Jane nodded.
He might as well give up. He didn’t know why he was trying anyhow, except for the sake of politeness. After all, he had to keep setting a good example for Rachel.
After his daughter had made serious inroads on her dessert, she looked around the table. “Pretty soon, I’m going to have my first day of first-grade school.”
“After the summer’s over, I think,” said Andi.
“Yes. Jane, on the first day, will you take me to school?”
A beat went by, then a second and a third. Finally, Jane said, “I don’t drive, Rachel.”
She didn’t say I won’t be here. But he knew that was the truth. Just like his ex-wife, Jane wouldn’t be there for his kids. At least, he had to give her credit for not wanting to burst Rachel’s bubble at her own graduation party.
“Then Daddy can drive me. Right, Daddy?”
“Right, sweetheart. Anything for you. If Grandpa Jed will give me that morning off, that is.”
Everyone laughed.
“You know,” Jed said, “I think it’s about time we had a toast.”
“But it’s not the wedding,” Rachel said.
“I know, but we’re celebrating, and I think we ought to raise a toast to you.”
“To me?” Her mouth dropped open.
“Yes. Pete, you’ll do the honors?”
“Of course.” Pete held up his iced-tea glass and waited for everyone to follow suit. “To Rachel, my number one best girl. We’re all very proud of you for graduating from kindergarten.”
“Hear, hear,” said Jed.
When Rachel reached her glass in Pete’s direction, he leaned forward past Jane to meet her.
This close, he couldn’t help picking up the scent of Jane’s perfume. This close, his chin brushed her soft, black hair. Sternly, he ignored the assault to his senses.
He focused instead on his daughter, one of the two wonders of his world. A world that could never include Jane Garland.
* * *
JANE HAD TAKEN all the photos of the hotel she would need, had shot all the video footage she wanted. It was time for her to get back to the real world.
Her world.
Pete’s absence earlier that week had made it clear she didn’t need to hang around for him. He’d gone from fun and charming at the ice-cream parlor to cold as ice when he’d simply told Tyler to let her know he instead of Pete would take her on the tour of the ranch.
Yet, despite the fact the fun with Pete was over and she was eager to resume her hard-earned career, she felt reluctant to leave.
She wondered if her time in Cowboy Creek was showing her just what her life was missing.
Time to relax. Time to work on photos for her portfolio. Time to spend with her family and Paz and Rachel. All that had come together for her at the rehearsal dinner and the wedding, at Rachel’s graduation yesterday, and then later at the party at SugarPie’s.
But she couldn’t have all that.
She wouldn’t have her own world again for a while now, either, thanks to what she had just found in her cell phone inbox. She had been thumbing through texts and email, which she hadn’t checked the day before.
She sat on the front porch and, between reading messages, watched the sun come up over a range of pine-tree-covered mountains. Stark green against bold yellow made a striking contrast, but it was an indication of her mood that she didn’t reach for the camera on the swing beside her.
When was the last time she had seen a sunrise that wasn’t from her seat on an airplane? Or from a taxi headed to an airport’s departure gates?
She heard a clop-clop sound on the hard-packed earth coming from somewhere close by, something she never had the opportunity to notice in her own world unless her taxi happened to cut through Central Park. She hadn’t even ridden a horse in years, not even gentle old Daffodil, and here she was, growing nostalgic over the sound of a horse’s approach.
The clopping sound grew louder. She shifted on the swing to look toward the driveway. A moment later, Pete, astride a huge black horse, appeared from around the side of the hotel. One glance at him stole her breath.
From his Stetson down to his boots, he looked every inch the man he wanted to be—so much more than just a cowboy who preferred a simple life. She saw a rancher who clung with pride to old-fashioned values. A man who loved horses and living close to the land. A daddy who would do anything to protect his kids.
Every single one of those traits made him exactly the wrong man for her. Why did she still find him so darned attractive?
Worse, how could she have let him break her heart?
No doubt about it. She definitely needed to get back to her own world.
She watched Pete swing himself from the horse and loop the reins over the railing.
She glanced down at her camera as he climbed the steps, his size-twelve boots shattering the silence.
“Morning,” he said.
She nodded and continued to scroll.
He reached out and dropped the earrings she’d worn to the graduation in her lap. “Forgot to give these to you last night.”
“Yes. I thought of them later on.”
“I’d have come by once we got home, but it took Rachel a while to settle down and then get to sleep.”
She wasn’t the only one. “I’m not surprised. She was pretty keyed up at SugarPie’s.”
“And the sugar didn’t help.”
“No. And Eric?” What was she doing, chatting about his kids as if she did it every day? As if she would recognize anything that had upset them or thrown them off their routines? As if he would care that she cared enough to ask about them?
“Out like a light on the way home in the truck. Sharon changed him and put him to bed, and he didn’t wake up once.”
“That’s good.”
“Jed says Andi and the kids are going home today.”
“Yes.”
“I’ll send Rachel over to say goodbye.”
She nodded.
“And you?”
“Am I leaving? No, not yet.” She scrolled down the screen of her cell phone, clicked a button and handed him the phone.
He glanced down, then returned it to her. “So she’s coming to town.”
“Looks like it.”
“When did you find out?”
“Just a few minutes ago, when I read that message.”
He nodded, and that was that.
But as he began to turn away, she saw his expression. The quick glimpse told her everything he hadn’t said. She was the cause of his unhappiness and confusion.
The knowledge filled her with guilt and regret.
* * *
JANE HADN’T EXPECTED to see Pete again soon, but he came with Rachel to say farewell to Andi and her children.
She was happy to have gained a spokesperson for the Hitching Post. Yet ever since that morning, when she had received Marina’s message and shared the news of his wife’s return with Pete, she had been fighting mixed emotions of her own.
“Pull up some chairs, you two,” Jed insisted. “You’ve got to have a piece of Paz’s cheesecake.”
When Pete said he needed to get back to the house, she debated following him. But then Rachel claimed a seat beside her and said, “Guess what, everybody. My mama’s coming to visit me!”
A stunned silence fell over the room, until Jane smiled and said, “That’s great news, Rachel.”
With the little girl’s announcement, the worries Jane had fought all day flooded over her. “Excuse me,” she said, rising. “I’ll be back in just a few minutes.”
“I’ll save your seat for you, Jane,” Rachel said.
“Thank you.” She walked casually from the room. The minute she cleared the d
ining room doorway, she rushed down the hallway, hoping she was in time to catch Pete before he reached home or entered the barn.
Her feet must have flown, because when she burst through the hotel’s front door, she found him still on the porch. She almost skidded to a halt in her effort to avoid bumping into him.
“I’m...glad I caught you,” she said. “This morning when we spoke, I was still only half-awake. But I have to admit, when you showed up, I was also still stunned after reading Marina’s message.”
“Were you?” he asked. Unlike the last time they’d met, she couldn’t read his expression. In his flat tone, she couldn’t find anything to relieve her guilt.
His reaction to the message from his wife had bothered her the entire day. That wasn’t the only thing that upset her.
The twinge of unease she felt over Rachel’s eagerness to see her mother was half the problem. The other half was discomfort at the thought of Pete’s ex returning to town.
Unease. Discomfort. Such bland words to describe what she didn’t want to feel. Could she really be jealous of Rachel’s need to see her mother again or envious of the attraction Marina still held for her children?
If so, what kind of person did that make her?
“You told Rachel about Marina?” she asked Pete.
“She overheard me telling Sharon.”
“Oh. Well, after you left the dining room, Rachel mentioned it to everyone. She seems very happy about it.”
“Yeah. She’s already shared her feeling with us. A few times.”
She hesitated, then said, “Isn’t it good that she still wants to see Marina?” She wanted to reassure herself as much as she hoped to convince him.
He looked out toward the same mountain range she had scrutinized that morning. Now the sun’s slanting rays showcased those deep green pines below a blue sky filled with puffy white clouds. He stared awhile before turning to look at her again.
“I guess, no matter what, Marina is still my kids’ mama.”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to say all along. She is their mother—even if, from what you tell me, she doesn’t act like it. Maybe eventually, she will. I hope she makes the effort to have a relationship with the kids. And with you, if that’s what you want.”
For a moment, she thought she might have pushed too far in trying to find out how much damage she had done. But she had to know. She felt relieved to realize she’d meant what she said. She truly did hope Marina’s return would work out for the best. But she couldn’t forget the memory of Pete’s confusion and pain.
“Don’t get me wrong,” he said. “My ex is just...” He paused, sighed and gestured toward the mountains. “She’s about as reliable and substantial as those clouds. She always has been flighty, flaky and—first and above all—concerned about herself.”
While his first concern would always be his children.
The thought made her heart swell just a bit.
“So now you know the big deal about why I objected when you wanted to do an entire photo shoot with Rachel. Or, on second thought, maybe you still don’t.”
When he strode away, she sank onto the porch swing.
There was something wrong there, something else he hadn’t told her. She knew it.
But she also knew now his reluctance to communicate with her was only an effort to mask his worry for his kids. To care for them and to keep them from getting hurt.
The knowledge made her care even more about him.
And that made it even more important for her to keep her distance.
Chapter Seventeen
Jane hadn’t moved from the porch swing when her phone vibrated with a new message. It was from Marina, letting her know the limousine had arrived at the Hitching Post from the airport.
She had seen Pete cross the yard and enter his own house, and for that, she felt immensely grateful. On her own behalf, because she wouldn’t have to witness his reunion with Marina. And on his, because he wouldn’t have to see Rachel’s ecstatic reaction to finally being with her mother again.
She entered the hotel and followed the voices to the sitting room off the lobby. Almost everyone was there.
No one noticed her at first, and she spent a moment observing Marina.
She had to admit the woman was everything her photographer friend had reported from that Paris runway and more—tall, slim, with the stunning green eyes and wavy blond hair she had passed down to her children. As a woman, Jane felt a flash of envy. As a photographer, she could only admire the model’s photogenic perfection and respect the hard work that went hand in hand with her profession.
When she saw the mounds of torn wrapping paper and the presents piled between Marina and Rachel on the couch, her heart sank. Pete had said his ex-wife always showed up bearing gifts—and then left soon after. But maybe the woman had changed. For her children’s sake, Jane hoped so.
When Rachel saw her in the doorway, she shrieked, “Jane—look! This is my mama!”
Obviously, the little girl was over-the-moon excited.
“I thought so,” Jane said. “Marina, nice to meet you. As I said in my email, I’m so glad you were willing to be our spokesperson and could fit this shooting into your schedule.”
“My pleasure.”
“Look what Mama brought me!” Proudly, Rachel held up one gift after another, skirts and dresses and pajamas, a doll, several games.
“Very nice, Rachel,” Jane told her.
“And I have more for Eric,” Marina assured her daughter.
“You’ll stay to lunch, won’t you?” Jed asked. “You and Jane can get together afterwards to see about the photos.”
“Oh, I’d like to—” she glanced at her watch “—but I’m due in town. I promised some of my local fans I’d meet them at the Cantina. In fact, the limo’s still waiting. I’d better go over to the house to see Eric now.”
“Can I go with you for lunch, Mama?”
Marina shook her head. “Sorry, honey. That’s for grown-ups only.”
At the tears in Rachel’s eyes, Jane’s heart took another dip. The woman had been here all of twenty minutes and had already made other plans. How could she go off and leave her daughter and son so soon?
“You can have lunch here with us, Rachel,” Jane said.
But the girl’s down-turned mouth showed how little that idea pleased her. “I’ll take Mama to see Eric now.”
Jane nodded silently, feeling as though she had been demoted in Rachel’s eyes. She could handle that. Of course the child would prefer to be with her mother.
What she couldn’t handle was the sudden rush of an unnamed emotion connecting her to Rachel and Eric. Compassion? Tenderness? Motherly instincts she had never realized she had?
She already knew how she felt about Pete. But this indefinable emotion made her realize just how much she had come to care for his children, too.
She glanced at Marina and felt as displeased as Rachel had looked just a moment ago.
* * *
JANE CHECKED THE natural lighting in the hotel suite and readjusted the vase of flowers she had picked up in town yesterday afternoon. She tried to ignore her growing feeling of irritation. If her spokesperson didn’t show up soon, all her efforts would have been wasted. She would have to start today’s shoot in a different location.
Marina had taken Jed up on his offer of a room at the Hitching Post, the only hotel within a hundred-mile radius of Cowboy Creek. While she had the limo on call, it only made sense for her to stay here, where she could be just a few hundred yards away from her kids and handy for the photo shoot.
Footsteps on the hallway floor brought her to attention. They weren’t Jed’s steps. Or Cole’s. She knew very well who was walking down the hallway.
Pete came to the door and stood looking
around the room as if searching for someone. “Have you seen Marina today?”
“Not yet. I think she may have wanted to sleep in.”
“You don’t need to cover for her. I saw the limo bring her back after three this morning.”
Which meant he hadn’t been sleeping, either.
Did that mean he had been watching for Marina?
Her stomach twisted at the thought. Still, her heart went out to him. His ex-wife had arrived only the day before, and already he looked years older.
He prowled the suite as if she might have hidden Marina somewhere in it.
The fact he’d come here this morning when he should have been working made her want to weep. But she pushed her own feelings aside and focused on what was most important. As she had tossed and turned all night, she had thought of Pete and of Rachel and Eric.
“How are the kids?”
“How do you think?” he snapped. “Eric’s not sure what’s going on, except that he’s got a pile of new toys he’s too young to play with and a pile of new clothes he’s too big to wear.”
She didn’t want to make excuses for the woman, but she couldn’t take seeing Pete this upset. “It would be hard for Marina to know what to buy since...” Since she hadn’t seen her children in a year.
“You don’t need to cover for her again. She’s going to have to face up to this herself, for a change. Rachel’s at home, standing just inside the front door and waiting for the bell to ring, because she’s sure her mama’s going to come calling at any minute.”
She winced. “Did Marina come back at all to see them yesterday?”
“No. As usual, she dropped her packages and ran.”
“Do you want me to give you a call when I see her?”
“I’ll be out working in the western pastures and won’t be in again until this afternoon.” He sounded almost relieved at having a reason to get away. “Sharon’s planning to call over here if she hasn’t seen Marina by noon.”
It was ten thirty now. “We were supposed to meet here at nine thirty,” she admitted. “After breakfast. But she hasn’t been downstairs at all yet today.”
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