Page 42 of The Way to a Cowboy's Heart

“She picked a good week to come,” Will said as they were riding back, broaching the topic that had been rolling around in Liam’s head all day. The one he’d been avoiding with his brother all afternoon. “We got good weather for her first time here.”

“Yup.”

“She seems nice.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And apparently handled the bear situation pretty well.”

Liam burned a look at him.

“What?” Will said, all innocence.

“You obviously have something to say.”

“Just making conversation.” He shrugged. “About Emily.”

Liam reined in his horse. “Go on, then. Ask.”

“Ask… what?”

“What everyone wants to know. Apparently.”

“You mean if it’s serious between you two? I’d never ask that. That’s none of my business.” Will straightened as if to deflect any blame.

“That’s true.”

“I mean, is it? Serious?”

Liam groaned and pulled up his horse. “There, you see? You just asked.”

“Okay, but all of us are just looking out for you,” Will said, pulling up beside him.

“Thanks, but I can look out for myself. And what does serious even mean? Do I like her? Yeah. Maybe like her a lot? Yeah. But she’ll be here for a minute then she’s moving back to London. How serious can it be?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Pretty damn serious from the way you look at her, I’d say.”

Liam nudged his horse forward. “Yeah. Well… I almost got her killed today.”

Will followed. “That’s ridiculous. You know that. That could’ve happened to anyone.”

“Could it? Bring a city girl out here to the middle of nowhere and she has no idea what’s here. How dangerous it could be? What could happen? Put a grizzly bear ten feet from her face and—”

“But you handled it.”

“We were lucky.”

“Because youhandledit. And, on the subject of dangerous, exactly how dangerous do you think it is just walking around a big city like New York or… or London? Muggings. Robberies. And I mean… the traffic alone—”

“What’s your point?”

Will sighed and stared off at the mountains in the distance. The sun was lowering in the sky. Days were still relatively short, but they were all looking forward to summer.

“Do you remember that conversation we had when I first came home? The one about you wanting a life? The one where I thought you might break your hand on my face?”

“I remember. I believe it was about wanting a real life, not one just tied to feeding cows all day long, isolated from the world. Anyway. I believe I apologized for that. Deserved or not.” He slid Will a brotherly grin. “And now I have a life. I’ve got this place, the guest ranch ready to go. More people around… a little more freedom. A life.”

“Right.”

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