Page 65 of Destined for the Cowboy

“Well, I don’t want your brother mad at me,” Logan said when she showed him the messages.

She’d been half afraid he’d say no, that he wasn’t ready for this. Or maybe he didn’t realize this would be, in essence, going public. Not, she thought with a smile she had to hide, that shedidn’t figure most of Last Stand already knew anyway. She not only didn’t care, she was delighted.

And as she was getting ready the next evening, she silently made one last acknowledgment.

I’m going to be fine, David. Better than fine. Thank you. For everything.

She took in a deep breath, glanced at herself in the mirror, then nodded firmly.

It was time to launch this new ship.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Logan stopped deadin his tracks when he saw that everybody who mattered in Tris’s life was there. Jackson and Nic of course, but also what looked like most of the Rafferty clan and at least half the Highwaters. Which meant almost everybody who mattered to him was there, too.

He stared at the Friday night gathering, which suddenly seemed different somehow than any other crowd who had been here in the saloon when he’d come in for one of these before. Or maybe it was that he was different. He certainly felt different. The last week spent hidden away in his home had been nothing less than life-changing, for him anyway.

He let out a long breath, tried to suck one in to replace it. And then he felt Tris’s hand wrapping around his, her fingers strong as she gave his a squeeze.

No one should have noticed that small movement, yet it seemed like everyone in the saloon did. And every last one of them seemed to be looking at him.

And smiling. Some downright grinning.

Including Jackson. “About time,” he said as he came over and slung an arm around Logan’s shoulders. “Come on, I’m buying the first round.”

A voice came from behind the bar. “Fair warning, though, I’m a bit more generous with the good stuff than the regular bartender.”

Logan looked that way, and he was pretty sure his jaw dropped. Because there was a Highwater behind the bar asusual, but it wasn’t Slater. It was, of all people, Police Chief Shane Highwater. Who, in a way, had helped all this happen.

“Joey?” Tris asked, her voice sounding eager. And belatedly the probable reason for the staffing change hit him.

“Yep,” Shane—because it was clear that’s who he was tonight, not the chief—said, glancing at his watch. Still grinning, he went on. “About four hours ago. Mom and baby boy doing fine. New dad, not so much.”

Everybody laughed. A slim, petite woman with hair almost that same autumn-leaves color as Tris’s came up beside him, her smile almost as wide. “I seem to remember somebody else who pretty much lost his legendary cool in the maternity ward,” Lily Highwater said, slipping an arm around Shane while everyone laughed again.

“Guilty,” Shane confessed, pausing to give his wife a quick kiss. “I was a wreck.”

“Personally,” another unexpected voice came from behind him, and he turned sharply, “I want to know when someone’s going to add a girl to the population of this group.”

He knew he was probably gaping again but he couldn’t help it. Mrs. Valencia? The terror of Creekbend High School, the one teacher no one dared cross, here on a Friday night in the Last Stand Saloon?

“Working on it,” Jackson drawled, and Nic actually blushed.

To his shock the older woman reached out and patted his arm. “How’s one of my favorite students ever, Logan?”

If she hadn’t used his name he would have been looking around to see who she was talking to. And she was looking at him as if she knew exactly that. “I…was?”

“Of course you were. I knew your love of history was genuine, that your passion for it ran as deeply as my own. I wasn’t supposed to show favoritism, however, so I had to keep it under wraps. But now I’m retired, so I feel free.”

“Thank you,” he said, meaning it. “Ma’am,” he added, the memory of the fierceness of the woman in a classroom going through his mind.

“I wish I’d had the chance,” Tris said, respect clear in her voice.

Mrs. V, as her students had called her—only when they were certain she wasn’t around to hear it—smiled. “And I wish I’d had the chance to teach you.” She drew back slightly, taking in both him and Tris. “But I’m very glad you two history lovers have found each other.”

“So am I…”

They’d both said it together, almost in unison, and that earned them the biggest smile he’d ever seen the usually stern woman give.

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