Kissed by a Cowboy (5 page)

She couldn't tell from the sound of his voice
whether he really thought it was nice, or he was being
sarcastic.

She'd asked Aunt Matilda about him after
Maddox's mention of his injury. But she didn't know if she should
ask about his recovery or leave it alone.

"I'm excited to work with Livy," she said
simply.

"It's not exactly a lemonade stand."

"You sound like Maddox," she said before
she'd really thought about the words. The other night, Maddox had
been more than concerned about Livy's venture. He'd been negative,
though at least he hadn't said anything to the girl.

"I was sorry to hear about your
accident."

"Wasn't an accident," he drawled. "Bull knew
what it was doing when it stepped on me."

"Oh." What else to say to a remark like that?
She listened to the scraping of the knife against the cutting
board, the ticking of the clock on the far wall. What was taking
Olivia so long?

She brightened her voice. "So what're you
doing these days?"

His kept his focus on the chicken, but she
saw his face crinkle in a smile. It wasn't a nice smile, more like
a fierce baring of his teeth.

"That's the question, isn't
it? And the answer is
nothing
. I sit around all day in my
pop's old recliner and watch soap operas."

"Um..."

The waves of anger radiating off of him were
almost palpable. But there was something deeper underneath.
Desperation.

"Livy said you helped her with a school
project. So that's something."

"Hmm. Well, maybe I could have a career
tutoring kids. Oh, except I barely graduated high school."

She didn't know how to
handle his anger and sarcasm. If he was one of her friends back in
the city, she would be comfortable enough to offer an alternative.
To say
something.

"They have adult education scholarships," she
said softly.

"What?" he barked.

She cleared her throat. "Scholarships," she
forced the word out louder. "You could go back to school. The state
university isn't too far from here."

"Did you hear me say I barely made it out of
high school?"

She shrugged. "Doesn't mean you wouldn't do
all right now. Especially as an older student."

"I'm not
that
much older," he muttered to the
chicken.

Finally, Maddox and Livy returned, the girl
wearing her apron and chattering excitedly.

Maddox looked between Justin and Haley.
Thankfully, he didn't say anything.

But she wasn't sure how long that could
last.

#

"So...thanks
for bringing the freezer blaster thing out," Maddox
said.

Haley laughed. "Blast freezer. You're
welcome." She slipped out the Michaels' front door and down the
porch steps, Maddox following.

The last bit of white light hung on the
horizon as twilight deepened around them.

"The ice cream was...good," he said.

She glanced over at him, incredulous. She'd
seen him palm a lightswitch as they exited the house, and now the
porch light illuminated his faint smile and the day's growth of
beard.

"Okay." His lips twitched. "It was better
than good."

"It's incredible," she said. "And so is
Livy."

She thought they had a real shot at making
Livy's business a success. With Haley's education and her job as a
marketing assistant back in Oklahoma City, and Livy's ingenuity,
especially when it came to flavors, they had a chance.

He followed her to the truck, their shoes
crunching in the gravel. She breathed in the cool country night
air, nothing like the urban scents she was accustomed to in
Oklahoma City.

"It must be hard to be away from her,
traveling so much."

It must be difficult, period, for a man
raising a young girl and trying to be an emotional support for his
brother.

Maddox said nothing.

He'd been friendly enough over supper, asking
about Haley's job and life back in Oklahoma City. But now he was
quiet, pensive.

Haley had seen Livy's breathless hope when
she'd presented the ice cream to her uncle. She remembered having
that same gut-clenching feeling toward her own father. Whether
she'd been handing him her report card or a cookie she'd baked
herself, she'd wanted her father's approval, needed the emotional
connection.

Maddox had praised the ice cream. But Haley
also remembered that Livy hadn't gone to her uncle with the
business plan.

And Haley wanted Livy to have that special
connection with her uncle.

"I would have loved a childhood like this,"
she said, too vulnerable to look him in the face. She stared
instead at the stars above the roof of the barn.

He snorted. "What, growing up with two
bachelors?"

"Growing up with roots," she said softly.

He rested one palm on the top of the truck
bed, and she leaned against the side and continued staring into the
heavens. Another thing she missed living in the city—the bountiful
stars.

"My dad and I moved around so much when I was
growing up, I never felt like I belonged anywhere. You can give
that to Livy. Roots."

"How come your dad didn't settle down?"

She shrugged. "He was always
chasing...something. The next promotion. A different job..."

She breathed in deeply. "At first, I let
myself get too attached to places. Found best friends. Settled into
school. But I was never enough to make him stay. Or, my needs
weren't..."

She felt it when he turned his head to look
at her. A flare of heat hit her face.

"And I don't know why I'm telling you all
this." She dusted off her hand on her jeans nervously and glanced
at him. "I'm over it now. I have friends, good friends in Oklahoma
City. I'm happy there. I'll be going back once Aunt Matilda..." She
still couldn't finish the sentence.

"Good for you," he said. "I'm glad."

But he didn't say the same about himself. Why
did he work so hard? Was he really happy on the farm, or did he
think he didn't have options?

Instead of voicing those questions, Haley
asked, "Why do you call her Olivia? In the hospital, I remember
Katie calling her Livy."

He moved one arm, palm sliding along the side
of the truck. "We don't talk about Katie much."

Why not?
The words were on the tip of her tongue, but something zinged
inside her. A warning, maybe?

His feet shifted, like he was uncomfortable.
"Whatever your reason for doing this...helping Olivia... Just
remember, she's a little girl who will still be here when you go
back to the city."

He sounded like he thought Haley's presence
was going to hurt the girl, but all she wanted was to help.

"If this is some kind of...I don't
know...call back to Katie's memory—"

"It's not."

He shook his head, gripping the top of the
truck bed. "I can't help remembering how you two were thick as
thieves..."

Tag-along.
His words doused ice water on her. She'd had a
wonderful evening with Livy, cooking the first ice cream base and
teasing Maddox...

And he still thought of her as Katie's
tag-along, after all these years.

She didn't know what to say.

He seemed to understand her sudden
uncertainty, because he went on. "Look, I'm just trying to protect
my niece. I appreciate that you're trying to do something nice for
her."

She waited for the
but.
And it
came.

"But giving her that money...building up her
dreams..."

"I'm not doing it for Katie. I'm doing it for
Livy. We're partners."

Nearby, something rustled in the darkness
against the side of the house. It moved, but she couldn't make out
the form in the darkness. Whatever it was, it was big.

She thought Maddox was arguing with her, but
her thundering heartbeat drowned out anything he might've said. The
Thing padded closer, quiet in the darkness. Were those fangs,
glimmering in the dim porch light?

She grabbed his arm, ducking between him and
the truck, turning her shoulder away from the animal's hot breath
against her side. Was it a Rottweiler? Or just a huge mutt?

"Maddox," she hissed. Her breath came in
gasps, fear overpowering her sense of propriety and personal
space.

He brought his other arm down, caging her in.
"What's the matter?"

"P-please tell me that's a friend."

He looked down, over the side of his arm,
then tilted his chin back to her, the light from the corner of the
house shining behind him and leaving his face in shadow. "You're
still afraid of dogs?"

"I'm n-not afraid. Terrified."

He snorted.

"Git on, Emmie," he said softly.

The huge black dog sat, tail swishing audibly
over the gravel of the drive. Its lips parted in a panting, doggie
grin. The dim porch light showed that it lifted one paw in a polite
shake.

"Git on," Maddox said again, his voice laced
with humor.

The dog closed its mouth
with a
huff
of air,
stood, and sauntered off, fading into the darkness.

And then the man turned his gaze back on her.
She looked up at Maddox in the moonlight, and her stomach swooped
low, the same way it had when he'd held her on prom night all those
years ago.

She could see the dark stubble of his days'
growth of beard. His eyes were unreadable in the darkness.

If she wanted to, she could reach up and put
her arms around his neck, stand on tiptoe...and claim the second
kiss she'd been dreaming about for a dozen years.

But she wasn't seventeen anymore.

And he probably didn't think about her that
way. They both had Olivia's best interests at heart.

And Haley wanted to protect her own heart,
too.

His hands came to rest
gently on her waist, but before he could push her away, Haley
stepped out of the circle of his personal space. Her heart beat and
pulsed in her throat, and it sounded a little like the taunt she
always heard in her head.
Tag-along
.

"Thanks for supper. I had a fun time."

She thought he said
me too
, but she tucked
herself in the cab of her truck and started the engine. She waved,
smiling out the window into the dark so he wouldn't know how shaken
the moment had left her.

She wasn't a little sheep
any longer. She had her own friends back in Oklahoma City. She
wasn't
desperate
for company, no matter what he thought.

She would do what she said. She would see him
peripherally while helping Olivia with her ice cream business. She
would care for her aunt and mind her own business.

And they could both pretend that the
near-embrace never happened.

#

Maddox stood
staring after Haley's taillights long after they'd disappeared down
the dirt drive, hands fisted loosely at his sides.

What had he been thinking?
He'd
touched
her.
She'd been so close, and he'd wanted her closer—wanted to find out
if her lips still tasted like the ice cream they'd
shared.

But the moment he'd given in to the urge and
reached for her, she'd backed away.

He knew better than to reach. Hadn't his past
taught him anything?

He didn't have time for any kind of
relationship and didn't need Haley nosing into his business.

She wanted him to give Olivia roots. How was
he supposed to do that, when he could barely keep them afloat? He
wasn't doing that good a job keeping Justin from sinking further
into depression, and had a hard time keeping ahead of the medical
bills.

He didn't know how to be a father to a little
girl.

What did he have to give to Olivia? He was on
the road or working dawn-to-dusk, just to make ends meet.

The expectations were too heavy. They had
been ever since his teen years, when his mom had turned him into
the man of the family. As if he could handle it, because no one
else was there to do it. He'd just been a kid when his dad had died
in a drunken stupor. He'd been a kid when they'd all expected him
to become some kind of football star, and a kid when Katie had left
him with a tiny bundle of pink. If love had been enough, he'd have
been the best uncle in the world.

But what he'd learned was that his love and
his desire to do the right thing weren't enough. He had to be
better.

He was a mess, his thoughts churning with the
burn in his gut, but no antacid would repair this mess. The last
thing he needed was Haley around, tempting him to dream. If he had
any brains at all, he'd tell Haley not to come to the house again,
but...

She was good for Olivia. That was easy to
see. She'd had all three of them, him, Olivia, and even Justin for
a few minutes, laughing in the kitchen like a real family.

And Olivia had soaked it up like a parched
field in a rainstorm.

He was afraid he had, too.

When was the last time they'd felt like a
family, not just individuals living in the same house?

He'd promised himself never to end up like
his dad, always stuck in the could-have-beens. Maddox was making a
life for Olivia, doing what he could.

It would have to be enough.

But what if it wasn't?

Chapter Three

Three weeks later, Maddox turned down the
dirt lane toward home, fresh off of another four-day-stint on the
harvest crew. He'd gotten up in the middle of the night and driven
all morning to make it here by lunchtime.

The more he'd thought about the things Haley
had revealed about her own childhood that night after supper, the
more he'd been determined to prove that he could be the
father-figure Olivia needed. He could do better than he had been
doing. And being here today was a part of that.