Page 11 of Take Me Away, Cowboy

So soon?

To where?

So what if she is?He’d already decided he needed to concentrate on his farm for at least this year, and being distracted by a woman, even a breathtaking distraction like Paige, would go against that self-directive.

“That sounds awesome. Where’re you headed next?” he asked, pulling from his beer so she wouldn’t see through to the disappointed look on his face.

“Aw, my kid sis actually doesn’t know,” Brad interrupted with an awkward laugh. “The world traveler has been flummoxed by the world, and I think she’s staying here, finally. She just doesn’t know it yet.” Owen knew emotion and what flashed across Paige’s face was anger.

“I am not,” she huffed. “When I have a free second to get on the damn internet, I’ll track down a clinic that needs help, and be gone before you can miss me.”

“Didn’t you say you weren’t sure you’d find anything in the car on the way over? I just want you to be prepared if there isn’t anything for you, Paige. I don’t want to see you disappointed.”

“I won’t be. That’s the beauty of having low expectations, Brad,” she said. Owen swore Paige looked right at the host of the party, Julia, when she said that.

Brad’s eyes narrowed, and he crossed his arms over his chest. This family had some interesting dynamics. He wished Paige would be around long enough that he could find out just how interesting.

“I’m gonna grab another beer,” Brad said, his voice coming out a little gravely now. “Want anything?” he asked Owen.

“Nope, got one here. Thanks.”

“There’s a great big world out there, Connors,” Owen told Paige when her brother was out of earshot. “Don’t give up yet. You’ll think of something.”

He didn’t know what made him side with her, especially when she wasn’t sticking around. Not to mention the fact that he didn’t even know what job she was looking for.

He didn’t have a clue whether her brother was right about her not being able to find whatever she was looking for, but she needed his support. The way her face reflected her heartbreak when her brother struck the obviously sensitive trigger of her staying in Banberry told him that much.

“Thanks. I know I will, regardless of what this clown thinks,” she said as Brad shuffled back towards them. He looked as tired as his sister. “Um, Brad, do you mind taking me to Mom and Dad’s? I think I’m gonna take you up on that apartment subterfuge with a nap and a shower. I’m sorry,” she said, putting her hand on Owen’s, “I don’t mean to be rude.”

Owen got it—the girl had only been home a couple hours and was stuck at a gathering that frankly looked more like a retirement home shindig than a welcome-home party for a jet-setting woman in her late twenties.

Still, if she left, it would mean she’d have to take her hand from his, and he liked it there.

Without thinking twice about it, Owen let the part of him at half-mast again get in the way of the plans he’d made for his afternoon.

Food. Maybe work on the barn. Another beer on his land.

“Why don’t I take you? We’re neighbors after all, and I was just heading that way myself.”

“You wouldn’t mind?”

“Not at all. It’d be my pleasure. Besides, isn’t that what neighbors are there for?”

She didn’t pick up on his lie. There wasn’t a chance in hell he’d have made the same offer to one of the old ladies who’d all but betrothed him to one of their granddaughters.

“Great, I’ll tell my folks.”

Owen shook Brad’s hand, accepted his thanks for taking care of his sister so he could co-host the party, and tried not to take too much offense when Brad reminded him that his sister would be leaving again in a few short days.

Owen understood. Her life resembled the one he’d led the past fifteen years, too dictated by the here and gone again to be strapped down to a town, or a man. But that didn’t stop him from wishing he’d met her when she yearned to slow down a bit, plant some roots. When she might have been on the same page as him, no longer a nomad.

When they got to his truck, he helped heft her into it. He gulped back an urge to run his hands down the smooth, tanned legs on display, shutting the door on them and his lust.

“So, why’d you come back to Banberry at all?” he asked her when they were both buckled in and heading south down the road towards the farms.

Though he had to fight to keep his eyes on the road and not on her, he sensed her gaze boring into him.

“I feel like I owe them,” she replied.

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