Georgie stammered. “Excuse me?”
“Big E said you’re welcome.” Suspicion and disapproval clouded Lily’s gaze.
“I got that,” Georgie ground out. Peyton and Amanda moved into Georgie’s view, standing behind Lily and Fee, uniting the rest of the Harrison sisters against her. “I want to know about the seating part.”
“You sent your flight information to Rudy. I booked Zach’s flight.” Big E shrugged. “You ended up in the same row.”
“I’m confused.” Fee raised her hand as if she was in a classroom asking about an algebra problem. “Did you meet at the rodeo or on the plane?”
“The plane.” Zach’s voice and frown sank into grimness.
“As in, the plane you were on one week ago,” Lily clarified. Censure coated her tone.
Was Lily upset that Georgie had lied to her, or annoyed that Georgie brought home a stranger? Did it matter? Dismay was already pulling Amanda’s mouth into a thin line. Disappointment stole the usual light from Fee’s gaze. Only Peyton held back, her face expressionless. She’d want all the facts and then she’d render her judgment. Still, her older sister offered no encouragement. And just like that, Georgie’s joy vanished. And the truth demanded its retribution.
“Yes. Fine.” Georgie flung her hands into the air. “I met Zach on the plane. Colin never showed up. I needed a date and here we are.”
“This is some place to be.” That from Blake.
Georgie glared at Amanda’s boyfriend. As if Blake should talk. He’d been engaged to another woman, planning his wedding at Blackwell, before he’d finally realized what they’d suspected all along. He was in love with Amanda and had been for years.
Lily drew Georgie’s focus away from Blake. “You brought a stranger to be your date to my wedding?”
And I then lied to you, convincing you he was my boyfriend. Letting her sisters down always made her edgy, tense and miserable.
“I don’t want to hear it, Lily,” Georgie lashed out. “You rode across country in an RV with Conner. He was a stranger to you, too. Do not lecture me.”
Lily’s eyebrows lifted. Fee caught her gasp in her hand over her mouth. Amanda straightened, her eyes wide. Peyton nodded. The tiniest of grins arched across her mouth, then disappeared. Georgie never yelled. Outbursts had never been her thing. She’d definitely shocked her sisters. Were they mad at her deceit or only that they hadn’t been clued in from the start?
“What was your angle, Zach?” Ethan asked. “You knew Big E wasn’t here to champion your cause, so you decided to use Georgie instead.”
“Something like that.” Zach nodded. His words were too cold and too calculating.
It was nothing like that. Georgie flinched. “No. It was…”
Zach cut her off. “The fake date was my idea. I talked her into it on the plane.”
“You certainly fooled us all.” Chance crossed his arms over his chest and eyed Zach. “Making yourself quite indispensable around the ranch.”
“And at Brewster’s.” Ethan’s eyebrows pulled together. “Was that the plan? Work for the family, garner their praise and trust. Then I’d have to help you.”
Zach crossed his arms over his chest and remained silent.
Georgie wanted to shove him. Yell at Zach to tell them all that Ethan was completely wrong. Besides, she’d used Zach as much as he’d supposedly used her. But she’d failed on her end of their deal. She hadn’t helped him save Rain Dancer.
“You wasted your time.” Ethan wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. “There is no treatment. It failed on Butterscotch.”
“Now. Hold on. You have to try again,” Big E said. “You can’t give up, Ethan.”
“I don’t have to do anything for the man who used my cousin,” Ethan countered.
“We don’t turn our back on family.” The stiff set of Big E’s shoulders matched his inflexible tone.
“He’s not family.” Ethan stared Zach down. “What is Georgie to you, Zach?”
“You said it,” Zach replied. “My way in.”
My way in. Perhaps at the beginning. But what about now? After all they’d shared. He’d kissed her, tenderly and passionately. Surely not to save his horse. He’d had to earn the trust of her family for that task. He’d never told her about Butterscotch. Even her grandfather had played a part in putting them together. Had she really been nothing more than a means to an end for Zach? His horse couldn’t be all he cared about. Rain Dancer is my family.
“Excuse me.” Zach turned and headed for the door. He never looked back.
Everyone faces a choice at some point and proves their true loyalty. Georgie swayed as if she’d been rammed in the stomach by one of Zach’s bucking broncs. Lily reached for her. Fee stepped forward. Georgie’s gaze was fixed on Zach’s retreating back. She stumbled forward, righted herself and raced after Zach, the guy she…
* * *
ZACH TOSSED HIS suitcase on the bed in Dorothy’s guest room and crammed his clothes inside. If only he could cram his churning emotions inside, too.
Wade had given Zach the plane ticket to Falcon Creek. Told Zach to head to the Blackwell ranch and made Zach believe Ethan would help him, even after Ethan had refused Zach’s inquiries. Wade had never mentioned he’d spoken to Big E or even that he knew the Blackwell family. Zach would have time for those details after he returned to Colorado.
But Wade hadn’t counted on Georgie Harrison. Or Big E’s absence from the ranch.
Zach hadn’t counted on discovering his heart—the one he’d purposely misplaced after he lost Cody.
“What are you doing?” Georgie’s voice, rigid and unyielding, cuffed the back of his knees.
The right thing. Finally. He smashed the last of his T-shirts into the suitcase, and kept his back to Georgie and his resolve in place. Georgie deserved someone who could give her the world, not someone who wandered around the country.
“Why did you do that?” She walked past him and yanked his flannel shirts from the hangers in the closet. “Why did you tell them it was all your idea?”
“The deal is off.” He tugged one shirt from her grip and tossed it into his suitcase. “You don’t belong in London.”
“One week together and you claim to know where I belong?” She folded the shirt she still held, then rolled it tight. Irritation and anger curled around her words. “You’re always chasing the rodeo and the next ride, too afraid you might find someplace you want to belong.”
“Don’t talk to me about being afraid.” He straightened and faced her. “You’re hiding inside a lab, avoiding life because you’re terrified to let people down. Your mom is gone, Georgie. You can’t let her down anymore.”
“Everything I’m doing is to honor my mom’s memory.” She twisted his shirt in her hands. “Is that how you honor your brother? Avoid your grief. Live only for the next eight-second ride. What happens when the rides stop? What will you have then? Would Cody be proud or disappointed?”
Zach spun away and yanked the zipper on his suitcase closed. His brother’s voice wasn’t as easy to shut out. Promise me, Zach. No regrets. He’d regret losing Georgie. He’d never regret doing the right thing. At least after he left, she’d have her family, and that was all he could give her. “The broncs haven’t stopped bucking, and my brother would tell me to keep on riding.”
“My mom wanted me to spread my wings and fly.” Sadness carved an edge into her small grin. “That’s exactly what I intend to do with or without your endorsement.”
“You can spread your wings right here,” he said. “Surrounded by family that loves you.”
“You’ve fallen for my family,” she said. “This is exactly where you’ve always wanted to belong, not me.”
“I won’t deny I dreamed of a family like yours when I was a kid.” He swung his suitcase onto the floor but missed knocking back the past.
So many nights, he’d counted the stars outside their bedroom window and imagined. So many times, he’d raked leaves, cleaned gutters and mowed lawns, then stolen glimpses inside houses. Saw the board games. The presents piled underneath Christmas trees. Heard the laughter and the calls to come to dinner—it was ready and on the table. Then he’d stopped looking. He’d stopped wishing.
Until he’d met Georgie. But lessons forged in childhood ran deep. You boys ruined my life. Look at what I’ve become. Look around. This is the best you’ll ever have. The best you’ll ever deserve. “I know now I belong on the road.”
“Why?” She charged forward into his space. “So you can keep running and never build a future?”
She wanted him to build a future. But never offered a future with her. Frustration fisted around his throat, roughening his voice. “Is that what you’re doing in London? Building a future?”
“You sound like my dad.”
“Thank you.”
“It wasn’t a compliment.”
He took it as one all the same. He reached down, tugged the handle out from his suitcase.
“This is it, then. You’re just leaving.” She crossed her arms over her chest, still clutching his shirt in her fist. “You break your word and walk away.”
He wanted to walk to her. Run to her. He wanted her to reach for him. Hold on just as tightly as she did to his shirt. Hold on as if she never wanted to let go. Wishes and dreams were for kids, not cowboys. Especially not ones like him, with nothing more to offer than a sick horse and battered heart. “Yeah. I am.”
“You’re doing what you think is right for me.” Resentment sliced a bitter sharpness through her words. “Not what you promised. You can’t do that.”
He curled his fingers around the suitcase handle, leveled his gaze on her and gave her words he’d never spoken to another person. “I can because I love you.”
She sucked in her breath, held it and launched her own challenge. “Then ask me to stay.”
Georgie wanted proof of his love, as if walking away wasn’t enough. I had dreams. I did. Married your father and ended up trapped here in a town time forgot. Look what love gets you, boys. Better for Georgie to hate him now, not resent him later. “I’m not making that decision for you.”
“Because you love me.” Her words landed between them like a curse.
“Exactly.”
“So, that’s it? You won’t fight for us and you won’t support my decision to move to London.” She tossed his shirt at him and scowled. “This isn’t love.”
He let the shirt drop to the floor beside his heart. “It’s my kind of love.”
“Then keep it.” Anger and hurt washed over her face. She tipped her chin and locked her gaze on him. “I don’t want it.”
“You mean you don’t want me.” That truth he’d learned years earlier. The reminder wasn’t required. He rolled his suitcase over the pieces of his broken heart and walked out.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
SOMETIME AFTER MIDNIGHT and well before the first rays of sun had slipped around the window shutters in Dorothy’s guest room, Georgie had come to a conclusion.
Zach loved her family—the Blackwell side—not her.
The Blackwells represented everything he’d ever wanted in a family as a child.
Georgie gripped the steering wheel of the silver truck she’d borrowed from Dorothy, and concentrated on the road leading into town and the facts.
The facts were indisputable.
First, they were kindhearted, close-knit and protective. Zach had only ever been the protector, always looking out for his younger brother. And he’d been alone. He was not alone among the Blackwells.
Second, the Blackwells owned working ranches and lived their values, respecting the land and the livestock. Years ago, Zach had discovered his place on a working ranch, thanks to his ex-girlfriend. Even on the Blackwell ranch, he’d been working most mornings in the stables and helping where he could, as if compelled to be outdoors on the land.
She drove past Jem Salon, Silver Stake Saloon and the crowded bakery. She hadn’t been in Falcon Creek long, but she knew the locations of all the local businesses—ones she wanted to visit and ones she already wanted to return to. But she was only passing through Falcon Creek.
She returned to her facts, almost finished convincing herself that her conclusions about Zach were correct.
Third, and most vital, the Blackwells understood Zach’s connection to his horse and his lifestyle better than Georgie ever could. She’d grown up in the suburbs, had never ridden a horse—although she wouldn’t mind learning—and struggled to understand the call to get thrown from a bucking bronc.
Zach and Georgie were much too different. Beyond the outer appearances—cowboy hat and boots versus a lab coat and face mask—Georgie and Zach wanted different things.
Never mind that she’d been her happiest having Zach beside her the past week. Never mind that she’d laughed more in the past week than she had in months. Never mind that she liked the Blackwells, the land and the town.
An unexpected peace had settled through her since her arrival. That was only a result of Georgie needing time off. A brief break from her work. She would most likely have found the same calm at the beach among strangers. She pulled into an open parking space at Brewster’s. The front wheels bumped against the curb. Doubt bumped inside Georgie.
Zach and she might be too different. But she doubted anyone would love him as fiercely as she did. If she did love him.
That had been her second conclusion that morning. She did not love Zach. She liked Zach. She was attracted to Zach. Her feelings were the initial stages of her relationship guideline. All correct and proper emotions for their friendship to grow into something stronger. Perhaps if she weren’t moving to London. Or if he’d stayed and fought. Perhaps they might have progressed to the next level.
But she was moving. He had left. She wouldn’t be sad, and she wouldn’t let her heart hurt. He loved her extended family, not her. She liked—didn’t love—him.
Her breath caught in her throat.
Georgie hurried inside Brewster’s, escaping the bite of the cold wind and the twinge in her chest.
She located Ethan in the feed section. He had a handwritten list in one hand and clutched the handle of a rolling flatbed cart with the other. She skipped the small talk and launched into the reason she’d tracked her cousin down. “Ethan, you can’t walk away from Rain Dancer.”
“I can’t help the horse.” Ethan dropped two bags of alfalfa pellets on the cart.
“You won’t help,” she countered. “But you and I both know it’s not going to let you rest.”
“What isn’t?”
“The what-if,” she said. “You’re always going to wonder about Rain Dancer. Always wonder if you could have helped. If you could have made a difference.”
“Is that so.” He checked his list, then the items on his cart.
“Yes.” She stood in front of the stack of alfalfa feed bags and forced him to look at her. “I’m always going to ask what if? over my mom. What if I’d gone to her doctor’s appointments? Read her blood work. Lived closer. Would I have seen the warning signs?” Could she have saved her mom?
“I’m sorry about your mother.” Sympathy soothed the edge from his voice.
“I’m sorry about your mother’s horse.” She might not have bonded with a pet, but she understood loss. Understood the sorrow that stuck inside like knotted stitches, catching and pulling when least expected. “But you have another chance.”
A second chance. What she wouldn’t give to have one with her mom. She pressed her hand against her stomach, pushing back that familiar tangle of grief.
“And if I fail again?” He shook his head as if discarding her suggestion. “Zach’s horse is his family. His career.”
“Everyone else has walked away.” Georgie would be walking away soon, too. That ache in her chest pinched into her ribs. She had to give Zach something. He’d be completely alone. She hated that fact. “Zach has nowhere else to go.”
“You’re telling me that I’m his last hope.” Ethan folded his list and stuffed it into his pocket.
“Hope is a powerful thing.” Every patient, every family member of a sick loved one relied on hope. Hope the medicine would work. Hope the doctors found the right treatment. Hope the surgeons removed every last cancer cell. Hope the damage wouldn’t be permanent. Hope that tomorrow would be brighter, better, pain free.
“It is.” Ethan lifted his face to the ceiling, then leveled his serious gaze at her. “You might consider giving it to patients, too, instead of keeping it to yourself.”
“I’ll take that into consideration.” The only hope Georgie cared about right now was Zach’s. She gripped her hands together. “So, you’ll see Rain Dancer.”
“I’ll talk to Zach. Review the vet records.”
Georgie grinned and hugged her cousin, quick and easy.
“No promises,” Ethan warned. “No guarantees either.”
But it was more than Zach had had yesterday. Georgie walked beside Ethan down the aisle. “Zach isn’t a bad guy.”
“He’s more than that to you or you wouldn’t be here right now.” Ethan slowed again in front of the pig feed.
“What changed your mind?” she asked.
“You and my wife.” Ethan smiled. A small laugh escaped. “Grace reminded me of the things we do for love and the lengths we go to to avoid love.”
She wasn’t avoiding love. This was just something she had to do for Zach, her friend. Georgie thanked Ethan and rushed toward the exit before her cousin could ask her what she was avoiding.
“What’d you find in the feed section?” Pops hollered. “A giant rat?”
“Georgie, you’re running like your pants caught fire. Come here, child.” Big E pointed to the empty rocking chair beside him and Pops. “You best sit and tell us what Ethan has done now.”
Harlequin Heartwarming December 2020 Box Set Page 21
