Page 39 of His Cowboy Heart

Brooks had made decisions, life-altering ones, after learning the teenager he’d fallen in love with had tried to kill Brooks’s father. Brooks had chosen never to return to Eden rather than face the pain of Xavier’s supposed betrayal. He’d never once tried to communicate with Xavier after the terrible night when the Cunningham barn had been burned to the ground. Thankfully, James Cunningham had survived, as had all the horses who’d been stabled in the barn.

“I never gave him the chance to explain,” Brooks muttered as he toyed with his phone. “After it happened and not when I came back here, either.”

“It’s fixable, Brooks. That’s all that matters.”

Brooks shook his head. “I don’t know if it is. As of an hour ago when I was talking to that attorney who gave me a ride home from the fair, Xavier never once told me about any of it.” He put his elbow on the spot between where the window met the door and then rested his chin on his fisted hand. “I never gave him a chance to.”

A chill swept over my body as I was reminded of the same mistake I’d made hours earlier when I’d refused to give Flynn the benefit of the doubt and let him explain his response to our intimate encounter. While I’d been licking my own wounds that now seemed minor in comparison to what he had been through, Flynn had been forced to listen to me belittle him. And instead of being able to tell me about all the things that he’d felt when he’d woken up from his second brush with death, he’d had to blurt it out just so he could get me off his back.

Flynn had wanted to confide in me and I’d acted like a spoiled brat.

“Tell me what’s going on with you,” Brooks said.

I let out a dramatic sigh and said, “You know, cooking, fighting off those bitches every morning for some eggs—which, I’m sorry but let’s face it, it’s not like they need them for something else—and watching out for every pile of something disgusting that’s just begging for me to step in it with my Dolce & Gabbana studded sneakers.”

As much as I would have liked to see Brooks smile, I couldn’t blame him when he barely reacted.

“I’m sorry, Jules,” Brooks said out of the blue a few minutes later.

“For what?” I asked in surprise.

“I should have given you time to grab your stuff. Since we’re going to the airport, you could have found a flight home and gotten back to your life so you didn’t have to keep babysitting a friend who can’t seem to get his shit together.”

Brooks’s comment gave me the opening I’d been looking for ever since I’d met him. I’d never been romantically interested in him, but I’d felt like we were kindred spirits and I’d pushed him into a relationship that I’d thought we’d both benefit from.

Friendship.

Although I doubted it was fair of me to call it a friendship since much of what Brooks knew about me was a lie.

“While I’d love to ask for a raise for the so-called babysitting, I can’t really insist on something that I needed just as badly,” I admitted.

This time Brooks did manage a small laugh. “What did you do, go pissing off the gay mafia again? Do the fashion police know you’re on the loose in jeans and sweatshirts these days?”

When I remained silent, Brooks instantly stopped joking around. “Jules?” he asked quietly.

I shook my head because for all my bravado a few seconds earlier, I was chickening out fast. “It’s nothing,” I said as I discreetly wiped at my eyes. The goal was to get rid of the few tears that had fallen, but I made it look like I was rubbing the sweat and grime from my face.

“Jules—”

“Is that the sign for the regional airport?” I asked as I nudged my chin in the direction of the highway sign. While the regional airport was made for the smaller, privately owned planes and charters, the main airport wasn’t far away, and the traffic of full-sized planes coming and going helped drown out the possibility of continuing the conversation.

It was easy to find where the Cunningham jet was parked because the company logo was written across the body of the luxurious plane.

“Do you want me to come with you?” I asked. The old Brooks probably would have sent me a silent yes in some way. As Brooks’s personal assistant in his father’s company, I’d been running interference between him and his father for a long time, but I could see things were different now. It was in the way Brooks held himself. It was the anger that burned in his eyes.

I doubted he’d ever need me to run interference for him again. Whatever was now running hot through his blood was exactly what he needed to stand up to his prick of a father.

“I’m good. I won’t be long,” Brooks said simply.

I watched him leave the car and stride over toward the plane like he owned the whole world. Had Xavier done that for him or had being around Xavier done it? I wondered if I’d ever have that kind of courage. I’d spent my entire childhood trying so hard to figure out who I was supposed to be that I’d ended up getting lost in plain sight. The only one who’d gotten a peek behind the curtain was Flynn. Even now, after royally fucking things up with the only man who’d ever even realized there was a curtain to peek behind in the first place, all I wanted was to hear his voice. I wanted him to tell me that everything would be okay and really mean it.

With every plane that flew over the SUV, I tried to imagine myself on one of them. The fantasy of running away from home had been just another curtain to hide behind. It would be so easy to just have Brooks drop me off at the main airport so I could catch a flight home. I had my wallet, which was all I needed to get on any plane to anywhere that wasn’t Eden, Wyoming, and yet it made me physically ill to think about being anywhere else. If there was ever a time to tuck my tail between my legs and run away, it was now. I could book a flight from my phone. Hell, I had enough money to hire a private plane to take me home if I wanted to.

So why wasn’t I doing anything?

Ten minutes later as Brooks emerged from the plane, I was still mulling over the answer to my own question.

As soon as he was clear of the jet’s stairs, they were raised, indicating the jet was leaving. When Brooks strode to the driver’s side, I scooted over and dropped down into the passenger seat.

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