Page 67 of Risking it for the Cowboy

He kept his eyes glued to the paper to blink away the stinging. Little dots of orange and yellow and brown—candies—were floating into their mouths.

“That’s real special. I’ll put it on my fridge so I can look at it every day. Thanks.”

“You have sisters?”

“Mm-hmm.” He nodded. “Faith and Patience are my big sisses, and Charity and Temperance are my littles.”

“You got a kid too?”

T.R. nearly choked. Shook his head. Because when he looked at her, he suddenly wished she was his. And that this was a family portrait.

He cleared his throat again. “Naw. I guess I never been what a woman’s lookin’ for.”

“But my momma keeps your picture in her bedstand. She likes lookin’ at you.”

Charlie’s eyes connected with his and held.

Sweet blush crept across her cheeks as her teeth bit her lip. “Called out.”

Silence shrouded them. The house ticked and creaked, settling. The savory scent of the food teased his nose with veneers of home and facades of acceptance—

A smile grew on his lips.

“’S that a fact?” he said to Daisy, but kept his eyes locked up at those green gems.

Did he dare trust her with his secret? Should he come clean about his history? Would it dash it all? Something was starting here, and she deserved to know the full truth before it went any further.

*

“Say goodbye, Daze. We’ll see him soon, okay?” Charlie said, and Daisy threw her arms around him.

Thaddeus scooped her up as effortlessly as a dad who’d done it a hundred times. Daisy wrapped her legs about him. Charlie slipped the money he’d refused earlier in his pocket as he jostled her daughter.

He planted a kiss to Daisy’s crown and put her down, pasting on his insta-charm. “Get your tools organized. Remember? We got a chicken coop to build. I’m puttin’ my wing girl to work.”

God, T.R. better not promise this to Daisy and then flake.

“Yes!”

“Go get your PJs on and brush your teeth, Daisy,” she said.

Charlie followed him outside into the quiet night, to his truck, as he hoisted open the door, a steely edge returning to his pumping jaw, lurking beneath the reprieve of evening happiness. He climbed into the driver’s seat and cranked down the window. Fired up the engine.

Rested his wrist on his wheel so his hand dangled over it, his other elbow on the window frame as insects floated through the glow of his headlights.

Didn’t leave as he chewed his cheek and stared ahead of him. “Does Jason do this often? Come to your house and harass you?”

She shivered despite the heat outside. “Not always. Only when he’s drunk. When he’s sober, he has a million other things he’d rather do than be a dad.”

“He’s got red flags coming out the ass and ears,” T.R. pressed, working his cheek harder. He cleared his throat. “You’re gonna go, right? File that restraining order?”

She shrugged, jamming her hands in her overall pockets. Heart had texted earlier, asking her to take a bundle of documents out to Tyler for her. She had lessons to prepare. A paleobotany student arriving at noon to retake her final.

She exhaled. The weight of the world landing hard on her shoulders again. “I have to start preparing my lectures. And I have a student coming in tomorrow. But we’ll go down to the station tomorrow afternoon.”

“We’ll?” He remained stoic, staring into the distance as he flicked his stained fingernails to busy his hand resting over the wheel.

“I can’t leave Daisy here alone to go do it, and Auntie Heart is back in West Texas until she comes to her senses and realizes she’s in love with your cousin, else she would have swooped Daisy up, so I need to take Tyler a couple things on her behalf—”