Montana Reunion (2 page)

She felt her sister pause beside
her, no doubt as concerned for Jack as she was. He just shrugged.

“One day soon I’ll tell you all
about it.”

And then he gave them a wave and
turned his horse, nudging her into a trot as he headed back up the incline.

“Home?”
Charley asked.

Maddison
forced her eyes from Jack’s disappearing silhouette and touched her sister’s
shoulder as she walked past her to the passenger side. “He’s not okay, is he?”

“Maybe he’ll be better now that
you’re home.” Charley gave her a wink over the roof of the vehicle before
swinging into her seat.

“And what exactly is that supposed
to mean?”

“Weren’t you two best friends,
before you fell in love with him?” her sister asked. “I mean, I was only a kid
back then, but I’m sure I remember you doodling love hearts around his name.”

Maddison
held her tongue between her teeth, not wanting to answer but knowing she had
to. “Jack and I were best friends and for the record I never
fell in love with him
.”

Her sister grinned and started the
car.
Maddison
slouched down in her seat and tried to
stop thinking about Jack.
 

Because maybe her
sister was right.
Maybe she had fallen in love with him, or thought she
had. She’d been a teenager, off to boarding school and confused about how she
felt for the boy she’d known all her life. But that was then. They were
grown-ups now.

So why was her heart beating so damn fast?

Jack refused to look back over his
shoulder, even when he heard the car take off down the dirt
road
that lead
to both their ranches.

Maddison
was all grown up
. There was more than a hint of the girl he used
to know and love, a flicker in her eyes, the way she watched him like whatever
he was saying was the most important thing in the world.
But
to look at?
She was nothing like
that girl any more
. This
Maddison
was tall and
slender, with curves that he’d sure as hell never noticed back then. Her hair
was lighter, her lipstick brighter, and she was beautiful.

If
there was one woman he’d marry, if he actually ever went through with
satisfying the clause instead of wasting money on having the will overturned,
hands down he’d have to talk to
Maddison
. Not just
because she was the only woman he’d ever trust wholeheartedly, but because she
was the only girl his father would blatantly disapprove of.

Jack nudged his horse back into a
trot, then a canter. What he needed was a good gallop across the fields down to
the yearlings and some hard work to make him exhausted. Because no matter how
much he wanted to pretend his father’s will wasn’t getting under his skin, he
couldn’t. It was giving him a feeling that he didn’t belong here, and he needed
to figure something out to forget that his old man had ever existed.
And fast.

CHAPTER TWO

MADDISON hadn’t realized how much
she’d missed being in the saddle. It had been years since she’d last ridden,
and it still felt great.
 
Exhilarating,
exhausting and liberating – exactly the kind of activity she’d been
needing
.

“Whoa!” She gripped the reins a
little tighter as her horse bucked. “Let’s just take it nice and slow, okay?”

She pushed him into a canter and
sat deep in the saddle. They might both be a little older, but nothing beat
riding before the heat of the sun made it unbearable.
Even if
her horse was technically well into his retirement.

A movement caught her eye as they
neared the boundary – a flood of dust rising into the air as a vehicle crossed
the field.
Maddison
slowed her horse to a trot,
trying not to look but unable to stop her eyes from dragging back in the
direction of the truck driving across Wild River land.

Her horse picked up on her lack of
concentration, flicking his tail and creeping into a faster gait. “Don’t even
think about it, Finn,” she growled, giving him a tap on the shoulder with her
reins as she felt the tell tale signs of another buck on its way. “How about we
just walk instead,” she muttered, no longer the confident daredevil she’d once
been on horseback.

When
Maddison
looked up, the vehicle had pulled closer, and she knew without looking who it
was. Jack was the only rancher around here who’d have his dog riding shotgun
instead of in the bed of his pick-up.
She
could see his four-legged friend sitting like a person beside him, but it
wasn’t the dog that made her breath catch in her throat.

Jack had his arm out the window,
tanned forearm bent at the elbow, fingers grazing the top of the frame. He
wasn’t wearing his hat, but she bet he had it on him. Jack was a cowboy through
and through, and that meant his Stetson wouldn’t be far away. Or at least
that’s how she remembered him.

But it wasn’t her
memories
of Jack that was making her
mouth feel like it was full of sand. Before she’d left, things had become kind
of awkward, like it probably did for any different-gender childhood friends who
transitioned from kids to young adults. She’d agonized over whether she liked
him
like that
, and if she’d known how
he’d look as a grown man, maybe she would have had her answer.

Maddison
cleared her throat and held up her hand in a wave, forcing a smile on her face.
She needed to get a grip
. Jack had
been her best friend growing up, and just because he’d aged well didn’t mean
she had to act like he was a different person than the boy she’d once been so
close to.

“Morning,” Jack called as he pulled
up beside their boundary fence and stepped from his truck. He leaned against
the body, one leg bent, the other straight out in front of him, squinting into
the sun. “Nice ride?”

Maddison
sat up straighter and nudged her horse a few strides closer. “I’d kind of
forgotten how fun it is,” she admitted. “Being in the city made me realize how
good we had it here as kids.”

She cringed at her words. She might
have had it good here, but when Jack’s mom had passed away, his dad had worked
him like a dog and almost broken both of his boys. His childhood had been far
from idyllic.

“How’s your dad today?” Jack asked.

Maddison
smiled. Thinking about her dad was a sure fire way of
kickstarting
her mood. “He’s good.
Especially with another daughter back
under his roof.”

“He couldn’t wipe the smile off his
face all last week.” Jack chuckled.
“
Gotta
say that some of his excitement kind of rubbed off on me.”

Maddison’s
cheeks started to burn. What she didn’t need right now was Jack talking like
that, especially when she was trying not to notice how… she cleared her throat.

“It’s nice to be home, Jack. Seeing
you again, remembering how things used to be.” She’d had to say it. From the
impression she’d gotten yesterday, he was in need of a friend, and she wouldn’t
exactly mind talking to someone she could trust, either. Especially after what
she’d been through
lately,
and the decision she was
trying to make.

He held up his hand to shield his
face from the sun. “Does that mean you’ll join me for dinner?”

Maddison
smiled, wishing she could just be relaxed about the idea of hanging out with
Jack again. “I think dinner with an old friend is exactly what I need, so yes.
Dinner would be great.
Your place?”

He nodded, leaning into his car to
pat his dog. “Is tonight too soon?”

Maddison
shook her head.
“Not at all.
Want me to bring dinner?”

That made him laugh, but she had no
idea what he was finding so funny.

“What?” she asked.

“
Maddie
,
I learned how to cook a few years back. I’m not a boy anymore,”

As
if she hadn’t noticed
.

“Get ready to be impressed,” Jack
said with a chuckle as he slid back into the driver’s seat, arm around his dog.
“I’ll see you tonight.
Around six.”

“You bet,” she called back,
gathering up her reins. “And I’ll be expecting a culinary masterpiece.”

Jack tapped on the roof of his
truck with his fingers and gave her a wave before circling and driving off.

Maddison
kept her horse still as she watched his vehicle disappear slowly into the
distance. She’d missed this more than she’d been prepared to admit. The heat of
the sun as it started to beat down hard, threatening to scorch her skin; the
satisfaction of sitting up high on her horse and riding across the fields –
everything.
And Jack
.
Seeing Jack again was worth coming back home.

Los Angeles was great. She loved so
much about it. But when she thought what the place had given her? A lying
asshole of an ex, an apartment that looked more like a hotel than a home, and a
body so stressed from work it was a wonder she hadn’t had a heart attack like
her father had. Which made being back in Montana exactly what she needed right
now.

Maddison
clucked and gave her horse a tap with her heels.
“Let’s go.”

“So what are you doing for the rest
of the day?”

Maddison
stretched and reached for her coffee. “Nothing,” she told her sister.
“Nothing at all, unless it’s something that involves family.”

Her mom touched her head as she
passed, smiling down at her.
Just like
old times
.
Sitting in the family kitchen, watching as her
mom bustled around, talking to her sisters.

Maddison
frowned. Only she was missing a sister. “Have you heard from Amanda lately?”
she asked. “Last time I spoke to her was a couple of weeks back.”

“She phoned a few days ago,” her
mom said. “She’s getting her latest collection ready for that big exhibition,
the one you’re father and I were hoping to see.”

“
You
were hoping to see.”

Maddison
leaned back in her chair, rocking it on two legs as soon as she heard her dad’s
deep voice.
“Hey Daddy.”

He kicked his boots off at the door
and left his hat on the stand beside it. “Your mom’s still trying to organize
me, can you believe it?”

Yeah, she could believe it, only
now she was ready to agree with her mom. “We’re all kind of worried about you,”
she said, standing up so she could give her dad a hug. “You’re the only dad
we’ve got, so don’t go telling me not to fuss.”

He grumbled as she let him go. “As
if I’m ever going to
get my own way
with you three
ganging up on me.”

Maddison
laughed and looked from her mom to her sister, then back to her dad again. She
could see he’d lost some of his strength, and his left side was slower than his
right after the stroke that had followed his heart attack, but if she ignored
that, it was just like old times.

“You seen Jack yet?” her father
asked.

She looked up again slowly, fingers
playing against the smooth surface of her coffee mug. The last thing she needed
was her sister answering for her. “Yeah,” she said. “We bumped into him
yesterday on our way in, and I saw him this morning when I was out riding.”

Charley raised an eyebrow but she
ignored her, choosing to keep her eyes on her dad instead.

“Pity none of you girls ever took a
fancy to Jack, huh? He’s been helping out around here a lot since your brother
left,” her mom said.

Maddison
refused
to look at her sister that time.
She was having a hard enough time swallowing her coffee, let alone engaging
with Charley. “How’s Blake getting on? He’s not so good at keeping in touch.”
Talking about her brother was an easy way to change the subject.

“He’s fine,” her mom interrupted as
she placed muffins on the table in front of them. “If we could only find him a
wife
…”
“Mom,” Charley scolded. “Enough with trying to marry us all off to the first
person that comes along.”

“I’m not trying to marry you off,
Charlotte, but I would have thought that with four grown children I’d have at
least
one
grandchild by now.” Her mom
held up her hand before anyone could interrupt her again. “It’s not that I
don’t love you all as you are, I’d just like to see you all happy.
With your own families.
That’s all I’m saying.”

The silence that
stretched out made
Maddison
look up from her coffee.
Her dad had the paper held up high, sitting in his chair by the window, and her
mom and her sister were staring at her. What had she
…

Oh.
“Don’t give me that look.” She didn’t need anyone taking pity on her. She
didn’t mind the pressure to produce a grandchild, that was something she was
more than prepared for, but finding the right man wasn’t something she was
thinking about. Not again. Not yet. Not after her fiancé had… she shoved the
thoughts away, refusing to go there.

“I’m sorry, darling. I didn’t mean
to upset you.”

She shook her head. “I’m not upset,
mom. Seriously, you don’t need to worry about me.” She watched as they looked
at one another. “Unless you keep doing
the
look
, then you’ll really upset me.”

She got it. They were feeling sorry
for her. A month ago, she’d been the one thinking about her wedding day,
blissfully engaged, and now she was single and hanging out at home with her
parents. Not to mention she had an ex-fiancé who had made it more than clear
that he’d been using her for years.
But
she refused to spare him one more second of her thoughts
. Because she might
have a broken heart, but she wasn’t
broken
.