A Cowboy and a Promise

by Pam Crooks

  If Lucienne were a bee, her stinger couldn’t have poked any deeper. “Which is why I’m going down there for a face-to-face conversation with him.”

  “Do you intend to tell him you love him this time? Unlike the last time you were there?”

  “Luce.” Ava leveled her with a serious will-you-stop? glare. “Can I get you more salt to pour in this wound of mine?”

  “Well, it’s true.”

  “Which you’ve told me a million times already.”

  Again, she perused the driver, who seemed in no hurry to pull away from the curb, and appeared to be, of all things, playing a card game on his smartphone.

  Meanwhile, the clock was ticking on the fare she’d paid full price for. She frowned.

  Just as she was about to ask the driver if there was a problem with him or their ride, Lucienne groaned.

  “I can’t find my phone.” She rummaged through her purse, which wasn’t very big and would make finding the device easy and quick if it was, in fact, in there, but Lucienne was clearly having no luck. “It’s gone.”

  “You had it at the carriage stop,” Ava said, faintly alarmed. “I remember you sent a text to someone.”

  “I must have left it there. Driver.” She leaned sideways, knocking the side of the white-painted carriage with her knuckles to get his attention. “Don’t leave just yet. I’ll be right back.”

  She slid out of the seat and onto the sidewalk, and Ava scooted over to follow her.

  “I’ll help you look for it,” she said.

  “No, no. I know right where it is. Stay there. I’ll only be a second. Stay there.”

  She took off in a rush toward the crowd waiting in line for a carriage ride, too, and Ava peered around the chassis to keep an eye on her. The phone could have been stolen by now. Lucienne, like most everyone, lived by the device. Losing it, enduring the inevitable headaches to follow, would totally ruin the evening.

  Her concern blurred the sensation of a faint dip in the carriage, but the slightest rustle behind her suggested someone had climbed right in. She whirled, expecting to see the driver, which made no sense at all because he was still up in his high red-leather seat and still playing a game on his phone, and why would he get into the carriage with her, anyway?

  Never, ever, did she expect to see a Stetson-wearing, big-chested, new-jeans-and-boots cowboy straight from his Texas ranch.

  Oh, God. Beau.

  She squeaked and almost toppled backward right out of the carriage. Beau, however, merely leaned forward and took her arm, so she wouldn’t.

  “Easy, honey. Don’t hurt yourself.”

  That low, leathery drawl filled her eyes with watery tears. Completely devoid of words, she pressed her fingers to her mouth and tried to breathe.

  Beau knocked on the carriage chassis, just like Lucienne had done only a few moments ago. But he didn’t need to leave the driver instructions; the man seemed to know just what to do. He slid his phone into his shirt pocket, took the reins, and the carriage rolled away from the curb.

  “But Lucienne—I mean, she—we can’t just leave her…” Ava sputtered, completely confused. She twisted to see through the opening that served as the carriage’s back window. There was Lucienne, laughing, waving, her expression completely lit up with delight, and when she blew Ava a kiss, only then did Ava understand.

  Or thought she did.

  Slack-jawed, she turned back to Beau. “You planned this with her, didn’t you?”

  His mouth curved. “Couldn’t have pulled it off otherwise.”

  Ava blinked, the confusion still hanging on, like cobwebs from a ceiling. “Your leg—I mean, how could you come here? Did you fly? Surely you didn’t drive? O-oh, how is your leg?”

  “The leg is fine. The ortho surgeon put in a couple of pins to help the bone heal.”

  “You had surgery?” Her stomach sank. If there was anything that could have made her guilt worse from leaving him, it was that.

  “Hold on with all those questions, honey. It’s killing me not to pull you into my arms right now. It’s been so damned long, and I’ve missed you like crazy. If it’s not something you want, me holding you, then just say so, and I’ll get out of this carriage and you’ll never see me again.”

  She didn’t move, but her chin trembled. She didn’t care if her composure was completely lost. It didn’t matter that her tears had turned into rivers down her cheeks or that her absolute worst fear was losing Beau again. Because she needed him and wanted him and there just didn’t seem to be enough time to say all those things to him right now.

  “I love you, Beau,” she whispered instead. “So very much.”

  Lucienne was spot on. Nailed it to a T. Ava should have told him sooner.

  It felt right.

  He went completely still.

  Until she flung her arms around his neck and her body into his, and he pulled her so tightly against him, she couldn’t drag in air. But then, his mouth was against hers, wet and frenzied and passionate. She didn’t want to breathe just yet anyway.

  By the time they both seemed to remember where they were, Ava had slung a leg over his thigh, and their bodies were so close, they only needed half of the red leather seat.

  She rested her head on his shoulder and curled her arm over his lean belly, reveling that he’d come all the way to New York City to see her.

  “Tell me everything,” she murmured, enjoying the slight rocking sensation the carriage made, the clop-clop sound of the horse’s hooves over concrete, too. Reminded her of Maggie’s clop-clop, on the packed dirt roads at the Blackstone. “Every detail that’s happened on the ranch since I’ve been gone.”

  “Starting from when I realized you lied about coming with me to the hospital?”

  “I’m sorry.” She groped through her remorse for the right words. “That was wrong of me. At the time, I believed we needed a clean break. Sort of like cutting a board with a table saw. As painful as it was, we both knew I had to leave. Prolonging it would have only made my return worse.”

  “I was sure I could convince you to stay.”

  “I couldn’t. I had obligations here. Bailing on Carter just wasn’t ethical to me.”

  “I know, honey. Hate having to admit it, though.” His arms tightened in a quick squeeze. “You’ve started your hotel project?”

  “I have. We’re on schedule.”

  “Of course you are.” She heard his smile in the words.

  “It’s only been a few weeks.” She shrugged. “But so far, so good.” Her hand moved over his warm chest, discovered the hard knots of muscle so much a part of him. “How is Donnie doing?”

  “Great. He asks about you constantly.”

  She tilted her head to look up at him. “He’s working for Roger?”

  “He is. Once Bud agreed to it.” He cocked his jaw. “Bud did some quick sobering up after my fall into the mine shaft. Admitted it scared him but good. That’s why he ran away, but once he got home, he did some hard thinking. Realized a murder charge wasn’t worth it; cleaning up his act was better. He came to see me in the hospital, apologized, said he was willing to do time if I wanted to press charges.”

  “Did you?” She held her breath.

  “We had a family meeting to sort it all out. Even asked Nash to join us. We wanted to do the right thing by Bud, no matter how tough it would be. I was ready to throw the book at him, but we decided to give him one more chance, provided he got the treatment he needed. If he blows it, he faces jail time.”

  She’d never known a man more fair than Beau. Or one more patient. “He’s lucky you’re as forgiving as you were.”

  “Yeah, well, I didn’t always feel that way. Revenge would’ve felt good at the time.”

  “I know.” She patted his rib cage.

  “So far, Bud has been keeping up his end of the bargain, making his truck deliveries closer to home so he’s not gone so much. From what I hear, he’s attending all the meetings he’s supposed to attend. Part of him starting a ne
w chapter in his life was agreeing to let Donnie work for us. Donnie stays with the crew, just like before, goes home when Bud’s not on the road. Donnie wants to go back to school and get some training in construction. He’s leaning toward being an electrician.”

  “That’s wonderful to hear.” She hadn’t expected news as positive as that.

  “Thanks to you, he’ll succeed.”

  “No, no. Roger gets the credit. He’s been Donnie’s guiding light every day, watching over him with the rest of the crew, teaching him what he needs to know.”

  “Roger is a good foreman, but the resort’s construction has slowed since you’ve been gone, much to my mother’s frustration. The project is more than he’s used to taking on. Bigger than anything he’s ever done. He has trouble juggling it all.”

  “I told him to call me if he needed anything, but I never heard from him.” As much as she’d wanted to these past weeks, Ava had refrained from contacting him. Foremen had their own way of being in charge, a pride she was bound to respect.

  Beau knuckled her chin up gently; his gray eyes glittered down at her.

  “We want you back in Texas, Ava, honey. All of us, my whole family, even Gunner, but no one more than me,” he said, his words coming fast and strung together. “You can manage the resort once it’s done, and there’s lots of room to build more buildings, if that’s what you want. I’ll wait as long as it takes for you to come back. Hell, I’ll move up here if I have to until you finish your hotel.”

  Her throat moved. “Beau.”

  “I told you I loved you, and I want to marry you. That hasn’t changed. If nothing else, it’s gotten worse, my wanting you.”

  “Beau.” She eased away, her heart soaring. “You sweet cowboy, you.”

  “I only just got the okay from my physical therapist to come up here, and I have a few more sessions left, but I can find another therapist here until my leg is completely healed. Which it almost is.” He indicated a cane propped on the seat beside him. “I’m off crutches now. Won’t be long and I’ll be walking on my own, without using anything.”

  She smiled at his babbling. “You’d move to New York, eh?”

  “Sure.”

  The faintest hesitation threaded through that single word. It would just about destroy him to leave his ranch with all its wide, blue sky and wild, rocky openness. The fact that he was willing to give up so much left her insides melting like butter left too long in the microwave.

  “My apartment is small, Beau. People live above me and below me. I have people living in apartments beside me, too. You can hear traffic all night long.”

  He cleared his throat. “I can take it.”

  Her smile deepened, just as her love for him did. “I work all the time. You wouldn’t see much of me, except after dinner most likely. And then I’m usually dog tired. I wouldn’t be much fun to be around.”

  He frowned. “We’ll figure it out, honey.”

  “Of course, you’d have to find a job, too. Lots of New Yorkers don’t have automobiles, let alone pickups. I’ll teach you how to ride the subway. Would you like that?”

  “I’m not sure.” He rubbed his jaw. “But I’ll learn to like it, I guess.”

  Ava took pity on him, laid both hands on his cheeks, and kissed him long, and then longer. She drew away, slid her thumb along his moist, kiss-ravaged lower lip.

  “I’m teasing you, Beau.”

  Confusion flickered across his handsome face. “You are?”

  She cocked her head. “Can I still build our house?”

  The confusion cleared. He drew in a ragged breath. “Start whenever you want.”

  “I will. As soon as I get there.”

  “When are you getting there?”

  “I’m ready to tell Carter I can’t finish the hotel project, but I couldn’t say anything until I knew for sure you still loved me enough to give me a second chance.” She glanced away. “I’d planned on flying down to the Blackstone to see you, but I certainly wasn’t expecting you to come up to see me, and—”

  “Carter will just have to get used to the idea of you leaving sooner rather than later.”

  Her head lifted; elation took root and spread. “I’ve already drawn up house plans, you know. That’s how I got through missing you so much. Giving into the fantasy of designing our home together.”

  “Lots of bedrooms, I hope.” He trailed a lean finger down her nose.

  “Of course. I’ve even included a wraparound porch so we can see all that beautiful Paxton land you have.”

  “We’ll have.”

  Who knew keeping a promise would make her this happy or change her life so incredibly much?

  “I love you, Beau.”

  Though their carriage ride had ended, and the driver had already pulled up to the curb, Beau threaded his fingers through her hair, keeping her close.

  “You belong with me, Ava. My family will be your family, too. You were meant to be a Texan.”

  A police siren wailed in the distance; cars honked in traffic lined up beyond the park. Joggers ran by, mothers maneuvered strollers, and people from every corner of the world milled about on the sidewalks.

  It was what she’d always known and thought she always wanted, but she couldn’t wait to give it all up for a small town, a sprawling ranch, and its legacy.

  But especially for the tall, hunky cowboy she loved with her whole heart.

  The End

  Love cowboys? Don’t miss Cowboy Up – Buy now!

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  About the Author

  While expecting her first child (more years back than she cares to count), Pam Crooks read her very first romance novel, and she’s been in love with them ever since. She grew up in the ranch country of western Nebraska, and it was inevitable she’d eventually write lots of books about cowboys. Pam still lives in Nebraska with her husband (who is not a cowboy), four married daughters and nine perfect grandchildren.

  She’s a long-time member of RWA and RAH, her local chapter. Pam is also one of the founders of Petticoats & Pistols, a popular blogsite for western romance. She loves to cook, hang out at her lake cabin, and decorate birthday cakes for anyone who will let her.

  Visit www.pamcrooks.com for all of Pam’s books.