The Cowboy's Forever Wish

by Lori Wilde

  That was no surprise to Annie. Judith Nelson hadn’t been fond of her, so why would she share any information about her with Tyler?

  Annie ran her hand through her short hair, fluffing the tendrils near her face. “I’ve had a long day, and this is just . . .”

  He nodded. “I understand. I feel bad bringing it up. When I saw you just now, I assumed your husband was at home or at work.” He put one large hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

  Annie didn’t say anything. Even after all this time, it was difficult for her to talk about Paul. He was still very much a part of her life—his smile, his eyes—she saw them whenever she looked at her daughter, a daughter he’d never seen, never even known was on the way. “So am I.”

  She’d missed baby food, so she had to back up and retrace her steps.

  “How did it happen?” he asked, still staying even with her.

  “He had a brain aneurysm.” She drew in a shallow breath, feeling the familiar tightness in her chest. The last thing she wanted to do was stand here discussing Paul with Tyler. “Look, can we please not go into this?”

  Tyler studied her carefully. After a moment, his ever-present smile returned, but his eyes were still full of compassion. “Sure.”

  “Good.”

  Annie went up and down two more aisles with Tyler trailing next to her before the silence between them drove her crazy. Just being this close to him made the nerves in her body hum with awareness. Finally, she spun toward him. “Why don’t you tell me how exciting your life has become.”

  Courtney was trying to grab a handful of his shirt, so he shifted her to his other hip, distracting her. “I’m lawyer in New York.”

  “So I heard.” Actually, she’d more than heard it. She’d read about several of his cases in the paper. Not surprisingly, Tyler’s flash and flare served him well on huge cases featuring lots of important and wealthy clients. His razzle-dazzle charm probably had juries eating out of his hand.

  “I thought when you came back from college, you’d work the ranch,” she admitted, but she wasn’t really surprised that he hadn’t. Tyler and his father hadn’t gotten along. Maybe that was why he’d become a lawyer instead.

  “Things happened,” he said. Before he could add anything else, Courtney started slapping his chest. She found it highly amusing. Tyler laughed and held Courtney slightly away from him. “I see she takes after you—lets you know right away if she’s bored.”

  Annie told herself not to laugh, but she couldn’t help it. “I trained her well.” She reached out, and this time, Tyler turned over the child.

  Annie had expected another tantrum when she tried to put Courtney in the buggy seat, but instead, the little girl went willingly. Taking advantage of the momentary bout of cooperation, Annie quickly sat her in the seat and fastened the belt around the toddler’s waist.

  Tyler nodded at the thin black seat belt. “Will that keep her in?”

  “As long as she lets it. She knows how to unfasten the belt, but when she’s in a good mood, she tolerates it.”

  “Gotta love a lady who knows what she wants,” Tyler said.

  Courtney smiled at Tyler, and Annie had to resist the temptation to tell her daughter not to fall for him. But Tyler was too much for the little girl to resist. He leaned down and dropped several light, smacking kisses on her forehead. Courtney giggled and beamed at him.

  “Man Man,” Courtney said again.

  “She’s pretty smart.” Tyler grinned at the little girl.

  Annie shook her head. “Sorry to disappoint you. To Courtney, everything’s a man—men, women, cats, dogs, trees—everything. She knows maybe fifty words, but most of the time, she just calls everything man.”

  “Oh. So how do you know what she’s talking about?”

  “I guess.” Annie pushed her cart into the checkout line, surprised to see she’d actually been able to do her shopping with Tyler along. Not only had she done it, but because Courtney had behaved, the errand hadn’t been the ordeal it sometimes was.

  “And the tantrums?” he asked. “Is that what happens when you guess wrong?”

  “Yes. Or if I say no.”

  He seemed to consider that for a while, then he smiled at her. Rather than his usual crooked grin, this smile was sincere.

  “So, may I take you and Courtney out for dinner soon?” he asked. “I’d like to have a chance to catch up.”

  Amazed, Annie hesitated. How friendly were you supposed to be to a man who’d jilted you?

  “I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” she said. “Besides, we’ve already caught up.”

  She glanced at him, waiting for his reaction. Instead, Tyler was making funny faces at Courtney, who was giggling.

  “We’ve had a nice reunion, Tyler,” she pointed out as she put her groceries on the belt. “Take care.”

  There. She’d been polite. Deliberately, she turned away from him and tipped her head so she could read the headlines on the magazines near the checkout stand. Her nerves couldn’t stand much more. As much as she liked to pretend seeing him hadn’t thrown her system into shock, she couldn’t. Tyler had really hurt her when he’d called off their engagement, and she’d taken all the casual conversation she could stand. Plus, she found it annoying that she was still attracted to him.

  Did she have no sense of self-preservation?

  Tyler shifted to stand on the side of the cart.

  “You’re not making this easy,” he said. “I’m trying my hardest to sweep you off your feet.”

  “News flash—it isn’t working.” She picked up a magazine and pretended to read the cover. “I’m not even close to being swept off my feet.”

  He grinned. “Really? So why are you reading that?”

  “What?”

  He nodded toward the magazine.

  Annie glanced down and then groaned. Plastered across the front of the magazine in giant type was the headline: “Twenty Guaranteed Ways to Make Him Fall in Love.” She knew Tyler was just waiting for her to blush, so instead, she flipped open the magazine and skimmed through the pages. “Just because you didn’t manage to sweep me off my feet doesn’t mean someone else hasn’t.”

  He laughed loud enough to draw the attention of the people in the next aisle. His eyes were shining with humor as he looked at her. “I guess I deserve that.”

  “Yes, you do. Now off you go.”

  He chuckled. “Off I go?”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “Wow, you sure are prickly,” he said. “Seriously, let me buy you two ladies dinner. We’ll go to someplace kid-friendly so Courtney can eat with enthusiasm.”

  As much as she didn’t want to, Annie smiled. “Enthusiasm is a nice way of putting it.”

  “So I gather. I may not have children, but I’ve spotted them once or twice.”

  Annie laughed, unable to prevent herself. She liked Tyler. She’d always liked Tyler. Long before she’d fallen deeply, hopelessly in love with him, she’d liked him.

  “Come on. Just one dinner.” Tyler ran a hand through his hair, ruffling it. It should have looked messy, but instead, it looked even nicer as it fell across his forehead.

  Her groceries started moving closer to the register, so she scooted forward. Would going to dinner with Tyler hurt anything? She wasn’t about to fall for him again. So why not?

  “You’re thinking about it,” he said. “I can tell. You always nibble on your bottom lip when you’re debating something.”

  “Hey, Tyler,” Kenny Boyle, the checker, said. “Good to see you. Glad you’re back in town.”

  “Hi, Kenny.” Tyler reached out and shook the man’s hand. “It’s good to see you, too, and it’s nice to meet someone who is happy I’m back.”

  Annie ignored his dig. “I’m not unhappy you’re back. I’m just . . .”

  “Not hungry?” he teased.

  “Fine. Someday we will have dinner together,” she finally said.

  Kenny stopped checking. “Are you two getting back
together?”

  Annie groaned. She’d forgotten about this. Everyone in Falling Star was going to have a field day with this information. “No. We aren’t.”

  “Yes, we are,” Tyler said. “We’re getting together for dinner.”

  Kenny’s grin covered most of his face. “That’s great. I always knew the two of you would—”

  Annie held up one hand. “No. Stop. We aren’t getting together. We bumped into each other in this store. That’s it. End of story.” She looked at Tyler. “It was nice seeing you again, but let’s leave it at that. No dinner.”

  “Okay. I won’t go to dinner with you.” He nodded at Courtney. “But I’m pretty sure Courtney still wants to go.”

  “What?”

  He bent over the tousled blond head in the cart. “Your mama is so stuck on herself, she actually believed I was only interested in taking her to dinner.” He kissed Courtney’s forehead. “I’ll call you kiddo to make arrangements.”

  With that, he scooted around Annie to exit the checkout line. Then he walked away, pretending he couldn’t hear Annie calling after him.

  “I won’t answer the phone, Tyler Nelson,” she hollered.

  The people in the surrounding lines stared at her, and Kenny stopped checking. He, too, was staring at her. Most of the people watching she knew, and since they also knew her past history with Tyler, it made this spectacle all the more embarrassing. She smiled sheepishly and turned her attention to her daughter.

  “Men,” she told Courtney. “They will torment you your entire life, sweetie. Watch out for them, and whatever you do, don’t take them too seriously.”

  Courtney smiled up at her mother, her dimples on full display, melting Annie’s heart.

  “Man Man.”

  Chapter Two

  Tyler couldn’t remember a time when he’d been so pleased with himself. Walking across the parking lot to his truck, he grinned. Annie looked great. From the second he’d come back into town, he’d wondered about her. For years he’d felt like a heel because of the way their engagement had ended. He knew what everyone had said about him, and he’d grown up enough in the last few years to realize what a jerk he’d been to let his father push him away from Annie.

  Dewitt was right. He’d acted like a muck-eating varmint.

  But at the time, his old man had been Tyler’s world, and pleasing him had meant everything. Shortly after he’d entered college, Tyler had realized his father didn’t know everything. Those days had been tough, and the two of them had fought constantly. He’d ending up going into law rather than business just to spite his father.

  Then, right after graduation, he’d realized that nowhere was it written that his father had to be the only perfect person on the planet. He’d also convinced his father to stop with his constant expectations. After those revelations, they’d finally settled into a relationship where they supported each other’s good points and ignored the bad ones as much as possible.

  Sadly, though, Henry Nelson had died six months ago, and Tyler still missed him. He knew his father would be proud that he’d come home to run the ranch. The property had been in the family for decades, and Tyler knew that very little in life meant as much to Henry as that land.

  Tyler climbed into his truck and started the engine, but he didn’t put it into drive. Instead, he looked across the parking lot at the door to the grocery store. Annie came out carrying Courtney on her hip. A teenaged boy pushed her cart, and it looked as if Courtney was chatting up a storm. He found it weird thinking of Annie as a mom. Heck, he found it weird thinking of Annie as married. Until tonight, Annie had been frozen in his mind at eighteen, pretty and happy.

  Tyler sighed and put his truck in drive. His mother would be thrilled to know he’d bumped into Annie. Years ago, Judith had also mistakenly thought Annie wasn’t good enough for her son, but as time passed, and he showed less and less inclination toward marriage and giving her grandchildren, his mother had become receptive to all candidates.

  Unfortunately, his mother was bound to be disappointed again. Now was the least likely time for him to think about marriage. He had to focus on the ranch. He hadn’t a clue what he intended to do with the rest of his life, let alone with whom he expected to spend it. His mother’s illness had made him rethink a lot of things, not the least of which was whether he really wanted to move back to Falling Star.

  He liked the town. Falling Star was especially attractive to him now that Annie’s brother, Brett, had called him with an idea. Staying for a prolonged period of time in Falling Star was a possibility, but still, that would mean walking away from the law firm. He wasn’t sure he could do that. He’d spent years building up the business with his partner. Now was the worst possible time to leave.

  Tyler pulled his truck onto the drive that ran in front of his mother’s house and headed toward the garage in back. Even though only his mother lived here now, the house and the landscaping around it were maintained flawlessly. The house was huge, much too big for one family, but his father had insisted. He’d felt it was vital that they look important, which was one of the many reasons why they’d fought.

  Tyler parked his truck in the garage and walked into the house through the kitchen, where he found his mother sitting at the breakfast table, talking to the housekeeper. Dolores had worked for the family for over twenty years, and Tyler suspected she was less of an employee to his mother now and more of a friend. Whenever he walked into the house, he usually found the two of them talking.

  “Hey, gorgeous.” He brushed a kiss on his mother’s forehead and dropped into the chair next to her.

  “Did you get the apples?” Dolores asked.

  He knew he’d forgotten something. He’d been so excited to see Annie that he’d completely forgotten why he’d gone to the grocery store in the first place.

  “Sorry. I got distracted.”

  Judith raised one eyebrow. “Distracted by whom?”

  He grinned. “Annie Lee. She was there with her daughter.”

  His mother’s expression brightened. “Her last name is Palmer now. How is she?”

  “She’s good,” was all he said. He wasn’t really sure how to handle this situation. He knew his mother felt guilty about what had happened with Annie years ago. She’d been too quick to judge the young woman, and it wasn’t easy for someone raised the way Judith had been to admit she was wrong. But time and life had mellowed his mother and taught her that many of the arbitrary standards she’d held were flat-out wrong. Certain people weren’t better than others simply because their bank accounts contained more zeros.

  Judith’s friendship with Dolores was an example. For years, his mother had maintained a firm distance from her housekeeper. But after Tyler had moved out, Dolores had been kind to his mother. That kindness had grown into a friendship based on mutual respect, rather than on who paid whom.

  He was pretty fond of Delores, too. More so when she placed a piece of apple pie in front of him. “Thank you. You’re a mind reader.”

  “What about the little girl?” his mother asked.

  Her question surprised him, but he answered it nonetheless. “Courtney is a real sweetheart.”

  Judith smiled broadly. “She’s so cute. Fran babysits her granddaughter sometimes. I’ve run into them when I’ve been out shopping.”

  So his mother was at least speaking to Fran Lee. Well, that was progress of some sort. If Annie’s mom didn’t hold a grudge, then maybe Annie wouldn’t get upset when she found out what he and Brett had planned.

  “Did either of you ever meet Annie’s husband?” Tyler asked.

  Both his mother and Dolores shook their heads. “Annie moved back to town after he died,” Dolores said.

  “Have you talked to Annie lately?” he asked his mother, but she again shook her head.

  “I haven’t spoken to Annie since . . .”

  Her voice trailed off and an embarrassed silence fell over the kitchen. Tyler slowly ate the pie, feeling more and more uncomfortable. He
figured his mother hadn’t spoken to Annie since he’d dumped her. There wasn’t much in his life that he was truly ashamed of. He’d made mistakes, but they’d been honest errors.

  Not so with Annie. Dropping her was his low moment. He’d truly believed he was in love with her, but still he’d let his father convince him that marriage would ruin both of their lives. Now, in retrospect, he suspected what everyone said was true—his parents had thought Annie wasn’t good enough for him.

  But in truth, she’d been too good for him. Annie wouldn’t have let anyone put him down. She wouldn’t have let appearances stop her from seeing him. He’d run with a fast crowd that got away with too much because of who their parents were. With his wild reputation around town, no doubt her parents hadn’t been thrilled when she’d started dating him. Annie’s father had glared at him every time Tyler had shown up to take her out.

  But still Annie had gone out with him. She hadn’t let others tell her what to do.

  Maybe it was too late to do anything about this. Maybe he was being silly for even trying. Eight years was a long time, and neither of them were kids anymore. There was no way to go back and make up for the past.

  He glanced at his mother. She looked tired, and he knew this conversation was upsetting her. He leaned across the table and kissed her cheek. “Don’t fret. It isn’t good for you.”

  Judith patted his hand. “Did Annie seem happy to see you? Or was she angry? Fran’s always nice to me, but I’m not sure if Annie’s father and brother are still mad. You know how they feel about you.”

  Well, he’d thought he did, until Brett Lee had called him last week. Tyler had never expected to hear from Brett again. Annie’s brother had threatened him with a wrench the day after he’d broken up with Annie. He’d figured that pretty much made the state of their friendship clear.

  “People change over time,” Tyler said, as much to himself as to his mother. He didn’t want to talk about Brett and the plans they had. He’d promised Brett he wouldn’t tell anyone, and he wouldn’t break that promise.