Page 33 of Coming Home to Maverick

Bailey huffed behind him. “Well, I can see you might be a while. I think I’ll take the trail myself.”

He lifted himself up off Tiff and saluted. “You ladies stay put now. We’ll be back to check on you.”

Bailey was already almost at the turn of the trail. He made his way toward her. She had no right to even care what he’d done while she was gone. But it made him grin. She cared. And that made him unreasonably happy.

“What are you grinning about back there?” She waited for him, one hand on her hip.

“What’s got you all bothered?” He chuckled when she turned from him and kept marching up the ravine.

After a moment, he called, “You gonna let me catch up?”

She paused but didn’t say anything.

When at last he was walking at her side, she smiled. “Everything’s the same up here. Just look at how beautiful it all is.”

They walked a few more feet and stopped to touch their tree. It was a habit. They did it every time they reached this spot. It seemed unnatural not to. They’d carved their initials on the back side of the tree. He knew they were still there, but she didn’t move to look at them. Neither said a word. He reached for her hand, and she let him entwine their fingers.

“How’s your mama been?” she asked.

He smiled. “She’s one strong woman. It’s been hard on her, having Dad gone. Hard on us all. But she rules the family just as she always has, and I’m happy the guys respect her.”

“And you. They all look to you.”

He shrugged. “Sometimes I wonder if it might be good for them to have to stand on their own sometime.”

“Don’t they?”

“They do. But maybe not like they could. When everything fell to me, I learned some things. Like if I don’t do the finances, they don’t get done. If I don’t make sure the cows get purchased, or sold, or open the back pasture at the right time, or harvest the hay, we lose money. If I don’t call the family in for holidays or meetings or whenever Mama wants to talk to them…” He kicked a rock. “You learn some things when you’re the man in charge.”

“Like, what it feels like to never do that last rodeo circuit?”

He looked out over the widening view. “Like that.”

“Decker does the horses, right?”

“Yeah. But even that falls to me sometimes. ’Cause he takes off.”

“And he does his own circuit too, right?”

“Yep.”

She squeezed his hand. “You’re a good man, Maverick. I’m proud of what you’ve got going here.”

He nodded. But her questions and his complaining were making him doubt again his ability or determination to keep his father’s ranch alive. And that was a dangerous place for him. Riding that bull had felt too good. And seeing Bailey here had reignited old feelings, not just for her but for his days on the circuit with her in the stands. And suddenly, for the first time in a long time, he started wanting something for himself.

They crested the top of the ravine at last, and they both turned to face the valley. Maverick looked toward his father’s land, like he always did. He was proud of the neat patchwork fields, the beautiful homestead. The Dawson ranch had been around since his great-grandfather helped settle the valley. And he was proud to be a part of that, proud of his dad and the work he’d done to make the ranch a thriving entity.

Bailey watched him. He felt her gaze, his body humming in response. But when he turned to her, he was surprised by the intensity of the feeling he saw in her face. She shook her head. “I’m sorry, Maverick. I’m sorry for what I did to you.” Her eyes welled up.

“Hey, now, I thought we got through this.”

She shook her head and turned away.

He stepped closer. “Come here.” He pulled her into his arms, his hands running up and down her back. Oh, he’d missed this, missed her. Everything seemed to click back into alignment with her at his side. “We’re a good team, you know.”

She nodded against him. “I should have never left. I ruined the most perfect thing I may ever know.”

“It’s not ruined. Look at us now.” His heart pounded against her. Did he dare tell her what he longed to say? Could he risk his heart again with the woman who had all the power over his happiness?

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