Page 82 of A Cowboy in the Streets

I wanted him to fight for me. For us.

Was that too much to ask?

Stupid me, asking a question when I already knew the answer. And goddamn, I was so tired of men letting me walk away.

“This was good. You and me,” he said, and I flinched at the way he had already put us in past tense. He leaned on the pitchfork, his blue eyes searching my face beneath his furrowed brow, like he needed me to reassure him that he wasn’t being the bad guy here. “It was good, wasn’t it?”

And there it was. Adam didn’t want can’t-live-without-you love. And I…I did want that. I wanted that with him.

But I wasn’t going to chase him to get it.

Love wasn’t the sort of thing you could force someone into feeling.

“Yeah,” I croaked, forcing the words out of my dry throat. “It was good.”

“This place is adorable,” Mom, quite possibly the most adorable person on earth, said as we slid into a booth at Shenanigans, a restaurant in downtown Aspen Springs recommended to me by Chloe.

I glanced around, taking in the black-and-white tiled floor, the hanging plants, and the rattan furniture. If a tropical garden and a French bistro had a baby, it would be this restaurant. “Yeah, Mom. It’s cute.”

Mom gave me a sharp look at my flat tone, but before she could question me, a server—also cute—popped by to take our order. Mom asked for a bloody Mary, I went with a blood orange mimosa, and we both ordered French toast and a carafe of coffee to share.

“All right,” she said when our drinks had arrived. “What’s wrong, honey?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” I lied.

She arched an immaculate brow. “Please. You love brunch. Why are you sitting there all glum? It can’t be the company.”

I tried to smile but succeeded only in lifting the corners of my mouth a fraction. It didn’t fool my mother at all.

“Oh,” she said sagely. “Boy troubles.”

I snorted. One thing Adam Hale wasn’t was a boy. No, that grumpy cowboy was all man. I kept myself busy pouring coffee for both of us and adding cream, her eyes on me the whole time.

“Have you given any thought to coming back to Blue Skies?” Mom added sugar to her mug and gave it a brisk stir.

I blinked and then blinked again. I had spent a lot of time last night staring at my ceiling, wide awake when I should have been dead asleep, turning Adam’s reaction over and over in my mind. You should go.

I had spent precisely zero minutes contemplating how I felt about returning to Blue Skies. Did I want to go back?

It should have been a no-brainer. Working at Blue Skies with my father had always been my dream. So why did it feel like a big question mark now when Dad was offering me everything I ever wanted?

Maybe it wasn’t what I wanted anymore.

Maybe what he was offering was only a pale substitute for what I had wanted anyway.

“Why do you look like you’re having an epiphany?” Mom asked.

I looked up. “Nothing has changed. He still isn’t sure about me.”

Her gaze sharpened. “Do you mean your dad or Adam?”

“Dad. Of course.” Both. I swallowed hard. Why did I do this to myself?

“Oh, honey.” Mom leaned back with a sigh. To her credit, she didn’t try to pretend Dad was anything but himself. “Your dad loves you so much. If he had his way, you never would have left Blue Skies. You’d marry someone who would take over the business someday and raise our grandbabies there. It’s all he ever wanted.”

“And all I ever wanted was to be enough. No husband or grandkids. Just me, doing the job I’m great at.” Our conversation paused as our food arrived. After the server disappeared again, I stabbed into my French toast. “Why am I not enough for him?”

“He loves you, James, but he’s not going to change. Maybe it’s time for you to stop asking him to be something he’s not.”

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