Her Small-Town Cowboy (16 page)

The poetic image of her was so unlike him, he decided he must be hungrier than he thought. Out of necessity, he picked up the sandwich and took a large bite to keep from having to say anything to her. Why he was suddenly shy about talking to her, he had no idea. But his gut was telling him to keep his thoughts to himself, and he figured it was best to pay attention to that instinct.

Most women he’d known could take only so much silence, but once again, Lily proved she was made of sterner stuff. She waited for him to finish his snack and wash it down. It must’ve taken him ten minutes, but she didn’t make a peep the entire time.

Finally, he decided enough was enough. “You can’t be very comfortable sitting up there like that.”

“I didn’t see any alternatives.”

“There’s a couple stumps we haven’t pulled just over the ridge here. They should work okay.”

He reached up to help her down, but she drew away. “You promise to keep an open mind about what I have to say?”

“No,” he replied honestly, “but I promise to hear you out. Take it or leave it.”

After a moment, she relented with a sigh. “I’ll take it.”

With that settled, he lifted her down, being careful to keep some distance between them. Unfortunately, the uncooperative breeze kicked up at just the wrong time, sending the scent of her perfume squarely into his face. Today she was wearing a blend of magnolias and some other flowery scent he didn’t recognize. It reminded him of the bouquets his mother loved to keep around the house in the summertime.

The image of Lily strolling through a blooming garden was almost more than he could stand, and he took a healthy step back, hoping to escape the unwelcome rush of sensations it had unleashed. Reminding himself that she was about to force him to confront his feelings about his ex-wife helped cool things down, but not as much as it should have.

When they were seated, he stubbornly waited for her to open the conversation. He recognized that she was trying to be helpful, but that didn’t mean he was obliged to cooperate. The stony-silence routine convinced most folks to leave him be, but not this woman. In her own way, Lily was even more stubborn than he was.

“I’m sure you noticed me talking with Dana at school today,” she began in a maddeningly reasonable tone. “The upshot is she’s coming back here next week and wants to see Abby. She told me she’s not leaving until she gets to spend some time with her daughter.”

Seriously? That was the best she had? Slightly disappointed, Mike laughed derisively. “I don’t think so. I’m sure she’s got a job, so she has to go home when she runs out of vacation time or money. I can wait.”

Lily raised an eyebrow in obvious disapproval. “That’s not fair.”

“Fair?” Incensed, he jumped to his feet and stalked a few feet away to get ahold of his temper. Whipping around, he glared down at Lily, who for some inexplicable reason didn’t appear to be the least bit worried. “I’ll tell you what’s not fair. She lied about loving me and our daughter, then took off in the middle of the night with no warning and no explanation. Show me the law that says I’m expected to help her worm her way back into our lives.”

Lily chewed on that for a few seconds, and he wondered how she’d respond. To be honest, he was more than a little impressed by her attempt to bring Dana some peace, whether she deserved it or not. Not many people he knew would stick their necks out so far for a stranger when there was nothing in it for them.

“May I ask you something?” she finally said. He gave a single nod, and she continued. “Do you still love Dana?”

“Not hardly.”

“Do you think she still loves you?”

The innocent question prompted him to stop blustering and confront the very personal—and painful—issues he’d spent most of the past five years avoiding. But now that she’d forced him to face up to it, he sank onto the stump with a defeated sigh.

“I’m not sure she ever loved me in the first place,” he confided, folding his hands and staring down at them to avoid her gaze. “When I met her, she was a beautiful mess and headed down a long, bad road. I was her ticket out of a roadhouse that paid her next to nothing.”

“But you must have seen that she had the potential to be something more. I mean, you asked her to marry you.”

“Seemed like a good idea at the time.” Lily didn’t comment on that, and he finally lifted his head to meet her eyes. In them, he saw something he seldom got from anyone: understanding. Gaining confidence from her sympathy, he went on. “I loved her, though, even more after Abby was born. For all her flaws, Dana was great with her, and it seemed like she’d finally found something that made her happy. It felt good knowing I gave that to her, that we were gonna be a family together. That’s why it hurt so much when she left.”

“She did more than reject you,” Lily filled in the blank for him. “She walked out on the dream just when it was coming true.”

The phrasing was a little mushy for him, but she had the gist, so he nodded. “Can I tell you something no one else knows?”

“Sure.”

“I really hate weddings.”

To his amazement, she laughed, shaking her head while she smiled at him. “There’s something we have in common. The only one I can think of that I’ve actually enjoyed was my sister’s.”

“Really? How come?”

Reaching out, she rubbed his arm with a gentle touch. “Because that’s where I met you. I’d been living a quiet little life until then, and except for teaching, I was bored out of my mind. Ever since then, I’ve met a ton of new people, and I’m having a blast spending so much time here at the farm. A lot of that is your doing, and I really appreciate it.”

“I didn’t do much, really.”

“You’re not good at taking a compliment, are you?”

“Guess not,” he allowed with a grin. “Don’t get much practice.”

“Maybe that’s because you scare everyone away before they get a chance to see how great you are.”

“Everyone but you. Why is that?”

“I work with other people’s kids all day,” she replied, eyes twinkling in fun. “I’m tough to scare.”

“I get what you’re trying to do, y’know, and it’s not gonna work. As long as I’m breathing, Dana’s not getting anywhere near my daughter. She didn’t ask to be dragged into all this, and now she’s old enough to get what’s happening. I’ve got no intention of letting Dana charm her with all kinds of promises and then break her heart.”

Lily eyed him thoughtfully. “Why don’t you let Abby decide?”

“’Cause she’s a kid who doesn’t deserve to be put through something like this. What’s she gonna say? ‘No, Mom, I don’t want anything to do with you’?”

“Is that what you’d want her to say?” Lily pressed. The nearly blank expression that came along with her question alerted him that she was trying to make a point with him. But this wasn’t his first day dealing with a challenging woman, and he wasn’t about to cave in to that kind of female pressure, no matter how sweetly it was packaged.

“This isn’t about me,” he reminded her curtly. “As a dad, I have a responsibility to protect my daughter from anything I think might hurt her.”

“I hardly think this woman is dangerous. She’s finally realized what she’s missed out on, and she wants to meet Abby. Where’s the harm in that?”

Mike had reached the end of his patience, and he stood, pulling himself up to his full height so he loomed over her. Glaring down at her, very calmly he said, “I’ve made my decision, and nothing you can say will come close to changing my mind. You don’t have kids, so I don’t expect you to understand.”

Even before he finished speaking, he regretted those last few words. Her open expression darkened into a stormy one, warning him he’d inadvertently blundered over some unseen line. Very slowly, she stood up and faced him squarely, disgust swirling through her eyes.

“I cannot believe you just said that,” she said in that precise way she had when she was angry. “I thought we were friends, but now I see you have absolutely no idea who I am.”

With that, she turned on her heel and marched back toward the house. She nearly ripped the door off her car in her haste to get away from him, and the trail of spitting gravel she left in her wake matched his current mood perfectly.

As he trudged over the hill and picked up his sledge, a voice in the back of his mind whispered that he’d just blown what might have been a good thing if only he’d given it a chance. Shutting off that tiny voice, he eyed the section of fence waiting for new posts and calculated that finishing it would take him the rest of the afternoon, if not longer.

Good news for him, he decided as he quickly got into a pounding rhythm. If he didn’t have to talk to anyone until suppertime, that would suit him just fine.

* * *

“Boys are stupid.”

Lifting her soda, Erin toasted Lily with a grin and a raised eyebrow. Sitting at a wrought-iron table outside the Oaks Café, they were by turns enjoying the warm summer evening and indulging in a little male bashing. Since the boy they were currently shredding was Erin’s brother, Lily had been holding back her true feelings out of respect for her new friend’s family. But since Erin had kicked open the barn door, Lily decided it was all right to air out her temper.

“Does he think I’m a complete imbecile?” she seethed, stabbing at the cherry on her sundae with her spoon. “I spend all day with those kids, and I see how parent troubles affect them. I wouldn’t suggest anything if I thought it could hurt any of them even the tiniest bit.”

Unfortunately, one of the things he’d said during their tense conversation kept ringing in her ears.
She lied about loving me and our daughter.
Mike may not be the warm, fuzzy type, but he was a straightforward, honest guy whose loyalty ran so deep, he was willing to take on jobs he hated in a desperate bid to keep his family’s struggling business afloat. Whenever she let herself think about how much he valued the truth, she got a sick feeling in her stomach.

Someday, she’d have to confess not only who she was, but also that she’d been lying to him all along. She feared that would be the day she lost him completely.

Erin gave her a long, pensive look, then glanced down at the straw she was twirling in her glass. “If you want my opinion, Mike’s bullheadedness has nothing to do with Dana.”

“Seriously?” Her companion nodded, and Lily sat back to consider other possibilities. When she came up empty, she frowned and shook her head. “What is it, then?”

“Goose. It’s you.”

“Okay, you’ve lost me. Mike and I were getting along just fine until this afternoon. Since we started the riding school, we’ve had plenty of disagreements, but we’ve always managed to find a compromise we can both live with.”

“So what’s different this time?”

Erin’s smug attitude was starting to get on her nerves, and Lily sighed. “Look, it’s been a long day and I’m not in the mood for twenty questions. If you’ve got something to tell me, just spit it out.”

“Fine.” Hazel eyes twinkling with humor, Erin grinned. “My big brother has a crush on you.”

“He does not,” Lily protested reflexively. “We’re just friends.”

“No, hon, you and I are friends. You and Mike are...something else. I’m not sure what yet, but there’s definitely something going on there. Everyone else can see it, so I’m not sure why you’re both fighting it so hard.”

“Everyone?” Lily echoed dubiously. “Like who?”

“Abby, for one. If you look in that sketchbook of hers, she’s got drawings of your wedding, complete with a carriage for the three of you to ride in after the ceremony.”

In a heartbeat, Lily’s anger gave way to sympathy for the adorable little girl who’d gotten it into her head that she, Mike and Lily were somehow going to be a family. She recalled similar yearnings from her own childhood, embracing each of Dad’s successive wives with the hope that the new one would stay with them forever. She loved her own mother and visited her in South Carolina as frequently as their schedules would allow. In spite of their close relationship, she’d longed for someone who lived in the same house, to play pretend with her dollhouse and have tea parties with her. In all honesty, part of her still did.

She realized now that her quick connection with Abby wasn’t a simple teacher-student thing. Raised primarily by their fathers, the two of them shared something important. And very personal. They both yearned for a mother who’d be there every day, listening, playing, helping with projects. Without meaning to, Lily had stepped into that role for Abby, and in the process she’d created an expectation for something that would last beyond the end of the summer.

When they’d first reconnected in Oaks Crossing, she’d made a vow to keep her distance from Mike and his engaging daughter to avoid hurting anyone. She’d failed miserably, and the result was so obvious, a six-year-old could see it.

Meeting Erin’s sympathetic gaze, she sighed. “I really messed this one up, didn’t I?”

“If your goal was to keep Mike in the friend zone, then yes, you did.”

Her bemused tone plucked at Lily’s already frayed nerves, and she snarled, “What other goal could I possibly have?”

“I don’t know.” Leaning back, Erin crossed her sneakers on an empty bistro chair. “You tell me.”

“Oh, be realistic,” Lily shot back. “I certainly had no intention of getting serious with your brother.”

“Y’know, sometimes the best things that happen are totally accidental. Look at chocolate chip cookies.” Frustrated by the odd reference, Lily motioned for her to explain. “The story is that a woman didn’t have enough chocolate to make the amount of cookies she wanted, so she chopped some into bits and mixed it into the dough. People loved them, and the rest is history.”

“Let me get this straight. You’re saying Mike and I are like chocolate chip cookies?”

“If you gave it a chance, you could be. I know he can be a pain, but he’s a great guy, and he generally does the right thing, even when it’s not the easiest way to go.”

“Well, this time he’s wrong.” Deciding she had to confide in someone, Lily relayed the brief conversation she and Abby had had about Dana. “I don’t care who’s right or wrong. All I’m saying is Abby’s a smart girl, and he should let her decide whether or not to meet her mother. If he forbids it altogether, I’m afraid it will come back to bite him when she’s older.”