No doubt about it. He was setting his alarm tomorrow morning.
“So, what are the two of you up to?” he asked as he braced himself for whatever had put that sparkle in their eyes.
“We’re gonna have a spa day! It’s a girl thing,” she added with a glance at Gemma, who gave a confirming nod.
“Maverick Manor has a pretty impressive array of spa treatments. They offer massages, manicures, pedicures.” Gemma paused long enough to regain his wandering attention. “Even Dead Sea mud baths...if you’re interested.”
Thinking of the mud-bath facial she’d given him on their nature hike, Hank wryly said, “I think I’ll pass, thanks.”
He wasn’t surprised that Gemma would be interested in the froufrou resort amenities, but he cast a questioning look at Janie and asked, “You really want to try that stuff?”
How was it that it seemed like only yesterday that the only mud his little girl had been interested in were the puddles in the backyard following a summer storm? From the time Janie had taken her first few steps in a tiny pair of pink cowboy boots, she’d been his shadow. She loved the ranch and the land and horses as much as he did. Hank didn’t know what to make of his daughter’s sudden interest in clothes and jewelry.
Janie nodded. “Gemma says it’ll be fun.”
Catching his eye, Gemma lifted her chin in that same subtle challenge that had gotten him on the dance floor the night before. “Well, she would certainly know.”
With as limited as the choices were in the small town, Hank had been to the Ace in the Hole hundreds of times over the years, but he’d never had as much fun as he’d had with Gemma. For all her big-city sophistication, she had a wide-eyed eagerness when it came to experiencing—no, embracing—something new. Her enthusiasm was contagious enough to make Hank feel as though he were two-stepping, or even going horseback riding, for the first time.
Because he was. He was doing all those things for the very first time—with Gemma.
* * *
It was a rare thing for Hank to find himself with too much free time on his hands. On the ranch, there was always work to be done—records to maintain, bills to pay, animals to tend to, repairs to be made. So sitting around with nothing to do should have seemed like a luxury. But after hitting the pool for a few laps and then trying out all the fancy machines in the weight room, Hank was back in the hotel room, his butt parked on the couch as he flipped through the countless cable channels filled with nothing but reality shows.
No wonder I don’t watch much TV. He wasn’t sure how anyone could stand the stuff. He did come across a Colorado Rockies game, but not even baseball could hold his attention for long.
Though it had only been a few hours since his late breakfast, Hank flicked off the television and grabbed his keys. Within minutes he was back on Broomtail Road, where he pulled up in front of Daisy’s Donuts. As he opened the door to the donut shop, the sweet and yeasty scents of freshly baked treats instantly tempted his taste buds.
“Hey, Hank!” Standing behind the counter, Eva Armstrong Stockton’s eyes lit as she caught sight of him. The pretty blonde baker grinned. “Look at you spending time with the little people of Rust Creek Falls. From what I’ve heard, you’re taking all your meals at Maverick Manor nowadays.”
He groaned at the teasing as he made his way to one of the bar stools. “Still haven’t had anything there that can compare to one of your pies.”
“Nice try, but flattery won’t free you from the local grapevine.”
Hank had always known gossip could spread through the small town like wildfire, but he never paid much attention. Probably because until a few years ago, no one would have had reason to talk about him. But then Daniel Stockton had returned to town and word got out that Janie wasn’t Hank’s biological daughter. After that, people had plenty to say.
Oh, not to his face. But more than a few conversations cut off the moment he walked into the room, and then picked up again behind his back. Not to mention the pity in townsfolk’s gazes when they looked at him.
“Are you eating here?” Eva asked as she held up a pot of coffee.
“Sure,” he said even though he could practically picture the baker rubbing her hands together in glee. “I’ll have the roast beef on rye.”
Within minutes Eva had set a plate with a sandwich piled high with medium-rare beef and a steaming side of thick-cut fries in front of him. “So, how’s Janie enjoying the hotel? When I saw her last week, she was so excited.”
When Dan returned to town, Janie had gained more than a biological father. She’d also discovered a wealth of Stockton aunts and uncles. Eva had wed Dan’s older brother, Luke, the previous summer, and now the two of them were running Sunshine Farm—the family ranch owned by the Stockton siblings.
After swallowing one of the salty fries, Hank said, “She’s loving it.” In between bites of the mouthwatering sandwich, Hank told Eva about the kid-friendly events set up by the hotel.
After hearing about the spa day, Eva sighed with longing. “I think I’m jealous. I’d love to spend a day getting pampered at Maverick Manor.”
“Well, I’m not sure Janie knows what she’s getting into. She’s always been more of a tomboy.”
“Plenty of girls, especially around here, start out as tomboys, but their interests start to change once they’re teenagers.”
Hank supposed Eva could speak from experience, but he knew his daughter. “Not Janie. She’ll always be a cowgirl,” he argued, uncomfortable with the thought of her changing into someone he couldn’t recognize. Someone he wouldn’t know how to connect with. “The spa thing is just part of the whole Maverick Manor experience.”
“And what about you, Hank?” Eva asked with a spark in her eyes as she refilled his cup. “How are you enjoying all Maverick Manor has to offer?”
“Turndown service is kinda cool. And I never was one for making the bed.”
“You are lucky I am not pouring this coffee in your lap.” She lifted the pot in warning before she set it aside. “I’m not asking about housekeeping. I’m asking about a certain dark-haired beauty half the town saw you dancing with at the Ace in the Hole last night.”
“You mean Gemma?”
“Unless there’s some other dark-haired beauty you’ve been hiding—which would make Garrett Dalton happy. He was in here complaining earlier that you managed to get to Gemma first.”
Hank shook his head. “Get to her first,” he echoed. “That makes it sound like I called dibs.”
“Did you?”
“Gemma’s staying at the hotel on her vacation, and I’ve been showing her some of the sights around Rust Creek Falls. It’s really no big deal.”
“Right...because you go dancing at the Ace all the time,” Eva teased.
“I’m on vacation, too. I’m allowed a night or two on the town.”
Eva’s gaze gentled as she lost her teasing smile. “You’re allowed far more than that. You deserve far more than that.”
“Yeah, well, a few nights are all it’s going to be. Janie and I are only staying at the hotel until Saturday.”
“And Gemma?”
“Gemma’s here one more week, but then she’ll be heading back to New York.”
“And that’s it? You just say goodbye?”
“What else can we say? She’s here on vacation, Eva.”
She dismissed that with a wave of her hand. “When Luke first came back, he was only here for the wed—” Eva bit her bottom lip as she cut herself off.
“He was in town for Dan and Anne’s wedding. It’s okay to say it. I was there, remember,” he said wryly. Not only had he attended his ex’s wedding, he’d also given away the bride.
“Of course I remember.” Eva gave a small sigh. “It was so sweet, seeing you walk Anne down the aisle.”
Yep, that was him all right. Good-guy Hank Harlow.
He certainly hadn’t agreed when Anne asked because he was some kind of martyr. Their marriage had been over for some time, and he truly did wish Anne and Dan nothing but happiness. The kind of true happiness that had eluded him for so long, he’d all but stopped looking...until he’d seen Gemma Chapman laid out in a shiny black bikini at Maverick Manor’s pool.
The moment he’d taken her hand, he’d felt something spark to life within him. Something that made him realize how he’d simply been going through the motions—alive but not really living. He’d been numb for so long that every moment, every emotion he experienced with Gemma, was like fireworks going off inside of him. All of them big, bright, beautiful...and damn scary.
Because one thing Hank knew about feeling too much was that it made the pain of losing the woman you loved hurt like hell.
But this...thing with Gemma, whatever it was, it wasn’t love.
No way. No how. He wasn’t going there. Not with a woman fresh out of a painful breakup. Not with a woman who lived halfway across the continent in New York freakin’ City. Rubbing the old wound at his side, he reminded himself that he’d learned from his mistakes. He wasn’t fool enough to repeat them.
* * *
“That was the most fun ever!” Janie announced as she and Gemma left the hotel’s spa and headed back toward the lobby. She held out a small hand, admiring her hot-pink manicure. “I can’t wait for my dad to see my new look!”
“Me, too.” Gemma thought he’d get a kick out of seeing his tomboy daughter’s new hairstyle and makeup. But more than that, Gemma simply wanted to see Hank. To spend more time with him. To spend as much time with him as she could before he left Maverick Manor.
“Oh, look! There he is!” Janie didn’t wait for Gemma, sprinting across the lobby and weaving her way around a couple weighed down by enormous backpacks, families pushing strollers and porters maneuvering overloaded luggage carts.
Gemma took her time crossing the crowded space, but her smile faded as she caught sight of Hank’s expression. She’d expected the look of surprise, but instead of giving way to the proud-papa smile Gemma was used to, his brows pulled together in a frown. Too far away to hear their conversation, she had no trouble reading Janie’s body language as her shoulders slumped and her head drooped.
“Excuse me,” she murmured to the backpacking pair as she picked up her own pace, but by the time she reached Hank’s side, a crying Janie had already pushed past him.
“Janie, wait!” Hank called after his daughter, but she sprinted down the hall without slowing. Cursing beneath his breath, he turned back to Gemma, regret written across his handsome features. “Geez, Gemma...”
She opened her mouth, ready to tell him it would be okay. That he could apologize to Janie and everything would be all right, but he beat her to the punch with a shot that came out of left field.
“What the hell were you thinking?”
“Me?” The accusation in his eyes had her drawing up to her full height. He’d been so different the past few days that Gemma had almost forgotten how quick he could be to judge, to cast blame. “You knew we were going for a spa day!”
“I thought that meant—Hell, I don’t know what I thought. Do I look like a guy who knows what happens during a spa day? Her hair...” He waved a hand at his own overly long locks. “And all that makeup. She looks like...”
His words cut off, and Gemma thought she caught a flash of pain before his expression hardened. “She’s still a little girl, Gemma!”
“She’s practically a teenager, Hank!” And maybe one Gemma had been hanging out with a little too much, as she was suddenly tempted to copy Janie’s eye roll as she echoed the girl’s own words. “She’s old enough to have an interest in hair and makeup, clothes and boys!”
“I think I know my daughter better than you do. Janie’s a tomboy! She likes horses and fishing and spending time on the ranch.”
I think I know my daughter...
Gemma had never known her father. Had she known more about him, Gemma might have liked horses and fishing and ranching, too. But she had never had the chance. She’d never had the choice. Instead her mother had signed her up for ballet classes, voice lessons and piano recitals.
Gemma was pretty sure her mother thought she knew her, too. Or at least knew the version her mother had molded her into—the wealthy, sophisticated, well-educated daughter of Diane and Gregory Chapman. Diane was all too willing to dismiss any reminders that Gemma wasn’t Gregory’s biological daughter, packing away whatever memories she might have along with all the pictures of Gemma and her father.
“Yes, she’s a bit of a tomboy, but she also likes dresses and makeup and musicals! Maybe she’ll grow up to be a cowgirl or maybe she won’t. The question is, will you love her enough to let her be whoever, whatever, she wants to be?”
* * *
Love her enough?
Who the hell did Gemma think she was, questioning if he loved his daughter enough? Hank hadn’t even known what love was until he held Janie in his arms. Gemma didn’t have a clue what that felt like, he thought as he followed the path Janie had taken at a slightly slower—if no less furious—pace.
Easy for her with her fancy New York apartment and unencumbered lifestyle to tell him how to relate to Janie! What did she know? What could she possibly know?
But she did know.
Gemma might not know what it was like to be a parent, to love a child with her whole heart, to want nothing less than the best for that child. But she knew how it felt to be on the other side. To be the child who hadn’t been loved enough.
She hadn’t told him much about her past, but what she had told him added up to a lonely childhood. She was a cowboy’s daughter, but she didn’t know how to ride. Her father had been born in Rust Creek Falls, yet Gemma had never been to Montana. Instead she’d been raised in New York City before being sent off to boarding school. In Connecticut...a hundred miles from home and essentially a million miles from Montana.
Rubbing the back of his neck, he shoved the thought from his mind as he headed back to the suite. He paused in the hallway outside the door as his cell phone rang. The familiar ringtone was one he couldn’t ignore, and he didn’t even have a chance to greet his ex-wife before Anne demanded, “What is going on, Hank? I just got a call from Janie. She was crying and said she wants to come home.”
“Go home?” The words hit like a blow to his gut, and he fought back a curse as he stared at the closed door.
“Janie’s been looking forward to this for months, and now she wants to cut her vacation short? What on earth happened, Hank?”
He gave a brief explanation, downplaying Gemma’s role as much as he could, although he wasn’t even sure why. Because he didn’t want Anne to worry that a visitor from New York City was having any kind of influence in Janie’s life? Or was it because he didn’t want to admit the effect Gemma had already had on his? “I don’t know what to do, Annie. Janie’s never been this upset with me before,” he confessed.
Anne was silent for a long moment, and Hank’s hand tightened on the phone as he waited for some words of wisdom. Despite the divorce, he and Anne had always gotten along and had almost always seen eye to eye when it came to Janie. He really needed her help on this one.
Instead he got an earful of laughter. “Welcome to parenthood.”
Hank ground his back teeth together as he tried to hold back his anger...and hurt. “I’ve been a parent since the day that little girl was born, Annie.”
Her laughter immediately cut off. “Oh, Hank, I didn’t mean it like that. Of course you know what it’s like to be a parent, but you and Janie—” She gave a small sigh. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve envied your relationship with her.”
“What? Why? You don’t think—I would never try to turn her against you. Or Dan.”
“I know that, and I know Janie loves me, b
ut she adores you. The two of you are so alike and have so much in common that you’ve always gotten along. But that doesn’t mean you aren’t going to butt heads once in a while. Especially now that Janie’s almost a teenager. And that’s all I meant. Parenting isn’t always smooth sailing. Remember when Dan first came back and we told Janie he was her father? You were the one she ran to when she decided she couldn’t stand to live with me anymore.”
Hank hadn’t wanted Anne to tell Janie the truth, so his sympathies had definitely been with his daughter and not with Anne or the man who’d shown up after more than a decade to throw all their lives into turmoil. But now... “I feel like crap knowing that she’s mad at me.”
“So find a way to fix this, and give Janie the vacation she’s been dreaming of.”
Find a way to fix this...
Easier said than done with Janie locked in the bathroom in their suite. After fifteen minutes of futilely trying to apologize to his daughter through a keyhole, Hank found himself standing on the opposite side of another door. Unlike Janie, Gemma did respond to his knock, but her expression was far from open.
Not knowing what else to do, Hank went with the unvarnished truth. “I screwed up, Gemma. With Janie and with you.” Taking it as a good sign that she didn’t slam the door right in his face, he asked, “Can I come in?”
As Gemma took a step back, Hank walked inside. Similar to the suite he shared with Janie, the hotel room opened into a small living room. Unlike their room, however, the honeymoon suite offered the romantic touches of a faux-bearskin rug spread out in front of a river-stone fireplace. Beyond a wall of windows, a large balcony overlooked the distant mountains. And through a pair of double doors to the right...
Hank jerked his gaze away but not before the wide canopy bed was burned into his brain. The huge pillows, the fluffy comforter, the silken sheets—all he could imagine was Gemma on the big white bed, her long dark hair spread over the pillowcases, over the sheets. Over him. The mattresses at Maverick Manor were too soft for his comfort, but in that bed, with Gemma in his arms, it would be like making love in the clouds.
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