The Cowboy Next Door & Jenna's Cowboy Hero: The Cowboy Next Door / Jenna's Cowboy Hero

“I can drive myself home. Will you call if you hear something?”

“You know I will.”

“Okay.” She sobbed a little, not wanting him to hear. “Jay, thank you.”

“You’re welcome. And I’m sorry.”

She closed her phone and slipped it into her pocket. Bailey’s hand was on her shoulder. “It’ll be okay.”

“I don’t know how.”

“Let Jay drive you home.” Bailey sat down across from her, their salads forgotten.

“No, I’m fine. You need to eat. Little Cody Junior can’t go without food.”

“I’ll eat, but you need to let friends help you through this. Lacey, you’ve always been there for me. Let me be here for you. Let Jay be a friend.”

Jay, a friend? It felt like a mismatched shoe. It didn’t fit. It was a little tight. A little uncomfortable.

* * *

Jay hung up from the call to Lacey and concentrated on driving, on not getting distracted. As he pulled up to the barn, he noticed his parents on the porch. They were home. He hadn’t expected that.

His dad greeted him as he got out of the truck.

“I wondered if you were coming home any time soon.” Bill Blackhorse smiled and winked, talking the way they had talked to one another a dozen years ago.

“Did you think I would pull a stunt and miss curfew?” Jay smiled back.

“Nah, not really. But as we came through town we saw your truck and Lacey’s car at the church.”

“I was just doing what Mom asked, making sure Lacey was okay.”

“Lacey is a wonderful young woman.”

So that’s the way this was going. Not that Jay was surprised. His dad had introduced him to Cindy, too.

“Dad, we’re neighbors, maybe friends, nothing more.”

His dad patted him on the back and they walked into the barn together. “Jay, it’s okay to fall in love again.”

“Is it, Dad?” Jay pulled his saddle out of the tack room. “I need to work that black mare.”

“Working the black mare isn’t going to undo what’s happening to you. You’re letting go. I guess maybe you feel guilty.”

Jay shrugged. He faced his dad, and it wasn’t comfortable. He wanted to let it go, the way they’d been letting it go for years now.

“Dad, I can’t forget Jamie. I can’t forget that I loved her.”

“No one said you had to forget. But let someone else in. That’s all I’m saying.”

Jay walked out the back of the barn. At the gate he whistled and the horses, ten of them grazing a few hundred feet away, turned to look at him. A few went back to grazing. He whistled again and they headed in his direction.

“What you’re saying is that I should let Lacey in.” Jay smiled, glancing at his dad in time to catch a shrug and a little bit of a sheepish look. “Dad, you can’t push us together. From what I hear, Lacey is still getting over Lance. I still have a wedding ring in my dresser drawer.”

“I’m asking you to pray.” Bill reached out to pet his favorite gray mare. “I’m asking you to let God heal your heart. Maybe that’s why you came home. Time to face what happened and move forward.”

“I think I am moving forward.” Time to let go of the girl he loved? He didn’t know if he could.

The black mare, Duckie, a strange name for a horse, was at the fence. Jay slid the halter over her head and clipped on the lead rope.

His dad opened the gate and Jay led the mare through, moving fast to keep the other horses from following. Bill closed the gate behind him. A car door closed. Jay led the horse to the barn and tied her.

Lacey walked through the doors, her face a dark silhouette with the setting sun behind her. He heard his dad behind him.

“I’m going to the house.” Bill patted him on the shoulder as he walked away, greeting Lacey with a hug.

“I’m sorry. I should have called.” Lacey looked a little lost, like she wasn’t sure. She stood a few feet from him, from the mare. “She’s beautiful.”

“You don’t have to call.” He looked over the mare’s neck at the woman leaning against the wall. “You okay?”

“I’m fine. I was on my way home from Bailey’s and I realized I really didn’t want to go home. There’s no one there.”

“The police will find her, Lacey.”

“And take her to jail.”

“They won’t take Rachel to jail.”

She reached to slide her hand down the neck of the mare. Jay slid the saddle pad into place and then lowered the saddle onto the mare’s back. The mare turned to look at him, but she stood still.

“Do you want to ride her?” He tightened the girth strap and knotted it.

“Could I?”

“I think so. I’ll show you how to rope.”

“No way!”

He smiled and it felt really good. “Yeah way!”

“I’d love it.”

It would keep both of their minds off what they didn’t want to think about. He didn’t want to think about letting go of Jamie. She didn’t want to think about her little sister going to jail.

“Come on, we’ll take her out to the arena.” He led the horse and Lacey walked a short distance away. “You do know how to ride, right?”

“Of course. You can’t live around here for six years and not know how to ride.”