Page 26 of The Way to a Cowboy's Heart

They agreed to do the tasting but, despite his buttoned-up attitude, neither had a doubt that Nevers was the one.

The next day proved them right. His food was delicious, if a bit pretentious for their ranch. But they felt sure he would soon align with their recommendations and provide their guests with great meals.

None as great as Emily’s was in Liam’s memory, but… there was no help for that.

But it was the woman herself that he couldn’t seem to get out of his mind. Their frequent texts and occasional late-night phone calls triggered some optimistic reflex in him that was—to say the least—rare for him. He simply couldn’t work out how they could resolve the geography between them to even give themselves a fair shot at something good. Why did the one woman who made him think about a future have to be the one woman out of his reach? Or maybe, as his father used to repeatedly tell him, he only wanted the things he couldn’t have. Maybe that was their allure.

But that thought only made him angry, and he pushed his late father’s voice out of his mind.

At the round pen, Ryan and Cooper, Shay’s fiancé, were working with a new BLM three-year-old gelding that seemed to have the potential for adoption. Though they’d only been at it for a week, the roan Appaloosa was already haltered and allowing Ryan to touch him, and just now, took a treat from the boy’s hand.

“See there?” Ryan said to Cooper. “Told you so.”

“You called it, Ry,” Cooper answered standing back away from the horse and boy, who already stood nearly six-feet tall and looked older than his fifteen years. Cooper leaned against the rail as Liam approached. “Maybe we should consider keeping this one,” he said to him. “If I’m not mistaken, he’s got potential.”

“Your call.” Liam watched the kid put the gelding through his paces around the pen, flicking the long whip behind him. “He’s a beauty for sure.”

“How goes the cook search?”

“Finished. We found our chef. He seems pretty sure of himself, and his food is delicious. I think we’re good.”

Cooper nodded, staring off toward the clouds moving in over the mountains. “I’m ready for spring. Not another snow flurry.”

Liam felt the same. “We have another wedding at the round barn next weekend. I know they’re hoping for good weather.”

“After years being in Texas, I do still miss the long springs there.”

Liam had never known anything but long winters, being a native here. But he wondered about them. He wondered about New York City and England, too. And Maine or Kentucky and what summers elsewhere would be like. He loved this place, so maybe it was just his own restlessness showing. Or it was him, once again feeling tethered to this place when there was a whole world out there that beckoned.

“You okay?” Cooper asked, watching him now with a frown.

“Yeah. Sure,” he lied. “I’d better be getting up to the cabin we’re finishing up today. Tick off all the bits on my punch list.”

“I was up there yesterday. It’s looking great.”

“It is. Now let’s just hope we can get it booked up for summer.”

“I have a good feeling,” Cooper said, turning back to watch the gelding. “Shay’s got the furnishings coming any day now. She’s excited to see it all done up. You should be, too. Look what you’ve accomplished in such a short time.”

“We.Whatwe’veaccomplished. Couldn’t have done it without you.”

Before Cooper could argue with him—and he always did—Liam walked toward the cabins to the west of the main house. There were three of them fully up and furnished and this fourth one nearly done. Three were small, built for four to six people and the last was a large house designed for between eight and ten people, for families that wanted to travel together.

The smaller cabins had been booked for months now starting in late May through summer. The big cabin was more of a risk and the most expensive of the lot. Then there were the glamping tents, four of them, dotted around the property, surrounded by pastureland they’d re-dedicated to the guest ranch. All in all, Cooper was right to be optimistic. But Liam was having trouble focusing on what was to come when he couldn’t get his mind off what he’d left behind.

He was halfway through his inspection when his cell phone rang. He glanced down at the caller ID and wondered honestly if he’d conjured Emily with his thoughts. His throat tightened as he answered.

“Emily?”

“Hi.”

“Hi.I was just… just thinking about you.” He could almost hear her smile.

“Ah… You probably say that to all the girls…”

“Yeah.” Leaving the finish carpenter on the stairway, he walked out onto the porch. “If you mean all the local cattle mamas I converse with daily. I do tell them that, but it’s not a lie. They all think I play favorites, and I don’t want ’em to get jealous.”

He enjoyed the sound of Emily chuckling as he took in the April sun that had broken through the usual wintery sky, despite the oncoming storm. He could hear her breathlessness, as if she was walking somewhere. “How’d your interview go the other day?”

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