Kissed by a Cowboy (7 page)

"What was that about?" Haley asked.

He shrugged. "Folks around here have a long
memory."

She nodded. He guessed she probably
understood that, the way everyone still remembered her as Katie's
friend.

She narrowed her eyes. "So...?"

"So some of them have been waiting for me to
fail, just like my old man."

"Really?" She sounded surprised. "Back then,
it seemed like they were all pulling for you."

"Not all of them."

She tilted her head to the side. "Are you
sure you're not projecting?"

"What's that mean?" He shook his head.
"Forget it." It was about time to find a trash bag. When he stood,
she followed him.

"It means, are you
sure
you
aren't the
one worried about failing?"

She always did have a way of cutting to the
heart of the matter.

He gritted his back teeth. He didn't want to
talk about his pop with her. Didn't really want to think about the
man—it was a waste of time.

She stopped him in the shade of the house
with a soft hand on his sleeve. "No matter what anyone else says or
thinks, you've got Livy—you've done a good thing."

The way she was looking at him, like she
believed in him.... Suddenly, possibilities rose like a shimmering
mirage.

He just didn't know if he had the strength to
hope in possibilities any more.

Chapter Four

Several days after Olivia's birthday, Haley
awoke feeling somehow...off, but she couldn't pinpoint why.

It wasn't until she was driving home after
picking up some prescriptions for Aunt Matilda that she realized
what day it was. The anniversary of the car accident that had
killed Katie.

She was coasting past the small town cemetery
when she saw a lone, small figure, huddled into herself. Livy.

Grief and hot disappointment surged through
her.

Haley parked around the side, not wanting to
interrupt the girl.

How could she have almost forgotten such an
important day? And where were Livy's uncles?

She had her phone in her hand and dialed
before she could talk herself out of it. It really wasn't her
business. But she cared about Livy, too.

Maddox picked up on the first ring.
"Haley?"

She should've held her tongue, but the words
burst out before she could even think.

"How could you leave her alone today? Even if
you couldn't bring her—"

"Olivia—?"

"Did she ride her bike to town again? I
would've picked her up—"

"Haley—"

"She's at the cemetery, Maddox. By herself.
Where are you?"

Her voice broke as she remembered standing
alone at her mother's grave in a St. Louis cemetery, saying goodbye
the day before Haley's father moved them across the country.

There was a long pause, as if he were waiting
to see if she was really done railing at him.

Then, a quiet. "I'm here."

She scanned the area and saw his truck parked
on the opposite side of the fence.

He lifted his hand from the steering wheel in
a brief wave.

"She said she wanted to go alone."

The enormity of what she'd done crashed down
on Haley. Not only had she ranted at him when he was most likely
grieving too, but she'd accused him of neglecting Olivia again,
this time when he didn't deserve it.

She squeezed her eyes closed, the hand that
wasn't holding her phone squeezing on the steering wheel.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

#

When Haley
pulled around and parked beside his truck, Maddox wasn't
surprised.

She was something of a pit bull beneath that
friendly, smiling exterior.

He was starting to like it.

It made his voice gruff when she popped his
door open.

She just looked at him for a long moment,
silent and assessing.

"You okay?" Her soft-spoken question hit
harder than he wanted to let on.

He looked out over the wrist he'd rested on
the dash, squinting a little.

Then she shocked him by taking his other
hand. Picked it right up off of his thigh, mashing it between both
of her smaller, cool hands. Touching him again. Comforting him.

"I'm fine," he said.

But he wasn't. Not really. He'd spent all
morning tiptoeing around Justin, who'd been more of a grump than
usual.

His brother hadn't talked about the giant
elephant in the room, their shared loss. So Maddox hadn't
either.

Maddox's chest expanded, and he breathed out
harshly.

But he didn't have time for more than that,
because she was pulling him out of the truck. "What—?"

"Even if Livy told you she wanted to be
alone, that's not what she needs."

He dug in his heels, unease bucking like an
unbroken bronco.

She shook her head. "We've got to get you
educated on woman-speak before Livy turns into a teenager."

She tugged him forward, and this time he
went, mostly to save his wrist from being pulled out of socket.

He didn't know how to handle Olivia's grief.
He didn't even know what to do with the hot ball lodged in own his
gut.

He wasn't equipped to deal with this. Maybe
he never would be.

But somehow... Having Haley at his side made
the trek past all those other graves less daunting.

Olivia looked up at their approach, and the
pain in her eyes nearly sent him to his knees. But she was
dry-eyed, thank God.

Haley let go of his hand, and he felt the
loss intensely, but she wrapped both arms around Olivia's
shoulders.

The sight of them together, like mother and
daughter, made his heart thump once, hard.

"I'm so sorry, baby," she said to Olivia. He
could hear the pain in her words.

Olivia must've, too, because she burrowed her
head into Haley's shoulder.

Then Haley looked up at him, eyes baring her
heart. She motioned him closer, but he hesitated. Could he weather
Olivia's emotional storm?

Haley didn't give him a choice. She reached
out and grabbed his shirtsleeve and gave him such a hard tug that
he stumbled toward both girls. Being close, his only alternative
was to put his arms around them.

Olivia turned her face toward him and pressed
her cheek into his chest. He tightened his arm around her
shoulders. Haley shifted, like she might be trying to back out of
the embrace, but he tightened his arm around her, too.

She'd gotten him into this. She was
staying.

It felt right, having her in this circle with
him.

She looked up at him from entirely too close,
and her cheeks were wet. "I miss her, too," Haley whispered.

And darn if he didn't find himself saying,
voice rough, "Me, too."

And Olivia burst into tears. She clutched the
back of his shirt in one hand.

He looked frantically at Haley, who gave a
wet chuckle. She rested her hand on the crown of Olivia's head.

They stayed like that for several minutes, in
a tight huddle. Until Olivia's sobs quieted to hiccups and he was
sweating through his T-shirt from being so close to two other
bodies in the 100-plus degree Oklahoma sun.

Finally, Olivia pushed away, and he let them
both go.

Olivia wiped her face with her fingers, and
then Haley pressed a Kleenex she'd pulled from somewhere into his
niece's hand.

"Thanks," Olivia said quietly. She didn't
look up.

Haley looked at the top of Olivia's head. "I
haven't been back here since the funeral."

Olivia's head came up. "You knew my mom?"

Haley glanced at Maddox, then back to the
girl. "Yeah. I did. I moved to Redbud Trails halfway through my
senior year of high school. We were friends until she died."

Olivia's face lit up. Haley gestured to the
dry, sun-baked grass. "You wanna sit for a little bit?"

Maddox made a noise, mostly to discourage her
because of her dressy suit pants, but she dragged Olivia down with
her and didn't seem worried about her slacks getting grass
stains.

He sat with them, folding his too-long legs
beneath him to complete their triangle.

"You're a lot like her," Haley said.

"Really?" Olivia's voice cracked, a sound
between hope and uncertainty.

His heart ached with some of
that uncertainty. Katie had been an inferno, bright and sometimes
painful, burning out too quickly.
How
much
was Olivia like her mother?

"Your eyes, your hair, your nose," Haley
said. "The first day I saw you, I thought you looked just like
her."

He nodded, listening. But not as raptly as
Olivia was, with her face turned toward Haley, her eyes glued to
her.

"Everyone liked Katie," Haley went on.
"Wherever she went, people greeted her by name."

That was true, too.

"On my first day of school,
I didn't know a soul. Before my first class was over, Katie had
grabbed me and toted me with her down the hall and to our next
class. She was so nice... and she didn't take
no
for an answer."

Maddox smiled. "She never did."

Olivia's head swiveled to him, her eyes
serious, hopeful...

And he couldn't deny her.

Especially when Haley kicked the toe of his
boot.

"She was a prankster. She would put bugs and
lizards—one time even a snake—in our boots in the mudroom. Justin
and I learned to check them every time."

Olivia giggled. He and his brother had never
learned to laugh at her jokes. They'd always complained loudly to
their mom.

He leaned back, letting his wrist take his
weight. Some of the painful pressure in his chest was deflating,
like a slow helium leak from a balloon.

"She was great at math and science, like you,
Olivia," Haley remembered. She leaned back on her arm as well, her
fingers overlapping Maddox's on the ground. Had she done that on
purpose?

"And she was a planner, too," Haley
continued. "She worked for weeks on what we were going to wear to
prom, where we would eat supper, who we were going with..." She
trailed off, a beautiful pink flush spreading across her face.

She must've realized exactly who she was
talking to.

Maddox found himself grinning. She was
finally getting a taste of her own medicine—the discomfort he'd
felt ever since she'd burst into his life in vibrant color.

"She was a good friend." Haley sniffed, and
he realized she was blinking back tears.

Olivia sniffled as well.

"And she loved, you, kiddo," he said, through
a sandpaper throat. "In the hospital with you, those first few
days... she barely let anyone else hold you. She didn't want to let
you go, even for a minute."

Olivia was crying again, silent tears
streaming down her face, looking at him like...like she almost
didn't believe him. "Why did she have to die?" she whispered.

He gathered her up, more natural about it
this time. He shook his head, held her tightly. "I don't know,
kiddo, I don't know."

Haley was wiping her eyes as unobtrusively as
she could, but she was staying, sticking by his side, even though
she probably needed to get back to her aunt.

But she was still here. When it hurt.

She placed a hand on Olivia's back, offering
comfort.

Because Olivia needed her.

And then she reached out and touched his
upper arm. Offering the same.

Because...he needed her.

Their eyes met and held. His insides churned
like he'd ridden a whirly carnival ride. She did that to him.
Discombobulated him until he wasn't sure which was way up.

But she also comforted him in a way no one
else could.

She touched him, when no one else did.

He couldn't be...falling for her. Again.
Could he?

He bent his head down over Olivia, the brim
of his hat breaking the fragile connection of their gaze.

His heart was thundering now, he was sweating
more than the baking sun really called for.

He wasn't falling for her. He couldn't be.
She was just Katie's old friend. Now Olivia's friend. She'd helped
him comfort Olivia, and he was grateful. That was all.

Right?

Chapter Five

"Are you going out to the Michaels' place
today?"

Several days after the emotional scene at the
cemetery, Haley settled in the floral-covered chair next to her
aunt's bedside. The lunch she'd brought on a tray earlier lay on
the bedside table, mostly untouched. She would take it back to the
kitchen in a minute, but as long as Aunt Matilda was awake, she
would sit and talk for a bit.

"I don't know."

Haley couldn't get Maddox off her mind. He
and Livy were making strides from where they'd been at the
beginning of the summer, when she'd come back into their lives.

He'd been calling the little girl every night
from the road on the harvest crew.

And the last two nights, he'd called Haley.
They'd talked for close to an hour each time, about her job as a
marketing assistant for a big firm in Oklahoma City. About Justin
and the accident and his recovery. About Livy.

But Maddox held back about himself.

"Am I getting too involved?" she asked her
aunt. It was somewhat of a rhetorical question. "I started the
summer wanting to help Livy with her ice cream business and maybe
show her uncle what he was missing out on..."

"And now you've met the real man."

And she was afraid she was falling in love
with him.

"I'm glad," Aunt Matilda smiled and a patted
Haley's hand. "I was afraid you were going to be hung up on that
awful Patrick forever."

"Paul," Haley corrected gently. "And I've
been over Paul for a while."

After spending time with
Maddox this summer, she wondered if what she'd felt for the other
man had been real love. In the beginning, she'd been infatuated
with him. But as their relationship wore on, sometimes the things
he said made her feel uncomfortable. He didn't think she was
outgoing enough. Always wanted to go to more parties, when Haley
would be perfectly content to stay home for a quiet dinner. They'd
been together for two years and she'd been expecting a proposal.
Instead, he'd left her behind for an out-of-state job. She'd
thought
she'd been
heartbroken.