Page 70 of A Nice Day for a Cowboy Wedding

Shane’s mouth curved, just a pinch, though that heavy, something like guilty look remained in his expression. “It’s possible that’s part of why I’m a little concerned about Ben.”

“Possible, yeah. I think I get that.” Not that she had any doubt his behavior toward Ben had been based on anything other than that protective instinct. How could she find that so appealing and so bone-deep frightening all at the same time?

“Mom knows I lost the money. Gav knows I was pretty messed up over it for a while. Somehow made it worse that Molly went off and married some dipshit who did much of the same thing. And I never told her, you know? I never told her that Mattie took off on me, and I should have. Maybe Molly would have listened and not gotten suckered into the whole thing.”

“Well, if she was in love, or thought herself to be, and her big brother was lecturing her, probably not,” Cora offered, hoping to ease some of that guilt somehow. Someway. “I didn’t listen to Lilly, and . . .”I got into a lot worse relationships than one where I was stolen from.

It was the strangest thing inside of her, the want to tell him, the utter fear that kept those words locked down tight. The promise she’d made to Micah.

“Why don’t you come here?” he murmured.

She was feeling all too teary, but none of her flippant changes of subject had worked before. So, she took the few steps to cross the room to him and let him pull her into the warmth of his body.

Her shoulders relaxed somehow, that odd band in her chest loosening. He kissed her temple. Agoodman. One who somehow thought she was something special. Worthy of his secrets.Her.

“So, all there is to the Micah’s dad story is that he didn’t love you guys?” he asked gently.

Cora stiffened, but she considered it progress she didn’t pull away. “He didn’t love us or want us,” she said, and that was good enough. More than enough of that story. That was the bottom line. All Stephen had ever wanted out of her was someone to control. “I spent too long trying to make him,” she whispered, the words sliding past her clogged throat. She was giving him too much, and the only thing stopping her from going further was her promise to Micah. His bone-deep certainty it would change everything.

Because it would, if Shane saw them as victims. It would change everything. “Guess I have a few of my own daddy issues.” Which was the wrong thing to say, not because it suggested the tragic loss of his father was an “issue,” but because he pulled slightly away, looking at her with those too-soft brown eyes.

“You haven’t mentioned your dad,” he said, again so gentle. Careful. As if she would shatter. God help her if he ever found out what she really was. He probably wouldn’t even touch her. He’d be too afraid to break her.

But she wasn’t broken. She couldn’t let him think she was. “Technically my mom, Lilly, and I were my father’s secret family,” Cora offered with the best nonchalant shrug she could muster. “He’d swoop in with candy and pretty dresses every so often, never with anything that would keep Mom from having to work three jobs to keep us afloat, then he’d swoop out again.”

“I can’t imagine how hard that would be on a little girl.”

“I had Lilly to offset it,” Cora said firmly. “And, yeah, I chased the wrong kind of guy and the wrong kind of attention there for awhile, but Micah changed my life. I’m not that desperate, needy girl anymore.”At least on the outside.

She shoved that nasty Mom-sounding voice away and met his gaze with a cool, detached one of her own. “Childhoods and heartbreaks shape us, yeah, but kids shape you too. If you love your kid, parenthood shapes you into something better and stronger than you ever thought you could be.” And she was strong for Micah, finally, after all these years. Because she was going to keep her promise to him, and she was going to have Shane and a career, and it was going to all work out. She wouldn’t allow herself to bail or fail or sabotage. Not this time.

Shane’s mouth brushed hers, soft and sweet, hands cupping her face. Not as though she were weak or fragile or something to be treated carefully, but as though she wereimportantandcentral.

“I’m glad we talked,” he said, still holding her face. “I said this about Ben, but it’s true here too. It’s because of you. Talking and dealing is not a Tyler strong point, and I wouldn’t have acted on it then or now without your giving me a little nudge.”

She smiled up at him, but inwardly all she could think wasyou only have yourself to blame. “Well, I’m glad. Now, if you don’t get some food in me soon, I’m going to faint.”

“I’ll catch you,” he offered cheerfully, and she had no doubt he would. A wonderful promise.

And a tiny little wiggle of impending doom.

* * *

Shane spent the night against his better judgment. He needed to be back at the ranch and ready to work by six at the latest, but Cora had been snuggled up to him, half asleep, telling him not to go.

What was a man to do?

No matter how late they’d stayed up, or how many times they’d turned to each other in the middle of the night, his internal clock was a powerful thing. Cora’s room was still dark, but he was wide-awake.

He wasn’t sure which was worse, the litany of chores he was missing piling up in his brain, or the scent of flowers and warm, soft skin next to him, making every single ranch thought vanish.

He was a practical man with serious responsibilities, and he did not have the kind of life or brain where shirking those would be easy.

But he wasn’t used to having to resist anything, and Cora was quite the impossible thing to resist.

He shifted in the bed, and she yawned, snuggling deeper into the pillow. “Have to go, don’t you?” she murmured, half muffled by the pillow her head was buried into.

“Better,” he replied, running his palm over her tangled hair. “Come by tonight for dinner with Micah.”

---