Her Homecoming Cowboy (2 page)

How did he deserve to move forward from a tragedy that he could have prevented?

That was the question he was wrestling with.

Looking into the little boy’s eyes, all Colt could think of was getting away.

Far, far away.

Chapter Two

L
eo, Leo, Leo
. Annie’s heart tugged at his childish
adoration. It was obvious Colt Holden was not used to being fawned over by kids.
This shocked her. The man was a rodeo hero and there were always photos of him
grinning and signing autographs...
Please tell me he is not
one of those “fake it for the camera” guys.

If he was, she might as well turn her car around and head back
home. Why, the man looked terrified...and totally worn out. Deep weariness
etched his face.

She was startled by his overall appearance when he’d come
barreling out of the office looking fierce and scraggly. He needed a shave and
two weeks of sleep.

Very different from the photos Jennifer had hung in Leo’s room.
Those were of a very clean-cut, slick-shaven cowboy with an intriguing glint in
his eyes and mischief in his expression. This cowboy looked ten years older than
the twenty-eight she knew him to be...still unbelievably handsome despite the
hair that brushed his collar and the scraggly two- or three-day-old beard.

Getting over her shock, Annie bent to one knee and reached for
Leo. His innocent face was a storybook of happiness as he clung to Colt Holden’s
legs. He was six and had never latched on to anyone like Colt. Then again, this
was a dream come true for him. A dream that was looking as if it had all the
potential in the world of blowing up in her face.

The enormity of what she was here to do hit her with new force,
and instantly fear for Leo gripped her.

She was a take-control kinda gal. The fact that she’d
procrastinated this move for a year showed her fear and worry. It had finally
taken a major Godly shove and a hard dose of reality to get her moving. She’d
decided to take the bull by the horns, and here she was...feeling really stupid
for bringing this child here before she’d checked the man out.

“Honey, let go of—let go of Mr. Holden.”

Bright eyes beamed back at her. “But, Annie Aunt, I’ve been
waiting for-
evvv-
er.”

“Yes, I know.” She smiled, feeling a sense of urgency to
extricate him as she gently took his arm and tugged him away. Looking up, her
gaze locked once more with Colt’s alarmed brown eyes.

Annie’s heart sank. Ever since she’d learned who Leo’s daddy
was God had laid a heavy burden on her heart. It had taken her house burning
down to make her figure out what she wanted to do. And that was to come find out
what kind of man Colt was.

Did any honor exist beneath that facade?

She’d been here all of ten minutes and things weren’t looking
so good. She pushed on, though. “I’m sorry about this. I guess I should
introduce myself. I’m Annie Ridgeway and this is my nephew, Leo.”

“Our house burned down and my room is gone,” Leo said, staring
up at Colt with big, bright stars in his eyes. “But Annie Aunt told me we were
moving here to
your
town and I didn’t even care
anymore.” He cocked his head to the side. “Does Mule Hollow have a bunch of
mules?” Prone to ask random questions, it was one of many more to come.

Colt’s brows crinkled in dismay. “Y-your house burned
down?”

His words were choked and she didn’t miss the flash of
compassion in his reaction.
So the man did have a heart
buried in there somewhere,
Annie thought with a smidge of relief.

Always ready to tell a story, Leo placed his hands on his hips,
cocked his little blond head to the side and studied his hero even more
intently—if that were even possible. “My Annie Aunt always says life kicks you
in the pants sometimes. But you just gotta go with the punches.” He was as
serious as a little old man and she could have pinched his sweet cheeks!

“How old did you say you were?” Luke Holden asked, clearly
impressed.

“I’m six. Annie Aunt says I came into the world as a
twenty-year-old—and that’s real old. I already lost a tooth and everything.
See.” He grinned and showed off his missing tooth.

That got a chuckle from Luke and Jess. Even Colt’s lip quirked
upward on one side.

“That’s terrible,” he said, his gaze sliding to her. “You lost
your home.”

There was something missing in the depths of his eyes. It was
as if she were looking at a lake, a totally still lake with no ripples in sight.
Butterflies fluttered in the pit of her stomach.

“Yes,” she offered. More than intrigued by the man, she wasn’t
willing to accept that her pulse had actually increased as those soulful brown
eyes held hers. She wanted to add more, speak intelligently; however, nothing
came out.

“That’s terrible for you and all the others who lost their
homes,” Colt continued. “We’ve been lucky here to have had only a few small
grass fires that were caught early.”

Jess, who’d seemed content to listen as he studied his brother,
added, “Those fires near Austin have been rough. Not as bad as the Bastrop and
Montgomery fires last year, thankfully, still bad enough. Right, Colt?” he
asked, and it sounded all the world to Annie like the man was trying to keep his
brother involved in the conversation.

“We didn’t lose any lives in our fires,” Colt said again,
quietly. His brows bunched and he glanced away, toward his truck. Even took a
step toward it as if impatient to get away.

It hit her then that he’d been hurrying to leave when he’d
barreled from the building. “I’m sorry,” she said, meaning it. “We’re keeping
you from something.”

“No,”
Luke and Jess barked at the
same time.

“Don’t go,” Leo said, tugging at Colt’s pants, causing Colt to
halt midstep.

“I need to get out of here. I’m sorry.” He looked down at Leo,
and Annie’s heart tugged ruthlessly, stealing her breath with the sharpness of
it.

“You can hang on a few more minutes, Colt. Can’t you?” Luke
asked, clamping a hand on Colt’s shoulder and squeezing.

Her gaze latched on to that hand—was Luke squeezing extra hard
on Colt’s shoulder?

“Yeah. Sure.” Colt hit his brother with sharp eyes.

Call her late to the dance—there was definitely something
churning beneath the surface here.

“I need to get back to my place.” His words were quiet. And in
that quietness she heard a very firm edge that was as clear as a heavy steel
door slamming shut. Luke’s jaw hardened as he held his peace. He didn’t say
anything more about Colt sticking around.

Uncertainty crashed into Annie with equal force. How would he
react to the news that she’d come here to share with him? It would take more
than this off-the-cuff meeting before she made her decision.

That was for certain
.

“What brought you to Mule Hollow?” Luke asked, directing his
questions at her, as if that would keep Colt from leaving. “I know it’s not just
to see my bullheaded brother.”

Oh, if he only knew
. “Actually, we
were looking for a change. And I realized since my job at the landscaping
business had burned up in the fire right along with our home, there was nothing
holding us there any longer—”

“She decided it was time to make a fresh start,” Leo said,
grinning, as if reciting her very words. Words he’d heard her say more than just
a few times.

Annie tousled his hair. “Right, I needed to find a new job and
I knew if I started one there, I might never get up the nerve to relocate
us.”

Or the courage to tell you the
truth.

Her plans for how to break the news to Colt rattled through her
brain—all unusable. She’d forced herself to do this because it was probably the
right thing to do, understanding that only time would tell if that were true.
And also because Leo might need his daddy someday. A flashback of being trapped
inside a burning building reminded her all too vividly of when she’d had that
epiphany.

Pulling her thoughts away from those less pleasant ones, she
saw Leo grinning up at Colt. He was rocking back and forth on his little cowboy
boots as his eyes, so full of adoration, drank in his hero.

“Annie Aunt said we was coming on an adventure. I like
adventures a lot. My momma used to tell me lots of stories about having
adventures on bull riding and bronc bustin’ and rodeo’n.” He grinned wider at
Colt. “You were always in the stories!”

Colt looked shocked, or as shocked as a man who was showing
little emotion could look.

“You’ll have to come out here and ride horses. Isn’t that
right, Colt?” Luke nudged Colt with his elbow when the man said nothing.

For a minute Colt looked like he was going to say something,
but instead he reached for his door, wrenched it open and climbed inside the cab
of his truck.

How rude—right in the middle of a conversation, the man was
just going to drive off! And, he’d barely acknowledged Leo. For them to have
come so far and for Leo to be so excited about seeing Colt, she knew this was
going to hurt.

Just when she thought it was over and done, Colt looked down at
Leo from his open window. “Hey, kid. I...I have to go. But take this.” He pulled
the stiff blue rope from his truck. It had a loop on one end, and Annie
recognized it was the kind used for roping steers.

“Do you like to rope?” he asked, causing Leo’s eyes to grow
wide.

“I ain’t never done it before. Can I try?”

Colt handed Leo the rope. “Sure you can. Practice with
this—it’s yours.”

“Thanks,”
Leo gushed, his voice
soft with awe, drawing the word out for a mile as he studied his gift.

Colt was backing out of the driveway before Leo got the entire
word out. Annie was speechless.

“Colt, wait,” Luke called after him. But it was too late.

The cowboy was gone.

“Did you see what Colt gave me, Annie Aunt? Did you see what
Colt gave me?”

“Isn’t that something?” Annie managed, totally and completely
perplexed by the cowboy driving off into the midday horizon. What in the world
had just happened?

Thank goodness Leo’s infatuation with Colt and the gift he’d
been given distracted him.

Luke bent down and held out his hand to his nephew. Annie held
her breath as Leo stopped trying to make the loop go around and shook Luke’s
hand.

“You want me to show you how to hold that rope?”

“Sure. Are you a bull rider, too?” Leo asked, letting Luke
position his small hands on the rope. “Or a roper?”

Jess laughed, stepping into the conversation. “Are you kidding?
Luke couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn with a rope.”

Instead of getting mad, Luke’s mouth twisted into a wide grin.
“Don’t listen to him. He and Colt are the better ones with the rope in the
family, but ask them who taught them.”

Annie smiled, relaxing a little. Liking the kindness she sensed
in these two men. They were teasing each other to smooth over the actions of
their brother. Little did they know they were talking to their nephew. Hope
kindled anew in her heart that she was doing the right thing.

Leo looked at Jess. “Who taught you?” he asked as Luke had
suggested.

A teasing grin spread across Jess’s face. “My big brother,
Luke. See, at one time when I was a little kid like you, I thought Luke was the
best roper around. Then he taught me and Colt how to do it, and we found out
just how bad he is at landing a loop. But he’s a real good teacher.”

Leo turned back to a smiling Luke. “Did you teach Colt to ride
bulls, too? He’s the best there is, and I want him to teach me how to ride a
bull.”

Nervous at all Leo had said, Annie realized she’d come without
a well-thought-out plan of action and now she had to fess up. Before she could
say anything, Jess spoke to Leo.

“I’m sorry about the fire, little buddy. But a bull busted
Colt’s collarbone a couple of weeks ago, so he won’t be throwing a loop anytime
soon. I bet when he’s all healed up, you could talk him into it, though.”

“Puppies!” Leo exclaimed, suddenly distracted when he spied two
small puppies that came around the back of the office building, tumbling around
as they wrestled together. Leo raced over to play, leaving Annie alone with the
two brothers. They watched Leo fall to his knees and welcome the puppies into
his lap. Both brothers had quizzical expressions as they studied Leo. When they
turned almost as one to face her, Annie felt the weight of their gazes. An odd
sense of guilt overcame her.

“That was good timing,” Luke said. “Is there something we can
do for you? Anything we need to know?”

Annie’s heart hiccuped.
That he’s your
nephew
.

“Yeah,” Jess added, an odd light in his eyes. “You came out
here to see Colt. Was there a reason for that? Other than him being
Leo’s...hero? Maybe something we can help with?”

The weirdest feeling overcame Annie—they knew. She shook it off
as guilt making her paranoid as she contemplated her dilemma. She had no one to
confide her problems to or to ask advice from other than her best friend back
home who had urged her to leave Leo’s life as it was when Annie had confided
that she was thinking of locating the boy’s dad.

Looking at Leo’s uncles, she told herself they didn’t know
anything. Her imagination was playing tricks on her. Paranoia was setting in.
Finally, realizing they were waiting on a response, she asked, “Can you tell me
how to get to the veterinary clinic? I’m their new office manager.”

Jess snapped his fingers. “Oh, yeah—that’s why your name
sounded familiar,” he said, his lip hitching into a lopsided smile. “My fiancée,
Gabi Newberry, is the vet tech there. I knew they were expecting someone. We’ve
had so much going on, it slipped by me that it was this week you were supposed
to arrive.”

She was going to be working with Colt’s soon-to-be
sister-in-law.... “Oh, really,” she said, hiding her surprise. “I talked to
Gabi last week. I’m excited about working with her.”

After a few minutes spent talking about the clinic, Annie
called Leo over and they headed to the clinic using the directions Jess had
given her. The clinic was right down the road from the Holden Ranch.