Tough Luck Cowboy

by A. J. Pine

  Ava was right. Everything turned out perfectly as far as the food was concerned. She’d get herself together and get back out there and figure out how to reconcile the past three years now that she was in love with Luke Everett.

  Lily braced her hands on the porcelain of the sink and tilted her head toward the mirror.

  “He loves you, you idiot. The only thing that’s changed is that he’s loved you for longer than you’ve loved him. And you’re still scared.”

  She splashed some water on her face and laughed.

  “Okay,” she said aloud to her reflection. “Be scared. But be scared with the man you’re in love with.”

  She grabbed the doorknob and yanked hard, then gasped as she stumbled backward into the small bathroom’s wall—doorknob in her hand. Not attached to the door.

  “Noooo,” she groaned, remembering Jack’s warning that first day she was here to sign her final divorce papers. She’d been in such a mental fog she’d even done something as stupid as hiring herself out to cater her ex-husband’s wedding. The muffled music continued to play beyond the walls of her confined space. Of course everything was going to come full circle like this. It was too fitting not to.

  “Help?” she said, her voice barely a squeak. She was not about to be the ex-wife caterer who ruined her former husband’s wedding.

  So she waited. Someone would find her. Someone would notice her phone and purse on the shelf behind the bar.

  For now she plopped down onto the toilet seat, shoulders slumping. And the “Wedding March” played on.

  “Lily? Honey, are you in here?”

  Lily wasn’t sure what time it was when she heard Ava call her name, only that she’d never been so happy to hear it in all of her twenty-seven years.

  “Yes!” she cried. “Oh my God, I thought I was going to change my address to this tiny little room. I guess the bright side is running water, right? I could probably take a nice shower in the sink.”

  “Wait…what are you doing in there?”

  Lily let out a hysterical laugh. “I’m stuck!” she cried. “The damned doorknob came off in my hand. Is the crew handling hors d’oeuvres okay?”

  Ava swore under her breath. “Didn’t one of the guys tell you about the door?”

  Lily rolled her eyes. “Yes. But I wasn’t exactly thinking straight. I’d just found out that Luke—wait, are you going to let me out, or do I have to tell you the whole story from here?”

  She heard the unmistakable click of the handle on the other side turning, and then the door flew open.

  Lily hopped up from her perch on the toilet seat, her knees stiff and back in major need of a stretch.

  “Seriously. How long was I in there?” She chuckled, but Ava didn’t even smile.

  “Lily,” she started, “you’ve been in there for sixty minutes. You missed the cocktails and the best man and maid of honor speeches.”

  Okay, so that was kind of a lot to miss when she was sort of in charge of the cocktail hour.

  “Why do you sound like I forgot your birthday?” Lily asked. “Is everything okay with the food? I didn’t…poison anyone. Did I?”

  Ava shook her head. “He thought you left,” she said. “We all thought you left until your phone rang and I found your purse behind the bar. Jack looked for your car. Then we remembered you took the BBQ on the Bluff van with the crew.”

  Lily’s eyes narrowed. “What are you not telling me?” she asked.

  Ava’s teeth skimmed her bottom lip. “When you didn’t turn up after Luke’s speech, he figured that was your answer.” She swallowed. “He’s gone, Lil.”

  Lily pushed past her friend and out into the winery, where the reception was in full swing, the small ceremony area now a dance floor.

  She scanned the crowd, searching for someone she knew wouldn’t be there. He couldn’t just be gone.

  “He went home to pack?” she asked.

  Ava shook her head. “Anaheim,” was all she said, and that one word made Lily’s stomach roil.

  Luke was already gone?

  “Answer?” she asked as she began to pace. “What answer? What was the question?”

  Ava held up her own phone. “I recorded it,” she said. “He is almost my brother-in-law after all.” She pressed her lips into a smile. “You have a big decision to make, Lil. Do you want to watch this video before you decide?”

  She took in the room. Food service was well under way. The cake was still standing, and the wine—courtesy of Ava’s family vineyard—was flowing.

  “I have to go,” Lily said absently.

  “You’re still here!”

  Lily spun at the sound of Tucker’s voice to find him standing with his beautiful bride, both their eyes wide and blinking.

  “Of course I’m still here!” she said, the adrenaline building. “I can’t believe everyone thought I just took off.”

  Jack and Walker approached as the damning words left her mouth, and everyone gave her a glance that said exactly what she knew they were thinking.

  You already ran off once.

  She groaned. “Fine, okay. I freaked out last week, but I came back.”

  “Where the hell were you?” Jack asked.

  “Locked in the bathroom,” Ava told him.

  He chuckled. “I thought I told you about that door.”

  Lily threw her hands in the air. “Yeah, well, you try learning that the guy you’ve just fallen for—who’s going to risk his life and ride a goddamn bull tomorrow—has been—”

  “In love with you for three years?”

  Ava, Jack, Walker, and Tucker all spoke at once like a Greek chorus.

  She threw a hand over her mouth, holding back what felt like a rising sob, and nodded. “I need to go,” she said again.

  Everyone around her nodded.

  Tears sprang from both eyes, and for the first time since she could remember, she didn’t care that anyone saw her lose control.

  “It’s not too weird?” she asked, eyes turned toward Tucker.

  He laughed. “Of course it’s weird,” he said. “But it also seems sorta right. There’s no two people I want to see happy more than the two of you, so I guess it’s fitting it should happen together.” Sara kissed her new husband on the cheek, and Lily realized how happy she was for Tucker, too. Things didn’t end well between them or in the right way, but they ended because they weren’t right.

  She and Luke were.

  “The food…” she started to say, and Sara nodded.

  “The food is delicious. Perfect. I’m going to recommend you to everyone I know. Maybe you’d even like to do a guest spot on my show sometime. We do wedding specials at least once a year.”

  Lily’s heart felt like it would burst right through her rib cage. “Thank you.”

  “Go get him, Lil,” Jack said.

  Walker gave her a pointed stare as he loosened his tie and unbuttoned the top of his shirt.

  “All this”—he waved his hand in the air—“happiness shit must be getting to me, so I’m only going to say this once. Luke is one of the good ones, and if you give him the chance he deserves, he will do right by you. And if you tell him I said that, I will deny it until my last breath.”

  Lily wrapped her arms around Walker’s neck and squeezed him tight.

  “I have a feeling you’re one of the good ones, too,” she whispered.

  And just like that she was scrambling to find her purse, phone, and keys.

  “My car’s at the restaurant!” she gasped.

  “I’ll give you a ride,” Jack said. “You ready?”

  She nodded, hugged Ava once, and then followed Jack toward the door.

  “Ayres Hotel!” Ava called after her. “And you didn’t watch the video!” she added.

  “Text it to me!” Lily said over her shoulder, and then she and Jack were out the door.

  Whatever Luke said in that speech wasn’t important right now. What mattered was getting to Anaheim.

  Because she loved him, to
o.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Luke stood with his hand braced against the tile as the hot water tried to ease the ache in his muscles—and failed miserably.

  What was he thinking pulling a stunt like that after he’d already freaked her the hell out? He’d thought it was what she wanted. But maybe it was too much to put on her shoulders, in front of everyone.

  He groaned.

  Of course she ran and never looked back. It wasn’t enough that she had to find everything out by overhearing him tell Tucker. Then he had to go and hijack the best man speech for his own selfish gain. Not that Tucker and Sara hadn’t given him permission to do so. The results, however, were not at all what he’d hoped for, so here he was. Alone. Every muscle screaming with tension he knew had nothing to do with the three-hour drive or the final training he’d put himself through this week.

  He slammed the water off and wrapped a towel around his waist. That’s when he heard the frantic pounding on an adjacent wall.

  Great. It was probably a room full of buckle bunnies partying it up the night before the competition.

  He opened the bathroom door, ready to be that guy—the one who called the front desk to complain—and realized that the sound came from his door and not a rowdy neighbor’s room.

  He didn’t bother to look through the peephole, didn’t care who it was. He just wanted the damned pounding to stop.

  “What?” he snapped, throwing the door open.

  Then all his words, along with all of the oxygen, left him. Because there stood Lily, still in her chef’s coat, black pants—and the cowboy hat he’d given her the day they rode Ace.

  The whites of her eyes were pink, and he couldn’t tell if it was from exhaustion or because she’d been crying. Despite everything, though, she was smiling, and the beating of his heart went into overdrive.

  “Ava told me what hotel,” she said hesitantly. “And Jack gave me your room number. Not that it’s up to him, but Tucker gives us his blessing, and even Walker said some nice things about you that I’m not supposed to repeat because he’ll deny them anyway.”

  She crossed and uncrossed her arms.

  “You know, this is hard enough as it is,” she went on. “But having to do it with you standing there all wet and in a towel is not helping me keep my focus.”

  He felt the corner of his mouth tug upward, but he was too terrified to let himself smile.

  “You—left,” he said, and like it had just happened, that virtual sock in the gut hit him harder than any fall off the back of a horse or bull.

  She shook her head. “I was locked in the office bathroom.” Then she rolled her eyes. “It’s ridiculous. I know. And you Everetts better get that fixed before you start using that place on a regular basis. I didn’t leave, Luke. I swear. Not until Ava found me and told me you were already gone.” She looked down at what she was wearing, then back up at him. “It wasn’t even in my planner to come here tonight.”

  She laughed. As she did, a tear escaped down her cheek, and he had to fight not to reach for her and brush it away.

  “Then why, Lily?” he asked, scrubbing a hand over his jaw. “Why’d you come?”

  “Why didn’t you come for me?” she countered. “To Phoenix?”

  He groaned. “You ran away—and made it damned clear you wanted space. I’m not running,” he reminded her. “I told you that night, and I’m telling you now. I’m not walking away from this. From us.”

  She shrugged. “Then I guess you should know I came here tonight because I’m in love with you and didn’t want you getting on that stupid bull tomorrow without knowing that.”

  Luke braced a hand against the doorframe to keep himself steady. He dropped his head, letting out a long, shaky breath. When he met her gaze again, it was like his whole world had shifted.

  “I thought I had everything figured out. I saw what loving someone could do to a person—how it broke my father beyond repair, how it almost did the same to Jack. And I was so determined to save myself from that.” He shook his head. “Then I meet you, and all my careful planning goes right out the fucking window.”

  A tentative smile spread across her face. “And here I thought I was the careful planner.”

  He laughed. “Not sure it worked out the way either of us wanted.”

  She swiped her fingers under one eye and then the other, clearing away the tears even as more fell.

  “I’m starting to think the best parts of my life have come out of those unplanned moments. Not that some of those moments weren’t the hardest parts of my life, but they led me down paths I would have been too scared to take otherwise.” She took a steadying breath. “I didn’t kiss you that day after your accident because I was looking for a rebound. I did it because despite how I thought you felt about me for three years, I felt something when I saw you like that.”

  His jaw tightened. “Every guy loves a pity kiss.”

  She groaned. “It wasn’t pity, you…you impossible, gorgeous man. It was something I didn’t fully understand then. But it had hurt to see you hurting.” Her throat bobbed as she swallowed. “Just like it does now.”

  His chest ached. Because she saw right through him, no matter what mask he tried to wear.

  “I should have told you,” he said. “I didn’t know the right way to do it.”

  She nodded. “I know. Sometimes there is no right way. There’s just the truth.”

  And there it was. Maybe they’d had a messy beginning. And they were still in it. That was the beauty of it all. Wasn’t it? They were just getting started. And they could fix what was broken—clean up that mess as they went.

  He took a chance and stepped toward her. She didn’t flinch this time. God how it had killed him when she did. Instead she leaned into his touch when he cupped her cheek in his palm.

  “Then the truth is simple. I love you—have loved you for three goddamn years when I had no right to do so. And maybe I still haven’t earned that right—”

  She launched herself at him, her hat toppling to the ground as her arms wrapped around his neck and she pressed her lips to his.

  “Didn’t you hear me say I love you?” she asked, her mouth against his. “You’ve earned every right, as long as I’ve earned it from you.”

  He chuckled. “You don’t need to earn anything from me, sweetheart. But I do think maybe I need to hear those three little words one more time to be sure.”

  She kissed him softly, and finally—finally—the tension melted from his shoulders, and the weight on his chest lifted.

  “I love you, Luke Everett.” She kissed him again. “I love you. You. Okay? It’s why I ran back to Phoenix when I found out what could happen tomorrow, which was stupid and selfish and…That’s not the person I want to be. Someone who runs.” She was on her tiptoes, holding steady, with her hands gripping his shoulders as her green eyes stayed locked on his. “But it’s also why I ran here tonight.”

  He kissed one tear-soaked eye, then the other, savoring the taste of salt on his lips, the trust he knew it took for her to let him see every part of her.

  “Wait,” he said, her earlier words registering. “You wanted to tell me all this before I got on the bull. You’re…okay with me riding?”

  She lowered herself to her regular height, hands splayed on his chest, and shook her head. “No,” she said with measured resolve. “I will be there for you anyway. For your last ride. I know how hard it will be walking in there tomorrow knowing that. So I will be there—terrified—but cheering you on.”

  He held out a hand for her, and she took it and squeezed it tight.

  “Stay with me tonight,” he said.

  She nodded, stepping over the threshold and into his room, closing the door behind her.

  “I’m not going anywhere,” she told him. “I promise.”

  She tugged his arm, leading him toward the bed.

  “You didn’t hear my proposal, then?”

  She sucked in a breath, eyes going wide.

&
nbsp; “Okay, bad choice of word.” He laughed as she backed up against the mattress. “Look, sweetheart,” he said with a wry grin. “I love you, but I’m not insane. I know we need time to figure this all out. I did ask you a question I thought you’d answered by bailing from the wedding—which I now know you did not do.”

  She pulled her phone out of her pocket. “I forgot about the video,” she said. “Ava said she’d send it.”

  He waited as she opened the message and hit play to find it wasn’t the whole speech. Just a clip—the part that was meant for her. He watched her watch him. And waited.

  He stood at a microphone in front of the room, a flute of champagne in his hand.

  “We’re all here to celebrate Tucker and Sara, but we’re also celebrating this rare thing they were able to find in each other.” He paused and shook his head, letting out a nervous laugh. “For anyone who knows me,” he continued, “I’m sure as hell not one to shy away from the spotlight, but this is a little different. So I’ll just thank Tucker and Sara for letting me steal a bit of their thunder and say Lily, never have I ever loved anyone like I love you. Riding tomorrow means the world to me, but you mean more. I was so stubborn in making sure you understood me that I didn’t take the time to understand you and how scared you were. I’ll withdraw if that’s what it takes to show you I’m all in, that I will fight for us like I should have three years ago. But if you believe in me like I believe in you, come with me tonight. Fight right alongside me, and after I own that bull, let’s take our second chance at something permanent. All you have to do is come up here and say yes.”

  The tremble in his words was evident, and he remembered his earnest uncertainty as he looked past the sea of tables, searching for someone he soon realized wasn’t there. Everyone else in the room looked for her, too.

  “Come on, Lil,” Ava mumbled into the phone. “Where are you?”

  Then there were the indistinguishable murmurs among the guests.

  And after an excruciating pause, Luke finally cleared his throat. “It was a long shot,” he said matter-of-factly, but there was devastation behind that smile he wore as a mask. He hoped she couldn’t hear it. “To Tucker and Sara,” he said, then drained the entire flute. A few guests began to clap and, mercifully, the rest joined in.