Her Summer Cowboy (9 page)

He gave her a hard look and then smiled.

“Touring is long and tiring, a lot of driving. And I met Emma when she tried to get back stage with the rest of the groupies at Alan’s tour.”

She gaped at him as did his brothers and then shook her head. “Alan’s my grandfather but this one thought I was trying to weasel my way to the tour bus for seduction.”

“I can see the resemblance,” Lane said, coming over to her. “Sorry my brother couldn’t see you were too much of a lady to be a groupie. Let me take your bag.”

Lane took her bag. She smiled at him as Hudson reached over and took it from him. “I’ve got it. Let’s get out of here. I saw her just fine.”

“Whatever you say,” Alec said. They all started walking to a big old Chevrolet SUV with seating for eight. The little boys scrambled into the back of the vehicle. Carson, Hudson and Emma sat on the bench and Lane and Alec in the front.

The fifty-minute drive from Bozeman to Marietta went by quickly. Emma listened to the brothers talking between themselves as they caught Hudson up on all the news. Lane’s best-friend and fellow former marine, Monty, and his new bride were just back from their honeymoon in Hawaii. Carson was apparently engaged and planning a Christmas wedding.

“Last year I asked Santa for a mommy and I got Annie,” Evan said. He was six years old and the spitting image of his dad. He smiled up at her revealing the fact that he’d lost his bottom front tooth. He was cute as could be. And reminded her of her students back in Georgia.

“What are you asking for this year?” Emma asked.

“A brother,” Evan said without hesitation. “Daddy said it’s not up to Santa but he delivered last year so I think I’ll stick with him.”

“Buddy, we have to have a chat with Annie before you go asking for a brother,” Carson said.

“Okay, Daddy,” Evan said. “But I still want one.”

Hudson clapped his brother on the shoulder as Evan went back to playing a game on his iPad.

“You thinking of settling down?” Carson asked as the miles passed. “This is a good place to raise a family.”

“I know that,” Hudson said. “I’ve got a lot on my mind. Let me move back home before you have me married and settled down.”

“What about you, Emma?”

“What about me?” she asked Alec.

“You want to settle down and start a family?”

“That’s kind of personal,” she said. “Someday I want to.”

Hudson looked at her and she smiled at him. “If I meet the right guy and we’re both ready to stop running.”

He nodded and she knew he got it. He wasn’t suddenly going to start imagining them as a family and neither was she. No matter how appealing his brothers made it seem she wasn’t ready to take on more family. She was still trying to figure out her own.

*

Brotherly love only
went so far as soon as they pulled up on the ranch, Hudson was only too happy to get out of the truck and get away from his brothers. He knew he was going to have to see his dad, but he wanted to get Emma settled first and then taking her around in his own truck, show her the ranch and his hometown.

“Tell Dad I’ll be over to see him in a half-hour or so. I’m going to show Emma the house and her bedroom.”

“Will do,” Alec said.

There was a chorus of ‘nice to meet yous’ from his brothers and Emma. Then the SUV was gone and the two of them were standing on the front porch of the old foreman’s house. It was a ranch house that had been built in the late 1800s and had been given to Hudson when his mom died. Each time he came home he worked a little more on it, and he paid one of his cousins to keep the house maintained.

“Come on,” he said, taking the key from his pocket and opening the front door. The house was his place as much as any other on earth. There was a console table that he’d bought in Chicago when he’d worked up there on a construction site for six months.

“This is your place?” she asked as she stepped inside.

“It is. My dad is big on giving us all our space. This place is mine. Lane’s got a cabin and some acreage closer to Copper Mountain. Carson has his own place out toward the Christmas tree farm and Alec lives on the main homestead in a house he built himself. I’ve got another brother Trey, and he sold his place with an old red barn to Lane’s friend Monty.”

“You all seem pretty close,” she said. “I love your brothers. They are funny and sweet. I’m a little jealous that you have so many. I always wanted some siblings of my own.”

“Did you think to ask for one for Christmas like Evan?” Hudson asked.

“No. That might have worked. I was a very spoiled child,” she said with a grin.

“You turned into a very nice woman so they did okay with you,” Hudson said. He’d fallen into treating her like a stranger again. Being around his brothers always brought back that old dynamic. He was the middle kid. The one who got bossed from the older two and who bossed around the younger two.

“It was good to see them all.”

“They must miss you.”

“Why do you say that?”

“To all show up at the airport like that,” she said. “They want you to stay home this time.”

Hudson knew she was right. It made him feel like he wanted to run. Somehow the more welcoming his brothers were, the more worried he became about how things would be with his father. In that moment he missed his momma so damned much. She would know how to make it okay for both him and Pops. She would have never let them stay angry at each other for so long.

He shrugged.

“It’s easier to think of being on the road than how much this place is a part of me,” he said at last; he led the way up the stairs to the landing, opening the first door on the left. There was a big wrought-iron queen-sized bed in the middle of the room and some rugs that his sister-in-law, Sienna, had bought for him. The top of the dresser had a clock radio and a black-and-white picture of him and his brothers when they were kids hung in the corner.

“I know what you mean,” she said, putting her bag on the bed. She brushed her hand over the quilt that his granny had made for him when he’d gotten his first big bed. Then smiled at him with that sad sweet expression he saw too often on her face.

“How? You usually stay at home,” he pointed out.

“I do. But that’s its own kind of running,” she said. “I like this place. It feels like you.”

“Thanks, I think. Not sure what that means.”

“Just that if I had to picture a house for you, it’d be something like this,” she said. “You’re going to see your dad and then what will we do?”

She sat down on the edge of the bed and really all he could think about was lying down next to her. Forgetting about the edginess that being here was stirring to life in him and pretending they were together somewhere else.

He walked over and sat down next to her on the bed. She arched one eyebrow at him. “Seriously?”

“Woman, it’s your fault for cupping my butt in the airport. I’ve been thinking about you since then.”

Moving so fast she startled him, she straddled his lap and pushed his hat off his head. She pushed her fingers through his hair and brought her mouth down on his. Her tongue rubbed over his and she kissed him in a way that made him almost forget his name.

The she stood up and winked at him. “Well that’s to keep you until later. You’ve got to see your dad and teach me to ride a horse, and we only have a week.”

He stood up and ambled over to her, tipped her chin up with his finger underneath it and leaned down to give her a soft, slow kiss. Pouring all the technique he could muster with his body on fire for her into it.

Then he picked his hat up and walked away. He slowly walked down the stairs and stood there in the hallway. It was hard to believe he was back home and that once this summer was over he’d stay here. He had to figure out what was next.

Being with his brothers had been nice and it felt right in his soul to be here again. But there was something missing. Something that it almost felt like Emma could fill except she wasn’t going to stay in Marietta. She was going to be going back to Georgia.

*

The horse she’d
been given to ride was called Buttercup and was an easy-going mare. She followed Hudson’s horse on a rough sort of trail that meandered alongside a thick ribbon of a river. He hadn’t said much to her when he’d come back from his father’s. Just that his dad hadn’t been at home. He had a tight look around his face that she remembered from dealing with her own folks when they’d been alive.

There were times when she missed them so keenly it was almost a physical ache. Even knowing they sometimes hadn’t gotten along she’d still take them back. He pulled his horse to a stop in a small copse of trees and gracefully got off his horse. She sat there staring at him.

She wasn’t sure she could hop off with as much grace so she waited until he turned to his saddlebags and swung her leg over the saddle. It was a long way down and she sort of hung there with her boot reaching for the ground before her arms gave way and she landed hard, but upright.

“Nice job. We’ll make you a cowgirl yet,” he said.

“Maybe. I certainly enjoyed the ride. This is the kind of place Gramps is singing about when he talks of God’s country.”

“It surely is,” he said. “Just drop your reins on the ground and Buttercup will stay put.”

She did as he’d said and got the thermos of lemonade out of her saddlebag and the bag of cookies he’d given her to carry. He had a thin blanket that he’d taken from his saddlebag and then held his hand out to her.

He was subdued now. Not the brassy, cocky guy—though he’d never really been that way with her. He’d sort of been like that with his brothers. But not with her. With her even when he was trying to keep her from Gramps, he’d always been kind.

He spread the blanket out under the trees and she sat down while he took the saddles off the horses and let them graze. He came back setting his saddle down at one end and leaning back against it.

It was hard to read the expression in her eyes as she stared out at the horizon.

“What’s between you and your dad?”

He shrugged those big shoulders of his and reached for cookies, taking one out and eating it. “Some old stuff. He refuses to budge an inch on anything. So do I.”

“It might be best to back down,” she said.

“You don’t even know what the argument is about,” he said. “Are you really siding with my dad?”

She crossed her arms under her breasts and sat up straighter. He didn’t look quite as relaxed now either. That was when she realized he was spoiling for a fight. She was tempted to give him one. But she’d just got to Montana.

She liked the little town of Marietta and liked being here with Hudson. So she was hoping to stay here for a little while. And fighting with her host was bad manners. Even if he was being a horse’s ass.

“I’m just saying he’s got to be getting older. It’s easier for the younger generation to change than the older one.”

“This isn’t one of those arguments,” Hudson said. “If the old man were capable of being reasonable don’t you think I’d have just given in?”

“I don’t know. You do like to fight.”

“No, I don’t. Not anymore,” he said at last.

“What’s that mean?” she asked. “Did you used to fight a lot?”

“Yes. I did some paid fighting when I was younger,” he said.

“Why?”

“Because I was angry and needed something to help me get it out,” he said.

“Is that what your dad’s upset about?” she asked. “Surely he must know you don’t do that anymore.”

“No, he’s upset because of something else.”

She scooted closer to him and put her hand on his thigh. “We’re friends now, Hudson. You can trust me with your secrets.”

He took his cowboy hat off and put it on the blanket beside him as he leveled his eyes on her. She caught her breath wondering if what he’d done was something that couldn’t be fixed. She knew what that was like as she’d argued with her father before he’d died.

“I can’t fix this,” he said.

“Tell me,” she said.

Hudson had no idea where to start. But somehow the words just sort of poured out of him. “My dad was my hero growing up. He was tall to me, a little over six foot but I passed him when I turned eighteen. Everything changed that year.”