions running that strong, would she have set aside her goal and dream of becoming a veterinarian in favor of being a wife and mother?

  She’d been so totally focused on Jack. Looking back now, she felt frightened at the choices she might have made.

  The air conditioner shut off, leaving the room in silence. Neither of them had spoken in the past few moments. There didn’t seem to be any more to say.

  After ten years, she finally understood the sequence of events that had nearly destroyed her.

  But that understanding didn’t change anything.

  Jack had invested his entire life in his Texas ranch and she’d invested hers in her California career. There wasn’t a suture strong enough to hold such opposing seams together.

  She glanced over at him. He was so quiet she wondered if he’d fallen asleep. His shirt skimmed his flat stomach. His long legs were crossed at the ankles, his feet bare. He was the epitome of maleness, tall and strong and so sexy he made her ache.

  Despite the past, there was still a powerful chemistry between them. Making love had been one of the things she and Jack had done best. She hadn’t found that kind of fever with anyone else over the years—not even Michael, whom she’d nearly married.

  Ten years was a long time to go without full satisfaction from a man.

  Today had been a physical and emotional roller coaster. To escape into the ecstasy of raw, elemental passion would be so easy. The man lying beside her was an expert lover.

  She could roll over just a bit and be on top of him, press against him, kiss the scar on his brow, the lids of his piercing blue eyes, his sensual lips, his strong, smooth-shaven chin…and let him take it from there.

  She wasn’t nineteen anymore. She knew that sex didn’t have to lead to commitment—which neither was in a position to give.

  As though he could feel her gaze, read her thoughts, he opened his eyes and turned his head.

  And just that quickly, her pulse stampeded and her hands trembled. He stared at her the way no other man could, making her feel sexy and attractive and bold.

  She’d never had vacation sex before. That was what it would be if she gave in to her desire. She would be here only a few weeks. What could it hurt? The idea took hold, grew in her mind, enticed her.

  She shifted toward him, winced when the mattress connected with her sore leg—

  “I’ve got to get out of here,” Jack said suddenly, scooting off the bed in one swift move. “Neither of us will be worth a damn in the morning if we don’t get some sleep.”

  Holy crud. He’d leaped up so fast that it was a wonder she hadn’t fallen flat on her face on the mattress. She knew he’d seen the hunger in her eyes, and the last thing she’d expected was for him to jump like an Angus goosed by a cattle prod.

  “Thanks again for taking care of Tori.”

  “You’re welcome again. Good night, Jack.” She was proud of the steadiness in her voice. As soon as the bedroom door closed behind him, she flopped back against the pillow and gave a mental scream.

  She ought to be happy that at least one of them had had enough control to keep a level head. They seemed to alternate—she’d be strong one minute, then he’d be strong the next.

  Lord help them if they ended up synchronizing their weak moments while she was still in Texas.

  Chapter Eleven

  Sunny lifted her head from the microscope and rubbed at the kink in her neck, wondering why the hell she wasn’t spending her vacation at a posh spa. There, saints with clever fingers could pamper and massage her body until she was boneless with bliss.

  Instead of aromatherapy oils, she was surrounded by the lingering scents of flea powder, antiseptic and animals here in Hope Valley’s deserted veterinarian clinic. The smells were familiar—and blissful in their own way. Because Sunny loved anything and everything that had to do with animals

  Now, if someone would give her a massage and some drops for eye strain, she’d be in good shape.

  For the past two days, she’d worked beside Jack, collecting more samples, not only from the cattle but from the water and the feed supply.

  Ever since the incident with the cow kick, though, Jack had hovered like a mother hawk guarding her nest. Oh, he thought he was being inconspicuous and clever, but every time she turned around, she was tripping over him. And tripping over a sexy man wearing a Stetson and chaps wasn’t doing a thing to calm her libido.

  A libido that had been in overdrive since the night Jack had lain in bed with her.

  She might have appreciated his control at the time. As the hours had passed, however, and her sensitized body had shown no signs of relaxing, she’d been working herself into a fine sexual snit.

  Damn it, vacation sex was a hell of a good idea.

  Yet the tall, virile, too-sexy-for-his-pants cowboy ignored her signals as though she were invisible.

  Well, she couldn’t be too invisible; otherwise she’d have been able to evade his maddeningly protective bossiness: I’ll do that, Sunny. Watch that hole, Sunny. Why don’t you sit over there in the shade and rest, Sunny? Here, now, sugar bear, don’t be lifting that feed sack. It’s too heavy.

  She’d nearly swung around and clobbered him with the damn sack. Didn’t the man have his own work to do, instead of meddling in hers?

  Frustrated, she’d packed her supplies in the Suburban and driven into town to the peacefully empty veterinarian clinic to use the lab. Here she was in her arena, where she could lose herself in the complicated puzzle of science. The facility was organized and nicely equipped, though not as well as the lab she worked at in California.

  Since the massage fairies didn’t show up, she leaned back over
the binocular microscope and prepared to ruin her twenty-twenty vision through excessive and prolonged strain.

  She’d been checking serum samples for three hours now, and so far every test she’d run had turned up nonreactive.

  That was the good news.

  The results, however, didn’t shed any light on Jack’s mysteriously dead cattle.

  “Yoo-hoo. Is anyone here?”

  Sunny jumped. The smear she’d been holding beneath the microscope skidded onto the counter.

  Adrenaline zinging through her veins, she shot up from the stool and started toward the front of the clinic, where she came face-to-face with a birdlike woman holding a little poodle.

  “I saw your car. You’re the new vet, aren’t you?”

  “Well, I—”

  “Debbie’s been limping something fierce lately. Poor baby, she cries if I set her down.”

  Debbie was a teacup poodle. In a cattle town, most people had big dogs or working dogs. But this pampered pup was adorable.

  Technically, Sunny wasn’t Hope Valley’s new veterinarian, but the older woman and the puff ball she held in her age-spotted hands were peering at her as though she were the last canteen of water on a drought-plagued range.

  “Bring her over and I’ll have a look, Mrs.—”

  “Drucilla Taggatt.” She beamed, crinkling the corners of her eyes. “Folks call me Dru.”

  “Nice to meet you. I’m Dr. Carmichael.”

  “I know. I heard all about you over at the beauty shop. Not that I gossip with the likes of Millicent Lloyd and Darla Pam Kirkwell, you understand. Why, Darla Pam ought to tend to her own business, if you ask me. She’s got herself a good man—one who’s been devoted to her for over thirty years. You’d think she’d stay home and appreciate what’s hers, instead of trying to lure every man who’s got a set of equipment in his pants…if you know what I mean.”

  “Mmm.” Best not to get drawn into the middle of that potential catfight.

  Debbie yapped once and whined when Sunny lifted her from Dru’s arms. “Here, now. No need to fuss,” she murmured. “Let’s just have a gander at these dainty feet. What do you say?” As she spoke, she checked the dog’s paws and stroked her fur, examining and soothing at the same time. Years had passed since she’d tended an animal so tiny. This was a nice change. “Now I see what’s the matter. You’ve been playing outside, haven’t you, Deb.”