Maverick (Star Valley Book 3) (17 page)

As he looked past Candace, toward Leah opening the front door and stepping out onto the porch, he decided Candace was right. It wasn’t worth the risk. Leah deserved a sure thing.

‡

L
eah spied Austin
in the driveway but the moment she stepped out of the house and onto the porch, he turned away and headed toward the barn.

Candace was halfway across the driveway, walking back toward the house.

“Were you talking to Austin?” Leah asked her, wondering if he’d said anything to her friend about their earlier encounter in the tack room.

The girl shrugged. “Not really. I think he’s pretty embarrassed about his pants. And mad. I’d probably be mad, too, if I was related to a human whoopee cushion.”

“I’m sure Sawyer’s not that bad,” said Leah, though the man had only been at the house for a few days and she had no way to know. As long as she didn’t end up with a snake in
her
bed, he was someone else’s problem.

“So, are you really okay here?” asked Candace.

Leah smiled, the first genuine smile she could remember in a long time. “I mean, I wish you were here. But other than that, I have my own room, with a beautiful view of the mountains and everyone here is so, so nice. Walker’s a little…gruff…but he’s not mean or rude or anything like that. He’s like that with everyone.”

“They sure don’t seem like twins,” said Candace.

“I agree.”

Walker and Austin were at opposite ends. The brothers hardly even seemed related at all.

“I hate to you leave you,” said Candace, looking up at the sky.

“And I hate to see you go but come back soon, okay?”

“Promise,” said Candace, giving her a hug before heading to her car.

Once her friend was gone, Leah peeked into the barn, inside an outbuilding, and even checked the bunkhouse but could find no sign of Austin and was forced to give up. She pulled weeds in Sofia’s garden instead and tried to teach herself the names of the herbs that grew there. It wasn’t particularly exciting work but it passed the time and soon the older woman needed Leah’s help in the kitchen for dinner.

Sofia nodded once the biscuits were in the basket and cooling. “You ring the bell, huh?”

Leah stood on the front porch, pulling the rope, and peering out across the grounds, looking for a familiar shape. Sawyer came out of the bunkhouse, followed by Cassidy who was frantically buttoning her shirt. But there was no sign of Leah’s Barlow anywhere.

With a heavy sigh, she ducked into the kitchen and spotted him—finally! He turned to glance at her over his shoulder as he dried his hands on the kitchen towel. She could tell even from across the room he had that lazy smile on his face. She took a step forward, not really sure what would happen, but feeling a zing of electricity at the possibilities. At that moment, the side door opened and Sawyer came in from outside.

“Whoo, it’s hot!” he cried, pulling off his hat and fanning himself with it.

Austin said nothing, merely turned and walked out of the room.

Leah stifled a sigh and followed him to the dining room. At this rate, the baby might be in kindergarten before they ever got another minute alone. Dinner was long and excruciating, especially since Austin kept his attention on his plate and never once looked up at her. It was almost as though he’d forgotten their kiss, forgotten their stolen moment.

Or like it didn’t matter to him.

Feeling defeated and on the verge of tears, Leah gathered her plate and utensils, excused herself quietly and headed to the kitchen. She crammed her plate into the dishwasher and turned to track down Austin, to find out what the hell was going on, but she ended up face-to-face with Cassidy who was standing behind her.

The girl slid a piece of paper across the counter to her. “Here’s the number of the salon,” she said. “And the tanning place next door. They both want a display in their stores. Now, don’t take their first offer. Make sure you negotiate their cut to the bare minimum. Especially with Allison. She runs the salon. She can be ruthless.”

Leah’s heart stopped. “This…this is incredible! I can’t believe it.” She pinched the card between her fingers, holding onto it for dear life. Everyone at Snake River had been gracious about Leah’s presence but this made her feel more like family, which meant a lot since she was so far away from her own. “You didn’t have to do this, Cassidy. Really. It’s so generous. Thank you so much!”

“Are you kidding me?” the girl asked with a perfectly arched brow raised to the sky. “I’m just glad all that prancing and preening and painful smiling is finally paying off. If not for me, for
someone
at least. Hopefully when I’m done with my class, we can build you a website and then you can really take off!”

“A…a website?” asked Leah cautiously. That sounded big. That sounded complicated. She started to protest but the Lincoln County Fair Queen was having none of it.

Cassidy looked at her sharply. “Listen, it took me a long time to find anything I was good at. You already know what your talent is, so don’t throw it away on anything silly like lack of confidence.”

Leah didn’t know if she had that kind of confidence, truth be told. After all, it had taken more than a year to work up the courage to approach Mrs. Finley at the Center of the West. What she did know, beyond a doubt, was that she had a friend, and that was worth the most of all. She threw her arms around Cassidy, who was considerably taller, and hugged her. She felt blessed to have Cassidy stand in for Candace, who was so far away now.

“I won’t,” said Leah, which for her was more an ‘I’ll-try-not-to’, but it was sincerely meant and her affection for the girl genuine.

“Can I buy these?” asked Cassidy as she twisted the necklace around her fingers.

“You don’t have to buy them! They’re yours. Keep them!” Leah said.

Cassidy grinned and hugged her again. “Thanks!” she called out before heading through the side door, presumably toward the bunkhouse.

Leah pocketed the business card with the phone numbers scrawled on it and made her way through the living room, on her way upstairs. When she found herself at the end of the hallway, she noticed his bedroom was dark and so was the bathroom. She must’ve missed him, she thought, and her shoulders sagged. In her own bedroom across the hall, she lay down, staring at the ceiling, listening keenly for the sound of boots on the stairs. It was impossible to even close her eyes without thinking about Austin and their near-miss-kiss earlier in the day. If she couldn’t get him alone while the sun was shining, surely she could succeed after night had fallen—just to see, just to
know
.

Time ticked slowly by, though, and she had almost drifted off while waiting when she heard a low rumble in the distance outside. She got up and went not to the door but to the window, pulling the blinds and looking out through the pane. She forgot about Austin as lightning dazzled in the distance. Suddenly Leah was overcome with the urge to add something to her Reverse Bucket List, something she’d left off but seemed important now.

Dance in the rain
.

‡

A
ustin and Walker
were finally finished going over the monthly expense reports. He hadn’t intended to take so damn long, but Walker insisted on going over the invoices for the last several years for a vendor located in Texas.
Lone Star Stud Service
appeared to be closed for the evening, though, and Austin had only managed to leave a voice mail. Knowing he wouldn’t hear back tonight at least, he shut off the office light before closing the door. The living room was already dark and it seemed everyone else had gone off to bed.

He made his way up the creaking stairs and stopped at Leah’s door but it was dark underneath the crack. He headed straight for the bathroom, stripped off his clothes, and stood under the hot shower until he couldn’t stand it any longer. A few quick tugs and he’d be free of his torment but he was in a foul mood and decided to let himself suffer. He’d made a promise to leave Leah alone, but it didn’t feel right, and it definitely didn’t feel natural. He wanted her but he didn’t want to make things any more complicated. Deciding he’d had enough, he shut off the water, threw on a pair of shorts, and opened the bathroom door.

Before he even took a step, he heard a low rumble and realized there was a storm on its way. Storms out here were often more intense than they were elsewhere, even in town. The open land did nothing to slow the winds that sometimes whipped through at ferocious speeds. And being in the valley, thunder echoed louder, making it seem as though the storm was right on top of the house.

Concerned about the possibility of it scaring Leah, he headed quickly down the hall to check on her. He knocked on her door and waited, but no answer came. Surely she couldn’t sleep through all this? Austin hesitated then took hold of the doorknob and opened it just a crack. “Leah?” he called softly.

No answer.

In the distance thunder rumbled, but it seemed closer now.

“Leah?” he said again and finally opened the door wide. The room was empty, the covers on the bed pulled back. He squinted into the dark just case he’d missed her somehow. There was no sign of her, though.

The first drops of rain hit the window in a burst and the trees in the yard threw long, wild shadows across the floor as they swayed in the wind.

Austin frowned and moved down the hallway to the bathroom, but that door was already standing wide open and she wasn’t there, either. He headed downstairs, checking the living room first and then the kitchen. No lights were on anywhere and there was no one else on the first floor.

He was nervous now, throwing open doors, even to the office where she had no reason to be but he checked anyway, just in case. The basement door was still bolted shut (to keep Willow from falling down the steep wooden steps) and the side door was locked. On his way back through the first floor, Austin stopped at the living room windows and peered out at the driveway just as a splattering of raindrops smacked the pane.

Several seconds passed, then a flickering of lightning. There, in front of the barn, on a tiny patch of grass, a small, lithe figure spun wildly, as though being tossed about by the shrieking wind. His heart plummeted to his stomach and he darted toward the front door, throwing it wide. He barreled down the steps just as the thunder started to sound louder overhead. Through the raindrops he saw that she’d stopped spinning and was now pinned against the side of the barn.

“Leah!” he called, but it was lost to a gale that ripped through the trees. She started for him, but ducked back again when another bolt of lightning illuminated the space around them. The storm was moving fast. Even in the time it had taken to descend the stairs and step onto the porch it was a full-on rager. Water poured in buckets between them, which he didn’t mind, but the lightning strikes made for tricky navigating.

He waited for another, then charged down the steps and ran across the large, circular driveway, legs pumping. His feet were bare and the tiny rocks stung his soles but he hardly noticed. Getting to her was all that mattered.

He made it to her in record time and before he could stop himself, he reached out and grabbed her shoulders roughly. “
What are you doing out here alone
?” he demanded. He was surprised at his own anger, shocked at how terrified he’d been when he’d opened the bedroom door to find her missing. The thought of Leah’s absence had not sat well with him. And the sight of her trapped underneath the eave of the barn in the middle of a thunderstorm had driven him half-insane.

Leah, for her part, seemed oblivious to his mood, though. Despite his grip on her, she smiled up into his face. Her wet hair was plastered to her forehead. Her t-shirt clung to her. She laughed, a sound which startled him, because it was so at odds with the storm raging around them and the one inside him. “I’m not alone,” she replied.

Austin watched her hand flutter from his chest to her belly. It rested there, over the rounded bump that he could make out now that she was soaking wet and the fabric was clinging to her. A wave of possessiveness flooded through him.