A Maverick To (Re)Marry
Christine Rimmer
A secret marriage? A secret divorce? Welcome to Rust Creek.Derek Dalton and Amy Wainwright weren’t just an item, they were married! With Amy back in town, how long before their secret past is revealed?
Married—and divorced!—in secret...
Rust Creek Ramblings
Rust Creek Falls’ flirty cowboy and the shy, straight-A student—a couple? We have it on good authority that not only were Derek Dalton and Amy Wainwright once an item, they were actually married! With Amy back in town for her friend’s wedding, how long before their secret past is revealed? Gather your rose petals, dear readers... We suspect these high school sweethearts may soon get a second chance at happily-wedded-after!
CHRISTINE RIMMER came to her profession the long way around. She tried everything from acting to teaching to telephone sales. Now she’s finally found work that suits her perfectly. Visit her at www.christinerimmer.com (http://www.christinerimmer.com).
Also by Christine Rimmer (#ud78470e1-ec90-5884-8325-efde2bd27ad9)
The Nanny’s Double Trouble
Married Till Christmas
Garrett Bravo’s Runaway Bride The
Lawman’s Convenient Bride
A Bravo for Christmas
Ms. Bravo and the Boss
James Bravo’s Shotgun Bride Carter
Bravo’s Christmas Bride The Good
Girl’s Second Chance Not Quite
Married
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
A Maverick to (Re)Marry
Christine Rimmer
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-07787-3
A MAVERICK TO (RE)MARRY
© 2018 Harlequin Books S.A.
Published in Great Britain 2018
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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)
For everyone who’s loved and lost and dared to
try again.
Contents
Cover (#u4e1e370c-3ef9-55e9-af40-c50453e9e8b7)
Back Cover Text (#uc33fd0a2-1875-52ac-9a9e-b1702ac1a23a)
About the Author (#u4f56657e-76f3-509e-ad78-37bc5099e192)
Booklist (#ubbac51b9-0c27-5b75-be5a-1d8442b786fd)
Title Page (#u35f46f2d-b73e-5417-8604-79c7accb8d88)
Copyright (#u03acb439-4779-5825-9d45-133d5677c89f)
Dedication (#uba68780d-3240-5393-bc91-09c5c04d3e0b)
Chapter One (#ue41db576-9f6e-5582-8365-b51463316791)
Chapter Two (#u59fc2638-e5eb-5158-9738-34030122b627)
Chapter Three (#u2b2deb33-8824-5aec-92bc-58e3ff77761d)
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)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter One (#ud78470e1-ec90-5884-8325-efde2bd27ad9)
“I can’t believe you’re here at last,” said Eva Rose Armstrong with a tender little smile. “When you pulled up in your fancy car yesterday, I almost wondered if I was seeing things.”
“I’m here and I’m staying,” Amy Wainwright replied. “You won’t get rid of me until the wedding, no matter how hard you try,” she spoke firmly and did her best to ignore the growing sense of dread that had her stomach feeling queasy and her nerves on a thin edge.
“Thirteen years,” Eva scolded fondly, “do you realize that? Thirteen years it’s taken us to get you to come back to town.” Us included Eva and her older sisters, Delphine and Calla. Growing up, the Armstrong sisters had been like family to Amy. In the years since Amy had moved to Colorado, the Armstrong girls had come to visit her often, but Amy had always found some reason she couldn’t make the trip to Rust Creek Falls—and in actual fact, it had been nine years, not thirteen, since Amy had last set foot in Montana. But Eva didn’t know about that other visit and she never would.
“It took you getting married to do the trick.” Amy strove for a light tone. “But I’m here now. And I’m going nowhere until I see you walk down the aisle to the man that you love.”
Eva laughed. “You don’t have to look so grim and determined about it.”
Relax, Amy reminded herself for the umpteenth time. It’s going to be fine. “Grim?” She reached out and took Eva’s hand. “Are you kidding? I’m thrilled to be your maid of honor.” It was coming face-to-face again with the best man that had her belly in knots and her heart stuck in her throat.
They stood near the sunny front window in the living room of the farmhouse where Eva lived with her fiancé, Luke Stockton. The best man would be joining them any minute now. And Amy would get through this meeting with her pride and her dignity intact.
She was going to smile in a cordial sort of way, just smile and say hello and ask him how he’d been. She would treat him as exactly what he was—a guy she knew way back when. An old high school boyfriend, nothing more.
What had really happened between them all those years ago was their secret, his and hers. And Amy could see no reason on earth why it shouldn’t stay that way.
“Now, we just need to find a way to keep you here forever,” Eva said with a definite smirk.
“Highly unlikely.” Amy lived in Boulder. She owned her own home and she worked for a major accounting firm as a digital forensic accountant. Most people’s eyes glazed over when she talked about her work, but Amy had always been a math whiz and a computer nerd. She totally loved stopping hackers and fraudsters dead in their tracks.
“You never know,” Eva teased, “you could finally meet the man of your dreams right here in Rust Creek Falls. This town is magic when it comes to love and romance, you just ask anyone.”
Once, long ago, Amy would have agreed with her friend. Now, though? Not happening. No way, uh-uh. “If you say so...”
Eva tugged on her hand. “Come on.” She led Amy to the sofa and chairs grouped around the coffee table. Eva and Luke had moved to Sunshine Farm last winter. Slowly, they’d been fixing up the old farmhouse, stripping dated wallpaper, installing new countertops and appliances in the kitchen. The furniture was mostly family hand-me-downs and stuff picked up at estate and yard sales, but Eva had a great sense of style and the effect was homey. Welcoming. “Sit down,” Eva said, “and have a cookie.”
Amy took one of the two wing chairs across from the couch—and a lemon-praline macaron. Eva was a baker by profession, her cookies as irresistible as her sunny smile.
The doorbell chimed.
It’s him...
Adrenaline spurted. Amy’s throat locked up tight on a bite of macaron.
Calm down. You’re okay. Breathe. She gulped a sip of iced tea and somehow managed to swallow the bite of cookie without surrendering to a choking fit.
Across the room and through the open arch, in the small foyer, Eva pulled open the door. “Viv!” It was the wedding planner, Vivienne Shuster. Not him, after all. Amy’s heartbeat slowed a little as Eva ushered the other woman into the living room.
Vivienne, a tall, striking blonde in a simple tan skirt and a white shirt, took a seat on the couch. She set down her stack of pastel binders and her tablet, shook hands with Amy and said yes to a glass of iced tea and a butter-pecan sandy.
For a few minutes, the women chatted about nothing in particular. Viv was relatively new to town, just getting started with her wedding-planner business. “Eva, the house looks great.”
“We keep working on it,” said Eva. Luke had grown up at Sunshine Farm, but the place had fallen into disrepair when his parents died and the Stockton family was torn apart.
Viv had obviously heard the whole heartbreaking story, including the current state of affairs. “It’s wonderful,” she said, “that Luke and his brothers and sisters are reunited now—or almost.” Her bright smile dimmed a little. “Any word on Liza?” Liza Stockton was the only one of Luke’s siblings who had yet to be located.
“No. But we’re still looking. We’ll never give up.”
“Well, you’re certainly bringing the family ranch back to life again.” Viv picked up one of her binders and flipped to a tab labeled Barn Weddings. Like Luke’s brother Danny last Christmas, Luke and Eva’s wedding venue would be the big yellow barn right there on Sunshine Farm. “So, we’re still going with holding the ceremony outside, and then the reception dinner in the barn, right?” At Eva’s nod, Viv continued, “Good, then. I have a few new ideas to run by you.”
Amy heard boots out on the front steps. Her mouth went dust-dry and her ears started ringing.
But it was only Luke coming in from the horse pasture. She took slow, deep breaths to settle her absurdly overactive nerves as Luke left his muddy boots by the door and slipped on a pair of soft mocs. “Am I late?”
“Nope.” Eva got up to offer a quick kiss and pull him into the living room. “You’re right on time.” They look so happy together, Amy thought. She was glad for her friend. A born romantic, Eva had survived more than her share of disappointments in love. But she never gave up. And now she’d finally found the perfect man for her.
The doorbell rang again. Amy’s stomach lurched and her heart beat so hard, she knew it would pound its way right out of her chest.
“That’ll be Derek,” Luke said. “I’ll get it.” He returned to the door as Amy practiced slow breathing and prayed she wouldn’t sink to the floor in a dead faint like the heroine of some old-time novel, felled by her own secret past. “Come on in,” said Luke.
And then, there he was.
Derek Dalton. In Wranglers and a soft chambray shirt. He took off his hat and his hair was just as she remembered it, thick and unruly, sable brown. He was just as she remembered—only bigger, broader. A grown man now, not a nineteen-year-old boy.
He hung his hat by the door. Luke signaled him forward and he entered the living room, filling it with his presence, with their past that seemed to suck all the air right out of her lungs. He greeted Eva and Viv. And then he turned to Amy, those leaf-green eyes homing right in on her. “Hey, Amy. Long time, huh?”
She stared up at him, unable to speak. But then he held out his big, blunt-fingered, work-roughened hand. She forced herself to take it and the shock of touching him again after all these years sent a bolt of lightning straight up her arm—and jolted the necessary words out of her.
“Hey, Derek.” She pulled her fingers free of his grip and somehow managed the barest semblance of a smile. “Great to see you again.”
“You, too.” With that, he turned away at last and lowered his big frame into the other wing chair.
The meeting began.
Viv opened a binder, pulled the rings wide and took out a small stack of papers. “Derek.” She handed several sheets to him. “And for you, Amy.” She passed Amy the rest. “You each now have the phone numbers and email addresses of everyone in the wedding party. Also, you’ll find a series of suggestions for the joint bachelor-bachelorette party, which is slated for the Saturday before the wedding. You two will be working as a team to pull it together. Invitations have already been sent and we’re counting on a big crowd. I threw in a few brainstorming sheets. It always helps to have those—just as a way to get the ideas flowing, you understand.”
“Wonderful,” Amy said, because Viv was looking at her and it seemed important that she say something.
“As for the bachelor party venue,” said Viv, “Maverick Manor is a dream setting, luxe and rustic at once. A real coup that we got it.” She gave Derek a nod. “Big thanks to Derek.”
“Don’t thank me,” Derek said. His voice was a little different somehow, deeper than Amy remembered. The sound of it reached down inside her, stirring up memories, reminding her of tender moments she really needed to forget. He added, “Nate Crawford’s the one.”
Eva asked, “You remember Nate, Amy?”
“Yeah. Of course.” Nate had been four or five years ahead of her in school, but everybody knew him. He was the oldest of six children. His parents, Laura and Todd, owned the general store.
“Nate’s become kind of a town benefactor in the last few years,” said Eva. “He’s a major shareholder in Maverick Manor.”
Derek said, “I just mentioned the party to him and he offered the Manor as a good place for it.”
“Ah,” said Amy, staring straight ahead, unable to make herself look at him though he was sitting right there at the other end of the coffee table from her. “Terrific.”
Eva explained, “Instead of separating the girls and the guys, I wanted one big party for all of us—with nothing X-rated, if you know what I mean.”
Viv clarified, “No strippers. And the games can be a little sexy—”
“—but nothing over the top.” Eva patted Luke’s hand. “Just good fun, right, Luke?”
“Works for me.” The groom nodded.
“It’ll be a nice, relaxed get-together for everyone,” added Eva, “not only for the wedding party, but also for all of our friends in town. We want it to be loose and easy and the Manor is a beautiful, comfortable place for it.”
Viv nodded at Derek and then at Amy. “Food and music are already taken care of, again thanks to Derek.”
Wait a minute. Had Derek paid for all this? Or just arranged everything? The boy she’d known in high school hadn’t had a lot of money. So then, he’d done well for himself?
Not that it mattered how much money he had. What mattered was that she would make sure the financial burden didn’t all fall on him—and wait a minute. Why was she worrying about Derek and his finances anyway?
Really, she didn’t even know the guy anymore....
Viv was still talking. “If you need specific songs played or whatever, I’ll be happy to pass your requests along to the band. You two will be putting your heads together and coming up with some fun things to do for the event, along with party favors and prizes.
“Mostly, it’s a balance. You don’t want to pack in too many activities, but you need a few games and such, to get people mingling. I’ve listed some very basic ideas on your party brainstorm sheets, just to jump-start the process for you. I’ll be ready with more suggestions if you need them and to help in any way I can.”
Amy tried really hard to focus, to keep her mind in the now, to think about great things to do at a coed bachelor party and what prizes and favors might be cute.
But her brain defied her will. Images assailed her, of those five days all those years ago, the tacky motel by the highway, the sound of the big rigs going by in the night, the reassuring warmth of Derek’s strong arms around her. How much she had loved him.
How scared she’d been, her life spinning out of control, nothing going the way she’d planned it.
“Fun activities,” she heard herself repeat. “Will do.”
From the other chair, Derek spoke up, too. “Uh, yeah. We’ll get right on that.”
The meeting continued. To Amy, it seemed endless. The memories pressed in on her, making it hard to breathe. But really, no one seemed to notice that she wasn’t saying much. Did they?
Eva and Luke seemed relaxed, happy as only two people in love can be. Viv was laser-focused on the wedding plans. Eva, a baker to the core, was all about the food and the cake, while Viv talked flowers and ways to make the barn setting really pop.
They discussed music for the wedding day, too. Luke and Eva had put in hours practicing their first dance. The band—the same group they were using at the bachelor party—had been given a long playlist of the couple’s favorites to fill up the evening. Luke joked that of course local eccentric Homer Gilmore would be welcome at the wedding. But they had to make absolutely certain that Homer’s infamous moonshine didn’t find its way into the punch.
As for Derek...
Well, Amy didn’t know how Derek was faring. From the moment he took the chair across from hers, she hadn’t been able to make herself so much as glance in his direction.
When it was finally over and Viv was closing up her binders and stacking them to go, Amy longed to race for the stairs and the big guest room up there that would be hers for the next few weeks. She’d brought her work with her. She could power up her computer and concentrate on keeping the giant accounting firm of Hurdly and Main, International protected from cyber-criminals and digital fraud.
But no. She and Derek needed to talk.
She needed to tell him...what? There was nothing to tell him. It was over and it had been over for years and years.
Still. They really ought to come to some sort of understanding as to how they were going to work together. Not to mention, she needed to know who in town knew about them. And how much they knew. And, from now on, what would be getting said to whom.
Suddenly, everyone was standing and moving toward the door—everyone but Amy. She shook herself and leapt to her feet.
And then once she was up, she just stood there at her chair, dithering over how to approach him, what to say to get his attention before he went out the door and she missed her chance to tell him...
What?
Dear Lord, she had no idea.
She blinked and finally made herself glance in his direction.
He was looking straight at her. “So, Amy, got a few minutes?” Those green eyes gave nothing away. “We should touch base.”
Her heart pounding so hard she was lucky it didn’t crack a rib, she nodded. “A walk, maybe?” she heard herself offer lamely.
“That’ll work.”
It took her several agonizing seconds to realize that he was waiting for her to join him. “Oh!” she exclaimed like a total doofus and ordered her feet to carry her toward him.
They all went out to the porch together and waved goodbye to Viv.
Luke shook Derek’s hand. “Friday, happy hour. The Ace.”
“I’ll be there,” said Derek.
The Ace in the Hole was the only bar within the Rust Creek Falls town limits. Amy remembered it all too well from her short, unhappy visit to town nine years before.
And then, last year, the Ace had garnered national attention when a reality show, The Great Roundup, had filmed final auditions there. Travis Dalton, Derek’s cousin, had been on that show and so had Travis’s now-wife, Brenna O’Reilly Dalton.
Amy had watched the show faithfully every week. The scenes filmed in town had made her feel all warm and fuzzy, made her long for Rust Creek Falls, made her remember the good times growing up. Best of all, The Great Roundup had allowed her to get sappy and sentimental from the safety of her Boulder, Colorado living room. Never had she ever planned to set foot in town again.
But now, here she was, about to get up close and conversational with the very reason she’d stayed away for so long in the first place.
Luke and Eva went back into the house, leaving Amy alone with the gorgeous broad-shouldered stranger who’d once ruled her teenaged heart. She just stood there, like a lump. She had no idea what to say to him.
He had his straw Resistol in his hand. He slid the hat onto his head and tugged on the brim to settle it.
Everything inside her was aching. This couldn’t be happening.
But it was.
“Let’s go.” He started walking. She followed him down the steps and out into the late-afternoon sunshine.
He turned for the big yellow barn where Eva and Luke would get married in less than four weeks. Amy came up beside him and they walked together, but not touching, neither saying a word. Somewhere far off, a lone bird cried, the sound faint. Plaintive.
“Here’s as good as anywhere, I guess,” he said, stopping at a split rail fence fifty yards or so from the looming shape of the barn.
For more reasons than she cared to contemplate, she didn’t want to look directly at him, so she turned toward the pasture on the other side of the fence. The papers Viv had given her crackled in her hands as she rested her forearms on the top rail and gazed off at nothing in particular.
Silence. Out in the pasture, a bay mare snorted and shook her dark mane.
Derek said, “You look good,” and she tried to read his tone. Careful? Thoughtful? Maybe a little angry?
What did it matter, though, what was on his mind? She didn’t know him anymore. They were strangers to each other now and she needed to remember that. “Thanks. You, too—and, well, I don’t even know where to start.” She did look at him then. He was watching her from under the shadow of his hat. Waiting. She swallowed. Hard. “I have been wondering, though...”
“What?”
“Well, it would be good to have some idea of who knows,” she said, and then wanted to kick herself. Could she be any more unclear? He probably had no clue what she’d just tried to ask him.
But as it turned out, he understood perfectly. “About us, you mean?”
“Yeah. About, um, what happened thirteen years ago.”
“Nobody in this town,” he said. “Nobody but me.” A slow smile curved his beautiful mouth. “Well, and you, now that you’re here. While you’re here.”
She caught her lower lip between her teeth. “I would like it to stay that way.”
“Just between you and me, you mean?”
“Yes, Derek.” His name in her mouth tasted way too familiar. “Just between us. Can we keep it that way?”
“You got it. I’ve never told a soul and I won’t start now.” And then he frowned. “But what about the Armstrongs? You didn’t ever tell Eva or her sisters?”
“No.” Her silly throat had clutched and the word came out in a whisper. She knew her cheeks had to be lobster-red. “Ahem.” She coughed into her hand. And then she made herself explain. “I never told the Armstrongs the whole story. All they know is that you and I dated in high school. How about Luke? Your family?”
“I meant what I said, Amy. I haven’t told anyone. It just seemed better to put the whole thing behind me. It’s the past and it needs to stay that way.”
“I agree.” And she did. Absolutely, she did. She wished that none of it had ever happened.
But it did happen. And it changed her in the deepest way.
Did it change him, too, she wondered?
Not that she would ever ask. She had no right to ask and she needed to remember that.
He smiled again—halfway this time, one corner of his mouth kicking up. “Luke waited until after I said I would be his best man to tell me that you would be the maid of honor.”
A strange, tight spurt of laughter escaped her. She quickly composed herself. “I see Eva all over that.”
“What do you mean?”
“She got me to agree to be her maid of honor before she mentioned that you would be best man.”
“So, you think she knows more than you’ve told her?”
“Well, you know Eva, right? She’s a complete and unapologetic romantic. I think she suspects there was more than just a high school crush going on between us back in the day.” Another tight little laugh escaped her—and then she wanted to cry. Really, she couldn’t stand for him not to know what she truly felt, how much she regretted the way things had ended up. “Derek, I...”
“Yeah?” His eyes held hers, a deep look, one that reached down into the center of her and stirred up emotions she wished she didn’t feel.
“I, well, I just need you to know that I’m sorry. For everything.”
Wow. She almost couldn’t believe that she’d gone and done it, apologized straight out. And as soon as the words escaped her lips, she kind of wanted to take them back.
Because really, wasn’t he the one who’d told her to go?
But what else could a person say at a time like this?
“I’m sorry, too,” he said.
“But it’s fine,” she blurted out.
He nodded. “Yeah. You’re right. It’s water under the bridge. Years ago. Not a big deal.”
“Absolutely. Over and done. We’ve both put it behind us. Derek, we can do this. We can be there for Luke and Eva. We can help make their wedding everything they deserve it to be.”
He took off his hat, hit the brim against his denim-clad thigh, then put it back on. “Yeah. That’s our job and we can do it.”
She straightened her shoulders. “We will do it.”
“Yes, we will,” he agreed.
And then they just stood there at the fence, staring at each other.
The silence stretched thin.
He broke it. “Well, all right, then. I’ll be in touch.” And without another word, he turned and left her standing there.
Chapter Two (#ud78470e1-ec90-5884-8325-efde2bd27ad9)
Feeling stunned by the whole encounter, Amy stared after Derek as he walked away from her.
Once he reached the turnaround in front of the house again, he climbed into a mud-spattered red F-150 pickup. The engine roared out, the big wheels stirring up a cloud of dust as he drove away.
What had just happened? She wasn’t sure. Had they actually forgiven each other?
Well, at least they’d said the words. And that was good, she decided. They didn’t need to talk it to death. What was there to say, anyway?
It was all in the past.
Too bad they’d come up with nothing in terms of a plan for the bachelor party. He’d said he would “be in touch.” What exactly did that mean?
Annoyance prickled through her. Okay, she got that she wasn’t his favorite person. But they did have to work together. He could have stuck around long enough to set a time and a place.
She glanced down at the papers in her hand. His numbers were right there at the top of the first page—mobile and home. Would the home number be the main house at his family’s ranch, the Circle D? She’d had that number memorized all those years ago. It was burned into her brain and she remembered it still. But this home number was different. Did he live somewhere else now?
He’d moved to the bunkhouse in April of their senior year, to give himself a little independence from his close-knit family. Back then, the bunkhouse number was the same as at the main house, but maybe they’d put in a separate line since then.
Not that she cared. It didn’t matter to her where, exactly, he lived now. She just needed to know when and where they would meet.
She shook her head at the stack of papers. If he didn’t get back to her in the next day or two, she would have to call him.
No big deal.
And really, he had said he would be in touch, right? What was she worrying about?
Forget calling him. He would call her.
And of course, that would be soon...
* * *
Amy barely got back in the door of the farmhouse before Eva was all over her. “What did he say? Is it okay between you? Was it hard, to see him again?”
“Eva.” She managed a laugh. “Cut it out. It was fine. It was years ago.”
“But you loved him.”
Oh, yes, she had. But she wasn’t going there. “It was high school. And it’s all in the past. There are no problems between us and you don’t have to worry.”
“I’m not worrying.” Her big blue eyes got bigger. “I just want to know, is the spark still there?”
Amy wasn’t answering that one. No way. She kept it light, making a show of tapping her chin as though deep in thought. “Hmm. Is it just me or are you playing matchmaker?”
Eva blushed the sweetest shade of pink. “I would never...”
“Yeah, right.”
They both burst out laughing at the same time and Eva said, “Okay, okay. I’ll butt out, I promise.”
Amy gave her friend the side-eye. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
* * *
Derek didn’t call that evening. And he didn’t call on Tuesday.
By Wednesday, the Fourth of July, she knew she should go ahead and reach out.
Maybe a text. She wouldn’t even have to talk to him until their actual meeting.
She put his cell number in her phone, hit the message icon and started typing, whipping out five different messages and deleting them as fast as she wrote them. After the fifth attempt, she decided she would just wait another day to deal with the whole reaching out thing.
That night, she went into town with Eva, Luke and his brother Bailey, for a barbecue at their sister Bella’s house and to watch the fireworks in the town park later. That whole evening, she felt on edge just thinking that she might run into Derek.
But she never so much as caught sight of him.
The days were going by. They needed to meet up. But he hadn’t called.
And she couldn’t quite bring herself to make the first move.
* * *
By Thursday evening, as he ate his solitary dinner in the house he’d built for himself on Circle D land, Derek Dalton was feeling more than a little bit jerkish.
He’d told Amy he would get back to her. He needed to call her and set up another meeting.
But even after all these years, it still hurt something deep inside him just to be near her. She looked the same—with long brown hair showing gleams of red in the sun, creamy skin, eyes that seemed to change color depending on her mood, brown to olive green and back again, sometimes with a hint of gold.
Yeah. She looked the same. But even better, so smooth and classy. Luke had mentioned that she’d gone on to graduate school after four years at the University of Colorado. He’d said she had some high-tech accounting job and she owned her own house in Boulder.
None of that information surprised Derek. Amy had been the smartest girl at Rust Creek Falls High, put ahead a year when she was twelve, so they’d ended up in the same grade. She’d been valedictorian of their small graduating class. Her dad was a rich guy from Boulder who’d given up the rat race for a while to become a rancher in the Rust Creek Falls Valley—and then moved back to Colorado when Amy left to go to college there.
Derek never would’ve had a chance with Jack and Helen Wainwright’s precious only daughter if he hadn’t needed a math tutor to get him through Algebra II in his senior year.
He shook his head. Him and Amy? That was an old, sad song and they wouldn’t be playing it ever again. He needed to get his mind off the past. There was zero to be gained by a trip down memory lane.
Shoving back his chair, he picked up his plate and carried it to the counter. Outside the window over the sink, the sunset turned the bellies of the clouds to bright orange and deep purple.
Maybe he’d head on into town, see if he could scare up a poker game at the Ace.
Then again, he’d had a long day today, moving cattle, putting out mineral barrels. Tomorrow, he needed to be up early. He felt antsy and ornery. If he went to the Ace, it would be too easy to drink too much and do or say something he would end up regretting.
He turned in early and had a restless night.
But it could have been worse. At least he didn’t have a hangover at eight on Friday morning when he parked his pickup in front of the old warehouse at Sawmill and North Broomtail Road.
Four years ago, he’d joined Collin Traub in his one-man saddlery business. At first, they’d worked in the basement of Collin’s house up on Falls Mountain. But then CT Saddles had moved to the warehouse. The larger space allowed them to buy more equipment and take on more projects. They were still a small shop, but the Traub name was a trusted one and their business kept growing.
Derek thought about Amy constantly that day. Really, it was way past time he gave her a call. But the hours ticked by and he never did.
His failure to get back to her was moving beyond jerkish, heading into jackass territory. But he still failed to pick up the phone.
At five, Collin went on up the mountain to his wife, Willa, and their little boy, Robbie. Ned Faraday, who was sixteen and helping out at the saddlery for the summer, headed home for dinner.
Derek washed up in the saddlery restroom and thought again about how he needed to call Amy. He even took out his phone and looked at it for a good minute or two before shaking his head and sticking it back in his pocket.
At five thirty, he walked down the street to the Ace to meet Luke and his brothers for a drink. It was the five of them—Luke, Jamie, Daniel, Bailey and Derek. They took over a big table not far from the bar and ordered some pitchers.
Jamie and Daniel Stockton were both happily married. Jamie had triplets, Henry, Jared and Kate. They were two and a half years old now. Jamie got everyone laughing with stories of the mischief the three little ones got up to. Danny spoke fondly of his wife and their daughter, Janie.
And Luke? He mostly just sat there, slowly sipping his beer with a contented smile on his face. Everyone in town knew that Luke Stockton was long-gone in love with Eva Rose Armstrong and couldn’t wait to make her his wife.
Bailey was the lone unattached Stockton brother. He’d been married and divorced. Like Luke and Daniel, he’d returned to town in the past year after more than a decade away. Now he lived at Sunshine Farm. He and Luke worked the ranch together, building a new herd, bringing the family homestead back from years of neglect.
That evening, Bailey didn’t say much at first. But after a beer or two, he started making his feelings about matrimony painfully clear.
“It’s a losin’ game is what it is.” He raised his glass to Derek, who’d taken the chair across from him. “And you, my man, are the only one at this table with the sense the good Lord gave a goat. You got the ladies all over you, but no woman ever tied you down and slapped on a brand.”
Ignoring the sudden sweet image of Amy that popped into his head unbidden, Derek forced a wry laugh. “Put a sock in it, Bailey. Your brothers look pretty damn happy to me.”
Bailey groaned. “They all start out happy, now don’t they?”
“You’re getting obnoxious,” warned Luke. “Quit while you’re ahead.”
But Bailey wasn’t about to take his brother’s good advice. “What I’m ‘getting’ is honest. It’s too late for Danny and Jamie here. They’ll just have to learn the hard way that marriage is a game for fools.” He leaned close to Luke and stage-whispered in his ear, “Get away. Get away while you still can.”
“Knock it off.” Luke elbowed him hard in the ribs.
“Ow!” Bailey rubbed his side. “Big brother, you got an elbow on you.”
“And you have a big mouth. One you need to practice shutting.”
Bailey put on a hangdog expression. “It’s hopeless, I tell you. You’re doomed, brother. Doomed.” He tipped his head back and asked the ceiling, “Oh, why won’t anyone listen to a man who knows?”
“Get real, Bailey,” said Luke. “You love Eva.”
“’Course I love Eva. She’s a fine woman. So is Annie, for that matter.” That was Daniel’s wife. “Fallon, too.” Fallon O’Reilly had married Jamie the year before. “It’s not the women I object to, it’s the institution itself. Marriage. It’s what ruins people’s lives.” Bailey wrapped his hands around his own throat and pretended to choke himself. “Slow strangulation, you hear what I’m sayin’?”
Derek decided to step in before Bailey got too far on the wrong side of his own brothers. “Come on, Bailey. Nine-ball. Two out of three.” He nodded toward the pool table.
“Go.” Daniel made a shooing motion. “Give the rest of us a break.”
Bailey scowled. “I’m trying to help you.”
“We don’t need your help,” said Jamie.
Bailey hung his head. “Why does no one appreciate the wisdom I’m offering?”
Derek got up. “Nine-ball. What do you say?”
“Why not?” Bailey rose, grumbling, “I’m not makin’ any progress here, and that’s for sure.”
At the pool tables, Bailey continued to trash-talk marriage as Derek proceeded to win the game. Twice.
“Not only smart enough to stay single,” declared Bailey when they started back to join the other guys, “but a pool shark, too. What other talents you got?”
As he considered what to try next to get Bailey to stop annoying his brothers, Bailey muttered, “Uh-oh. Here they come.”
They were Eva, Bailey’s sister Bella—and Amy.
Amy. Looking like a bright ray of sunshine in a pretty yellow dress.
The three women marched straight to the table where the Stockton men were sitting.
Bailey, still beside him, said something else. Derek had no idea what. All rational thought had fled his mind, along with his ability to understand words. He felt sucker punched. And also guilty.
Yeah, he should have called her. But how could he? Even after all these years, she made him forget the English language, made him blind to everything but her.
Somehow, he did what he had to do—put one foot in front of the other, kept walking alongside Bailey until they reached the table again.
“There you are,” said Bella, glaring straight at Bailey.
Bailey widened his eyes. “What’d I do now?”
“Don’t play innocent,” said Bella. “Nobody believes that act from you. You’ve been driving everybody in the place crazy, going on about all the reasons men should never get married. We just came over to offer you a ride back to Sunshine Farm.”
“Somebody called you to come and haul me out of the Ace?” Bailey huffed in trumped-up outrage. “I don’t believe this town. A guy can’t express an honest opinion without some busybody callin’ his sister to come drag him home.”
Luke, who’d gotten up to give Eva a quick kiss, advised, “Maybe you’ve had one too many, huh, Bailey?”
“I’m not drunk,” Bailey insisted.
Eva suggested wryly, “Just opinionated?”
He frowned at her. “And where do you and Amy come in? That’s what I’d like to know.”
“We were over at Bella’s when she got the call.”
“The call from who?” he demanded.
Bella shook her head. “You don’t need to know.”
As the others discussed whether Bailey should go home or not, Derek stood by the table and tried not to look at Amy. When he finally couldn’t stop himself from shooting her a glance, he caught her at the moment that her gaze skittered away from him.
Just like on Monday, the two of them sitting there in Eva’s living room, both of them trying their damnedest not to look at each other.
They’d had love once, powerful love that he’d believed could conquer anything.
Now they just tried not to look at each other when they met up by accident. And when they had to speak to each other, they blathered on about how their secret past was long ago and they were both just fine.
Bailey said, “I’ll switch to ginger ale. Will that satisfy you women?”
“And stop running down marriage,” said Jamie.
“Yeah,” Daniel agreed. “We’ve heard enough about that.”
“Fine, fine. It’s hopeless to even try, anyway,” Bailey groused. “I got the message, loud and clear. You all can keep your happily-ever-afters, see if I care.”
“All right, then,” said Luke. He turned to Eva. “Stay for a little?” He sat again and pulled her down into the chair next to him. “Come on, Bella. Amy. Stay.”
Bailey helped Derek grab some more chairs and then the two of them went and got another round—including a pitcher of ginger ale for Bailey and anyone else who didn’t want beer. When they got back to the table, the chair on one side of Amy was empty.
Derek took that chair because he couldn’t bear not to.
Someone put a love song on the ancient jukebox. A girl from out of town grabbed Bailey and pulled him up for a dance.
Luke led Eva out onto the floor. They swayed to the music, whispering to each other. Eva tipped her blond head back and laughed. They looked so damn happy.
Life? Sometimes it just wasn’t fair.
Derek couldn’t stop himself. He turned to Amy. “Dance with me?”
Her eyes looked almost golden right then, golden, green and softest brown. She swallowed. And then she nodded.
He took her hand—so smooth and cool. It fit just right in his, same as it used to all those years ago. He pulled her up and led her out among the dancers, gathering her close, maybe closer than he should have.
So what? She smelled like heaven—like wildflowers and sunshine. And her body felt just right brushing close to his. Maybe he’d dance with her all night long, never once let her out of his arms.
He pressed his rough cheek to her silky hair. “I’m sorry I didn’t call.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I don’t know. I kept meaning to.”
She pulled away enough to turn those big eyes up to him. “Apology accepted. I was going to call you.”
He stared at her lips too long, caught himself and shifted his glance back up to meet her eyes. “But you didn’t call me.”
“I didn’t know what I would say. I also had a feeling you might not answer the phone or call me back. I felt...out of my depth, I guess. So, I just kept putting it off.”
“Yeah, well. All that, what you just said? Me, too.”
“We need to stop this. We’re two grown adults.”
He almost chuckled. “Coulda fooled me.”
“Derek, we’ve got a bachelor party to plan.”
He sucked in her scent of flowers and sunshine. “Yeah. We need to get going on that.” Holding her like this felt so natural, so completely right. It made the years kind of melt away.
And he really needed to keep a grip on himself. This would go nowhere. It was only a dance.
“So then,” she whispered, “we need to make a date to meet and then we need to stick to it.”
“A date?” He said it in a playful way and felt stupidly proud of himself that he’d managed to tease her. “You want a date with me?”
She slanted him a sharp glance. “Yeah, a date. But not a date.”
“So...a non-date, then?”
“Exactly. And I mean it, Derek. We need to make it soon. We’ve got two weeks till the bachelor party. Viv dropped by the farmhouse yesterday and asked how we were doing with our plans. I promised her we’d have it all figured out in the next few days.”
Amy was right. No more mooning around like a heartsick fool. It was all over years ago and he needed to stop stewing about it and hold up his end as Luke’s best man.
“Tomorrow,” he said. “I’ll pick you up at six. Ever been to Maverick Manor?”
“No.”
“Great. We’ll go there and you can get a look at the place. It might give us some ideas.”
“All right. That works.”
“We’ll get a couple of fancy burgers and come up with a bunch of activities to satisfy Viv Shuster’s list-making soul.”
“Perfect. I’m in.”
The song ended.
Another cowboy tapped him on the shoulder. Get lost, he almost let himself say. But not quite. He gave Amy a hint of a smile. “Thanks for the dance.”
She nodded. “See you tomorrow, then.” And she turned into the other cowboy’s waiting arms.
* * *
The next day, Amy spent way too much time trying to decide what to wear to Maverick Manor that night. She finally settled on a turquoise halter dress with a handkerchief hem and a pair of matching high-heeled sandals. Why not dress up a little? From what everyone said, Maverick Manor was an upscale sort of place.
True, this was not a real date, but it couldn’t hurt to look her best.
Maybe, just possibly, she went a little overboard, pumicing and shaving and getting everything all smooth and sleek. And then she used up a whole hour on her hair and makeup. But taking the time to look good was so worth it, a real confidence-booster. And with Derek, well, she needed all the confidence she could muster.
At five thirty, she was trying to decide between a shoulder bag and a clutch, wondering if she ought to bring a light wrap, when her phone rang.
It was Derek. “Amy? Hey. I’m really sorry, but we’ve got some fences down and I’m not gonna be able to make it tonight, after all. We’ll have to reschedule.”
Reschedule.
Her heart sank. It felt like a lead weight in her chest.
How had this happened? Somehow, she’d gone and let herself look forward to the evening, let herself forget that this was only a meeting, a non-date.
Tears blurred her vision—which was totally ridiculous. She dropped to the edge of her bed and fiddled with the filmy hem of the dress she wouldn’t be wearing tonight after all. “Oh. Ahem. Well, I totally understand. You just give me a call tomorrow, why don’t you? We’ll set up something else.”
“Amy, are you all—”
“Listen.” She swallowed down the lump in her throat. “I’ve got to go. Talk to you later.”
“But are you—”
“’Bye, now.” She disconnected the call and dropped the phone on the bed. And then, teeth gritted, eyes shut, she willed the tears away. So silly, to get all emo just because an old boyfriend needed a rain check on their non-date. It was in no way, shape or form a big deal.
Except, well, he’d been so much more than just a boyfriend...
But she wasn’t going to even think about all that. That was all in the past and it needed to stay there. She’d moved on long ago, gone out with other guys. Once, she’d almost gotten engaged. But when it came right down to it, well, it hadn’t been true love and she just couldn’t say yes. Not like with—
No. Stop. Not going there.
Besides, her dating history was not the issue. What mattered was that the days were flying by and they really did have to make some plans for the big party. They had a great venue and everyone had already been invited. Music and food were taken care of, or so she’d been told.
Games and activities. That was all she and Derek had to handle. And Eva and Luke were counting on them to do it up right.
Really, she would not allow a single tear to fall. Annoyance was what she felt right now. Annoyance and exasperation that Derek Dalton kept putting off the job they’d both agreed to do.
Down the hall in the bathroom, she washed her face free of every bit of the makeup she’d so carefully applied. She raked her hair up into a ponytail and changed into old jeans, a white T-shirt edged in lace that had seen better days and a worn pair of Converse high-tops.
Then, in her room again, she sat at her computer and spent half an hour brainstorming ideas for the party. When that got old, she logged in at work.
Around eight, she started getting antsy. Grabbing her phone, she went downstairs. Eva and Luke had gone to Jamie and Fallon’s for dinner, so she had the house to herself for the evening. She should fix a sandwich or something.
But she didn’t really feel hungry.
She wandered out to the front porch and perched on the step. Her phone was synced to her computer. She brought up the list for the party to jot down a few more ideas just as a red pickup rolled into the yard.
Derek. Her pulse started racing and her heart seemed to expand in her chest.
He stopped not far from the foot of the steps and got out. “Hey, pretty girl.” He swept off his hat. His hair was damp, his cheeks freshly shaved. He wore dark-wash jeans and a crisp snap-front shirt.
She was really glad to see him and that irritated her no end. Sticking her phone in her back pocket, she challenged, “I thought you had fences to deal with.”
“I did. We had three sections of fence down, cows and calves loose all over the place. But we rounded them up and drove them back where they belonged, fixing fences as we went. When we got to the last fence, Eli said he could handle the rest.” Eli was his brother. “I left him to it, cleaned up fast and came right over here in hopes I might still have a chance at that non-date you promised me.”
She scowled down at her old T-shirt and busted out jeans. “Do I look like I’m ready for a visit to the local resort?”
His gorgeous mouth twitched at one corner. She knew damn well he was trying not to smile. “Aw, Amy.”
“What?” she demanded, feeling sour as a pile of lemons.
“You’re all grown-up now, but in some ways, you’re still the same girl I remember.”
Now her chest felt tight, like a bunch of sweet memories had gotten trapped in there, leaving no room for breath. She narrowed her eyes and pinched her mouth at him. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“You never would go anywhere without your hair just so and your makeup just right.”
She sat up straighter. He wasn’t getting to her. No way. “I like to make a good impression. Something wrong with that?”
“Not a thing.” He put his hat to his heart. “I’m sorry, okay? That I didn’t call you all week, that tonight got messed up. But when you work cattle, fences go down and you just have to deal with it.”
“I know that.”
“So then, what’s really bugging you is that I didn’t call earlier in the week like I said I would?”
She wrapped her arms around her knees, braced her chin on them and considered blowing off his question. But where would that get them? A little honesty never hurt and she might as well at least try to clear the air between them. After all, he’d asked. “Yeah. You said you’d get in touch and you didn’t. And then tonight, at the last possible minute, you called it off. It’s like you’re messing with me or something.”
“I’m not.”
“And I’m not sure I believe you. I mean, whatever happened in the past, that was then. We need to get over it.”
“I know that, Amy.” He regarded her solemnly.
“We have a job to do, Derek.” Did she sound whiny? Well, why shouldn’t she? She certainly felt whiny. “People we care about are counting on us.”
“You’re right.” He took a step closer and spoke in a rough whisper. “You want the truth from me?”
Did she? Really? She wasn’t sure. But she had too much pride to back down now. “Yes, I do. Tell me the truth, Derek Dalton.”
“I didn’t call all week because I kept thinking of the past, you know? Of you and me and everything that went down. I didn’t trust myself to call you. After everything we were to each other once, I felt like I was going to end up blowing it, saying something way out of line to you. I don’t want to do that. And so, I put off calling you.”
That hurt. On a lot of levels. But the truth was like that sometimes. “It’s not that easy for me, either,” she confessed in a small voice.
He stood there in the fading light of day, just looking at her with those green eyes she still sometimes saw in her dreams. “Amy?”
“Yeah?”
“You mind if I come up there on the porch with you?”
By way of an answer, she scooted over and patted the empty space beside her. He came up the steps, hooked his hat on the finial at the end of the porch rail and plunked down next to her. She got a whiff of his scent—soap and clean skin. All manly and fresh and much too well-remembered.
“I...go back and forth,” she said.
He frowned. “About?”
She refused to let her gaze waver. “What to say to you. I mean, we did kind of leave it hanging, didn’t we?”
His eyes had shadows in them now. “You sent me the papers and I signed them. Nothing left hanging about that.”
“Derek, you told me to go.”
“You wanted to go.”
She shut her eyes and turned away. “We shouldn’t even be talking about this. I mean, what’s the point, really?”
There was a silence, one full of all the things she wasn’t sure how to say—didn’t really believe she even should say.
Finally, he spoke. “How ’bout this?” His voice was gentle now. Coaxing. “Let’s start with the picnic.”
“There’s a picnic?” She faced him again. “What picnic?”
“Well, when I called, you didn’t seem happy about my breaking our non-date.”
“I wasn’t happy. Not in the least.”
“So, I figured I needed a backup plan. I decided if you wouldn’t come out to the Manor with me now, I would put on my pitiful face and say, ‘Then how ’bout a picnic, Amy?’ Because it just so happens I have one all ready to go in the truck.” He looked at her hopefully.
“Is that it?”
“Is what it?”
She waved a hand in a circle around his face. “Is that your pitiful face?”
He chuckled. “It depends. Is it working?”
She was not going to smile at him. He didn’t deserve it. Not yet, anyway. “Hmm. Depends on what’s in the picnic.”
“You’ll be relieved to know I stopped by the main house for the food. I have my mom’s fried chicken and biscuits all fancy in a basket. I even brought a big blanket to sit on.”
“All of a sudden, I’m starving.”
“And there’s apple pie, too.”
She kind of wanted to hold out against him, leave him hanging at least a bit longer. But then her stomach betrayed her with a hungry little growl. His grin said he heard it. At that point, what could she do but give in? “All right. A picnic, then—but I think we’ll need to eat inside.” She stared out at the darkening sky. “It’s almost nighttime. I’m not sure I want to stumble around in the dark looking for somewhere to spread a picnic blanket.”
He leaned closer. “Go in and get a sweater. It’s getting chilly out.”
“But—”
“Shh.” His warm breath tickled her ear. “It just so happens I also brought a lantern.”
* * *
Two hours later, they sat under the stars with the lantern turned down low providing a soft circle of light to push back the shadows.
By then, they’d agreed on the games for the party: a modified version of The Newlywed Game, which they’d dubbed “The Nearly Newlywed Game.” Also, they planned a scavenger hunt and some random betting and gambling games in a Western-themed, mini-casino setup. They’d made lists of all the things they would need to buy and assemble for each activity, and he’d been fine with her ideas for the decorations.
Tomorrow, she would shop online, making sure to get expedited shipping. Monday, she would drive to Kalispell and try to buy what she hadn’t found online. Monday evening, they would meet again and decide how to find or make whatever items they still needed.
Amy grabbed the sweater she’d brought from the house and stuck her arms in the sleeves for warmth against the nighttime chill. “We should probably talk about the cost of all this.”
“It’s not a problem. I’ll pay you back for anything you have to buy.”
“Derek, come on. It’s a lot more than the decorations and games. I totally intend to pay for that stuff myself. But there’s still food and drinks. And what about the venue and the music?”
“It’s covered,” he said.
“Covered?” She couldn’t help scoffing. “All of it?”
He shrugged. “I told you that Nate Crawford offered the Manor. And he offered it at a deep discount, believe me. Just about everyone in town will be there and that’s good PR for the Manor. There’ll be plenty of finger food. As for alcohol, Hudson is footing the bill for the champagne and soft drinks.” Hudson Jones, a very wealthy man, was Bella Stockton’s husband. “I promise I’m good for whatever the final bill amounts to.” And then he laughed. “Don’t look so worried. I’m not the same broke-ass cowboy you used to know.”
“I’m not worried. Really.”
“Oh, yeah, you are. But you don’t need to be. I’m doing all right. You remember Collin Traub?”
“Of course.” Collin had been in their graduating class. “Eva told me that Collin married Willa Christensen.” Willa was younger. She’d graduated a few years after them. “Eva also mentioned that Collin’s the mayor now. But what has Collin Traub got to do with how we plan to split up the cost of the bachelor party?”
“Collin’s uncle Casper had a saddle-making business, which Collin inherited when Casper passed on. I hooked up with Collin a while back. Besides working the family ranch, I make saddles and a variety of fine leather goods. I’ve kind of built a name for myself—and earned some good money, too.”
Leatherwork. He’d always had a talent for that. He used to make pretty beaded leather jewelry for her. And for her eighteenth birthday, he’d made her a leather vest and a fringed skirt. She’d loved them and worn them proudly. Still had them, too, tucked in the back of her closet.
Because she never could quite bear to get rid of them.
“We have a shop on Sawmill Street, at North Broomtail Road,” he said.
“CT Saddles, right?”
“That’s it.”
“I drove by it the other day. And I’m glad that you’re doing so well—but, Derek, I want to pitch in, too. I am the maid of honor, after all, and I should pay half.”
He looked at her for a long time. She felt the sudden presence of the past—their past—rising up in the darkness between them.
What had he said?
I’m not the same broke-ass cowboy you used to know.
It wasn’t that he came from a poor family. The Daltons had been ranching in the Rust Creek Falls Valley for generations and his dad was a leader in the community, a lawyer with an office in town. Still, back in high school, Derek hadn’t had much, not in terms of cash in hand. When they ran away to Kalispell, he’d bought her a simulated diamond ring for forty dollars at Walmart.
She’d thrown it at him the day he told her to get her stuff and go with her dad. Where was that ring now? What had he done with it?
Not that she’d ever ask.
“Okay then,” the grown-up Derek said. “We’ll go fifty-fifty on the final bill.”
“Perfect. Thank you. Now, let me see...” She woke her phone, punched up the party file again and brought up the dual lists of what had to be bought and what would need to be made or otherwise assembled.
“How we doin’?” he asked.
She gave him a nod. “Really well, actually.”
“You feel like we’re getting somewhere with this party, then?”
“I do. And I think we’re pretty much set for now.”
Their non-date was almost over.
And somehow, they’d managed to steer clear of the past—mostly, anyway.
All good, she told herself. It was the past, after all, over and done, and they didn’t need to go there.
But then he stretched out on his back, laced his hands beneath his head and stared up at the wide indigo sky. “Lots of stars out tonight, Miss Wainwright.”
Miss Wainwright.
Their private joke. He’d called her that in their first tutoring session and it had stuck.
“Yes, Miss Wainwright,” he would tease her.
“Whatever you say, Miss Wainwright.”
“Miss Wainwright, you’re the boss.”
He looked pretty comfortable, lying there. Not like he planned to get up and leave anytime soon.
Maybe the evening wasn’t over, after all.
Chapter Three (#ud78470e1-ec90-5884-8325-efde2bd27ad9)
Feeling light as air suddenly, and dangerously playful, Amy took his hat off the blanket and put it on. It was too big, and slipped down over her eyes.
Laughing, she tipped her head back. “Yeah. Lots of stars. A beautiful night.”
“You forgive me, for not calling?”
“Yeah.” She said it softly. “Thank you for the picnic. I...feel better about everything.”
He was watching her so steadily. “You’re as pretty as you ever were, Miss Wainwright—hell, you’re prettier.”
She felt the blush as it swept up her neck and over her cheeks. But what with the darkness, she doubted he could see it. She opened her mouth to say something teasing and light. But the memories were pressing in again and somehow, a raw truth slipped out. “I’ve had a crush on you since I was thirteen.”
It was an old confession, one she’d made to him long ago, at a party on New Year’s Eve, the night he told her for the first time that she was everything he’d ever wanted.
Her heart had ached with sheer happiness that night. How impossibly young she’d been, young and absolutely certain that nothing could ever tear them apart.
He reached up, took his hat off her head and set it on his chest. “You never would look at me. Not when you were thirteen or fourteen or fifteen...”
“I had no clue you might be looking at me. Not until that first tutoring session.”
He grunted. “You were seventeen. And you still wouldn’t look at me, even then.”
“So, shoot me. I was shy. But it didn’t take that long once we were stuck in a room together. By the end of that first session, I was looking at you, and right in the eye, too. I started getting the feeling then that just maybe you liked me—but then, I told myself, you liked all the girls.”
“Uh-uh.” His eyes shone almost black in the moonlight, holding hers. “I only wanted you.”
“You asked me out.” She couldn’t help grinning. “I turned you down.”
“But I persisted,” he said.
“Oh, yes, you did.” By Christmas of that year, she totally got that the hottest guy in school was crazy about her. Then at New Year’s, he’d said he wasn’t looking at any other girl. And he proved it, too. He was all about her, about Amy. And it felt so good to be wanted by a guy at last—not to mention by the sexiest, most charming guy in the whole school.
“My dad taught me that,” he said.
“Taught you what?”
“To persist. ‘Son,’ he used to say, ‘above all, if you want something, persist.’ He always said persist with emphasis, you know?”
Amy remembered Charles Dalton as a kind, intelligent man.
“I always liked your dad.” She brushed his shoulder, realized that touching him was maybe a bridge too far, and quickly withdrew her hand. “Um, your mom, too.”
He stared up at the sky for a string of too-quiet seconds before asking, “How are your parents?”
“They’re well. My dad retired two years ago. They moved to San Diego. They seem to like it there. My mom’s in a bunch of clubs—book clubs, bridge clubs. He plays a lot of golf.”
“Well, good,” Derek said. He was watching her again, his eyes so deep, she wanted to fall in and never come out.
There had been no love lost between Derek and her mom and dad. They’d checked and found out that he was not a great student and would likely never even go to college. Derek only wanted to live on his family’s ranch and work all day running cattle. He wasn’t what her parents had in mind for her, their precious only daughter.
Her dad and mom had made it very clear that they wanted her to stop seeing “that Dalton boy.” Amy defied them. She stood right up to them and said she would see him anyway, that he was the best thing that had ever happened to her.
They must have realized she meant what she’d said, because they’d backed off.
And after that, she and Derek spent every spare moment together. That New Year’s Eve, when he’d said he loved her, she’d believed him and declared her love right back. He promised there would never be anyone but her. Amy wanted him so much and he wanted her and, well, it was young love.
She couldn’t wait to have it all—all the kisses, the caresses, the soft, secret sighs. Making love was bound to happen.
And it did. In the early spring.
It was scary, that first time. Scary and a little awkward. But, oh so beautiful.
Already set to go to the University of Colorado on a full scholarship in the fall, Amy turned eighteen in May. In early June, she and Derek both graduated from Rust Creek Falls High.
“Remember graduation?” she asked, lost in the past now.
He made a low noise in the affirmative. “I remember your speech as valedictorian. ‘We don’t have to be perfect. We just have to do the best that we can every day, as we go forward into a future full of promise and the challenge of—’”
“Please.” She cut him off with a groan. “No more. There is no way I was ever that young.”
“Yeah, you were.” He reached up, brushed a rough-tender finger along her cheek, leaving a sweet trail of lingering sensation in his wake. “So was I. We were that young. And you were all set, with a big future ahead of you. I never wanted to hold you back.”
“I know that.”
“We were too young.”
She bit her lip, knowing he was right. She’d wanted to go to CU, wanted a good job that challenged her, and she’d doubted she would find that job in their tiny Montana town. At the same time, she hadn’t known how she would live without the boy she loved.
He said, “Think about it this way. It all ended up according to plan.”
“Right. Just with that big, painful detour stuck in the middle of it.”
Because by the end of June, her period was late. She’d waited a week and it didn’t come. She went to Derek. He drove her to Kalispell to buy a test and they rented a cheap room where she took that test.
She shivered a little and wrapped her sweater closer around her. “I was so scared when the test came out positive. And you took a knee right there in that motel room.”
“I wanted to marry you, Amy. I really did.”
She stared down at him, saw the moon reflected in his eyes. “I know. And I loved you. So much.”
“It was the Fourth of July. There were fireworks going off all night long, remember?”
Oh, yes, she did. “I remember.”
The next day, the fifth of July, they went to the courthouse and said I do, just the two of them, two scared kids with a baby on the way.
And for their honeymoon, they returned to the cheap room with its lumpy bed. At night, she could hear the trucks whizzing by on the highway.
“You were sorry, though, weren’t you?” he asked. “Sorry from the first.”
“It was only that I—”
“Don’t lie,” he said gently. “Let’s just tell each other the truth now, okay, and be done with it?”
“Yeah. All right.” She admitted, “I, well, I had serious second thoughts.”
“I knew it.” At least he didn’t sound angry.
But why should he? It was so long ago. And this wasn’t any big confession. This was making peace. With the past.
With each other.
This was putting it behind them, once and for all.
She said, “I just had trouble coping, you know? With my whole life turned around and a baby on the way.” She really had loved him. But it had all just seemed so overwhelming.
The next day and the day after that, he drove back to the Circle D to work. She stayed in Kalispell. She had a cell phone, though reception in the area was hit and miss back then. Her parents kept calling her. She let the calls go to voice mail for three days and then she finally answered and told them she had married Derek. Her dad demanded to know where she was. She hung up on him.
“And then, the night of the fourth day,” she said in a raggedy whisper, “my period came.”
Had she lost the baby? Or had she never been pregnant in the first place? Who knew?
“That hurt,” he said. “I mean, the baby had turned everything upside down. But suddenly, there was no baby and somehow, that was even worse.”
She agreed with a slow nod.
The next day—the fifth and final day—to cheer her up, he’d taken her to visit the Armstrongs while he went to work at the ranch.
Nobody knew that she’d married him—except the two of them and her parents. She’d made him promise not to tell his family until she was ready. When his mom and dad asked questions about where he got off to every night, he just said he was fine and for them not to worry. His parents had let it go at that. After all, he was nineteen, old enough to stay out all night if he wanted to. And besides, their ill-fated elopement didn’t last long. Before Rita and Charles Dalton got around to insisting that Derek tell them what was going on, it was over.
That day, the fifth day, when he dropped her off at the Armstrongs’, she had longed to confide in her friends—maybe not Eva, who was only thirteen at the time. But Delphine and Calla, definitely. They were like sisters to her.
She just couldn’t do it, though, couldn’t tell them what she was going through. They knew she was really upset about something and they hugged her and fussed over her. They told her that, whatever it was, it would be all right, that they would always be there for her, no matter what.
She asked Derek, “Did I tell you that Delphine quizzed me about you that day? She wanted to know if something had gone wrong between the two of us.” Everyone knew she’d been dating Derek, and the Armstrongs had seen him drop her off that morning.
“No, you never told me that. You hardly said a word on the drive back to the motel in Kalispell.”
“I was all turned around inside, so sad about losing the baby, wondering how it was all going to work out.”
“I remember.” His voice was flat. Bleak. And then he asked, “What did you say to her that day—to Delphine?”
“I just shook my head and promised that I was fine and so were you.”
“But she guessed you were lying.”
“Yeah. I’ll bet they all three did.”
“Even Eva? She was so young.”
“But she’s always been sensitive to what other people are going through.”
“That day,” he said, staring up at the dark sky, “was the end of it...”
The end of us, she thought. “After that day, I never saw you again until last Monday, right here at the farm.”
“Thirteen years,” he said, his voice so heavy. With regret? With sadness or maybe bitterness? She couldn’t have said and she didn’t quite have the nerve to ask him what exactly he was feeling right now.
Instead, she got on with it. “I have no idea how my dad knew to find us at that motel. I never told him where I was. I assumed he’d somehow followed us from the Armstrongs’ house. I asked Eva’s mom later, before I left for Boulder, if she had called my dad and told him I was there that day. She swore she hadn’t.” Derek said nothing. He stared at the sky. Somewhere nearby, a lone owl hooted. A shiver ran through her. She peered down at him more closely. “What?”
He shifted his gaze to meet hers. “I didn’t say anything.”
“I thought maybe you were about to.”
“Uh-uh.”
She drew in a slow breath. “Well, however he did it, my father figured it out.”
* * *
Derek stared up into her night-shadowed eyes. Her skin was so smooth, silvered in moonlight.
He knew how her father had found them. But he wasn’t going to tell her. What good would that do? Jack Wainwright wasn’t a bad man. He’d just wanted the best for his only child and he’d followed them from the Armstrongs’, followed them to Kalispell and that cheap motel.
At the sight of her dad emerging from his fancy pickup, looking grim and exhausted, Amy had started to cry.
Derek had hated himself then, for jumping the gun and begging her to marry him, for putting her in this position, for messing everything up.
He didn’t know what to do next. Amy had gotten pregnant—or maybe not. She’d lost the baby—or maybe not. Because how can you lose something that never was?
He’d known she was miserable that day, known she regretted running away with him. She’d had such big plans for herself and there she was, a not-pregnant married woman who wasn’t going to go to college, after all.
As he’d watched the tears tracking down her cheeks that July afternoon, Derek felt his heart shatter into a million pieces. He and Jack Wainwright agreed on one thing, at least: that run-down motel wasn’t good enough for Amy.
And what did Derek think he was going to do next? Move his bride into the bunkhouse with him at the Circle D? Or into the main house where his parents lived? Damn, but the truth he faced then was the hardest one of all.
He’d yet to get a real start in life and would need to depend on his family to help support her. And she? Amy deserved the best. With the baby gone, well, why shouldn’t she have the future she’d always planned on? His pride had felt frayed raw at all he couldn’t give her.
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