“You got a visitor, Grady,” Walker introduced me with grit in his voice.
Logan’s gold-rimmed shades hid his eyes which may have been throwing daggers at Walker. The mare clopped along the dusty lane leading to the training rings. “This is a surprise.”
“What a beautiful horse,” I said, rubbing her shoulders, avoiding why I was there.
“Name’s Sweet Bell. Just giving her some exercise.” He reached down and stroked her neck. “Been on a horse lately?”
“Do four hundred and fifty horses in my Lincoln count?”
Walker snorted a laugh. “Logan, why don’t you give Delsey a ride?”
My eyes shot to Walker while I shook my head, but next, my old friend hauled me up into the saddle behind Logan. Good thing I had on jeans and boots. “Umph,” I grunted, feeling unsteady, forgetting how high up it put me. I instinctively reached out and grabbed Logan’s waist.
His hand closed over mine and for a second, I expected him to shuck it away like he didn’t want me touching him. Delsey Mackenzie the nerd can’t touch Logan the prom king. Except when he wanted to kiss her. No, he covered my hand, pressing it deeper against his body.
Hell’s bells. He felt so hard and warm based on the scorching skin under his shirt.
“You okay, back there?”
I snorted a laugh into his back, imagining I would be saying that to him in bed if he took me from behind. I had such a hard fall coming, thinking something physical would happen between us. He’d never let me get that close to him. Even for a good time while I was in town. “Very good,” I whispered.
His neck cranked back and his caramel Stetson’s rim blocked the sun from my eyes. “Seeing you had no choice to be on this horse with me. I can go a few more laps in the meadow if you do want to ride with me.” His words had me fantasizing: I’d love to ride atop you. “I assume you came to talk to me about something.” He pressed my hand harder into his taut stomach. “It will actually look better if I’m working while you’re doing it.”
Doing it...
Stop!
“Good idea. I don’t want any friction...” Delicious friction of your cock inside me... “I mean, yes, let’s take a ride. I’m here because I wanted to—” I stopped and looked down at Walker who watched us with his arms crossed.
The good horse doctor shook his head. “I’ll be in my office looking at that x-ray of Stately’s hock.”
“The Renners never said boo to me after the accident, all the time I had to take off.” Logan swung Sweet Bell around to head back up the lane toward an open field.
“Because you’re valuable to them. I run a company. I know a little something about that.” I shrugged.
His demeanor changed when I mentioned my company. “Why are you here on a horse with me and not at your company, right now?”
Just lucky, I guess.
“Just taking time off.” I shivered when a stiff wind caught me off guard. “But I came here today because I spoke to—”
Logan pressed my hand again. “You’re cold.” Exhaling, he said, “Here.” And pushed my hand deeper inside his jacket where the warmth sizzled.
“That’s better.”
“Agreed,” he admitted quietly.
He guided Sweet Bell toward a trail under a canopy of trees, and I smelled the perfumed lavender bushes springing up along the fence line. The mare’s hooves swooshed against the grass, the squeak of the leather saddle warming me up with feelings of Wild Heart I thought I’d buried. Along with those ugly glasses from high school.
“I made a contact at the VA hospital in Medford. It’s fifteen miles—”
“I know where Medford is.” His voice strained like he’d already picked up on why I was there.
“Good.” I straightened my back and leaned into him less as I got my executive voice on. “It took a lot of favors, but they agreed to take a look at Maddie. Her...leg.”
Logan pulled up the reins, stopping us in a pocket of sunshine. He twisted around and removed his shades. His blue eyes sent a rocket to my heart, warmth crawling down to my tummy. He bit down on his lip, pride eating at him to tell me to go to hell, but his newfound responsibility as a parent had to kick those instincts in the shins.
He released a minty breath, and said, “Fine. Give me the number.” He curled back and urged the mare into a stronger trot.
“I’d like to go with you. They have an opening tomorrow afternoon. After school.” I went breathless realizing I hadn’t considered he’d have to leave his job early.
“Why are you doing this?” he asked, shaking his head.
“You may have been the only person who picked on me.”
With a force I wasn’t expecting, he stopped Sweet Bell and swung off pulling me down at the same time. Leaning me against the mare’s warm coat, her chest rising and falling, Logan rasped, “Delsey, I’m sorry—”
I stopped him with a hand over his mouth, the feel of his wet lips and soft amber scruff sending me into a fit of need imagining his mouth on mine. Everywhere. “Let me finish,” I whispered and lowered my hand. “People looked at me and not in a good way. You’re a man. You don’t know what that does to a girl. To feel...unattractive. We live in a beauty-obsessed culture and you know what?” My throat went tight and I pushed down a sob.
“Delsey...” He breathed my name, his voice full of gravel.
“I’d have traded places with Maddie in a heartbeat. I know back then I would have rather had a fake leg I could hide under my jeans and be beautiful like her.” I turned away pressing my face into the warm leather saddle. The closer I got to Logan, he could see my skin. “Now, she may be jarred by what she sees at the VA, but she won’t feel so alone.”
“Jesus, that’s deep.”
“No one understood me, Logan.” I sniffed. “Being in all those science classes. And I know somewhere, Maddie’s feeling that too. Even if she doesn’t understand it. But you need to watch out for her.”
“My whole life is about her now.”
“I know that.” I cleared my throat. “I see that. Plain as day. Maybe I’m being selfish.” I fingered the scars under my chin. “Maybe I’m overreacting. Maybe I’m scarred beyond—” I gasped feeling Logan behind me, his arms around me, pulling me toward his chest.
“It’s okay,” he whispered in my ear. “I can hardly bear to see you upset like this and to think one day, Maddie’s gonna have these emotions... Nope. Not happening. What time?”
I turned and realized he’d left his arms around my waist. I wasn’t sure when I wanted to be kissed so much. He’d been such a surprise, this version of the boy who I’d remembered as a bully, a villain. The jarring shock to my system opened my heart somehow after being closed down because of Truitt. “Four p.m.? And you’ll let me go with you?”
“Yes,” he breathed.
“Because it’s what she would want, right?” I pushed him to face how he felt about me. Me. The woman. Not the nice lady who wanted to help his niece.
“Yes, it’s what she would want. I know that already. But...”
“Yeah?”
“It feels easier. Better when you’re around with her. I’ve been doing this all myself.” He looked like that revelation knocked the breath out of him.
“And you’re doing an amazing job. You’d gone from bachelor to a...dad really, in a matter of hours. No prep time in between. Not all men could handle that with such warmth and grace.”
“Thank you,” he said softly.
Something told me if Maddie wasn’t in the picture and this was truly a game between two adults, he’d be on board for some sex. And I’d be on my back.
No. Sleeping off his rent was not the responsible adult way to solve a problem. We had to work something else out.
“Logan, Sierra just rung me up,” a man’s voice came over a walkie-talkie on his belt. “Max is bringing down the eleven o’clock for her lesson.”
Staring at me, he pulled the receiver to his mouth, his lips moving as he spoke. “10-4, Shill. I
’m on my way back.”
“Her lesson?” I smirked.
He grinned back. “That’s my job now. I work with the guests at the B&B who want to go riding or need a lesson. It gives me greater flexibility to take care of Maddie.”
I snorted a laugh. I’d never met a grumpier cowboy and the idea of him dealing with a city mouse on a horse for the first time was just delicious.
After snapping the walkie-talkie to his belt, he said, “We can ride back or walk?”
“Riding’s fine.”
We cut through another trail and the training rings were right there. My time with Logan, for now, was coming to an end and my chest ached wanting more of him. Just like this, how we were now. When money wasn’t a wedge between us. I loved how he was in charge and I was at his mercy.
Reaching the barn, he got off the horse and helped me down, his hands firmly around my waist. He handed Sweet Bell off to a ranch hand.
“I’ll let you go back to work. And thank you, thank you for letting me help Maddie.”
He tipped his hat to me.
Outside the barn, the crunching of gravel under tires spun me around. A man in a light brown straw cowboy hat drove a golf cart and Miss City Mouse herself got out. In tight jeans, a tighter floral blouse, and long flowing shiny black hair around a fresh perfect face with big pink lips, I knew the type. Hell’s bells, that was me. In Houston. Here in Wild Heart, I was just plain Delsey.
Not today.
Jealousy clawed at me seeing the woman who’d have Logan’s attention for the next hour or so. I grabbed his jacket and pulled his mouth down on mine. I had no idea what I was doing, but he responded to me fast and strong, kissing the hell out of me. I opened my mouth and his tongue found mine as his heavy hands pulled our waists together. Well, his waist, my stomach. He groaned from deep in his throat, while his hot mouth, eager and wicked possessed every inch of my lips. His beard felt so soft against my cheek. All I could think was how I wanted to feel his mouth between my legs.
I felt glued to him and couldn’t stop. Next, my hands were wandering down his chest and inside his jacket. Oh, the heat of his body, and those abs of steel, leading down to his...
Logan drew a sharp breath and pulled away. “What the hell?” he breathed.
My eyes strayed to the woman waiting for him.
He roared with laughter and pulled me in closer. “I don’t sleep with the B&B guests, darlin’. Since the accident, I haven’t...” He cleared his throat, letting slip that since the accident he’d been...alone.
Swallowing, I said, “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
His eyes stayed on mine like if I’d asked him for a midnight rendezvous at Nickel Song, he’d have agreed. Only that was a mistake on an epic level. I wasn’t sure I could survive that after being reminded what his mouth could do.
Nodding, he said, “I’ll pick you up.”
“You already have,” I whispered and sauntered away, throwing my own long hair over my shoulder so Miss City Mouse saw me.
I hoped Logan took her on a long horse ride so she could spend hours pulling bugs out of her hair.
Chapter Eight
Logan
I picked Maddie up from school on Thursday and watched her from my rearview mirror. Too much. I almost rear-ended two cars while driving to Nickel Song to grab Delsey for the VA appointment. I’d come to know every look on my niece’s face, and her tight jaw ate at me. After the last slam on the brakes to avoid a kid on a bike, Maddie finally snapped at me.
“What’s with you?” she asked from the backseat.
“We don’t have to do this, Mads. The guy in Colony isn’t so bad.”
“I don’t walk right.” She folded her arms. “I should be walking right. I want to see someone else.” She’d been following Delsey a little closely on Instagram.
The thought made me smile, though because maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing. I felt tension under my skin admitting how much I wanted Delsey with us for this appointment. And not just because I knew Maddie wanted her there. I’d not felt so out of my depth doing this alone until the breath of relief came in the form of another person who not only wanted to help, but refused to take no for an answer.
“Now, Mads, you know exactly where you’re going today, right?” I took the turn down Hope Springs Lane to reach Nickel Song at the end of the block.
Someone drag racing would end up in Delsey’s kitchen. The estate sat at the blunt end of the street. And Nickel Song took up the whole damn sprawling block.
“Yes. A hospital for soldiers.”
I still didn’t like the idea of what her young eyes would see. Delsey’s argument though, how Maddie wouldn’t feel so alone in her struggle made my legs go weak. I’d been trying to make sure Maddie returned to what I considered ‘normal,’ not realizing she would never be ‘normal’ again.
She lived in a world where she was different. Being around people who’d gone through similar trauma would help her heal. Delsey was right. Others like her would help her feel like she belonged.
Dealing with her leg was a lifelong commitment for Maddie. Damn me, for letting so much get in the way and using the substandard technician in Colony. I also had no idea how much any of this was going to cost.
Once again, Cord Renner didn’t blink when I told him I had to leave the ranch early to take Mads to her appointment. Even asked me how she’d been doing and if he could do anything. I tipped my hat and said I had it all covered.
Which I didn’t.
Which meant I was a liar.
And ready for miss money-bags to pull out her checkbook. She had a smackdown coming her way.
“She always looks so pretty,” Maddie said, waving to Delsey from the backseat.
“So do you,” I said and frowned when she rolled her eyes.
Delsey strutted past her black iron gate in jeans and shiny black riding boots, reminding me of our bump and grind against Sweet Bell yesterday. Her blonde hair glistened in the sunshine, all wavy and soft. As hard as I had kissed her, she devoured me back toe to toe. The smell of her, powdery and fresh, had just made something snap inside me. Still, I couldn’t shake the emptiness I felt since that kiss. Like Delsey’s lips were a drug and I got the DTs.
“Open the door for her, Uncle Logan.”
“Yeah, yeah. I got it,” I said and sprung from my seat.
The dates I’d been on, I hadn’t had to go out of my way like this. Girls had run up to my truck and hopped in before I even got the damn thing in park. The way Delsey moved, she didn’t seem to expect the courtesy, and her eyebrows raised from behind her shades when I swaggered up to her.
Why did I want to kiss those tempting lips again so damn much? She always looked so pretty, was right. That woman was getting under my damn skin.
“Hi there,” Delsey said. “You didn’t have to get out.”
“Sure, I did. It’s called respect.” Only I didn’t open the door. After glancing back to make sure Maddie hadn’t snuck down one of the windows to hear us, I said, “I hope I don’t need to say this, but whatever this is going to cost, you are not paying for it.”
She folded her arms, the cute leather jacket she had on giving a soft squeak. “That’s being presumptuous about my generosity.”
I waggled my finger at her. “I got you figured out. And it’s a compliment that you want to help Maddie. Not a mean-spirited presumption. Whatever this is gonna run, I got it.”
“There are grants you know.”
“Grants?”
“Money made available for people in certain situations. Some government-funded, some private.”
“I don’t take pity or handouts.”
“It’s not about pity. Logan, you were served a raw deal here. People fall down through no fault of their own. We’re lucky we live in a society where people open their hearts and their wallets to help people.”
“I don’t want your money.”
“You keep saying that, all while you’ve not paid money you owe me for several mon
ths. I appreciate your position. And I’ll work with you. But you have to knock that chip off your shoulder.”
Damn. She was right.
“Just let me deal with whatever this is going to cost,” I said, hoping to put an end to this discussion. Maddie was my responsibility.
“Despite what you’ve fantasized in your head, that I’d whip out a large cardboard check, I have no intention of emasculating you in front of anyone, Logan.” She glanced in my F-150 and when she faced me again, our mouths came dangerously close. Her breath became my air. “Especially Maddie.”
I exhaled. “Thank you.”
“I did, um, look into the facility and they have administrators who will help you figure out how to make the cost part work. Parents with sick children go to hospitals that are free of charge all the time. That’s normal, Logan. That might include grant money or private foundation money. If it gets offered to you, take it. Why shouldn’t you, if it will help Maddie?”
“Are you ever not one-hundred-percent, right?”
Her face fell. “You have no idea what I do, do you?”
“Sure, I do. You make make-up.”
Biting her lip, she stepped around me to open the door and got in my truck.
“What’d I say?”
“Hey, Maddie girl. Are you ready to do this?” She leaned back and slapped a high-five to my niece, whose face took on a whole new shape once Delsey arrived.
Great, just great.
“What’d I say?” I mumbled to myself, stomping to the driver’s side. Oh crap. I never opened the door for her. That’s why I got my ass out of the truck in the first place.
“Maddie, do any of your friends at school have dads or moms who are serving in the military?” Delsey asked.
That question was damn smart. I decided to just shut the fuck up and watch the road. Listen. And learn how to maneuver around a difficult conversation. I was a guy. Guys blurt.
“A few,” Maddie answered. “Once in a while, someone gets a surprise. Their mom or dad comes home unexpectedly. The whole school goes nuts.”
Those scenes always made the news, too. Even I got weepy watching a kid’s face just melt as they ran into the arms of a parent. Something I’d never get to do, again. Something Maddie would never get to do, again. Only...she had me. I’d always be here for her and I hoped one day she’d see me as her parent.
The Cowboy's Rebel Heart: An Enemies to Lovers Second Chance Romance (Wild Texas Hearts Book 4) Page 8
