For Love of a Cowboy (11 page)

No matter what Booth Lange thought about her, or her reasons for finding her father, he had no right to try and stop her. Nor did he have any justification to tell her father about her before she could personally speak with Kyle Donovan. The last thing she needed was Booth’s warped view of her polluting their first meeting together.

She would meet Kyle Donovan no matter what Booth wanted. She had to know if she had his support through making what was going to be the hardest decision in her life.
Needed
to know. Because without it, she didn’t know what she was going to do next.

*

August fifth, the
day before opening of the County Fair, came around swiftly, keeping both Willow and Ness super busy in the days leading up to it. Willow had her own section in the booth where she could sell the hand-dyed yarns she’d brought from home, and the balance of the space would be for stock and knitted garments and socks for sale.

She was glad she’d be the one manning it. Ness had ballooned in the past week and was struggling with swollen feet and tiredness.

“Why don’t you close the store during the fair, or at least reduce your hours?” Willow suggested while they took a break together one morning in the nook where the craft classes were held.

“I thought about that,” Ness said with a sigh, “but there will be so many more people here in town during the fair that I’d be crazy not to capitalize on it. Walk-ins are bound to increase.”

The bell went out front as someone came in the store and Ness began to struggle to her feet.

“You stay there and put your feet up a little longer,” Willow told her. “I’ll take care of it.”

She pasted a smile on her face and made her way to the front, only to come to a halt when she saw Booth standing at the counter. Her heart skipped a beat before settling into a rapid rhythm. They hadn’t so much as exchanged a single word since she’d ordered him out of her apartment. Even so, she hadn’t quite been able to shake the memories of that night from her mind, and they’d revisited her at the most inopportune times this past week or so.

Beneath the tie-dyed T-shirt Willow wore over her cut-off shorts, she felt her nipples bead into tight points. The memory of his fingers teasing her sensitive skin burned even now. Her eyes were automatically drawn to his hands, to those long deft fingers that had played her body as if she were a fine instrument. An instrument that came to throbbing life just being in the same airspace as he was.

She fought to remind herself of how they’d parted. Of the words that could never be unsaid between them. Of how he’d jumped to the wrong conclusions about her so swiftly. Conclusions that still stung deep inside.

“Can I help you with anything?” she asked. “Ness is resting right now.”

A dark frown crossed Booth’s face. “Is she okay?”

“She’s fine.”

Willow held his gaze, waiting for him to state his business. It didn’t take long for him to get to the point. He reached into the pocket of his jeans, drew out a set of keys and held them toward her.

“These are yours.”

Willow tentatively took the keys that dangled from his fingers, careful to avoid touching him in any way. “The keys to Daisy? How did you—?”

“The VW’s all fixed and paid for. You can leave any time you want.” The implication was clear—any time you want, as in
right now
.

How dare he pay her bill and how dare he attempt to send her packing again! She had a little put aside from selling her mother’s house-bus and with what she hoped to fetch for her yarn and the socks she’d knitted up she would have been able to meet the balance of the account she owed at the garage.

“How much do I owe you?” Willow said through clenched teeth, struggling to keep the wave of temper that had swiftly billowed through her under control.

“Nothing. And now there’s nothing holding you here.”

A sharp pain pierced her chest. Did he think so little of her that he thought she’d turn and leave, just because he’d settled what she owed?

“Except my responsibility to Ness and the small matter of meeting with my father. Pretty good reasons for staying, don’t you think?”

She should have known better than to bait him. His voice was low and lethal when he spoke again.

“I will take care of my sister; in fact, I already have someone lined up to help her here at the store. As to your
father
, you have no proof and before you cause more trouble than you’re worth, I strongly suggest you leave and don’t ever come back.”

“And who is going to make me?” she retorted scathingly, goaded by his dictatorial attitude. “You? Don’t make me laugh.”

She spun on her heel and started to walk away, only to be turned around so quickly it made her head swim. She strained back against his hold but he wasn’t letting go. In fact, he pulled her closer and brought his face level with hers.

“Stay away from Kyle Donovan,” he said, a warning clear in his tone.

“Or what? You’re going to threaten me now?” She forced a laugh from inside a chest that suddenly felt uncomfortably tight.

“Booth? Is that you?” Ness came through from the back room. “I thought I heard your voice.”

Booth dropped his hand from Willow so fast she staggered a little.

“Sure, just checking on my favorite sister. You’re looking…well,” he said with a forced cheerfulness that didn’t fool Willow for a second.

Beneath that caring exterior she could still see the flames of his anger at her licking around the edges.

“I’ll go and finish packing the boxes for the fair,” she said, eager to put some distance between them.

“Thanks, Willow. I don’t know what I’d do without you,” Ness said with a weary smile.

Willow resisted the urge to throw a triumphant look Booth’s way, settling for a reassurance to her boss instead.

“I’m here for you all the way, Ness. Don’t worry, I’m not leaving any time soon.”

She made her way out to the tiny stockroom where she and Ness had been working earlier, and ran through the checklist one more time. Finally satisfied she had sufficient stock of yarn, needles, patterns and craft kits for the first day, she sealed up the boxes ready to take to Ness’s SUV parked out back. Willow had just hefted the first one when she felt an uncomfortable tingle of awareness down her spine. Booth.

Before she could say or do anything, he’d taken the unwieldy box from her arms.

“I can manage just fine,” she protested.

“Ness asked me to help you,” he answered, heading for the back door. “Unlike some people, I do as I’m told.”

Willow flung a fulminating glance at his retreating back. Not to be outdone by him, she lifted the next cardboard box and followed in his wake. At the SUV, he took the box from her and stacked it in the back of the car.

“How many more?” he asked.

“Four more and then there are my bags of yarn upstairs.”

“Your yarn? I thought the stall was for Ness’s stuff.”

“She’s very kindly let me have some space in her booth.”

Willow lifted her chin and stared at him. Defying him to challenge her right to have her stock in the booth at all.

“Don’t take advantage of her,” he responded, glowering back at her.

“I’m not. I’m well aware of her kindness and I appreciate it. Clearly you skipped that gene,” Willow sniped in return.

She pressed her lips together. Determined not to waste another word on this man. Even so, it still hurt that he thought she was the kind of person who’d rip Ness off somehow. The sooner she earned out the money she now owed
him
for the repairs on Daisy, the better. Then she wouldn’t be beholden to him in any way, shape or form.

When he returned inside to get the rest of the boxes, she shot upstairs to get her bags and called out her goodbyes to Ness.

“I’ll be back later this afternoon,” she said as she reached the bottom of the stairs.

“You need some help to lay this all out?” Booth waited by the back door.

“Why are you being so helpful all of a sudden?” Willow asked, suspicious of his motives.

“Perhaps I feel the need to keep an eye on you.”

Willow met his gaze, saw the banked heat behind his gray stare. “Afraid I’ll skim the cash box or run away with Ness’s stock?” she asked flippantly, then instantly regretted it. Of course that’s what he thought. His opinion of her was painfully clear. She was only out for one thing. “Forget I said that,” she muttered and pushed past him to the driver’s side of the SUV.

“Get around the other side, I’m driving you,” Booth said as he crowded behind her in the narrow alley.

“What? Now you’re afraid I’ll steal the car or something?” Willow replied indignantly.

“Or something.”

They were at a stalemate—Willow, standing just inside the open door, Booth, blocking her path. She couldn’t help it. Just being in close proximity with him like this fired an acute awareness of him. Of his heat. Of his strength. Of what they’d shared together.

“Look,” she started. “I’m a good person. Ness trusts me. Why can’t you?”

“I promised Ness I’d bring her car back while you set up. I don’t like her being stranded here without her car.”

What he said made sense, but Willow couldn’t help feeling it had more to do with his distrust of her than anything else.

“Fine,” she muttered and took a step forward. He didn’t move. “Could you get out of my way, please?”

She heard a softly spoken curse then sensed movement as he bracketed her against the car with his arms.

“What are you doing?” she asked, her voice suddenly muffled as he kissed her.

Willow couldn’t help it, she kissed him back—with all the frustration that had been building inside her all week, with all the anger and the hurt he’d provoked in her and with all the desire she still couldn’t deny, despite everything they’d said to one another. When he straightened, she deliberately wiped her mouth and hastened to have the first word. “Good, now you’ve got that out of the way, can we go?”

“Don’t kid yourself that you didn’t enjoy that,” Booth answered.

With that, he swung into the driver’s seat and pulled the door closed, leaving Willow to scramble around the SUV to the passenger side.

“A gentleman would have opened the door for me,” she said as she settled herself in her seat.

Booth sighed heavily and started the engine. “When it comes to you, I’m no gentleman. It would pay for you to remember that.”

B
ooth adjusted the
controls to the Cessna 172 as he completed another lazy circle to gain height over the fairgrounds. Any minute now, the three jumpers he’d brought up with him would be launching themselves out to free-fall with smoke trails flaring, completing lazy corkscrews on their way down before opening their chutes and landing in the grounds as part of the opening. Why anyone in their right mind would jump out of a perfectly good airplane was totally beyond him, but then Griffin Hyatt and his associates had done all kinds of crazy-ass things Booth had no inclination to try.

Below him, he knew Willow would be at the fair. His lips still burned from that kiss he’d given her yesterday, and that wasn’t all that burned. All through his veins it was as if his blood had turned into some molten liquid with one destination in mind. He shifted a little in his seat. Damn, but that woman had gotten right under his skin and he couldn’t shake her no matter how hard he tried.

It bugged the heck out of him that she was still in Marietta but he’d had to agree that without her, Ness would be struggling. Sure, he might have been able to persuade Ness to cancel her booth altogether, but the extra revenue the fair would bring her would be a welcome boost for her coffers, especially with the baby so close now.

“We’re at ten thousand feet,” he notified his jumpers. “Approaching the drop zone now.”

A few more minutes and Griffin and his co-jumpers gave Booth a thumbs up and peeled out of the plane. Booth turned the Cessna back to the private strip on the KD Ranch. No matter how much he wanted to check on Willow and Ness today, he wouldn’t give in. He could relax, he told himself. With Willow occupied at the fair, she wouldn’t have time to get anywhere near his uncle today, or any day, at least up until Uncle Kyle made his annual appearance at the fair to judge the junior calf-roping competition. That day, and Willow, he’d tackle when he had to.

It occurred to him, as he executed a perfect landing back on the ranch, that paying off Willow’s debt for the VW hadn’t probably been one of his greater ideas. Now she had the freedom to move around as much as she wanted, whereas before she’d been confined by how far she could walk. He had to hope that the fair would keep her busy and leave her so darn tired by day’s end that she wouldn’t have the energy to drive out to the ranch. Ness had mentioned Willow was staying in Daisy in the campground at the fairgrounds. That little extra distance between her and Uncle Kyle was all good in his book.

Setting the plane back to rights after the jump took him the rest of the afternoon, interruptions notwithstanding. By the time he had the seats back in and the door on again it was nearly suppertime. He heard the distant clang of the porch bell as Aunt Emmie summoned everyone nearby for their evening meal.