Marrying the Cowboy

by Trish Milburn

  She shook her head. “No, this has nothing to do with that.” Well, not entirely. But she wasn’t about to tell him that as she’d been flirting with the cowboy, all she could think about was Pete dancing with Leah, of how she wanted to be held in his arms instead. If she confessed that, there was no going back. She’d destroy her relationship with him, and she didn’t think she could handle that right now. Or ever.

  He glanced over his shoulder. “Is it the nursery? You’ll be back open before you know it.”

  She swiped at a tear, angry that she’d let herself be reduced to crying in the dark. Elissa Mason was the life of the party, always happy, always up for a joke and a good time.

  But that was before her life had started falling down about her ears.

  “The insurance check...it wasn’t enough.”

  “What?”

  “It’s not enough to make the repairs, let alone replace all the shattered stock. I’ll have to use the loan I got to expand to fill in the difference. And who knows if business will ever be what it was, let alone increase?”

  Pete shifted onto the bench beside her and wrapped his strong arm around her shoulders. “I’m so sorry, Lis.”

  She smiled a little at that. It felt good, intimate when he called her that, the only person to do so. She allowed herself the comfort of laying her head on his shoulder. “I know I don’t have the right to complain. After all, I’ll be able to rebuild and open again. And so many others, you included, have lost so much more.”

  Pete squeezed her tighter to him. “Stop doing that.”

  “What?”

  “Making it sound as if you don’t have the right to mourn your loss.”

  “But you lost your home, everything. Others lost their lives.”

  “And you lost something that is dear to your heart, not to mention the plans for expanding. Those are no small things.”

  “But—”

  “No buts.”

  She choked on the giant lump that formed in her throat and the fresh tears that streamed down her cheeks. Unable to hold it in any longer, she released the reins on her pain and really cried. Pete pulled her even closer, wrapping both arms around her. With her cheek pressed against his chest, she circled his waist with her arms, as well.

  Pete rubbed his hand up and down her arm, and that only made her cry all the harder because a part of her wanted this moment to be happening because of more than friendship. She became intensely aware of the feel of his chest beneath her cheek, the cut of his muscles where her hands lay against his back. It took an incredible amount of self-restraint for her to not let her hands slide up his back, exploring the contours that were totally unknown to her.

  When Pete kissed the top of her head, she froze before gradually pulling away from him. Their gazes connected, and a burning need flamed to life within her, the need to take a chance with him. But she couldn’t, not when she’d be forced to still see him even if he spurned her. Blue Falls wasn’t a big enough town where you could avoid someone for very long.

  Pete used his thumb to wipe at the wetness on her cheek. “I hate to see you cry.”

  “You’ve never seen me cry. I’m not a crier, current state to the contrary.”

  “That’s why I hate it. You’re supposed to be happy.”

  She sighed and looked away. “Even happy people have their hearts broken sometimes.” As the words left her lips, they felt as if they were aimed more at her longing for him than the damage to her business. She should really pull away from his touch, stand to put some distance between them. But she couldn’t, not even when she feared his continued nearness might lead her to do something she’d live to regret.

  Pete touched her chin and gently turned her face toward him. “Is there anything I can do?”

  Elissa’s lips parted as she stared up into his eyes. “I...” A voice inside her mind told her to go for it, but she somehow scraped together enough self-control to keep from leaning toward him.

  But then Pete’s gaze dropped to her lips for a heart-stopping moment before it met and held hers again. He moved his thumb ever so slightly to graze her bottom lip. Her breathing stuttered at the feel of his touch. Pete leaned toward her so slowly that at first she didn’t notice he was moving. When he was close enough that she felt his warm breath against her mouth, her heart remembered to beat again and made up for lost time by launching into a galloping frenzy.

  Pete’s lips touched hers tentatively at first, so much so that she feared she was imagining the entire encounter. Afraid he would pull away, she leaned toward him. Her movement seemed to ignite Pete because in the next moment he slid his hand along her jaw to the back of her head and really kissed her. His mouth was warm, firm and soft at the same time as his lips moved against hers. Unable to stop herself, she moaned and slid closer to him. Her head spun with how good it felt to taste him. She wanted more, much more, but the ringing of a phone caused him to pull away abruptly. It took Elissa a few heartbeats to realize it was his phone and that he was standing while he answered it.

  She licked her lips, tasting him all over again, as she tried to calm her racing heart. What had they done?

  They hadn’t just stepped past the point of no return. They’d leapt across it and left it far behind them. Unable to sit still, she got to her feet and took a few steps in the opposite direction.

  Pete ended the call and turned toward her. In the darkness, she couldn’t read the expression on his face.

  “I’ve got to go. Seems there’s an all-out brawl going down at the Stein, and Simon and Connor need backup.”

  “Okay.”

  Instead of leaving, however, he closed the distance between them. “Are you okay?”

  She knew he wasn’t talking about the nursery or the insurance check this time. She forced a smile, hoping that what had just happened didn’t ruin everything between them, a friendship more than a decade in the making. “Yeah, fine.”

  He reached out and ran his thumb across her cheek again even though it was dry now. “I’ll see you later?”

  She nodded, unable to speak for fear of crying again. Only this time, the tears that threatened were because of the gentleness he showed her.

  He lingered a moment longer and then hurried toward his truck.

  After the sound of his engine disappeared into the distance, she sank back onto the bench and replayed the kiss in her mind. She ran her fingertips across her lips, hardly able to believe that she’d just kissed one of her best friends. And that it had been incredible, just as she’d imagined it would be. Elissa couldn’t help wondering at how deeply he might have kissed her, how he might have held her if mayhem hadn’t broken out among the drunkards at the Frothy Stein.

  But the longer she sat, the more she started to worry that despite how much she’d enjoyed the kiss she might have made a horrible mistake. It was one thing to kiss Pete in the dark when she was upset and he was trying to comfort her, but would it be uncomfortable between them in the light of day, with other people around? Had her weakness just ensured that she and Pete would grow apart?

  Elissa leaned forward, elbows on her knees, and dropped her face into her hands. She shook her head, trying to clear the worry. Because she’d rather have gone her entire life not knowing what it was like to kiss Pete than to lose his friendship.

  She wondered if he was already regretting the kiss. When she saw him again, if he acted as if nothing had happened she would somehow find the strength to do the same. Even though she suspected it might kill her inside. But she’d rather ensure the safety of their friendship than not have him at all.

  * * *

  MOST NIGHTS, THE FEW jail cells they had at the sheriff’s department sat empty or only had a single occupant. Tonight they stood full, and another guy had been carted off by the state police because he had an outstanding warrant in Texarkana.
r />   Pete walked out of the holding area to see Simon working his jaw where he’d been punched.

  “I guess we earned our paychecks tonight,” Simon said.

  “You can say that again.” Pete would rather have stayed on that bench with Elissa than collecting his own shiner courtesy of a dude who had been more mountain than man.

  “Hope you don’t have any more dates coming up,” Simon said as he indicated Pete’s eye. “You’re not going to be pretty in the morning.”

  The image of Elissa taking care of his injuries made his body heat all over. Even when he’d been dodging punches and slapping on cuffs earlier, he hadn’t been able to wipe the feel and taste of Elissa from his mind. Or the worry that giving in to his sudden desire to kiss her had been a colossal mistake.

  But she’d reciprocated. He kept telling himself that, and hoping that she wasn’t having second thoughts.

  “He’s definitely not going out with my cousin again.” Connor walked by and playfully punched Pete in the shoulder.

  “I did exactly what she wanted.”

  “Yeah, introduced her to Greg.”

  “Greg’s a good guy.”

  “Who has probably gone out with every woman in this county at least once.”

  “I think Leah can hold her own. After all, she pushed you out of her tree house. And from what I hear, you screamed all the way to the ground.”

  Connor faked another punch, this one to Pete’s gut, before grabbing his keys and heading for the door. “I don’t know about you two, but I plan to enjoy the rest of my night off.”

  When Pete glanced at Simon, his boss nodded toward the door. “Go on. I’ll watch these losers.”

  But when Pete reached his truck, he sat inside staring down the largely deserted stretch of Main Street. He couldn’t decide if having the kiss interrupted earlier was a good or bad thing. He definitely knew what his body thought, but what would have happened if he hadn’t received the call to help bust up the fight? Would they have gone too far? Would Elissa have pushed him away? No way of knowing now.

  Wanting to see her before too much time went by and he drove himself crazy overthinking things, he drove to the house and was glad to see her car in the garage. But when he stepped inside the house, she wasn’t in any of the common areas. He paused outside her bedroom door.

  “Elissa?” He said it low in the hope that Verona wouldn’t hear him.

  When he got no response, his heart sank. Granted, she might have fallen asleep, but he couldn’t help wondering if she were awake on the other side of the door holding her breath until he walked away. With a sigh, he did just that.

  Chapter Ten

  The last thing Elissa wanted to do the next morning was go have breakfast with India and Skyler. Nothing against her friends, but they knew her too well. If they figured out something was off with her, she wasn’t sure how she would explain it away. She had to admit a little part of her wanted to ask their advice. But another part wanted to keep what had happened between Pete and her to herself, at least until she figured out how he felt about it now that the moment was past. Of course, that would be easier to determine if she didn’t keep avoiding him.

  But she was pretty sure that facing him and having him either tell her their kiss was a mistake or pretend it hadn’t happened was going to give her a punch to the chest she wasn’t sure she could handle.

  Knowing that avoiding her friends would cause even more scrutiny than willingly going through with her breakfast commitment, she took a deep breath and left her room.

  “Good morning, hon,” Verona said as Elissa entered the living room. “You off to breakfast with the girls?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, don’t sound so excited about it.”

  “I didn’t sleep well last night.” Not a lie.

  “Pete must not have, either. I heard him up even earlier than me this morning.” Verona set her knitting in her lap. “Speaking of Pete, do you think we should get him separate presents or go in on something bigger together? Lord knows the boy needs everything.”

  It took a moment for Elissa to realize Verona was talking about Pete’s surprise birthday party. Damn, she had a lot to do between now and then. “I’ve got something already.”

  “Okay. Well, I’ve invited everyone and told them to be here no later than five-thirty and to park a street over. Since Pete gets off work at six, I’m going to call him shortly before that and feign some plumbing emergency to make sure he comes straight here.”

  “Sounds good.” Before Verona could pull her further into conversation or pick up on some hint that Elissa was hiding something, she made for the door. “Considering how much Skyler hates mornings, I better not keep her waiting.”

  A few minutes later, Elissa pulled into the parking lot of the Wildflower Inn, which Skyler owned. Since she’d fallen head over heels in love with Logan Bradshaw, Skyler lived out at their ranch instead of in her apartment at the inn. A wave of loneliness hit Elissa as she thought about Skyler at the ranch with Logan, and India living her cozy life with Liam and Ginny in her little house complete with white picket fence. It still didn’t seem possible that both of her friends were pregnant. She felt oddly left out, left behind.

  Shaking off that bizarre train of thought, she headed inside to the inn’s dining room.

  “Our earliest riser is the last one here,” Skyler said. “All is not right with the world.”

  She had no idea.

  Elissa stuck her tongue out at her friend before heading for the buffet. At the scent of food, her stomach growled, reminding her that she hadn’t eaten dinner the night before. And she’d been so upset at lunch that she’d barely touched her sandwich. Consequently, she was ravenous.

  India shook her head when Elissa sat down. “Where do you put all that?”

  “In my very empty stomach.”

  “Are you feeling okay? You left the music hall early last night.”

  “Had a long day.” She took a bite of her scrambled eggs before noticing that India was still staring at her as if she knew something more was going on. She had to give her something she’d believe, so she offered up the truth.

  “I can’t stop thinking about the insurance and how much it’s going to cost to rebuild.” She didn’t mention how she’d shared the same information with Pete the night before followed by a kiss for a chaser. A kiss she couldn’t get out of her mind.

  India gave her a sympathetic look. “At least you had the loan already. You can rebuild, make some improvements. Just not the expansion.”

  “I know I should be happy. I just...”

  “Feel like you’ve taken a step back,” Skyler said.

  “Several.” She shook her head. “I need to get my head on straight, though, and be thankful that I’ve fared as well as I have.” Knowing something with your mind and feeling it in your heart were two different things, though.

  They ate for a couple of minutes before Skyler sat back in her chair. “Well, I have some news.”

  “You’ve set a date to make an honest man out of Logan finally,” Elissa said.

  “Yes, this Saturday.”

  Elissa choked on her bacon. “Nothing like a little advance notice.”

  “We just decided last night. Since his family is coming for a visit and we want to keep it really simple, we thought we’d just go ahead and do it then at the ranch. Especially since we don’t know if we’ll get his family out of North Dakota again any time in the near future.”

  India squeezed Skyler’s hand. “It sounds perfect.”

  They spent the next several minutes going over details.

  “Seems like it’s going to be a week of parties,” India said as she looked at Elissa. “Is there anything you need for us to do for Pete’s party?”

  “Actually, yeah. I�
�ve been so busy that I haven’t been able to finish getting his present put together. Since he lost all his pictures, I thought I’d ask around about copying any photos people have of him and his family, maybe some school pictures.”

  “That’s a great idea,” India said. “I’d think that would be the hardest part of losing your home, all the things you couldn’t replace.”

  “Bet he’s going to love the pictures of the party with that shiner he’s sporting this morning,” Skyler said.

  Elissa paused with her glass halfway to her mouth. “What?”

  “Didn’t you hear about the fight at the Stein last night? They arrested half a dozen people.”

  “I heard about it, but I didn’t know Pete got hurt.”

  Skyler made a circular motion around her eye. “Yeah, he got clocked by a guy who had to outweigh him by a hundred pounds.”

  Elissa’s grip on her emotions about Pete evidently slipped because the moment her eyes met India’s, she knew her friend had put Elissa’s actions the night before together with her reaction to Pete’s injury and come up with something besides friendship.

  “Is something going on between you and Pete?”

  Skyler jerked her attention up from her plate as if someone had just announced the pope was coming to Blue Falls.

  Elissa opened her mouth to answer, but nothing came out.

  “I saw you watching him last night when he was dancing with Connor’s cousin.” India wore an understanding expression.

  Elissa set her fork on the edge of her plate, her appetite gone. “He kissed me.”

  “What?” Skyler’s eyes grew so big it would be comical if Elissa weren’t so dang confused.

  “After I left the music hall, I went out to the nursery. I’d just had a horrible day, and I needed some time alone to try to figure out why I suddenly started feeling differently about Pete. I mean, it doesn’t make a bit of sense, right?”

  “Why not?” India leaned forward. “You’ve been good friends for a long time.”