Charming the Cowboy

by Liz Isaacson

  “So are you gonna go?”

  “Probably not.”

  “Why not?”

  Levi looked into her blue eyes and tried to find her attractive. Most men probably thought she was, what with her sandy blonde-streaked hair, a few freckles, and a strong personality. She worked as a waitress and surely made great tips from tourists and locals alike.

  But Levi didn’t feel anything for her. He wondered if the ability to love someone had died when his infant son had.

  Shaking away the old memories from his young, foolish days, he shrugged. “I don’t like pumpkin pie, for one. And they’re always trying to shove it down your throat at the Fall Festival.”

  Sammy threw her head back and laughed, causing several women to look in their direction. Levi lifted his hand in a wave to a couple of them, wondering if that was enough interaction to satisfy Sawyer.

  “I’m sure you can bypass the pumpkin pie,” she said. “Maybe we could—”

  Her invitation to the Fall Festival—Levi wasn’t stupid—was interrupted by an eardrum-shattering screech beyond her. Metal on metal, it sounded like a truck had smashed into the side of his ten-thousand-square-foot aluminum storage shed, which sat down the road between two pastures.

  Inkwell danced to his left, his flank meeting the fence post. Levi was already moving toward the corner, his senses on high alert. “Stay where you are,” he called to the riders. “Sawyer! Cooper! Flynn!” He didn’t know where all the other men were, but something told him to get to the storage shed.

  A horse screamed, and Levi’s blood ran cold. It was Starscape, a fairly new addition to the boarding stables. A Tennessee walking horse he’d bought in an auction about fourteen months ago, Starscape had taken twice as long to break as the other horses Levi usually purchased. She was a free spirit, and she loved to run. Levi had felt a personal connection with the horse, and he wished to run freely through the Texas wilderness too. He hoped she would calm quickly.

  Another tearing sound, like God himself had reached down from heaven and pried two sheets of metal apart, rent the air. What on earth was happening?

  He vaulted the fence, hoping to intercept Starscape, who was sprinting now, bucking every third stride. Levi’s throat turned dry. Even the most experienced rider would be thrown from a horse doing what Starscape was.

  Who was riding her?

  Or rather, holding white-knuckled as the horse dipped into a turn even the most expert horses in barrel racing couldn’t achieve.

  It didn’t matter, because Starscape tossed her head, screamed again, and her rider finally toppled off her back, a blur of blue jeans and honey-colored hair. Levi broke into a run, his only concern the woman who’d just hit the ground with a thud that reverberated through his skull.

  He wrenched his phone from his back pocket, still jogging toward the fallen woman.

  “9-1-1, state your emergency.”

  “It’s Levi Rhodes at the boarding stable,” he said, breathless, his lungs aching. Sure, he worked around the farm, but running? Didn’t happen. “A woman just fell off a horse, and she’s not moving.”

  “Is she breathing, Levi?”

  “I don’t know.” He panted; his head pounded. “I’m not quite to her yet.” Everything was blurring along the edges. Someone—a human—screamed behind him; footsteps were gaining on him; in the distance, a siren started. All the noise collided into a roar of sound that silenced as he reached the woman and saw that it was Heather Carver.

  Her hair splayed out against the grass, a delicious honey color Levi wanted to taste. Her eyes were closed and Levi couldn’t detect any motion in her throat, her chest, her stomach.

  “No,” he moaned, dropping to his knees and abandoning his phone. He absolutely could not tell Dwayne that his sister had been hurt at his stable. No way. Wasn’t happening. His hands hovered above her body, unsure of what to do.

  Levi swallowed, said a fast prayer, and said, “Heather? Heather, honey, can you hear me?”

  Chapter Three

  It’s Levi, sweetheart. I need you to open your eyes.

  Heather heard his beautiful bass voice, the one she’d sat in front of in last year’s Christmas choir performance at church. She’d dreamed about him calling her sweetheart for months now. Usually before he kissed her.

  She basked in the warmth of this dream too, a smile flitting across her lips. Levi’s hands touched her, and her whole body sighed at the contact. She’d waited so long for him to notice her, to even look at her like she was a female, that the rough yet gentle quality of his hands was more than a little surprising.

  Other voices joined his, and her fantasy shattered. Her back hurt, and a moan vibrated her lips. Something got placed over her, and Levi spoke in a sharp, commanding tone. Her right arm hurt. Badly. In fact, the other aches—in her neck, her back, her ribs, her right leg—were nothing like the intense, white-hot, shooting pain coursing up her arm and jabbing into her shoulder.

  Why wouldn’t her eyes open? She worked at telling her eyelids to lift, but they felt glued shut.

  “She’s alive,” Levi said, and then Dwayne said, “Heather. Heather?”

  “Her arm’s broken,” Levi added, his voice full of sorrow and dark like pond water.

  “What happened?” Dwayne asked.

  Heather’s eyes fluttered. She needed to tell him she was fine. That he should be at the ranch, getting it ready for his wedding. He and Felicity had been engaged for nine months now, with their autumn wedding on his ranch right around the corner.

  Levi’s voice got lost among the others, and Heather faded from consciousness once more.

  The next time she woke, her eyes flew open and bright light assaulted her retinas. She did more than groan, but a cry tore from her mouth. All she could see was white, and all she could feel was needles in her arm.

  Far away, a man said something. Levi’s gorgeous face filled her view, and Heather thought she must’ve died and gone to heaven. He was here, and he was looking at her with more emotion than she even knew he could possess.

  “Are you okay?” He glanced down at something and back at her. “I’ll call the nurse.”

  All at once, the whiteness faded into normal colors, and Heather gasped in a breath. “I’m—okay.” But she wasn’t. Not really.

  She only needed seconds to take in the beeping monitors, the thin blanket, and identify the sterile, bleach-like smell of the hospital. “What happened?”

  “Starscape spooked, and you got thrown.”

  Heather shook her head, but it made her brain jostle from side to side uncomfortably. She moaned as she leaned back against the mattress, which had been raised to a semi-sitting position.

  “I haven’t been thrown since I was seven,” she muttered.

  The strangest sound reached her ears. Was that laughter? In a hospital? Was that Levi laughing in the hospital? The low notes of his voice rumbled in her chest, making goose bumps erupt on her skin. His laugh was as delicious as his handsome face. Heather hadn’t heard it in years, as Levi had left Grape Seed Falls about a decade ago and come back a shell of the boy and man she’d known growing up.

  Her desire for him hadn’t started until her thirtieth birthday, when he’d shown up at the ranch with a jewelry box and a swift kiss on her cheek. “Happy birthday,” he’d said as he’d moved effortlessly past her, leaving her dumbstruck and wondering when she’d started developing feelings for the man.

  She’d worn the horseshoe charm on a silver chain under her blouse for a solid six months, sure it was a sign of good luck. But Levi had barely glanced at her again. It was like he didn’t even remember he’d come to her birthday dinner. Upon Dwayne’s invitation, sure. But still. He’d come.

  His hand curled around hers, and she practically shot out of bed.

  “Heather,” he said, his voice filled with emotion, the way she’d once heard it. “I’m so sorry.”

  She blinked at him, unsure of where his grief stemmed from. “I’m sure my getting thrown has
nothing to do with you.” She couldn’t believe she’d been thrown. She and Starscape had been getting along just fine.

  “You were on my land,” he said. “Riding my horse. And it was my storage shed that was getting ripped apart that caused Starscape to spook.”

  The events leading up to her getting thrown from Starscape’s back washed through her mind. “Ohh….”

  “Yeah.” Levi lifted her hand to his lips and pressed them gently to the skin near her knuckles. “I don’t know what I would’ve told Dwayne if anything serious had happened to you.”

  Heat exploded through Heather at the intimate contact, only to be iced over a moment later when she realized his concern was for Dwayne. Dwayne’s reaction. Not her.

  She pulled her hand away. “What has happened?” Her arm had been cast, and it felt bulky and heavy, but at least the pain had dulled to an ache somewhere in the bones she couldn’t identify. “I obviously broke my arm. And this is my dominant hand.” She lifted her eyebrows at him as if to say, Good job, buddy.

  “Bruised ribs on your right side, where you landed. Sprained ankle.” Levi ticked off the more minor injuries, like, “Black eye,” in an almost clinical fashion. But horror started in her toes and landed in her face. She felt hot everywhere, and she knew Levi would never be able to look at her now. Not without seeing her bruised, and broken, with her eye blackened and her lip bleeding.

  Tears gathered in her eyes, and she was thankful for the dim lighting in the room. She wanted to know what time it was, but she didn’t dare speak. He’d be able to hear the hitch in her voice then, and she didn’t want to give him an auditory version of her weakness.

  At least I’m alive, she thought, and she settled back against her pillow and closed her eyes to keep the hot tears dormant. Thank you for sparing my life, she prayed. The emotion she’d experienced, however brief, earlier in the evening flooded her now, and she knew her outcome could’ve been drastically worse than a broken arm and a few sprains and bruises.

  “Heather—” Levi started, his hand stroking her brows. Heather’s eyes flew open and met his a split second before the door opened. He yanked his hand back and practically jumped away from her.

  But she hadn’t imagined that crackle of attraction. Had she?

  She’d been harboring such a roaring flame for him for so long, it was hard to tell. But she swore something had just passed between them. Something he’d revealed in the strangled quality of his voice, and the heated edge in those dark, dreamy eyes.

  Dwayne approached the bed like a hurricane, all flashing eyes and stormy demeanor. “You’re awake.” His tone turned rough and accusatory when he looked at Levi and said, “You said you’d text if she woke up.”

  “I was about to.” Levi’s chin went up a fraction. Maybe unnoticeable to some, but Heather had been teaching eight-year-olds for a decade. She knew the nuances of body language.

  “She’s been awake for all of four minutes,” he added.

  It felt like four hours, but Heather wasn’t going to admit that to anyone. “Dwayne, I’m fine,” she said. “Honestly. When can I go home?”

  He switched his displeased look to her. “Home? You’re not going home.”

  Indignation rose within her. “Well, where else would I go, Dwayne?”

  “You have a broken arm,” he said as if she didn’t know. “And bruises everywhere. Mom wants you at the house on Bartlett Street, but I said you should come out to the ranch.”

  Heather scoffed and waved her good arm. The motion felt awkward and stuttered, so she let her hand fall to her side. “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m fine to take care of myself.”

  “And who’s going to feed that hoard of cats you have?” Dwayne folded his arms, and she saw the trembling in his right one.

  “I do not have a hoard of cats.” She shot a quick glance at Levi and silently begged Dwayne to stop talking. The last thing she needed was her crush labeling her as the cat lady. An old maid cat lady.

  “Felicity already went and got them,” Dwayne said. “They’re out at the ranch, and that’s where I think you should come too. Mom and Dad’s new place is too small.”

  “The ground is really uneven at the ranch,” Levi said.

  Dwayne and Heather looked at him. Heather’s surprise was only matched by her brother’s stunned expression.

  “What?” Levi asked. “It is.”

  “Not around the homestead,” Dwayne said. “She’ll be fine. I mean, she’ll need help, but she’ll be fine.”

  “I don’t need any help.”

  “You can’t drive,” Dwayne said.

  “You can’t write,” Levi added.

  “You can’t even walk.” Her brother looked at the other cowboy. “She really can’t do anything.”

  “She’ll definitely need a lot of help.”

  “And did you know she’s in charge of the Fall Festival photo booth?” Dwayne’s voice had taken on a false quality.

  Heather rolled her eyes. “Stop it, you two. I can tell you’ve rehearsed this.”

  Levi looked at her, more than a little resignation in his expression. “You really can’t go home alone. I offered my place, which is big enough and closer to town, but—”

  Fear and yearning bolted through her, creating a noxious cocktail that left her feeling queasy.

  “I said there was no way you’d go home with him.” Dwayne met her eye, and a sibling understanding passed between them. Dwayne knew about her schoolgirl crush on Levi, after Heather had told him last year.

  “Why won’t you go home with me?” Levi asked. “I have main floor living, so you wouldn’t need to worry about the ankle. I have a…um…private chef who comes a few times a week. You wouldn’t have to do or worry about anything.”

  “You have a private chef?” Dwayne asked.

  Levi pushed his cowboy hat lower over his eyes. “And I could help you with whatever you did need,” he said, his voice barely louder than the beeping heart monitor—which started skipping. And racing.

  Dwayne glanced at it before stepping beside the bed and yanking the cord out of the wall. Silence descended on the three of them.

  “I told him he could help you with your sub plans,” Dwayne said mere moments before a team of nurses burst into the room, their eyes frantic.

  “Out,” one of them said, pointing to the door. “Both of you cowboys. Get out now.”

  “I’m fine,” Heather said, though she’d started drowning at the mention of sub plans.

  Two nurses hurried toward her, stethoscopes out and charts being flipped. The male tapped the heart monitor and then sighed. “It’s been unplugged.”

  “That was the old one,” Heather said, satisfied at the outraged look on Dwayne’s face as he exited the room.

  “Visiting hours are over,” the lead nurse said. “You really do need to go. It’s late, and Heather needs to rest.”

  Levi hovered for another moment, and his voice was like music to her heart when he said, “Think about it, Heather. You’re more than welcome at my place.”

  Oh, how she wished he’d say those words to her under different circumstances.

  Chapter Four

  Guilt hadn’t gutted Levi like this since the day his son had died. And this wasn’t even close to being that bad. Heather had broken her arm. Had a few cuts and bruises. She’d heal. Starscape was fine too. Scared and agitated, but fine.

  The memories of holding his stillborn child brought him to his knees, somewhere he spent a lot of time these days. He couldn’t seem to make it through a single day without pouring his soul out to the Lord.

  Help me, he prayed. He thought he’d moved past these debilitating emotions. But they came out of nowhere at random times, and being back in a hospital had been extremely difficult. This time, it had been his fault. Last time too. And he couldn’t box up the memories or the emotions.

  So he leaned his forehead against the soft fabric of the sofa and weathered the storm his life had once been. The debilitation only lasted a f
ew minutes, and then a sense of peace cleansed him.

  He wasn’t the man he’d been a decade ago. He didn’t have to live with that shame. Not anymore. He’d returned to his roots, sought the forgiveness he needed, and used his money to do something he loved.

  Levi got to his feet and moved through the stale house and into the kitchen at the back. Sure enough, Juan Carlos had been there, as a pan of lasagna sat on the stovetop, covered with shiny foil. Levi didn’t want food, though. He’d eaten while he watched Heather sleep, wondering why he felt so protective of her.

  He still didn’t know. All he knew was that he couldn’t leave her side until he knew she was okay. Waiting in those hard seats while they set and cast her arm had been torture. Listening to her heart monitor and the sound of her breathing while he watched had set his patience on fire. And why had he held her hand, kissed her skin, touched her face?

  He pushed out of the double French doors and stepped into the night. Well past midnight, the temperature had finally cooled. He pulled in a lungful of air, trying to find the answers to his behavior.

  He honestly couldn’t.

  “Please prompt her to come stay with me,” he whispered to the stars. Everything he and Dwayne had rehearsed was true. Heather would need more help than she realized, and Levi had nothing but time to give her whatever she needed.

  And blast it, he wanted to help her. Wanted her close to him so he could make sure she wanted for nothing.

  He gazed up to the stars, utterly confused. This was Heather Carver. And he wasn’t interested in women. Period.

  Especially one who would push him for the truth, who wouldn’t settle for anything less than the absolute core of him.

  And he could never give her that, even if he wanted to.

  Levi arrived at the hospital before the sun rose, having slept for only a few hours. He didn’t want Heather to wake up alone. He found Dwayne dozing in the recliner in her hospital room, and Levi froze.