Page 59 of The Cowboy's Unlikely Love

The girl gave him a puzzled look. “Excuse me?”

“Everly,” he repeated. “She’s a guest here. She’s…”

“I’m afraid I can’t give you any information about our guests.” The girl was eyeing him suspiciously now. She took a few steps toward the door behind the desk that led into the back office, and called, “Shane!”

Tanner was relieved to see Shane stick his head out of the office.

“This guy’s asking about one of our guests.”

“It’s okay, he’s a friend,” he reassured her. He came around the desk to Tanner. “You’re looking for Everly?”

His heart sank as he nodded. Shane’s expression didn’t give him much hope.

“Sorry, bud, she checked out this morning.”

“This morning?”

“Yeah. Honestly, when I saw that, I thought she must have gone to stay with you. But from the look on your face …”

“No. I … We had a bit of a misunderstanding.” His mind raced. Had she been planning to stay with him? Or had she been intending to go home all along?

Shane frowned. “Let me check with Corinne, see if she knows anything. Come on through.”

Tanner followed him into the back office, where he sat at the big desk and picked up the phone.

“Hey, Corinne ... Yeah, everything’s fine. Sorry to disturb you on a Sunday. Have you heard anything from Everly? … He’s here looking for her, and she checked out of her room this morning … Okay.”

He looked up at Tanner. “She’s going to see if she has any messages from her.”

Tanner held his breath as he waited.

“Okay… Right… Shit. Okay, thanks, Corinne. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“What did she say?”

“That Everly’s gone home to Napa. Apparently, there’s some deal with her stepdad’s family, and she needed to go back.”

Tanner just stared at him. He’d already known that he had a mountain to climb after the way he reacted this morning. That mountain was starting to look a lot like Everest. How was he supposed to win her back when she’d already left town?

Shane gave him a sympathetic smile. “Anything I can do?”

Tanner blew out a sigh. “Thanks, but I’m not sure there’s anything even I can do.”

Shane laughed. “Don’t give me that shit. You’re no quitter. And you’d be a damn fool to give up on Everly.”

Tanner shrugged. He didn’t know what to think, let alone what to say.

“I’m telling you, Tanner. I saw the two of you together. You’re not going to be able to go back to the way things were before you met her, and from what I saw, you’re not gonna be able to move forward without her, either.”

Shane got to his feet and grasped Tanner’s shoulder. “You’ll figure it out.”

As he made his way back outside to his truck, Tanner wasn’t sure that he would – or even what figuring it out might look like.

Chapter Fifteen

When she parked the car outside her mom’s house, Everly cut the engine and sat there for a moment. She felt like she’d lived a whole lifetime in the last twenty-four hours. Yesterday, she’d woken up in Tanner’s arms, hopeful about what might happen between them going forward. Now, any hopes she’d had were in tatters. And even apart from that, she’d seen her dad – come face to face with him for the first time in several years. And just an hour ago, while she’d been driving home, her mom had called her to say that Joe’s mother had died.

Her mom had already booked a flight for tonight. Although it broke her heart, it turned out to be a blessing that things had worked out the way they did. She was home in time to pick Ashton up from school this afternoon. She was rostered off work until next week, and that would give her time to find someone to watch him when she had to go back.

---