Her Small-Town Cowboy (12 page)

“And then what did she do?” Lily asked, making it clear he’d foolishly stumbled into an old-fashioned gab session.

“Told him if he liked that car so much, he could share the garage with it.” Mom chuckled while she pulled a pitcher of sweet tea from the fridge. “It seems he prefers that to being in the house with her, because he’s been living in his workshop ever since.”

“Boys and their toys.” Giving Mike a bright grin, she added, “It’s a guy thing, right?”

“I don’t know about that one. Have you ever met the lady in question?” When she shook her head, he grinned back. “When you do, then we’ll talk.”

“Michael Adam Kinley,” Mom chided, clicking her tongue in a sound he was all too familiar with. “What a thing to say.”

“Hey, at least I’m not adding fuel to the gossip fire. I make it a point to leave that to the experts.” Winking, he leaned in to kiss her cheek. On her best day, his mom was what you’d call a handful, but to his mind that was part of her charm. Unfortunately, she’d taught him to admire spirited women, and that had left him a divorced single father with a struggling farm to run.

Most days, thoughts like that kept spiraling downward until he was so cranky, no one wanted to talk to him. Today, instead of retreating into the living room, he settled on a stool at the breakfast bar next to a knife that was waiting for Lily to start slicing a loaf of fresh soda bread. Still steaming from the oven, it smelled fantastic, and he stuffed a hunk of it in his mouth.

“I saw that,” Lily murmured, her vivid blue eyes sparkling in fun. “You left that end all ragged, you know. Your mother’s going to think I can’t be trusted to properly cut a loaf of bread.”

This woman seemed to have a real knack for making him smile, and this time he didn’t bother trying to fight it. “Just blame it on me. I’m her favorite.”

“At school the other day, Drew told me he’s the favorite. If I ask Josh and Erin, will they tell me the same thing?”

“Most likely. It’s one of Mom’s bits, and we all play along.” Leaning in, he motioned Lily closer as if they were sharing some huge secret. “Truth be told, Abby beats us all, hands down. Just don’t tell her that, or we won’t be able to live with her.”

Lily laughed, a bright, carefree sound that made him want to join in. When he did, she rewarded him with yet another incredible smile. “It’s nice to hear that from you. Up to now, I’ve gotten the impression that you’re a pretty serious guy.”

Was he? While he munched his bread, Mike let his memory wander back in time, to when he was younger and didn’t have a care in the world. After leaving Oaks Crossing, he’d roamed from one beautiful area of the country to another, working at ranches that offered everything from trail rides to all-out cattle drives for city folks willing to pay a hefty sum to play cowboy for a week. At the end of his trail had been New Mexico, where he met Dana and worked his way into the plum job of stable manager.

That had been his dream ever since he could remember, and the day Abby was born was still the happiest of his life. Not long after that, everything went south, and these days it was all he could do to put one foot in front of the other. For Abby’s sake—and his own—he wanted nothing more than to let go of the melancholy ghosts haunting his past and be happy. He just didn’t know how.

When he registered that Lily had asked him a question, he yanked his mind back into the present and met her worried gaze. “Sorry, I missed that.”

“I asked if you wanted something to drink. You just wolfed down all that bread, and you must be thirsty.”

He was, but he’d been so lost in his thoughts he hadn’t noticed until she mentioned it. Getting up, he filled a glass with ice water from the dispenser on the fancy new fridge they’d all pitched in to buy Mom last Christmas. Then, remembering the manners she’d relentlessly pounded into his head all his life, he offered it to Lily.

“Thank you.” She beamed at him, and he was glad the gesture had occurred to him.

“No problem.”

Filling his own glass, he swallowed some while it dawned on him that his mother had sneaked out of the kitchen to leave him alone with Lily. Not very subtle, but apparently she assumed he needed the hint. Since leaving their visitor alone would be incredibly rude, he came up with a way to angle their conversation to her. “So, have you heard anything about openings at Oaks Crossing Elementary in the fall?”

“No,” she admitted with a sigh. “And I can’t keep waiting, hoping for something to turn up. When I’m not helping out with the riding school, I’ll be mailing out résumés to see what I can find. This part of the state is so pretty, and the people around here have been wonderful to me. I’m hoping to be able to stay in the area, but we’ll see.”

“What happens if that doesn’t pan out?”

“I go home and start working for my father,” she confided in a discouraged voice. “It’s not my favorite option, but I have to start paying my student loans this fall, so it might be my only choice.”

Accustomed to her being so upbeat, the defeated tone in her voice was getting to him. Since there wasn’t much else he could do, he offered what he hoped was an encouraging smile. “Just hang in there. I’m sure it’ll work out the way you want it to.”

“I hope you’re right.” Her eyes went to the framed picture of Abby’s class hanging on the wall, and she added a fond smile. “I couldn’t have asked for a better class to start out with. If my next one is half as good, I’ll count my blessings.”

She wasn’t exactly preaching to him, but her phrasing made him feel itchy all of a sudden. Pulling back into himself was his usual reaction to something like that, but she’d been so open with him, he felt she deserved the same in return.

“You’re probably wondering why my whole family was in church today except me.”

“Abby told me.” That was surprising enough. Even more so was the compassion in her eyes. “I’m sorry for the way you feel, but I understand.”

He expected her to go on, but she didn’t offer anything more. More than a little suspicious, he said, “Go ahead. Get your preaching in.”

“I hate to disappoint you, but I’m a kindergarten teacher,” she told him breezily. “My lectures all end with ‘and remember to wash your hands.’”

With that, she picked up the salad she’d been tossing and carried it past him into the dining room. Stunned beyond words, Mike stood there and stared after her, trying to figure out what was wrong with him.

It seemed that no matter what they talked about, she always left him staring after her with his mouth hanging open. In his experience, when a woman did that, it was time to fish or cut bait. The trouble was, he wasn’t quite ready to commit to either one, and he’d never heard of a third choice.

“Mike, come here.”

Lily’s voice had a laugh in it, and he strolled into the dining room to find her standing in front of the bay window that looked out over the backyard and toward the side pasture. There, framed like a painting, Abby was on her back in the grass, smiling while the little fur ball on her chest snoozed away. Shafts of sunlight broke through the leaves overhead, spotlighting them like a joyful scene in a play.

He caught movement out of the corner of his eye and had to look again to be sure he’d seen right. Grinning, he pointed off to the left. “Well, I’ll be. Look at that.”

Sarge, who to Mike’s knowledge had never been keen on any animals other than his equine buddy, edged closer to the happy pair, ears perked with curiosity. When he reached the patch of grass where Abby was now giving the puppy a thorough belly rubbing, Sarge sat politely just out of her reach, his tail wagging hopefully while he waited. When she noticed him, she patted the ground beside her.

To Mike’s complete amazement, the old terrier trotted over to her and sat, giving the rambunctious pup what Mike could only term a condescending look. Abby managed to pet them both at the same time, and after a minute of that, Sarge finally gave in and lay down beside the younger dog so Charlie could reach him better. Clearly fascinated, the puppy rolled over and stared at Sarge, his tongue hanging out of the side of his mouth in a friendly gesture.

“Oh, how cute is that?” Lily sighed, taking out her phone to snap some pictures. “I thought you said Sarge didn’t like anyone other than Captain.”

And you,
Mike nearly added before he caught himself. It hadn’t escaped him that ever since meeting Lily, the scruffy old mutt had been more sociable in general. Actually, now that he thought about it, Mike had, too. She seemed to have that effect on everyone, he mused. How she managed it, he had no clue, but he couldn’t deny she had a way about her.

Being more of a keep-to-himself kind of guy, he normally couldn’t relate very well to folks who were so outgoing. Lily was another story, though, and the irony wasn’t lost on him. The one woman he’d met since his divorce who interested him enough to get to know her better, and he’d deemed her off-limits. Yeah, he was a genius.

“Mike?”

She was still watching the cute scene outside the window, and Mike figured it was a good thing she wasn’t looking at him. If she had been, he was pretty sure the perceptive teacher would be able to guess what he’d been thinking. That was the last thing he wanted. “Yeah?”

“How would you feel about having a puppy?”

Her question just about floored him. Before he took his foolish romantic detour, he’d been thinking it would be nice for Abby to grow up with a dog of her own. “Funny that you ask, because I was thinking how we had such great dogs when we were growing up here. We always had barn hounds, but we also had a couple around the house that’d sleep on your bed at night. As I recall, we used to fight over whose turn it was.”

“Let me guess,” she said, spinning to face him. “You fed them your asparagus under the table.”

He chuckled. “It was broccoli, but yeah, we did that a time or two. Mom pretended not to notice, but I think she knew.”

“Would she mind having a dog around again? They can be a lot of work, can’t they?”

“Sure, but so can kids.” Then the full meaning of what she’d asked him hit home, and he could hardly believe it. “Are you telling me your family never had a dog?”

“Between the allergies and the mess, we weren’t allowed to have any pets.”

Her tone held a stiffness he’d never heard from her, and he regretted treading on what was obviously sensitive ground. As open and generous as she’d been so far, the stern clamping down was an unpleasant side of her that he wasn’t keen to see again anytime soon. Still, he couldn’t help wondering if the lack of furry friends was the only reason she’d reacted that way when he asked about her childhood.

Figuring it was none of his business, he said, “Well, around here we’ve got so many critters a little dirt is no problem. Mom’s a total dog person, and once she gets attached to that little guy—” he pointed out the window “—Abby will have to do some serious begging to get her share of nighttimes with the puppy.”

Lily rewarded him with the kind of bright smile he wouldn’t mind seeing more often. “I’m so glad you feel that way. I can’t keep him in my apartment, but I hated the thought of leaving him at the shelter for some stranger to take home. He’s had a tough start, and I’d much rather have him living here with friends who will love him the way he deserves.”

He couldn’t get over how easily she’d taken to Charlie. Then again, she’d done the same with the other animals on the farm.
Not to mention himself,
he added wryly. Most folks wrote him off after a few minutes, so he didn’t have much of a social circle. It took someone with an awful lot of patience to get past his well-honed defenses and actually consider him a friend.

“Puppies never stay there long,” Mike assured her. “They’re so cute, folks can’t resist ’em.”

“I’ll feel better knowing he’s here with you. And Abby,” she added in a rush, turning away from him almost as quickly. Avoiding his eyes, she asked, “Should we go tell her the good news?”

“Sure.”

It was going to make his daughter’s day, he added silently as they went through the living room and headed out the door that led to the backyard. That Lily was the one who was making it happen didn’t escape him, and much as he hated to admit it, he couldn’t deny things had improved greatly for him since the day he met the runaway bridesmaid.

Once their summer riding school was in full swing, she’d be around the farm pretty much every day. Whether that was good or bad, he couldn’t say, but he anticipated more than a few skirmishes between them. Soft-spoken as she was, he’d already learned that in her own way, she was just as stubborn as he was. Instinct warned him that if she was convinced she was right, there was precious little anyone—especially him—could do to change her mind.

Between that and the passel of kids who would be running all over the farm, it would definitely be an interesting summer. To his surprise, thinking about the chaos to come didn’t bother him as much as it would have just a couple of weeks ago. In fact, he was almost looking forward to it.

Chapter Seven

W
hen Lily arrived at the farm Monday afternoon, the front door to the farmhouse was open to let in the June breeze. An upbeat pop tune was playing somewhere inside, and she knocked on the weathered frame of the screen door. “Hello?”

After a few seconds, Maggie appeared in the hallway, a laundry basket on one hip and a bright, welcoming smile on her face. “There’s no need for you to knock, Lily. You’re working with Mike now, so like it or not, you’re pretty much one of the family. Come on in.”

One of the family,
Lily echoed silently, enjoying the sound of it. The casual comfort of the rambling farm and the people who ran it appealed to her greatly, and she enjoyed knowing they considered her part of it. In her very next thought, however, she wondered if they’d be so fond of her if they knew she’d been lying to them for weeks about who she was. Eventually, she knew she’d have to come clean with them. She just had to wait for the right moment to shatter their image of her with the truth.

And then pray they could find a way to forgive her for deceiving them.

Firmly pushing that troublesome problem aside for another day, she opened the door and followed Maggie into the kitchen before setting down the two large bags she was carrying.