He'd been gone on the harvest crew for four days, arriving home late last night. While he'd been gone, he'd relied on his cousin Ryan to help out and keep Justin in line. At least Olivia hadn't run away again.
After a short night's sleep, Maddox had been out with the cattle since dawn, starting with a headcount and checking fences. Since high school, he'd spent years building the farm back up after his old man had let things get so bad. Maddox had vowed he would never give up on life like his father had.
He'd just ridden his horse into the barn after cooling the animal down when he heard a car pull up in the drive between the house and the barn. Haley had promised to deliver the machine this evening. Olivia had mentioned it about ten times when he'd gone in for lunch earlier.
He stayed with his horse. He wasn't going to rush out to greet her like a high schooler on a first date. Hadn't he behaved like that enough that last summer? He'd stay here in the barn, even if his heart started pounding and his palms slicked with sweat.
Haley was here for Olivia. Maddox was in no shape to be getting interested in a woman. End of story.
Maddox brushed down the horse, keeping his feet planted right where they were. He thought about how she might smile if he went to greet her, how her curls would look in the fading light. He ground his teeth and ran the brush through the horse hair.
"Hey, Mad!" Ryan's voice rang out. His cousin had been over this afternoon, trying for the thousandth time to cheer up Justin. Or get his butt out of that recliner. Or both.
"Your new girlfriend is here!" Ryan called as Maddox tucked his horse back into its stall.
Maddox gave his horse one last pat. "She's not my girl—" He turned and stopped short. "Howdy, Haley."
Ryan jerked a thumb at her. "Followed me out here."
She peeked at him over Ryan's shoulder, grinning.
Something inside him responded, like his insides broke open or something equally corny. Really? He wasn't nineteen anymore.
"You're early," he groused.
She seemed to see right through him, her smile widening. "I couldn't wait any longer. I love ice cream."
"Livy's in the house."
She nodded but didn't seem in any kind of hurry to head that way. She glanced around the interior of the barn, and he followed her gaze, seeing it through her eyes. Ryan boarded a few horses here, and Maddox's four had stuck their heads over the stall doors, craning to see the owner of that female voice. Or maybe it just seemed that way to him.
He was proud of the place. It wasn't new, not by any stretch, but he'd replaced the roof a couple years ago, and it was clean and the animals were well-cared-for.
"You know, I think I only ever came out here once when I knew..." She paused and seemed to shake off the words "Back in high school. The place looks totally different."
"Good." He ran a much tighter ship than his father ever had, and it showed.
"Uh, the junior high principal called again," Ryan said as they headed toward the barn door.
"Something about Livy?" Haley asked.
Maddox shook his head. The man wanted Maddox to teach a class and coach the junior high football team. Mostly coach.
And Maddox might have considered it if he had the college degree everyone in Redbud Trails thought he did. The job wouldn't make him rich, but it would be better than traveling all summer, and it would be a steady supplement to the income they got from the cattle and small crops they were able to raise.
They left the barn behind and crossed the short field toward the house. He noticed the fifteen-year-old Ford she'd parked in the drive, her aunt's truck.
"How big is this ice cream thing?" he asked. He'd cleared a spot on the counter, but maybe he should have asked for dimensions before he agreed to house it in his kitchen.
"Well, it took three college guys to load it in my aunt's truck."
"Sounds like you need me, too." Ryan winked and flexed a bicep.
Maddox rolled his eyes. He might have been worried about Ryan moving in on Haley, except he knew his cousin was hung up on his high school crush. She'd joined the military and had been stationed overseas when she was injured. Now she was in a military hospital stateside. Ryan had been in love with her since high school. Never really looked at another woman.
Haley rounded the truck on the opposite side and threw back a brown tarp, revealing a plastic-wrapped stainless steel box about the size of an ice chest.
"That's it?" he asked. "The magic machine?" Which cost so much money...
"Yep. You guys got it?" She didn't wait for an answer. She opened the cab door and stuck her head inside the truck.
The machine was heavier than he thought it would be, and Ryan hopped in the truck bed to push it toward the edge.
When they hefted it between them, she met them carrying a cardboard box.
"What's that?" he asked.
"Early birthday gift for Olivia."
He opened his mouth to protest, but Ryan shifted the machine, jiggling it. "Mad, c'mon. This is heavy. Let's move."
He ground his back teeth and headed for the house.
She trailed them toward the porch steps, a couple steps behind.
"Do you really call him that?" she asked.
"Everyone else calls him Mad Dog. High school football nickname," Ryan grunted. "Why?"
"It seems like it would be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Like if you expect him to be Mad, he will be. Why not something like Joy or Sunshine?"
She said it with such a straight face that at first Maddox didn't catch that she was joking.
Ryan burst out laughing.
She quirked a smile at Maddox, and he almost missed the first step. He bobbled but caught himself with only a knock of one knee on the porch post.
"I suppose it is kind of a natural evolution from Maddox. But still...what's your middle name?"
Maddox wasn't saying.
"William," Ryan offered.
They finally cleared the stairs, and Maddox realized she would have to open the door for them. He moved forward, shoving the machine into his cousin's chest in retaliation for making fun of him.
Ryan's eyes danced.
"Hmm...you could've been a Will. Not a Billy," she said as they carried the machine past her and through the living room and on into the kitchen.
"Why not shorten it to Ox?" he muttered. "That's what I feel like right now.".
Ryan froze, bringing the two of them up short, and looked at him over the top of the machine with an odd look on his face. Olivia, who was sitting on the far side of the counter, dropped her jaw.
Then his cousin laughed, a surprised burst of sound. "Did you just crack a joke?" Ryan asked.
Maddox ignored him as they maneuvered around the island to the space he'd cleared on the back counter. Finally, he put the machine down, arms aching, and turned to see Haley smiling down at the countertop.
"Who told a joke?" Justin asked, limping into the room, one crutch under his arm. He'd actually come out of his seclusion to watch the spectacle?
"Uncle M, I think," Olivia piped, her face scrunched in confusion.
The tips of Maddox's ears got hot. Had it really been such a long time since he'd made a wisecrack?
Luckily, Olivia's excitement seemed to distract his brother and cousin. She rushed to the machine, bumping past Maddox's elbow in the process. He overheard Haley murmur a soft 'hello' to his brother as she set her box down on the island counter.
Olivia started tugging at the plastic, but it wasn't coming off easy.
"Do you have some scissors? A box knife?" Haley asked.
"I'll do it," Ryan said cheerfully, digging in his jeans' pocket and coming up with a pocketknife. "Then I've got to get to the Reynolds'."
In moments, the plastic was shredded around the stainless steel box.
"It's awesome," Livy breathed.
"It's a hunk of metal," Maddox argued. It pretty much was, with a small door on top and some buttons and a dispenser on the front.
Haley wri
nkled her nose at him. "Just wait 'til you taste the magic that comes out of this baby." She started removing the plastic wrapping and crumpling the pieces between her hands.
"I'm out," said Ryan with a wave. He slipped through the back door, the girls chorusing "Bye," behind him.
Maddox leaned against the far counter and watched as Haley and Olivia made over the machine, Haley focusing as much on the girl as on the machine in front of them. Maddox wondered if she even remembered he and Justin were in the room. "We'll need to clean it first," she said.
Maddox was surprised his brother was still here. Justin had been a bull rider until that accident. It was one thing to get thrown from a bull, but to be trampled by one, too? It had resulted in a career-ending injury—a fractured pelvis. Now, Justin was all but a hermit, limping around the house and battling depression.
But here he was, easing himself down into a kitchen chair and watching the two girls as they disassembled the guts of the machine and dunked them in a sinkful of hot, sudsy water.
"What flavor are you going to try first?" Haley asked.
"I was thinking about something fun, like this recipe I created for banana split." Olivia's voice sounded metallic as she leaned in close, her arm inside the machine as she extracted its guts.
"But then I thought for the first try, maybe I should go with something standard, like vanilla."
"Can't go wrong with a longstanding favorite," Haley said. She scrubbed one of the parts, then rinsed it and set it on a dishtowel to one side of the sink. She'd made herself right at home. She and Olivia were two of a kind, Olivia's dark curls at Haley's auburn shoulder, both of them washing up.
He'd thought she would drop off the machine and be in a hurry to leave. Apparently he'd been wrong.
And then she looked over her shoulder, right at him. "So what's for supper, boys?"
He hadn't thought she would stay. But Olivia's face was all lit up, and he found himself saying, "I can fire up the grill..."
"Uncle Justin makes a mean barbecued chicken," Olivia said, then sent an uncertain look over her shoulder, as if she might've blundered by saying so.
Justin had been so closed in his own little world since his injury, temper close to the surface and frequently boiling over.
Maddox had shouted louder than a coach from the sidelines after he'd let Olivia ride off to town the other day. The younger man hadn't even noticed she'd been gone, too dazed and drugged on pain meds.
But now Justin met Olivia's gaze squarely, his expression clear-eyed for the first time in a long time.
"If I can get a pretty girl to hold the platter for me, I'll give it a shot."
Haley laughed, drying her hands. She threw her arm around Livy's shoulders. "Do you think he was talking about you or me?"
She wasn't quite the shy girl he remembered. She'd matured, but her gentle spirit was still there. He watched as the girls shifted from the now drying equipment to Olivia's notebook and bent over it.
He could almost feel himself falling for her again.
But that was dangerous.
He wasn't the same boy he'd been back then, either. He was a college dropout whose dreams had been put on hold forever.
He didn't know how to dream anymore.
#
Even though Justin flirted with Haley under the guise of teasing Livy, she knew he was harmless. There was something broken behind his eyes.
It was Maddox's sometimes-hot, sometimes-angsty gaze that she couldn't ignore.
It sent prickles up the back of her neck and made her fidgety as she and Olivia reassembled the blast freezer. At least she could pretend her fumbling was because the machine was new to them.
Finally, they got it back together.
"This is a great spot for it," she told Olivia. It really was. A wide swath of bare cabinet halfway between the stovetop and sink, with access to the island in the middle of the kitchen.
"Uncle Maddox moved some stuff around so it would fit."
"Oh, he did?"
Now that Olivia had mentioned it, the microwave was a newer model that didn't match the rest of the worn appliances. The microwave had been mounted above the stove, and freshly cut wood showed on the cabinets where he might've cut them to make it fit.
Haley flicked a gaze to Maddox. The tips of his ears had gone pink, just like Olivia's had the other day. An adorable shared family trait.
"Kitchen needed updating," he muttered beneath his breath. "Got to start the grill." He moved away, slipping out the back door.
Justin stayed, pushing himself slowly out of the chair and shuffling around the counter on his crutch. "Outta my way, cuties."
"But we have to start our base," Olivia protested. She was practically vibrating with excitement, bouncing on the balls of her feet.
"If you want my special chicken you've got to let me marinate it for a few minutes, Livy-Skivvy."
"Uncle Justin!" Olivia's token protest and giggle showed she wasn't too old yet for the silly nickname.
"I've got something for you first anyway," Haley said, drawing Olivia away.
A small alcove made a nice breakfast nook, and Haley well remembered sitting at the small, round table with Katie in the wee hours of the night, talking about boys. Dreaming about Maddox.
She shook away the memories and moved her box from the island to the table.
"You brought me something?" The hesitant hope in Olivia's voice pinched Haley's heart.
She sat down and motioned the girl next to her. Olivia stepped up to the table.
"The restaurant was liquidating, so I grabbed them for a great price. You've got to have the right tools, don't you?"
Olivia exclaimed over the stainless steel pans they could use to make an ice bath, the industrial whisk and strainer, and the two pots, all of which Haley had tucked into the cardboard box.
The restaurant owner had given it to Haley for a steep discount, happy to be rid of them.
"Here's the best part," Haley said. She took out the small white gift box she'd tucked in the bottom of the bigger cardboard box.
Olivia unfolded the lid almost reverently. "Is this...what I think it is?"
She took out the child-sized apron that Haley had sewn for her. White with vibrant red flowers all over, ruffled on the edges. Similar to the adult-sized one Olivia had worn at Aunt Matilda's last week, when they'd first bonded over their shared love of food.
And the most important part, in the center of the midsection, an embroidered logo. Olivia's ice cream logo.
The little girl was silent for a long moment, and Haley wondered if something was wrong, until Livy spun and threw her arms around Haley, burying her face against Haley's shoulder.
Haley blinked back the hot moisture that wanted to pool in her eyes. She hadn't meant to get emotional.
"Happy birthday," she whispered.
"Thank you, thank you!" Olivia came away, slipping the apron over her head and reaching behind to tie the bow. She danced over to her uncle at the counter. "Uncle Justin, look!"
He smiled his approval.
Olivia ran outside, calling, "Uncle Maddox..." her voice faded as the screen door slammed behind her.
And Haley was left alone with Maddox's younger brother.
She let her eyes skim around the room. It was much the same as she remembered, the pale green walls, the same cabinets and countertops. The womanly touches were gone. There was still a dishtowel hanging from a towel rack where Katie's mother had always kept it, but all of her knickknacks were gone.
It was plain, but homey, too. Comfortable.
And then she had nothing else to look at but Justin. He continued working with the raw chicken breasts on the cutting board, but he must've sensed her perusal.
"Nice gift," he said. "Nice of you to give her the machine, too."
She couldn't tell from the sound of his voice whether he really thought it was nice, or he was being sarcastic.
She'd asked Aunt Matilda about him after Maddox's mention of his inju
ry. But she didn't know if she should ask about his recovery or leave it alone.
"I'm excited to work with Livy," she said simply.
"It's not exactly a lemonade stand."
"You sound like Maddox," she said before she'd really thought about the words. The other night, Maddox had been more than concerned about Livy's venture. He'd been negative, though at least he hadn't said anything to the girl.
"I was sorry to hear about your accident."
"Wasn't an accident," he drawled. "Bull knew what it was doing when it stepped on me."
"Oh." What else to say to a remark like that? She listened to the scraping of the knife against the cutting board, the ticking of the clock on the far wall. What was taking Olivia so long?
She brightened her voice. "So what're you doing these days?"
His kept his focus on the chicken, but she saw his face crinkle in a smile. It wasn't a nice smile, more like a fierce baring of his teeth.
"That's the question, isn't it? And the answer is nothing. I sit around all day in my pop's old recliner and watch soap operas."
"Um..."
The waves of anger radiating off of him were almost palpable. But there was something deeper underneath. Desperation.
"Livy said you helped her with a school project. So that's something."
"Hmm. Well, maybe I could have a career tutoring kids. Oh, except I barely graduated high school."
She didn't know how to handle his anger and sarcasm. If he was one of her friends back in the city, she would be comfortable enough to offer an alternative. To say something.
"They have adult education scholarships," she said softly.
"What?" he barked.
She cleared her throat. "Scholarships," she forced the word out louder. "You could go back to school. The state university isn't too far from here."
"Did you hear me say I barely made it out of high school?"
She shrugged. "Doesn't mean you wouldn't do all right now. Especially as an older student."
"I'm not that much older," he muttered to the chicken.
Finally, Maddox and Livy returned, the girl wearing her apron and chattering excitedly.
Maddox looked between Justin and Haley. Thankfully, he didn't say anything.
Kissed by a Cowboy Page 3