A Texas-Made Match

Ms. Lettie seemed to be glowing. “Does this mean no more traveling? You’ll be settled in Peppin permanently?”

Lawson nodded. “The opportunity came at just the right time. I was ready to retire my badge.”

Doc’s approval shone in his eyes. “It will be good to have you home.”

“It’s perfect. Does this mean you’ll live at the ranch again?” Ellie glanced at Kate for confirmation. “Perhaps in the cabin? Or will we build something new?”

Lawson shook his head. “The cabin will do just fine for me. I don’t need anything fancy.”

“We’ll get that figured out soon,” Nathan said just as Maddie and Jeff passed the table.

Jeff paused to speak to Ellie. “Thanks again, Ellie. If it wasn’t for that list—”

“I know. You’re welcome.” She didn’t mean to be abrupt, but really! Enough was enough.

The couple stepped away from the table. Lawson’s voice drew her gaze as he regarded her. “What did Jeff say about a list?”

She leaned back in her chair as her family and closest friends launched into the story she was sick and tired of hearing. Sean caught her gaze and she returned his wry grin with a roll of her eyes. She took a sip of punch and managed to swallow her annoyance with a big gulp of the fruity concoction. Lawson sent her a measuring look once the story was through. “Looks like you’ve caused quite a stir.”

She lifted her chin. “What else is new?”

Lawson chuckled. “Ellie, I’m just curious. Who did you match up with me?”

“I don’t remember.” Ellie’s gaze swept toward Lettie and Kate before she settled on Lorelei’s face. Lorelei looked as baffled as she. Suddenly, Ellie’s confusion fled and she turned back to him. “You weren’t living here, so you weren’t on the list.”

“That’s too bad. It would have been nice to—”

“Oh.” She gasped the word as she realized what she’d just said. Her eyes widened. She stared into Lawson’s hazel eyes for a drawn-out moment, vaguely aware his voice stumbled to a halt. She watched his gaze trail down to her lips—which had formed a perfect circle of incredulous indignation.

She dragged her gaze from his until she found Ms. Lettie’s. The satisfaction on the woman’s face told her everything she needed to know. A quick glance at her laughing sister confirmed it. Ellie shook her head at both of them even as she leaned back in her chair and pinned them with a look. “Ridiculous. You two are completely ridiculous.”

Ellie heard Lorelei catch her breath but Ms. Lettie’s knowing smile kept her from looking away. The woman lowered her chin and lifted one eyebrow as though to say “time will tell.” Lawson’s hand brushed her shoulder to gain her attention. She glanced up at him. He said something but all she could remember was earlier...the warmth of being in his arms and the sound of his voice in her ear. What had she felt the moment before she realized it was only Lawson? Attraction? Anticipation? She didn’t want to label it.

Lawson—of all the silly ideas, to think that we might make a good couple. They were just friends—only friends. Besides, a man as attractive, interesting and worldly wise as he would never be interested in a simple girl like her, especially after all those years of courting Lorelei, the most sophisticated girl in town. Why would he want Ellie? No one else ever had. Except Donovan, who she really didn’t want to count.

She realized Lawson was still talking and shook the cloud from her thoughts. “What did you say?”

“I said, let me in on the joke. I want to laugh, too.”

Her breath pulled from her lungs as if she’d been cut. Her gaze held his for a long moment then fell to her lap as she felt something within her snap. She slowly lifted her gaze to survey the faces of those around her. They were all waiting for her to say something. They wanted to laugh with her just like they’d done a thousand times before. But this time one thing was different.

She wasn’t laughing.

She eyed her friends and family. “There is no joke, Lawson—not anymore.”

* * *

Lawson eased his duffel bag from his shoulder to the floor of the cozy old cabin on the O’Brien property. This was the place where his life had truly begun nearly ten years ago when Kate and Nathan had taken him on as a farmhand and brought him into their family. In this cabin, he’d learned his first lesson about what it truly meant to belong somewhere. Only a few months after that, Doc and Lettie had become his legal guardians and his honorary parents.

It somehow felt right to begin again in this place—to once more forget the past that had been resurfacing in his thoughts so often. Glancing around the room, he took in a cleansing breath then quickly lost it when he spotted Ellie directly to his right. She stood on a stool she’d placed over a crate in an effort to reach a cobweb near the cabin’s high ceiling. Every time she moved, the stool she perched on wobbled beneath her. Lawson strode over and plucked her from her perch.

“Hey,” she protested as he set her on her feet. “I almost had it.”

He nodded. “You certainly did...if it was a broken bone.”

She wrinkled her nose at him then turned to gesture to the rest of the cabin. “Well, how do you like your new, old place?”

He surveyed the table with two chairs that had been placed by the window with a planter filled with cheery yellow flowers. A bed with a simple quilt, a large trunk and a small wardrobe stood on the opposite side of the room. A comfortable-looking chair sat next to the fireplace. He smiled. “It looks nice, clean, homey. Did you do all of this?”

“Guilty.” She removed the stool from the crate and set it near the door.

“You didn’t have to.”

“I know. I wanted to.” She tucked a loose tendril behind her ear. “I missed you, you know.”

“What was there to miss?” He knew he was fishing for compliments but he didn’t care. Mostly, he just wanted her to prove that her statement was true.

She kicked a large dark blue-and-green rag rug to unroll it over the middle of the wooden floor. “Oh, I don’t know. It just hasn’t been the same since you left and Sean got married. The three of us used to be as thick as thieves—you, Sean and I. Nothing felt right without you here.”

He believed her. He’d wanted to, anyway. It was a nice feeling—being missed by someone.

She surveyed the room then must have been satisfied because she allowed herself to collapse onto a kitchen chair. “I bet you didn’t miss me.”

“Of course I did.” He sat across from her.

She shook her head. “You didn’t but that’s fine. You were busy bringing outlaws to justice. I wouldn’t have missed me, either.”

“It wasn’t as exciting as you seem to think.”

“What was it like, then?”

“It was like everything I’ve tried to forget.”

That quieted her for a moment before she smiled sympathetically. “Well, you’re home now. You can forget as much as you want.”

Home. That one word sounded so sweet to his ear. He gave a solemn nod. “I was already planning on it.”

“I’ve been wondering—” she fiddled with one of the flowers “—why do the Rangers call you Lawless?”

Lawson stared at Ellie, then frowned. “Now, where did you hear that?”

“Nathan sold a few horses to the Rangers. While he was in Austin, he asked about you. They told him you were one of the best Rangers on the force. They also told him you’d picked up the moniker Lawless. Why?”

He averted his gaze from her questioning eyes. “They assigned me the worst criminals, Ellie. Sometimes that meant I had to take risks, be ruthless and do things I wouldn’t dream of in any other situation. I never broke protocol but I’ve certainly bent my fair share of rules.”

She frowned. “They called you that because you bent a few rules?”

He gave a slow nod. She narrowed her eyes. It was clear she knew he wasn’t letting her in on the whole truth. Well, that was too bad because he wasn’t about to tell her that almost the entire Ranger force thought he’d make a better outlaw than a Ranger, and loved to tease him about it. He didn’t find it particularly funny. Nor did he want his name to be associated with the term outlaw, especially if some of those foggy memories of his childhood were accurate. He figured it was time for a change of subject.