by Nina Crespo
He’d said she couldn’t tell the difference between a script and reality. The funny thing was, a few days after he’d left, it had become clear to her just how much her norm had shifted completely. Los Angeles didn’t feel real to her anymore. It was a place filled with people to know, places to be and opportunities to strive for, but they felt less tangible than the sun beaming down from a clear open sky, or the earthy scents of a just-mown pasture, an oiled leather saddle and the smell of fresh hay. She craved them along with the steady hoofbeats of horses over honking car horns in the midst of traffic-filled LA. Heck. She even missed Thunder Bay’s orneriness.
Her phone buzzed in the pocket of her jacket with a sixty forty-five reminder alarm, alerting her that she was due at the stable by seven thirty. Chloe took it out, tapped the snooze button, then set it beside her. She still had a little more time.
She’d come there to apologize and find closure, right? Chloe lay on the blanket, closed her eyes and thought of Tristan from his close-cut dark hair to his booted feet.
The vision morphed to the day long ago when she’d ruined her favorite red boots and almost fallen on her butt. Tristan had been so irritated with her but in retrospect, having gotten to know him, he’d been tender in his own way when he’d moved her out of the path of the horses. He’d just wanted to keep her safe, and in that moment, she’d felt nothing less than protected by him.
More memories rolled in. Of them saving E.J., kissing in the rain, dancing at the Spring Fling, their magical trip to his home. Tristan getting her on a horse and reminding her to have faith in herself...and then LA.
She swallowed hard as sadness tightened her throat. “Tristan, I’m sorry. You shared your life with me and I broke your trust by not respecting what that meant. It was careless of me to do that and to not think how that would hurt you.” Tears leaked from her eyes to her cheeks. “But you were wrong when it came to me winning the part. That wasn’t the most important thing and neither is the success of the movie. You are. I’d rather be here with you, because...” She drew in a shaky breath to push out the rest. “I love you with all my heart.”
A soft whinny coming from the short trail where she’d left the golf cart, instead of far away in the field, made her sit up and open her eyes.
Tristan stood a few feet away, his back toward her as he looked out at the pasture. He was dressed similarly to how he was on the day they’d met, but he wore his black Stetson.
With sun shining in front of him, he was like a spectacular, wonderful mirage. The perfect, sexy cowboy. Maybe she was dreaming. He’d rarely worn his hat around the stable when she’d been there.
“Tristan?”
He turned and faced Chloe.
Her heart tripped. He was really there. Why was he there? Was he pleased to see her? Of course he wasn’t. This was his spot, and she was trespassing. Again.
She rose to her feet. “I was just leaving. I didn’t mean to intrude. I thought you were gone.” Chloe bent to retrieve her phone and the blanket, but her shaking hands made her clumsy and she failed.
Tristan lightly grasped her arm. “Chloe...we should talk.”
“You don’t have to say it.” Chloe couldn’t bring herself to look up from his chest. If she did she might cry even harder. “I understand completely. I won’t get in your way while I’m here. I’m a professional. We both are. We can keep our personal feelings out of the situation.”
“I don’t think we can.” Tristan tipped up her chin with his finger and his intense hazel-brown gaze held hers. “Because I love you, and you love me, unless I’m hearing things.”
Was she hearing things? Maybe he was actually telling her to go away, and she was making up her own story in her mind about what she wanted him to say.
Doubts started to dissolve as he curved his hands to her waist, leaned in, and pressed his lips to hers.
Chloe slid her hands up his chest and around his neck, falling deeper and deeper into a kiss that explored, laid claim and made her heart swell with relief and joy that he was there...he was really there.
They eased back from the kiss but held on to each other.
Her phone buzzed on the ground with another short reminder alarm. She needed to get back, but there was so much she wanted to say, no, needed to say to him right now.
Chloe lowered her hands to his chest. “You heard the I love you part right, but did you also hear that I was sorry for sharing your story? I never should have done that.”
“I heard you and I forgive you.” He kissed her palm and lowered their intertwined hands back to his chest. “But I should have stayed so we could have worked it out instead of leaving. Next time, I will.”
“Next time.” She couldn’t stop a smile. “I like the sound of that.”
A solemn expression came over his face. “I have to be honest. The main reason I left wasn’t about what you told Nash. It was seeing you in your element with your friends. It made me wonder, if what I have to offer is enough for you.”
It pained her to see uncertainty in his eyes. She cupped his cheek. “When I say I love you, I mean every part of you. I don’t need anyone else and I don’t want you to change. Acting is my job and I like doing it, but I love that I can just be myself with you.”
“But your job is important to you, and I know you have ambitions for the future. I want to see you achieve all of that.” A small smile came over his mouth. “And to hear you thank Thunder for helping you get there when you win an award. I also have to be here, taking care of Tillbridge, but I’m also all in to being with you. I’m willing to do the long-distance thing if you are.”
The sincerity in his eyes, and knowing that he wanted to support her dreams as much as she supported his, brought happy tears to her eyes. “I’m all in, too. Planes, cars, trains, whatever it takes for us to cover the miles and make this work.”
“What about horses?” As he tightened his arms around her, humor filled his expression.
As always, Tristan’s strength, his smile and now the love she saw in his eyes, made her heart kick up a beat.
As she smiled back up at him, Chloe took off his Stetson and set it on her head. “Definitely horses.”
* * *
Don’t miss Rina’s book, next in the Tillbridge Stables miniseries, Her Sweet Temptation
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Prologue
“I’m never going to be able to thank you enough for what you’re doing for my son.” The man raked shaky fingers through hair that already looked well-raked. “I don’t know what I’d do if I lost Linus, too.”
Adam Fortune didn’t know exactly what to say. He and his brother had participated in the recent donor drive just like everyone else in town had. It was a way of showing they were in Rambling Rose to stay. He’d never expected to actually be a match. “Glad to help.” What was an overnight stay in a Houston hospital compared to what Eric and Linus Johnson had been going through? Linus was only a baby. “Still can’t believe how many possible matches came up during the drive.”
“Possibles are only possibles. You’re the ideal match. Thank God.” Eric’s voice was shaky through the surgical mask he wore. He also wore a protective gown and booties over his clothes and shoes. “I’d shake your hand—hell, I’d give you a hug if I could—but they warned me against any contact before I came in here.”
Here was Adam’s hospital room.
He’d checked in a few hours ago. Every nurse who’d been in to take blood or his temperature or a dozen other things had all said what a wonderful thing he was doing. He’d been getting uncomfortable with all the attention. He was donating bone marrow to help a very sick baby. Not once had it crossed Adam’s mind to refuse when he’d been a match.
“I mean, seriously,” Eric went on. “Anything you need. Anything.”
Adam almost said, “Forget it,” but thought better of it. For him, this had taken a week of time out of his life with the lab tests and exams that had been necessary. For Linus, diagnosed with aplastic anemia, it was a matter of survival.
He started to reach for the water on his bedside but remembered the nurse had emptied it. Just in case he forgot himself and took a drink. He was in that period of no food and no drink before surgery. “That news crew who was following me around last week get in touch with you, too?”
Eric nodded. “Talked to them on the phone. Linus’s medical team has had us basically sequestered the past few weeks while he gets prepped for today. Last thing I wanted to do is interviews, but if the story gets someone else to join a donor registry or do a drive like you folks in Rambling Rose did, it’s the least I can do. I can remember when the town was barely a dot on the map. Grown a lot in the last year. Otherwise, I couldn’t say I would have expected the drive to yield enough results to matter. Yet,” his voice cracked slightly. He cleared his throat. “It’s still astonishing,” he managed.
He paced across Adam’s room and looked out the window. “Life’s full of twists. First, I find my son way out there in Rambling Rose after his mother wrote—” He broke off, not finishing that thought. “But then I find the man who’s going to save his life lives there, too? What were the odds?”
Adam had no response for that. He knew the man was raising Linus on his own. Even though Adam had only moved to Texas a couple months earlier, he’d still heard the story about the newborn who’d been abandoned at the pediatric center in Rambling Rose. Seemed like more than a “twist” to him. He wasn’t sure how he’d have reacted in Eric’s shoes.
Almost as if Eric heard his thoughts, he turned and pinned his solemn gaze on Adam. “We were engaged, you know. Linus’s mother and me.” He made a sound. “I don’t know why I’m telling you all this. I don’t talk about it much.”
Adam had just met the guy. By tomorrow, Adam’s bone marrow would be doing its thing inside Linus. It would be something that connected them for life. Nevertheless, he wasn’t necessarily comfortable hearing Eric’s confidences.
But people had to pour out their guts sometimes. He’d learned that in college when he’d tended bar. “Easier talking about the past than worrying about the future,” he hazarded. Just because Adam was a good match for Linus didn’t guarantee the transplant would be successful. Only time would tell that.
“Maybe.” Eric paced to the opened door. Beyond the room, the nurses’ station was busy with staff coming and going. “If she’d only just told me she was pregnant in the beginning instead of disappearing like she did.” He exhaled roughly and paced back to the window once more. “It’s a mistake to think people don’t keep secrets from each other. Even when you love someone. And I was certain she loved me, too.”
Familiar story.
Adam made a commiserating sound. The minute hand on the wall clock ticked audibly. Less than two hours to the procedure. He’d be back in Rambling Rose tomorrow morning. Back to perfecting the IPA he’d been experimenting with for the last month.
“We’d set the wedding date. Was going to be a week before Christmas. We’d picked a place.” Eric suddenly sent Adam a look. “You know what a hassle that all is?”
Adam shrugged. “Never married.”
“If you ever decide to, go to the courthouse. A lot simpler.” Eric tugged at the gown tied around him. “Then last summer, not even a month after we’d finally gotten that settled, she tells me she needs more time. More space.”
Also familiar words. “I’ve been on the receiving end of that conversation,” Adam admitted. “More than once.”
Eric gave a sympathetic wince above the white mask covering his mouth. “Blows.”
Adam smiled humorlessly. “From the same girl.”
Eric whistled. Or as much a whistle as the mask allowed. “Damn.”
“Tell me about it.” Adam shifted on the bed. The whole reason he’d left Buffalo was to get away from the memories there. Rambling Rose had simply been a convenient escape.
“I realized something was bothering her—deeply—but she wasn’t telling me what. When I look back, I can see there were signs of it.”
“She hasn’t tried contacting you at all?”
“Just one letter that her parents passed on to me. That’s how I learned she was pregnant. But since then?” The other man’s expression darkened. “I’ve learned a lot of things,” he said cryptically, “but not what happened to her. If she were able to contact me, she would have. I’m sure of that much. She can’t have been thinking straight when she left Linus. She wasn’t irresponsible. If I could have her back—” He broke off and paced again.
Adam felt for the guy. “I don’t know that many people in your position who would be so forgiving.”
“It’s hard to forget a woman like her,” Eric said, his voice grim. “Not that I didn’t try at first. But that only lasted a few months, and then I started looking for her. Retracing her steps. She was in Virginia with her parents last fall. From what it sounds like, she left them just as abruptly as she left me. A disagreement or something, I’m sure, though her parents didn’t say that when we spoke on the phone. But I know they didn’t get along. She hadn’t even been sure she wanted them at our wedding. When I told them she was missing, they weren’t even alarmed. Said she’d probably gone to Europe. That was her usual style.”
He made a rough sound. “They knew she’d left me, so it’s pretty likely they weren’t telling me everything they knew. It was weeks later when I received a box in the mail from them. Stuff that she’d left behind when she visited them.” He shook his head slightly. “The letter she wrote to me was in her things. She’d never mailed it. Didn’t even finish it, but the truth was still there. What I thought was the truth, anyway. She was pregnant. I don’t know how her parents didn’t realize, but like I said—it’s a mistake to think people don’t keep secrets.”
Adam frowned. “Do they know about Linus? His condition?”
Eric looked away. He shook his head. “I lost her,” he muttered. “I wasn’t going to chance a fight with them over my son, particularly after finally finding him. And yeah,” he added flatly, “I know that makes me sound like a first-class bastard.”
“I think it makes you sound like a dad,” Adam said quietly.
Eric’s shoulders lowered. He rolled his head around and squeezed the back of his neck. “Maybe.” He raked his hair. “You said forgiveness, but the truth is I wasn’t exactly happy when she put on the brakes. I’m not stupid. I suspected there was someone else but then when I learned about Linus?” His hands rose, a volume of helplessness. “I realize now I shouldn’t have let her go so easily last summer. She’d always kept her own apartment, so it wasn’t as though she didn’t have anywhere to go. But then in July, she quit her job at the art museum.” He shook his head again. “Laurel loved that job. She was the art museum.”
Adam went still.
Everything went still.
Even the minute hand on the clock on the wall seemed to cease its tick.
“I’m rambling.” Eric paced back to the doorway, looking out. “Clock is crawling.”
“You said Laurel quit her job. At the art museum. Here in Houston.”
“Yeah. That’s how we met. Through the museum.”
Adam’s sense of doom made it hard to breathe. How many Laurels could there be working
at art museums in Houston? “You’re not talking about Laurel Hudson, are you?”
The other man’s shoulders stiffened under the gown tied behind his neck.
And Adam knew. Even before Eric turned to give him a sharp look. He knew.
There was a frown on Eric’s face visible above the mask. “Yes. Laurel Hudson. You knew her?”
It took Adam a while to get the words out. But even though it did, he could see realization dawning in the other man’s eyes. “I knew her,” Adam said hoarsely.
More than that, he’d loved her, too.
Copyright © 2020 by Harlequin Books S.A.
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ISBN: 9781488069826
The Cowboy’s Claim
Copyright © 2020 by Nina Crespo
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
