The Cowboy's Second-Chance Family

by Jules Bennett

  “I guess we should discuss the upcoming meeting since we’re going to be out dancing tomorrow,” Lucy stated.

  “Are we done discussing your police officer?” Kate asked. “Because I don’t really feel like we got much information.”

  “You got all the info you need.” Lucy set her mug back on the tray. “We should go ahead and plan on about fifty people. That’s aiming high, but I’d rather be over-prepared than under.”

  The more they discussed, the more their plans fell into place, and Lucy breathed a sigh of relief that they’d moved on from the topic of her personal life. She wasn’t dumb enough to believe they’d dropped it for good, but at least for now she was safe.

  All Lucy had to do was remember that Noah wasn’t looking for anyone. And hadn’t she told herself she wasn’t looking, either? Yet here she was constantly thinking about him.

  So what did she do? Ignore her feelings or act on them? The risk of acting and being seen as a fool put a newfound fear in her. She’d never approached a man before, but since she’d already broached that territory with him, she figured she’d have to keep riding this out.

  But the ball was in his court, so to speak. The question was, would he do anything with it?

  * * *

  The annual fall festival was in just a few days and Noah knew he’d be working security there. Not that Stonerock was known for major crime, but security at any event was imperative.

  He’d heard chatter about how amazing this festival was and how the entire town came out for it. Captain St. John had already told Noah they’d be working the same shift. Thankfully the sitter was going to bring Emma over for a little while. There would be face painting, bake sales, games, a few small rides, music, and in the evenings a big bonfire. He’d heard there was an area set up with a guy who cooked beans all day in a pot over the fire and served them up during the bonfire.

  Noah was really starting to feel at home here. Nothing was the same as his ranch in Texas, but the familiarity of working on a force helped ease him into this new chapter in his life. The small town was exactly what he and Emma needed to feel like they were part of something and it wasn’t just them trying to survive. She’d already made friends with some children from the sitter and he...well, he guessed he made some friends, too.

  Was that what he was calling Lucy? His friend? Because he’d had female friends back in Texas and not one of them made him anxious and excited at just the mere thought of them.

  Noah yawned as he grabbed his keys and started for the back door of the station. His shift was over and they’d been so slow during the night, the hours seemed to drag. And idle time was never good for someone grieving...or someone having guilt for fantasizing about another woman.

  A huge part of him felt like he was cheating on his wife, but the other part of him knew he had to move on. He couldn’t control his feelings and he sure as hell hadn’t picked whom he was attracted to.

  As he headed to his truck, he spotted Lucy in the front seat of her car. Her head was on the steering wheel. Alarm hit him first. Was she sick? Passed out?

  He crossed the lot to the side of her car and gently tapped on the window. When she jerked in her seat and turned toward him, he instantly saw she was upset. Tears streamed down her face as she rolled her window down.

  “What happened?” he asked, resting his hands on the door so he could lean down.

  She swiped at her damp cheeks. “It’s nothing. I just needed a minute.”

  Noah leaned down farther, resting his arm on the door. “It’s obviously something, since it made you cry.”

  Her bright eyes seemed to sparkle even more with unshed tears. “One of the ladies who comes to the meetings lost her dog.”

  A rancher at heart, Noah was an animal lover, but for Lucy to get this upset over someone else’s animal was rather surprising.

  “Sorry,” she said with a sniff as she waved her hand as if to blow off her emotions. “It’s just that Tammy bought this dog after her husband passed away last year because she wanted the company. But he got out of the house and was hit by a school bus. I just hung up with her and she’s so upset.”

  As much as he felt terrible for this stranger, there was a stirring deep within him for the amount of sympathy Lucy had for the people in her group. Lucy cared with her whole heart. He heard it each time she came over the radio to him, he saw it in the way she was with his daughter, and now how she grieved for a widowed lady’s dog.

  “You going to be okay to drive home?” he asked.

  Lucy nodded. “I’ll be fine. I’m going to swing by her place to check on her. I don’t want her to be alone right now.”

  Of course she wasn’t going home. She’d only worked all night and had been pulling double shifts, not to mention whatever hours she logged into her schoolwork.

  “It’s not safe for you to be on the roads when you’re this tired.”

  Defying him, she started her car. “I’m fine, Noah. I’ll take ten minutes to check on Tammy and then I’ll go home.”

  Noah didn’t bother backing away or even attempting to move. She glared in his direction and raised one brow as if to dare him to say another word. Whatever she did on her time off wasn’t his concern, but at the same time, they were friends. Right?

  “As your friend, I’m going to give you some advice.”

  Lucy gripped the steering wheel and stared at her hands. “A friend?” she asked, glancing back to him. “Fine. If that’s how you want to play this out.”

  She was going to be difficult. She couldn’t just let this ride out, but he wasn’t taking her bait.

  “Go home and rest,” he advised. “When you wake up, take her some of those amazing scones or something else you bake and then you’ll have time to visit and not feel rushed.”

  Lucy pursed her lips and he was shocked she seemed to be thinking about his suggestion instead of instantly arguing.

  “Fine.”

  Noah stood straight up. “What?”

  “Oh, don’t look so surprised that I agreed,” she scolded. “Your idea makes more sense. I just... I want to fix it now for her. I hate knowing people I care about are hurting. It hurts me. My heart literally aches for her.”

  Noah swallowed, hating the lump that formed in his own throat. An image of Lucy going through her own grief didn’t sit well with him. Who did she have? Oh, she had her friends, but what family? Because he’d never heard her discuss any. Not that they’d talked a lot, but still. In general conversation most people brought up parents or siblings. She’d only talked about her friends who helped her with the support group.

  He didn’t like that she gave everything to everyone and went home to a lonely house. But, again, that wasn’t his business. Damn it, though, he wanted to do something. What would he do? Ask her to come over again? That wasn’t smart. Having Lucy in his house was just adding another layer to this already complicated situation. His life didn’t need anything else that was new and out of his comfort zone.

  But Lucy didn’t exactly make him uncomfortable. She made him achy, needy, wanting.

  “Why don’t you come over?” he asked before he could stop himself. Shoving his hands in his jacket pocket, he shrugged. “Emma would like to see you again.”

  Lame, Spencer. Totally lame.

  “Would she?” Lucy asked, her mouth tipping up into a soft smile. “Well, I’d like to see her again.”

  Nodding, Noah stepped back, realizing he’d already opted to dive headfirst into this. When she continued to smile at him, he felt a stirring somewhere deep in his chest. Someplace that had been dead so long, he’d almost forgotten it existed.

  “Then I’ll see you later,” he told her as he crossed the lot to his truck. By the time he got in and started his engine, Lucy sat in her car smiling over at him.

  Whatever he’d gotten
himself into was nobody’s fault but his at this point. So, here he was about to have a woman to his house. A woman he’d invited under the pretense of seeing his daughter. But he was a fool and Lucy had seen right through him.

  If he was going to continue on this unknown journey, he was going to have to become a stronger man, at least where Lucy was concerned, because she was quickly wearing him down.

  Chapter Five

  “Thanks, Captain.”

  Captain Cameron St. John nodded. “No need to thank me, Lucy. I’m sorry about your car.”

  She didn’t even want to look around the captain at the sight of her car being pulled away by the wrecker. She’d just left the station and had been heading home, as she’d promised, but someone had run a red light and T-boned her car. Her car she had just paid off.

  Her hands still shook and she wasn’t sure she was ready to get out of the captain’s patrol car yet, either. She’d never been in an accident, and she was quite certain she never wanted to be in another.

  “It’s a little different being on this side of the job,” she stated, trying to get her heartbeat back to normal.

  “I just wish we knew who hit you,” Cameron muttered. “I’ve got some patrolmen driving around looking. Whoever it was has some massive damage to their car, so they should be easy to spot.”

  Lucy blew out a sigh. “I’m sorry. It all happened so fast and all I saw was a dark color fleeing the scene.”

  Cameron patted her shoulder. “It’s all right. We take care of our own.”

  She loved that about her job. They were like family. Still, she wished her car weren’t smashed because she had no backup. Lucy rubbed her forehead, trying to ward off a headache.

  “You sure you don’t want the EMTs to check you out?” he asked.

  Lucy shook her head. “No. I’ll be fine. I could use a lift home, though.”

  “No problem.”

  Cameron drove her home, which wasn’t far considering she was only a few miles away when she was hit. During the ride she asked about his family and if they were all bringing their kids to the fall festival. Cameron had two brothers and they were all influential people in the town.

  “If you need to call out tomorrow, don’t think anything about it.”

  He pulled into her drive and Lucy grabbed her purse. “Thanks, but I’m sure I’ll be all right. Besides, Carla is still out.”

  “I think she’ll be back tomorrow,” he told her.

  Tugging on her handle, she smiled. “Well, I can still come to work. I wasn’t injured, just shaken up and a little sore on my left side where I hit the door.”

  Cameron nodded. “The offer still stands.”

  “Thanks for the ride,” she told him as she got out.

  As she let herself in her back door, her cell chimed, but she was juggling her key in the lock and holding her purse. She let it go to voice mail; it wasn’t like she was in the mood to talk anyway.

  As soon as she stepped inside and dropped her purse to the counter, the phone started ringing again. All she wanted to do was grab a quick shower and crawl into bed. Or maybe she’d just go straight to bed.

  Lucy’s mind raced as she thought of getting some much-needed sleep, then getting up to bake something to take to Tammy, who’d just lost her pup.

  First thing after she woke she needed to see to the horses and make sure they had enough straw and water. They should be fine, but she tended to them every single day just like Evan used to do.

  Oh, yeah. Then after all of that she had an invitation to Noah’s house. She may cancel that because...well, she was exhausted and sore and perhaps she shouldn’t keep going around sweet, impressionable Emma. The little girl had recently lost her mother and Lucy wasn’t sure of the circumstances surrounding that tragedy. But Noah had invited her over, so perhaps he wanted to grab that olive branch she’d extended. Maybe he needed a friend. But part of Lucy didn’t want to just be a friend to the only man she’d felt a pull toward since her husband passed.

  Though there was more time since her tragic loss than his, she knew grief couldn’t be given a time frame. Everyone healed differently and everyone moved on at their own pace.

  Lucy locked her back door and wondered what she’d do about wheels. On a groan, she realized she wouldn’t be going anywhere with baked goods. Perhaps she could call Tammy and invite her over. Maybe getting her out of the house would be a good idea, because that’s the only way Lucy was going to be able to try to comfort her in person.

  And she surely wasn’t about to ask Noah to give her a lift. Speaking of Noah, she’d best send him a text and tell him she couldn’t make it later that day.

  As she headed through her one-story house, she started stripping out of her clothes. By the time she reached her bedroom, she was ready to put on her favorite ratty nightgown, draw her room-darkening shades, and crawl into bed. She’d worked midnights for so long, she had her system down pat. Her bedroom was in the back of the house, away from any road traffic, and when her door was shut and her fan was on, it was out of earshot of the doorbell.

  Lucy tossed her clothes into the basket and had just pulled her nightgown over her head when the doorbell rang. Seriously? She should’ve turned her fan on and shut the door right away.

  She started to climb into bed, more than willing to ignore the unwanted guest. Her neighbors knew she worked midnights, so they never bothered her. But the doorbell turned to a persistent knock.

  Obviously someone needed her right now. Since her nightgown was an oversize T-shirt style that hit her knees, she didn’t bother with clothes. She’d get rid of this person and get into bed.

  Lucy padded down the hallway and came to the small foyer. Even through the etched glass of her front door she recognized that shape. What was he doing here?

  Flicking the lock on the door, she opened it and didn’t get a chance to say a word as Noah stepped right up to her. His eyes raked over her, his hands falling to her shoulders.

  “Why aren’t you at the hospital getting checked out?”

  She should’ve known the accident wouldn’t remain quiet. Not in a small town with a small police force who knew each other’s business.

  “Because you told me to come straight home to bed,” she countered. “Which I was trying to do.”

  His brows drew in. “Don’t be sarcastic. Cameron said you wouldn’t go get checked out.”

  The captain was the snitch? No, she didn’t believe that for a minute. Regardless, this wasn’t Noah’s business. He couldn’t ignore her and then suddenly show up at her door like he had a right to be concerned.

  “Shouldn’t you be home?” she asked, wondering when he was going to remove his hands from her shoulders. Not that she wanted him to.

  The fact he rushed here and was worried spoke volumes about the feelings he went out of his way to fight off.

  “I’d just gotten home and changed when I heard the call over the scanner,” he replied as he eased her into her house and closed the door behind him. “A hit-and-run?”

  Lucy nodded. “Yeah. Some jerk totaled my car.”

  “Did you get a look at the vehicle or the driver?”

  Shrugging her sore shoulders, Lucy shook her head. “No. Just that the car was dark colored. It happened so fast. Thankfully I’m not hurt, just sore. My hip is a little bruised. This guy is going to have a rough time hiding with a banged-up car.”

  Noah raked his hand through his dark hair. “There’s only going to be one dark-colored vehicle that is mangled in the front in a town this small.”

  Lucy noticed he kept fidgeting. Glancing her way, running his hand over his stubbled jawline and his fingers through his hair.

  “You all right?” she asked.

  Noah laughed as he turned his focus solely to her. “You’re kidding, right? I heard you h
ad been in an accident, a hit-and-run, and I worried. So I called the station and they said Cameron was on the scene and the EMTs had been sent away. So, no, I’m not all right because you could be hurt and not know it. Internal injuries can be well hidden.”

  When Lucy went to reach for him, she felt a pain in her back and she hissed.

  “Damn it.” Noah wrapped his arms around her and gently picked her up. “You need to be seen.”

  “No, I need to be in bed.” Just as soon as she finished being carried like some helpless heroine in a historical novel. “I need to take some pain reliever, get some rest, and maybe soak in a hot bath later. That’s all.”

  “Why are you so stubborn?” he muttered as he headed down the hallway. “Which one is your room?”

  “As flattered as I am at your seduction, I’m afraid I’m not up to a romp right now.”

  Noah’s glare told her he didn’t find her nearly as humorous as she found herself. “Lucy, you’re testing my patience.”

  “Last room on the left,” she murmured as she laid her head against his shoulder.

  Maybe just for a few minutes she’d relax and let him care for her. This wasn’t anything she’d ever had before, not even with her husband. Evan had been loving, but never the type to whisk her off her feet.

  Besides, Noah wasn’t doing anything but trying to get her to rest. He wasn’t trying to woo her or flirt or even seduce her.

  What a shame. Part of her wished they could enter into some adult agreement that an affair was the perfect way to get each other out of their systems. Because she was seriously starting to think that she was in his, too.

  The devil on one shoulder told her to be the one to seduce him, but the angel on the other told her he was grieving and to put her hormones away.

  Gently, Noah laid her on her bed and eased back. “Did you already take pain meds?”

  “No. I haven’t been home but a few minutes.” She nodded in the direction of her master bath. “In there, top shelf above the vanity.”