Marrying the Cowboy

by Trish Milburn

  She shook her head. “No. I don’t want to scare him if nothing is wrong. And he’s in Fort Worth today anyway.”

  The ambulance stopped behind his car, and the paramedics hopped out and headed toward them. One came to stand next to Pete while the other approached the driver of the truck.

  While the paramedics checked over India and the guy, Pete took down the details of the accident and called Greg Bozeman to come tow in India’s car. As one of the paramedics led India to the ambulance, India grabbed Pete’s arm.

  “I was on my way to the nursery. Go tell Elissa what happened, but tell her I’m okay.”

  “Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ll take care of it.”

  After the ambulance took off with India, Pete moved to take the other driver’s statement. After Pete was finished, the guy drove away in his barely damaged truck and Greg towed India’s car. Pete was left with no choice but to go to the nursery to see Elissa. Sure, he could call her, but after everything she’d been through lately, this kind of news was best delivered in person. He refused to acknowledge that he might want to see her, too. All the way to the nursery, he kept telling himself he was just doing his job. If it was anything else, it was simply that he wanted to assure himself that their awkwardness from that morning was only a product of surprise and that all was back to normal between them.

  He found her on a ladder, scraping broken pottery on a set of shelves into a plastic tote. When she noticed him, her eyes widened a fraction.

  “Oh, hey. What are you doing out here?”

  “Would you believe playing a game of human telephone?”

  She scrunched her forehead. “Huh?”

  “Listen, everything is okay, but India wanted me to tell you that she was in an accident on the way here.”

  “What?” Elissa jerked so much that the ladder shook.

  Pete stepped forward to steady the ladder. “I said everything’s okay.”

  “You also said my pregnant friend was just in a car accident.” Elissa hurried down the ladder and tossed the tote to the ground, breaking the pottery even more.

  “She seemed okay. Her car’s pretty banged up, but she walked to the ambulance by herself.”

  “Ambulance?” Elissa headed for the door.

  Pete followed, and grabbed her arm. “Come on, I’ll drive you.”

  “I can drive myself.”

  He stared hard at her. “And I know you. You’re going to exceed the speed limit by enough to cause another wreck.”

  “I won’t speed.”

  He didn’t believe her, so he followed her all the way to town. “I thought you said you weren’t going to speed,” he said as he got out of his car behind where she’d parked.

  “I didn’t.”

  “You went at least five miles per hour over all the way here.”

  “That’s because all the speed limits are set five miles per hour too slow, and you know it.”

  Damn, he couldn’t even argue with that because it was true. Still, he didn’t like the idea of her going too fast and getting in an accident. He stopped in his tracks, letting her continue on into the hospital without him. His heart rate kicked up a notch as he watched her walk away and considered the thoughts that had just shot through his brain. When had he ever worried about how fast Elissa drove?

  The answer was never. At least not until he’d moved into her house, not until he’d awakened with her next to him, making him want things he had no right to want.

  Chapter Six

  Elissa looked across the table in India’s boutique the next morning. “Are you sure you’re okay? Should you be working today?”

  “I’m fine, really. I swear, between you and Liam, you’d think I was made of blown glass.”

  “I can’t help it. You pregnant ladies keep getting toted off to the hospital and scaring me half to death.” She glanced at Skyler, remembering when she’d fallen outside her inn the night of India’s wedding.

  “It’s not like we do it on purpose to stress you out,” Skyler said.

  “I know.” Elissa shook her head. “Hell, I’m just at my wits’ end, and I don’t like feeling this way.” It wasn’t like her, not in the least.

  “Is something wrong?” India asked.

  Elissa opened her mouth and almost confessed to her odd feelings about Pete, but she caught the words just in time. The last thing she needed was for her two best girlfriends, both of whom were crazy in love with their guys, to jump on Verona’s bandwagon.

  Instead, she sat back in her chair. “Just waiting to hear about the insurance settlement, and watching my bank account dwindle more every day that I have to be closed.”

  India reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “You’ll get through this. Nothing gets Elissa Mason down for long.”

  Elissa tapped the top of the table with her knuckles. “You know, you’re right. I’m not letting a tornado mess with me.”

  Now, an infatuation with her best guy friend might be a different story.

  They quickly got through the final details on the next day’s BlueBelles class on community volunteerism. The regular enrichment classes they held for local girls were always popular. But in the wake of the storm and the announcement that the class would involve hands-on volunteer work, all fifteen slots had filled up with girls ages nine to sixteen. India, Skyler and Elissa planned to open the class together and then split the girls into three work groups to tackle different jobs.

  India closed the file folder on the table in front of her. “Okay, now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s move on to the rodeo. I saw Merline Teague this morning, and she had a great idea. In addition to the normal food vendors, she suggested we have a community-wide flea market. Give everyone space at the fairgrounds, and they can get rid of stuff they don’t want and donate the proceeds to the recovery efforts.”

  Elissa started to comment but stopped when the front door opened to reveal Pete. He glanced at her briefly before shifting his attention to India. What was that about? Had he been as freaked out by their waking up together as she’d been? He hadn’t acted as if anything was out of the ordinary the day before, but then the only time she’d seen him once she’d left the house was when he’d come to tell her about India’s wreck. That hadn’t exactly been the time to be dwelling on accidental sleeping partners.

  “Hey, Pete,” India said.

  “Sorry to bother you all. I just stopped by to see how you’re doing.”

  “Fine. Doctor says I’m perfectly healthy, which is more than I can say for my poor car.”

  “Cars can be replaced.”

  “True. Come on in. I have some fresh lemonade.”

  Elissa figured he’d decline, but he instead closed the door behind him and leaned against the front counter. Had he always been that tall? Been just as hot as any of the other cowboys who rolled into town for the regular rodeos? And why had she never realized how good he looked in his uniform, complemented by his new boots and hat?

  Good grief, she had to get a hold on her whacked-out feelings.

  “Lemonade sounds good about right now,” Pete said. “I’ve spent the morning directing traffic while they pave the highway north of town.”

  “The glamorous work of Blue Falls’ finest,” Skyler said with a laugh.

  Pete smiled a little, but Elissa caught a hint of something else. If she had to say what, she’d go with frustration. Then again, she wouldn’t be too up on life if she had to stand out in the middle of a hot Texas highway playing traffic light, either.

  India poured Pete a glass of cold lemonade and handed it over. After he took a big gulp, he looked back toward where they sat.

  “What are you all working on?”

  “The rodeo,” India said. “This one wasn’t planned out too far in advance, so we’r
e sort of scrambling to make sure we get a lot of riders. Hey, you used to team-rope. You want to come out of retirement?”

  “You must really be desperate if you’re asking me to take part.”

  “I wouldn’t say desperate exactly. You were good.”

  Pete laughed. “Were being the operative word. But sure, I’ll call Charlie and see if he’s up for it. Who knows, maybe I’ll win enough to buy myself a refrigerator box to live in.”

  Pete was joking, but something about what he said made Elissa’s heart hurt. Why had she been focusing on stupid things like where she’d fallen asleep and how Pete looked without a shirt when there were so many bigger, more important things to think about?

  She glanced at the clock on the wall and was surprised by the time. “I’ve got to run. I’m meeting the contractor to get an estimate on the rebuild, and find out just how old I’m going to be when I finally get my debt paid off.”

  “I better get back to work, too,” Pete said. “No telling what exciting things the afternoon holds for me.”

  Elissa glanced up just in time to see a look pass between India and Skyler. Warning bells went off in her head, but she couldn’t exactly question them about it with Pete standing only a few feet away. Which was probably a good thing considering her plan to ignore any and all matchmaking efforts until they went away.

  Pete opened the door and held it for Elissa. He’d probably done that a million times, but she got the oddest sensation that India and Skyler were watching his action with a new interest. She gritted her teeth in frustration. How had she managed to let this happen? Until now, she’d been a master at steering Verona’s Cupid ways in other directions. But her aunt had caught her distracted and launched her attack. She didn’t know if she’d enlisted Skyler and India or if somehow she herself had unconsciously hinted that there was a flicker of interest toward Pete.

  She couldn’t think about this now. If she did, her head might explode.

  “You okay?” Pete asked as he walked beside her down the sidewalk.

  “Yeah. Just busy and tired, the norm of late.”

  When she glanced at him, he looked as if he wanted to say something else. Afraid of what it might be and not wanting to deal with it right now, she stepped off the sidewalk toward her SUV. “See ya later. Loads to do.”

  She didn’t give him a chance to respond before she opened the door and hopped inside. She tossed a wave his way without really looking at him as she pulled away from the curb, hoping to leave her confusing feelings on that sidewalk right beside Pete.

  * * *

  HALFWAY THROUGH THE afternoon, Pete realized he’d been staring at the same thing on his computer for so long his eyes were burning. He’d been in this same situation before. Well, maybe not exactly the same. The last time he’d been on the verge of filling out the application to the state police academy, he wasn’t homeless. No, he’d thought he’d finally gotten to a point in his life where he could take the first necessary step toward his dream of becoming a Texas Ranger like his dad before him.

  But then his mother’s cancer had returned, and he’d had to put that dream on hold. As he stared at the application now, he almost felt as if something awful would happen if he filled it out. That was stupid, of course. What else could he possibly lose? He had no family left, no home.

  You could lose Elissa.

  She wasn’t his to lose.

  He ran his hand over his face and back through his hair. Ever since he’d awakened on that couch with her pressed against him, he couldn’t get how it had felt out of his head. It was wrong, but he’d kept replaying it in his mind, wondering what might have happened if Elissa hadn’t leapt away from him, if they’d been alone.

  Nothing, that’s what. Elissa’s reaction was the one that made sense, and he needed to shove the entire incident out of his mind. And he had to get out of her house before he did or said something he’d regret, something that would ruin a friendship he wanted to keep.

  He’d start asking around about a place to rent. Once they had some distance between them, things would most likely settle back to how they should be, how they’d been on the porch when they were eating pie.

  He tapped his knuckles on the top of his desk a couple of times, took a deep breath and started filling out the application. He tried not to think about how he’d have to leave Blue Falls if he got into the academy. It was what he’d always wanted. Heck, Elissa knew that. She was the one who’d encouraged him to apply the first time.

  But as he typed in the information, he couldn’t help the ache that settled inside him right alongside the excitement and hope that maybe he was finally going to take that first step toward what he’d wanted since he was a boy who’d worshipped his dad.

  * * *

  ELISSA BACKED UP Pete’s truck so that her group of BlueBelles girls could load the debris they’d collected from around Agnes Summers’s house. When she’d asked Pete to trade vehicles for the day, he’d agreed and acted as if nothing was out of the ordinary. It was as if their awkward sleeping arrangement had never happened.

  Why was she dwelling on that? Wasn’t that what she wanted, for it to just go away, to not be any big deal? But there was some little bit of her that whispered that she did want it to mean something, no matter how insane that was.

  No, she was simply off her game, she told herself as she slipped out of the truck. She’d spent so much time working and worrying lately that she didn’t even feel like herself. But how was she supposed to get back to any sense of normalcy when her entire life was turned on its head? When she felt as if she was thinking with someone else’s brain?

  “Here, honey. You look as if you could use this.” Mrs. Summers offered Elissa a cold Coke in one of those little bottles and a bottle opener to pop off the lid.

  “Thanks, Mrs. Summers.”

  “Hon, you haven’t had me in class in years. Call me Agnes.”

  “I’m not sure if I can. It feels weird.” Mrs. Summers had been Elissa’s freshman English teacher during her last year before retirement.

  “Sure you can. Ag...nes. Say it with me.”

  Elissa laughed, and it felt good because it relieved some of the pressure she hadn’t realized had been sitting on her chest like an elephant. “Okay, Agnes.” She shook her head. “I still feel like I’m going to get sent to detention for saying that.”

  This time, Agnes laughed. “I never sent you to detention, even if you were one of the chattiest students I ever had.”

  “I had to make sure your last year was interesting.”

  Agnes smiled and looked out from beneath her wide-brimmed straw hat toward where the girls were tossing broken wooden fencing that had been around the small garden into the back of the truck.

  “You’ve done a great job with these girls, with all of those classes you do.”

  “It’s a group effort.”

  “Yes, and you’re an integral part of that group.” Agnes shifted her gaze back to Elissa. “You like to be the life of the party, but under all that laughter and teasing you’ve got a big heart.”

  Stunned by the compliment, Elissa didn’t know what to say. “I’m just doing what any decent person would.”

  Agnes didn’t respond, so Elissa started to step away.

  “Are you happy?”

  Elissa stopped and looked back at Agnes. “I’m sorry?”

  “I taught for many, many years, and hundreds of kids went through my classroom. I got very good at spotting the ones who hid loneliness and pain behind humor.”

  Elissa scrunched her forehead, wondering if Agnes was beginning to get a little senile. That would be really sad. Or maybe...

  “Have you been talking to Verona?”

  This time, it was Agnes’s turn to look confused before understanding dawned in her pale blue eyes. “Has she finally turned
her matchmaking efforts toward you?”

  Elissa sighed. “So it seems.”

  Agnes chuckled. “She is determined. She would probably have made a mint if she’d opened a matchmaking service years ago.”

  “Lord, don’t give her any ideas. It’s bad enough when she does it for free.”

  Agnes laughed and patted Elissa’s arm with her wrinkled hand. “It’s not all bad. There’s a lot to be said for finding your true love and having a long, happy life together. I wouldn’t trade the years I had with Bill for anything.”

  Elissa experienced a pang in her heart at the sadness that passed over Agnes’s face. She’d lost her husband of fifty years a couple of years ago. Elissa couldn’t imagine sharing that many years with someone and then one day he was just gone.

  Agnes seemed to push her sorrow away and smiled. “I didn’t mean to pry, dear.” She took one of Elissa’s hands between hers and squeezed gently. “I just like to see good people happy, and you’re one of the sweetest girls I know. A live wire, no doubt, but sweet nonetheless.”

  Elissa didn’t know how to respond, and Agnes gave her an out as she nodded and moved away to offer the girls something to drink.

  Still, even after the job was done and Elissa had delivered the girls back to their parents, she couldn’t stop thinking about what Agnes had said. Until the storm hit, she would have answered the “Are you happy?” question with an unequivocal yes. But since, nothing seemed quite so certain and simple anymore.

  As she drove back through town, she noticed her SUV parked in front of the hardware store. As she maneuvered into a spot on the opposite side of the street, she spotted Pete stepping out of the store along with Charlie Parsons. She hurried across the street, wanting access to her own vehicle.

  “Hey, Elissa,” Charlie said as he spotted her.

  “Charlie. Long time no see.”

  “Yeah, keeping busy. Even more so thanks to the storm.”

  “You have damage out at your place?”

  “Yeah, some fencing down. Took me an entire day just to round up the cattle that decided to wander out and see the wider world.”