Elly: Cowgirl Bride (3 page)

She shrugged like this accomplishment was no big deal. He remembered how she’d always had one of those point-and-shoot cameras, clicking off photos constantly, when they were kids. But he had no idea she’d harbored this kind of talent.

Why did she look so uncomfortable? Was she afraid he’d say something about the case? She should know he couldn’t, and would never, do that. Or was her discomfort because of her photos? He couldn’t imagine why.

Her images showed a love of the land, and the people and animals who populated it. Something about them made him wonder if Elly was as different from her teenage self as he was.

He returned his attention to the photograph of the moose. It really was a fantastic shot, and he’d say that even if he hadn’t once been halfway in love with the photographer. He pointed to it.

“If I buy this, will you autograph it?”

“Will,” she said, sounding surprised he’d even consider it. “You don’t have to do that.”

He laughed. “I know I don’t have to. I want to. It’s for my mom, for her birthday. She has a fascination with moose. She’ll love this. Even more so since you took it.”

Will didn’t take his gaze away from her until she nodded. Then he faced the other woman, who he’d gathered was named Stella and was the gallery’s owner. “I’ll take it. And can you gift wrap it for me for pickup later today?”

“Certainly.”

When Stella lifted the framed photo from its easel and headed toward a large worktable in the middle of the gallery, Will hung back with Elly.

“I hope your mom likes it,” she said.

“She will.” He watched Elly, decided to let go of that past humiliation, chose to believe she hadn’t meant to hurt him. That she probably didn’t even remember it.

Despite that one event, he knew in his heart she was a good person, someone he could be friends with again.

“You know what else Mom would like?”

She met his eyes, and for a moment he was in danger of losing his ability to speak. He had to get past those types of reactions. He recovered just in time to prevent looking like an idiot.

“If you’d join us for her birthday dinner tonight. I’m taking her and Aunt Judith out.”

Elly shook her head, sending her long, blond ponytail waving gently back and forth. “I don’t want to intrude on your family time.”

“It’s not intruding if I invited you.” He smiled because just being around her made it impossible not to.

“But it’s a family occasion. You haven’t been back that long. I’m sure your mom wants to spend time with you.”

“Oh, I plan to be there, too.”

An unexpected laugh shot out of her.

“My mom always liked you. She’ll be thrilled if you join us.”

Not to mention how he’d feel. What was it about her, this one woman, that made his heart rate accelerate at the mere glimpse of her? He’d dated other beautiful women. Kate Sturgeon had even gotten her father to offer him a position in his law firm so he’d stay in Denver. But none of them had frazzled and thrilled and scared him like Elly did. Weren’t you supposed to have a first crush then get over it?

But it hadn’t been a simple crush, had it? Despite his young age, it had been true love for him. And evidently time hadn’t seen fit to erase those feelings. He might be a fool for thinking they could just be friends, but that wasn’t going to stop him from trying. If he was lucky, time with her would cause the old feelings to fade. Maybe all he’d want to be was friends.

Elly met his gaze again, gave him a considering look, then nodded. “Okay, sounds like fun. I haven’t seen your mom in a while. I stay so busy, I barely see myself.”

“Sounds like you need a night off then.”

She pondered the thought for a moment, and he saw a hint of darkness pass over her features.

“You know, I think you’re right,” she finally said.

They fell back on aimless small talk as he paid for the photograph and Elly signed it with a gold marker in one corner. When she blew on the wet ink, a shiver of longing went over him. Man, he needed to get a grip. He wasn’t a young, lovesick puppy anymore.

No, he was a grown man with a grown man’s desires. And for some reason they all pushed him toward Elly. He’d done his best the past several years to avoid any mention of her, had even avoided rodeo coverage in the news because he knew he’d see her name, maybe even her picture. He’d wanted to get over her, hadn’t wanted to torture himself with what he’d believed would never be.

“You okay?” Elly asked, startling him.

“Uh, yeah. So, we’re meeting at the Bluff Steakhouse at seven.”

“Sounds good. I’ll see you then.” She gave the marker back to Stella. “For now, I’ve got about a dozen more things on my to-do list.” She glanced at the print. “I’m glad that one’s going to someone I know. I had to sit still until I lost feeling in my legs to get that shot.”

“It was worth it.” He fought the urge to buy his mom another gift and keep the moose print for himself. As if he wasn’t going to be thinking about Elly night and day already.

God, he was a goner.

He tried not to be too obvious about watching her as she walked out the door and down the street to her next destination. Once she was out of sight, he faced Stella.

“I think I’d like to buy another print for my office.”

All during the rest of her errands, Elly smiled in anticipation of that night’s outing. It was true—she did like Will’s mother. But, honestly, she wanted to spend more time with this new and oh-so-improved Will Jackson.

Not until she was a couple of miles out of Cody on the way back to Markton did doubt creep past her happiness. Once planted, the thought that she’d made a mistake grew. She berated herself for agreeing to the dinner when everything was so unsettled at home. How could she go out and have an enjoyable evening when her family was going through such a rough patch? It felt wrong, heartless.

But as far as her parents knew, she wasn’t supposed to know anything about her father’s affair. Or what it might mean for her family. If she kept hanging around the ranch, even if she kept herself busy, she might accidentally let something slip. Maybe dinner with Will and his family was actually the best thing she could do right now. If she acted normal, maybe everything would work itself out.

She could hope, at least.

Her phone rang when she was halfway back to Markton. When she glanced at the caller ID, she almost didn’t answer. Her nerves fired, making her grip the steering wheel tighter with her left hand. She hated this feeling of dread.

The phone rang a second time.

What if Mark and Janie had found out about the rumor, about Jesse looking into it? How would they react? What if Janie found out Elly knew what was going on and hadn’t told her? Elly was not a fan of secrets and hated keeping this one. It gnawed at her, trying to carve an exit to the outside world.

When the phone rang a third time, Elly poised her thumb above the send button. She was supposed to be acting normal, right? She hit the button and answered.

“Hey. What’s up?”

“Thrill a minute here at the land of feed and grain. What are you doing tonight?”

Okay, she didn’t sound upset. In fact, she sounded a bit on the bored side. Chances were she was still in the dark about the supposed connection between J.W. and Mark. Elly sighed in thanks for her temporary reprieve.

“Actually, I’m going to a birthday dinner for Virginia Jackson.”

“Really? How did that come about?”

“Will invited me.”

“Will? When did you see him?”

Elly’s heart jolted at the memory of her encountering Will the day before, why he’d been in her home. “Just now, in Cody. He lives there. Ran into him while I was dropping off stuff at the gallery.”

“So, Billy the Kid is back,” Janie said with amusement in her voice. “Where’d he go with his big brain after college?”

“I heard Denver. And I’m pretty sure we can’t call him Billy the Kid anymore since he’s a good half foot taller than me.”

“Interesting that he’s not back five minutes and he asks you out.”

Her friend’s assumption, as well as the teasing tone, surprised Elly.

“He didn’t ask me out, you goober. It’s a get-together for his mother.”

“Uh-huh.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Just that it seems his crush hasn’t gone anywhere since he left home.”

Elly scrunched her forehead in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

Janie snorted. “Don’t tell me you never realized Will had a crush on you. If it had been any more obvious, the boy would have been wearing a blinking billboard around his neck. I’m sure I must have teased you about it at some point.”

“Have you been sniffing fertilizer or something?”

“No, I’m perfectly chemical-free. And very observant.”

Elly thought back to when they’d all been younger, tried to remember if she’d ever noticed anything that could have been construed as a crush on Will’s part. She hadn’t even seen him much outside of school. His dad had worked at the ranch, but Will’s allergies had been so bad that he couldn’t spend much time there.

But he hadn’t sneezed once yesterday, had he?

“Do you honestly not remember him asking you out?” Janie asked.

“What?”

“When Sean Barrett dumped you right before prom, Will offered to take you.”

“He was kidding around, trying to make me feel better.”

“Was he?”

“Of course. He never asked again.”

“Maybe because you laughed when he offered the first time.”

“I did not.”

“You did.”

Elly tried to remember the specifics of that day, but all she could recall clearly was how mad she’d been at Sean for being such a jerk.

“Even if Will did have a crush, that was years ago.”

“This is Markton. It doesn’t change, and neither do the people.”

“He lives in Cody.”

“Yeah, big difference. Well, call me later. I want to hear all the details of your date.”

“It’s not a date.”

“Well, it’s suddenly rush hour for feed. Toodles,” Janie said, totally ignoring Elly’s assertion.

Elly closed and tossed the phone onto the seat beside her, glad she’d made it through the conversation without giving any hint that anything was wrong. But she worried about having to face Janie. Her friend was smart, and probably knew Elly better than her brothers did. Janie would figure out something was wrong and question Elly until she caved and told her. And then everything would change.

Elly didn’t think it was going to be for the better.

A
FTER A GOOD WORKOUT
with Pepper, in which she shaved a little more off her time, Elly indulged in a longer-than-usual shower complete with a new bottle of sweet-pea body wash. Wrapped in a towel, she sat on the edge of her bed and stared at the clothes hanging in her closet. She didn’t have what one would call an extensive dating wardrobe. Jeans and Western button-up shirts, check. Outfits more appropriate for business meetings, sure. But cute, date-worthy clothes? Not so much.

When would she use them anyway? Most of her “dates” were with guys she knew from the rodeo circuit, and her brothers watched her and any dates with such intensity that it made a social life more trouble than it was worth most of the time.

But as she’d told Janie, this wasn’t a date. She and Will hadn’t spoken more than a handful of minutes in the past decade. He was two years younger than her, so they’d never even had a class together before they’d gone off to their respective colleges—he after his sophomore year, she more traditionally after her senior.

Not to mention the reason they’d even crossed paths now was because he’d been hired by Jesse. Wouldn’t there be some sort of conflict-of-interest thing going there?

Scolding herself for thinking too much about what she wore to an outing that was most certainly not a date, she rose and strode to the closet. She sifted through the offerings beyond the collection of red shirts she wore in every rodeo and found a fluffy white sweater.

She pulled it out of the closet and held it up to herself as she faced the full-length mirror on the closet door. With some dressy jeans and her red heels, it’d be a good choice for a non-date evening when she wanted to show up looking nice, but not too nice like she was trying too hard to impress.

Geez. Why had Janie planted that crush idea in her head? Wasn’t it enough that she’d already been thinking way too much about Will anyway? She felt like she was fifteen again, when she’d had an all-consuming crush on Brent Crayton, a steer wrestler from Kingsville, Texas.

She deliberately forced herself to think about other things—her next Cottonwood Chronicles blog post about the changing of seasons on the ranch, travel plans for the next rodeo, what photos she wanted to print and take to the gallery next since she’d evidently had two more sales today. Anything to keep her from thinking about how tall and handsome Will had grown—and how weird it was to think of him in the way she was.

It was no use though. Every time she forced her train of thought down one track, it always chugged along for a short time before derailing back to Will. Maybe avoiding dating wasn’t such a good idea if the mere idea of sitting at the same table with a good-looking guy affected her so much.

She stopped applying makeup and stared at herself in the bathroom mirror. Thinking about Will sure was better than dwelling on the situation with her dad and Mark though. What could it hurt to just enjoy the scenery? No one had to know but her. And she could think of worse things to serve as a distraction.

With a shake of her head, she left the bathroom and slipped silver hoops in her ears. The sound of male laughter from the main part of the house signaled that her brothers had already started playing poker. Normally, she’d be sitting in with them, and usually holding her own, if she wasn’t with Janie or doing something with her new sisters-in-law. She sighed and wondered if she could just sneak out her window to avoid the inevitable barrage of questions.

She rolled her eyes at herself as she headed toward the collective sound of the brothers Cody.

“That’s an odd outfit for poker,” Dex said when he glanced up from his cards.

“That’s because I’m not playing poker tonight. Got other plans,” she said as casually as she could.

Dusty, Dex’s twin, made a sour face at his cards and tossed them facedown on the table. “Where are you and Janie off to now?”

“I’m not going out with Janie.” She didn’t explain further, deciding that she’d at least make them work for every little scrap of information. Where was the fun in making it easy?

When she noticed the suspicion on her brothers’ faces, she wondered if maybe her tactic was ill advised.

“I’m going to a birthday party for Virginia Jackson.”

Surprise tugged at Dusty’s face. “Really?”

“Yes, really.”

“Why?” Walker asked.

Elly propped her hands on her hips. “Because she’s a nice lady. And because Will asked me.” Dang, she shouldn’t have said the last part. Already the guys were shifting in their seats, probably ready to forsake poker to escort her.

Then she made the bigger mistake of meeting the gaze of the only brother who hadn’t spoken. Jesse eyed her with veiled disapproval, but not enough that it’d be obvious to anyone who didn’t know why she and Will had crossed paths again. Thankfully, his desire to keep the situation with their father quiet prevented him from questioning her like he normally would.

“We playing or not?” he asked as he turned his attention back to the cards.

Before the others could recover from the shock of Jesse missing an opportunity to make her feel like she was fifteen and completely ignorant of the male gender, she grabbed her coat and headed out the door.

She didn’t slow down until she turned off the ranch road onto the highway.

“T
HERE SHE IS.”
Virginia Jackson gave an enthusiastic wave across the restaurant.

Will was careful not to show how his heart rate kicked up at the knowledge that Elly had arrived. After impulsively buying two more of her photographs for his office that afternoon, he’d forced himself to go back to work and apply all his attention to the two cases he’d acquired besides Jesse Cody’s. He’d actually done pretty well—if you considered thinking about Elly half a dozen times an hour versus a dozen pretty well.

His mom and Aunt Judith stood, his mom opening her arms to give Elly a big hug. “It’s so good to see you.

I haven’t talked to you in forever.”

Elly wrapped Virginia in a hug, like it was the high light of her day, then did the same with Judith. If that didn’t make him like her more, he didn’t possess a law degree. A bit more of the resentment—the resentment he’d harbored so deep he hadn’t realized it—slipped away.

When she turned to face him, for a moment he reveled in the idea that she might hug him, too.

“Hey, Will. Long time, no see.”

He smiled while he told himself a hug between them would have just been awkward. “Eons,” he said, to which she swatted him playfully on the upper arm.

Before she could take a seat, he pulled her chair out for her. He purposely didn’t meet his mother’s or aunt’s eyes. He’d been back in Wyoming about two seconds before they’d started trying to match him up with someone. If he’d thought tonight’s scenario through, he would have realized it hadn’t been his smartest move.

Though as he seated himself across from Elly, he couldn’t be sorry. All the questions and matchmaking attempts were an insignificant price to pay for getting to spend the evening in the company of a beautiful woman. As unwise as that might end up being.

They put conversation on hold when the waitress arrived to take their orders. But as soon as the young girl left, his mom patted Elly on her hands, where they rested on the table.

“Honey, I’ve been following all your successes. Sounds like this could be your year.”

Elly’s eyes brightened like a child’s right before opening a tantalizingly huge gift on Christmas morning. “I hope so. We’ve certainly been training hard.”

“You’ll make it. I feel it,” Virginia said. She turned to Will. “A month from now, our Elly will be a national champion barrel racer.”

Our Elly. He liked the sound of that.

“We’ll see,” Elly said before he could reply. “It all comes down to how well we do in Denver.”

His mom waved off Elly’s modesty. “Girl, I’ve been watching you ride since you were no taller than this table. Sam used to say you and a horse seemed to become one when you rode.”

Will tried to ignore a twinge of hurt, something he’d never shared with anyone. He could imagine his father saying something like that about Elly with awe in his voice. Sam Jackson had loved all things rodeo, had yearned to make the big time himself. But his bronc-riding talent had taken him only as far as small, non-PRCA rodeos.

And though he’d never voiced it, Will suspected his father had been disappointed that Will hadn’t chosen that as his dream himself. Will couldn’t have followed it anyway because of his severe allergies. Sometimes he’d gotten the feeling his father saw him as weak, as a poor reflection of himself. Sure, they’d had a decent relationship, but it hadn’t been really close. They couldn’t have been any more different.

“Okay, enough about me,” Elly said, breaking into Will’s memories and meeting his gaze. “I’m not the only talented person at the table. I heard you were top of your college class when you graduated.” She smiled and lifted an eyebrow. “Not bad for someone two years younger than everyone else.”