by Heidi Hormel
Was she willing to give up on being CFO? Yes and yes. And not just because she loved a bull-riding cowboy. This decision was about her and what she wanted. What she needed. Her choice to fight VCW and save Angel Crossing was her choice because she had more than a shred of dignity and decency.
She pulled in a deep breath and let the tears stream down her face, the ones she’d been holding back since Danny had told her to go at the market. She ached deep inside and she couldn’t hold it in anymore. She held her hand across her mouth so no one could hear her sobs, then gave a wet and hopeless laugh. Who would hear? Who would ever hear her? She was horrible at this relationship thing. She hadn’t even known she’d loved Danny. Her first lover, her first real boyfriend, the man she’d measured every other boyfriend against. A sob deep from her soul slipped past her hand.
She wanted to run from the pain. She wanted to curl up in a ball and protect her soft underbelly. She wanted to call her mother and ask her to make it all better. The light of the single lamp blurred as tears couldn’t fall fast enough from her eyes. Would this hurt ever stop? It had to because she wouldn’t survive it.
Finally, her shirt collar a soggy mess from her tears and her eyes swollen to slits of misery, Clover pulled herself from the chair. After a night’s sleep, she’d have a better idea how to go forward. Could she stay in the bed, though? Even though the room had been stripped of everything but the sheets, she and Danny had made love there. Dear Lord and his angels. She’d drive out of town and stay at a hotel. There wouldn’t be any memories there. Then tomorrow, she’d hunt down her father and explain what she would do if he didn’t amend the plan, pointing out that she’d make sure he didn’t get any support from the VCW board. After that, Knox could step in and take care of things. Clover’d call Mama and beg her to give her a job at Cowgirl’s Blues. She could let Lavonda know the gated community was gone and all the other parts of the plan that would have ruined the town, and she could tell Danny. That would be for the best.
She wiped tears from her eyes again and squinted to make sure that she didn’t miss any of the twists on the road out of town. All for the best, she kept repeating, her heart skipping beat after beat as her rental moved farther and farther from Angel Crossing and Danny.
Chapter Fifteen
Since the number of hours Danny had been able to sleep seemed to be in inverse proportion to the number of hours in the night, he’d had a lot of time to think and scheme. He might also have been dodging friends and family who wanted to know exactly what he’d said at the market and what he was going to do about Clover leaving. Nothing and nothing. Especially after going by Dead Man’s Cottage and seeing she’d cleared out. Obviously Clover was smarter than him. Their...whatever it had been...had no future. Didn’t really matter what he felt, right? It didn’t matter that the floor had dropped out of his life, worse than when he’d thought he couldn’t ride bulls anymore. That his injury had sidelined him in the crappiest of ways. No great wreck. No spectacular last ride.
The whole idea of going back on the circuit by switching up his riding style wasn’t what he wanted either. Right now, it didn’t seem like he was getting much of anything he wanted, and that was because all he really wanted was Clover in his bed. In his life. His mama would tell him that if wishes were rubies then the whole world would look rosy. He gave a bark of a laugh, and Maggie May yipped. He still missed Hulk but an email with another photo from the puppy’s new family convinced Danny he’d done the right thing. He also thought he might have a place for Maggie May: with his parents, which would be perfect because he’d get to see her. Instead, though, he should be focused on Angel Crossing. He was still the town’s mayor. And he had a new tenant, Jolene James. She wanted to get her pet boutique up and running no matter what the town became. He had a lot to do to get the building ready.
It was time to snap out of his funk. He had other jobs to bid on and other life decisions to make. Was life in Angel Crossing or on the back of a bull, whether Clover was with him or not?
Regardless of what he wanted to do for the rest of his life, he’d promised Jolene that he’d get the first floor of the old building ready for her.
“Come on, Maggie May. Time to get some work done. Real work, not just thinking about what I want to do.” The dog rushed to the apartment door, giving him a doggy smile of delight. Boy, he wished his life were that simple. Then he’d be a dog and he’d be neutered. Maybe not so fun.
* * *
“HEY, DANNY,” AJ said as he knocked on the door frame and came into the open space that would become Jolene’s new store Pets! Pets! Pets!
“Working here.” Danny didn’t want to talk with his friend. He didn’t want to explain what he’d said at the market and he certainly didn’t want to talk about the town. The changes were going to ruin Pepper’s ideas for improving the health of the residents with community gardens. Knowing his friend, he probably thought it was Danny’s fault and he needed to fix it. AJ was all about making Pepper happy.
“I told those women you were busy and working hard. That argument went as far as a cat in the rain.”
“The Back Room Mafia?”
“Who else? I was told to come and tell you to go after Clover.”
“Ain’t happening.” Danny wasn’t saying anything more on that subject. “Are you sure you don’t want EllaJayne to compete at the rodeo?”
“No way.” AJ walked over to Maggie May and gave her a pet. The dog licked his hand. “You found a way to save Pepper’s plan last time, so what are you going to do this time? If we don’t get Van Camp to move along, none of us will be here. I can’t let that happen. Pepper and I are halfway done with our house. Faye has that whole alpaca and llama yarn thing going. We can’t move along. We can’t do that anywhere else.”
“I tried. No one would listen to me.”
“So you’ll just take your lasso and go home? This is Angel Crossing. This is our home.”
“Yours, maybe. I was just here because of Gene, and then I got tricked into being mayor. I think it’s time for me to mosey down the road. I guess Van Camp showed me that.”
“Really? You’re going to let that New Yorker beat you?”
“It wasn’t the New Yorker. I could have ignored anything he threw at me. It was the blasted whole town acting like I’d done something wrong.”
“They got played. Can you blame them? What Clover—”
Danny couldn’t stop his mouth from tightening.
AJ shook his head. “So? You weren’t lying at the market when you used the L word. Damn, man, you’re one sorry cowboy.”
“I’m finally a smart cowboy,” Danny argued. “I know when to wrap up my ropes and move to the next ranch.”
AJ’s expression turned serious as he stepped up to Danny. “If you care...if you love Clover, don’t let pride or whatever else get in the way. I know how well that works. You were given a second chance with her. I’d say that was the universe telling you what you should do.”
“You’ve been around Faye too long. Next thing you know, you’ll be telling me that I’ve got a scorpion in my rising sun.” Danny moved away from his friend, turning his back on what he was saying, the possibility he was holding out.
“It’s Scorpio. And what I’m saying is that you loved Clover when you were sixteen. We all knew it. You had such a sappy expression. Then after you—”
“Enough,” Danny snapped. “I know. I know. But I can’t fix this with a little cowboy magic. This is the real world and Daddy Van Camp has a bottomless pocket. I’m done fighting the ‘man.’”
“You’re breaking your promise to Angel Crossing. You said that you’d make this a better place.”
“It is a better place and will be even better when Van Camp is done.”
“Sure, a bunch of gates and mansions and froufrou dogs. That’s going to make this better. What about Anita
and Rita? Jim’s is all they have.”
“It’s not my problem.”
“Maybe. But do you think you’ll feel better ignoring it and not going after Clover?”
“You tell me to not abandon Angel Crossing. Then you tell me to go after Clover. Can’t do both of them.”
“You’re the cowboy who rode Tito V, and you’re the only bull rider I know who doesn’t walk with a limp. You’ve got some kind of mojo. Use it now. Prove you’re more than a pretty face.”
“What if I don’t want to fix this?”
“Then you’re a liar on top of everything else.”
“What do I get out of all of this but a lot more headaches? Just like when I agreed to be mayor...against my wishes.”
“Why are you acting like such a little girl? You know you want to be the cowboy in the white hat saving Angel Crossing and getting the lady.”
AJ might be just a little right, especially about the girl. He did want Clover. More than want her. She was that piece of his heart that he hadn’t even known he’d been missing. He knew he couldn’t make her stay, but he also couldn’t let her walk away without understanding how he felt about her. Could he do the distance thing like his sister Jessie and her husband, Payson, had done? Hells yes, if it meant that Clover was his. Well, there was his answer. “All right,” Danny said. “Help me finish up these shelves and the counter. Then I’ll be off to save the day like the Lone Ranger and all before lunch.”
“Hot damn,” AJ said.
* * *
WHAT THE— CLOVER pulled over as the lights from the police cruiser were followed by blasts from the siren. She might have been speeding. She wasn’t sure. She’d left Angel Crossing for the final time this morning, making sure Dead Man’s Cottage was cleared of her stuff. She’d just... Well, she may have ruined her entire life. She sat waiting for the officer to tell her how much she owed so she could be on her way. She’d go to Tucson, get a flight to San Antonio and then ask her mother for a job, but not advice. She knew that Mama would probably agree with Knox. Clover wasn’t up for another fight.
“Miss Clover,” Chief Rudy said. “I need you to step out of the car.”
She followed his order, not caring why he was here or what he thought she’d done.
“I need you to come with me,” he said.
“Excuse me?” Why was the police chief out on the highway and why did she need to get in his car for a traffic violation?
“In the car. With me.”
“Why?”
“I don’t think you’re in a position to ask that.”
A pickup raced past, skidded to a halt and reversed, kicking up a sandstorm of dust. Clover and the chief coughed. But she thought she heard him say, “About time.”
Out of the dust, his white hat (nearly white, anyway) tilted a little forward, strode Danny Leigh, looking like himself again with his straight even teeth, tanned skin and blond hair. Tall, powerful and slightly pissed off.
“Clover,” he said, touching the brim of his hat. “I need to speak with you.”
“I don’t need to talk to you,” she said. She didn’t know that she had enough steel in her spine to have a conversation with him. She feared she’d break down and beg him to take her back. “Chief, just give me my ticket, and I’ll be on my way out of here.”
“I’m giving you a warning,” the fatherly man said. “Don’t be too proud to say you’re sorry and don’t be too scared to take the leap.” He walked back to his patrol car. Clover snapped her mouth closed.
“What was that about?” Clover asked Danny—more accused than asked.
“I told the chief—” Danny stopped himself. “Hell’s bells. I can’t do this alongside the road.”
“Do what? It doesn’t matter. I’m going to Tucson. I need a flight to San Antonio.”
“No.”
“Danny, I wish you and Angel Crossing well,” Clover said. Then she decided that really she wasn’t a coward. “I’m a Van Camp. And I can tell you that VCW will not be turning Angel Crossing into Rico Pueblo.”
The surprise on Danny’s face was genuine, followed by something she couldn’t name.
“My brother and I talked with the board and my father’s project has been...defunded, is probably the easiest way to explain it. But what it means is that Angel Crossing will remain Angel Crossing. Knox and I are still working out some other details.”
“Hell’s to the double bells,” Danny said, pulling his hat from his head. “That puts a big ol’ pin in my plan.”
“Not anymore. You can move forward with what you planned. I explained it to Knox and—”
“Not that plan. My other one.”
“You mean the charity ride?” She was trying to fill in the blanks and could see from Danny’s face that she wasn’t doing a good job.
“Maybe I should have sent you a text. I’m messing this up.” A car whizzed by, throwing gravel against them. “Come on. At least sit in my pickup. It’s not safe standing here.”
She hesitated for a moment, then remembered that she was fearless Clover. The teen beauty queen who’d gone after the best-looking boy on a bull. She went with him, working out how to tell him exactly what she thought of him—and of them together, no matter the consequences.
* * *
THANK GOD AND his angels. She might have hesitated but now she was following him to his pickup. He had to tell her soon or he’d never get the words out. He also needed to find out more about what she’d said about her daddy and Rico Pueblo. The morning coffee sloshed uncomfortably in his gut. Maggie May gave a growling bark when Clover slid in.
“It’s okay,” he told the dog. “She’ll be staying.” Hell. Why had he said that? Because he had bull crap for brains.
“Sweetie,” Clover said, holding out her hand to the dog, who’d poked her snout over the seat. “I’m here to... Well, I already told him about my daddy, and now I’ve got to say the rest of it.”
“No.” That had come out louder and a lot angrier than he’d wanted. “What I meant is that I’ve got something to tell you.”
“I think it’s ladies first,” she said, swallowing hard. Her throat moved and he wanted to kiss the ripples under the soft skin. He wanted to hold her hand and tell her that everything would be all right because...because—
“I love you,” he blurted out. Silence filled the cab of the pickup. He saw her wide blue eyes, the blush, the clenched hands. Whatever she had to—
“I wanted to say it first,” she finally said.
“What?”
“I love you. I wanted to say it first.”
He laughed and Maggie May yipped along. “You love me?” He didn’t wait for her to answer. He pulled her across the bench seat to him, locking his lips on hers. Clover. She was his. Her taste was like every good memory he’d ever had or ever would have.
Her hands pushed against him. He instantly lifted his head but didn’t let her go. He was never doing that again.
“I had a speech. I want to give my speech,” Clover said, although she remained so close her breath spread its warmth over his skin. His hands tightened on her shoulders. He wanted her mouth again. He wanted to drown in the taste of her. “I’ll make it fast,” she said, holding him off even as her eyes softened. “I realized I loved you because I didn’t care about being CFO. I didn’t care what Daddy thought of me. All I cared about was making this right for you because Angel Crossing is your place. Your heart.”
“Not my heart,” he said. Then he leaned in to nuzzle her ear and whisper, “You’re my heart, my soul, my reason for getting out of bed every day.”
She shivered as his lips found her neck. “Not sure I can live up to that.”
“You already have.” He pulled her to him again, kissing her hard but with a warmth that was for her alone. No other woman h
ad ever made him hot and mushy at the same time. She was special.
“I love you,” she said into his mouth.
He pulled her closer and finally into his lap. He wanted her against him, in the place that had felt like an empty gaping hole. Now with her here, it was completely and permanently filled.
* * *
CLOVER FINALLY WIGGLED away from Danny, slowly, reluctantly, after the steering wheel had put a permanent crease in her back. He’d let her go grudgingly and with more kisses. She was as giddy as a girl with her first crush, which was just about right since Danny had been her first. She smiled.
“What?” he asked, adjusting his seat and smoothing his hair. It stood up in whorls and tufts where she’d run her hands through it.
“I was just remembering you were my first and now you’ll be my last.”
“Damned right,” he said proudly. “You’re a cougar.”
“Two years’ age difference doesn’t make me a cougar.”
“Hey, it’s my fantasy. I get to say you’re a cougar if I want to.”
She would not blush but she couldn’t stop the flush of heat that added to the near painful fullness between her thighs. She drew in a deep breath because he could take care of that later...and he would. Right now, they really did need to talk. There was so much that had happened and needed to happen.
“We can discuss your fantasies later.” He gave her a knowing smile and she shifted in the seat. Had the cab gotten even hotter?
“Not too much later.”
She liked that he was anxious to be with her alone and horizontal. She made herself do return-on-investment calculations in her head to slow her heart and tamp down the heat. They needed to discuss what she and Danny could do to help Angel Crossing. Now that she knew he loved her—insert girlie squee—this part would be easier than she’d imagined. “I told you that my father’s project is dead in the water. But VCW still owns or has an option on a number of properties. We don’t want to just walk away.”
“Good,” Danny said fiercely, and Maggie May growled in agreement.
