Page 98 of Risking it for the Cowboy

She took up Daisy’s hand, hurrying around the deck toward the front of the house. “But, Momma, I thought w-we were gonna cook out with T. Rex and work on the chicken coop and I wanted to hear him play guitar—”

“Charlie,” Thad called, boots thudding behind her, but she hurried faster, remembering each time Jason slept with another, dishonored their marriage, because he’d never wanted her enough.

It had hurt differently than his hands, but it had still hurt as much as hands. She’d never been good enough, and God, why couldn’t she rid her heart of these ghosts of the past?

“Hey, Flower Girl!” he hurried behind her.

Flower Girl. How naively she’d capitulated to that sweet endearment!

“Wait!”

She jogged down the front steps, fishing out her keys from her handbag, Daisy confused and in tow, dashing to her Rover when something grabbed her arm—

She snapped herself free, whirling around, key wedged in her knuckles, as Thad jumped back, palms up.

“Nothing but trouble,” leaked from her lips as tears now rolled over her eyelids.

“Whoa, Flower Girl, put your thorns away,” he breathed softly, alarm in his gaze flashing between her face and her key wedged in her fingers, his brow contorted as he took in her rigid posture.

“Get in, Daisy.” Her eyes pricked and her lungs pumped as if she’d run a mile. “We’ll talk about this when we get home.”

“This ain’t what I think you think it is,” he croaked.

She laughed sardonically. “It never is.” She blinked the tears down her cheek and swiped them away stubbornly.

Because it was exactly what she thought it was, but no, this was worse. She was going to be ill. She was hurt because she really did like him. Really could imagine Daisy as his little girl as he picked her up from school or sat with her to read. Really had hoped he’d say yes to Daisy’s dance so she could doll her daughter up in her favorite sequins and send her away to the ball and give her the world.

His hands, carefully now, took her arms. Squeezed. Her lungs squeezed harder, and she cringed. She turned away, hand squeezing Daisy’s, everything so tight—

“Charlie, hey,” he barely breathed near her ear as he stepped close behind her.

She sucked in air, and God it smelled of teak and mint and lies. “I didn’t realize you had company. I’m sorry.” Nacogdoches’s biggest flirt was busy when he wasn’t busying himself with her.

They shouldn’t have come early. He’d warned her. Those suspicious prickles, she should have heeded them. But it was good to know. She didn’t want to be in the dark about the man she loved and his extracurricular activities…

Loved. Love.

It was too soon for that, and yet, if so, then why did it hurt so much? It had been a precursor to something much more.

“You gonna let me explain or run away scared?”

Her brows lifted. Was he really asking that?

The woman on the porch put a Stetson on her head and pressed it down onto her crown, at least retaining a respectful distance. Lush chest, stretched-on tank, golden-tan arms, crystalline eyes shielded by her brim. Wranglers so fitted they might as well be painted on her curves, except where they flared out over her flat-toed boots. She exuded sexuality. And yet, she wore a bright, hopeful smile, not the sheepish look of a side piece about to confront the girlfriend.

“Am I missing something?” Charlie murmured.

“Yeah, sweetheart. I’d say you’re missing somethin’ big and jumping to some bigger conclusions.”

She shook her head and nearly scoffed, but the other woman was coming this way. She smiled and her entire face glowed—

“I’m Faith.” She thrust out a confident hand, slender fingers work-roughened but kept. “You must be the Charlie my kid brother here has been going on, and on, and on—”

“All right, Faith, you don’t gotta make this worse,” Thad grumbled with a dose of irritation and a heavier dose of affection.

The woman laughed “And on about.”

His … sister?