Lone Star Burn: Broncos & Bouquets (Kindle Worlds Novella)

by Stephanie Haefner

  She pushed the door open at the top of the staircase and stepped into the small kitchen. The keys were on the counter. After grabbing them, she held them out to him. He took them and she turned away. She needed to get away from him. If she escaped to the bedroom, he’d get the hint, right?

  Laney walked away before she fell apart. She couldn’t let him see that. Flopping face first onto her bed, she could still smell him on her sheets, her pillow. She waited to hear the click of the door.

  “Can I please explain?”

  He was in her room. The last place she wanted him to be. “You need to leave.”

  “I was sixteen years old. My sister was long gone. My mom was never home. We hardly had any money. I was lucky if I got one meal a day.”

  “I don’t want to hear it.”

  He continued anyway. “The guy in the double wide next door asked me if I wanted to do him a favor. He gave me a hundred bucks. All I had to do was meet this guy at the park and give him a paper bag. For ten minutes of work I had food for a week. I started doing it more and eventually he gave me stuff to sell on my own. OxyContin, Hydrocodone, Percocet. I had them all. Out here, there’s enough broken bull riders and ranch hands to keep a thousand dealers in business. It was easy money. I could finally buy a decent pair of sneakers and jeans without holes in them.”

  Laney didn’t want to hear anymore.

  “When I was nineteen I got caught selling to an undercover cop. They searched my trailer and found enough to convict me. Seven to ten, but I got out after eight. It would have been less but I refused to narc on people. I would’ve been dead if I had.”

  She sat up and faced him. “Why are you telling me this now?”

  “I want you to know the whole story.” He stepped toward her. “I want to get past this. All I’ve wanted for the last three years is to build a new life and forget about it. I met you, and for the first time ever, I actually had hope that I might have a normal life. And I want it with you, Laney.” He paused, his gaze locked on hers. “I love you.”

  She wished her heart hadn’t skipped a beat when he’d said it. It would be so easy to give in, to ignore the warning bells clanging in her ears. To chase the happily-ever-after she’d envisioned only hours earlier. But she knew from experience that life didn’t work that way. She couldn’t ignore her cautious brain. But it would be so much easier if she didn’t have feelings for him.

  “Would you have even told me if I hadn’t found out from Michelle?” she asked.

  He breathed deep and exhaled. “What would you have said if I did?”

  “I don’t know. You didn’t give me the chance. Instead I was ambushed.”

  “I’m ashamed of that part of my life. I want to forget it happened. You of all people should understand that.”

  “Don’t go comparing the two situations. They’re completely different. I didn’t do anything illegal.”

  “My crime was worse, but I paid for it. I was locked up for eight years. I was just a kid. Do you have any clue what it’s like to be in prison?”

  “No, but if you expect sympathy from me, you’re not going to get it. You broke the law. You deserved to go to jail.”

  “We all pay for our sins eventually, one way or another. For what you did, you lost your job, and you deserved that.”

  Laney’s jaw dropped. How dare he? “We’re done. You can go now.”

  “No one’s perfect. I fucked up, but I’m trying to make up for it. You’re doing the same. Why can’t we do it together? I love you. You can’t tell me you don’t feel it, too. You’d be lying if you said you didn’t.”

  Laney’s heart drummed in her chest. “It doesn’t matter what I felt, because it’s gone. You’re nothing but a distraction that’s going to wreck my life for a second time if I let you. Now will you please leave?” She didn’t know how much more of this she could take before breaking into a million pieces.

  He shook his head. “I’m not giving up.”

  “You have to. We’re over.”

  “I don’t believe that. I can’t walk away from you.”

  “Get out!” she screamed as tears spilled from her eyes.

  That did it. Sawyer backed away, and turned around. Laney watched him leave, the click of the door like a gunshot a foot away from her ear. She flopped onto the bed, sobs consuming her body. But she’d get over it. She’d be fine. Once she cried her eyes out, she’d pick herself up and go on like he’d never been a part her life. That’s what she had to do.

  Chapter 12

  Sawyer lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. When he’d been at Laney’s apartment earlier, he’d been determined to make it right, determined to make her understand. Make her forgive him. But now, after the day’s events had sunk in, he realized she was better off without him. He had nothing to offer her but a lifetime of worry. He couldn’t expect her to trust him. Couldn’t expect her to forget it. She had to protect herself.

  And if he loved her—really loved her—he had to make sure she did that. She had to protect her heart, her head, her business. He wanted her to succeed and be happy, and he’d just hold her back. It was really all for the best.

  “Sawyer. You in there?” A woman’s voice was on the other side of his door, accompanied by a few knocks.

  He sat up and yanked his tee back over his head then pulled on the doorknob. It was Sarah.

  “Does Tony need me for something?” he asked, trying not to be disrespectful, but he just wanted to go back to bed.

  “No. I wanted to check in and see how things are going. You didn’t come home last night.” She had those damn sparkles in her eyes. “Is it safe to assume you stayed at Laney’s?”

  “I did, but that’s over now.” It was best to be blunt about it.

  “What? Why?”

  He really had no energy to relive it all. “She found out, and just like I was afraid of, she wants nothing to do with me.”

  “I don’t believe that. I saw you two together the other day. That was the most romantic picnic ever. I saw how she looked at you.”

  He shrugged. “But then she found out what I’d done and she didn’t look at me like that anymore.”

  “Love doesn’t just disappear. You can’t just turn it off.”

  “If the sin is big enough, you can.”

  “I’m really sick of you punishing yourself. Do you honestly think you deserve a lifetime of misery for what you did? You made a stupid mistake. Everyone does. That’s what being a kid is all about. And yeah, your mistake may have been worse than others, but you paid for it. I see you day in and day out, working your ass off to make up for it.”

  “None of that matters. All she sees is someone who will push her off track. She has mistakes of her own to make up for.”

  “What do you mean?”

  He’d said too much. “Nevermind.”

  “Sawyer…” Sarah may be a few years younger than him, but she had easily slipped into big sister shoes. And she was damn good at it. “What’s going on?”

  “Please, just drop it.”

  “You know I won’t, so you better just tell me.”

  He opened the door wider and motioned to the wooden chair in the corner of his room. “You might as well have a seat then.”

  *

  “Where the hell have you been? I’ve been trying to get ahold of you all day!” Raelyn’s voice boomed through Laney’s cellphone.

  “Sorry. I was sleeping. And my phone was in the other room.”

  “It’s ten o’clock. You were asleep for the last five hours?”

  Laney looked at the time. She hadn’t realized it was so late already. “I guess so.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.”

  “I don’t believe you. It’s that boy, isn’t it? What did he do to you?”

  Laney didn’t even know where to start.

  “You better start talking or I’m driving to that ranch and kicking his ass.”

  “Don’t do that. He’s just not who I thought he was.
”

  “So. What’s the problem? Does he kick puppies or something?”

  Laney sighed as more tears trailed down her cheeks. She didn’t know how that was even possible. She thought she’d cried them all out already. “He used to be a drug dealer.”

  “Oh. That’s pretty huge.”

  “I know. He could’ve told me about it but chose not to. And even if he had, I can’t have that ruining my chances for the new business.”

  “Totally understandable. But it still hurts like hell.”

  “Yeah. It does,” Laney said through her tears.

  “Then it’s a good thing I drove all this way.”

  There was a knock on Laney’s door. She ran to it and flung it open, never having been more happy to see her little sister. She pulled her close and sobbed on her shoulder.

  “I brought your favorite.” Raelyn held up a box from Cupcake Factory. Almond with raspberry filling with that super buttery and sugary frosting she adored.

  Laney inhaled two cupcakes and felt a little better. The glasses of wine helped, too.

  “So you fell in love with him, huh?”

  Laney knew she couldn’t lie to her sister. She’d see right through it. So she nodded.

  “That was fast.”

  Laney nodded again. “It was so different. I thought I loved James, but I was just so lost in him, caught up. I can see now that he never even cared about me. He never asked how I was. Never offered to help me with anything. It was all about him. Sawyer is the complete opposite.”

  “Then what’s the problem?”

  “Raelyn, he was in jail.”

  “And?”

  “What if people find out? The bride today told me if she’d known I was with him, she never would have booked with me. What if other people feel that way? They’ll never trust me. I’ll be a complete failure.”

  “I get it. You can’t risk it.” She took a long sip of her wine. “But what if he’s the one? Your soulmate? Are you willing to give that up for business success? And does it have to be one or the other?”

  Laney couldn’t think about that. All she wanted to contemplate right now was whether or not they should crack open the second bottle of wine Raelyn had brought. And that was a definite yes. More wine was always a good decision.

  Chapter 13

  Sawyer didn’t sleep well that night. There were moments when he didn’t think he’d ever sleep well again. Not after holding Laney close, the scent of her surrounding him as he drifted off to sleep, and waking with her in his arms. It had only been one night, but his body just knew. That was how he was meant to sleep.

  But it was over now and he needed to get back to his normal life. Was that even possible?

  He got out of bed and went about his day, feeding and grooming horses, mucking stalls, typical ranch duties, trying anything and everything to get Laney off his mind. His phone buzzed in his pocket and before pulling it out, he squashed the stupid hope that had flourished in his gut that it was her.

  A text from Billy.

  Hey man. Im glad you got stranded out here. Ive missed havin u around

  It had been a shitty day, but if there was one good thing to take away from it, it was seeing Billy. He was a good man. A good friend. Sawyer was glad they’d reconnected. He could certainly use a friend.

  Me too. We’ll have to hnag out more often.

  Sawyer got back to work, remembering his conversation with Billy on their way back to Fort Mavis. He’d brought him up to speed on everything he’d missed the last eleven years. Updates on the town and friends they’d had, who’d moved away, who’d died. Billy had said Desiree had moved back to Stevensville a couple years ago. She came into the bar occasionally. He didn’t know much more, though.

  It had been so long since Sawyer had seen his sister, and she was only an hour away. Could he sit on that information and not do anything about it?

  He’d been content the last three years, with no friends, no family, no ties, no relationships. But Laney had changed all that. She’d woken him up. He may not be able to have her, but he could have his relationship with his sister, with Billy. Before, he’d been content to just exist. Laney had made him yearn for more.

  Sawyer shoved the pitchfork into the pile of hay and washed up. He changed his clothes and headed for Stevensville. By the time he got to town, he was soaked through with sweat. And not from the Texas heat. He was filled with anxiety. So much for the clean shirt.

  When he’d driven through town with Laney yesterday, he’d felt the rush of emotion. And not in a good way. But that was nothing compared to the nausea that swirled in his gut as he turned onto the driveway for Mockingbird Estates.

  The place looked eerily the same, row after row of old double-wides, many falling apart and in desperate need of repair. Flashbacks flooded his head. The people who had lived there had been neither neighbors nor friends. So many bad memories. Sawyer’s hands gripped the steering wheel tight. Could he do this? Could he see her? It wasn’t the thought of Desiree that made him upset. It was their mother. He’d been a kid the last time he’d seen her, too scared to talk back or ask for anything, even affection. But he sure as hell had the courage now.

  He stopped in front of the white trailer parked on lot number fifty-three and got out. He stepped to the door and knocked.

  A girl answered, tiny jean shorts and a tee that revealed her midriff, full of typical teenage attitude. “Yeah?”

  “I’m here to see Desiree. Is she home?”

  “Who the hell are you?”

  He wasn’t in the mood to deal with this annoying brat. “Is she here or not?”

  The girl rolled her eyes and stepped back. “Mom. There’s some guy here for you.”

  Mom? The annoying brat was his…niece? Sawyer’s heart raced as he waited.

  A woman stepped in front of the torn screen door. Jeans and a tank top, her dark hair pulled into a ponytail. Even through the screen, he could see it was her—an older, worn-down version. He took off his hat and they both stood there for a moment, staring at each other.

  Desiree pushed on the door and stepped down from the trailer, the door slamming behind her. Her voice quivered as she spoke. “Is it really you?”

  He nodded.

  She put a hand to his cheek then smoothed back his hair like she always had. A tear trailed down her face and she pulled him to her, sobbing as she clung to him. “I can’t believe you’re here.”

  Sawyer hugged his sister tight and all his anxiety drained away. He had his sister back and nothing else mattered.

  *

  Laney spent the majority of her Sunday lounging around with Raelyn, watching all their favorite chick flicks and eating junk food.

  “Where can we go for dinner?” Raelyn asked.

  Laney met her gaze with as much enthusiasm as she could muster, which was none. “Nowhere.”

  “Why? Won’t it feel good to get out of here, eat some yummy food, maybe find some hot cowboys to flirt with?”

  “What happened to all that soulmate talk last night? Now you want me to go hook up with someone else?”

  “I never said hook up. And I still think Sawyer might be your soulmate. But there’s nothing wrong with a little harmless flirting so your sister can fulfill a cowboy fantasy.”

  “Is that the only reason you came to visit me? To troll for hot guys?”

  “Of course not, but it’s a definite perk.” She stood and yanked Laney’s hand, trying to get her to stand. “Come on. Let’s do something fun.”

  “I’m not in the mood for fun.”

  “You’ll feel better. I promise.” And then Raelyn pulled out the big guns. That pout of hers. “Pretty please. I’ll pay. Anything you want. Even drinks.”

  That piqued Laney’s interest. “I get to pick the restaurant?”

  “Yep.”

  Raelyn had caught her in a moment of weakness. She was both hungry and low on cash, so an extravagant night out sounded nice. And maybe more alcohol would help fry the remaini
ng cells in her brain that wouldn’t stop thinking about Sawyer.

  “Fine.”

  Raelyn did a happy dance while Laney stood and headed for the bedroom to get changed. A half hour later they were at the most popular restaurant in town, a barbecue joint. There was a band playing some kind of bluegrass music but they headed straight for the bar and ordered drinks.

  “I’m loving the vibe of this place,” Raelyn said as she sipped her cocktail. “And the amount of plaid I see promises me it is full of sexy cowboys.”

  Laney didn’t care. She just wanted some food and her drink. She sucked it down and noticed the boys were already starting to circle Raelyn. Which happened often. They couldn’t help it. The big blond hair and boobs. She was like a homing signal for horny men.

  “Hi,” she cooed. “I’m Raelyn. And who are you?”

  Laney tuned them out and concentrated on her nearly empty glass and making sure it became completely empty.

  “And this is my big sister, Laney,” she said. “She needs some love. She just broke up with her boyfriend.”

  Laney shot her a look of death and through gritted teeth asked, “What the hell are you doing?”

  “Chatting with these fine gentlemen. You should try it.”

  “Hey, darlin’. I know how to heal a broken heart.” One of them stepped to her. “I’m real good at making women forget their exes.”

  Forgetting was the last thing Laney was doing right now. All this sleezeball did was make her miss Sawyer and his manners and chivalry. He made her want to throw all of her uncertainty out the window and run to Sawyer. Push aside everything she was trying to do with her life and career.

  But she couldn’t do that. This was her last chance to start over and get it right. To take her messed up life and make it perfect again. Be the person—the success—she was supposed to be. She was done being a screw up. She needed to be smarter. And that started now.

  She set her glass on the bar and stood, grabbing Raelyn by the arm. “We need to leave.”

  “We can’t. These lovely gentlemen just bought us a round of drinks. It would be rude to leave now.”

  “Then I’ll leave.” She let go and turned away from Raelyn and Sleezeball and Slimey.