by Kat Brookes
A horn honked outside. Stopping midspin, Blue ran over to look out the window, waving excitedly at her daddy. Tucker had run into town to help his brothers and several others set up tables and chairs for that evening’s festivities.
Autumn crossed the room to the closet to grab their jackets. “Time to go, sweetie. Our carriage has arrived.”
“That’s not a carriage,” her niece countered as she turned from the window and raced for the doorway. “It’s Daddy’s truck!”
“I take it your daddy isn’t really a prince, either?” Autumn called out as Blue disappeared from sight.
She stepped out into the hallway to find Tucker standing just inside the front door, grinning from ear to ear.
“I might not be a prince, but I am charming,” he said, that dimple of his deepening. “Or so I’ve been told.”
Autumn laughed softly. “You are that.” Looking to Blue, she said, “Here’s your coat.”
As her niece slipped into hers, Tucker took Autumn’s from her hand and helped her into it. “Thank you,” she said.
“My pleasure.” Opening the door, Tucker made a sweeping motion with his hand. “Your carriage awaits.”
Blue gave an exasperated groan. “Daddy, it’s not a carriage,” she said as she stepped outside. “It’s a truck.”
“That’s too bad,” he told her. “Because you look just like a princess this evening. Speaking of which...” he said as he turned back to Autumn.
“I know what you’re gonna say,” she said, cutting him off. “But casual dress is not in your daughter’s vocabulary when it comes to parties of any kind.”
“It’s a good thing you chose a career in real estate, because mind reading doesn’t appear to be your forte.”
She looked up at him questioningly.
Serious green eyes met hers. “I was just going to say that you look really pretty today.”
His compliment gave her butterflies. She had chosen to wear jeans and a deep cobalt sweater that brought out the blue in her eyes, and, of course, her favorite pair of high-heeled riding boots. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Placing an arm at the small of her back, Tucker escorted her and Blue out to his truck.
She wanted to lean into his strength. To keep him by her side forever. But he wasn’t hers to keep. Neither was Blue. All she could do was relish the time she had left with him. With them. She glanced down at Blue whose tiny, perfect hand was wrapped snuggly around her own, and wondered how her heart would ever be able to function with her leaving so much of it behind in Bent Creek.
The mouthwatering aroma of barbecued ribs greeted them the moment they pulled up in front of the enclosed park pavilion where that afternoon’s festivities were being held. “Mmm...” Autumn groaned. “Will you just smell those ribs.”
“Wait until you taste them,” Tucker told her as he pulled into an empty parking space.
“I wanna swing!” Blue exclaimed, having spied one of the park’s two playgrounds.
“After we say hello and eat,” Autumn told her.
They were greeted at the door by Tucker’s family who led them back to the seats they had saved for them. Paper divider plates and plastic silverware lined the tables atop the red-and-white-checked plastic tablecloths. Mason jars filled with baby’s breath and white carnations made for very cheery centerpieces. It was so very picnicish that it almost made one forget that winter was just around the corner.
“I hope you brought your appetite,” Grady Wade said to Autumn. “There’s enough food here to feed the entire county.”
Autumn glanced around, finding that Tucker’s daddy hadn’t been exaggerating. “Starving, actually,” she told him with a smile.
“Me, too!” Blue chimed in.
“Why don’t we go check out the dessert table,” Jackson said in a rather loud, conspiratorial whisper to Blue.
“Honey, she hasn’t even eaten yet,” his momma scolded, though her words weren’t truly reprimanding.
“Desserts are the first to go,” he told his momma. “I’ve learned to grab mine before sitting down to eat or risk getting stuck with something that doesn’t quite satisfy my sweet tooth.”
“Makes sense to me,” Tucker’s daddy said.
“Come on, Blue,” Garrett said, sweeping her up in his arms. “There’s a slice of peach cobbler calling out my name.”
“Food can’t talk,” Autumn heard her niece say as her uncles and grandpa led her away.
“You can’t pull anything over on my daughter,” Tucker said, sounding like the proud daddy he was.
Tucker’s momma stood clicking her tongue. “I’d best go make sure they don’t go heaping sweets on Blue’s plate like they tend to do on their own. You two go fix yourselves a plate of some real food.”
“Don’t be fooled,” Tucker muttered to Autumn as his momma walked away. “She’s going to take her pick of desserts right along with Dad and my brothers.”
Autumn muffled a giggle. Then, noting the way Tucker stood watching his family as they hovered around the dessert table, said, “Real food’s greatly overrated. Don’t you think?”
He looked her way with a grin. “A girl after my own heart.” He nodded toward the table of sweets. “Shall we?”
Autumn gave a conspiratorial nod. “Let’s.”
* * *
After being delayed by several people stopping them to exchange idle chatter, Tucker was finally able to work their way across the room to the dessert table.
A familiar voice spoke up from behind them as Tucker and Autumn filled their plates with sweets. “I see you made it.”
Tucker turned just as Justin stepped up to join them. “We did,” he said with a nod and then looked to Autumn. “You remember my daughter’s aunt.”
“Not a face many men could easily forget,” he replied with a widening grin. He gave a polite incline of his head. “Autumn.”
“Justin.”
Not a face many men could easily forget? While the compliment was undeniably true, Tucker hoped Autumn could see through Justin’s flirtatious words. His friend could be a real smooth talker when it came to females, but he was not the settling-down kind.
“Who knew this town had so many charmers in it?” she said, looking to Tucker with a teasing grin.
Well, he for one didn’t care for Justin trying to charm his girl. His girl? Talk about getting ahead of himself where Autumn was concerned. But if the night went the way he hoped, that was exactly what she would be. His girl. “We were just heading over to the dessert table. Care to join us?”
“Already been there. Got to be quick on the draw to get the best desserts at these things.” He glanced around. “I was hoping you’d have brought your little girl.”
“We did,” Tucker replied. “Blue’s at the dessert table as we speak, filling her plate with sweets along with the rest of my family.”
Justin looked toward the dessert table, his eyes widening the moment he caught site of Blue. “She looks just like you. Only a whole lot prettier.”
“Come on,” Tucker said. “I’ll introduce you to Blue.”
“Let her eat first,” Justin replied. “But I’ll be expecting introductions before you head home.”
He nodded. “You’ve got it.” Looking to Autumn, he said, “Let’s go grab ourselves some dessert while there are still choices left to make.”
Once everyone had eaten, Tucker turned to Autumn who was seated next to him at the table. “Let’s take a walk.”
She looked to Blue, no doubt intending to include her in the invite, but his mother jumped in, bless her quick thinking, because she knew what Tucker had in mind. He’d talked to his mom and dad earlier that morning. “You two go on ahead. I told Blue I’d take her over to see Maggie Reynold’s new baby. She caught sight of her when we were over at the dessert table.”
“If you’re sure,” Autumn said.
“Go,” his mother ordered with a bright smile.
They stood, Tucker placing his hand at Autumn’s back as they worked their way outside, their walk somewhat delayed by people wanting to exchange pleasantries.
“I thought we’d never make it out here,” Tucker said as they headed for one of several walking paths that ran through the town’s park.
“In need of some fresh air?” she teased.
He paused beneath the shade of a large oak and turned to her. “In need of some privacy.”
“Privacy?” she said somewhat worriedly. “This sounds serious.”
He nodded. “You could say that. I wanted you to know there’s been a change of plans about selling my share of the business.”
A mixture of hurt and disappointment moved across her pretty face before she looked away. “How am I supposed to tell Blue she won’t be staying here with her daddy?”
“Blue will be staying here,” he assured her.
“Tucker...”
“Hear me out, Autumn. Please,” he said tenderly. “When I went out to my parents’ place earlier, my father approached me with an alternative plan. I’ll remain in the partnership I have with my brothers, but when rodeo season rolls around my father will accompany Garrett and Jackson instead. I’ll stay back and oversee things here with the help of a few part-time ranch hands, just as Dad usually does when my brothers and I are on the road.”
“But your momma...”
“Is all for it,” he assured her with a smile. “After going to Jackson Hole, Mom’s hooked on camping in their new trailer. Traveling to rodeos would give them that opportunity.”
She gave him an apologetic smile. “I thought—”
“You have to learn to trust me,” he said with a smile.
Her eyes glistened as she stood looking up at him. “I’m sorry, Tucker. Past hurts sometimes have me expecting the worst when it doesn’t exist.” She reached out, curling her fingers around his hand and giving it a gentle squeeze. “But deep down I really do trust you, Tucker. And I’m so glad you were able to work things out so you didn’t have to give up your share of the business. You deserve to be happy.”
He caressed the hand curled around his with his thumb. “You deserve to be happy, too.”
Silver-blue eyes searched his own, softening. “I never thought I’d be saying this at the end of my time here, but I’m really gonna miss your cowboy charm, Tucker Wade.”
“Not Justin’s?” he teased.
“Only yours,” she said, her pale blue eyes softening.
“Daddy! Aunt Autumn!”
They both turned to look in the direction from which they’d come.
“Over here!” Autumn replied, slipping her hand from Tucker’s.
A second later, Blue came running toward them, his mother doing her best to keep up behind her. His mother gave him an apologetic smile. “The music started. Blue was afraid she wouldn’t get to dance with the two of you.”
Autumn bent to scoop his daughter up. “Not a chance of that happening.”
Before Tucker could protest, before he could tell Autumn that there was so much more he needed to say to her, she was walking away, his daughter curled happily around her.
Chapter Eleven
The next morning, Tucker stood watching as Autumn bent to kiss his sleeping daughter farewell. She turned from the bed, thick tears looming in her beautiful eyes. The sight of which tugged hard at Tucker’s heart.
With one last glance back at Blue, Autumn hurried from the room.
He fell in step behind her. “You don’t have to leave.”
She turned to him as she stepped out onto the porch. “Another day or two isn’t gonna make this any easier for Blue or for me.”
“What if I want you to stay?”
She looked up at him with a tender smile. “Tucker, you don’t have to worry about Blue. She’s gonna be happy here. I feel it in my heart. Otherwise, I’d never be leaving without her. And you’re gonna be the best daddy ever.”
“I wasn’t asking you to stay for my daughter’s sake.”
She searched his face, clearly not understanding.
Unable to piece together the right words, Tucker lowered his mouth to hers hoping to show Autumn without words how he felt about her.
His heart lurched when she leaned into him, hands flattening against his chest as she returned the tender kiss. Any doubts he might have had about her feelings toward him were quickly forgotten.
“Autumn...” he said with a sigh when the kiss ended.
She pulled away with a gasp. “I can’t do this. Not again.”
“Do what again?” he asked, confused by her words.
“I vowed not to be any man’s second choice ever again,” she told him, tears in her eyes. “I’ve already been down that road with a cowboy I thought truly cared about me only to find out I wasn’t the sister he would have chosen if he’d been given the choice. I’m sorry, Tucker,” she said with a sob. “But I’ll never be the woman you want.” Turning, she practically ran to her car as Tucker stood watching in stunned silence, his heart sinking.
Autumn couldn’t be more wrong. She was the only woman he wanted. The woman he loved. And as she drove away, he knew, without a doubt, that she’d taken his heart with her.
* * *
In the three days that followed Autumn’s leaving, Tucker tried to stay busy, focusing on his daughter’s wants and needs, but Autumn’s sweet smile lingered painfully in his every waking thought. Regret like he’d never known before filled him. If only he had told Autumn how he felt sooner. Maybe then they would have had time to work through her reservations.
She’d spoken to Blue on the phone every single evening before his daughter went to bed, but she’d carefully avoided any real conversation with him. He hadn’t pushed, wanting to give her time to think things over. Just as he had done himself after she’d gone. Her parting words had him reexamining his feelings, wondering if Autumn might have been right. That what he felt toward her was somehow related to what he had once felt for his wife. But it hadn’t taken him long to put that possibility to rest. While it was true he’d met and married Summer first, that, in no way, made Autumn his second choice.
Any feelings he once had for Summer were nothing more than a distant memory at this point in his life. The feelings he had for Autumn were well beyond the youthful infatuation he once felt for her sister. Their relationship was built on trust and respect and a shared love for his daughter, but there was so much more. He found himself wanting to know everything about Autumn, wanting to comfort her when she was down and laugh with her over even the silliest of things. All those things he could no longer do with her living on the other side of the state, or Texas if the offer she’d talked about making on her old business went through.
“I miss Aunt Autumn,” Blue said as she fed Hoss another chunk of apple.
“Me, too, sweetheart,” Tucker said with a nod. And he’d wasted enough time letting Autumn think otherwise. Instead of giving her time, which, in hindsight, might have made her think she was right about his feelings for her, he should have done whatever it took to convince her otherwise. She didn’t belong in Cheyenne, or even Texas. She belonged here with him and Blue, and it was past time to put that cowboy charm of his to real use and win over Autumn’s heart once and for all.
* * *
Would he ever stop filling her thoughts? Autumn wondered with a sigh as images of Tucker’s face the moment before he’d kissed her drifted through her mind. So tender. So determined. So Tucker. Oh, how she missed him and his beautiful little baby girl.
The doorbell chimed in the hallway, startling Autumn. She rarely had any visitors out here, and her place was a bit out of the way for salespeople to come calling. Maybe it was someone from work, stopping by to check on her. The
y knew she had returned to Cheyenne, but had extended her leave another week due to the emotional fallout from having given Blue up. She knew that it had been the right thing to do, but that hadn’t made it any easier. Since leaving Bent Creek, she hadn’t been able to focus on anything but how much she missed Blue and Tucker.
The doorbell rang again, more persistently this time.
With a sigh, Autumn pushed away from her desk and went to answer it. When she opened the door, a loud gasp left her lips. “Tucker,” she said, her hand pressed to her chest in a failed attempt to still her racing heart. Seeing the anxious expression on his face, her gaze immediately went in search of her niece. Then she looked up at Tucker, dread filling her. “Where’s Blue?”
“Back in Bent Creek, baking cookies with her grandma,” he replied. “Or, at least, she was when I called to let them know I was almost here a few minutes ago.”
“Why are you here then if Blue is okay?” Not that she wasn’t drinking in the sight of him, noting as she did so that he looked tired. His dark, whiskered chin told her he hadn’t shaved for what looked to be days. Was taking care of a child more than he’d been prepared for? Was that why he was here? To work out some other sort of arrangement?
“I came to tell you that you’re wrong.”
She blinked hard. “Pardon me?”
“I’m fully aware that you’re not Summer, just as you know I’m not whoever the man was who broke your trust. There is only one woman who holds my heart. The beautiful, selfless, loving woman the Lord brought into my life, along with my precious little girl. A woman who’s steadfast and responsible. A woman willing to sacrifice her own happiness for a little girl who happens to be very special to her daddy.”
Tears in her eyes, Autumn took a moment to let Tucker’s heartfelt words sink in. He loved her and only her.
He reached out, laying a hand against her cheek. “I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you, too,” she admitted, leaning into his tender touch.
“My whole life changed the day you came into it,” he told her. “Not only did you bring me the most precious gift ever, you gave me a taste of what I’d been living without for so very long—true happiness.” His smile widened as he added, “And love.”
