Emily's Cowboy

A Total-E-Bound Publication

www.total-e-bound.com

Emily’s Cowboy

ISBN # 978-1-78184-295-9

©Copyright Donna Gallagher 2013

Cover Art by Posh Gosh ©Copyright April 2013

Edited by Amy Parker

Total-E-Bound Publishing

This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Total-E-Bound Publishing.

Applications should be addressed in the first instance, in writing, to Total-E-Bound Publishing. Unauthorised or restricted acts in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution.

The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.

Published in 2013 by Total-E-Bound Publishing, Think Tank, Ruston Way, Lincoln, LN6 7FL, United Kingdom.

Warning:

This book contains sexually explicit content which is only suitable for mature readers. This story has a
heat rating
of
Total-e-burning
and a
sexometer
of
2.

This story contains 108 pages, additionally there is also a
free excerpt
at the end of the book containing 6 pages.

League of Love

EMILY’S COWBOY

Donna Gallagher

Book five in the League of Love series

When love is not enough to heal the scars, both physical and mental, of the one you thought you would spend your life with…what else is there?

It’s such a cliché—country boy moves to the big city to follow his dreams, leaving his girl and everything he loves behind—but that’s exactly what Gareth Andrews has done. Playing rugby league is Gareth’s dream, and he’s signed with one of the best teams in the competition, the Sydney Jets. Of course, that has meant a move to the big city and leaving Emily Mackenzie and everything he loves behind. Not that Gareth hasn’t begged her to join him in the city—he has, on bended knee—but Emily needs to stay in Gunnedah and help her father on the family farm until her brother’s stint in the armed forces is over. But Gareth knows it’s more than that. Emily is hiding away, embarrassed by the scars that mar her body in a constant reminder of the bushfire that nearly took her life.

Can love give Emily the courage to face strangers again when her father is badly injured and Gareth shows up at the hospital to support her? Or will she let her fear and shame get the better of her, and break her one true love’s heart for a second time?

Dedication

To the lovely ladies of the Sydney branch of ARRA—thank you for your support and friendship.

As always, hugs and thanks to my wonderful editor, Amy.

Trademarks Acknowledgement

The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: Ken Kesey

Skype: Microsoft Corporation

Tri-Nations Cup: Rugby League International Federation

Chapter One

They were going to kill him. The collective look in the men’s eyes was one of pure animosity. Emily could see it clearly defined in their faces, could see the intent as they charged towards the man she loved—three huge men, covered in mud and perhaps even blood, judging by the russet-coloured liquid leaking from one of the men’s bandaged head—and there was nothing she could do about it. She couldn’t look away and sat frozen in the moment as she watched the horror unfold before her, silently praying that Gareth would survive the next few brutal seconds.

Then they were on him, two around his upper body, one knocking his legs out from beneath him as they picked him up and slammed him, back first, onto the hard ground. The four men wrestled together. He was caught beneath the onslaught from the three above him—she could see him struggling to get to his feet. It really only took a matter of seconds, but for Emily it was a lifetime. Her heart raced, her palms moistened and she could not get the air into her lungs to take her next breath, the fear he would be hurt was so overwhelming.

Just when Emily thought she could bear it no longer, the men stopped struggling. They broke away, stood and faced each other. Gareth reached down, put the ball under his foot and rolled it behind him. Emily drew a breath down deep into her oxygen-deprived lungs… The tackle was over.

Every game was the same for Emily. It didn’t matter that for all intents and purposes Gareth was no longer hers, by her own choice. It would always be like that for her—the same fear, the same panic that overwhelmed her as she watched him play his beloved rugby league. It had started way back in the days of their childhood when she and Gareth had been joined at the hip, back when she would accompany his family to those junior rugby league matches. Emily always had the same reaction—horror and fear as she watched every tackle in a hypnotic trance, a panicked state, her breath trapped in her lungs until the moment she saw him back on his feet, healthy and unharmed despite the brutality of the sport he loved. She had never loved the game the way he did. Her only reason for watching was for reassurance that he remained uninjured, and had survived his time on the field without harm. She didn’t care if the team won or lost. For Emily, it was just about Gareth.

Of course, her family—and even Gareth himself—had no idea her interest was so limited. They believed her a true fan of the sport. Why wouldn’t they? She had been with Gareth for every local game he’d ever played. Well, apart from that time she had been in the hospital, but she would have been there watching if she could have.

As Emily tuned out, uninterested in the commentator’s wrap up of the televised game, she absentmindedly rubbed at her scars, the puckering skin of her deformity, the unkind reminder of the day her world had changed. She was hardly aware of her unconscious movement—her focus was on her relief that the final siren had sounded, concluding yet another game her precious Gareth had remained unscathed.

“Chin up, Em. This is what you decided. No point second guessing or reminiscing. Gareth has moved on, his life is in the big city and you have chores to do.” She spoke the words in an attempt to quell the usual sadness she felt, as her only link to Gareth ended with the conclusion of the television broadcast. Emily turned the seldom used television off, waited till the black screen was all that was left to see and walked from the room. Her posture was hunched, her gait slow as she headed to the barn to feed the horses and clean the stalls. The routine, mundane tasks would fill her mind enough that the pain that lanced her heart would eventually fade.

“Game finished? How’d he go? Did they win?”

Her father’s deep voice breached her thoughts, bringing her back to the here and now, preventing any further painful memories from surfacing.

 “Yep, they won. Gareth came through okay.” Emily didn’t want to discuss Gareth any more. It was better to push him from her mind for now, knowing full well that it would only be a week before once again she would sit white-knuckled in front of the television, riding every moment with him, feeling every knock he took as if it was her on the field. Why she could not just keep herself from this anguish week after week, she could not explain. It was just something she had to do.

She had sent him away, destroyed every plan they had ever made for their future—and they
had
planned and dreamt about what a perfect life they would have together, had talked of such things late into the night on many occasions. That was before she’d pushed him from her life, but she could not stop loving him, worrying for him. Emily knew this like she knew she would take another breath, and until that last breath she would love Gareth like no other.

But she’d had no choice. The accident had robbed her of that future, that destiny. Her deformity had changed all that. It was hard enough for
her
to live with it every day, and she could avoid the scarring if she stayed away from her own reflection. Those around her, forced to gaze upon her, had no such luxury—no, to their eyes the deformation was glaringly obvious, and Emily could not bear the looks of pity on the faces of the people she loved, and especially not on Gareth’s.

Maybe once she had been good enough for him, but now there was no way. He deserved beauty in his life, not some hideous excuse for what she had once been. Gareth was loyal and Emily understood that he would have remained with her out of pity, a sense of duty to what they’d once had, the dreams they had once made, but she could not let that be the life for him. A life filled with the sight of her ugliness, when he woke each and every morning to see her as she was now. A life spent trying to ignore the whispered comments as she walked by, or the pointing, the looks of horror on the faces of innocent children scared by her appearance. Gareth deserved much more than that, and that was why Emily had sent him to the big city, told him to go and make a career playing rugby league, the way he was meant to. Despite all the plans they had made, she had told him, as her heart had broken, that she had changed her mind, hated the thought of living in a chaotic place full of cement buildings. She had told Gareth that she could not live without the fields and freedom of the countryside, told him she would not leave the family farm, would not make the move to the city with him as she had promised.

She had known that living without Gareth would be suffocating, nearly impossible to survive, but she had hidden those emotions from him, ignored his pleas. Ignored the distress she’d seen in his eyes, in his features as she had pushed him away, until finally, Gareth had done as she had asked, and left.

Taking away her sunshine.

Her heart.

Emily tried not to think of the hurt she had caused Gareth. She was doing the right thing for him, the only thing. He would see that eventually when he found someone new, someone whole to love. Emily just hoped that when that time came, she would be able to hold herself together, to survive seeing him happy with another woman, surrounded by children—his and his new love’s. It would remind Emily of the plans they had made together, which had been robbed from her by the fire that had ruined her life.

“We really should use the quad bikes more, Em. Need to catch up with the other farms, but I just love the old ways, the feel of my horse beneath me. But I do get tired of the manure, that’s for sure.”

Her father made this same statement nearly every day, and Emily smiled at the comforting familiarity of the moment. She did love the farm and adored her father. Being with him was no hardship. His love would have to be enough for her. Her father was a hero to her. He loved her without hesitation, never one with the idea that men must guard their emotions or else be thought of as weak. Not Daniel Mackenzie. No—Mac, as he was known to his friends, was proud to show his affection for his only daughter. He had not hidden the tears on his face as he had waved goodbye to his son, Dylan, who was off fighting the war in Afghanistan, a member of the Australian contingent of serviceman sent to serve in that area.