Her Forever Cowboy (Harland County Series Book 4)

by Donna Michaels

  Kade stepped closer to place a hand on his shoulder and squeeze. “Don’t mess with her, Kevin. She’s had it rough. You can have your pick of women. Leave Shayla alone.”

  Nodding, he only half-heard his cousin’s words, but knew he had to give some sort of reaction or Sgt. Hardass would return. “I don’t plan on messing with her, but you’d better plan on getting back out before the clock strikes twelve or you’ll have one unhappy fiancée.”

  “Shit.” Kade’s gaze shot to the clock on the microwave. “Two minutes. You’re right. Let’s get back in there.”

  Kevin fought a smile as he followed his cousin from the kitchen to rejoin the party. He knew the word fiancée would get Sgt. Hardass off his case. Okay, that was harsh. Kade was only trying to protect the single mother. He knew his cousin felt responsible for Shayla and her baby girl since her fiancé had been attached to Kade’s unit and died during deployment last year.

  An invisible band tightened across Kevin’s chest. Shayla Ryan had been through a lot. Having Kade watch out for her was good. The poor thing didn’t have anyone to turn to. Apparently, she’d been doing all the looking out and protecting since she was a teenager.

  That didn’t sit right with him. Kind of settled in his gut like a steel ball.

  Re-entering the room, he noticed people started to break off in groups of two or more. Kade made a beeline for Brandi, who wrapped her arms around his cousin and managed to delete all traces of Sgt. Hardass from the party. Good girl.

  His sister, Jen, leaned against her husband, Brock, while their son, Cody, laughed in his daddy’s arms. Kevin whipped out his phone and quickly captured the Kodak moment.

  “Excuse us, buddy,” Cole said, moving past him to cage Jordan in the corner, or was that the other way around? A grin tugged his lips. One never knew with those two.

  Same could be said for the other McCall brother who ushered Kerri into the laundry room, secret smiles on their faces. Smart move. The two could now ring in the New Year in private.

  It did his heart good to see his family and friends so happy and content. Lord knew it had certainly been far from it a few years back. This had been a great year, and tonight was going to be even better. He surveyed the room, searching for the willing blonde. Bingo. One buxom beauty winking at him straight ahead…and four smiling faces on her right, all glancing expectantly from him to Shayla.

  Ah, hell.

  The older Masters and McCalls were in matchmaker mode again. Wasn’t going to work. Not this time. No way were they going to successfully get him and the beautiful spitfire together. Kade had been right to warn him off. But it was unnecessary. Kevin didn’t want to mess with the woman. He didn’t do permanent, and that’s what she needed.

  Leaving the single mother alone was definitely in everyone’s best interest.

  So why the hell were his feet turning him away from the smiling, willing Dolly Parton look-a-like and carrying him straight to the blinking redhead with the sweet, smiling baby girl lifting her arms toward him?

  Hell if he knew, but he caught the little bouncing angel and pulled her into his chest, enjoying her happy gurgle and the way she smelled like baby powder. The tiny sweetheart filled an invisible hole he didn’t like to talk or think about.

  “Where are you going, pumpkin?” he asked as the cutie pounded on his face with her hands. She certainly was a feisty one. Just like her momma.

  “Sorry. She has a mind of her own,” Shayla said, making to take the child from him.

  “No, let her be. It’s okay,” he insisted, dropping his free arm around the woman’s shoulders and drew her close.

  Kevin knew he should heed Kade’s warning. Let the woman be. Stay out of her life. But at that moment, he wasn’t in control. His over stimulated body was in control, and his need and want were exactly the same for once. To taste the gorgeous redhead again. He’d worry about consequences tomorrow. Kevin was exactly where he wanted to be at the moment—closing the distance to Shayla’s incredible lips.

  And as the crowd counted backward…three…two…one… and called out Happy New Year, Amelia grabbed his face with sticky hands and gave him a wet, sloppy kiss.

  Something inside Kevin’s chest clicked. Puzzle piece fit against puzzle piece. Which was crazy and made absolutely no sense, and yet…he could not deny one blatant fact.

  That was the best damned ring in the New Year kiss he’d ever received.

  Chapter Four

  Two days into the New Year and Shayla was just as confused as she had been at the Dalton’s party, watching the sexy-as-sin cowboy turn to putty in her daughter’s hands. It should’ve made her laugh and tease the heck out of the Casanova. But, instead, her chest hurt from a heart inflated beyond measure…and reason.

  Attraction to Kevin she understood. Drooling over his incredible body and good looks…she understood. But this affinity—this connection—made no friggin’ sense. It was bad. Real bad. He was a rich playboy, just like Amelia’s father, with no responsibilities other than to pleasure himself.

  She sucked in a breath. Bad word choice. Damn.

  Heat pooled low in her belly so strong and fast, she was grateful to be seated next to her sleeping daughter in the back of Jordan’s car on the way to Caitlin’s college. Stupid body. It was all Kevin Dalton’s fault. Stinkin’ cowboy wasn’t even present and he managed to zap the strength from her legs.

  “You okay?” her sister asked, twisting around in the front seat to stare at her.

  Ah, hell. Did I moan?

  Rubbing her temple, she silently wished her boss hadn’t decided to wait until next week to start a new design job. Too much down time was causing her mind to wander to unsafe territory. She dropped her hand and sighed. “Just a little dizzy.”

  A lie. Sort of. She did have a slight headache. Lack of sleep does that to a person. Her reaction to the executive cowboy didn’t only play havoc with her pulse, it interrupted her sleep as well.

  Her sister’s keen gaze narrowed as she chewed her lower lip. “You aren’t sleeping much, are you?”

  “You do look a little pale, Shayla,” Jordan said, meeting her gaze in the rearview mirror.

  Before she could respond, Caitlin reached back and squeezed her arm.

  “I’m sorry, sis. I’ll just stay with you and commute. I don’t want to worry you. It’s no big deal.”

  “Whoa.” She covered her sister’s hand and stared into a troubled gaze. Dammit. Caitlin thought her lack of sleep was her fault. If only. “No. Absolutely not. Jordan’s taking us to check out the housing as planned.”

  Once again, she met her friend’s gaze in the mirror and the woman nodded.

  “But—” Caitlin began to protest.

  “No.” She squeezed her sister’s arm. “No buts. We agreed to do whatever it is Jordan advises. That hasn’t changed. Okay?”

  Caitlin continued to stare at her, concern still clouding her pretty blue eyes. “I just hate that I’m causing you to worry. You’ve done so much for me already.”

  Was she kidding? There were times Shayla had barely provided more than a ramen soup meal…for days on end. And although she’d been so proud of their first apartment, it had only been a step above a flea-bitten mess. Thinking about the past and remembering the guilt she’d felt over taking her sister from a safe house with three squares a day to basically starve in a hovel was something she was still working on.

  “I haven’t done squat, but you’re too sweet to say.” She patted her sister’s hand and sighed. “I’m sorry, Caitlin.”

  Her sibling drew back with a frown. “For what?”

  “This should be your final year of college, not your first.”

  “Oh, Shayla, not that again. I told you, I’m so grateful to be going. Plus, my gosh, you’re paying for all of it. Do you know how lucky I am? You’re the best sister ever.”

  She snorted.

  Again, she wasn’t doing squat. Tuition was courtesy of Bobby, thanks to putting her down as his beneficiary and giving her
power of attorney over his things while he’d been deployed. Other than their name change and Caitlin’s college, Shayla planned to save the rest of the death benefit for Amelia’s future. Bobby would’ve been happy.

  Caitlin frowned. Hard. “I mean it. Even when you ran away from your foster home and went to live across town with Bobby, you still managed to come see me and attend every basketball game I was in, all throughout middle school.”

  Although Jordan’s gaze snapped back to hers, and Shayla would’ve preferred to hold this conversation in private, she trusted her friend enough to reply to Caitlin.

  “There was no way I would’ve missed them, sis.”

  Her mother had been around to attend Shayla’s dance recitals, before her…accident, and she knew how great it had felt to have family at events. Caitlin wasn’t going to go without. And her sister wasn’t ever going to know that she and Bobby had been living in an abandoned building until they both managed to scrape up enough money doing odd jobs to buy an old trailer.

  He’d been her first lover and a dear friend, but she had to be living on her own, in a decent place, with a steady income in order to gain custody of her sister the minute Shayla turned eighteen. Nothing had mattered more to her than Caitlin. She loved Bobby, but as a friend, and she knew he’d felt the same, so after only a few nights together, they’d both agreed to go back to a platonic relationship and not complicated it with sex.

  “You made my chorus recitals, and art shows, birthdays. Snuck over on all the holidays,” her sister continued to sing her praises. “Then when you got custody of me, you managed to keep me in that very same school district so I didn’t have to start over.”

  Bobby had even helped her with that. He’d joined the Guard, and when he came back from basic training, he’d handed her all his pays so she could rent a two bedroom apartment. It took her a year, but she managed to pay him back with interest. One of her prouder moments.

  He didn’t want it, of course, but she’d insisted, and since he’d been dating a nice girl at the time, Shayla had been able to convince him to take the girl on a vacation. It was just too bad things hadn’t worked out between him and that girl…and that she and her sister had to move from that nice apartment because of her father’s goons.

  The day after Caitlin’s graduation, they’d hit the road, and they’d been running ever since. But no place was safe. She’d discovered that last spring when her paroled father paid her a visit and tried to extort money from her by threatening his granddaughter. Thankfully, it had been in a public place and she’d already mapped out escape routes in her head. A practice she deployed in every town they’d lived in. Even Harland County.

  “So, no more lip about how you’re sorry you didn’t provide for me, Shayla. Because you did,” Caitlin stated with a nod, bringing her back to the present.

  “Yeah, but we—”

  “No buts, remember?”

  Stubborn woman cut her off. A smile tugged Shayla’s lips. “College has made you bossy.”

  Caitlin laughed.

  Jordan snickered. “I’d say it runs in the family.”

  Now Shayla laughed.

  “True.” Her sister smiled, glancing from Jordan to her. “So, it’s time you start letting me take care of me, and you concentrate on my beautiful little niece.”

  As if on cue, Amelia began to stir from her car-induced nap.

  “Well said.” Jordan sniffed. “Sisters are the greatest.”

  Caitlin reached back to squeeze Shayla’s hand. “And mine’s my best friend.”

  Now she needed a tissue. “Ditto, kiddo.”

  Two hours later, they settled into a corner table at a restaurant across from the university after having explored the whole area, including the trek to the charming, two-story traditional where her sister hoped to stay.

  Locked up tight, due to the holiday break, the house appeared to be safe from the outside. Jordan had walked the perimeter a few times, jotting in a notepad, for which they were now about to discuss.

  Shayla had barely removed Amelia’s coat and hooked her into a high chair when her sister leaned closer to the table and stared eagerly at Jordan.

  “So? What’s the verdict?”

  The deputy chuckled. “Excited much?”

  “Yeah, a little,” Caitlin replied with a smile. “It’s just that I’d really like to stay in that house with my…friends.”

  Had Amelia’s babbling distorted her hearing, or did her sister just hesitate over that last word?

  Jordan glanced at her notes, then closed the book and split her glance between them. “Short version. Everything looks good, but I’d really like to see the inside of the house to be one hundred percent certain.”

  Shayla nodded. “Me, too.” A measure of relief and anxiety settled in her gut.

  “I thought so.” Caitlin smiled. “One of the roommates should be stopping by here with the key within the hour.”

  “Super,” their friend exclaimed as she picked up a menu. “What’d you say we eat while we wait for our tour guide?”

  They had just finished their lunch, and she was wiping applesauce off her daughter’s face when her sister suddenly rose to her feet.

  “Here’s my roommate now.”

  Neat and clean and friendly, the roommate appeared very nice…and very male…and very, very affectionate toward her sister as he pulled Caitlin close and kissed her soundly on the lips.

  Well, hell.

  Shayla’s stomach knotted tighter than the fist her daughter was using to tug on her hair. Things were starting to make a lot of sense. She glanced at Jordan. A ghost of a smile appeared on her friend’s face.

  Yeah, a man. Who knew?

  No wonder her sister was so hell-bent to dorm and not commute. The guy was cute, and exuded a confidence born from years of responsibility. Going by his short brown hair and clean-shaven jaw, he almost appeared military.

  “This is, Greg Mitchum,” Caitlin introduced as Shayla removed Amelia from the highchair and stood.

  Of course it is.

  “Greg, this is Jordan.”

  Shayla watched as he shook her friend’s hand, holding eye-contact the whole time. Good. So far he didn’t appear shady, or homicidal.

  “Ma’am,” he said with a nod. “You’re the deputy of Harland County, right?”

  Jordan’s brow rose. “Why, yes I am.”

  “Soon to be Sheriff,” Caitlin chimed in. “Well, after she wins the spring election, of course.”

  “Best of luck to you, ma’am. From what I hear, you’re a shoe in,” he said, then turned to face her. “You must be Shayla. It’s nice to finally meet you.” His hand was warm and firm as they shook. Again, he held eye contact, and his gaze was open and sincere. “I’m sure you’re more than a little surprised.”

  She couldn’t stop the snort. “That’s the understatement of the decade.”

  Amelia chose that moment to throw her sippy-cup. It bounced off of Greg and landed by his boot. Apparently, she didn’t want to be left out of the introductions.

  “Sorry about that,” she said, taking the cup he’d retrieved from the floor.

  He smiled. “No problem.” Then he turned to the squirming little terror. “Hello, Amelia. You are even cuter in person.”

  Jordan took the cup from her hand.

  “Thanks,” she said, then switched Amelia to rest on her other hip. “She’s in rare form today.”

  “Then what’d you say we head to the house and you can grill me there?” handsome, clean-cut Greg suggested with a grin.

  Caitlin slipped an arm around his waist. “Great idea. Did you park here or walk?”

  “Parked.”

  “Then I’ll go with you, and we’ll meet them back at the house.” Her sister glanced her way. “Is that okay with you?”

  No. She had a ton of questions. “Yeah, sure. We’ll follow in Jordan’s car.”

  A few minutes later, after paying the bill and buckling the protesting Amelia in her carseat, Shayla climbe
d in the front of Jordan’s vehicle and sighed. Damn, that was a workout. Who needed Pilates when you had a toddler around?

  “Okay, we’re good to go,” she told her friend sitting in the driver’s seat with a gadget in one hand and a sippycup in the other. “Oh, I’m sorry, Jordan. Give me that.”

  “No, it’s okay. I was using it to run Greg’s print.” The deputy held up the strange gadget and smiled.

  Oh my God, she didn’t…Shayla grinned. “I knew there was a reason I loved having you as a friend.”

  “You mean it wasn’t my witty personality?”

  “That’s just a bonus.”

  They were both smiling as they turned their attention to the thumb print and photo on the screen of Greg in an Air Force uniform.

  “I knew he was military,” she said.

  “Yes, and he has no priors.” The deputy pushed a few buttons and more info appeared. “He’s an engineering major. Father is an aerospace engineer. Mom’s a lawyer. Younger sister is a sophomore at this college, staying in the house, too.”

  Shayla sat back in her seat and sighed. It was all good news, and yet…she still worried.

  “It’s okay to worry. She’s your sister.” Jordan laid a hand on hers and squeezed.

  Apparently the woman could read minds, too.

  “The worrying never stops.”

  “I know.” She removed her hand from under her friend’s to fish a soft picture book from the diaper bag and reached over the seat to hand it to her fussing daughter. “I also know she needs to live her own life, but…”

  “It’s hard,” Jordan finished. “I agree. It was tough letting Kerri move to New York with her male friend to attend culinary school, but as you said, they have to live their own life. And make their own mistakes.”

  She nodded again.

  “Are you worried for Caitlin’s safety from your dad, or heartache from Greg?” her friend asked as she started the car.