Her Forever Cowboy

“Thanks. I’m sure if there is a contractor out there to be found, you’ll find him—or you’ll help me find someone who knows one.”

“Yup. I might jest have a good ’un in mind already.”

“Really?” Susan’s hopes shot up. “Who?”

“Can’t say just yet. You comin’ to the barbecue tomorrow night at Clint and Lacy’s ranch, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Susan said, wondering who he had in mind. “Are you?”

“Yup. Got my relief cook lined up fer this place. Me and Adela will see you thar.” He nodded. “Probably gonna be an interesting night since Cole will be thar, too.”

Just what she’d been afraid of—the man was going to start turning up all over the place. There would be nowhere to hide until he got bored and left. “He won’t be around long from what I’ve heard about him,” she said, and then wished she’d just taken her burger and hit the road as planned.

“Maybe.” Sam slapped his ever-present dish towel over his shoulder with a grin. “And maybe not.”

Chapter Five

Cole’s gaze swept over the gathering as he trailed behind Seth and Melody toward the backyard barbecue. Clint and Lacy Matlock had a beautiful ranch. The main house sat on a hill and overlooked a stunning valley.

It wasn’t the view that had Cole’s attention, however, it was the tall beauty leaning against the deck banister watching him.

He’d wondered if she was going to be here. As much as they had a weird kind of thing going on, he realized the minute he saw her that he’d been hoping to see her.

As he passed a tub of iced-down sodas he grabbed two and headed her way. Maybe he should have stayed back, but that wasn’t part of his makeup. Even if she didn’t look happy to see him.

He mounted the steps. “Don’t look so hostile, Doc. I come with soda.” He popped the top of a can and handed it to her; she didn’t take it. “Come on now, it would be rude to snub your handsome rescuer.”

She reluctantly accepted the drink. “You are going to milk that accident for all it’s worth, aren’t you?”

“Maybe.” He opened his drink and took a swig. “I have to say, I’m pretty good at reading people, but you are a puzzle.”

“How so?”

“Despite my being your knight in shining armor, I continually get the feeling that you’d as soon see me run over by wild horses.”

Susan almost choked on her soda. “I do not.”

She had added a touch of shimmer to her lips and now she clamped those pretty lips together. It was a warm day for April but the temperature edged up a few more degrees as they stared at each other. “Oh, you know it’s true.”

“For your information, I know you aren’t going to be in town long. So, I—”

“How do you know?”

“Well, um…you never come home much.”

The good doctor was flustered. “Have you been checking up on me, Doc?”

“No. Of course not.”

Call him crazy for flirting—and he was, but he was enjoying himself. He was about to press further when Norma Sue Jenkins rounded the corner of the house and spotted him.

“Cole Turner,” she bellowed and engulfed him in a bear hug. The short, stout woman practically lifted him from the deck in her enthusiasm.

“You are a sight for sore eyes!” Norma Sue declared. She was married to Clint Matlock’s foreman, Roy Don. She and Roy Don had been friends of his grandparents and his parents. As a boy he and his brothers had spent almost as many evenings at Roy Don and Norma Sue’s house as their own. Norma was pure robust Texas cattlewoman from the tip of her boots to the top of her white Stetson. She’d always worn jeans and pearl-button, Western shirts or blue bibbed overalls—except on Sunday when she was partial to striped dresses. Tonight she’d chosen jeans and a pale blue, pearl-button shirt. Her kinky gray hair poked out from beneath the Stetson and tickled his jaw when she yanked his head to her shoulder and smothered him as if she hadn’t seen him in years.

Norma Sue had always been a big hugger and he’d hated it as a kid. But as a man who often missed his parents and grandparents, he enjoyed the comfort her hugs always gave him. “I missed you, boy,” she said, finally releasing him.

“Norma Sue, I saw you at the wedding, so if you keep this up folks are gonna start talking.”

She slapped him on the arm and frowned. “I’m gearing up for when you leave town and don’t come back again for years. Like before Seth’s wedding,” she said accusingly. “I can’t believe you came home twice in the same year.”

Roy Don had come over and now reached in for a quick fatherly hug of his own. “Welcome home, son. She gets plumb mad when she thinks about you off running the roads and not having enough time to come home. I didn’t hardly have any peace after you rode off into the sunset only hours after the reception.”

“Sorry about that.” Cole had planned on staying around longer after the wedding, but as happy as he’d been for Seth and Melody, emotions he hadn’t expected had slammed into him during the evening. He’d had no choice but to leave. He’d been in a blue mood for weeks afterward.

He’d been furious with God after Lori, and it had taken him a long time to regain some kind of relationship with his God. Just like the relationship between father and son can be strained, so had his become with his heavenly Father. But as a father and son reconciled so he had been trying. Unexpectedly Seth’s wedding had almost taken him back to square one.

There was no way he’d ever want Seth or Melody to know that…Wyatt, on the other hand had figured it out—not that he’d figured it out completely, but still…that was Cole’s reason for being here now. His big brother had decided it was time for Cole to come home for an extended visit and had threatened to tell Seth all if he didn’t cooperate and return. Wyatt reasoned that if Cole came home and spent time with the newlyweds it would help him get over his past. Cole didn’t want to get over his past…and that, Wyatt had argued, was the problem.