Page 41 of The Cowboy's Miracle Baby

He nodded. “I can check that for you. You’ve got your hands full with everything going on.”

“Really? That would be so helpful. I have a name and a description. Maybe someone saw her?”

“I’ll check there tomorrow.”

She was grateful for his help, but in a way, even more grateful that he considered himself part of this with her.

Their dinners came and the food was every bit as wonderful as the wine. He got a filet mignon, and she got the mahi-mahi with an amazing wine sauce, and they shared a few delicious sides. They talked and laughed about everything from the disastrous pageant dress rehearsal to their tradition of ice-skating on Miracle Lake. He’d just ordered a flourless chocolate cake for dessert when his cell phone rang.

He made a face as he pulled it from his pocket to look at the number. “I’m sorry. I told Carrie at the office not to bother me unless it was an emergency. So, I’d better get it.”

“Of course.”

He walked away from the table for a moment, and she sat alone, sipping her wine and listening to the piano player playing a song that had become famous on social media. It was a gorgeous love song whose lyrics lived in her head. She was still singing them to herself when Gus returned with a serious look.

“I’m really sorry. It is an emergency out at a nearby ranch. They’re going to lose a calf and maybe the cow unless I can get out there pretty quick.” As she stood to gather her purse, he pulled out his wallet as the waiter walked up. He handed him a generous amount of cash for what she imagined was more than the bill, and the waiter thanked him profusely. The waiter offered to box up the cake, but Gus declined. He told her, “We’ll have to skip the dessert, but I’ll drive you home first.”

“No, absolutely not,” she said. “That would be way out of your way over there. And if it’s as bad as all that, you don’t have time. I’ll just come with you.”

“You don’t need to—I can get you a cab.”

“I could get my own. But no. I want to. C’mon. Let’s go.”

“Might be a bad outcome,” he said as they hurried out of the restaurant.

“I was raised on a cattle ranch, remember?”

He slid his strong arm around her back as he ushered her out the door and that touch traveled through her like an electric charge. However this date ended, she was sure of one thing—it had been a long, long time since she’d felt this comfortable with a man. Any man. And she didn’t want this night to end.

Chapter Nine

Gus didn’t wasteany time racing to the Deaver ranch. As he drove, he began a mental checklist of all the gear he kept in the truck for emergencies and how long it would take him to get to the calf. Beside him, Cami stared straight ahead at the road, giving him the time to think through what he needed to do once they got there. He always kept a spare medical bag in the truck for times like this when he wasn’t coming from the office.

He glanced over at her, noting how the moonlight played off her pretty profile. She didn’t have to smile to keep her lips upturned at the corners. She had an effortless, perpetual happiness to her face that made him want to be near her.

Made him want to… kiss those lips.

Since the day they’d met over a bloody nose and a newborn baby, he’d liked her. The easy way she had about her. The way she teased him but didn’t judge him. The way her laughter reminded him of bubbling champagne. He liked seeing her with that baby—with Lolly—and the way she held her as if she was her own, even knowing it probably wouldn’t last. The way she cared about Ella and how she included Luke. He had never met anyone quite like her and he wanted to know her better. And not—came the next surprising thought—in a platonic way.

No. He tightened his hands on the steering wheel. Not in a platonic way at all.

No, in fact, he’d spent most of the dinner tonight contemplating kissing her. Imagining more, if he was honest.

But there was only one word that described that kind of thinking. Reckless. His time here in Marietta was nearly up. And he’d spent the last few years strategically avoiding anything that remotely smacked of a romantic entanglement. Because… that had just seemed… impossible. He’d known his heart couldn’t afford that. Couldn’t risk it.

Despite Lissa explicitly telling him, before she died, that she didn’t want him to be alone. That she wanted him to love again. To find someone who would love him back. But those were just words that couldn’t find their way into the place that held her memory. Maybe it felt disloyal or just impossible to think about anyone in her place. Maybe he’d just not been ready to think about it. Maybe because, in the beginning, he’d dreamed of her all the time, and now rarely.

In fact, if not for the voicemail he’d saved on his phone all these years of her asking him to stop at the store and pick up a few things, even the sound of her voice was beginning to fade.

No, she was gone. Truly gone. And maybe she needed to go after he’d done the exact opposite of what she’d wanted. So, now, here he was. Still here. And Cami was sitting right beside him.

But maybe even that point was moot. Staying here in his capacity as a vet, wasn’t really an option. Marietta wasn’t big enough for yet another large animal vet. He needed to move. But he knew well what would happen once he moved to Denver. He and Cami would text a few times. Maybe a phone call now and then, then it would come down to Christmas cards once a year until he slipped off her list. There would be no enticing her to Colorado. No dragging a woman with Cami’s full life around the country with him.

She turned to look at him then and sent him a mysterious smile. “I have a good feeling about this.”

He wished he had the same feeling. But after his conversation with Deaver, the rancher, he wasn’t so confident.

“I’m sorry to drag you all the way out here. This wasn’t exactly how I imagined the—”

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