Tough Talking Cowboy

by Jennifer Ryan

  When you don’t deal with your shit, it festers under the surface, infecting everything in your life whether you like it or not.

  Now that Drake was finding his way out of the anger, grief, and pain, he saw possibilities that once seemed out of reach.

  He hoped Chase had gotten to that point, too. If not now, then before he left this place for home.

  “Here comes your girl.” Chase notched his chin up.

  Drake glanced over his shoulder, ready with a smile to greet Adria, but it died when he realized the woman walking toward him wasn’t Adria. “She’s not mine.”

  Juliana walked right up to them. “Let’s get out of here.”

  “Nice try. Where’s Adria?”

  Juliana’s eyes narrowed. “How did you know?” She held her hands up, showing him Adria’s sweater.

  “Adria is wearing black boots and a pink top.”

  Juliana glanced down at her canvas shoes and white shirt. “Are you always that observant?”

  “No. I might have missed that if I hadn’t seen your eyes. When she looks at me, they light up. You look a little desperate. You also don’t have her I Love You tattoo on your hand.”

  Juliana shifted from one foot to the other and stared at the back of her hand. “Maybe I need one, too, to remind me to love myself more.” She rubbed her hands together. “Adria’s not very happy right now.”

  “Why?” He looked past Juliana, hoping to see Adria coming out of the building, but she still didn’t appear.

  “I made her talk about the past. I know what really happened now.”

  Drake pressed his lips tight. She’d go through hell for her sister. For him. That’s just who she was, but he hated that she had to relive something so traumatic. “I’m sure that wasn’t easy, but if it helped you, I know she thinks it’s worth it.”

  Juliana’s head tilted to the side the way Adria’s did when she was thinking hard. “You really do know her.”

  “I’m working on it.”

  “Maybe you could do something for me. For her.”

  “I’d do anything for her.”

  “Cheer her up. Get her to stop worrying so much about me.”

  He nodded. “The first I can do, but she’s never going to stop worrying about you. She loves you. Nothing is going to change that either.”

  Juliana locked eyes with him. “She’s the best person I know. Don’t ever hurt her.”

  Drake took the unspoken threat in stride. He wanted to make that promise, but knew it couldn’t be kept. People hurt people without meaning to all the time. He would never hurt her on purpose. Because seeing her unhappy or upset killed him. “You want to make her happy, get better.”

  “I’m working on it. Today helped.”

  “Then take whatever progress you made and build on it instead of tearing down your life.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “You really don’t mince words.”

  Drake leaned forward and gave it to her straight. “Get your shit together so Adria can have you back and you can be with her. How’s that?”

  Her lips tilted and scrunched into a lopsided frown. “I don’t think I’m going to like you.”

  “Probably not, because I will always be on her side.” He stood and went to meet Adria as she walked their way.

  She ran into his arms and hugged him close, her hands fisted in his shirt at his back.

  He cupped her face and made her look at him. “You okay?”

  “Not really.”

  He loved that she went with honesty instead of simply saying she was fine when she wasn’t. “What do you need?”

  “You.”

  He hugged her close. “You’ve always got me.”

  They reluctantly pulled apart to go back to Juliana and Chase, who stood near the patio table he and Chase used earlier. Drake would take care of Adria later. Hold her. Feed her. Whatever she needed to shake off today.

  Chase came forward and held out his hand to Adria. “Chase Wilde.”

  “Adria Holloway. My sister Juliana.” Adria held her hand out to her twin. “It’s nice to meet you. Drake told me you served together.”

  “We did. He looks like that because he saved my life.”

  Adria looked from Chase to him. “Really?”

  Drake pressed his lips together and tried not to get lost in his own nightmare. “It’s complicated.”

  Chase frowned at that. “Not really. People were shooting at us. I got hit.” Chase tapped his shoulder, chest, then held up his arm, showing off the scar where a bullet went right through his forearm. “I went down. Drake came out of cover to drag my ass back to safety, but an IED went off nearby, nearly blowing us to bits. Somehow, Drake managed to get up and, using mostly his right leg, drag me another thirty feet to what was left of our team before he collapsed and bled all over the place.” Chase gave him a halfhearted smirk, trying to make light of something dark. “Then another of our guys got hit. Drake found the strength to get up and go after him.”

  “Chappie.” Adria put her hand on Drake’s chest and locked eyes with Chase so he’d know she understood. “I’m so sorry you lost him, but I’m so glad you both survived.”

  “Wow, you two have really been through it.” Juliana had lost the attitude and found her sympathy.

  Adria glanced up at Drake. “You’re very brave.”

  “So are you. Juliana told me you opened up about what happened when you were a kid.”

  Adria stared at Juliana. “We have to face the past in order to move forward to a better future.”

  Juliana nodded and closed the distance to hug Adria.

  Chase slapped him on the back. “I need to get back. I’d like to see you, say goodbye before I head back to Wyoming.”

  “Absolutely.”

  Chase put his hand on Drake’s shoulder. “And thanks for saving my life.”

  “You thanked me in the hospital.”

  “That was for saving me on the battlefield. This one’s for making me come here.”

  Drake hugged his buddy. “I hope you never need saving again. But if you do . . . I’m here anytime you need me.”

  Chase stepped back. “Same goes.” Chase took off.

  Juliana and Adria stood with their arms around each other.

  “You two really do look exactly alike.”

  Juliana leaned her head against Adria’s. “He knew I wasn’t you when I came out wearing your sweater.”

  Adria’s eyebrows shot up. “Really?”

  “It must be love if he knows you so well I don’t look like you to him.” Juliana hugged Adria hard one last time, then let her go. “Be happy, sis. I’ll see you soon.” And just like that, Juliana walked back into the facility.

  Adria watched her go. “She’s scared. She’s afraid she won’t be able to do this and she’ll disappoint me.”

  “I have that same fear.” He hadn’t really been aware of how much he meant that until he said it out loud. And deeper than that, he feared he’d lose her and his world would be even bleaker than when he met her.

  “Let’s just keep doing what we’ve been doing. It’s worked for us so far.”

  “Where do you want to go to dinner?”

  “The same place we spend most of our time.”

  He cocked his head, not understanding. “We haven’t really gone anywhere together. We spend most our time at the cabin.”

  “More specifically, our bed. Take me home, cowboy. I want a ride.”

  “I can’t deny you anything.” Especially that. He hooked his arm around her shoulders and hugged her close. “Dinner in bed it is.”

  “I’ll be your dessert.” She gave him a sexy smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

  He’d help her wipe out the bad memories from her mind when they got home.

  He wanted to spend every day creating new, happy memories with her to take their place.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  A week before they opened Almost Homemade Trinity and Adria set up a booth at the local farmer’s market i
n hopes of enticing as many people as possible to try their food and come to the store for more. The market opened at eight. By ten, they’d nearly sold out of what they’d brought and called in reinforcements.

  “There’s Drake.” Trinity pointed to her brother walking through the crowd ahead of a huge cooler and Declan carrying the other end behind him.

  “I hope they brought more than that.” Adria worried they’d start a riot if they didn’t have enough for everyone. The line stretched twenty feet and never seemed to get any shorter.

  “I told them to grab all of the prepacked food we put together over the last week.”

  They’d thought to get a head start on the dry ingredient kits. This would wipe them out. “We’re going to have to hire more help at the shop if this is the kind of demand we can expect.”

  “Let’s hope so.” Trinity’s eyes shone with delight as she rang up another customer and bagged up the last mac and cheese refrigerated entrée. Everything they’d put out to sample had been devoured.

  Drake and Declan made it to the front of the line.

  “Where do you want this, sweetheart?” Drake didn’t even break a sweat carrying the heavy cooler. His physical therapy had made him stronger and steady on his bad leg.

  “You shouldn’t be carrying that. You have surgery tomorrow.”

  His mouth tilted in a lopsided grin. “I won’t carry coolers after surgery, I promise. Now, where do you want it?”

  “Do you have any more of the lasagna or chicken and fettucine Alfredo in there?” the woman Trinity rang up asked.

  “There’s a few of everything in here. We’ve got two more coolers and about five boxes of mixes coming.”

  “Really?” Adria asked.

  “You said bring as much as we could. We grabbed all of it.” Drake scoped out the line. “Looks like you’ll need it.”

  Adria handed change to her customer, then held up her hand to stop the next person from coming forward. “Give me one second.” She waved Drake and Declan around the booth to the back. “Put it there.” She pointed to eight other coolers. “Those are empty. Mind taking them back to make room for what you brought?”

  Declan gave her a quick kiss on the head. “You got it.”

  Of course, Drake shoved Declan away from her. It had become a thing, Declan and Tate being sweet to her just to get at Drake. All in fun. And it was so nice to see the guys all working and playing together again.

  Trinity glanced over her shoulder with an affectionate smile. “Stop fooling around. We’ve got hungry people to feed.”

  Drake saluted her. “On it.”

  The guys made several trips back and forth to their truck to bring the much-needed supplies. As fast as they emptied the boxes of mixes, she and Trinity sold them. The guys finished unloading and helped fill orders. They sold out again before one o’clock when the market closed.

  Trinity passed out postcards with the store location and a code for a discount for their first purchase.

  “You guys better rethink how much stock you’re going to need when you open the store.” Declan wiped the back of his hand over his brow.

  Adria hugged Trinity and laughed. “We sold out!”

  Trinity hugged her back, her own joy overflowing in her laughter. “After the first hour, we didn’t even have any samples to give out.” She stood back. “That was unreal.”

  Adria beamed. “I told you people want fast and easy but healthy and fresh food.”

  “You guys knocked this out of the park.” Drake folded up the last portable table they brought. “You should think about doing the farmer’s market even after you open. There’s twenty miles between here and your shop. A lot of people might not want to make the drive, but stock up here instead.”

  Adria glanced at Trinity. “It’s a good idea. We could even do other farmer’s markets in other towns. Test the waters. See where the demand is highest and consider opening more stores.”

  “Maybe you guys can turn this into a franchise,” Declan suggested, hefting up his side of the stacked tables with Drake.

  She and Trinity had carried them one at a time this morning. The guys took all four at once.

  “Or sell to a grocery store chain.” Trinity had dreams of seeing their products mass distributed throughout the country from the stores they’d strategically place across the States to create the high-quality food products and deliver them to the stores.

  “Let’s start with our first store and see what happens from there.”

  “What about doing a food truck?” Declan asked. “You could take it to the state fair or a corporate party. Cook the food you sell right there in the truck and serve it. People can come to the store and buy it after the event.”

  Trinity held her hand out to Declan. “We should hire him.”

  “I’m a rancher. I’ll stick with being your beef supplier.”

  “At this rate, we’re going to need a bigger herd to keep up with demand.” Drake kissed Adria before walking off with Declan to put the tables in the truck.

  Trinity bumped shoulders with her. “Can you believe today?”

  After seeing Juliana the other day and with Drake’s surgery coming up, she’d needed something really good to happen. She had faith in Drake’s surgeons, but still worried that something could go wrong. What if he didn’t get the results he wanted? What if they made things worse?

  “It’s okay to celebrate, Adria. We can worry about Drake’s surgery tomorrow.”

  “You’re starting to read my mind.”

  “We’ve spent the last many weeks together working on our shop. You’re dating my brother. I think it’s safe to say one day soon, you’ll be my sister by law, but I think of you as my sister in my heart already.”

  “Oh, Trinity, that’s sweet. I feel the same.”

  “I thought I’d go to culinary school and work in a restaurant in a big city. You had this dream and changed my mind about what I wanted. We own our own place. And today we sold out!”

  Adria needed to stop worrying about everyone else and take a little time for herself. She needed to celebrate these victories.

  Drake and Declan returned.

  “We found a bar around the corner. Drinks are on us. Let’s celebrate,” Drake coaxed with a huge smile.

  Trinity hooked her arm through Declan’s. “Not exactly the date of my dreams, but for this, you’ll do.”

  Declan rolled his eyes. “Thanks.”

  Drake hugged Adria close to his side. “You’re my favorite date.”

  In that moment, Adria wished for more days like this. Family. Friends. Good times with the ones she cared about and loved.

  The kind of life Roxy and Sonya found with their cowboys. Now she had one of her own.

  With Juliana almost home, she hoped her sister found the kind of peace and happiness in herself that she’d found here.

  “Let’s go.” Declan steered Trinity down the sidewalk toward the bar around the corner.

  Drake noticed she’d gone quiet. “Stop worrying. I’m going to be fine.”

  She couldn’t stop the feeling of dread that came over her. “I don’t want to lose you.”

  “It’s not that serious. It’ll be over before you know it and I’ll be able to move better.” He nuzzled his nose into her ear and whispered, “You think I set you on fire now, just wait until I can actually move my hip. We’ll burn the place down to the ground.”

  She squeezed his arm. “Don’t do this because you think I want it.”

  Declan and Trinity walked into the bar ahead of them.

  Drake stopped her on the sidewalk out front. “I’m doing this because it will relieve the pain. It will allow me to ride better and do more around the ranch. As it is now, I can’t help as much as Declan and Tate need me to.”

  “They understand your limitations, but that doesn’t mean you’re not helping them.”

  “I know that, but I want to be able to do more. I want to be able to crawl around with our kids and run after them when the
y get big.”

  She tilted her head and stared up at him. “You think about us having kids?”

  He held her gaze, his eyes alight with dreams. “A house. Sunny running around after the babies. Yes. All of it.” He tilted his head and studied her. “Don’t you?”

  She’d been so busy with the business and waiting for Juliana to come back that she hadn’t planned past any of that. Hearing Drake talk about their future, she realized that’s exactly what she wanted with him. “I want it all.”

  “Let’s start with celebrating your success today.” He held the door open.

  He’d opened a world of possibilities. A life she never thought she’d have with a man. He wanted to give her everything. He wanted to do everything with her.

  When she raised a glass with Trinity, Declan, and Drake, it was with a heart full of hope.

  She wished Juliana was here to celebrate with her. But there would be so much more to come, and Juliana would be with her for all of it. Because when she thought of her life with Drake, she saw Juliana still by her side.

  Their lives had always been intertwined. They always would be.

  Juliana just needed to get better and come home.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Drake floated on the numbing drugs. His leg, hip, and back ached, but not with the piercing pain he remembered the last time he woke up after surgery. His cheek and jaw felt swollen, the skin tight. He reached up and touched the line of stitches. The plastic surgeon had done what he asked and repaired the wide scars, closing them up to minimize the jagged lines.

  He had no idea what he’d look like when they healed but it had to be better than the quick job they’d done in the field. Then they’d rightly prioritized saving his leg over prettying up his face.

  The door to his room opened and Adria walked in, his brothers and Trinity behind her.

  “You’re awake.” Nothing sounded better or eased him more than Adria’s sweet voice.

  “Barely.” He still felt groggy from the anesthesia but he felt clearer by the minute. Seeing Adria at his bedside helped.

  “The doctor spoke to us after the surgery. He said it went better than expected.”