by Lori Foster
Getting a breath wasn’t easy, so he just narrowed his eyes and waited.
“Garrett,” she pleaded. “Don’t look like that. I realize there’s probably some right way to do this, but you know I was never any good at social etiquette.”
“Screw etiquette.” She didn’t need to pretty it up for him. He wanted her to say it so he could get started convincing her otherwise. “Just spit it out.”
“I’m messing this up so badly.” She took his hand. “I do want you for a friend, yes.”
Damn it. No way could he do that, not after being so much more.
“And sex, yes.”
Okay, wait.
“But...”
With his heart suddenly thundering, Garrett nudged her. “But?”
She winced. “Am I being too bold?”
“No.” Be bold, Zoey.
Behind them, Noel called out, “A little help here?”
He glanced back. Damn. Did everyone in Buckhorn want buttered corn? Looked like. Luckily, Amber strolled up to the booth just then. He saw Noel gesturing toward him, and he knew his sister would pitch in. When she sent him a thumbs-up, letting him know she had it covered, he nodded his gratitude.
Turning back to Zoey, he said, “Go on.”
Uncertainty darkened her eyes.
“Hey.” He smoothed her lips with his. “Remember, honey, you can tell me anything.” And one way or another, he’d work it out with her.
“Right.” Like a soldier, she came to attention and said quickly, “I care for you way beyond just being friends.”
Now that was more like it. Satisfaction brought him closer, but he needed to hear her say it. “Tell me how much.”
Her lips trembled. So did her small smile. She started to speak, but something beyond his shoulder caught her attention. She glanced there, then tipped her head for a longer look. “You know how I said I made two decisions?”
“Yeah.”
She stood. “I’m sorry, but I need to take care of that second one right now.”
No way. Halting her retreat, Garrett stood, too, followed her line of vision...and saw Carrie approaching. Damn it, not now.
Stiff and formal, Carrie stopped in front of him. She made a point of not looking at Zoey. “I knew you’d be here. I need to talk to you.”
Sympathy weighed on him, but he had no idea what he could tell her.
Zoey knew. Smiling gently, she stepped around him to face Carrie. “I was hoping to see you here.”
* * *
“I don’t want to talk to you.”
Though Carrie tried to turn away, Zoey saw the heartache in her eyes. “I know you’re hurting.” Talking over the music wasn’t easy. The dancers had spilled from the stage to all around it.
Half urging, half pushing, she got Carrie to the bench they’d just vacated, then took her hand and didn’t let go.
Scowling, Carrie strained away from her. “What are you doing?”
“I can’t imagine losing a brother.”
That stalled Carrie’s animosity. “Gus is gone forever.”
“I know.” She’d been living with that fact for a very long time. “The thing is, Cody is still here.”
“I know.” She looked up at Garrett. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you—”
“He’s on the wrong path.” Zoey regained her attention by saying, “And you know it.”
She shook her head. “No, he just—”
“You might be the only family he has who knows it. He needs you, Carrie. He needs someone to care enough to not make excuses.”
Carrie blanched. “I don’t—”
“He needs you to start paying attention.”
Taking that like a slap, Carrie said, “I’m not responsible for what he did!”
“Just as I wasn’t responsible for what Gus did?”
When Carrie’s bottom lip quivered, Zoey patted her hand.
“Believe me, I wish I had it to do over. I would have called the sheriff before Gus left. I would have called you. I would have...I don’t know. Taken his keys.”
At that, Carrie shared a tearful laugh with Zoey, because they both knew that hadn’t been an option. For as long as she’d known him, Gus was a rage waiting to happen.
Taking the shared laugh as an opening, Zoey reached out for Carrie’s other hand, too. “Unfortunately, we don’t get do-overs. All we have is here and now, and your other brother, Cody, is here, now.”
Carrie whispered, “I don’t know what to do.”
Looking over her shoulder at Garrett, Zoey said, “I bet you have a few ideas.” She couldn’t be wrong about that.
He looked surprised to be drawn in, but reassured her by agreeing. “I’ve been thinking about it.”
Zoey beamed at him. “I knew you would.”
“Yeah, you know me pretty well.” He rested a hand on her shoulder. “I can’t guarantee anything, but it’s possible we could convince the sheriff to let Cody do some community time at the fire station. I wouldn’t go easy on him. He needs to apologize to Zoey and rebuild the shed he burned. He needs to learn there are repercussions to the things he does.”
“And,” Zoey added, “he needs to understand the harm fire can do. It’s not something he can play with.”
Garrett nodded. “It won’t be a picnic, but it’d be better than time in juvie.”
Tears welled in Carrie’s eyes. “You’d do that for him?”
So pleased that she almost couldn’t contain herself, Zoey said, “Of course he would.”
Garrett drew Zoey closer. “You’d have to convince your parents, and Carrie, we both know that’s not going to be easy.”
More resolute now, Carrie said, “Somehow I’ll take care of it.” She swallowed hard and admitted, “They mostly don’t want to be bothered.”
“He has you,” Zoey told her. “Right?”
“Yes.” Two shuddering breaths later, she managed a small smile and said to Zoey, “I don’t understand you.”
“You don’t need to, as long as you understand Cody.”
This time it was Carrie who squeezed Zoey’s hands. “Thank you.”
Content with how that had gone, Zoey watched her walk away.
Until Garrett tipped up her chin. “You were saying something about decisions?”
Wow, he’d jumped right back to that. “Yeah, um, decisions.”
“I get that you decided to help Cody.”
“Yes. That was one of my decisions. He’s still young and his family is not easy—”
“And you know something about that, don’t you?”
She did. “I knew you’d understand.”
His smile seemed to touch her heart. “What else, honey?”
“I decided about you, too.” If she didn’t hurry it up he’d miss the entire fund-raiser because of her. “I don’t mean to rush you, but I’ve decided that I want more.”
He kissed her bottom lip, touched his tongue to her. “More with you? I like that idea.”
Her heart stammered then stalled. “Not just sex.” Then she amended, “Not that sex with you is ever just sex. That’s not what I mea—”
“I love you, Zoey.”
Her jaw dropped, but she recovered quickly. “That’s what I was trying to say to you!”
Sinking his hands into her hair, he kissed her more urgently.
“You two are causing a scene.”
They broke apart to see Shohn grinning down at them.
Garrett said, “Go help Amber and Noel with the damn corn.”
“Right.” He winked at Zoey, clapped Garrett on the shoulder and headed toward the booth.
Glad for the reprieve, Zoey rushed to say, “I’m not trying to pressure you. You have a house
and I have a house and my mom is moving in and... Everything doesn’t have to change right away. We could ease into things. Keep doing what we’ve been doing, because that’s really working for me.”
“Me, too.”
“We could keep taking it one day at a time....”
Garrett hauled her close and kissed her quiet. “One day at a time works for me—as long as here on out, each day is with you.” Then he said it again. “Because I love you.”
She squeezed him tight. “I am so glad I came back to Buckhorn.”
“It’s where you belong,” Garrett whispered. “Here—with me.”
* * *
Amber was so busy watching her brother, she kept bumping into Noel. Not a terrible thing at all.
When Shohn came around the booth and started tying on an apron, she said, “I love it when a plan comes together.”
Shohn gave her a look. “Been scheming again, huh?”
Smug, she said, “Think maybe we could make it a double wedding?”
He glanced at Noel. “You getting married?”
Noel choked.
Amber felt her face go hot, but she ignored it. “I meant you and Nadine, Garrett and Zoey.”
“Hey, I’m game. Nadine and I are ready to set the date anyway. But you’ll have to corral the others.”
“I can handle that.” She smiled...until she saw Noel shaking his head at her.
So he thought she was a busybody? So what. She gave him a look of disdain and asked, “Want to dance?”
Shohn’s brows went up.
Noel just smiled as he handed his tongs to Shohn. “Thought you’d never ask.”
* * * * *
About the Author
Lori Foster is a New York Times, USA TODAY and Publishers Weekly bestselling author with books from a variety of publishers, including Berkley/Jove, Kensington, St. Martin’s, Harlequin and Silhouette. Lori has been a recipient of the prestigious RT Book Reviews Career Achievement Award for Series Romantic Fantasy, and for Contemporary Romance. For more about Lori, visit her website at www.lorifoster.com.
Don’t miss the other books in the Buckhorn Brothers series, available now from Lori and Harlequin HQN:
“Buckhorn Ever After” (in the Animal Attraction ebook anthology)
The Buckhorn Legacy
Forever Buckhorn
Buckhorn Beginnings
If you loved Back to Buckhorn, don’t miss these other great titles in Lori Foster’s New York Times bestselling Buckhorn Brothers series available now:
Buckhorn Beginnings
The Buckhorn Legacy
Forever Buckhorn
Looking for more Lori Foster? Then catch all the titles in the Love Undercover series, available now in ebook format:
Be sure to also catch these other great stories from Lori Foster:
Hard Knocks novella (August 2014)
When You Dare
Trace of Fever
Savor the Danger
A Perfect Storm
What Chris Wants (digital novella)
These, and other Lori Foster titles, are now available in ebook format. Be sure to download all of them today!
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ISBN-13: 9781459256200
BACK TO BUCKHORN
Copyright © 2014 by Lori Foster
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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