Her Small-Town Cowboy (21 page)

“Half the state,” Mike finished for her. The brusque attitude he’d had when she first met him had returned full force. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he eyed her with open disdain. “So, what’re you doing out here in the sticks, slumming with us common folk?”

The insult struck her like a physical blow, but she refused to knuckle under to it. Instead, she raised herself up to her full height and glared back at him. “It’s not like that.
I’m
not like that, and you know it.”

“I’m not sure what I know,” he retorted in a terrifyingly calm voice. “Have a nice trip back to Louisville, Your Highness.”

Turning on the heel of his boot, he stalked down the steps and away from the house. Avoiding the turnaround, he headed for one of the barns. He flung open the sliding door and slammed it behind him with a finality that sent Lily’s heart plunging to her feet.

Unfortunately, her own misery had to wait. Only a family emergency would bring her other world crashing into this one, and she hurried over to the driver waiting patiently beside the car.

“Hello, Miss Lily,” Vernon said, bowing slightly. “I’m sorry to interrupt you so abruptly, but I wasn’t able to reach you by phone. When I went by the address your grandmother gave me, your landlady told me I’d find you here.”

“I turned my cell off earlier, so that’s my fault. Something must be wrong, or you wouldn’t be here.”

“Your grandfather had a stroke this morning. He’s in the hospital and was asking for you, so your grandmother sent me to fetch you.”

To say goodbye,
Lily filled in the blank for him. The thought of her kindhearted grandfather being frightened enough to send for her made her sick inside. Tears blurred her vision, and it was all she could do to nod. He gave her a sympathetic look, then stepped away to open the rear door for her.

After he’d settled into his seat, he glanced into the rearview. “Would you like to stop to pick up some clothes?”

“I’m fine, Vernon. Just get me to Grandpa as fast as you can.”

Before it’s too late.

* * *

He should’ve known better.

That self-condemning phrase repeated over and over in his head, in rhythm with the curry brush he was using to clean up Gideon’s mud-caked coat. It hadn’t rained in a week, so where the gelding had picked up so much dirt was beyond him. The fact that his partner in crime, Chance, was spotless only made it more of a mystery.

Mindless tasks like this one usually helped him think through a problem and come up with a decent solution. This time, though, the problem he was wrestling with had incredible blue eyes and a smile that could brighten the cloudiest day.

And she was a liar.

Just like Dana,
that old pessimistic voice in his head chimed in. He hadn’t heard it in a while, and he hadn’t missed it at all. That it was back now only made him feel more foolish than he already did.

“Of course she’s a society girl,” he muttered to Gideon while he attacked another clump of mud with the brush. “I should’ve figured it out sooner. She’s smart as a whip and has great taste in everything. Regular folks aren’t like that.”

“You trying to convince him or yourself?”

Already aggravated, Mike wasn’t pleased to find Drew standing outside the stall, peering in at him as if he was on display at a zoo. “Back off, little brother. I’m not in the mood.”

“For what? All I know is Lily took off in a limo, and there’s a blonde woman playing in the sandbox with Abby.”

“That’s Dana, here for that visit I told you about,” he explained in as patient a voice as he could manage. “I forgot she was even here when I heard what Lily had to say.”

“Which was?”

Drew could be a real pain, but the concern in his eyes encouraged Mike to share Lily’s stunning revelation.

Letting out a low whistle, Drew said, “I can see how that could upset a guy. Especially one whose ex-wife kicked him on her way out the way Dana did.”

Relieved that someone understood, Mike rested his arm on the horse’s flank and heaved a long sigh. “You’d think I’d be smarter by now.”

“You are.” Mike snorted at that, and his brother grinned. “No, really. I mean, a teacher is about as far as you can get from a waitress at a roadhouse.”

“Then how is it I still ended up in the same place?”

“From where I’m standing, you didn’t. Did you ask Lily why she had to go?”

Mike opened his mouth to respond, then shut it and grimaced. “No. I was so mad about her lying to me, I didn’t think to.”

“She’s been here all summer, and this is the first time anyone from Louisville’s come to see her. I’m no expert, but to me that says something’s wrong at home. She strikes me as being pretty responsible. Did she call you to say what’s going on?”

Mike glanced over to where his cell phone still sat on the hay bale where he’d thrown it in disgust. Beneath the picture of Abby and Lily, a voice mail alert was blinking. He didn’t have to be psychic to know it must be a message from Lily.

“I’m the last guy to be telling anyone what to do,” Drew said on his way out. “But if it was me, I’d listen to that message before you write the lady off completely.”

Since he was walking away, he obviously didn’t expect a response, which suited Mike just fine. No matter what Lily had done, in his gut he knew the fair thing was to call and let her explain her reasons for deceiving him. Because angry as he was, he simply couldn’t believe she’d purposefully tried to hurt him. Unfortunately, he had another, much more serious problem.

By some manner of ironic insanity, he’d fallen in love with the runaway bridesmaid who’d been lying to him since the first time he laid eyes on her. Judging by the troublesome ache that had settled in his chest, his foolish heart didn’t care about any of that. It only wanted Lily back.

What was he supposed to do with that?

* * *

Her grandfather looked small.

Lily stood at the foot of his hospital bed, gazing at the man who’d always seemed larger than life to her. Not because of his actual size, but because his personality and his will carried a stature of their own that defied rational explanation. But now, even though he was resting, he no longer looked undefeatable to her.

He looked vulnerable.

“What are you doing here?”

His raspy voice startled her out of her brooding, and she looked up to find those gray eyes were as sharp as ever. She’d actually feared he might not recognize her because of the stroke, and she didn’t bother hiding her delight as she slipped into the chair near his bed. “I heard you were lazing around, and I came to give you a kick in the pants.”

His chortle lacked its usual power, but she saw the same fondness twinkling in his eyes that she’d enjoyed for as long as she could remember. “Your grandmother likes to fuss, so the doctor’s humoring her by keeping me here, that’s all.”

“Nice try,” she chided him, noting the slight drooping on the left side of his craggy face. “How bad was it, really?”

“Bad enough, I suppose. Everyone’s tiptoeing around like I’m already set up for my viewing.”

Despite the serious situation, Lily couldn’t help laughing. “Oh, Grandpa, only you could joke about something like that.”

“Tell me about you, Lily. Did you hear about that teaching job you wanted in Oak Ridge?”

“Oaks Crossing,” she corrected him gently, smoothing out the wrinkles in the snowy-white sheet that had been expertly folded over the top edge of his light coverlet. Eager to share her good news with him, she forced a smile and continued. “This morning, I accepted an offer to teach kindergarten in the fall.”

She went on to tell him the details, then about the riding school and how she planned to introduce her new students to ecology by bringing a baby raccoon from the rescue center into class. She did her best to sound upbeat, but when she was finished, his scowl told her she’d failed miserably.

“And what about the horse trainer you’ve been gushing about on the phone all summer?”

Although she’d had a firm grip on her emotions until now, the stress of her confrontation with Mike, coupled with her grandfather’s condition, finally swamped her. Tears sprang into her eyes, and she furiously blinked them away. “I don’t know what to tell you.”

“The truth, my darling girl,” he said in a soothing tone. Taking her hand, he waited until she met his eyes. “I promise you, no matter what it is, I’ve heard worse.”

Alternately sobbing and sniffling, she poured her heart out to him, not leaving out a single detail of what had gone on since she and Mike met outside Natalie’s wedding. When her grandfather gave her a half smile, she asked, “What’s so funny?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“Not really.”

“It will be,” he said confidently. “You’re a smart young woman, and I’m confident you’ll figure it out when you see him again.”

“I don’t think he’ll ever want to see me again.”

“He will.”

“You’ve never even met him,” she pointed out in confusion. “How can you be so sure?”

“Old or young, men are all the same. We bluster and complain, but in the end, all we want is someone to love, who will love us in return. Do you think you could have that with Mike?”

“Maybe,” she hedged, “but he’s so angry with me, I can’t imagine it happening now.”

“Give him time to cool off, then explain to him why you kept your background a secret from him.”

“That would be wonderful,” she admitted, “but I betrayed his trust. I’m not sure he can get over that.”

“Anything is possible, Lily,” Grandpa murmured as his medication took hold and he drifted off to sleep. “You just need to have a little faith.”

Chapter Twelve

T
he day of the horse show was sunny and warm, one of those gorgeous summer days everyone flooded outside to enjoy. Unfortunately, Mike wasn’t in the mood.

Since Lily had dropped her bombshell and been whisked off to Louisville earlier in the week, he hadn’t heard a peep from her. Well, that wasn’t entirely fair, he corrected himself as he strode into the barn to start prepping the ponies for their big day. She’d called him several times but he’d pressed Ignore and then deleted her voice mails without even listening to them. At first, he hadn’t wanted to hear what lame excuse she’d come up with for lying to him for months about who she was.

But as the days had dragged by, he found himself wishing she’d call. That he still had her number on speed dial and knew how to use it was beside the point, he kept telling himself. She was wrong, so she should apologize to him. Petty, maybe, but that was what he’d decided to go with.

On the news, he’d heard about Leland St. George’s stroke, and that the family had all gathered around him in a show of love and support for their beloved patriarch. Mike could envision Lily right beside her grandfather, holding his hand, reaching him when no one else could.

The same way she’d done with Mike.

She’d become an integral part of his days, and being without her hurt him so deeply, he felt as if he was just going through the motions. Brooding wasn’t getting him anywhere, so he sternly told himself to focus on something else. Mechanically brushing and tacking up half a dozen ponies distracted him for a while. When he was finished, he was grateful when Abby bounced into the stable and climbed onto her perch.

“Hi, Daddy.”

“Hey there,” he replied with a halfhearted smile. “We’re almost ready.”

“That’s good, because people are starting to show up. Uncle Drew and Aunt Erin helped me decorate the show ring.”

Glancing out the side door, he saw the stars-and-stripes bunting they’d draped along the fence, accented by dark green helium balloons with the Gallimore Riding School logo on them. Seeing them took him back to the day when Lily and Abby had designed the graphic together at the kitchen table while he marveled at how quickly his little girl had become attached to her pretty new teacher.

Suddenly, he missed Lily so much, his chest actually ached. Pushing that aside, he said, “It looks real nice out there, munchkin. Good job.”

“Daddy?”

“Yeah?”

“Is Lily’s grandpa going to die like Grampa did?”

Once again, Mike was struck by the fact that even though she didn’t remember it happening, his father’s sudden death had affected Abby greatly.
Like her mother’s leaving,
he added silently. All these years, he’d done everything in his power to protect his daughter from the harsh realities of life. And in the end, he’d failed miserably.

“I’m not sure,” he answered honestly. “The doctors will do what they can, but then it’s up to God.”

She absorbed that with a thoughtful expression, then caught him totally by surprise. “It’s too bad Lily couldn’t be here for the show. When is she coming back?”

Emotion clogged his throat, and Mike cleared it before answering. “I’m not sure she is, Abby. Things are complicated right now.”

“Why?”

Good question,
he groused. “Because they are.”

She cocked her head with the kind of look Mom gave him when she knew something was up. “Did you two have a fight or something?”

“I’m not discussing that with you,” he bristled defensively. Normally, that was all someone needed to get the message and back off. But this was his fearless cowgirl, and she shook her head at him with a sigh.

“That means yes. Whenever I have a fight with Parker or one of my friends, you tell me to step back and look at their side of it. Did you try that?”

She was killing him, turning his own advice against him like this. But he could hardly blame her. She was six years old, and to her the world was black-and-white. Someday, when she was older, she’d learn how gray things could get. But he didn’t want this to be that day.

“I think we need to get these horses lined up for the opening parade,” he suggested, hoping that would end the interrogation for now. “Wanna give me a hand?”

She gave him a long, pitying look but jumped down and took Sparkle’s lead rope from him. After handing off another, he grabbed the last four himself and followed Abby and her ponies out into the ring.

Standing at the rail facing a crowd of beaming moms and dads, he was completely out of his element. Copying what he’d seen Lily do, he held out his arms in the quieting gesture she used. When everyone had settled, he dredged up a friendly smile.