Marrying the Cowboy

by Trish Milburn

  “I like to think so.”

  This felt good, teasing and laughing. But as Elissa glanced at Pete’s profile, a new fear reached out and grabbed her. The fear that what she’d always shared with Pete was no longer enough.

  Chapter Eight

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Greg Bozeman yelled at the ref who’d just made a call against the Blue Falls team that everyone on the home side of the field with eyes could see was wrong.

  “Glad to see some things haven’t changed,” Pete said from where he sat next to Elissa.

  “What, that the refs are still blind?” Greg asked.

  “That you’re still arguing with their calls.”

  Greg turned where he was sitting in front of them. “You tell me that wasn’t a blown call.”

  “I didn’t say you were wrong.”

  “The refs aren’t the only thing that hasn’t changed,” Skyler said as she shifted her position. “These bleachers are still uncomfortable.”

  “They’re better than the ones at the fairgrounds,” Elissa said.

  “Ugh, don’t remind me. I’m not sure I can take bleachers two nights in a row.”

  “What, you’re going to miss my triumphant return to the rodeo?” Pete laughed a little, probably because he was sitting with two actual rodeo cowboys.

  Skyler patted his knee. “Sweetie, I’ll come watch if you promise not to fall off your horse and break your neck.”

  “Hey, I was pretty good.”

  “How long has it been since you were in a roping event?” Liam asked, a teasing look on his face.

  “A while.”

  “Which means at least, what, five or six years?” Elissa only meant to add to the teasing, but she was suddenly worried about Pete getting hurt. After all, she’d seen both Liam and Logan get injured during rodeos, and they were professionals. Granted, team roping wasn’t the same as riding a bucking bronc or a bull with a nasty attitude, but accidents still happened.

  “I haven’t been on a bike in ages, either, but I remember how to ride one.” That drew several snickers.

  “All I know is I’m bringing the thickest, fluffiest pillow I own to sit on.” Skyler shifted in her seat again with a wince.

  “The game’s almost over,” India said.

  Elissa smiled at how good a time her friend seemed to be having. When they were in high school, India had been the most uncomfortable of their trio at games. Oddly enough, she did okay at school, was almost able to forget her horrible home life. But when they went to games, she had to be around adults who knew who her parents were, that they were the very epitome of useless. But India wasn’t that insecure girl anymore. She’d made a good life for herself even before meeting Liam, but his love had made her blossom. Same with Skyler once Logan had convinced her he would never leave her as her father had repeatedly done to her mother.

  “More popcorn?” Pete asked as he extended the tub toward her.

  She waved it off. “No, I’m good.”

  “Did anyone get the memo that hell had frozen over?” Skyler asked.

  “On second thought.” Elissa stuck her hand in the popcorn bucket and pulled out a handful, which she promptly tossed at Skyler.

  “Hey, no assaulting the pregnant lady,” Skyler said as she put her hands up in defense.

  “Weenie.” Pete pitched a few more pieces of popcorn at Skyler, several of which went down the front of her shirt.

  “Good aim, dude,” Greg said, earning him a handful of popcorn courtesy of Skyler and Logan.

  After several more volleys and a distinct clearing of the throat by the older woman a couple of bleachers behind them, they all managed to get control of themselves. Elissa wasn’t the only one who was having trouble not laughing at them being scolded.

  “Like I said, some things never change,” Greg said.

  After the game was over, they all headed for the parking lot.

  “This was a good idea,” India said. “We should do this again, a group outing.”

  “Only next time I need a date,” Greg said. “This solo stuff is ruining my reputation. I’m what, the seventh wheel here.”

  Elissa looked at Pete in the same moment that he looked at her, but they quickly shifted their gazes away from each other. Neither of them said anything to draw attention to the fact that Greg was for some reason lumping them together as a couple. Thankfully, no one else seemed to notice.

  “Man, I think there’s still popcorn in my shirt,” Skyler said.

  Elissa was laughing when she stepped out from between two cars just as someone came racing down the gravel drive. One moment she registered the headlights aimed at her, and in the next someone grabbed her and shoved her out of the way. He’d already let her go before she realized it was Pete and that he was approaching the driver’s side of the now-stopped car.

  He pointed at the driver. “You need to slow down. It’s a parking lot, not the interstate.”

  The guy yelled an obscenity at him. In the next moment, Pete reached through the driver’s open window and grabbed the front of his shirt. “You’re obviously not from here, so you don’t know that I can arrest you and toss you in jail for reckless endangerment.”

  “Sorry, man.” The driver looked through his windshield at Elissa. “Sorry.”

  She nodded then shifted her attention back to Pete. “It’s okay. No harm done.”

  Pete slowly let go of the driver’s shirt. “Don’t go even one mile per hour over the speed limit on the way home.”

  The guy nodded before he much more slowly continued on his way.

  Greg laughed. “Whoa, who knew Pete had some badass in him?”

  Pete ignored him, instead watching the driver leave the parking lot. Then he glanced at Elissa. “You okay?”

  “Yeah, fine.” Except she suspected that the frantic beating of her heart had more to do with how incredibly attractive she found Pete at the moment than almost being run over. It was all she could do not to lick her lips as she took in the entirety of him—the familiar hat and boots, jeans and a blue T-shirt that covered that chest she couldn’t purge from her thoughts. But it was the way the muscles in his forearms stretched taut, the way his hands were clenched into fists that made her uncharacteristically breathless. Who knew she had a weakness for a guy being all alpha protector?

  They’d all resumed walking toward their cars when Skyler grabbed Elissa’s arm and held her back, letting Pete get a little ahead. “Um, is there something we should know?”

  Elissa managed to suppress her moment of panic as she met Skyler’s gaze. “About?”

  “What just happened. Pete going all knight in shining armor.”

  Elissa looked from Skyler to India and back. “In case you haven’t noticed, he’s a cop. Protecting the public is his job.”

  “I’ve never known Pete to accost a driver before,” Skyler said.

  “It could have been a little kid who ran out in front of him. Jerk was probably just pissed that his team lost, and he needed that attitude adjustment.”

  Elissa wasn’t sure her friends were convinced, but there was nothing else she could say or do without making it obvious that she was trying too hard to deny anything between her and Pete. Plus, she wasn’t lying. There wasn’t anything between them, nothing that hadn’t been there for years anyway.

  “I’ll catch you all later. I gotta get some sleep. The insurance agent is coming by tomorrow morning, hopefully with a big fat check.”

  “Good,” India said. “About time.”

  Elissa followed Pete to her SUV, leaving the others to wander off in different directions toward their own vehicles.

  “What were Skyler and India all secretive about?”

  Elissa deliberately didn’t look at him as she slid into her side of the car. “Nothing
.”

  She started the engine and headed out of the parking lot. They were halfway back to her house before the rapid-fire beating of her heart started to calm. She glanced over at Pete and noticed that he still seemed tense.

  “Thanks for keeping me from becoming a pancake back there.”

  “No problem.” But by the way he held himself, something was still bothering him.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I nearly punched that guy.”

  “I saw.”

  “I don’t normally lose my temper like that.”

  Something shifted inside Elissa’s chest, a sliver of... Was that hope that the reason Pete was so upset was because it had been her specifically who’d almost been hit?

  She returned her attention to the road, scolding herself for continuing to allow those types of thoughts to find a home in her mind.

  “Well, I think he had it coming.” She laughed a little, trying to make light of the incident. She let a few moments pass by before she felt the need to fill the silence. “So, you and Charlie are really ready?”

  “We practiced some today. We’re rusty, but we’re not exactly shooting for winning. Just filling in a slot.”

  She almost told him to be careful, but she held her tongue. It wasn’t as if he was careless.

  “I better not injure myself too badly, or Connor will kill me.”

  “Connor? Why, because he’d have to take extra shifts?”

  “No, because I’ve got a date with his cousin Leah afterward.”

  That news hit Elissa harder than it should have, and her hands involuntarily tightened on the steering wheel until she forced herself to relax her grip.

  “Oh, yeah. I guess a guy with a broken neck or cracked skull wouldn’t be the best date in the world.”

  “Pretty sure I won’t be that even if I stay intact.”

  “Why would you say that?” She winced at the tone of her voice, as if she might throw punches at anyone who suggested he wasn’t a great date. “I mean, that’s a bit defeatist, don’t you think? Not the right attitude to take into a date.”

  “I’m just doing it as a favor to Connor so he can go out with Kristi McKee instead of feeling obligated to spend the evening with Leah.”

  That made her feel better. Not a lot, but enough that she didn’t want to throttle this Leah person on sight. What was wrong with her? She should be wishing Pete well. He deserved to have a good time, to find someone special. Maybe it wasn’t Leah, but who was to say?

  The mere thought made her jaws tighten.

  When they reached the house, she used the excuse of having to meet the insurance agent in the morning to head to bed. In reality, she just needed to be alone, without Pete within sight or her friends growing a little too suspicious. Sometime between now and when she emerged from her room in the morning, she had to find a way to forget these new, problematic feelings about Pete. Because if she didn’t, she didn’t know how much longer she was going to be able to hide them.

  As she sank down on the side of her bed, she sifted through her stack of mail she’d grabbed from the kitchen table. On the bottom was a large envelope from her mother, sent from Portugal. Inside she found a pair of green-and-gold teardrop earrings, a copy of a travel magazine with her mother’s latest article in it and a letter. She opened it and started to read.

  Elissa, sweetie, I hope you’re doing well and that repairs on the nursery are already under way. I feel so awful that I couldn’t be there to hold you and make sure you were really okay after the tornado.

  They’d talked only briefly the next day just before her parents were boarding a plane for China and a float down some river that was so remote Elissa wasn’t even sure it had a name. Evidently, they’d made it back to civilization alive. She read the rest of the letter, which recounted some of their most recent adventures, including how her father was evidently now an honorary chieftain of a tribe in some hidden-away nook in Zimbabwe. Elissa laughed at the picture her mom had included of her dad in some sort of wild ceremonial headdress that had to weigh a ton.

  Elissa lay on her side and opened the magazine to her mom’s article. Her mom really did have a remarkable talent for making places come alive with her words, so much so that by the end of the article Elissa was ready to book a flight to the remotest corner of Africa.

  Maybe that was what she needed, to get away, really away for a while. Someplace she didn’t have to watch Pete go out with other women while she scolded herself for caring. Only she didn’t have that luxury right now, not when her business lay in shambles. Her bank account wasn’t the only one suffering from the absence of income. She needed to get back up and running as soon as she could, for the sake of her employees as much as herself, more even. Some of them had spouses and children depending on them. She had no one.

  That one, inescapable thought weighed heavier with each passing moment as she changed into her pajamas and slid into bed. As she closed her eyes and begged for sleep to claim her, she couldn’t help fantasizing about having the freedom to run away to some exotic locale where she had no worries, no responsibilities, no need to watch her every word and every movement when she was around Pete.

  As she drifted closer to sleep, her mental travels changed. Suddenly, she wasn’t alone. Someone stepped up beside her and entwined his fingers with hers. When she looked over at him, a smile spread across her face. And Pete smiled back.

  * * *

  “HEY, HON,” VERONA said the next morning when Elissa entered the kitchen to fill her thermal mug with coffee. “How was the game last night?”

  “Fun. Looks like they have a good team this year.”

  “That’s good. Listen, I know you’re in a hurry to get to work, but I wanted to run an idea by you.”

  “Okay.” If this was more of her matchmaking, Elissa was going to scream.

  “I thought we might throw Pete a surprise birthday party. With this the first year since his mom’s been gone, I thought it might be good to surround him with friends. And we can use it as an excuse to get him some things he lost in the storm.”

  Elissa searched her aunt’s face for any hint of ulterior motive, but either it wasn’t there or Verona was getting better at hiding it. “That’s actually not a bad idea.”

  “You sound surprised.”

  “Well, I just never know what you have up your sleeve.”

  “Arms, dear, nothing more.”

  Yeah, as if she would ever believe that. Still, the party was an idea she could get behind. “I’ll find out from Simon if Pete works that day, and if so what time he’s on the schedule.”

  “Good. I’ll take care of all the other details. You don’t need anything else on your plate right now.”

  No, she didn’t. If only she could carve out the large chunk of her brain being occupied by thoughts of Pete, about how he would no doubt have his arms around Leah at the music hall tonight.

  “Something wrong?”

  Elissa refocused on Verona. “No, why?”

  “You just looked like you smelled something bad.”

  Elissa shook her head. “Just wishing I had a genie in a bottle who would grant me three wishes. One, a big fat insurance check. Two, being able to snap my fingers and have the nursery repaired and back open for business.”

  “And three?”

  Satisfying her curiosity about what it felt like to kiss Pete without having to fear that it would ruin their friendship.

  But she didn’t say that. She shrugged. “Being able to eat anything I want without ever gaining an ounce.”

  Verona rolled her eyes and turned back toward the toaster that had just ejected her bagel. “See you at the rodeo tonight.”

  Elissa was next to useless at work once she arrived. Even without the building being repaired, there was still plenty to do. However,
concentration proved impossible as she kept checking the parking lot for Andy Freeman, her insurance agent. Once she got that insurance check in the bank, she could get the major work under way. After getting two more estimates on the repairs, she’d discovered Brett was right. His bid was going to be the winner. She doubted she’d even reach the bank before she called him. The sooner she got the existing building back up and running, the sooner she could begin the additions. Maybe then her life would settle back into some semblance of normal.

  Well, except for where Pete was concerned. She doubted getting her business back on track was going to make her crazy attraction go away. If only it would.

  “Elissa?”

  She jerked her attention toward the door. “Oh, hey, Andy. I’ve been watching for you all morning, and then you sneak up on me.”

  He smiled, and she saw a hint of the mischievous boy who had loved to prank their teachers in high school. Never in a million years would she have imagined him growing up to be an insurance agent of all things. “Sorry about that.” He extended an envelope to her. “I’m guessing this is what you were waiting for.”

  Elissa accepted the envelope and kissed Andy on the cheek. “You are officially my favorite person of the day.”

  “Oh, good. Can’t say I hold that title with most people.”

  “I bet Stephanie proclaims you her favorite person every morning.”

  Stephanie Falconer had harbored the biggest crush on Andy all through high school, and he’d barely known she existed. It hadn’t been until he’d accidentally rear-ended her car while she was sitting at a stoplight in San Antonio that he’d really noticed her. Six months and a little help from one Verona Charles later, and Stephanie Falconer had become Stephanie Freeman. A year after that, Stephanie had given birth to quite possibly the cutest set of twins to ever be born.

  “She hasn’t booted me out yet, so I guess I’m doing something right,” he said.

  “You two are so cute together.” Elissa opened the envelope and pulled out the check. When she saw the amount, she stared at it for a long moment before turning the check to face Andy. “Is this a partial payment?”