The Last Cowboy Standing (15 page)

She had a credit card in her handbag. She had some cash, a
comb, a lipstick and a couple of tissues. It would do until she could have her
other things delivered.

She trotted down the front stairs. The air was chilly against
her bare arms, and through the thin dress, but that didn’t matter. All that
mattered right now is that she got away, away from Travis, away from Caleb, away
from their families and her humiliation.

Her new job was a fraud. And she couldn’t go back to the old
one. She’d left Milburn and Associates on bad terms, and she’d turned down
Nester and Hedley. She had absolutely no prospects. She honestly didn’t know
where she went from here.

A hotel first, she supposed. And then she’d need to update her
resume. On the bright side—

Her breath caught and her chest tightened painfully. She
couldn’t seem to come up with a bright side.

* * *

The second Travis saw the expression on his sister
Mandy’s face, he knew something was wrong.

The song was ending, so he quickly excused himself from his
mother, crossing the dance floor to meet Mandy. Katrina was hovering behind
her.

“What?” He glanced from side to side, trying to identify the
source of the problem.

“It’s Danielle,” Mandy blurted out.

Travis’s stomach clenched hard. “Is she hurt?”

Mandy swiftly shook her head. “She’s fine. She left.”

His fear was replaced with confusion. “What? Why?”

“She overheard us. Well, me. She overheard me talking about her
job at Active Equipment.”

Travis still didn’t understand. “She had
work
to do? Now?”

“No.” Mandy drew a breath. “She heard me say you’d talked Caleb
into hiring her.”

Travis’s world went still. Then a roaring sound started in his
ears. “You didn’t,” he rasped.

“I’m so sorry,” Mandy continued. “I think.” She swallowed. “She
might have heard me say you wanted to keep her out of D.C.”

“Where’d she go?”

“Through the front door.”

“When?” Travis demanded, his feet already moving toward the
exit.

He didn’t hear Mandy’s answer. He elbowed his way through the
colorful, laughing crowd. People spoke to him, but he didn’t answer. The sounds
and sights of the reception blended together, incomprehensible and meaningless.
The only message that mattered was inside his head. He had to get to Danielle.
He had to explain.

He burst through the big door, sprinting to the street,
glancing one way and then the other.

He spotted her, half a block down, under a streetlamp, marching
along in her blue dress and high heels, the crystals sparkling in the light.

“Danielle,” he called.

Her shoulders stiffened, but she kept walking.

“Danielle,” he repeated, breaking into a run. “Stop.”

This time, there was no reaction. She completely ignored
him.

His strides ate up the sidewalk, and he quickly caught her.
“Danielle, please, let me explain.”

She lifted her chin and increased her pace. “You don’t have to
explain a thing.”

“Stop,” he pleaded.

She stopped and turned on him. “No.”

“Let me tell you what happened.”

“I
know
what happened. You got
Caleb to manipulate me. You couldn’t keep me out of D.C. by yourself, so you
made him do it for you. You are a self-centered, unbridled control freak.”

“I am not a control freak, I—”

“Do you have
any
idea what you’ve
done?” she demanded, eyes blazing under the light.

“I want what’s best for you,” he insisted, knowing it was
entirely true.

“You don’t get to decide what’s best for me. Randal doesn’t get
to decide, and you don’t get to decide.”

“Randal’s a selfish jerk.”

She jabbed a finger against Travis’s chest. “And you are
exactly like him.”

“I am
nothing
like him,” Travis
growled.

“Really?” she demanded. “He wanted to sleep with me, so he
found me a job in D.C. You wanted to sleep with me, so you found me a job in
Lyndon Valley. Tell me right now, what’s the difference?”

The difference was that Travis wanted what was best for
Danielle. Randal wanted what was best for Randal.

She didn’t wait for him to answer. “The difference is, you’re
worse, Travis. Because you actually ruined my career. I have no job. I had two,
count ’em
two
solid, viable, well-paying job
opportunities, and you made me blow them both.”

“You have a job at Active Equipment.”

“Don’t insult me. That’s a sham.”

Caleb’s voice interrupted. “It’s a real job, Danielle.”

Her eyes darted past Travis to where Caleb had caught up to
them on the sidewalk.

“Not you, too, Caleb,” she rasped. “I trusted you. I thought we
had—” Her voice broke.

Caleb stepped forward. “You
can
trust me.”

“You can trust me, too,” Travis felt compelled to put in. “I
might have suggested—”

“Stop talking,” Danielle ordered him in a stone-cold tone.

She looked at Caleb to include him as well. “Both of you stop
talking. This is
my
life. You don’t get to mess with
it.” She took a backward step away from them. “I’m leaving now.”

Travis made to follow. “No.”

Caleb grabbed his arm to stop him.

Travis struggled to shake off the grip. No way, no how was he
letting Danielle leave like this.

“Take a car,” Caleb told her, waving one of the sedans forward.
“Take it to the Sunburst Hotel. Active Equipment has an account.”

“I’ll pay for my own hotel room,” she snapped.

“Don’t go,” Travis barked. “Let’s go someplace, let’s
talk.”

She gazed up at him, or rather through him. “I never want to
speak to you again.”

The car pulled up, and she moved to the curb.

“Danielle,” he pleaded, straining toward her.

Caleb’s grip tightened. “Not now,” he ordered in Travis’s
ear.

“I can’t let her go.”

She opened the back door of the sedan.

“You have to let her go.”

As she climbed inside, Travis jerked free.

“For now,” Caleb said to him.
“For
now.”

Danielle slammed the door shut.

Travis swore.

“You’ll talk to her tomorrow,” Caleb offered.

Travis swore again.

“She’ll be at the Sunburst.” Caleb clasped him on the shoulder.
“And you’ll talk to her in the morning.”

“I’m so sorry,” Mandy said, surprising Travis with her
presence. “I truly did not realize she could hear me.”

He wanted to rail at his sister, demand to know what had
happened, demand to know how she could have been so indiscreet. But he knew it
wasn’t her fault. It was his fault.

He wasn’t anything like Randal. But right now Danielle had no
way of knowing that.

“I have to talk to her,” he said out loud. He didn’t think he
could wait until morning.

“And say what?” asked Mandy, moving a little closer to him.

He gazed down as his practical, pragmatic sister looked him
square in the eyes. “And say what, big brother?”

He didn’t understand the question.

“That you’re in love with her?” Mandy asked.

Something shifted inside Travis, the possibility opening up
like sunshine on an early spring morning.

In love with Danielle? How great would it be to be in love with
Danielle? That would mean he could care for her, protect her. He could spend the
rest of his life with her. They could live together, build a family like his
siblings had done. He could grow old with Danielle by his side.

“Travis?” Mandy interrupted softly.

“She hates me,” he found himself saying.

“She’s only angry,” Mandy countered.

Travis hoped that was true. She’d been angry with him before,
and he’d been able to reason with her. Maybe he could do it again this time.

“I wasn’t wrong, you know,” he told his sister.

“Wrong about what?”

“To keep her out of D.C. To keep her with me instead of
him.”

“Maybe so,” Mandy allowed. “But I’m not sure that should be
your opening line.”

* * *

Danielle gazed at the pink glow of the sun coming up
over Lyndon City. She was curled up in an armchair, facing the picture window in
her hotel room, wrapped in an oversized T-shirt. Checking in last night, she’d
asked about buying something to sleep in and was given the shirt out of their
storage room.

It wasn’t until Danielle got to her room, that she realized it
was left over from the mayor’s race. The shirt was roomy, long, nearly down to
her knees, and emblazoned across the front it said JACOBS HAS MY VOTE. Now, she
hugged it to herself, blinking away tears, pondering the irony.

She’d fallen in love with Travis last night. She thought it
must have happened while they were dancing. Then again, maybe it had happened at
the rehearsal, or while they were shopping. Or maybe it had happened way back in
Vegas.

She didn’t really know, and it didn’t really matter. She was in
love with Travis, and he’d betrayed her. The worst part was that he didn’t even
understand what he’d done. He was so stubborn, so blind, so brazenly
self-confident that it never occurred to him he could make a mistake.

If Travis saw the world a certain way, then that was the way of
the world. If anyone disagreed, then they were misguided. That conviction gave
him license to manipulate people and events. He’d wanted her in Lyndon Valley,
so here she was, in Lyndon Valley.

Yet again, her mother was proven right. Men looked after their
own interests. Women were on their own.

Should she have seen this coming? Should she have guessed the
depths of Caleb’s loyalty to Travis?

Mentally debating what she should or should not have known, was
exhausting. She knew she ought to care about her career. But all she knew at the
moment was that she missed Travis. She loved him. Or at least she had loved him.
For a brief magical time last night, they seemed to have a shining future.

There was an abrupt knock on her hotel room door, and her
nerves jolted to life. She gripped the arms of the chair, staying firmly in
place, telling herself there wasn’t anyone she wanted to see right now.

The knock came again, followed by Caleb’s voice. “Danielle? I
brought you some things from the mansion.”

She was disappointed, and she hated herself for feeling that
way. She’d wanted it to be Travis. Even in the midst of his outrageous behavior,
she wanted it to be him. How could she allow herself to be so weak?

“Danielle?” Caleb called again.

She pushed herself up from the chair, gritting her teeth in
determination. She would need to talk to Caleb at some point. And she did need
to get her things. Better to get it over with now. Then she could make a
reservation back to Chicago.

Bracing herself, she unlocked the door and pulled it open.

Her heart lurched in her chest when it was Travis standing in
the hall.

They both stared at each other. He looked as exhausted as she
felt.

“We need to talk,” he opened softly.

She swallowed, struggling to find her voice. It was buried by
heartbreak. “I don’t think I can.”

“Then just listen.”

She shook her head in denial. “You can’t do this to me,
Travis.”

“I want what’s best for you. I always have.”

A little bit of her strength returned. “You’ve truly convinced
yourself of that, haven’t you?”

“Can I come in?”

“No.”

“We can’t leave it like this.”

“Where’s your brother-in-law? Or should I say your partner in
deceit?”

“He knows I need to talk to you.”

“End justifies the means?” she mocked. “Yet again?”

“Let me explain. Hate me if you have to, but at least let me
explain.”

His beautiful, blue eyes were wide, and there was a
vulnerability to his tone that wormed its way into her heart. She couldn’t find
it in herself to refuse.

Wordlessly, she stepped back, opening the door to him.

He immediately came in, closing the door, pressing his back
against it.

For a minute, they both just stood there. His gaze flicked to
her T-shirt, then to her bare legs below it. Something flared in her belly, and
she hated herself for still desiring him.

“I couldn’t let him have you,” Travis began, his tone
unguarded.

“That wasn’t your choice to make.”

Not that Randal had a single chance of winning her back,
especially after she’d come to know Travis. Randal was nothing to her
anymore.

“I was absolutely certain I was doing the right thing.”

“You always are.”

He nodded. “I knew you’d love working for Caleb. I knew Caleb
would love having you there. It was a good fit. It was a win-win.”

She found herself growing impatient. “Just admit it,
Travis.”

He jerked his head back. “Admit what?”

“Quit with the ‘I did it for you’ and ‘I did it for Caleb.’
Just admit you wanted to sleep with me, so you found a way to keep me
around.”

He pushed away from the door, taking a couple of paces into the
room. “Is that what you think?”

“It’s the truth.”

He faced her square on. “That I wanted you around? Sure. That’s
the truth. But not so I could sleep with you.”

“I was there, Travis, remember? I know what you wanted.”

His expression softened. “Okay, yeah, I’d take you in my bed
any day of the week.”

Her stomach shimmered with desire again, and she fought the
urge to throw herself into his arms. She wanted to kiss him. She wanted the
night he’d promised her on the dance floor. Then she wanted a hundred more like
it. She wanted Travis in her life every night and every day.

“I wanted you Danielle.” His tone was husky. “I wanted
everything about you. On some level.” He coughed a harsh laugh. “I guess I
already knew I was in love with you.”

Her mind screeched to a halt.