Cowboys Can’t Lie (A Lily’s House Novella)

by Rachel Branton

  “Oh good,” Marti said after ten minutes, “the dancing is starting. Let’s go.” She bounced to her feet, grabbing Trevor’s hand and pulling him up. “Be warned, Tara, Crew takes his country dancing seriously.” Laughing, she pulled Trevor to the dance floor.

  Crew set down his drink. “Would you like to dance?”

  “Sure.” Butterflies were tickling her stomach. Dancing was something Tara enjoyed and was good at, but she hoped the country moves wouldn’t be too different from what she knew.

  Almost from the first steps, her worry vanished. Crew was a good dancer and a great leader. There was a bit of a learning curve, but Crew was patient, showing her the steps during the line dancing. But most of the steps were familiar and soon Tara was laughing and dancing, flushed and hot every bit as much as from his touch as from the exertion. They were in sync. At one point, Crew removed his hat and left it on their table.

  Finally, he pulled her to him in a two-step slow dance. He leaned over and whispered in her ear. “Do you know how much I want to kiss you right now?”

  Her heart slammed into high gear. She whispered back. “Only if it’s as much as I want to kiss you.”

  His chuckle sent a shiver up her back. She was lost in his arms, falling, falling, with no desire of being caught. There was so much she didn’t yet know about him, but being here was right.

  He kissed her cheek near her ear, and the anticipation made her want to kiss him even more.

  Then the music changed to a faster dance. “Later,” he said, as a promise.

  They continued dancing, but only a minute into the new number, Crew stopped and stood still, the color fading from his face as he stared at something behind her. “What . . .?” she turned and saw a slender, petite girl, whose back was toward them. She had long blond hair to her waist and wore a black tank top, jean shorts, and blue cowboy boots.

  “Sophie!” Crew strode toward her, placed a hand on her shoulder.

  The girl turned. She was young—probably still in her teens. “Hi, do you need something?”

  Crew dropped his hand. “Sorry, I thought you were someone else.” He turned back to Tara, his face still sickly pale under his tan.

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  “Yeah, fine.” But his voice was stiff and his eyes sad. “Do you mind if we take a little break?”

  “Sure, I could use one.”

  “I’ll meet you back at the table.” He strode off in the direction of the men’s room, while Tara stared after him.

  When he’d disappeared, she wandered back to the table, where Marti was sitting alone. “Where’s Crew?” she asked over the music.

  “Pit stop, I think.”

  Marti wasn’t fooled. “What happened?”

  Tara was torn between wanting to understand and not wanting to betray Crew. But he hadn’t asked her not to say anything. “He thought he saw Sophie. She has blond hair, right?”

  “You haven’t seen a picture?” Marti brought out her phone and flipped through her photo album until she found what she was looking for. “Here she is. Of course, this was three years ago. She was twenty-one.”

  Tara took the phone and immediately saw why Crew had made the mistake. Sophie had a mass of blond hair and was short just like the girl on the dance floor. In this picture, she was also wearing very short shorts and cowboy boots.

  “The girl looked just like her. Well, except for the face.” Tara handed back the phone.

  “I bet he was upset.”

  To put it mildly. “Maybe he won’t come back.” Good thing she had brought her phone and her emergency money. The thought made her chest hurt.

  “Of course he’ll be back.” Marti frowned at her. “Crew always comes back. He’s as solid as everyone else in his family is flakey. Well, I mean his immediate family, because his grandparents on his dad’s side were great, and those of us in his mom’s family don’t have any issues. Just her.”

  The tension seeped from Tara. “So what happened to her? Sophie, I mean, not his mom.”

  “He didn’t tell you?”

  Tara started to say that they’d only met two days ago, but that really wasn’t the reason he hadn’t told her. They’d talked about everything else, including how she’d landed at Lily’s House and about his mother leaving and his cattle dying. “I don’t think he likes to talk about her.”

  “Sounds like him.” Marti looked around the dance floor, as if searching for Crew. “Well, Sophie ran away because she was supposed to receive the deed to a horse named Jump Start on her twenty-first birthday, but it didn’t work out that way. Their grandfather died before she turned twenty-one, and in his will, their father received specific land that had once belonged to Crew’s grandmother and also a percentage of the Thoroughbreds. He took Jump Start and some of the other better horses and went into a partnership with a guy who was opening another breeding farm. He’d always wanted to grow that part of the business, and he knew Crew would never agree.”

  “Let me guess—High Vista?” Tara was beginning to understand why Crew had been upset when he thought she worked for the company.

  “Yes, them. Crew’s father basically gave High Vista the land and the horses in the partnership. Never mind that everyone knew Jump Start was meant for Sophie. Those two were inseparable, at least once Jump Start wasn’t racing anymore. The only reason Iron Express didn’t end up there as well is because he already belonged to Crew.”

  “Why didn’t their grandfather leave Jump Start to Sophie?”

  “Well, that was the plan, but Sophie was a little wild at seventeen when he deeded Iron Express over to Crew, so he decided to wait until Sophie was older. Then he died before he could make sure she got the horse. Legally, there was nothing we could do about it.”

  “It broke her heart.”

  “Yes, and all of our hearts right along with her.” Marti sighed. “I wasn’t there the day she left, but there was a huge fight. Sophie had learned long ago not to trust her father, but she blamed Crew for not stopping him. He blamed himself too. Still does.”

  “I take it Crew and his father aren’t on good terms.” No wonder the man had never come up in their conversations except briefly.

  Marti shrugged. “Well, he died in a car crash right after. So we’ll never know what might have happened.”

  Died? No wonder Crew didn’t talk about him. “But if he’s dead, wouldn’t Crew and Sophie get back his share of High Vista?”

  “I wish. Everything in the partnership went to the survivor, so High Vista walked off with the land and horses without a single payment. Or rather, they keep it as long as they fulfill the terms of the contract, which I’m not really sure about. Something about staying in business a certain number of years. They seem to be doing it, though. The guy at High Vista has a rich father who’s been financing a lot of their costs.”

  That would explain all the marketing dollars.

  “To make matters worse,” Marti continued, “Crew’s father introduced some sick heifers into our herd, and we lost two hundred pregnant cows.”

  “That was him?” Tara felt sick. But it made sense since only someone with authority would purchase new cattle, and Isaac was obviously too experienced to make that sort of blunder. Plus, Crew had said the man responsible died in a car accident.

  “Yep.” Again Marti looked around, as if to make sure Crew couldn’t hear them. “It’s been a struggle ever since, but Crew, he didn’t take the easy way out and let the help go. He just got a loan and kept going. I think he hoped his father would come around, but then he died.”

  “That’s horrible.”

  She nodded. “It was a bad time.”

  “Maybe I should go find him.”

  “He’ll be back. Give him a little time.”

  Frustration welled up inside Tara. Having Crew disappear like that called up all kinds of insecurities in her that she wasn’t proud of. Just when things were going so well. “Does he always get upset if you mention Sophie?”

  Mar
ti nodded. “I think it’s because he doesn’t know what happened to her, or if she’s even okay. He went to the police at the time, and they basically came back and told him she was fine and didn’t want to see him. They told him they’d grant her a restraining order if he didn’t lay off. The two of them had been so close, and he didn’t understand how she could do that. I still don’t understand it myself.” Marti fell silent as Trevor returned with two drinks.

  “Can I get you something?” he asked Tara.

  “No, thank you.” Tara rose to her feet. “I think I’ll go to the little girls’ room, though.” If Crew hadn’t come back by the time she returned, she’d text him that she was leaving. What else could she do? Maybe he needed to be alone.

  She’d taken only a few steps away from the table when an arm slipped around her, and she turned to see Crew.

  “Where’re you going?” he said in her ear.

  “The bathroom.”

  He grinned. “Be warned. There’s a line. That’s why I took so long. But I’ll get us a drink while you’re gone. Any requests?”

  Relief made her throat tight. He’d come back like Marti had promised. “Surprise me.” She started to walk away, but his hand tightened slightly over hers, tugging her back. She turned and met his eyes.

  “Sorry about that back there. She looked like my sister.”

  “I figured that much out. You don’t know where she is?”

  “No.” He leaned over and kissed her cheek. “It doesn’t matter. I was just surprised.”

  Tara wanted to tell him she knew about Jump Start and what his father had done, but she didn’t think it would help anything. She most certainly wasn’t going to tell him she’d thought he’d dumped her tonight. Instead, she hugged him.

  He gave the softest of sighs as he returned her embrace. People jostled past them and the music boomed, but she didn’t care.

  He released her, grinning. “Hurry up. We need to dance more.”

  “Okay.” Strange how fast she could go from worried and upset to flying high with the anticipation of being close to him.

  In the bathroom, she stared at herself in the mirror. Her cheeks were flushed and her smile wide. Her eyes looked happy. I really like him, she admitted to the face in the mirror.

  By the time she got back to the table, she was feeling anxious again, but the others were laughing about something, and there was no sign of Crew’s distress. Tara gave herself up to the moment, sitting next to him, with his arm curled around her until they finished their drinks. Then they danced until her feet hurt.

  “Tired?” Crew asked.

  “Hey, you’re the one who has to get up at five.” She took out her phone. “It’s almost midnight.”

  “Don’t worry about me. I’m used to it.”

  But they told Marti and Trevor goodbye and left. “Finally, I have you to myself,” Crew said, as they walked to his truck.

  Tara’s stomach was fluttery again, and the feeling grew as he drove to her apartment and walked her inside the complex and up the stairs to her door. She didn’t move to take out her key. “That was fun.”

  “It was.” His voice was low and slightly rough. “Tara?”

  “Yes?”

  “I think I’m going to kiss you.”

  “I’m okay with that.”

  They started kissing, and she melted into him, giving herself up to the moment. When he drew away, he was smiling. “Can I see you tomorrow? How about that horseback ride we talked about?”

  Yes! she wanted to shout. “Don’t you have to work?” She knew enough to understand that Saturday was like any other day at the ranch for him.

  “I can get away.” His grin widened. “Or I’ll show you a little of what I do. You can help.”

  That made her laugh. “Okay.”

  He waited until she opened her door and then kissed her again, long and slowly. Something inside her clicked, like a switch turning on. She wanted the moment to go on forever, and yet somehow the promise of tomorrow was enough. He drew reluctantly away, and with a smile, headed back down the stairs.

  Tara shut the door softly and sighed. Could this really be happening to her? She sank down on the couch and whispered, “I think I’m falling for him.” The thought was terrifying and exciting all at once. Terrifying because of the power he would have over her, and exciting because of the power they could create together.

  Only one thing marred her happiness, and that was Crew’s reaction to questions about his sister. Would Sophie’s abandonment continue to be something that stood between them, or would he open up about her?

  One thing for sure was that he was in pain regarding Sophie. It was a door that, for him at least, wasn’t shut. And why? He needed to repair things between them or let it go. Otherwise, it could affect all his relationships. She knew because, despite all the therapy she’d undergone as a teen at Lily’s House, she still had trouble trusting people because of her past. They always leave, she thought.

  But it wasn’t really true. Lily and her husband stayed, and her foster sisters were still her best friends.

  The key to Crew’s pain was Sophie. Where was she now? Was she ready to forgive?

  Tara pulled out her phone and brought up Marti’s number. She hadn’t thought to use it so soon when they exchanged numbers this evening, but it felt right.

  Let’s find Sophie, she typed in a text.

  The response was immediate. Yes! I told him it was time, but he’s too proud.

  Marti was wrong. Crew wasn’t too proud. He was too wounded. Behind his determination to make the Silver A Ranch a success, there was a lot of hurt piled up in his past, and her heart ached to understand that.

  I need her picture, and her full name, she sent to Marti. And anything else you think will help.

  Right. I’ll start on finding stuff the minute I get home.

  Chapter 8

  The next day at ten when Tara arrived at the ranch, Crew saddled up Iron Express and Dancer, one of his favorite mares, and took Tara out onto his land. Acre after acre stretched out before them. There was no way he could show it all to her, but he could show her his main herd and a few of his favorites spots.

  He was excited to see that she knew her way around a horse. “I was one of the first who worked with Tessa’s horse,” she told him when he asked.

  “Tessa is Lily’s sister, right?”

  “Yeah, sorry. And she’s also the psychologist for the girls. Anyway, I learned from her.”

  “Well, you’re a natural. I’ll have you roping cows in no time.”

  “I doubt that.”

  “We’ll see.” He leaned over and she met him halfway over their horses for a kiss. She tasted intoxicatingly of mint and warmth.

  She was suitably impressed with the size of the main herd, which numbered three hundred and fifty animal units. “We’ve got two other herds. We run a total of seven hundred animal units on a hundred and fifty thousand acres. A thousand acres belong to the ranch. The rest we lease from the government.”

  “What are animal units?”

  “A cow and her calf, basically.” There was more to it, because each unit had a general weight limit, but that wasn’t important for this explanation. “We can actually run a hundred more, but we’re still recovering.”

  “From losing the cattle, right?”

  “Right.” He hesitated before adding, “About that. The man who died in the car accident after killing my cows? That was my father.” He didn’t want her hearing it from someone else, and after she’d told him about her parents, he wanted her to know.

  Her breath caught in her throat. “Oh, Crew, I’m so sorry.” She hesitated before adding, “I should tell you that Marti did mention something about it last night, but I really appreciate you telling me.”

  “Yeah, Marti’s got a big mouth.” To his surprise, his father’s actions didn’t hurt as much as they once had, at least not the part about the cattle. Maybe someday he’d be able to tell Tara about Jump Start and Sophie. But a
t the thought of his sister, a pit opened in his stomach and anger soured his gut. He pushed back the emotion. Get over it. He only hoped Marti hadn’t spilled his other secrets as well. He’d talk to her about staying out of his business.

  “Now the next place I’m taking you to is really special,” he said.

  “I can’t wait.”

  He led her to what they called the upper meadow, where wild flowers filled a small valley next to a little stream. Tiny purple, pink, red, white, and yellow flowers spread out like a colorful blanket.

  “It’s beautiful!” Tara dismounted and went down the incline to wade into the flowers. Crew joined her. “Your favorite flowers,” she said. “You picked them here.”

  He was pleased she recognized them, but also a little unsure if picking them himself made them less valuable, despite the added trouble he’d gone to. He’d wanted to share them with her. “That’s right. This was my grandmother’s favorite place. She used to bring us here for picnics.”

  She hugged him. “I love that you brought me here—and that I have some of these flowers back at my apartment. Now whenever I see them, I’ll remember this day.”

  “Good. Come see this then.” Grabbing her hand, he led her across the meadow to the big tree where they’d always had their picnics. Thanks to Julie, a blanket was already spread there underneath bug-proof containers filled with food.

  She laughed. “Perfect.”

  She was right. The nearly two hours they spent together were perfect, but all too soon it was over and he had to go back to work. “Can I come by tonight?” he asked her as they readied to leave. “It probably won’t be until eight. We’re moving one of the herds to a new pasture—that’s pretty much a daily task around here. Frequent rotations help maintain the grass at a decent level so it grows back better.”

  “I’d love to see you whenever you finish. I’ll pick up some double chocolate fudge ice cream and macaroons and we can watch a movie or something.”

  “That would be great.” He kissed her and she kissed him back, but he could tell she was distracted. “What are you thinking?”

  “Just about you coming here with your grandmother. Were your sister and Marti here too?” When he nodded, she added, “It must have been nice.”