A Cowboy Summer (Harlequin Super Romance)

by Salonen, Debra

  She would have liked to breathe a sigh of relief when Will reacted to her subtle push and stepped away, but she couldn’t. She wanted more of the same, more of everything promised, but that wasn’t smart.

  “Mommy,” Zoey called again, her voice closer and more plaintive.

  Anne put her hand to her mouth. Did she look freshly kissed? Would Zoey notice?

  “We’re just about done, honey,” Anne called, willing her voice to be steady. “You can go up to bed. I’ll be there in a minute.”

  The diversion didn’t work. The door opened and Zoey walked in. “Whatcha doing? Ooh, colored pens. Can I play?”

  Will had knelt to pick up the idea sheets. He was clutching the bright markers like a little boy with a bouquet. He looked at Anne for guidance.

  “Not tonight, love. It’s late. Did you enjoy the movie?”

  Anne could tell by Zoey’s petulant frown that she was overly tired. “I don’t wanna go to bed. I wanna color.”

  Anne was still wired and edgy herself. “Tomorrow,” she said sternly.

  Zoey crossed her arms and looked from one adult to the other. Anne could tell she sensed something was different. To keep her from pondering too long, Anne walked to the little girl’s side and laid a hand on her shoulder. “Come on, honey. If we hurry we can squeeze in a little reading time.”

  Zoey shrugged Anne’s hand off and pointed to Will. “I want him to read to me.”

  Anne almost groaned aloud. “Sweetheart, it’s late. Will needs to get up early. He doesn’t have time…”

  Fat tears welled up in her daughter’s eyes. Her chin trembled, and instantly her breathing took on an ominous vibration. Anne’s patience almost snapped. She was tired, too. And sexually frustrated. She longed for the luxury of a tantrum of her own, but first she needed to find the fast-acting inhaler.

  “I’d love to read to you, Miss Z,” Will said in a deep, calming voice. “How ’bout a piggyback ride? Is that puffer thing of yours upstairs?”

  Zoey’s breath chugged as she inhaled, but her smile cleared up the petulant storm clouds. She used the sleeve of her sweatshirt to brush away her tears then scrambled up Will’s broad back. Her arms locked at the base of his throat.

  “Leave this mess,” he said, touching Anne’s shoulder in a supportive way. “I’ll clean up on my way out.”

  She would have hugged him in gratitude but she didn’t think he’d appreciate a Fraser-girl sandwich. Instead, she mouthed “thank you” and turned off the lights as she followed them into the hall.

  After the perfunctory teeth-brushing and face-washing, Zoey settled down in bed with Will sitting at her side. Children of the Earth, the book she’d selected, was one Zoey knew by heart, but the images were so beautiful, that Anne never tired of looking at it.

  Anne left them to read while she went about preparing for bed. She tried not to listen, but the low murmur of Will’s voice hummed through her bones. Drawn to the French doors, she peeked in.

  The tender scene twisted like a knife in her gut. Here was the image Anne had dreamed of while pregnant. A daddy who read to his little girl. Who carried her piggyback without worrying about messing up his clothes. Who didn’t run in the other direction when Zoey started having difficulty breathing. Who didn’t leave the mess for Anne to clean up.

  Anne turned away. Right image, but wrong everything else, she thought. Wrong place. Wrong man. Wrong time.

  What a shame his kiss felt so right.

  “SEE THE WOLVES in the moon, Will? Mommy says the author wants to show how the earth and everything on it is connected to the universe.”

  The philosophic comment seemed far too wise and worldly for a child her age, but Will remembered reading somewhere that only children were adults by age eight. “What do you want to be when you grow up, Zoey?”

  She ducked her head shyly. “I dunno. Maybe a veterinarian who takes care of horses.” She smiled impishly. “When can I go riding with you again? That was so much fun.”

  He hated to put her off. He’d enjoyed their time together, too, but he knew her mother wasn’t wild about the idea. “I don’t know, sweetie. We’re going to be pretty busy next week with all the new people coming in.”

  She sighed and turned the page. “Mommy’s worried that they won’t be as happy as they were when Grandma ran the place.”

  Was that true? Anne certainly hid her anxiety well.

  Zoey went on. “Joy said Grandma Esther was a people person, but Mommy is a businessperson. So it’s harder for her to connect.”

  Will cleared his throat and read from the page. He didn’t feel comfortable talking about Anne behind her back. She was an astute businessperson, and there was nothing wrong with that. And while she might not appear as outwardly friendly as her mother had been, the more he observed Anne in action, the more he understood that she was naturally shy, not aloof, as he’d once believed.

  And if the hormones zinging through his body were any clue, the attraction he’d felt toward her in high school never really went away. Unfortunately, warring with lust was the need to protect and cherish this bright little beauty beside him. Could he in good conscience stumble in and out of their lives with less grace than a few of the bulls he’d ridden?

  Zoey was sound asleep before he reached the final page. He placed the book on the nightstand and carefully slid off the bed. His hand trembled as he tucked her special blanket under her chin.

  If Anne ever remarries, Will thought, the guy will not only get to be Anne’s husband but Zoey’s father, as well. Will hated the man, whoever he was—or, more to the point, envied him.

  Kissing Anne tonight had proved Will’s worst suspicion. He was on the verge of falling in love. But that didn’t mean he was giving in to his feelings. He didn’t have time to be in love, especially with a woman whose life was so completely different from his. Will’s biological clock was ticking—not the childbearing kind, but the old-man-on-the-bull-riding-circuit kind.

  True, there were a couple of guys in their late thirties and early forties who were still riding, but given Will’s medical history, his comeback was now or never. And never wasn’t an option. He couldn’t quit and neither could he picture Anne agreeing to a long-distance relationship while Will plunged back into the circuit this fall.

  Another thought hit him. What if Doc was right? What if a bad tumble left him dead or paralyzed? Will knew Anne would feel obligated to stand by him. To nurse him or…mourn.

  No, he couldn’t put her through that again. She’d known enough loss.

  There was the other side of the coin, too. If Will did wind up back on top, he wouldn’t be able to share his successes with Anne and Zoey. He pictured the typical indoor bull-riding venue—the animals, the dust, the crowds. At outdoor events, smoke was a factor. The harsh reality was that Zoey’s fragile lungs weren’t compatible with the earthy world of professional bull riding.

  The greatest favor he could give them both was to walk away. Unfortunately, he was stuck here for the rest of the summer.

  Welcome to purgatory, he thought with a sigh.

  Will turned off the light and closed the door behind him. He paused to observe Anne, who was sitting upright in her bed, eyes closed, lips parted. Her head resting on a nest of pillows, she reminded him of Zoey—innocent and vulnerable.

  The covers were bunched at her waist where the book she’d been reading lay, jacket up. Although she hadn’t changed out of the lounging clothes she’d worn downstairs, the intimacy of the setting made the outfit look more provocative. A glimpse of white shoulder. The elegant arch of her neck.

  He closed his eyes and imagined himself crawling into bed beside her, tenderly removing every stitch of clothing. Tasting. Touching. Making love.

  “All through?”

  Just getting started, he almost answered. Instead, he opened his eyes and nodded. “Yes. She’s sound asleep. I noticed the humidifier on the stool beside her bed and turned it on, okay?”

  She rubbed her nose in a childlik
e way. “That was very thoughtful of you. Now I don’t have to get up.”

  He started toward the door, but paused. “Actually, you do. I can’t set the dead bolt without a key.”

  She frowned. “I didn’t give you a key when the locksmith was here? I meant to. You should be able to get into all the rooms if you need to.” She pointed to the antique desk below the window. “There’s an extra one in the top drawer.”

  Will didn’t read anything into the offer. He knew she was being practical, business-minded. He walked to the desk and jiggled the sticky drawer to get it to open. Once he succeeded, an assortment of junk slid forward, including several photos. One caught his eye. It showed a smiling couple with a blond youngster between them. They were on a beach with an elevated dock in the background. It was Anne and a man Will had never met, although he’d seen many photos of Barry Fraser.

  “When was this taken?” he asked, holding the picture up for Anne to see.

  Yawning, she squinted. “About four months before he left for good. Barry had taken a position with a company in Atlanta. It was supposed to be temporary, so he stayed in company housing and Zoey and I remained in Pittsburgh. On one of our visits, we drove to Myrtle Beach.”

  Will leaned against the desk and studied the photo. “You look happy. The ideal young family.”

  Anne drew her knees to her chest, tenting the bedding. She rested her chin on the blanket. “Looks can be deceiving. If I remember correctly, we’d just had a big fight on the patio of our hotel. We were so loud we woke Zoey up from her nap. The walk on the beach was an attempt to shake off the hard feelings and soothe her.”

  Curious about her marriage, he asked, “Were you happy at first?”

  She nodded. “Very. Barry is as extroverted as I am introverted. I guess it was a classic case of opposites attracting.” She made a wry face. “Although we were both goal-oriented overachievers.”

  “Do you mind me asking what went wrong?”

  “I’m surprised you have to ask. Mom never talked about it? I certainly called her often enough to complain.”

  Will shook his head. “The most she ever said was that you weren’t happy. Then she’d change the subject.” And I was too cowardly to ask more.

  Anne closed the book and set it on her bedside table. “Well, in hindsight, I guess the main issue was that I underestimated how serious Barry was about not having children. We’d talked about it before we got married, but I’d naively assumed that he’d change his mind in time. Everybody has kids, right?”

  Most of the men Will knew had fathered children, but not all of them were fathers.

  “I hounded him into agreeing to have one child. At first, he seemed pleased with Zoey and happy with our little family, but her illness changed the dynamic. We went from mother, father and daughter to mother, father and daughter with asthma. He just couldn’t handle the trips to the doctor, the blood tests, the 24/7 responsibility of caring for a sick child.”

  She sighed. “Some marriages are strengthened by tests like this, some crumble. Ours did the latter.”

  “Do you think you’ll remarry someday?”

  Her smile looked tinged with regret. “Maybe later. After Zoey is grown. I can’t imagine a man wanting to deal with this kind of baggage.”

  Will’s reply came out louder and sharper than he’d intended. “Zoey is not baggage. She’s a beautiful, smart and loving little girl.”

  Anne’s eyes went wide. “I meant my emotional garbage. I don’t trust easily. And I won’t do anything that puts my daughter’s health in jeopardy.”

  Will understood the implied warning. He put the photo back in the drawer and picked up the key. “Good. I wouldn’t want to see either of you get hurt again.”

  He started to leave but paused by the foot of her bed. “I didn’t mean for that kiss to get out of hand, Anne. The fact that it did tells me we could have a big problem if…” He didn’t know how to word this without sounding like an egotistical fool. It was just a kiss. What if Anne hadn’t felt the same impact he had?

  “…we don’t nip this attraction between us in the bud?” she finished, taking him off the hook.

  Will nodded, grateful for her help. “Unless I’m reading more into it than…”

  Her cheeks flushed and she shook her head. “No. I felt it, too. And you’re right. We need to keep things businesslike between us from now on.”

  Will agreed. He was glad they were on the same page, but that didn’t mean he was happy. “Good,” he said, feeling like a fraud.

  He turned to leave. As he reached the door, she said, “But, for the record, it was a nice kiss. Even better than the last one.”

  The hint of humor in her tone made him smile, but he didn’t look back. Anne was simply too much temptation.

  He locked the door behind him. His goal this summer would be to keep his treasures safe, even if that meant keeping his distance.

  Feeling deflated and tense, Will was just about to open the front door, when he remembered his promise to Anne. “I’ll straighten up before I leave.” It didn’t take long to put the chairs back in place and collect their brainstorm papers, but before leaving, he paused to study Anne’s interesting collection of lines and squiggles.

  Sitting down behind his grandfather’s desk, he let his chin rest on his palm. Her ideas were not only intelligent but intuitive. What surprised him was how little faith Anne put in her gut instinct. Granted, a couple of her ideas—like Vintage Clothing Day and a mock shoot-out at the O.K. Corral—were a bit over the top, but others were on par with her mother’s “crazy” idea of blending a bed-and-breakfast with a working cattle ranch.

  With a weighty sigh, he was just reaching for the switch on the desk lamp when the phone rang. Ten o’clock was a little late for business. “Hello?”

  “Will? Is that you? What are you doing there? I was expecting Anne to answer.”

  Will let out the breath he’d been holding. “Hi, Gramps. She’s in bed. Probably asleep. We had a full day. Driving lessons, cooking class, dinner and a movie.” A kiss.

  A.J.’s familiar chuckle made Will oddly homesick. He missed his grandfather’s humor and wisdom.

  “Sounds like you’ve got everything under control.”

  I wish. “We just put your postcard from Jackson Hole on the map. Where are you now?”

  “North entrance to Yellowstone. Still got patches of snow around. Can you believe it? Rivers are gushing fast and furious. It’s so pretty I decided to stay till the weekend, at least. That’s when the tourists show up.” A.J. never considered himself a tourist, even when visiting a new place.

  “Sounds good, Gramps. Are you staying in a campground?”

  “I did for a couple of nights, but it’s a bit nippy and I decided I needed a good bath, so I found a nice little resort with individual cabins. Sorta reminds me of home. Speaking of home, how are your guests doing?”

  Will gave him a rundown of the guests to date. A.J. chuckled. “Can’t recall the wanna-be bull riders, but the teacher from Boston is a repeat. Nice gal. Partial to dark beer as I remember. She and Esther would sneak a few on the back porch.”

  Will grinned. He and Esther had sipped a couple of beers in their day, too. Unlike her daughter, Esther liked the real thing. And wine. Will always brought her a vintage chardonnay when he came home by way of California.

  “How’s my granddaughter getting along?”

  “Fine. No asthma attacks since that first day. Still bugging her mom about learning to ride.”

  “I was thinking about that, Will. What if you were to offer a group clinic to novice riders so Zoey could pick up the basics? You might get a couple of other kids her age to come out from town. Sorta kill two birds with one stone. A child needs playmates, you know.”

  Will liked the idea of Zoey making friends.

  “Esther asked me to do something like that once, but I told her I was a cowboy, not a teacher.”

  “What makes you think I’d do any better?” Will asked, recal
ling Anne’s praise.

  “Don’t sell yourself short, son. You’re a good man with a heck of a lot of experience to share. And I’ve seen you coach young bull riders. You’d be a natural with kids.”

  Will doubted that, but years back he’d earned extra cash by teaching bull riders how to rope.

  “Besides,” A.J. said, “the adults who come to the Silver Rose aren’t looking to become pro wranglers. They just need a refresher course on horse etiquette.”

  Will added the idea to Anne’s list. “Thanks for the suggestion, Gramps. I’ll run it past Anne in the morning.” Or the next time we talk. Maybe he should put a little distance between them for a week or two. Let the memory of their kiss fade.

  “Gramps…” Will paused, not sure how to ask for advice. “I wasn’t around much when Anne got divorced. Was it bitter?”

  “No worse than most, I guess. Why do you ask?”

  “At times she seems a little skittish. I wondered if it’s me or if she’s got reservations against men in general.”

  A.J. made a sound Will associated with deep thought. “You might ask her. Always seemed like the best way to handle things with her mother. If Esther was quiet for too long, I knew it was time to ask what was on her mind. Usually, she’d say ‘nothing,’ which every man knows means ‘something.’ Before long, out came a whole list of complaints.”

  “Anne hasn’t complained about anything, but it’s only been a few days since the guests started arriving.” He sighed. “In all fairness, she’s been a terrific sport about everything, but the longer I’m here, the more I understand how much teamwork you and Esther put into running this place.”

  A.J. chortled. “That’s true, son, but it didn’t happen overnight. Oh, Lordy, when I think back on some of the rows me and Esther had over the silliest things.” Will pictured him smiling. “’Course, we had making up to look forward to. You and Anne aren’t that lucky.”

  That was for damn sure.

  “But you can be a team without being married. Give yourself a little time to get to know Anne and figure out what makes her tick. Before long, the two of you will be clicking like a finely oiled piece of machinery.”