A Ballad for Her Cowboys (5 page)

A little embarrassed? Sure. Maybe even a little sad
. But the bubble of excitement she got in the pit of her stomach when she thought of them worried her. What was the point of getting excited about their being here? They probably hated her now anyway.

Despite her belief that staying away from them was for the best, when Misty walked out on stage later that night, she couldn’t help but hope they’d show up and give her a chance to apologize. But they didn’t show. Not that night nor the next two. By the end of the week, she knew she would never see Aiden or Seth again unless she made the effort and reached out to them. She didn’t want to spend the rest of her life regretting the way she treated the men who had only ever been kind to her.

The following afternoon, she donned an old pair of boots, a T-shirt, and some jeans. She scraped her hair back off her face before she went down to the stables to find them. The night before, she’d bought some drinks for a few of the guys in the bar, and they’d told her where to find Aiden and Seth. Hearing the ranch hands discuss how strange it was that the pair were doing such menial jobs hadn’t surprised Misty. It was strange. The last time she spoken to them, they were the owners of a struggling, yet still vibrant, ranch. What happened?

Misty skidded to a halt and jumped back out of sight when she rounded the corner of a barn and found them standing far closer to her than she’d been prepared for. Couldn’t a girl have a moment to pull herself together? She peeked back around at them, hiding behind the building in case they saw her. Aiden had his hat on and shirt off. His face and torso streaked with a mixture of dust and sweat and his jeans torn at the knee. Seth still wore his shirt, albeit open. His hat sat low over his brow, keeping his face in the shade. With his fair hair and light complexion, Misty guessed he couldn’t risk exposing his skin to the sun as much as Aiden did.

A pulse beat harder in Misty’s throat, and she allowed her gaze to roam over Aiden’s taut back when he turned away—from the dimples she could see just above the waistband of his jeans to the bicep muscles stretched taut around the bale of he carried. Seth looked no less tempting. His bare chest gleamed with sweat, the golden hairs curling down his torso catching the sunlight when he sucked in a breath.

A commotion behind her as other people approached forced her to make a snap decision about what would be worse—being caught staring at hot, half-naked cowboys or facing those hot half-naked cowboys before she was quite ready. Quickly jumping forward before the others caught her acting weird, Misty ran round the corner.

If Aiden and Seth heard her walking toward them, they didn’t let on. Misty got right up to the fence of the corral, stood in plain view for almost a minute before Aiden raised his eyes from his task and looked in her direction. His head jerked up and he pushed his hat back off his brow, squinting at her while he wiped the sweat from his face. A low whistle, not meant for her but intended to get his friend’s attention, forced Seth to look up at Aiden and then follow his gaze to where Misty stood.

Misty cleared her throat when her voice failed her and succeeded in squeezing out a greeting the second time she tried. ‘Hi.’

Aiden nodded and turned back to his task. Okay, he wasn’t going to make it easy for her. Misty expected no less from him. She turned to Seth, in the hope he was still the easygoing guy he seemed the first time they met. Misty let go of the breath she held when he smiled and made his way over to her.

‘Hi, Misty, what brings you out here?’

When he got closer, she saw a tension in him that twisted the knot of guilt inside her a little tighter. She really offended him, maybe both of them. Aiden’s reluctance to come near to or even look at her made it clear she got under his skin too. The intensity of their reactions confused her—after all, she hadn’t seen them in five years—but she couldn’t deny the fact they seemed genuinely wary of her now.

‘I wanted to talk to you. Both of you.’

Aiden took his time doing so, but finally, he looked her way again. The strain in his eyes matched that in Seth’s. Again, she asked herself why her actions bothered them so much. Maybe she’d find out.

‘Hi,’ Aiden said as he came toward her and his friend.

The pair of them stood only inches apart, separated from her by a high wooden fence almost as tall as she was. They were head and shoulders above it so she doubted they realized how the way they leaned on the rails and looked down at her made her feel like a kid in a playpen.

‘I guess I owe you an apology.’ She blurted out the words before her nerves got the better of her and she ran like her brain was screaming at her to do.

Aiden’s sharp intake of breath surprised her enough, but when Seth’s eyes went a stormy green, she realized she fucked up again.

‘You ‘guess’, huh? Forget it. You don’t owe us a damned thing.’

‘Steady, Seth.’

Aiden put a hand on Seth’s arm, stopping him from walking away. Misty stared from one to the other, more confused than ever.

‘What did I do now? I mean I know I was shitty to you both the other night. I came here to apologize. Turns out I can’t even do that right.’

She dropped her gaze to the floor, determined not to cry in front of them, even as the tears welled up in her eyes and threatened to spill into the dust at her feet.

Seth’s voice held a note of regret and she jumped in surprise as he reached over the fence to touch her shoulder. What was it with these guys? They had faster mood swings than any woman she ever met. He lifted her face toward his with a finger under her chin.

‘Don’t go crying on me now. I’m sorry.’

‘Pay us no heed,’ Aiden added gruffly. ‘We’re working like dogs here. We’re both tired, sore, and cranky.’

She sniffed away her tears and took a step back out of Seth’s reach, smiling a little to show them she was okay. ‘What
are
you doing here?’

‘That’s a long-ass story, for another time.’ Seth gestured over Misty’s shoulder toward someone’s approach.

She turned to see their boss bearing down on them with a face like thunder.

‘You’d best not let Hoagie catch you here,’ Seth warned.

‘Don’t worry, I can handle him.’ She spoke faster all the same. ‘We can talk more later. I came to invite you both to supper at my place tonight. Meet me at the bar after the show?’

‘Orton!’ Hoagie boomed as he drew level with the group. He turned to stare at Aiden. ‘What in God’s name are you two doing standing around here yakking while I am paying you good money to tend these horses?’

Misty moved fast. The muscle clenching in Aiden’s jaw warned anyone who had the sense to notice that he didn’t take kindly to being spoken to that way. If either of them acted on the anger making them stare the older man down, they’d lose their jobs and it would be her fault.

‘Now, now Mr. Dunshaw. It’s me you should be angry at, not them,’ she said, smiling up at him as she looped an arm through his and turned him around. ‘The boys were just helping me out. I’ve been thinking about doing some riding while I am here and I didn’t know who to ask.’

Hoagie’s anger melted away instantly. ‘Well then why didn’t you come and see me, little lady? I told you when you first got here I’d help you in any way I could.’

Misty remembered all too well the kind of ‘help’ Hoagie Dunshaw made it plain what he had in mind. It didn’t bother her none. She’d gotten used to fending off the attentions of amorous employers. Five years of working every bar, roadhouse, and dive in Tennessee made her immune to their sexist assumptions about her. If they wanted to treat every young attractive woman who crossed their paths like whores, it said more about men like Hoagie than it did about her.

With a last look over her shoulder, and a wink at Aiden, who stood watching her leave, she allowed the boss to take her over to his office. She wouldn’t go into it with him, of course, but he didn’t know that yet.

After she’d blown him off on the pretense of having a prior appointment, she’d gone shopping for supplies. The local store didn’t have very much. After finding something to give the guys for supper that even she couldn’t ruin, she headed home to get ready for work.

For the first time since she started singing at the resort, Misty hated having to wear the cheap polyester outfits Hoagie provided. She had a choice of three, all garishly bright and covered in sequins, and all of them cowgirl style. If she had to pick a favorite it would be the white one, so she slipped it on. Not that she cared what Aiden and Seth thought of her appearance, she reminded herself. She’d have made just as much effort if she were meeting her girlfriends.

But try as she might, Misty couldn’t shake her excitement at the thought of spending time with them again. So when Seth and Aiden walked into the bar later that night, her pulse raced and her heart felt like it wanted to burst out of her chest. She smiled in their direction when they nodded at her as they walked by, and then had to hide her blushes when she played the wrong chord on her guitar. If anyone noticed, no one let on.

When she launched into her final song, Misty played one she wrote many years ago. She never performed it in front of anyone, but the words had danced around in her head all day. The first few notes flowed from her fingers to the guitar and she began to sing. The crowd fell silent after the first few lines, and she couldn’t be sure if it was because they liked it or just that they never heard it before. Misty looked around the room at the faces watching her, stopping when her gaze landed on Aiden and Seth. She shut her eyes so she could sing the next part. She didn’t need them thinking the song was for them—even though she hadn’t been able to forget one particular lyric since she laid eyes on them earlier.

‘I don’t want you to know the real me, but you take me to a place I cannot hide. You see through my soul and make me reveal, the secrets I’ve locked inside.’

Polite applause followed, and Misty knew the words had been too personal to make sense to anyone but her. It was one of the things she loved about performing her own compositions. She could vent her feelings, purge her soul, and nobody ever would know. Even the lukewarm reception it got didn’t make her regret bringing the song to light.

When she joined Aiden and Seth at the bar, it seemed like she’d stepped back in time. An empty stool appeared between them and a drink waited for her on the bar. Déjà vu couldn’t explain the feeling washing over her and she suddenly got scared that she’d given them the wrong impression. Maybe they did think she was offering more than a simple meal? But when she looked into their faces, the earlier wariness lingered. They were as nervous as her, luckily, they seemed just as determined to move past what happened.

‘I don’t remember you wearing that kind of get up before,’ Seth said, smiling as he took in the polyester and sequins wrapped around her.

‘Hoagie,’ she said in explanation. ‘I hate it. I’d much rather wear my own clothes.’

Aiden chuckled. ‘You mean you
don’t
want to look like a female Elvis impersonator?’

Misty punched him in the arm, smiling despite her embarrassment. She was grateful they had broken the ice. After that, she found herself relaxing and genuinely enjoying their company, much like five years ago. By the time she let them into her tiny apartment, she all but forgot her worries over their motives.

They sat in front of the TV while Misty changed her clothes and served supper. She tolerated their teasing over the almost inedible meal with good humor. ‘Okay, so I can’t cook. But I’m good in bed,’ she said, repeating an old joke she used many times before. Aiden and Seth shuffled in their seats and didn’t meet her eyes while a blush that could heat a room crawled over her flesh. ‘I didn’t mean…’

Aiden got to his feet and put a hand on her shoulder. ‘Relax, okay? Now, you got anything to drink around here?’

‘There’s some beer in the fridge’ she said. She pointed to the kitchen rather than look at him.

‘Come sit down and talk to me a minute,’ Seth said after she stayed rooted to the spot for God knew how long.

Misty took a seat opposite the sofa, perching on the edge of a chair. Aiden returned with the beer and the awkward silence descended again as they all took a sip.

‘So what brings you here, Misty? The last time we heard anything of you, things were going well.’

Seth’s blunt question might have pissed her off under normal circumstances, but at that very moment, she was grateful for the distraction.

‘Wade. That’s what happened.’

‘The guy I was with. He’s still my manager. Not for much longer if I have my way.’

‘What did he do?’ Seth asked.

‘It’s more what he didn’t do. He didn’t keep his part of the bargain, nor did he see any reason why I shouldn’t keep funding his gambling habit.’

‘How did you fall for a loser like that?’

Misty didn’t appreciate the censure in Aiden’s voice. ‘Hey, I’m not stupid. He wasn’t like that in the beginning, and of course, I was the last person to know when things changed. In fact, I didn’t discover what he’d been up to until I’d kicked his ass out after I caught him in bed with one of my best friends. I went to see a lawyer to try to break my contract with him and like the fool I was, I wanted to give him his fair share of the money we’d made together. That’s when I found out there was nothing left.’

‘He’d stolen it?’

‘Technically, it was our money so he couldn’t steal it. Wade just spent my share when his ran out. He’d been my manager and agent as well as my lover, so I’d put all my faith in him for years and never thought to check what he was doing. He managed to juggle the finances just enough to keep me in the dark. I never knew anything was wrong.’

‘He took it all?’ Seth shook his head as if stunned anyone would do anything so mean and stupid.

‘Every last cent, it’s not like we were rich. A little bit of airplay a few years back and a couple of TV shows was as good as it got, but we made enough to have a nice life, you know? Things fell apart very quickly after I found out what he’d done. We lost the house, the cars, everything. So I did the only thing I could. I left Wade, went back on the road, and tried to rebuild my life and career. But Wade didn’t want to lose his meal ticket and began stalking me. If I refused to see him, he’d turn up at shows, drunk out of his head and causing a scene. More than once, I had to give him money to get rid of him. That’s why I eventually ended up here. Hopefully, he won’t find out where I am.’