Page 34 of Destined for the Cowboy

“I’d watch it if you switch to straw this summer—he’s liable to eat it,” Logan said with another laugh. Another delightful laugh she thought she would never tire of hearing. Perhaps because it was rather rare.

Or, she corrected, it was rare around her. Her he usually looked at warily, except when they got past whatever it was that put him so on edge and simply talked.

All that thought did was remind her how often she had thought about that—and him—in this week that had seemed so long and silent in her quiet life, the life she preferred, the life he’d disrupted without even trying, just by appearing in it a few times.

Times that had her thinking and feeling things she hadn’t thought or felt in years.

“Nicely done!” Mrs. Baylor called out with a smile, but not, Tris noticed, until after the colt was secured.

And that was the last thing she noticed, because in response a smiling Logan looked their way. And his smile froze when he spotted her beside Mrs. Baylor. Their gazes locked, and Tris suddenly found it hard to breathe.

And no amount of telling herself she’d imagined that flash of heat she thought she’d seen in those green, green eyes seemed to help.

Chapter Eighteen

It had occurredto him that he might run into her here. He knew from Jeremy that she often visited them on Sundays, or vice versa. So he’d known, and mentally prepared himself. He told himself if he had to speak to her, he could always ask where her Saturday expedition had taken her, and that should get him past the rough spot.

But somehow, even with that, he hadn’t been prepared to look up and see her standing there, looking straight at him.

He was sure he’d probably stood there gaping like a fool for far too long before he pulled himself together enough to realize he’d not answered Mrs. Baylor.

“Thanks,” he said a little awkwardly. Then, because it was Mrs. Baylor he managed to go on. “I think he’ll be a good horse, maybe even a great one, but he’ll keep you on your toes. And he’ll teach Jeremy a lot about horses, when the time comes.”

“And Jeremy will love every minute of it,” Tris predicted as she walked into the barn, with that smile that spoke volumes about her love for her brother’s little boy.

He’d never known a connection like that. Like the one she had with her brother, either. He looked away, knowing he could never explain to her why that jabbed at him, not without sounding like some kind of jealous idiot.

Fortunately that brother rescued him by showing up with Jeremy in tow, who had the golden retriever at his heels. And the boy’s excitement over the new arrival quashed every other emotion in the barn, from human to canine to equine. It wouldtake a true emotional dud not to smile at his enthusiasm, and he wasn’t quite that far gone.

“I still love Pie,” Jeremy stated unequivocally.

“Of course you do,” Tris said. “But that doesn’t mean you can’t love this one, too.”

“And you’re going to be too big to ride Pie one day,” Jackson said. He reached out and tousled the boy’s hair. “Maybe sooner than you think.”

Jeremy’s smile widened. And suddenly Logan had to turn away. This kind of casual, loving, familial affection was something he’d never known, and he didn’t know quite how to react. But then, no one here needed or wanted his reaction, so it didn’t matter, but still, the ache it raised in him put him on edge. Enough so that he muttered to Mr. Baylor that he had to get going and started to walk toward his truck before the man even answered.

But he hadn’t counted on Mrs. Baylor, who stopped him at the barn door.

“You must stay for lunch, Logan. We’re having barbecue beef sandwiches, with some of Richard’s famous sauce.”

He started to shake his head, but Jeremy piped up, “You ever had it, Mr. Logan? It’s really good.”

He could hardly be rude to the boy. “I haven’t. But I’ve heard about it.”

“That’s settled then,” Mrs. Baylor said, and spun her chair around.

He stood there for a long, silent moment, picturing himself running after her and saying no, he couldn’t stay. He couldn’t make it work, not with this woman he admired so much for her tenacity and determination.

And so he ended up seated at the big Baylor picnic table amid a crowd. Well, a crowd to him. Mr. and Mrs. Baylor, Jackson,Jeremy and Nic, who had arrived just as they were leaving the barn.

And Tris.

He’d figured he’d be safe enough, with seven of them at a table that seated eight, he’d be the odd one out at one end. He wouldn’t be hemmed in and could maybe even make an early escape.

But it didn’t quite work out that way, because Mr. Baylor wheeled out a cart with various necessities, including the big pile of napkins needed for handling those huge and delicious beef sandwiches. And he placed it at the end of the table he’d staked out in his mind as a safe place to sit. So somehow Logan ended up sitting in the middle on one side, with Jeremy on his left, across from his father, and…Tris on his right, between him and Mrs. Baylor at the other end.

He was almost relieved when Jeremy started chattering at him, talking about Pie, and the new colt, and how long it would be before he would be old enough to ride, and “How did you do that whispering thing with him?”

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