Page 72 of The Cowboy's Surprise Return

Cole wasn’t moving to the city and she wasn’t staying here. There would be no point in asking him to come with her. He belonged here, and hadn’t returned home after five years away just to turn around and leave again.

The song ended and Levi and Laura slipped into the empty chairs Jackie and Cole had saved for them.

“You’re not dancing tonight?” Laura asked, out of breath.

“Maybe later,” Jackie said.

“Hey, what do you think about selling off a few of those red Angus yearlings?” Levi asked Cole. “We could take the profit and pour it into purchasing a Beefmaster bull at the next auction.” He was leaning on the table, ready to listen.

“Do we have enough to cover the increased feed costs for our lactating cows?”

Jackie rolled her eyes at Laura, gesturing to the brothers, even though her heart warmed at how they were fitting back into the old partnership they’d once had, being each other’s best sounding board. She had a feeling the ranch was going to have some very good years ahead.

Just another reason not to follow her heart and ask him to leave with her.

“Ready to move to the city?” Laura asked gently.

Jackie sighed and scrunched up her nose. “Not especially.” She gave a bright smile. “But Mrs. Fisher has been saving boxes from the diner’s food orders so I can pack my things. I’m going to have the best-smelling belongings by the time I move.”

She caught Cole watching her, his expression softening. He tapped her nose as she scrunched it again, trying to dispel the sadness that overcame her at the thought of moving away from all she had here.

“Careful, your face might freeze like that.”

She laughed and wished he was sitting close enough that she could lean against his shoulder, spend every last second attached to him.

* * *

Laura and Levi went out for another spin around the dance floor as the crowd thinned out, the band finishing their last set for the night. Cole noticed his father sitting with a friend at the bar, every once in a while casting a glance his way.

“Do you think I should go talk to him?” Cole asked, just as Jackie started talking.

“I found an apartment,” she blurted.

He set down his whiskey.

He’d convinced himself this moment wouldn’t actually come. That she wouldn’t really pack up her belongings and Goose, and try to fit into city life.

Daisy-Mae strode past in the same outfit she’d worn on New Year’s Eve, looking very much the buckle bunny. She stopped, backtracked and asked over her shoulder, “You two need anything? Last call in fifteen.”

They shook their heads and she carried on.

“I have a week of overlap between my move and my dad’s, so I can get set up,” Jackie said. Her eyes were unfocused, the words coming out almost as though she was reading them from a script.

“You’re really going to do this?” he asked, unable to look up from his whiskey. He wanted to stand up and shout at her, drag her home and make love to her all night. He wanted to rage, to tell her she couldn’t possibly go, that she shouldn’t leave him. Didn’t she understand that what they had was special? How could she just give it up?

She gave him an angry look. “He’s my father.”

Cole exhaled harshly. He understood sacrificing for family. It just didn’t seem fair that his life was being derailed once again by such a sacrifice.

“Did you find a job?”

Her shoulders slumped and she fidgeted with her glass.

“I’m sure you’ll find one.”

“I applied for a few online, but haven’t heard back. Nobody wants a feed store lackey in the city.”

“Will you come back when…” Cole pushed back from the table, letting out a long breath. He didn’t want to finish the sentence, to plan for when her father was no longer in her life. That was callous, selfish and possibly the worst thing he could say.

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