Page 2 of The Texas Cowboy's Lady

So, Laurel did her best to keep a straight face when feigning yawns. Perhaps another Oscar performance? She clutched two, so a third might be pushing it as she waved them goodbye and shut the front door of her Malibu condo. She had a pretty good idea that CeeCee would not be coming home that evening. Lucky lady.

Sammi Jo had called earlier, and Laurel heard all the yells of congratulations and partying still going strong. Too bad she wasn’t there. Instead, she was now in a quiet condo looking out over an ocean, the sound of the waves crashing along the shore breaking the stillness of the early morning hour. She was alone with her two little gold men staring at her from the shelf she had placed them on. It wasn’t the first time she had felt alone that evening. Even in the huge auditorium with the famous names seated around her, there was still something most of them had that she didn’t. There was someone seated next to them, someone whose hand they could reach for to gain a confident squeeze of assurance, someone who they would share a heartfelt kiss of elation with if called to the stage, or someone to share a look of comfort with after the cameras moved on. Laurel knew she shouldn’t be selfish. She had achieved the highest level of acceptance in Hollywood... the world over included. Yet, there was something missing.

She had only herself. Sean had given her the hug of congratulations and that was good. But it wasn’t the same. His heart belonged elsewhere. And her heart... in the darkness of the house, she allowed the truth to join her. Her heart was far, far away, where it had remained the whole time after she had left her Texas roots. She could admit that. It wasn’t going to be a hindrance in her eyes or show a lack of determination on her part. Because she had won out. But a cowboy had once handed her his heart, much the same as she suspected Sean was doing at that moment with CeeCee. Only their story would have a far happier ending.

How different the evening might have been if it had been Jaxson’s hand in hers, his quiet confidence bolstering hers, and his kiss making the evening perfect. She stuffed the memories back behind that door once more and hid the key. Just another dream to file away.

You did it once before and look at you now.Where did that thought come from?There’s another dream, so go for it. What’s stopping you?

“Another dream, yes. And now, what would stop us? If not now, then when?” The words were spoken aloud so that made them so... or so she had been taught by her grandmother. A new fire began within her with that simple thought she voiced into the silent rooms. Never stop to rest when you have a goal within sight. That was purely her grandfather, Sam. She had them both inside her. And she was a Texan, born and bred.

Texas was calling. Laurel Burkitt was going home.

*

“That one isn’tmade for this land. Her heart has to want to be here. Right now, hers is off seeking something she can’t find on the Aces High. So don’t go breaking yours over it. Best to let her go and get on with your living.”

How many times over the last eighteen years had Samuel Burkitt’s sage words echoed through Jaxson Hawkes’s memory? A dozen? That would be the number of times Jaxson had sat on his horse or in his truck and watched the sleek Gulfstream, with the brand of the Aces High Ranch emboldened on its gleaming white tail, lifting, leaving the Texas dirt behind as it soared high headed toward the western sky... toward the blue waters of the Pacific. Toward the land of mansions and fast cars and movie stars on every street corner. The golden place where Laurel Burkitt, granddaughter of Samuel and Sarah, believed her destiny had waited to be claimed. The number of times his heart had been ripped apart.

And each time, Jaxson would be left to get over the one woman who had ever laid claim to any part of his heart. The only one who wanted no part of him, neither his heart nor his way of life. His problem? No real lady wanted the life he could offer. He had been born a cowboy. He’d worked his whole life as a cowboy. And chances were in his favor to die a cowboy.

But it wouldn’t be from unrequited love. He had watched that plane, which sat waiting even then for the next call from California, to take off for the last time, leaving him feeling like there was a huge hole in his chest that nothing could fill. It made him irritable, according to his brother, Beaudry, and every other human who dared to come near him for weeks after her inevitable departures.

And he was tired. Tired of the silent looks of pity from his family members and from the people in Burkitt, Texas, who enjoyed the gossip of it all each time that plane brought the woman back for a “visit” and then kicked into high gear when that plane took her away again.

Well, his brother, Beaudry, had married Laurel’s sister, Sammi Jo. The wedding had come and gone. Samuel Burkitt had departed the earth, leaving only a memory of his sage words behind in Jaxson’s mind. Life was supposed to settle down and go on. And darned if he would waste one more moment on the woman who clearly was enjoying her success and life out west. Her screenwriting had earned her a few really big awards, the last being two all-coveted Oscars. So, Jaxson knew then that the future was pretty well mapped out and his fate had been sealed. He had watched her stand there on the stage, on the television, with two gold statuettes grasped in her hands and the look of triumph in her eyes. She had conquered the mountain.

It did no good to sit on his horse and gaze on an empty runway, waiting for a jet to return and deposit the Hollywood lady once again into their lives... for a brief interlude. It was time to settle down, take the blinders off his eyes, sweep out the corners of his heart. How many times could a heart be trampled on and keep going?

It wasn’t like he hadn’t tried. Three years ago, when Laurel had returned home for Samuel’s funeral, Jaxson had found the courage to speak up, to put his heart at her feet. And what had she done? She had slowly shaken her head, a look between pity and sorrow cast upon him. She had slowly handed over the suitcase in her hand at the bottom of the plane’s steps.

“Jax, you do have an odd sense of timing. I have a dream in California that has finally become my reality. Being a foreman’s wife on a ranch with its day-in and day-out monotony is my sister’s idea of a dream, but it’d be a nightmare to me. Some country girl around here would die and go to Heaven if you looked in her direction, and she’d be the woman you deserve. But it just can’t be me.

“But you could come west with me. Have you ever thought about that? Just get on the plane and we can fly away from here. There’s a whole world out there besides Texas.”

He could only offer her silence. Then she shook her head. “You couldn’t leave here anymore than I could stay. You have your world and I have mine. They’re just too far apart.” Then she had raised on tiptoe and presented the coup de grace—a bestowed kiss on the cheek. And she was gone.

That was the last time he watched the plane leave. He would never do that again. Work was his life. And Jaxson had work to do. And a large part of that involved getting on with his job as foreman of the Aces High and finding his own life and happy-ever-after.

That thought made him shake his head. His sights might be set a tad bit high there. He’d start with getting a haircut. That often gave a guy a new perspective, right? And then... well, he didn’t know what would come next. But whatever it was, it wouldn’t involve any more thoughts of Laurel Burkitt and the fancy lady life she craved.

Best to let her go.Old Samuel’s words rang true again in his mind, and Jaxson would do just that.

Chapter One

“So, all ofthat land below us right now—that’s where you came from?” The man kept his fascinated gaze on the ground outside the sleek jet’s window.

A small bit of laughter prefaced Laurel Burkitt’s response. She shifted deeper into her sumptuous, supple cream leather seat and took her gaze off the page of the fashion magazine in her lap. “Not literally, but yes, in a roundabout way. That land and a whole lot more of it that we’ve been flying over for the better part of a half hour now became home for me and my sister when our parents died when we were almost six. Our grandparents took us in, and the Aces High Ranch became the place we grew up. The place we ultimately inherited. The home my sister poured her heart and soul into preserving for us and those who live and work on it now and in the future.”

“A modern-day empire! My God, there are horses running below us. I’ve never seen so many in one place! There must be a hundred or more. It’s like I’m watching a scene from National Geographic or something. Only this is in living color in front of me. Truly unbelievable what I am learning about you now.”

“Well, there are a lot more horses just like those in other areas of the ranch, along with cattle too. And this empire, to use your wording, has been around for a couple hundred years now, but it isn’t mine any longer. At least not for the last couple of years, since my sister bought me out, and that just left me with about 150,000 acres still to my name.”

Her companion finally tore his gaze away from the window and fixed it upon her. “I had heard rumors around town that you owned a good chunk of Texas, but I never really thought about what it meant in actuality. My fiancée is a real live Texas gazillionairess, withjust 150,000 acres. Fancy that!”

“Fancy that, indeed,” she parroted him in return. “Just keep in mind that I agreed with this fiancée charade of yours to give the real woman of your dreams the private nuptials she wants and deserves. And to ask my sister for any objections she might have for our joint business venture on my share of the Aces High. I am still unsure we’ll fool anyone. But since I do have two Oscars and you have one, I feel we might have a better than fifty-fifty chance of pulling all of this off.”

“You seem to take great pleasure in bringing up the discrepancy in our Oscar equality. I do believe that my directing award beats out your two screenwriting ones. At the very least, we are equal partners in crime. Okay, let’s go over one more time the cast of characters I’m about to win over with my deft charm.”

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