Page 54 of The Cowboy Fix

Nathan jumped up from his chair. “Okay.Iwon’t be selfish. She deserves to be happy.”

“You don’t think she’s happy?” He could feel Jonas’s stern gaze following him as he paced back and forth in the small room. It was the same look he used to get after their dad passed and he was acting out, according to Jonas.

Stopping in front of Jonas, who was standing now, blocking his way, with Blake beside him, Nathan took a deep breath. “I can’t hold her back from doing the thing she loves. And I don’t want to compete with the lifestyle she’s made for herself. She’s good at her job. People need her magic—”

He really believed that.

Nathan ran out of words, but Jonas had more than enough to spare. He clapped Nathan on the shoulder, but his tone softened. “Don’t let Izzy get away, little brother. Not that I know a lot about love. Blake is the one who’s more comfortable with that emotion. What I do know is that you’ll regret it for the rest of your life if you don’t figure out a way to be with her.” Jonas’s hand dropped. Every emotion slid from his face. “Believe me, I know.”

Nathan looked from Jonas to Blake. “I’m only thinking of what’s best for Izzy.”

“Are you?” Blake asked.

Was he? Nathan shrugged. “I don’t know what to do to get her to stay.”

“You might try telling her you love her,” Blake said. “Because you do, don’t you?”

Nathan slowly nodded.

Blake was blunt. “Well, you’d better hurry up and say something to her, because if you don’t come up with anything convincing soon, you’re going to lose the best thing that’s ever happened to you.”

His heart started to pound. What could he say when he’d already basically told her to leave? Even though he only did it with the best intentions of encouraging her to pursue her dreams.

Okay, maybe that wasn’t true.

Chapter Sixteen

How had theygone from enjoying a quiet moment sitting on a garden bench together to Nathan practically pushing her out the door? Izzy didn’t get it.

She’d been the one to back away from their kiss even though it was the most spectacular fireworks she’d ever experienced. She got that part. And she could see that her reaction had given Nathan the wrong impression. It wasn’t him and his kiss that was the problem. It was her, and her fear of making another mistake after what happened with Jim.

She knew Nathan wasn’t Jim. She just didn’t know if she could trust her heart.

Putting the tea set she’d picked up at the Emporium on the counter in the little kitchen inside the cottage, Izzy grabbed the drill she’d brought with her and screwed the plaque she’d had made dedicating The Wedding Cottage to Zelda and Adam next to the door.

In loving memory of Zelda and Adam Lohmen, who lived every day showing us what true love lookedlike.

Love your sons, Jonas, Nathan, and Blake. We missyou.

For the first time since taking the Triple L job, she didn’t tell the brothers, and especially Nathan—though she might have if he were speaking to her—what sentiment she’d memorialized on the memory plaque.

She thought... hoped... they would approve.

Standing back, she took in the whole picture. The renovated she-shed into a sweet English cottage. The surrounding garden, almost in full bloom. The seating area for wedding guests. The wide arbor for the bride and groom. The benches in the back where she and Nathan had sat for a blissful moment when they were last here and where he’d told her she should take the Montana job.

She didn’t realize it then, but she’d already fallen deeply in love with the rancher. When he seemed to think she would be better off taking the out-of-state job, so far away from him, her heart had taken a tumble. Izzy couldn’t blame him. She’d only ever told him she wouldn’t be hanging around after finishing her job on the Triple L. She’d never hinted that she was thinking anything different.

He hadn’t spoken more than a single sentence to her since their last disastrous conversation. The crazy man wouldn’t spend more than five minutes in the same room with her.

He cleaned the barn and stalls before she got there in the mornings, leaving her alone to visit with Rosie in the pasture. She’d stopped practicing the moves he’d taught her for barrel racing, which she missed, though not as much as she missed Nathan.

Feeling a little lost without his company, she sat on what she’d come to think of astheirbench. He was everything she wasn’t. Constant. Stable. A rock. But she was dependable when it came to her job and her clients. And she knew how to stay the course. He could see that, couldn’t he?

More than anything, Nathan Lohmen made her feel safe.

Safe!That illusive feeling. Why had she not realized that before now?

Could she make up with the stubborn cowboy so they could be friends again? Maybe more than friends, if she was brave enough.

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