The sound of a horse running toward him pounded through his heart, and he knew it had to be Bailey. He whistled for Thunder. The last thing he wanted was to see the woman who had left him at the altar, who hadn’t spoken a word to him since, and who had suddenly showed back up in his town to disturb his peace. His heart ached in a twisted, anger-filled fear at having to face her. Not right now. Not like this.
Thunder came running toward him, and he swung his leg up, turning the horse to take off down his side of the ridge.
But just then, Bailey soared over the top, coming down right on top of him. Midair, she screamed, her eyes wide.
Thunder bucked and kicked before Maverick could get him to move out of the way. Bailey pivoted and landed so close he felt her. And then Thunder burst forward, taking him far away from the ridge and Bailey. Maverick considered letting him run. Thunder’s startled speed would be enough to carry him away down the valley and back home, but that would be cowardly and ridiculous. Her horse whinnied. With years of Dawson training behind him, he pivoted and returned to her side.
Her horse hobbled. She jumped off and reached for his ankles. “Whoa, boy.” Her soft, husky voice shivered through Maverick. And his reaction to her irritated him. It reminded him of all the reasons why she had no business being back in his life. But if he didn’t intervene, she was gonna get herself knocked over by her injured horse…or kicked in the head.
“Stop.” He walked forward, approaching the horse slowly. The horse reached for a friendly nuzzle into Maverick’s chest. He rubbed him on the forehead, whispering calming sounds. After a moment, when he knew the horse was calm, he nodded. “Now, let’s take a look at you.”
“I already did that. It’s a sprain.”
“Did you go to veterinary school while you were gone? ’Cause last I checked, you were not the expert here.”
She huffed. “You don’t have to be an expert to spot a sprained ankle.”
He walked around the horse until he was standing over Bailey while she crouched down by the horse’s feet. He spoke to the top of her head. “Could you move around front and talk to him while I take a look?”
Their eyes met, and hers widened before she looked away. Then she nodded.
He patted the horse’s side, letting him know he was down there, and then gingerly felt along the bones and tendons and muscles. His flank shivered in pain when Maverick touched a soft spot. Maverick stood, irritated Bailey was right. “We’ll have to walk him back.”
She folded her arms across her chest, her eyes fiery with challenge—he used to love when she looked at him like that. Sometimes he’d tease her relentlessly just to see her want to lay into him. He looked away, the memory too pleasant for his mood.
“Come on.” He reached for Thunder’s lead and started walking back toward the ridge. Before he descended toward her family’s house, he looked back over his shoulder. “You coming?”
“Just like that?”
“Just like what?”
“You think you can step in to help and be back in my life just like that?”
He shook his head. “I didn’t say anything about wanting to be back in your life.”
Her hurt was so obvious he regretted his words, but it was only the truth. He’d learned his lesson with her and suffered for years because of it.
“I don’t need you to walk me home. We’re not fifteen.”
“Well, I can’t let you go alone. You’re gonna need some help if he turns his ankle on a rock or something.”
She held up her phone. “I’ve got a phone.”
“And what would your parents say if they knew I just let you go by yourself?”
“So this is for them?”
“It’s what nice people do when someone needs help. Or have you been gone from Willow Creek too long to remember?”
“I guess so.” She led her horse carefully and proceeded to ignore him.
He walked along, kicking up dirt as he went. The area was dryer than usual, with no rain for almost a full season. It had been a strain on the ranch, and their hay crop had suffered. None of which she would know since she hadn’t bothered to reach out even once.
The further they went, the angrier he became. And all the questions, the years of waiting, the wishing for a chance to simply talk to her again was catching up to him. Before they’d walked halfway to her house, he was biting his tongue to keep his frustration from flowing out of him. So much snark rose to the surface he surprised even himself. Wouldn’t have hurt you to text once in a while. Or did you lose your phone for five years?
Then he heard a sniff.
She was crying.
His anger melted. No way was he gonna let go of years of pain, but crying was too much. “What’s the matter?”
She sucked in her breath, but he didn’t turn around. They were walking single file, and he needed to watch his feet placement carefully.
“Are you hurt?” he asked.
“No.”
They continued down the path, and now he was plagued with curiosity, with compassion, and, yes, with anger. But it was so much more complicated than the righteous anger he’d felt.
And she was still silent. He shouldn’t even be surprised.
They finally reached the flat pastureland of her family’s property.
“I can make it fine from here. You can get back to the ranch.”
“Nah, I’ll come in and say hello to your parents.”
She groaned, and he couldn’t understand her problem.
He whirled around to face her. “What? You don’t want me around?”
She stepped back, startled. Her expression was guarded, worried. “No, it’s not that. I…” She waved her hand in the air. “It’s nothing. Come on in. My parents would be thrilled to see you.”
He shook his head. This was too much. He kicked at a rock. “You know, you owe me some answers.”
She waited half the length of the pasture to respond, but then her quiet “I know” warmed him. With relief, he realized she wasn’t going to leave him in the dark forever.
As soon as they made it to the back porch, a little girl slammed open the back door. She tore across the grass toward Bailey, who swung her into her arms and kissed her cheek. “How’s my sweet pea?”
Maverick couldn’t have been more surprised if she’d come out of his own house.
“So good! Grandma taught me how to make cookies and her special bread.”
“What! I don’t even know how to make her super-secret, special bread.”
“You don’t?” Her awe made Maverick chuckle. She turned to him, her blue eyes blazing. “Who are you?”
“Gracie. Manners, remember?”
“Oh, sorry.” She held out her hand. “Hello. I’m Gracie Faith.”
He laughed out loud at that and shook her hand. “Well, Gracie Faith, I’m Maverick Dawson. Pleased to meet such a pretty little kitchen helper.”
“I help with the horses too.” She wiggled out of Bailey’s arms and went running back up onto the porch and into the house. “Grandpa! Mama’s brought home a Maverick.”
Maverick whipped his head around. “Mama?” His heart about stuttered to a stop.
Her eyes widened, and she searched his face before turning toward the barn. “Let’s put the horses away and wrap this one’s ankle.”
He wasn’t sure how, but he managed to put one foot in front of the other all the way to the barn. Bailey had a daughter? How was that possible? “How old is she?”
Bailey shook her head. “Let’s talk about it inside.”
Mr. Hempstead called from the porch behind them, “Good to see you, Maverick.”
He turned. “You too, Mr. Hempstead.”
“Is Chester limping?”
Bailey called, “Yeah, it’s a sprain.”
“Get Maverick to wrap it for us, will you? I’ll take a look later.”
Maverick didn’t hide his personal satisfaction that Mr. Hempstead wanted him to wrap it. They turned Thunder loose in the pa
ddock and walked Chester to a stall.
They worked together in silence with an ease that came naturally even after all these years. He reached for the gauze while she was handing it to him. She was about to lift the hoof when he did it for her.
When Maverick shut the door, sliding the latch, they both turned from Chester’s stall, and he asked the first question of many. “So…”
“Oh, stop, Maverick. This is hard enough as it is.”
He was taken aback by the agony in her voice. “I’ll try to be more sensitive, but you have to realize you’re not the only victim here.”
Her eyes softened, and then she sat on a bench just inside the barn door. “I love the smell in here.”
“I do too.” He sat beside her and waited. Minutes passed before he turned to eye her. “You wanna tell me what is going on here?”
“No.”
“Bailey, come on.”
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t expecting to see you yet. I imagined all of this differently.”
He waited.
“You’ll lose whatever respect you have left for me.”
He tipped his head and searched her face, still saying nothing.
“She’s mine. Her name’s Gracie Faith. She’s a perfect angel and the best thing that’s ever happened to me. But she deserves better than what I’ve been giving her, so I came home. Mom and Dad raised me right. I know they can help me do good by her as well.” Her gaze flicked to his and then away again just as quickly.
“And how old is she?”
“Five.”
“Five? You left six years ago. Is she—she’s obviously not mine.” The words left a bitter feeling on his tongue.
“No, she’s not yours, Maverick.” Her voice sounded small, scared.
About four hundred emotions hammered through him at once. They’d planned to wait until they were married for their intimacy to progress to that point. So was he grateful that the child wasn’t his? No, not exactly. The longer he sat beside Bailey, the more betrayed he felt. When he allowed himself to imagine that she’d broken their vow, that she’d been with another man when they’d had so many almost moments together, he was fired up with burning jealousy, resentment, and…desire. A part of him wished that the child was theirs, that Bailey had stayed and married him like she’d said she would.
He didn’t know what to do with himself. He stood up and walked to the door.
“Maverick?” Her small voice only irritated him further. He waved her away, not trusting himself to speak.
“You just gonna stand there?”
He nodded. He flexed his hands, took a step, then stopped and turned, so many words tumbling through his thoughts, so many accusations. “I have to go.” He stepped out of the barn and whistled for Thunder.
“That’s all you have to say?”
He stopped and tilted his head, rotating his neck on his shoulders. “Nope.”
“Then just say it, Maverick.”
Thunder scooted to a stop at the paddock’s gate. Maverick opened it and hopped on his horse. Then he tipped his hat in her direction. “You first.”
She stepped back and nodded. “Fair enough.”
He tapped Thunder’s side. The horse was only too ready to take off back up the ridge. Thunder flew across her property, up the hill toward their tree. As Thunder leapt over the ridge and tore through the pastures back to his barn, Maverick knew he wouldn’t be feeling better any time soon.
Chapter 4
Bailey paced in the barn long after Maverick left. He’d changed in some ways, but he was still the same Maverick, the man who could drive her crazy with desire. He was the good one, the smart one, the responsible one. He was always the one everyone in town looked to.
If she had a problem, he swooped in and solved it. Only, this time, he might be just as much of a mess as she was. He’d barely kept his anger reined in. This volatile side of Maverick was completely new. And there was a strange desperation in his eyes. Where he had once approached the world like it was a tool in his hands, he now waited with worry for what might happen next. She could see the vulnerability in his face.
She’d done that to him. If he never forgave her, she wouldn’t blame him one bit.
She’d tried life without him, and she couldn’t hack it. And here she was, dragging her sorry butt back to Willow Creek. She squeezed her eyes closed so tight she thought her eyelashes would break. Facing her guilt for all the wrong she’d done to Maverick was too much. Running and pretending like it had never happened had been easy, in a horribly hard kind of way. She’d never have come back if not for Gracie Faith. And she couldn’t run forever. And hiding didn’t make anything right. The small part of her heart that remembered Sunday School told her that. She needed to make things right.
When she thought of how happy her little girl was with her mom and dad, being loved on from every direction, safe, with enough food to eat, she knew she’d made a good choice.
But those weren’t the only reasons she’d come. She owed some major explanations to Maverick. A part of her hoped that there was the tiniest chance he would forgive her. She had no hopes they’d get back together, not with Gracie Faith in the picture. He might try to step in and help them, but she didn’t want to be another project for Maverick Dawson.
She wanted his friendship, but only if he wanted to be in her life, not because he felt sorry for her. And maybe, just maybe, if he forgave, her, God might too. She shuddered, thinking of all she’d done that was wrong. And not just wrong for her, wrong for her little girl. How did that work with God? She couldn’t make these five years right. She couldn’t make it right that she’d given Gracie a man who didn’t care about them for a Daddy. She closed her eyes against her thoughts, pushing them into their familiar place in her brain, far far away.
When she went back into the house, her parents’ gaze followed her, but she said nothing. They finished up the evening saying very little. Even Gracie noticed and played quietly in her room. The air felt heavy, and only her determination to stay in Willow Creek for Gracie’s sake kept Bailey from running.
The next day, they woke early to head over to the fairgrounds. Bailey caught some excitement from Gracie. Her daughter had never seen a county fair. And especially not a Texas county fair. Bailey grinned. “We are gonna have to see what they’re deep-frying this year.”
“What’s deep-fry?”
Her own child didn’t know what a fair deep-fry was. “Oh, it’s a special way of cooking things, and every year, they deep-fry something unusual, and that’s what makes it exciting.”
“Unusual? Like what?”
Bailey had to wrack her brain for some crazy examples. “Well, like there’s always deep-fried bacon. Or one year, it was Twinkies. I didn’t much care for peanut butter sandwiches deep-fried, but the pickles were good.”
Gracie’s nose wrinkled. And Bailey had to laugh. Gracie was the least adventurous eater she’d ever heard of. “Don’t worry. Deep-frying makes everything taste good.”
“Really?”
“That’s what Grandpa says.”
“Okay, then I’m gonna try it.”
When they walked in through the front gates, Gracie was still talking about it. And while Bailey was laughing with her about the possibility of deep-fried popsicles, they ran into one of the Dawson brothers. They stumbled and almost tripped over themselves. Not the impression Bailey was going for in front of the Dawson clan.
He held his hands out to steady them both. “Whoa now, ladies. Are you all right?” His eyes swept over them both in a friendly manner.
“Yes, thank you.” She squinted her eyes and studied him. “You’re a Dawson, and I know it’s been a while…”
He tipped his hat. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Nash?”
“The very one. And now I’m going to have to know your name.”
“Nash, it has been too long if we don’t recognize each other. I’m Bailey, and this is my daughter, Gracie Faith.”
His eyes wi
dened, but to his credit, that was the only response he gave to what must have been astonishing news. “Well now, it’s good to see you again, Bailey.”
Gracie smiled at him. “I like your name. Nash.” She tested it out in her mouth. “Naa-aash.”
He tipped his head, giving a signature Dawson smile. “And now I like it even better. Thank you for letting me know.”
“I knew Nash when he was a little boy just as old as you are. The last time I saw him, he was in high school.” She eyed him, standing above them, as broad as his brothers. “And much smaller.”
“You used to be little like me?” Gracie’s head was tipped all the way back, looking up into his face.
“I can’t remember such a thing, but if your mama says it’s true, then I believe her.”
At his kind words, Bailey felt everything in the world ease up a bit. “Thank you, Nash. Where you headed?”
“I was going to head toward home. But now I’m going to turn around and head back in with you ladies.”
“Oh, you don’t have to…”
“If I didn’t, Mama would put me on barn mucking duty. You know how she feels about things like this.”
“I do. The Dawson brothers are all about obligations.”
“Well now, I don’t know if our family policy deserves that bitter tone. It’s not like you and my brother don’t have a history or anything.” The way he said history and wiggled his hands in the air made her laugh.
“Oh, fine. Come on, then.”
They made their way to the entrance, and Bailey tried not to notice how everyone around them was taking an extra interest.
As soon as she stepped inside the fairgrounds, a rush of nostalgia made her smile. “Now, this is what I’ve been missing!”
Coming Home to Maverick Page 3
