The Long Way Home

by Liz Isaacson

  “Earth to Ty.” Caleb chuckled as Ty swung his gaze toward him and found he and Holly had already gotten out of the truck and were looking at him expectantly. “Wow, whoever she is, she must be somethin’ special.” Caleb closed the door, another chuckle already in the space between them.

  Ty scrambled from the truck and caught up to his friend. “There’s no girl.”

  “Right,” Caleb scoffed. “The only time I’ve ever seen you with such a dreamy look was after you kissed Harli Baugh after the fireworks a coupla years ago. And she wasn’t even your date.”

  Ty’s stomach turned over, and not in a good way. “It’s not a girl,” he repeated. River Lee wasn’t just any girl. Not a girl he’d meet at a Saturday night dance in the summer heat. Not a girl he’d kiss just because he could.

  She was a woman. A year older than him, with two little girls to take care of. A degree in professional counseling, with a near-perfect score on her psychology exam, if her mother was to be believed. Ty knew River Lee was smart, and he didn’t doubt her mother’s claims. She’d told him all about River Lee while he fixed her faucet. Apparently, she’d taken the job at Silver Creek—the first job where she’d actually use the master’s degree she’d earned from UNLV. She was only waiting for approval from the state of Montana to practice legally.

  No, River Lee was not just a girl. At least Ty had spoken true on that point.

  He entered the church, more grateful for air conditioning than anything else at that moment, and scanned the lobby for that shock of white-blonde hair. He didn’t find it, and his heart sank as if someone had tied a weight to it.

  A familiar giggle caught his attention and he turned toward Whitney. She tossed her dark hair over her shoulder and sauntered toward him in a dress two sizes too small. “Hey, cowboy.”

  He let her trip her fingers up his chest, but he didn’t smile at her the way he normally would have. “Whitney, we need to talk.”

  “Oh.” Her demeanor fell, and Ty felt like the jerkiest jerk on the planet. Was he really going to break up with her at church? Did he need to break up with her at all? He hadn’t kissed her. He’d danced with her a few times and taken a walk along the boardwalk at the waterfalls. Did that mean they were dating?

  “I’m just not sure this is working,” he said. “I like you, don’t get me wrong, I just….” River Lee entered the building, each of her hands claimed by one of her daughters. She wore a long, flowing black dress that bore the bright blue and green feathers of a peacock. The fabric made her hair seem whiter and brighter than before, and the look suited her well. Ty froze, his words lodged somewhere between his brain and his voice box.

  River Lee didn’t glance around. Didn’t wait to see if anyone was watching her. He wondered if she’d been in town long enough to come to church prior to this, as he hadn’t attended in a couple of weeks.

  She moved without hesitation toward the chapel doors and disappeared, the little girls going with her. Ty’s heart felt like a machine gun in his chest, firing against his ribs with too much force and too much speed.

  Ty’s feet wanted to follow her, and follow fast. He took a single step before he realized Whitney was still attached to his arm. Thankfully, he didn’t think River Lee had seen him.

  “Can we talk later?” he asked as Jace and Belle entered the chapel with their son, Tucker. “I need to talk to my boss.” He prayed for forgiveness for the little white lie as he hurried across the foyer and attached himself to Jace. “Hey,” he whispered, just so he wouldn’t be a total liar.

  “Mornin’ Ty.” Jace paused and took a longer look at him. “What’s eatin’ you?”

  Ty shook his head, his annoyance near its peak already and the service hadn’t even started yet. To make matters worse, River Lee had slid onto a crowded bench beside to her mother, her girls taking up all the space next to her.

  But his luck took a turn when he spied Caleb on the row directly in front of River Lee—and he’d saved the end spot for Ty. He clapped Jace on the shoulder and strode toward the bench, his heart doing that strange gunshot thing again.

  He sank into the spot and sighed, “Thanks, Caleb,” just loud enough for River Lee to hear. He watched her out of the corner of his eye, and he witnessed the moment she saw him. Her right hand fluttered up to her throat before she busied herself with her oldest daughter.

  “Oh, hey, River Lee,” he said, pretending to notice her for the first time. “You look real nice.” He turned his attention to the girls. “Hey, Lexi.” The little girl looked up and gave him a shy smile. “Remember me?”

  She glanced at River Lee, who wore a look somewhere between annoyance and acceptance. Ty would take it. “Go on, missy. Remember your manners.”

  “Hello, Mister Ty.” Lexi dropped her gaze immediately afterward, and a chuckle broke free from Ty’s throat.

  Ty wanted to soak in River Lee’s beauty, and ask her mother to slide over a seat so he could squeeze onto the bench, and hold her hand in secret. But he knew when to hold his cards and when to play them, so he flashed her another smile and turned around.

  The pastor got up to welcome everyone at the same time Caleb leaned over and said, “Not a girl, huh?”

  “Trust me,” Ty whispered. “River Lee Whitely is not a girl.”

  “Oh, I can see that.” Caleb cast a glance behind them, and Ty wanted to pinch him until he faced the front. “And did you say River Lee?”

  “Shout it, why don’t you?” Ty hissed. “Yes, River Lee.”

  “The River Lee you told me about?”

  “When did I tell you about her?”

  “When you said you’d already kissed the girl of your dreams, and you were worried you’d never get to do it again.”

  Ty straightened his tie, a flash of fear and unease flowing through him. He shrugged it off, not remembering ever telling Caleb about the life-changing kiss with River Lee.

  “I didn’t tell you that.”

  Caleb’s chuckle got lost under the deep bass voice of the pastor, but even the sermon couldn’t erase Ty’s relentless thoughts of kissing River Lee again.

  River’s back ached with how straight she sat, and she forced a measure of relaxation through her shoulders and down into her core muscles. Wasps still swarmed in her stomach, no matter how many times she tried to focus on the pastor, no matter that she kept her gaze straight forward during the rest hymn, no matter that Ty didn’t lean over and whisper with his cowboy friend, Caleb Chamberlain, again.

  Yes, River knew them both, and she hadn’t experienced even an ounce of surprise to find them sitting by one another, their cowboy hats perched in place. The brunette bombshell on Caleb’s arm—and sporting his diamond ring—had garnered a bit of surprise for River. Not that Caleb wasn’t a great guy. He just seemed…more carefree than marriage usually required.

  Like Ty.

  She ground her teeth together at the constant way he inserted himself into her mind. Though she’d really liked Ty in high school, she had never really considered him to be someone she could get serious with. And if the rumors she’d heard around town could be believed, he’d dated everyone with a double X-chromosome, further cementing her opinion of him as someone who played around but wasn’t looking to settle down.

  She’d heard about his current girlfriend from the cashier at McCall’s, the gas station that housed more gossip than chocolate. She’d heard about three of his ex-girlfriends when she went to see her friend, Katie, at the salon. Of course, both places in Gold Valley were well-known for their rumors, most of which weren’t true. But with the multiple sources—and from the mouth of one woman who dated Ty for exactly ten days before he told her he just “didn’t feel good” about her—River had believed the rumors.

  She hadn’t known what not feeling good about someone meant, and River had been thinking about it since her hair appointment the week before. Of course, she hadn’t expected to really run into Ty much, what with him living and working thirty minutes up the canyon, at Horseshoe Home Ranch
.

  Her tailbone screamed a shout of pain, a reminder of the horseback riding lessons she’d have to endure for the next eleven weeks. She shifted on the hard bench, letting her daughters distract her from the sermon.

  But they couldn’t distract her from Ty long enough for her to draw a decent breath, one that wasn’t filled with the unfairly delicious scent of his cologne. Men really shouldn’t be allowed to use products filled with metallic and musky scents. And all that sandalwood? All that cedar?

  River shook her head, completely defenseless against Ty’s scent. She wanted to dive into him, roll around, get coated in all that honeyed, spicy smell, and then never bathe again. As consumed with him as she was, she didn’t even realize when the sermon ended and the congregation stood. She hurried to get Lexi’s coloring book cleaned up and Hannah’s sippy cup back in the diaper bag.

  By the time she finished, nearly everyone had vacated the chapel. A low din echoed back to her from the lobby, where churchgoers loitered to chat with one another before heading out into the summer heat.

  She finally herded Hannah and Lexi into the aisle, her mother waiting patiently behind her. They moved slowly toward the crowd, and River wished she’d been ready to go sooner so she could’ve beaten everyone out the doors.

  Didn’t matter. She had agreed to go to the monthly picnic that afternoon. She was even making cheddar biscuits for the occasion, and her mother had baked her Gold Valley-famous chocolate cake that morning. Once that beauty was frosted, she’d be ready to sink into sugar-coated bliss, no room for Ty and his perfectly tailored slacks, that bright blue tie, and that dangerous-to-her-health cowboy hat.

  She’d taken one step out of the building when Ty emerged from the very bricks themselves. “So I heard you were going to the picnic,” he said, settling into stride next to her. “Is that true?”

  “Who did you hear that from?” She barely gave him a glance, choosing instead to lean away so she wouldn’t catch a whiff of that cologne that clouded her reasoning skills.

  “Katie. She’s Caleb’s sister, and she said—”

  River stopped and stared, all thoughts of protecting herself from his good looks, his tantalizing scent, gone. “Katie?” That little traitor! She’d said nothing while she bleached and colored River’s hair last week. Nothing about her brother. Nothing about Ty. They didn’t talk about men—all the women around them had. Plus, River wasn’t especially interested in detailing why her marriage had ended. For the sake of her daughters, she tried to be nothing but positive about John, though he’d betrayed her in the worst way possible—repeatedly.

  “Right, Katie.” Ty reached back and tapped two fingers to the back of his cowboy hat, tipping it further forward on his forehead. “So I thought maybe I could eat with you.”

  “I—”

  “I usually go alone, and I don’t like just sort of sitting on the end next to some family. But I thought….”

  She really wanted him to finish that sentence, find out what he thought. She remained silent, refusing to give him a way out of his own mouth.

  “You thought what?” she prompted.

  “I thought maybe we could go together.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and rocked back and forth from heel to toe. Heel to toe. Heel to toe. “Look, I gotta go. I caught a ride with Caleb and Holly.” He glanced over his shoulder as a pickup truck pulled up to the curb. “I’ll give you my number, and you can let me know if I can eat with you. I have to go anyway, but it would be nice not to have to search for somewhere to belong.” He pulled out his phone and said, “What’s your number?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “So I can send you my number,” he said, a hint of innocence in his voice but that devilish glint right there in those dark hazel eyes.

  She sighed, tired of resisting him when everything in her wanted to just give in. She recited her number, and Ty grinned, tapped on his phone, and said, “Great.” He took off as if he’d been launched from a slingshot, practically leaping into the truck from ten feet away. His laughter floated back to her and made the hair on her arms stand up. Goosebumps broke out on her skin in anticipation of sitting next to him at the picnic.

  “So.” Her mother linked her arm through River’s and got her feet moving. “Are you going to sit by him at the picnic?”

  River shook her head, her first reaction to say no. But she’d be there anyway. Was she really going to deny him from having somewhere to sit?

  “Does he help with the picnics too?” she asked.

  “This is the first one of the summer,” her mom said. “So maybe.”

  “He didn’t say that when he asked me to help.”

  Her mom shrugged, and they all loaded into her car. River wished she was driving so she couldn’t fiddle with her phone. Couldn’t flip it over, and over, and over, almost expecting Ty to text her, maybe with another plea to sit with her.

  She finally just let her thumbs do what they wanted, with little direction from her heart. After all, that organ had led her astray before. Maybe she shouldn’t be listening so hard to it, when everything else inside her urged her toward Ty, not away from him.

  “He can sit by us, right, Mom?”

  “I like Ty Barker,” she said, her voice half an octave too high. “He’s a good boy.”

  “He’s not a boy,” River muttered, finally sending him the message that he could sit by her family at the picnic. That opened a conversation about his role in helping with the picnics, which he confirmed he’d just signed on for and had forgotten about.

  He asked her again if she’d consider helping out, if she wasn’t too busy at Silver Creek. She honestly had no idea what her job would require of her, mentally, physically, or emotionally. She already felt drained in so many ways, and without the opportunity to spiritually rejuvenate herself because of Ty’s proximity, River leaned her head back and closed her eyes.

  “It’s okay to like him,” her mom said.

  River let her head loll to the side and opened her eyes to look out the window. The town rolled by, much the same way River felt like her life currently was sliding by.

  “You used to like him,” her mom continued.

  “I know, Mom.”

  “What happened?”

  River heaved a sigh. “Nothing, Mom. Absolutely nothing happened.” And that, in River’s opinion, was the real problem.

  Chapter 4

  After a nap, and consuming a gallon of diet soda, River found her second wind. Well, at least enough wind to make it to the picnic, her warm cheddar biscuits resting beneath a crisp, white tea towel. Her mother’s cake was not covered, and she carried it like it was the crown jewel of picnic foods. She set it on the end of the table housing desserts and was quickly whisked away by the knitting club she’d joined the previous year.

  River watched her go, and though she had Lexi and Hannah with her—they were always with her—she felt utterly alone and abandoned. She moved down the table to the bread section and placed her biscuits in an empty spot. She turned, expecting to fumble around socially for a few minutes until the feasting started.

  Sure enough, she didn’t see anyone she cared to converse with, so she guided her girls away from the food tables and toward the playground. “Go on and play,” she said. “I’ll call you when it’s time to eat.”

  Lexi and Hannah ran off, and River grinned at their exuberance. She pushed her hands in her jeans pockets and glanced around again.

  “I was half-expecting you not to show.”

  She startled at Ty’s deep voice, so close and so comforting. She found him on her left, only inches away. “You’ve got to stop sidling up to me.”

  “Sidling?” He laughed, that same boisterous, carefree sound she’d enjoyed as a teen.

  “Yes, sidling. You’re like a ninja, appearing out of nowhere.”

  “I’m just standin’ here, sweetheart.”

  The endearment made her heart trip at the same time it tried to rip itself free from her veins. “Sweetheart?” She gav
e a mirthless laugh. “Don’t call me that.”

  His fingertips glossed down her forearm. “You used to like it when I called you that.”

  “Then you stopped calling completely.” She arched her brow at him and walked away, unsure of why she simultaneously wanted to bring him closer and push him away.

  He caught her easily, what with those long legs and all. “I stopped calling because you moved a thousand miles away three weeks after—” He cut off so suddenly she thought he’d been struck mute.

  Her heart roared like a lion, and she felt as trapped as a wild animal behind glass, with spectators studying her. “Three weeks after what?” she asked.

  “After I kissed you.” He glared at her, the edges around his rock-hard eyes crumbling with every passing second. “Must’ve been a terrible kiss.” He smiled, and the wattage on this one could light a dozen Christmas trees. Did he know how beautiful his face was when it was lit up like that? Soft and rugged and handsome at the same time. Her fingers flinched toward his face, as if she’d trace that smile so she could feel it later.

  “It wasn’t,” she managed to push out of her throat.

  The smile turned from flirty to foxy in less than a blink. “No?” He touched her again with his calloused fingers, and she wanted to press her palm against his and see if his hand still fit in hers like a missing puzzle piece. “Maybe we should try it again just to make sure.”

  River’s skin tingled where he touched her, and the lion’s roar in her heart moved to her bloodstream. Yes! her mind screamed. Yes, we should definitely try again!

  “River?” Katie stepped up to them, creating a triangle and causing Ty to drop his hand. “Hannah needs you.” She pointed back the way she’d come, and River found her crying three-year-old easily.

  “Excuse me.” She ducked her head as she hurried away, grateful and annoyed at the interruption. She needed to figure out how to exist somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, because this constant emotional back and forth wasn’t very pleasant.