The Cowboy's Surprise Baby
Ali Olson
Their biggest surprise?Isn’t the one they expected!It’s been a decade since Amy McNeal has seen Jack Stuart…but it only takes seconds for their attraction to reignite. But Jack has never forgiven Amy for walking out on him all those years ago. Now Jack must show Amy that she belongs in Spring Valley with him before she leaves again!
THE COWBOY SHE LOVED
World traveler Amy McNeal has two reasons to return to Spring Valley, Texas. One is her big brother’s wedding. The other is to set things straight with a handsome cowboy. It’s been a decade since Amy’s seen Jack Stuart...and it’s only seconds before their attraction reignites. But is she ready to fall for Jack all over again?
Jack has never forgiven Amy for walking out on him all those years ago. Yet while their lives are worlds apart, they still just fit together. Now Jack must show Amy that she belongs in Spring Valley with him before she leaves again. But life can be full of surprises...and Jack and Amy are in for the biggest surprise of all!
ALI OLSON is a longtime resident of Las Vegas, Nevada, where she has been teaching English at the high school and college level for the past seven years. Ali has found a passion for writing sexy romance novels, both contemporary and historical, and is enthusiastic about her newly discovered career. She loves reading, writing and traveling with her husband and constant companion, Joe. She appreciates hearing from readers. Write to her at www.authoraliolson.com. (http://www.authoraliolson.com)
Also by Ali Olson (#uac13c720-904c-5b97-b5bb-e58143fc08d9)
The Bull Rider’s Twin Trouble
Her Sexy Vegas Cowboy
Her Sexy Texas Cowboy
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
The Cowboy’s Surprise Baby
Ali Olson
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-07757-6
THE COWBOY’S SURPRISE BABY
© 2018 Mary Olson
Published in Great Britain 2018
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
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www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
To peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. You got me through the most nauseous moments of this pregnancy and thus were instrumental to the completion of this book.
Contents
Cover (#ue95c3097-9e68-5177-8cb2-d93a9b2b6b75)
Back Cover Text (#uda027759-3eb2-54d8-a25b-7c8aa504f10a)
About the Author (#u9f3a37f4-2337-57de-b501-8e06f722ef3b)
Booklist (#uf6abf948-0842-52f3-9cea-e595a155c900)
Title Page (#u5982cb6a-a1c6-5c78-90f7-2c89ee5dce02)
Copyright (#ubd43df55-cfa6-50dd-b0c6-a64397fd584b)
Dedication (#uc76e378c-87d9-55b5-936a-ce766a9f70ad)
Chapter One (#uaeda87e5-9280-5b29-a785-e25fc32405e7)
Chapter Two (#u8e272c65-708e-5a90-9c46-fb2e2ea5e7e4)
Chapter Three (#u6df63944-9b0c-5409-987a-9601e9c55fea)
Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)
Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter One (#uac13c720-904c-5b97-b5bb-e58143fc08d9)
Amy McNeal stepped through the sliding glass doors into the cool autumn air of Texas and breathed it in greedily, ignoring the smell of the exhaust fumes from the waiting cars. After two months in Northern Africa in summer, any temperature below blistering was a refreshing change.
As she walked toward the line of vehicles moving at a snail’s pace through the pickup area, her phone started buzzing inside her large travel purse. Amy shifted the suit bag she was carrying to her left hand and dug through the purse with her right, then pulled out her phone and tapped it to answer the call. “Hey! I’m almost at the pickup location,” she said.
“I know. I can see you. You better hurry or I’ll need to loop around again,” answered her brother from the other end.
She looked along the line of cars, trying to peer through the windows for a familiar face. “I don’t see you. A little help?”
“I’m in the black truck,” he told her.
She rolled her eyes. “This is Texas, Brock. I’m looking at about six black trucks.”
“You know, maybe I’ll just leave you to find your own way home, if you’re going to be like that,” he said, but she could hear the smile in his voice and knew she wasn’t actually in any danger of being left at the curb.
“Look right. I’m waving out the window,” he said.
She spotted him, fifty feet farther along. “I see you! Wait there and I’ll be over in a second,” she told him.
Amy dropped her phone back into her purse and strode quickly through the crowd of people waiting with their luggage along the curb. When she got to her brother’s car, a man in an orange vest was telling him he needed to keep moving, that he wasn’t allowed to wait there. “I’m here!” she said breathlessly, slinging her backpack off and into the truck bed, then hopping into the passenger seat.
With a little wave to the airport employee, she settled into her seat and Brock steered them out and away from the airport. “You know we get in trouble here if we sit idling at the curb, right?”
Amy shook her head. “I always forget about how many rules there are in America.”
Brock raised an eyebrow and glanced at his sister from the corner of his eye. “If you came home more often, you know, you might remember them.”
Amy crossed her arms and turned toward Brock. “You’ve been back in Spring Valley for two months and already you’re starting to sound like Ma,” she commented.
“She misses you,” he told her, sending a small stab of guilt through her. “It’s good to have you back.”
Amy gave her brother a smile. “It’s good to see you, Brock.”
“You’re back for the whole month, huh?”
Amy nodded. “I had to be here for my big brother’s wedding.”
There was a moment of silence, and she knew Brock was waiting for her to say what had happened that made her decide to change her plans and come home so early, rather than just for the weekend of the ceremony. Up until the day before, that had been the plan. But she wasn’t ready to explain the events of the last couple weeks, so she stayed silent.
After waiting a few more moments for her to add anything else, Brock said, “Well, I’m glad you’ll be around. Be careful, though. You might find yourself deciding to settle down in Spring Valley, regardless of your plans.”
Amy snorted. There were at least two very good reasons she would be leaving Spring Valley again. One was her lucrative career as a travel writer, and the other was a handsome cowboy with cornflower-blue eyes. She had some loose ends to tie up with said cowboy, but that didn’t mean she’d be sticking around afterward. She was here to set things straight, not make herself miserable. Or him, for that matter.
“Hey, it happens,” Brock said defensively.
“Speaking of settling down, how’s your fiancée doing?” Amy asked, both because she was interested and because she wanted to change the subject.
Brock looked for a second like he might not accept the topic shift, then gave her a wide grin she didn’t remember ever seeing on his face before Cassie came into his life. “She’s great, Zach and Carter are great, the ranch is—”
“Great?” Amy said for him.
“Really, really great,” he said, nodding, his smile even wider, if that was possible.
“So you don’t miss bull riding at all?” she asked, wondering if he’d really given up the rodeo circuit without a qualm.
Brock shook his head decisively. “Not one bit. Giving that up was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, and it gives me more time around the people I love. With the wedding, the ranch and twin boys, time is one thing that always seems to be in short supply.”
Amy wasn’t sure if she believed that Brock didn’t miss the rodeo circuit at least a little, but he seemed sincere, so she just had to assume that when he lost his heart, he lost his mind a little, too.
She could remember the rush of riding a horse in the ring, hearing the shouts of the fans, like it was yesterday instead of a decade ago. She had only made it to junior rodeo before dropping out, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t still a part of her life.
Even after all this time, she still sometimes watched videos of rodeos on her computer when she felt particularly homesick.
But Brock had given it up without a backward glance. Because of love.
Amy had already warned her brother once about the danger of falling in love, so she didn’t say anything now. Still, it worried her. What if it didn’t work out for him? She didn’t want him to go through that pain. She knew what it felt like to have her whole imagined future with someone come crumbling down around her, and she worried about her brother experiencing the same thing.
Sure, Cassie was wonderful—and they were committing to marriage, after all—but sometimes people who might be perfect for each other still didn’t end up together.
“You okay?” Brock asked, breaking into her thoughts.
Amy swallowed the old hurt that was threatening to break the surface and put on a smile. “I’m fine.”
For now, at least. After she talked to Jack, though, who knew?
* * *
JACK STUART RAN a brush through the chestnut mare’s coat, enjoying the feeling of calm it created in him. No matter what else was going on, he could always find some peace around horses. Right this minute, he needed it.
“Any idea how long she’ll be around?” he asked his brother.
Tom shrugged his shoulders, not seeming to notice his brother’s sudden edginess. “I’m guessing the whole month, up until the wedding. Brock said it was the longest she’d been home since she left for college.”
Jack didn’t want to tip off his brother about how interested he was, but he couldn’t help it. He needed to know everything his brother knew. “Did he say anything else?”
How is she?
Is she seeing anyone?
Does she still think about me after all these years?
“Nope, just that she was coming to town for a bit all of a sudden. The boys tackled him right after, and you know how they are. Had to tell him everything that had happened at their lessons.”
Jack didn’t say anything, trying to bite off his disappointment that he couldn’t learn any more.
“I’m surprised the twins are still coming here at all, to be honest. What with Brock’s parents owning a riding school and Brock himself able enough to teach them. Not that I’m complaining of course—we can sure use the business,” Tom said, his mind drifting off to other topics besides Amy. “I really think it’s only to give those two lovebirds some time alone. Have you seen them together? Don’t know if I’ve ever known two people to be more infatuated with one another.”
Oh, Jack did. His older brother had been too busy at college to remember how Jack and Amy had been senior year of high school. Tom knew they’d dated, but not that they’d been in love. Jack and Amy had been planning a life together. Family, careers, everything.
Then, the summer after they graduated, she went off to a university thousands of miles away despite all their plans together, without a word of explanation. He didn’t know what had changed or why she decided not to talk to him again. He just knew it still hurt.
And here was his chance to talk to her, hear her side of it, and finally put it all behind him.
As he and Tom left the barn and walked through the twilight toward his childhood home, he felt the itch to get in his truck and drive straight over to see Amy. He would be there in less than five minutes.
The urge almost made him veer toward the side of the house, but he managed to keep himself in check. If she had just gotten home, she was spending time with her family. Not the best time to drive up and demand an explanation.
No, he could wait until tomorrow, Jack told himself.
“Mom loves that you’re going to be home for a good long while, you know,” Tom said as they neared the house.
Jack could see his mother moving around the kitchen, and he felt a pang of guilt over his desire to drive over to see Amy without a word of explanation to anyone. His mother had likely been cooking up a storm while they were out with the horses.
Jack glanced at his brother, whose mouth was set in a thin line. He knew that Tom was worried about their mother and the ranch she’d lived on for so many years, and that Jack being home wasn’t the godsend their mother thought it was, if only because it brought a halt to any extra cash Jack brought in from riding in rodeos.
Tom hadn’t been kidding when he’d said they could use any extra business their little riding school could get. As the town had shrunk over the years, so had the number of students they could count on coming to learn to ride. After their father died and Tom moved back to pick up the slack, it had only gotten worse; and Jack knew Tom felt that it was his failings as an instructor that was causing the trouble, despite anything Jack said to the contrary.
Jack hated that he had no idea what he could do about all that. Up until last week he’d tried to help by sending home what he could from his earnings on the circuit, but even that never seemed to be enough. He was sure he could become a real champion if the cards fell right, and then they could stop worrying so much, but for that he needed a great partner and a whole lot of luck—two things that hadn’t seemed to come his way lately.
His old partner was decent, but since he broke his leg and decided to call it quits, Jack wasn’t sure what he’d do. No partner, no rodeos. No rodeos, no money.
He loved being home on the ranch he hoped to run one day, but now he needed to find someone to rope with. It was the type of decision that could make or break his career. All that on his plate, and now there was Tom to help, too. It was a tall order.
And now he had Amy McNeal to think about. His stay in Spring Valley was already getting much more complicated than he’d expected just a few days ago.
* * *
AS THE SUN dipped behind the mountains ringing Spring Valley, Amy lowered herself carefully from Brock’s truck until her feet were planted securely on the gravel driveway of their parents’ old sprawling ranch house. The last time she’d come home, she’d fallen and twisted her ankle badly doing that very thing, and she wasn’t about to go through that again. If Cassie, who was a doctor and lived next door, hadn’t taken care of her, she might have ended up missing her departure flight last time.
Amy turned her attention from her feet to the group of people standing on the front porch. Cassie was already there, with her twin sons, and Ma and Pop, all happy to see her. Amy felt a twinge of homesickness, which was silly. She was home, after all.
Cassie, Brock’s fiancée, came down and gave Amy a tight hug. Even though they had only met up a couple times during Amy’s last stay, and that was when she was still just the neighbor, Cassie had been kind and friendly from the start.
“How’s your ankle?” she asked the moment she and Amy broke apart.
“Good, most of the time. Just gives me the odd twinge if I step down wrong,” Amy said, glad to have a doctor in the family.
Cassie nodded sympathetically, but it was clear there wasn’t much to be done about it. Just another sign that she wasn’t in her teens anymore.
The cool evening breeze ruffled Amy’s hair, and she wished she had a jacket. Living out of a backpack for years, she’d learned to just buy occasional items as she needed them, and she certainly hadn’t needed anything heavier than a light sweater in nearly a year, following the summer and staying on tropical islands or in deserts.
She might need to buy a coat. But for the time being, she would just borrow something from her mother, however grandmotherly her Ma’s wardrobe was—and it had been since she’d adopted Amy, if the pictures were any indication.
Ma herself rushed forward and pulled Amy into a tight hug, and Amy felt her heart swell with the feeling of home. As much as she avoided Spring Valley, she missed it, and the people. “Hi, Ma,” she said, hoping the older woman wasn’t going to cry.
Ma was a tough lady, but she never could understand why Amy was gone so much, and it hurt Amy to see the toll it took on her. To avoid it, Amy rummaged in her bag and pulled out two packages, handing one to Ma and the other to Cassie. “They’re some different spices and a grinder,” she explained.
Cassie thanked her, but Ma looked skeptical. “Smell them and give them a shot,” Amy said, sure her adopted mother would manage to make something magical and somehow still completely Southern with them.
Then Amy turned to her soon-to-be nephews. “I brought y’all spices, too!” she told them.
“You did?” Carter asked, not sounding too enthused at the idea.
“No. I want to be your favorite aunt, and I have some catching up to do, so I brought you fez hats and drums,” she said, pulling out the items and handing them to the boys.
Zach immediately began giggling to see the funny little hat on his brother, and they both started hitting the drums enthusiastically. Brock appeared at Amy’s elbow. “Drums? Really?” he asked his little sister.
Amy shrugged. “There were some really cool knives I considered getting them. This seemed like the better choice.”
Brock and Cassie winced at the noise. “I’m not so sure about that,” Brock commented.
Cassie whispered quickly to Zach and Carter, and they both ran over to Amy, giving her a big hug. “Thanks, Aunt Amy,” they said in unison.
Amy nodded to them, fighting tears. She didn’t want to admit how much it twisted her heart to be around these two sweet boys. They reminded her too much of truths she didn’t like to think about.
“Time to get inside,” Ma said, ushering everyone through the door. “Dinner’s ready and will start getting cold any minute.”
Amy, thankful for the interruption, followed the rest of them inside after giving Pop a quick hug. She only paused at the door for a second, looking in the direction of Stuart Ranch, and wondering what her life would be like if things had been just a little different.
Suddenly, she wished she was on a plane to Panama. Or Indonesia. Heck, Idaho would work. Anywhere, so long as it was a couple thousand miles from the painful memories that were threatening to come back to the surface now that she was here.
But those painful memories were the reason she was here, so she bit back the desire to flee and walked inside her childhood home, closing the door behind her.
Amy soon found herself sitting down at her parents’ table, already piled high with Ma’s famous cooking. “So, update me on what’s going on with everyone,” she said, hoping talk would keep her mind from wandering back toward Stuart Ranch.
“Pop’s working himself too hard fixing the barn when he could just let me do it. Or hire someone,” Brock began as they all began filling their plates.
Pop cut into Brock’s scolding. “I’m not so old I can’t lift a hammer, Brock,” he said around his mustache. “And the horses will appreciate it, which is good for the riding school.”
Pop had always been such a strong, consistent force in her life that it was hard for Amy to imagine him ever slowing down, but she could see that Brock was concerned. Still, he didn’t seem willing to push the topic any further than he already had.
“Speaking of riding,” Brock said, pointing to the twins, “these two have been doing a great job learning to ride and care for horses.”
Zach and Carter beamed. “Mr. Stuart says we’re naturals,” Carter declared.
Amy about choked on her water. “Stuart?” she asked in between coughs.
Brock nodded, looking proud. “Tom Stuart’s taken over the school since his father passed a year ago. The boys go there twice a week.”
Amy’s heart started again. She hadn’t known the boys were going to the Stuarts’, and hearing the name out of the blue like that had done more to her than she liked to admit. She suddenly hoped to heaven that Jack was still out on the circuit. Maybe he would even be gone the entire month she was there, and she could board her plane to Thailand after the wedding and just forget about her resolution to speak to him, which seemed awfully daunting now that she was home.
Brock gestured to her with his fork. “Jack’s back in town right now, too. Weren’t you two an item for a while in high school?”
Amy felt her heart jolt again at the sound of his name. Of course, Brock had been on the rodeo circuit when they’d started dating. He didn’t know how serious their relationship had been, didn’t know that his name cut through her like a knife.
But Ma and Pop knew some of it. Pop stood, clearing his throat, and all the attention turned to him. “I just want to thank y’all for being here. It does an old man good to see so many people he loves around the table together.”
There was a round of “hear, hear!” and a lifting of glasses, and then Pop sat back down. “Now, stop with the chatter and get to eatin’. I don’t plan on having leftovers,” Ma added.
With that, they tucked in, eating heartily. Amy didn’t look at Brock, in case he decided to start up the conversation again. She did, however, risk a glance at Pop, who was looking at her with concern. Amy gave him a little nod of thanks, then turned her eyes back to the plate in front of her.
Jack Stuart was in town right this minute, just a few miles away. When she’d bought her ticket to come home, she had hoped he would be, but now...
The mix of emotions he evoked was too much to analyze. All she knew for sure was that she couldn’t run and hide any longer, and she needed to be prepared to talk to him. Tell him the truth.
* * *
AMY AWOKE LONG before sunrise, her internal clock still not quite on Texas time. Once awake, her mind immediately turned to Jack, her stomach twisting. She lay in bed wondering if he already knew she was home, if he would decide to confront her about her disappearance after graduation, or if she would be the one to seek him out. And if she could force herself to actually do so.
She knew that her eighteen-year-old self hadn’t handled things particularly well, and she still felt guilt rise in her when she thought of the messages he had left, asking her to please call him and tell him why she hadn’t talked to him, why she had just left without saying goodbye.
She had listened to each one over and over again, torturing herself just so she could hear his voice, but she hadn’t had the nerve to call him back, to talk to him, to explain why she’d gone away.
She was stronger now, though. She had made the decision to come clean to him, and she could handle it, however difficult it might seem. After all, their relationship had been a long time ago. About a decade now. Shouldn’t that be long enough to wipe away everything that had happened between them?
She knew, though, that it hadn’t been long enough for her.
Amy sighed and pulled herself out of bed, determined to get her mind off her high school sweetheart.
For an hour, she struggled to write an article about her experiences in the Sahara Desert, but the camels and tribesmen and women felt impossible to capture in words when her brain was so full of other things so much closer to home.
Finally, frustrated, she turned from her laptop and paced the length of her small childhood bedroom, trying to get her mind to settle down and focus. She felt too closed in to think properly—that was the problem, she told herself.
Amy could see that the sky had lightened enough for the world outside her window to be more than just a swath of darkness, and she determined that it would be best to get out of this tiny room. Her eyes landed on her old tan Stetson, hanging on one of her bedposts, just where she would always put it after a ride, and she smiled.
In a couple of minutes, her hair was falling down her back underneath a battered cowboy hat, and she had thrown on her jeans. With her old cowboy boots in one hand, she sneaked quietly down the stairs in just her socks, hoping not to wake anyone.
Once she was standing outside and the back door was shut behind her, she slid her feet into her boots and walked quickly toward the barn, feeling like a younger version of herself. When she reached it, it took no time at all to slip inside and find her old tack in its place against the wall. Pa had taken good care of it while she was gone.
The smell of hay and the nickering of horses surrounded her and was a soothing presence, and for a moment she stood there, feeling the supple leather of her saddle and remembering old times when she wanted nothing more than to live on a ranch and ride in rodeos. And marry Jack.
She turned from the saddle, wishing she could turn from her thoughts as easily, and walked along the row of horses. Since the family ran a riding school, there was no shortage of animals to ride, but she still looked over them all, telling herself she wasn’t looking for Bandit.
Bandit had been her horse back in the day, a beautiful black stallion with white freckled markings on his nose, and when he died during her first year of college, she’d cried long and hard. It still sent a pang through her heart to think of him, and she knew she would always wonder if he’d felt abandoned when she moved so far away.
Bandit wasn’t there, of course, and she looked over the horses once again, this time seeing them as they were, and not what they weren’t. A feisty-looking mare, dark brown, butted Amy with her nose, stopping her in her tracks. When Amy looked the animal in the eyes, she knew they’d get along just fine.
Amy saddled up the mare, whose name she didn’t know, and walked her out of the barn. In the early-morning light, the mare’s coat shone a deep bronze, and Amy patted her. “What do you say we go for a ride, girl?” she asked.
The horse snorted and pulled her head up quickly, almost as if she was nodding. Amy grinned at her and mounted the animal, settling into the saddle as if she’d only been riding the day before. With that, the two were off around the property, getting to know each other.
For a few minutes, Amy was content to ride at a walking pace as she accustomed herself to the mare’s gait. Once she was comfortable, though, she started to feel antsy. The lingering anxiety was still there, nagging at the back of her mind, and she decided to do what she’d always done to clear her mind in the old days: outrun her thoughts. Amy turned the mare toward the fence line, and in a few seconds they were through a small gate and onto a trail that wound its way through the trees that bordered her parents’ property.
Soon Amy and the mare were moving at a quick trot along the footpath. Amy leaned close to the mare’s neck as she reveled in the familiar feeling. She must have traveled along this trail hundreds of times when she was in high school, exercising the horses and leading children from her father’s riding school along the path.
When they broke through the last of the trees into an open field, Amy urged the horse to go faster, and they streaked through the short grass at a run, hurtling along until they reached a dirt road. The feel of her hair streaming behind her as the cool wind slapped her face gave Amy more joy than she remembered feeling in a long time. When they slowed, she took in a deep breath and shivered with the cold.
By that time the sky was full of light, and Amy knew it was probably time to get back. She turned the mare to walk along the road, back toward the ranch.
Amy was still breathing hard, her heart pounding, when she saw something that made it beat even harder. A few hundred yards up the road was a truck, a cowboy leaning against it and watching her.
She knew the truck and the cowboy so well, she recognized them immediately, even though it had been a decade since she’d seen either one. How many times had she looked up from a ride to see that cowboy leaning just that way on that beat-up old truck?
Without any guidance, the horse continued walking toward the ranch, bringing Amy closer and closer to Jack Stuart. She couldn’t bring herself to look away from him, and he kept his eyes locked on hers.
This was it. She’d promised herself she would do this, and now the time had come. Amy took a long, calming breath.
After what felt like an eternity, the mare was only a few feet from the truck. Amy pulled on the reins and the horse stopped and waited to be told what to do next. Amy wished someone would tell her what she should do, too, but she knew she’d need to figure it out for herself.
Jack moved away from the truck and came closer, stroking the horse’s muzzle, still keeping his eyes on Amy. For a long moment, they stared at one another, only a foot of space between them.
If her heart hadn’t been beating so hard, it might have stopped at the sight of Jack so close. He looked a little older, but he was still handsome as ever, his wavy dark hair playing around his ears in the breeze. And his eyes, that same light blue that haunted her dreams, bored into her.
She couldn’t think of what to say. Hi seemed silly, with all the unanswered questions and years standing between them.
“I heard you were in town,” Jack said, breaking the silence at last.
Amy nodded, not taking her eyes off his. “For a month.”
“I was on my way to your house when I saw you two.”
She wasn’t sure what to say to that. Had it brought up old memories for him, too?
“I’d like to talk, Amy,” he said, his voice sounding strained.
Was he hurt, or angry, or both? It was hard to tell exactly how he felt from the way he clenched his jaw, but it was enough to make it clear that he hadn’t forgotten about what had happened between them all those years ago.
And now it was time to explain. As much as she wanted to run away again, she wasn’t going to. The mare snorted and shifted beneath her, as if she could feel Amy’s roil of emotions.
Her eyes began to sting with the tears of all the years she’d missed with him because of the hand fate had dealt her.
Chapter Two (#uac13c720-904c-5b97-b5bb-e58143fc08d9)
Jack hated what seeing her did to his heart. She had dumped him—even worse, just avoided him—yet when he looked at her all he wanted to do was pull her into his arms. The moment he’d seen her as he was driving along, her blond hair flying along behind her just like it did when she rode junior rodeo in high school, it was like the last decade had never happened.
It was even worse when she looked down at him from her perch on the horse, her green eyes sparkling with tears. He couldn’t meet them and keep his distance. He turned his eyes to the truck. “How about we sit for a few minutes?” he asked, lowering the tailgate of his truck.
It would be warmer in the cab, but he knew Amy would want to keep close to the horse. Besides, he didn’t think he could be in that small a space with her and keep his wits about him. As it was, he already felt claustrophobic despite the wide-open sky and the large animal between them.
Amy swung herself off the horse, wincing when she dropped her weight onto one foot, and if he’d been any closer, he would have automatically put his arms on her waist to steady her. He was almost glad for the distance between them, since he wasn’t sure what touching her would do to him. “Are you okay?” he asked.
She nodded. “Twisted my ankle a while back, and it still gives me trouble sometimes.”
Jack almost said something, anything, to keep the conversation away from the tough stuff, but he kept his mouth shut. It was finally time to talk about what had happened between them.
Amy seemed to think the same thing, because she walked over and sat down on the tailgate, reins in her hand, and sighed. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. About not calling you,” she said, her voice quieter, softer than he remembered ever hearing it before. “I was a coward not to talk to you about what was going on.”
He waited while she took a deep breath, and for a brief moment he considered stopping her right there. If whatever she was going to say took a decade to come out, maybe he didn’t want to hear it. Maybe, if she never said anything, they could just start where they’d left off...
He brushed away the crazy idea. He needed to know.
“A few days after graduation, while you were gone on your family trip, I went to the doctor.”
His mind filled with possibilities, some of them terrifying, though none of them made sense. Was she sick? If she had been ill for the last decade, she certainly didn’t show it. She looked as beautiful as she had at seventeen, even more so, with the air of confidence she seemed to exude now, even when she was near tears.
Had she gotten pregnant? That seemed like an odd reason for her to run from him, since she would have known, even at that young age, that he would be more than happy to raise a child with her. They had been talking about having a family together nearly the entire time they were together.
His mind flitted back to illness. What if she was sick? Deathly sick? And he didn’t know?
He waited, the pit of his stomach tense, for what the doctor might have told her that had made her disappear from his life.
“I found out that I can’t have kids, Jack. Ever. I left because you deserved to be with someone who could give you the family you’ve always wanted.”
Jack felt a combination of pain and relief. He turned to look carefully at Amy. “But you’re not sick or anything?” he asked.
“Except for not being able to have children, I’m fine—”
“It’s you I cared about, Amy, not whether or not you can make babies. Hell, you’re adopted. You know better than anyone that there are other options, if we wanted kids.”
Jack had never felt so relieved, yet at the same time he was sad for all the years together they had lost. Sure, he’d wanted kids, but this was Amy. What he’d always wanted, more than anything, was her.
Amy still looked somber. “You say that now, Jack, and I know you would’ve said that then, but the years would have gone by and you’d have wished we could have children. Your children. Even if you didn’t, I’d always wonder if you did. I didn’t want that to fester underneath the surface, ruining our relationship.”
“So you left?” Jack asked, searching her face.
Amy looked away from his eyes. She seemed embarrassed. “I couldn’t break up with you. I know I never would’ve been able to make myself say the words to you. And since I couldn’t let myself stay with you, leaving felt like my only option. I’m sorry for doing that to you, Jack. I was a coward. You deserved better.”
At last, a great weight disappeared from Jack’s shoulders. After years of wondering, at least he knew the answers to all his unanswered questions. Now there still seemed to be one question left: Where did he go from there?
* * *
AMY SAT ON the tailgate, chilled by the early-morning breeze and by her own thoughts. She waited for him to say something that would give her a clue as to what he was thinking. If he despised her cowardice, wanted nothing to do with her, she deserved it. She wouldn’t run from it anymore. She patted the mare’s soft muzzle absentmindedly, waiting.
Finally, he spoke. “We should get your horse back to the barn,” he said, hopping off the tailgate and holding out his hand to her. “How about we walk there? I can come back for the truck.”
She was speechless for a moment. The unexpected friendliness, the opening of a door she thought long closed, surprised her. When she took his hand, however, its warmth and steadiness rushed through her, and the spark of recognition and comfort that flowed through the link made her smile. Her hand felt right nestled in his, like they had never been apart.
“Your hands are freezing,” Jack commented, pressing hers in both of his.
She was warmed by more than his palms as he helped her stand, and their fingers lingered together for an extra moment before he let go to close his tailgate and pull his keys from the ignition.
They began walking side by side toward her parents’ ranch along the road, the mare walking along behind them and occasionally batting Amy with her nose, as if anxious to move faster. Amy, though, wasn’t in any rush to finish the half mile or so walk. She didn’t want this intimate moment to be over too quickly.
“I can’t believe you still have that old truck,” she told Jack, glancing back at the vehicle parked beside the field. “After all the times it broke down in high school, I never would have imagined it would last so long.”
“I had to put a lot of work into it over the years, and it still has a few quirks,” Jack said, giving her a sidelong smile that went straight to her heart, “but I’ve loved it since I was a teenager. I could never just give up on it.”
Amy blushed, feeling the words resonate through her, sure he was talking about more than just the truck.
But no. Even if they did, the facts of the situation had not changed. She still couldn’t have children, and he still deserved the chance to find a woman who could give him the family he’d always wanted.
He had the chance, and it seems he never took it, she thought to herself. She couldn’t stop the heat from blossoming in her chest. It turned to ice as she put back up the walls she’d built around her heart in the past few days. She knew now better than ever that she couldn’t let herself get carried away with a man. Even if it was Jack.
He stopped walking and turned toward her, and she did the same. Suddenly, she felt as if he was much too close, and at the same time too far away, and she longed to move closer. To touch his lips with hers. She took a step back.
She was sure the feel of their lips, their bodies, together would also be on the list of things that hadn’t changed, and it scared her.
“Will you go out with me tonight?” he asked, his voice low and deep.
The word yes was on her tongue, but Amy balked. She couldn’t let them fall right back into the relationship she’d run away from, could she? What about all that had happened since? Would there just be too much between them? And she had no idea who he was now. He could be every bit as despicable as Armand, the person she least wanted to think about.
Jack seemed to realize her indecision, because he turned and started walking toward her house again. After a moment, she pulled herself out of her shock and hustled to catch up with him. When he spoke, he sounded lighthearted, confident. Exactly the Jack she knew from high school. “How about this—we go out tonight just to get to know each other. We start fresh. No expectations. No baggage. No past. Just us, two twentysomethings who met while I was out for a drive and you were going for a ride on your horse.”
She had to smile at his antics. “No past? So you saw a random woman riding a horse in the middle of nowhere and stopped to ask her out?”
His eyes danced with laughter. “When you put it like that, it doesn’t sound so great. How about I was driving along when I saw a beautiful woman and a beautiful horse, and I felt compelled to speak to her. The woman, not the horse.”
Amy wasn’t sure if she was amused or panicked. For a moment he sounded just like Armand. Charming, flattering...but this was Jack. He was being sincere.
Wasn’t he?
They grew quiet and walked a little longer, until her childhood home appeared down the street.
“So I’ll pick you up tonight at seven?” he said, his voice serious as he turned toward her again.
Amy nodded, though a large part of her yelled that it was too much, too soon. Jack’s face lit with a smile, and he turned his attention back to the house that loomed before them. She was glad he wasn’t looking at her any longer, so he wouldn’t see just how torn and confused she was.
She tried to tell herself she was being stupid, worrying over nothing. She’d known Jack almost as long as she’d been alive. Armand was—well, he was a blip on the radar of her life, not worth thinking about. So she would just stop.
The likelihood of that was so far-fetched that Amy couldn’t stop a snort from escaping.
“What’re you thinking about over there?” Jack asked, the gleam in his eye making him so devilishly handsome she wasn’t sure if she wanted to kiss him or run away.
“That wasn’t me, that was the horse,” she said, turning away so he wouldn’t see the flow of emotions she couldn’t control.
He snorted skeptically in response, and she felt the tension inside her break as a laugh broke from her throat. She’d forgotten how easily he could make her laugh, regardless of her mood. She had missed that.
They arrived at the house, and even though the mare was pulling Amy toward the barn, she couldn’t pull herself away from Jack, as if something magnetic about him forced her to stay close to him now that she’d found him again.
He looked in her eyes again, making her stomach drop somewhere near her toes. “Seven, right?” he asked.
The note of insecurity in his voice sent a pang through her heart. It reminded her again of how much she must have hurt him. She nodded. “Seven.”
He leaned forward and brushed his lips against hers, sending a shock wave of hormones rushing through her body. Her mind recoiled at the feeling, and she almost called the date off right then and there. The idea of being vulnerable again so soon, even with Jack, made her more than nervous.
Jack seemed to realize he’d crossed the line. He tilted his hat and said, “I don’t normally kiss ladies I just met. I assure you, I’ll be a perfect gentleman on our date.”
He turned back toward the road and began walking away, but she wasn’t ready for him to disappear. Not quite yet.
“You haven’t even asked my name,” she called to him, desperate to see his face again for a few more seconds.
He looked at her with a smile and bowed. “Where are my manners? Name’s Jack, miss. And you are...?” he asked.
God, he was so cute she could hardly speak. “Amelia. Friends call me Amy.”
“Amelia,” he repeated, as if tasting the word, and she felt such an overwhelming urge to kiss him she was glad he was already several feet away.
Reluctantly, she started toward the barn, following the horse’s insistent pull. Before she could get too far, though, she realized something. “This is all I have to wear for a date,” she said to his retreating figure, raising her voice so he would hear and gesturing toward her jeans and old T-shirt. “I’ve been living out of a backpack in the African desert for the past year.”
He just smiled at her again. “Sounds like you’ll have some mighty interesting stories to tell me at dinner, miss. You can just wear that,” he said, eyeing her carefully. “I like the cowgirl look.”
Before she could say anything in response, Jack had chuckled and waved. “See you at seven,” he called as he turned away a final time.
Once he was gone, she spun toward the barn and practically ran the rest of the way, making the horse move quickly to keep up. Even so, Amy was unable to outrun her thoughts.
What was the matter with her? Jack was not Armand. He wasn’t the type of guy to seduce her and manipulate her into falling for him. He wasn’t a selfish liar. He was Jack.
Still, she couldn’t seem to stop herself from panicking every time he said something sweet or she felt desire rise up.
She knew she was still hurting from what she’d been through, and that it was far too soon to go on a date with Jack. She knew she should’ve said no. But it was too late now, and a part of her wanted so badly to be with him again, to feel his arms around her. To be safe and secure.
She was going on a date. That was all there was to it. They would talk and eat and get to know each other again. And maybe, maybe she would be able to convince herself that everything that had happened in Morocco was in the past.
As she brushed down the mare, Amy went over the morning’s events once more in her head. Jack was just as attractive as always, that was for sure, but in high school he’d seemed a little more...happy-go-lucky, she supposed. He had always seemed happy, as if life smiled upon him. There was something careworn about him now.
She fervently hoped that she wasn’t the one to change that about him.
She shook her head at the irony of that thought, since it was just that part of his nature that had been one of the reasons she had run instead of talking to him. She’d been worried he would convince her that the doctors were wrong and they could have exactly the life they’d planned because it was the life he wanted, dammit, and everything always worked out the way he wanted.
And she had known all those years ago that if she talked to him she would cave, give in to the hope even when she knew the odds, and it had made her a coward.
But now—
“I saw Jack Stuart walking you home,” Pop said from behind Amy, startling her out of her thoughts.
He came up beside her and pet the horse she was grooming, but said nothing else. Just waited.
Amy nodded. “He spotted me while I was out riding. We had a good talk.”
Pop said nothing, but she could tell by the slight curve of his mustache that he was pleased. He didn’t meddle in the affairs of his children like Ma, but he cared deeply for their happiness. Impulsively, Amy gave the old man a hug.
“I don’t know if it’s a good idea or not, but I’m going on a date with him tonight. I’ve missed him all these years, but maybe this is a bad idea. Maybe I’m just setting myself up to get hurt, and I don’t want to go through that again—” She stopped, aware she was saying more than she’d meant to.
She hadn’t told anyone about Armand, and frankly she didn’t plan on doing it anytime soon. It was more than humiliating, and she wasn’t ready to relive it.
Luckily, Pop wasn’t the type to pry. He put a hand on Amy’s shoulder. “Don’t you worry,” he said.
She wasn’t sure if he meant not to worry about the date or her past pain or what, but it was fine not knowing. He probably meant all of it. Pop didn’t need many words to be there for his daughter.
Amy turned back to the mare to finish grooming her. “How’s the riding school going?” she asked, ready for a change of topic.
The old man puffed out a stream of air that made his mustache flutter. “Fewer kids every year, seems like. If it weren’t for the rest of the ranch and the few stud horses we have, it wouldn’t be worth the costs. Still, it’s such a part of this place I’d keep it going if it cost me a small fortune. Your ma thinks I’m crazy, but there it is.”
Amy hadn’t heard her father say so many words in one go since the time he’d lectured her on the dangers of peer pressure when she was a teenager. She’d always known her pop was partial to the riding school, and even though she worried about his health, she had to love his loyalty to the horses and the children.
The mare under Amy’s hand snorted and shook her mane, as if trying to get Amy’s attention back on her where it belonged. Amy smiled. “I like this horse, Pop. What’s her name?”
“Queen Bee.”
Amy chuckled as the animal raised her head regally. The name fit her, certainly.
“Be careful riding her, though. She had a run-in with a snake a while back and spooks easy. I don’t let the riding school kids take her out anymore.”
Amy patted the horse like she was an old friend. “I can handle a skittish horse, Pop.”
* * *
JACK DROVE BACK to his family’s ranch in a state of disbelief. He had prepared himself for an ugly fight, or for no answer at all, but not this. A reconciliation? Maybe not quite, but it was at least a new chance for him and Amy.
He also hadn’t been prepared for all the emotions he would feel when he saw her. He’d tried to be ready, but nothing he could have done would prepare him for the electricity that shot through him at the sight of her. She was as stunning as ever.
There was also a sliver of fear, as if she was going to disappear again before his eyes, as if she had never been real in the first place.
He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, full of nervous energy. He didn’t know what he could do to keep himself occupied until that evening, but he’d need to find something or he would go crazy waiting, wondering if it was all real, if she would be there when he arrived at the McNeal house at seven.
Once his truck was parked in front of Stuart Ranch, Jack went immediately toward the barn, veering around the house. Indoors sounded stifling, and he knew it would be infuriating to pace around the living room watching the hand on the clock move with frustrating slowness, which he was sure would happen. Better to get onto a horse and do something under the clear cool sky rather than hole up inside.
As he approached the barn, his brother Tom walked out with a couple of horses on leads. Jack went up to him, seeing an opportunity for distraction. “How can I help?” he asked.
Tom gave him a curious look, as if he sensed something of Jack’s emotions. “I’m setting up for a group of students. They’ll be here in a half hour.”
“Ages?” Jack asked, turning to go to the barn and get whatever else they might need for the riding lessons.
“Under sevens,” Tom answered. “There’ll be about four kids total,” he added before Jack could disappear into the barn.
Jack sighed. He should have expected such low numbers, but it was always a little deflating to be reminded how much it had dwindled. With more than one school in this tiny area, and the drop in population over the past few years, having any students at all was a stroke of luck. His father and Mr. McNeal had started their riding schools years ago when the high demand for lessons meant both schools could prosper. When their father was, if not young, at least spry, they had kids driving in from towns over an hour away. He loved teaching children how to ride, and it showed in the flourishing school he ran.
Without his touch, the school had fallen off to maybe twenty students. If Spring Valley’s population had stayed steady, maybe they would be afloat even without Dad’s magic touch, but as the town dwindled, so did their business.
Now they were at the point that the only reason they’d manage to pay the bills was Jack’s winnings from the rodeo and Tom’s determination to stretch every dollar. If Jack didn’t find a new partner soon, he didn’t think even Tom’s penny-pinching would save them.
Still, the ranch had to run. It was their mom’s home—it was Jack’s future. Tom didn’t want the ranch, never had, but Jack always dreamed of turning it into a rodeo school when he retired with a good chunk of cash from his roping career.
If they could somehow last that long. Something would need to change, but what and how?
Jack pulled himself out of his reverie. It wasn’t helping anything, and he’d gone over it all so many times, but it always led to nothing. Now was the time to work, not think, so he grabbed a couple more of their gentlest horses and brought them out to the paddock where Tom was standing with the others.
They looped the leads over a fence post and both went back for saddles. “Have a good drive?” Tom asked.
Jack could tell Tom wanted to ask what had happened, knew Tom saw a change in him. And even though there was no reason to hide his reunion with Amy, that their date couldn’t possibly be a secret, he still felt a momentary desire to hide it, as if talking about it might make it all go away like a birthday wish or something.
Tom was watching him, though, and he knew he had to come clean. “I went to see Amy. We talked and decided to go out tonight.”
“Like on a date?” Tom asked, sounding a little surprised.
“I guess so,” Jack answered, not ready to clarify more.
He loved his brother, but talking had never been their strong suit, and it seemed strange to open up to him about the real history of his relationship with Amy and what this date could or could not mean. Heck, he wasn’t even really ready to think about all that, let alone talk about it.
Tom seemed to understand, because he didn’t ask anything more, and soon they were guiding little kids around the paddock, each one practicing squeezing their legs to make their horse go and pulling on the reins to stop. The two youngest children, identical twins, could hardly manage enough force to get the horse’s attention, but the docile creatures listened to them with the patience of loving parents.
Jack watched the twins with interest. Zach and Carter, Brock’s soon-to-be sons, had settled into Spring Valley comfortably and seemed more than ready to add Brock to their family. He’d seen the way their faces lit up around Amy’s brother. They loved him and from what Jack had seen, Brock clearly doted on them. Jack had always wanted a family, and it made his heart swell to think that a child didn’t need to be yours biologically in order to be family.
Like the McNeal clan. All four children were adopted, and their parents loved every one of them as much as any parent could. If a couple were unable to have children for some reason...
His mind balked as Jack realized he had drifted into territory he wasn’t remotely ready for. He had only seen Amy for a few minutes after ten years of complete silence from her—there was no way he should be thinking about them starting a family together. Heck, part of him was still dead sure dinner was a bad idea. The part that had never healed when she left the first time.
He wasn’t ready to get hurt like that again, and thoughts like those would only make it worse.
Still, he couldn’t help but watch the time tick by oh so slowly toward seven, and he did everything he could think of to speed it along.
He hadn’t been this antsy for a date in a very long time. About ten years, in fact.
Chapter Three (#uac13c720-904c-5b97-b5bb-e58143fc08d9)
Amy sat with Cassie, the two women shading their eyes against the afternoon light as they watched Brock play tag with the young twins, while the new cows lowed happily in the pen Brock had built over the past two months. If Amy hadn’t been so preoccupied with thoughts of her date in just a few hours, the antics of the three males would have been hilarious. As it was, though, she was hardly able to even hold a basic conversation with Cassie, let alone anything else.
After the third time Amy had to apologize for not hearing what Cassie had said, Cassie gave her an intense clinical stare. “Is everything okay, Amy? You’re almost as difficult to talk to as Brock was when he had a concussion. Did you hit your head recently? Who was the first President of the United States?”
Amy chuckled and shook her head. “I don’t have a concussion, Cassie. I’m just...preoccupied.”
“With what?” Cassie asked, her demeanor shifting from doctor to sister instantaneously.
Amy didn’t have any sisters—well, didn’t grow up with any, at least, she amended—so it felt odd to confide in Cassie like this, but she needed to talk to someone. Pop was a good listener but not one for advice and long conversations, and Ma would end up trying to play the ultimate matchmaker if she even got a whiff of an opportunity. Amy took a breath and spilled her thoughts to her soon-to-be sister-in-law.
“Do you know Jack Stuart?” she asked, knowing the answer.
“Sure,” Cassie said. “He was at the riding school with Tom today for the boys’ lesson. Zach said he is, and I quote, ‘a really cool rodeo cowboy.’”
Amy agreed with Zach’s assessment, but it didn’t even scratch the surface of everything there was to say about Jack.
“He’s also my high school sweetheart, my first boyfriend,” Amy added. “He’s taking me out tonight and I’m just a bit nervous. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other and so much has changed and Jack—” Amy cut off the torrent of words, not sure what she wanted to say.
Jack was special.
Jack could be a chance to start over.
Jack didn’t know who she was and what she’d done, and she wasn’t sure he’d still like her when he found out.
Cassie seemed to have filled in the blank her own way, because she hopped up and grabbed Amy’s hand, pulling her inside. “If you’ve got a date, we have much more important things to do than sit here watching three guys tumbling around the yard. Do you even have any nice clothes in that backpack of yours?”
Amy smiled as Cassie’s enthusiasm calmed some of her worries. “Nothing but travel clothes, jeans and a few summer dresses. Jack won’t care what I’m wearing but—”
“But you do, of course,” Cassie said before Amy could finish the sentence. “I’m a bit shorter than you, but I bet a few of my things will fit. Want to go shopping in my closet?”
Amy nodded, relieved she would have something to wear that hadn’t been tainted by her recent past. Amy cut that thought off before it could gain any more traction and followed Cassie. In a few minutes they were ankle-deep in discarded dresses. Each one had been pronounced too something for this date. Too conservative. Too risqué. Too formal. Too short.
Finally, Cassie clapped her hands in delight, and Amy had to agree. She was holding a knee-length dress in a shimmery navy blue with little cap sleeves that Amy loved. “Go try it on,” Cassie urged, and Amy took the dress into the bathroom.
When she stepped back out, Cassie’s squeal of happiness confirmed her thoughts: it was a beautiful dress.
“He’s going to fall in love with you the moment he sees you,” Cassie said dreamily.
The thought made her heart stutter. Did she want him to fall in love with her again? The thought sent a wave of fear through her, and she knew she wasn’t ready to talk about anything resembling love.
“What’s wrong, Amy? This isn’t about the dress, is it?” Cassie asked, putting her hand on Amy’s arm.
Amy sat on the bed, feeling sudden tears spring into her eyes. Cassie sat beside her. “You can tell me anything, Amy. Doctor-patient confidentiality,” she added with a smile.
“Are you a therapist?” Amy asked with a little laugh as she brushed a tear away.
“Not technically, but I can sure try, if that’s what you need.”
Amy sighed. “In Morocco, I met a man. Armand. He was—”
She searched for the right word while Cassie waited patiently. “He was incredibly charming,” Amy finally finished, though that didn’t really do justice to the pull he had over her.
“I gather it didn’t end well?” Cassie prompted quietly.
Amy laughed. “That’s the understatement of the century. He wasn’t who I thought he was. He was married, for one thing.”
Cassie pulled Amy into a hug, and Amy was grateful she didn’t have to explain any more about her relationship with Armand. The way he manipulated her feelings, the way he’d treated her after he’d known she was hooked. How difficult it had been to get back her independence and leave.
“Anyway, I got away from all that and came home. And now I’m going on this date and feel like a complete basket case for even agreeing to it after all that,” Amy said, trying to end the conversation and stop herself from becoming completely overwhelmed with still-fresh feelings at the same time.
Cassie gave her a look of concern. “You can still call off or postpone this date if it’s too much for you, you know. This dress will wait, and I’m sure Jack would understand.”
Amy only thought about that for a second before dismissing it. There was no way she was going to cancel this date. “I need this date, I think. It might help me get rid of Armand, but mostly...” She paused, struggling for words. “It’s Jack,” she finished, sure Cassie couldn’t understand everything he meant to her. Heck, she didn’t think she did, either.
“Well, if you’re going on a date tonight, we need to figure out something for shoes, because I don’t think mine will fit you,” Cassie declared, shaking her head.
Amy smiled, glad the conversation had turned to less serious topics. She looked at her feet and knew instinctively what shoes she wanted to wear with this dress. “Shoes I’ve got taken care of. Thanks so much for the help, Cassie. And for listening. I promise next time we’ll talk about fun things like your wedding instead of having a therapy session.”
Cassie shrugged and started picking up the discarded dresses. “It’s no problem. I mean, how can I ask you to be my bridesmaid if I’m not willing to be a shoulder to cry on once in a while? I’ll probably need you to return the favor as the big day approaches and the inevitable wedding disasters occur.”
Amy’s eyes widened in surprise. “You want me to be one of your bridesmaids?”
Cassie looked up. “Of course I want you to be a bridesmaid. I was hoping to have three. Emma from the bakery, my sister who lives in Minnesota and you. I really do want us to be sisters, Amy.”
Amy felt her eyes sting with tears again, but managed to hold them back. There had already been too much crying today.
“So, will you be my bridesmaid?” Cassie asked.
Amy nodded and the two women hugged.
A door slam and thumping footsteps heralded the entrance of Brock and the boys. “Momma, why are you hugging Auntie Amy?” Zach asked, looking concerned.
Cassie leaned down low and ruffled her son’s hair, sending a pang through Amy’s heart, just as it always did when she saw mothers interacting with their children. “Auntie Amy is doing me a favor, so I was saying thank you with a nice big hug. She’s going to be in the wedding with us,” Cassie explained.
Carter’s face broke into a wide grin. “We’re going to be in the wedding, too! We get to hold the rings and stand next to our uncles!”
Brock held out a hand for each of the boys to high-five. “That’s right. Y’all are going to do me proud, I know it.”
Carter and Zach both puffed with pleasure.
“So I know now’s not the time, what with your imminent date and all,” Cassie said, turning back to Amy, “but we need to get you fitted for your bridesmaid dress soon so there’ll be time to alter it before the wedding. We’re less than a month away at this point.”
Amy nodded, taking her role as bridesmaid very seriously. “I’ll be here for whatever you need,” she said earnestly.
Brock cut into the sweet, sisterly moment. “Wait, you have a date? With who?” he asked, sounding almost protective.
Cassie gave Amy a worried look, as if she was waiting to see if she’d already slipped up as a sister and confidante. Amy gave her brother a steely gaze. “I’m going on a date with Jack Stuart, and you are not to say anything overprotective or big-brotherly about it.”
Brock held up his hands in mock surrender. “I wouldn’t think of it. Have fun, my adult sister who can make her own decisions.”
Amy and Cassie both smiled in relief.
“But if he tries to get fresh with you—” he began, pointing a finger in warning.
He was cut off when Cassie shoved him out the door. “Sorry about that,” Cassie said, grimacing.
Amy laughed. She’d forgotten what it was like to have a big brother around watching out for her. It was a little obnoxious, sure, but also nice in its own way.
“So, let’s talk about the wedding,” she said, filling the silence.
Cassie shook her head. “Nuh-uh. We’re not done here. Next is makeup and hair.”
Amy twirled a strand of her blond hair around one of her fingers as she was dragged into the bathroom. “How do you know how to do all this stuff?” she asked.
She’d assumed her doctor sister-in-law was just as clueless as she was, but it seemed very clear that she was wrong. Cassie shrugged as she opened a drawer of brushes and powders. “I have a sister. This is what you do when you’re bored over summer vacation.”
Amy had never felt like she’d missed out having only brothers, but now she wondered what it would’ve been like to grow up with a sister. She couldn’t go back and change her childhood, but maybe she’d be able to have the closeness of a female sibling now, as an adult. The thought made her smile as she closed her eyes so Cassie could apply eye shadow.
* * *
JACK WALKED TO the door of the McNeals’ ranch house, a combination of nervousness and excitement turning his stomach into knots. He could well remember being seventeen and feeling that same emotion as he stood waiting for Amy. That was on the occasion of their true first date, when he had nearly convinced himself that it was all a hallucination or something. Or a cruel prank.
It was funny how history repeated itself, he thought as he quelled the sudden voice insisting Amy wouldn’t be home. What if she’d changed her mind and taken off again, leaving him without explanation for another decade?
Jack took a deep breath and knocked on the door. It opened almost instantaneously, and he breathed a secret sigh of relief. Amy stood there in all her glory and then some.
“You look...” he began, but words failed him as he took in the sight of her.
Amy’s long blond hair cascaded over her shoulders in wavy curls, and her dress was a blue that made her eyes sparkle. Or maybe they were sparkling because she was looking at him.
A man could hope.
When his eyes landed on her scuffed cowboy boots, his expression broke into a wide grin. “My girl knows how to dress for a night out on the town, that’s for sure,” he commented, chuckling.
For just a split second, Amy’s smile faltered and Jack wanted to smack himself. He’d forgotten that this wasn’t a decade ago, and Amy wasn’t his girl anymore. But then the moment was gone and they were just two strangers standing awkwardly, unsure what came next.
“Is this okay? Since I wasn’t sure where we were going, I didn’t know how to dress,” Amy said as she stepped out onto the porch and closed the front door behind her.
The old Amy would have put some attitude behind the words, teasing Jack for his insistence on making even the most mundane outings a surprise. This time, however, it was just an explanation, nothing more. “You look perfect,” he said, earning him another nervous smile.
Jack suddenly felt like this date was a bad idea. She had always been feisty to the point of exasperation, and even a simple compliment rarely went unchallenged. Now she seemed timid, nervous, and he panicked at the thought that she had changed so much and he would forever lose the perfect picture of her he had in his mind. He told himself this was just a strange moment, and they were both acting a little odd because of it.
After waiting all day filled with too much energy, Jack was already exhausted trying to live each moment in the present and the past.
He made a declaration then and there to give up the constant comparisons. Tonight was about having a nice first date with a beautiful woman.
As if to prove it to himself, he held out his hand to shake hers. “Nice to see you again, Miss Amelia. Thank you for agreeing to go out with me. I know many women would hesitate at a date with a stranger, but I’m sure glad you accepted my offer.”
The light in Amy’s eye sparkled, and she put on a really terrible Southern Belle accent. “Well, I do declare that it was a might unbecoming of me to allow your advances while I was unchaperoned, but a girl of my age must defy the rules on occasion or she may live the rest of her days as an old spinster.”
Jack tried to keep a straight face, but he was wildly unsuccessful, and soon they were both laughing.
“I seem to have come to the wrong house. I was picking up Amy McNeal, not Scarlett O’Hara,” he finally managed once the bout of laughter had passed.
“Well, I have never been so insulted in my life!” Scarlett-Amy exclaimed, putting her hand to her heart so dramatically that it sent them both back into giggles.
Jack felt relief course through him. Some things had changed, certainly, but she was still Amy.
They walked down the porch steps, still chuckling, and Jack had to restrain himself from wrapping his arm around her and pulling her in for a kiss. If she wasn’t ready yet to be “his girl” again, she probably wasn’t ready for a make-out session in the driveway.
To be fair, he wasn’t sure if he was ready for that, either. The flood of feelings just being near Amy was almost overwhelming; kissing her could send him right over the edge.
Instead, Jack rushed to the passenger side of his truck and opened the door for her, bowing slightly as he did so. She bobbed her head in appreciation and settled into the seat as he walked around to the driver’s side.
“So, where are we going?” she asked the moment he was inside the vehicle.
Jack shook his head. “So impatient,” he commented, starting up the vehicle.
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