Page 30 of The Cowboy's Surprise Return

“Just thinking.”

“About how you’re supposed to cheer me up and fix me?”

“Ha.” The furrow between her eyes deepened.

“My mom means well.”

“I know.”

Cole focused on studying Jackie’s bumper, the idea that something was bugging her growing rather than waning. He didn’t think it was just about his mother’s hopes that Jackie be bubbly and fun, and somehow fix him.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked casually, as they squatted beside each other and started picking at the duct tape holding the bumper in place. He got his fingernail under an edge and pulled off a long strip, leaving a trail of gooey residue behind.

“You know. The usual,” she chirped.

“And what’s that?”

She gave him a wry look as though he should know the answer. “How to achieve world peace, of course.”

He elbowed her and snorted in disbelief. She tumbled over, landing on the dirt floor. “Really? Was that necessary?”

“Entirely. You were lying to me.” He dropped a knee to the ground to brace himself and took her hand, surprisingly warm and soft in the unheated building, pulling her upright as he stood. She straightened, dusting off the seat of her jeans.

“Need a hand with that?” he asked, tracking her movements.

“There’s the Cole your mother missed. Can’t think why she’d wanthimback.” Jackie gave him a playful shove like she had when they were teens. He balanced himself with a quick shuffle. He liked it when she put her hands on him, and wondered if the push had been an invitation for him to reciprocate.

He returned his focus to her bumper, bending over rather than squatting. A few minutes later, he asked, “So what were you really thinking about?”

“I missed the memo that we’re sharing our deepest thoughts and feelings with each other now,” she retorted lightly.

“Why wouldn’t we?” While his mom had been giving him a tough time there’d been a moment when Jackie seemed lost and sad. It was another small piece of the puzzle he was working on. Jackie was more than the well-known, larger-than-life-itself woman with the perennial smile, who’d never be knocked down by anything.

She faced him, hands on her hips, a satisfied smirk in place. “Great. Then tell me about this ‘new leaf’ business?”

Internally, Cole cringed. He supposed he had it coming, but that didn’t mean he wanted to talk about it. There was too much left to sort out, too much shame over how everyone viewed him for his absence. He’d let many people down and built a reputation he didn’t want to stand behind.

“I’d like people to see me differently than they currently do,” he admitted when she stayed stubbornly quiet, waiting him out.

“Why?” Her surprise was clear.

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“So you don’t want people to think you’re a fun-loving man?”

“Trouble.” That’s what they thought of his fun side. Someone whose fun had hurtful consequences, and that he didn’t care.

“Or that you get things done, as promised?”

“And left my family holding the bag with the ranch? Or that I might be the father of Kurt?”

“Are you?”

“No.”

“How about this image of you?” She twisted her lips playfully—pure Jackie—and he braced himself against the blow to his resolve not to kiss her again. “You don’t want people thinking you’re strong and handsome?”

“You think I’m handsome?” He waggled his eyebrows.

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