Her Cowboy Distraction

by Carla Cassidy

  She definitely owed him an apology. All week long she’d thought about it, thought about him, and hoped he’d show up tonight so she could apologize to him and assuage at least some of her guilt about what she had done.

  Now he was there and yet she stood in place, nervous butterflies whirling around in the pit of her stomach. For just a moment as he’d walked in the door he’d made eye contact with her, and a flush of heat had washed over her. She didn’t know if it was embarrassment that she felt or something else altogether. She’d whirled around and busied herself filling a napkin holder.

  When she’d looked again Candy was serving him the usual, a cup of coffee and two slices of pie. When the waitress moved away from the booth once again, Lizzy sucked in a deep breath for courage and finally approached his booth.

  She stopped a foot away from where he sat. “Mr. Jefferson?”

  He turned to look at her with those dark gray eyes of his, and the butterflies in her tummy zoomed around at warp speed. “Uh…I just wanted to say how sorry I am for…uh…what I did, you know, last week…sitting down and…”

  He held up a hand to halt her stuttering, awkward apology. “It’s apple.” He nodded his head to indicate the pie on the opposite side of the booth. “You told me you preferred apple.”

  Lizzy stared at him in surprise and then looked down at the piece of Mary’s apple pie that he apparently meant for her to sit down and eat.

  She’d thought he might yell at her. She believed it possible he might completely ignore her, but nothing like this scenario had ever entered her mind.

  She glanced at the counter. There were only two diners seated there, and it was usually about this time in the evening that Mary told her she could take a break.

  She slid into the seat across from him, feeling as if she were having a slight out-of-body experience. She wasn’t even sure what to say to him.

  “Apology accepted,” he said. He had a nice voice, deep and smooth. He gazed at her with an intensity that simmered inside her. “You aren’t from around here.”

  “No, I’m not.” The shock was beginning to wear off enough to at least allow her to speak.

  “So, tell me, Elizabeth, but everyone calls you Lizzy, how you wound up sitting across from me and eating my pie here in Grady Gulch.” He cupped his big hands around his cup of coffee and looked at her with curiosity.

  Lizzy picked up her fork and cut through the pie, the cinnamon-apple scent instantly reminding her of her mother’s house. Her mother had always loved to bake. “I’m originally from Chicago. Four months ago my mother passed away, but before she died she made me promise that I’d get to my bucket list right away.”

  “‘Bucket list’?” He frowned in obvious puzzlement.

  “You know, a list of all the things you want to do before you kick the bucket…before you die.”

  “Your mother was worried about you dying soon?” His frown deepened, tugging his dark eyebrows closer together.

  “No, not at all,” Lizzy replied hurriedly. “Although I think she was afraid I was going to work myself into an early grave. At the time I was working in an ad agency. Brutal hours, no time for fun or downtime. I was in the fast lane for success, and I think Mom worried that I’d forgotten what was really important in life.”

  Lizzy paused a moment and took a bite of the pie, thankful when he broke eye contact for a moment to pick up his fork. She was aware that she was talking too much, too fast, but seemed unable to stop herself.

  “Anyway,” she continued, “Mom had a bucket list of all the things she’d planned to do when she retired, when she had the time and the money to explore and have adventures.” A rush of emotion rose up, but Lizzy swallowed it back with another bite of pie. “Unfortunately she hadn’t planned on cancer. Two days before she passed she made me promise to take my inheritance and fulfill my bucket list now rather than waiting until I was older and settled. So, that’s what I’m doing in her honor.”

  “And one of the things on your bucket list was to be a waitress in Grady Gulch?” He looked at her as if she might just be a little bit crazy.

  She grinned. “No, not specifically, although waitressing in a small café was one of the things on my list, along with selling surfboards on a beach in California and working in a gift shop in the Grand Canyon. I’ve already done both those things. I was driving across the country when I stumbled onto Grady Gulch and the Cowboy Café and decided this would be my next stop.”

  “Stumbling across Grady Gulch is about the only way you’d find it,” he said wryly as he cut through his piece of pie. “It’s kind of a strange bucket list.” Once again his gray eyes sought hers. “Most people would have skydiving, or a worldwide cruise or visiting a foreign country on their list.”

  She nodded. “I know, but I wanted to explore the United States rather than a foreign country,” she explained. “And what I wanted to do was take jobs for short periods of time in different areas of the country that put me in touch with a variety of people. Meeting a cowboy was on my list, and I managed to accomplish that here, too.”

  Just a whisper of a smile curved his lips, and the result of that small gesture shot a burst of surprising warmth through Lizzy. “You can’t take a step in this town without crunching the brim of some cowboy’s hat,” he said. “So, have you finished your bucket list?”

  “Oh no, I’ve really only just gotten started. I’ll probably be here for another couple of weeks or so, and then I’ll be moving on.”

  “Moving on to where? What else is on this list of yours?”

  Lizzy looked over at the counter, making sure that none of her customers was trying to get her attention. Everyone seemed satisfied, so she took another bite of the apple pie and then answered him.

  “Stargazing from a mountaintop. Singing on a corner in Times Square. Learn to ride a horse. Take some kind of dance lessons.”

  She ticked off part of her list, but consciously didn’t tell him that one of the things on it was to make love to a man she’d never forget. She knew it was corny and ridiculously romantic and she hadn’t actually written it down on paper, but it was on the bucket list in her head.

  “I could help you with one of those things,” he said.

  A rivulet of shock jerked through her, and for a moment she wondered if he’d heard her thoughts. “What?” her voice squeaked in surprise.

  “I’ve some nice saddle horses. I could teach you to ride.”

  She blinked as his words penetrated into her brain. Ride a horse, that’s what he was talking about. Of course that’s what he was talking about.

  Certainly a man who loved his wife so deeply that almost two years after her death he still had shadows of grief in his eyes, a man who still ordered his dead wife a piece of pie, wouldn’t be volunteering to be the passionate lover she’d never forget.

  “That would be great,” she exclaimed, surprised by his offer. “I’ve always wanted to ride a horse, but I’ve never even been up close to one before.”

  “When do you have a day off?”

  “Monday. I’m off all day and night.” She tried to tamp down the stutter of her accelerated heartbeat.

  “Where are you staying?”

  “In one of the cabins out back.”

  He looked down at his coffee cup for a long moment and then met her gaze once again. It was impossible to read him through his eyes, which remained dark and enigmatic.

  “Why don’t I pick you up around nine on Monday morning. We’ll go out to my place and you can meet my horses and we’ll plan a little trail ride.”

  A rush of anticipation swept through her, and she wasn’t sure if it was a result of knowing she’d accomplish something from her bucket list or if it was because that meant she would be spending more time with him.

  Something about Daniel Jefferson intrigued her. Something about him excited her, and that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. One of her personal rules was to never get too close to anyone in her travels. She had people to meet and places
to see before she finally settled down to begin real life again, and she was determined to fulfill the promise she’d made to her mother—to complete her bucket list.

  “That would be great,” she heard herself reply.

  There was a moment of awkward silence as he took another bite of his pie and gazed down at the tabletop. At that moment, Lizzy glanced back to the counter and saw that one of her diners was holding up his coffee cup toward her, indicating he needed a refill.

  “I’ve got to get back to work,” she said. “Thanks for the apology acceptance and the pie.” She slid out of the booth. “I’ll see you Monday morning.”

  She was conscious of his gaze following her as she left the booth and hurried back to the counter. She refilled coffee cups, got a bottle of ketchup for Mr. Criswell’s fries, and when she looked back at the booth Daniel was gone.

  A sigh of wonder whooshed out of her at the same time Mary sidled up next to her. “Okay, spill the beans. I saw you sitting at his booth for a few minutes. What happened?” she asked.

  “He accepted my apology and he ordered me a piece of your apple pie,” Lizzy replied. “And he’s picking me up Monday morning to take me to his place to meet his horses and teach me how to ride.” She still couldn’t quite believe what had just happened.

  She frowned and looked at Mary. “You’re not going to tell me he’s really some kind of a creep, are you?”

  “No, on the contrary, he’s a very nice man.” Mary narrowed her eyes and gazed at Lizzy speculatively. “He’s been through a really rough time.” She hesitated a moment and then continued. “Please don’t break his heart, Lizzy.”

  She looked at her boss in surprise. “That’s the very last thing I intend to do. I’m not interested in that kind of a relationship with him or anyone else, and besides, it’s obvious he’s still in mourning for his wife. It was just a piece of pie, Mary.”

  Mary nodded. “And really none of my business,” she said. “I just know he’s already had enough hurt to last an entire lifetime.”

  “And the last thing I want to do is inflict any more in his life,” Lizzy replied. Besides, Daniel wasn’t in a place to want anything from her romantically, and she didn’t intend to be in town long enough for anything like that to happen.

  All she was looking for was a little time on a horse and some pleasant conversation. No man, no matter how sexy, no matter how nice, was going to detour her from the path she’d chosen to follow.

  Chapter 3

  Daniel had no idea what had possessed him to offer Lizzy riding lessons. Monday morning as he led several of his most gentle saddle horses into the small corral next to the barn, he decided it was simply because she had managed to do what no other person in the entire town had been able to do: she’d penetrated through the veil of darkness he’d cloaked around himself enough to intrigue him.

  And she did intrigue him more than a little bit with her bucket list and her eyes that promised something warm and wonderful.

  Hell, if he was perfectly honest with himself, he’d admit that something about Lizzy Wiles made him think about sex. Not just regular sex, but the kind of hot, unbridled, mind-blowing sex he’d never experienced in his life. And he hadn’t thought about any kind of sex since long before he’d buried his wife.

  And he didn’t want to think about it now.

  He’d go get Lizzy, let her ride one of his most docile horses, and then he’d take her back to her cabin and be done with it…with her. Then he’d go back to being what he’d been before she’d eaten that piece of pie, a miserable man who was responsible for not one, but two beautiful, vibrant women’s deaths.

  He frowned. For just today he didn’t want to think about that. He didn’t want to be that man. Today he simply wanted to be the person helping Lizzy to accomplish something on her bucket list.

  He shook his head as he thought about the promise she told him she’d made to her dying mother. It made a strange kind of sense, he supposed, to try to accomplish all the things you wanted to in the area of fun and adventure before you settled down or got too old to enjoy them.

  Daniel had never wanted anything more in his old age than this ranch, his family surrounding him and a quiet peace of simple goals achieved warming him deep in his heart.

  Now he wouldn’t have even that. He’d have no wife, no children to fill the empty spaces around him. He’d live the rest of his life alone and with the regrets of a man who had made too many mistakes.

  A half an hour later as he drove toward the Cowboy Café, he thought again about Lizzy’s bucket list. Maybe part of the reason he’d responded to her, why he’d decided to spend a little time with her, was because he knew she wasn’t any kind of a threat to him on an emotional level.

  She was in town for only a little while and had made it very clear that she had things she wanted to accomplish. Once her list was complete, she’d probably drift back to her hometown of Chicago.

  It wasn’t the same as spending time with any of the single women in Grady Gulch, who might think any interest he showed them was evidence that he was available for a new commitment with one of them.

  Never again, he thought as he tightened his grip on the steering wheel. He’d never marry again. He’d never try love again. Emotionally he wanted to stay dead. It was not only what he desired, it was what he deserved.

  Still, he couldn’t control the slight burst of anticipation that shot through him as he drove around the back of the café and saw Lizzy standing in front of one of the four small cabins.

  Clad in a pair of jeans that hugged her long slender legs and wearing a bright yellow T-shirt that made her light brown hair look darker and richer, the sight of her wrestled up a spark of life that had been absent inside him for a very long time.

  The minute she saw him, a wide smile curved her mouth, and for a brief moment he wondered what those full lips might feel like against his own.

  Don’t even think about it, he commanded himself as he pulled his truck to a halt. He didn’t even want to go there. She opened the passenger door and jumped into the seat with that bright smile that warmed some of the Arctic air that had been inside him for so long.

  “Good morning,” she said cheerfully. “I thought maybe you wouldn’t show up.” She reached for the seat belt.

  “Why would you think that?” He waited until she was buckled in and then put the truck into gear.

  “I don’t know, I just thought you might have changed your mind between Friday night and this morning.”

  “If I’d have changed my mind, I would have called you and let you know. I wouldn’t have just not shown up this morning and left you hanging.” He pulled away from the cabins, acutely conscious of the scent of her, the fragrance clean yet with a slightly spicy kick.

  “I’m so glad you did show up. I’ve been looking forward to this all weekend. I can’t wait to see your horses.” Her exuberant energy shimmered in the cab of the truck. “Have you always lived here in Grady Gulch?”

  “All my life,” he replied. “I live on the ranch where I grew up.”

  “And I’ll bet you learned to ride a horse by the time you started first grade.”

  He flashed her a quick smile, the rarely used expression feeling slightly alien on his lips. “Actually, I learned to ride when I was three, but I got my first horse on my second birthday. My dad bought her for me. I named her Cat. Apparently my verbal skills were limited at that time.”

  She smiled. “And your parents? Are they still here in town?”

  “No, they’re both gone. My mom passed first. She had a heart attack and died five years ago. My dad had a stroke six months later. I think he just missed her too much to keep living.”

  He’d much rather talk about her than about his own life. “What about you? You mentioned that your mother had passed away. What about your father?”

  “My parents divorced when I was six,” she replied.

  “So, your father wasn’t in your life?”

  “Sometimes he was, s
ometimes he wasn’t. He was in and out throughout my childhood. I learned fairly early on not to depend on him, not to expect him to show up when he said he would. In the last seven years, after I turned twenty-one, he’s pretty much been out of my life.”

  “And you’re okay with that?” He flashed her a quick glance, noting how the morning sun pulled faint blond shiny highlights from her hair.

  “To be honest, I don’t spend a lot of time or energy thinking about things and people I can’t control, and my father was definitely one of those people. Oh, what a beautiful place,” she exclaimed as Daniel turned onto the long driveway that led to his house.

  It had been a long time since Daniel had seen his home through a stranger’s eyes, but now he found himself filled with an unexpected surge of pride as he gazed at the large two-story house that rose up out of the lush lawn and surrounding green pastures.

  The white house with the dark green shutters was old, but Daniel had been vigilant over the years at maintenance and repairs. The paint was fresh and clean, and the house radiated a sturdiness that spoke of endurance.

  The outbuildings were also white with green trim. He realized the whole place breathed with a pastoral peacefulness he used to feel deep in his soul but hadn’t felt in a long time.

  “It must have been wonderful growing up in a place like this,” Lizzy said as he parked the truck in front of the house.

  “I had a great childhood here,” he said. “Come on and I’ll show you around.”

  As he got out of the truck, he was surprised by the fact that he felt somewhat at ease. She was easy to talk to, open and friendly and, best of all, very temporary, he reminded himself.

  She joined him in front of the truck and drew in a big drink of the air. “Smells good enough out here to bottle and wear on your skin.”

  Although Daniel agreed that the air smelled wonderful, it didn’t compete with the slightly exotic scent that emanated from her. “I imagine it’s definitely different than the smell of Chicago.”

  “Since leaving Chicago, I’ve smelled a lot of cities and small towns, and every place has a distinctive smell.” She grinned at him, her eyes sparkling with good humor. “And some are definitely better than others. Grady Gulch will go on my list of good scents.”