“We wouldn’t have missed it for anything.”
Rebecca always feared that she’d feel awkward or uncomfortable if she saw Tommy again, but that wasn’t the case at all. It was almost as if those last awful months they’d spent together on the Flying W never even happened.
“Your family is beautiful, Tommy,” she added. “You should be incredibly proud.”
“Believe me, I am. They’re my whole world.” He paused to study her eyes. “You look good, Bec. You look happier than I’ve ever seen you.”
“Thanks. I am.”
He mirrored her smile before he dropped his gaze to the gold band on his finger. “You know, there are still plenty of mornings when I wake up and see everything I’ve got and I feel like I don’t deserve any of it.”
Rebecca rested her hand on his shoulder. “You deserve every second of it.”
He peered at her sideways and grinned in thanks. Before he could respond, a hand landed on his other shoulder. “Thought we weren’t going to see you ‘til afterward.”
Tommy chuckled. “Blame the girls for that one,” he replied, immediately rising to his feet.
Alec laughed, too, and greeted Tommy with a bear hug. “It’s so good to see you, my friend,” he said as he pulled back. “It’s been too long.”
Rebecca fell silent while the two of them conversed, marveling at the fact that they were all together again…if only for the day. A few minutes later Lindsay and Violet returned, prompting another round of introductions from Tommy.
“You should get down there soon, don’t you think?” Lindsay asked.
Tommy nodded and shifted his gaze to the arena. “I’ll see you in a bit.”
Rebecca watched him jog down the steps before she turned to Lindsay. “Don’t you get nervous?”
She gave a solemn nod. “Every time.”
A deep purple dusk had settled over the arena by the time the rodeo reached its climax. Fourteen of the world’s toughest cowboys were competing in the final event of the night–the bull riding. Tommy had drawn the final slot on a bull named Demolition, and his performance didn’t disappoint.
Demolition exploded from the holding pen and settled into a lightning fast spin to the left, hurtling Tommy around like a rag doll. Rebecca covered her mouth with her hands when the bull abruptly stopped and switched directions, bucking ferociously as he spun to the right.
Like the professional he was, Tommy valiantly hung on until the timer on the screen reached the coveted eight seconds. Cheers exploded from the grandstands as Tommy stumbled to the ground, but it wasn’t until he was safely behind the arena wall that Rebecca released her breath.
“I’m so glad you don’t ride bulls,” she whispered to Alec.
He chuckled and shook his head. “So am I.”
*
Before Rebecca knew it, she, Alec, Tommy, Lindsay, and Violet were seated in a plush velvet booth in one of Scottsdale’s premier steakhouses. After ordering their meals and toasting to Tommy’s winning ride, Rebecca folded her hands and shot Tommy a pointed look.
“I’ve only heard bits and pieces from my brother. But now that you’re here, I want the whole story of how you two met.”
Lindsay and Tommy glanced at each other and grinned. “You wanna tell it?” he asked.
“Go ahead,” she replied. “You tell it better than I do.”
Rebecca listened with rapt attention as Tommy related from their story, from the night they met in Memphis to all the times they bumped into each other at rodeos to the night Lindsay finally agreed to dance with him.
“And we were married…three weeks later?” Tommy finished.
Lindsay nodded. “After the rodeo in Galveston, we hopped the border and eloped. Then we finished out the season and got ourselves a little place outside of Memphis. And about a year later, this one came along.”
As if on cue, Violet blushed and buried her face in her mother’s arm.
Rebecca listened to their story with a joyful heart, so glad that Tommy had finally found his place. She could tell by the looks on their faces that he and Lindsay were truly in love, and nothing could have made her happier.
It was all she’d ever wanted for him.
“Do you still barrel race?” Rebecca asked.
“Only locally,” Lindsay replied. “Right now, I’m just enjoying being a mom. Speaking of which, tell us more about this riding school you’re starting up.”
It took Rebecca a moment to switch gears. “I got the idea from the family who bought our ranch,” she began. “They have two sons with spina bifida and they’ve had them enrolled in this therapeutic riding program since they were toddlers. Turns out there are quite a few groups in the country that do it. Basically, you take the attention away from their disability and focus on the connection they’re able to make with the animals.”
“That sounds amazing,” Lindsay said.
“It is. They’ve done all sorts of studies that have shown marked improvement in balance and motor skills, even mental and emotional health. It’s actually the subject I chose for my thesis, and the university already approved a grant to get us going. We’re going to start with an after-school program for children and then hopefully expand to some of the local rehab clinics and psychiatric hospitals. There are a lot of possibilities.”
“It sounds like it,” Tommy chimed in. “What a fantastic idea, Bec. I’m really happy for you.”
“Thanks. I’m really looking forward to it. It took me so long to figure out what I wanted to do once I was out of school. This is definitely it.”
“We have such a great set-up for it, too,” Alec added. “If you guys have time tomorrow, you should come out and see our place.”
“Do you mean it?” Lindsay cried. “We’d love to!”
Tommy nodded. “We’ll be there.”
It was well past midnight when they finished dessert and reluctantly filed out of the restaurant. As Lindsay and Alec exited the foyer, Tommy pulled Rebecca back a couple of paces and lowered his voice.
“Look, Bec, I know everything was a mess when I left Jackson, but things are different now. So much has changed for me.” He gave a hopeful smile. “It’d be really great if we could be friends again.”
Rebecca grinned and tilted her face up to kiss his cheek. “We never stopped.”
*
Alec waved goodbye to Tommy and Lindsay one last time before he climbed into his truck. When Rebecca turned to him from the passenger’s seat, he wasn’t surprised to see tears streaming down her cheeks.
“You’ve been holding those back all day, haven’t you?” he asked.
She nodded. “I always knew he was going to be okay, but to actually see it…”
He reached for her hand and gave it a loving squeeze. “You’ve beat yourself up for too long, Bec. It’s time to let it go.”
“I know. And now I can.” She sniffed and gave a watery grin. “Today was so perfect. I think this might be my new favorite day.”
Alec mirrored her grin and lifted her hand to his lips. He didn’t have to think about what his favorite day was; he already knew.
It was a couple of weeks ago, back at their ranch house. He’d spent the entire day working with a particularly unruly gelding, and his nerves were shot. He stepped out of the desert sun and into the blissful air conditioning, pausing in the foyer to give Dakota a pat.
He heard Rebecca humming from the kitchen, and when he rounded the corner he found her standing at the stove. “Hey,” she greeted, sending him a warm smile. “How’d it go today?”
“Good, I think.” He stepped up behind her and slid his arms around her waist. “But it’s going to be a long haul with this one.”
“Sounds like you could use a beer.”
“Maybe later. Right now I just need some water.”
Rebecca craned her head around to kiss his cheek. “I’ll bring you a glass.”
He gave her an appreciative squeeze before he walked over to the couch and collapsed. A moment later she
appeared above him, holding out a tall glass of ice water. He thanked her and started to raise the glass to his lips when he noticed an object floating inside of it.
With a frown, he held the glass up to the light, and his eyes widened when he realized what he was seeing.
It was a pacifier.
Alec stared up at Rebecca, too stunned to respond. She was doing her best to hide her grin, but she was failing miserably.
“I just found out,” she confessed. “I didn’t think it would happen this soon but–”
Her words were lost when he leapt from the couch and threw his arms around her. She squealed with laughter as he scooped her up and spun in a circle, right in the middle of their living room.
Already these past few years had been the happiest years of Alec’s life. He truly did have it all–a beautiful home, fulfilling work, and the love of an amazing woman.
There was only one thing that was missing. After enjoying such a close bond with his own father, he’d been waiting his whole life to experience the other side of it. As he set his wife down and studied the elated glow on her face, he decided that the wait had been more than worth it.
A sense of awe filled his heart as he moved his hand across her belly and tried to envision the life that was forming within it…the life that they’d created.
Then, like a gentle breeze, her words from long ago drifted through his mind:
It’s your turn to get everything you’ve ever wanted.
As of right now–in this singularly perfect moment–that was exactly what Alec had.
The End
Author’s Note
It’s a bittersweet moment for me to reach the conclusion of the Aspen Eyes Series. On one hand, I’m thrilled to give each of these characters the satisfying endings they deserve. It makes me happy to envision them in their respective homes, raising their families and enjoying true love and security in their relationships.
At the same time, after spending so much time getting to know them over the past few years, I’m sad to say goodbye.
The idea for Cut and Run actually came from a nightmare. In my dream, I was being stalked by a presumed ex-boyfriend. In the end, though, it turned out to be someone who (I thought) had died a long time ago. It was a terrifying dream, but I remember waking up and thinking, “Wow, that would make an interesting premise for a book…”
And it started out as just a book, as I did not originally set out to create a series. Cut and Run was a strong enough story to stand on its own. But once the reviews started rolling in and readers kept asking for sequels, it got me thinking…why not? Cut and Run ends just as Rebecca and Alec’s story is getting started, and with a great supporting cast of Walter, Tommy, Jeff, and Allison, I certainly had enough material to work with.
When I sat down to write Indian Summer, I realized that I needed to bring Alec in as a viewpoint character. We learned so little about him in Cut and Run, and I was dying to know how he got to be the jaded, enigmatic man we meet at the beginning of the series. I liked the idea of bringing in a childhood friend to help reveal his past, but I wasn’t initially going to create a romantic history between Alec and Shania.
That part developed on its own, and when it did, I wanted to take the story in a different direction than what we usually see. Rather than the typical “old flame” who tries to steal her man back, I wanted to give Shania some depth and some strength of character–the type of woman that Rebecca (and readers) could respect and maybe even grow to like. I think that under different circumstances Alec and Shania could have ended up together, and I tried to convey that while solidifying the fact that Rebecca is the one he’s meant to be with.
While I love Jackson and the setting of the Flying W, the first two books took place almost exclusively on the ranch. With Showdown, I wanted to push these characters outside of their comfort zones and see how they would interact in unfamiliar surroundings. Alec and Rebecca’s trip to Scottsdale, the group getaway to Las Vegas, and Alec’s surprise visit to Oregon each brought a unique setting for us to enjoy and also helped to propel the plot in a few unexpected directions.
And while the whole “love triangle” scenario never developed in Indian Summer, the stage was ripe for it in Showdown.
I’ve known all along that Tommy was head-over-heels for Rebecca (and probably many readers realized it, too), but I wasn’t sure how I wanted to develop it. Rebecca and Tommy having a full-blown affair was never an option; we’ve grown to love their characters too much and that type of betrayal would ruin them in our eyes.
But how would Tommy feel after living there for all those years and seeing her every day? How would he react if she and Alec did start having problems and she turned to him for emotional support? It was a conceivable situation–especially in the wake of Walter’s death–and I’m amazed at the way it developed over the course of the third book. It would have been interesting enough on its own, but having Tommy be engaged to Liz and trying to balance his feelings for her and Rebecca only added an extra layer of conflict.
Bringing Tommy in as a viewpoint character was a spur-of-the-moment idea I had right before I started the first draft of Showdown. Like Alec in the second book, I realized how little we knew about Tommy’s background. If I was going to create a believable love triangle, Tommy had to be more than just the nice guy from Texas–Alec’s “sidekick,” as it were. If we were going to identify with his struggle between letting Rebecca go and embracing his future with Liz, we had to know who he is inside and how he got to be that way.
With that in mind, I actually wrote Tommy’s flashback chapters first; then I built the rest of the story around that history.
In doing so, it was interesting to discover just how different Alec and Tommy really are. We already know that Alec is a realist and a cynic, but Tommy turned out to be a dreamer and a romantic in every sense of the word. Alec scoffs at the idea of fate, while Tommy embraces it. Alec sees life as a random series of events, while Tommy believes that everything happens for a reason. The two of them are like yin and yang, balancing each other out–as true friends do.
There were many interesting parallels in their lives, too. The most ironic one is that Tommy was forced to leave home without the option of returning, while Alec was forced to remain at home without the option of leaving. It’s easy to see how they would have become friends over the years, and we can imagine how much it must have saddened them when their mutual feelings for Rebecca forced them to go their separate ways.
In analyzing my three main characters, it was fascinating to see Rebecca emerge as the strong and steady one. Although she is the youngest, her maturity shines through in her loyalty to Alec and her determination to stick with him. It’s easy to see why both Alec and Tommy–any man, really–would be so drawn to her.
Alec’s journey, on the other hand, began long before the opening pages of Cut and Run and didn’t truly conclude until the epilogue of Showdown. While he always possessed a great deal of mental fortitude, he was well behind the curve when it came to matters of the heart. We saw it in the way he tried to juggle his marriage and his past with Shania in Indian Summer; then we saw it even more clearly in the way he withdrew from Rebecca in Showdown.
He’s a man who loves very deeply–we know that from the way he cared for his father–but like many men, he often had a difficult time expressing it. Fortunately, Rebecca had the emotional maturity to realize that, and she was patient enough to stand by him as he slowly–and painfully–figured himself out.
As long and challenging as Alec’s journey was, I feel that Tommy’s journey was the hardest. From his opening chapters, we see him on this inevitable path of self-destruction, and it breaks our hearts because we know there’s no answer to his dilemma. So many times while I was writing Showdown, I would sit back and ask myself, “Why am I doing this to Tommy? What did he do to deserve it?”
And the answer, quite simply, is nothing. Tommy’s only crime was falling in love with the wrong girl–a girl who didn
’t love him back.
Anyone who has experienced the sting of unrequited love knows that it is uniquely painful in the world of heartache. In a way, I wish there were two Rebeccas–one who could stay loyal to Alec, and one who would fall for Tommy. I feel like both men are equally deserving of her affection. And as Tommy said, he would never hurt her like Alec did.
I believe that. In many ways, Tommy does deserve her, perhaps even–dare I say–more than Alec does. But at the end of the day, Rebecca’s heart belongs to Alec, and I have no doubts now that Alec is going to spend the rest of his life taking care of her. And Tommy, being the great guy that he is, is able to accept her choice and move on with a quiet dignity we can’t help but admire.
And maybe if Alec and Rebecca’s relationship hadn’t hit the rocks, then Tommy and Liz would have gotten married and they would have been happy together. Who knows? Like the situation with Alec and Shania, sometimes things happen that pull people in different directions…even people who truly love one another. It’s not fair, but it’s life.
I did toy with the idea of having Tommy and Liz end up together in the epilogue, but then I realized that it wouldn’t be fair to Liz. Even if they moved far away from Jackson, Rebecca would forever be a dark cloud over their heads, and they each deserved better than that. The only way Tommy would truly be ready to commit to somebody was when he got over Rebecca, and the only way he could do that was with time and distance. A lot of time and distance. He finally realized that, too–with a little help from Lindsay–which is why the two of them were such a perfect match at the end of the book.
I’ve been asked what my favorite scene is from the series, and I have to say how tough it is to pick just one. I love when Sean shows up at the end of Cut and Run, and I love the scenes at Last Call Saloon in Indian Summer.
My favorite scene, though, is actually from Showdown, and strangely it doesn’t involve Rebecca and Alec. Maybe it’s because I always knew that the two of them were going to make it, so I never worried about their relationship. Or maybe I just love the complexity of Rebecca and Tommy’s friendship.
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