Reunited In The Rockies

He shook his head. Just because he was the only brother who had never left Ouray didn’t mean he didn’t have dreams, too. If only his father would recognize his woodworking for the viable business it was instead of just a hobby. Jude was passionate about the work he was doing, and his custom and reproduction millwork was already providing him with more income than his job as a police officer. He’d even talked with the chief about his desire to resign. He was simply waiting until they hired another officer. Then he’d be free to focus on his business and take it to the next level.

But first he’d have to find a way to tell Clint Stephens he wanted no part of his cattle operation. And with the man getting older, that wasn’t going to be easy. That bout of pneumonia he’d had last year had everyone concerned.

Passing the hot springs pool, he roughed a hand over his face. Couldn’t his father just sell off the cows and leave Jude to follow his own path? Dad knew all about dreams, after all. He’d chased his own all those years ago when he and Mama first started Abundant Blessings Ranch. Now, Jude’s oldest brother, Noah, had built a successful rodeo school on the land, and Jude longed to do the same with his business. All he needed was a bigger shop. Something he was more than capable of paying for.

So when are you planning to tell the man?

Good question. He should have said something about his plans to resign after talking to the chief. But he hadn’t. Now he was faced with the very real threat of disappointing his dad. And just the thought of that nearly killed him. The last thing he wanted was to destroy the good relationship they had.

He straightened in his seat. Lately he’d been doing a fair amount of work for a builder in Telluride. Maybe that would help his father understand. Unfortunately, the majority of his sales were done online, and that was something his father couldn’t comprehend, no matter how many times a week that big brown shipping truck came rolling up the drive.

He wound past the sparsely populated RV park that had been bursting at the seams only a couple of months ago. Perhaps Noah would have some advice. Despite their eleven-year age difference, he and his eldest brother were quite close. Close enough that Noah had asked him to be his best man.

Jamming his fingers through his hair, Jude released a frustrated sigh. He was going to drive himself crazy if he kept dwelling on his father. He needed to think about something else. Like the meeting with his soon-to-be sister-in-law, Lily. He didn’t have a clue as to why she’d asked him to meet her at the old Congress Hotel after work. The historic building had been closed for years and fallen into disrepair. Was Lily thinking about buying it? Restoring it, perhaps? If anyone could afford to do that, it was her. And in the right hands, the once grand structure definitely had the potential to be magnificent yet again.

He eased into Rotary Park to make his usual turnaround, noting a blue pickup truck near the ice rink. Not out of the ordinary. However, the woman standing beside the vehicle, staring at a flat tire, was a call to action.

Her back was to him as he pulled up beside her. Silky dark brown hair fell to her waist, reminding him of someone he once knew. Someone he’d never forget.

Killing the engine, he continued to watch her. Even her stance was familiar. The way she stood with her hands perched on the backside of her hips.

His heart raced. What if it was her?

You wish.

He reached for the door handle. His mind was all kinds of messed up today. As if Kayla would suddenly show up in Ouray after seven years.

The woman glanced over her shoulder as he stepped onto the gravel, though not long enough to give him a good look.

“I see you’re having a problem.” He rounded the front end of his vehicle, glimpsing her pancaked back tire. “May I assist you?”

Slowly she turned, and his world shifted as though he’d been transported back in time to the best summer of his life. The summer he fell in love for the first and only time.

“Hello, Jude.” The sweetness of her voice washed over him, along with more memories and regrets than he cared to count.

“Kayla?” He visually traced the face that still lived in his mind. All these years, he’d wondered what had happened. He only knew that one day they were talking about seeing each other again, and then the next there was nothing. She had never even returned his calls or texts. “What are you doing here?”

She hesitated a moment, seemingly transfixed on the tire. “My friend is getting married.” Her chestnut eyes finally met his. Gorgeous eyes he’d lost himself in thousands of times. “I’m Lily’s matron of honor.”

“Lily?” Wait, Noah’s Lily? Shifting his weight from one booted foot to the other, he scratched his head. “Lily Davis?”

A breeze hissed through the towering conifers.

“Yes.” Kayla casually tucked her hair behind her ear, the reappearing sun highlighting the gold band on her left hand.

His gut tightened as unwanted disappointment stole through him. After all these years, he shouldn’t care that Kayla was married. Not when she was the one who’d decided to end their relationship without even bothering to let him know. No, he shouldn’t care.

Unfortunately, he did. A fact that annoyed him more than he cared to admit.

Her hand fell to her stomach. Only then did he notice the bump beneath her fitted T-shirt.

Great. The woman who still haunted his dreams was not only married but pregnant. And she was his future sister-in-law’s best friend. The one he’d be forced to spend who knows how much time with in the coming days before walking her down the aisle a week from tomorrow.

He should have stayed in bed this morning. “You and Lily are friends?”

“Yes. We met back in Denver a few years ago.”

“You live in Denver?” When he’d known her, she’d been enjoying a nomadic lifestyle with her parents. Always roaming about the country, never staying put for more than six months. They were headed to Denver the last time he and Kayla spoke. Had she been there all this time?

“After my father died, I decided it was time to settle down.”

She couldn’t have done that in Ouray? “I’m sorry for your loss.”

Nodding, she took a step back. “Look, I’m sorry for creating such an awkward situation. I knew Noah was your brother, yet I never said anything to Lily about you and me. If I had, she could have at least prepared you.”

True. And he could have relegated his best man duties to one of his brothers while he hightailed it out of town. “No big deal.” He shrugged. “I’m just kind of surprised you’re here so early. I mean, the wedding isn’t for another week.”

“I wanted to be here to help Lily with some of the preparations.” Her hands went to her hips again as her gaze traveled from the redstone cliffs that hugged the back of the park to Mount Hayden’s peak at the opposite end of town. “That and I needed a change of scenery.”

“Well, we’ve got plenty of that around here.” Though he had no business doing it, he found himself staring again. She was even more beautiful than he remembered. Yet while the hair and eyes were the same, something was different about Kayla. She seemed...troubled. Maybe it was just the awkwardness of the moment.

Shaking off the notion, he added, “But then, you already know that.”

She peered up at him through long lashes, sending his heart slamming into his ribs. “I wasn’t sure if you were still in Ouray.”

Wasn’t sure? Kayla knew better than anyone that this was where he belonged. “It’s my home. Where my roots are.” And while that was the exact reason he could never leave, it was also what had prevented him from asking her to stay. Kayla needed to roam, meaning their relationship would have been doomed from the start and he would have ended up brokenhearted anyway.

Looking for an escape, he turned his attention to her tire. “I’ll get this taken care of so you can be on your way.”

“You always were the chivalrous one.” Her smile did strange things to him. Had him feeling things he had no business feeling for a married woman. Things that were going to make this next week excruciatingly long.

* * *

Kayla Bradshaw had known that agreeing to be in Lily’s wedding could mean coming face-to-face with the first man she ever loved. Something that seemed relatively benign, until now.

Jude still had that slightly dangerous look about him. Those piercing dark eyes that seemed to see right through her. To read her thoughts and know her heart. His dark hair had a military cut with close-cropped sides and the longer top brushed to one side. But, oh, that smile...

Pulling out of the park with a fresh tire, she gave herself a stern shake. It wasn’t like her to be so affected. Then again, a lot of things were different with her lately. Chalk it up to pregnancy. Or stress. After all, when her husband died five months ago in a single-car rollover, she hadn’t even known she was pregnant.

She continued into the old mining town, eyeing the mountains that enveloped Ouray. She hoped God forgave her for the relief she felt following Shane’s death.

If only she’d known he was an alcoholic before they married. He was a different man when he drank.

After his death, she’d wanted nothing more than a do-over. A fresh start for her and her baby. And while she had yet to find that perfect place to begin anew, Lily had done her best to fill in the gap.

When Kayla decided to sell the house she’d shared with Shane, Lily had encouraged her to move into her place and house-sit while she and her kids spent the summer in Ouray. Four months later, she was still there.

Kayla puffed out a laugh. She never would have imagined that her friend would decide to stay in Ouray, let alone fall in love with the brother of the man who’d captured Kayla’s heart seven years ago and given her a glimpse of how good life could really be.