Page 75 of The Cowboy's Surprise Return

She gave a watery laugh. “I think the universe must have me confused with someone else then.”

He tipped her chin up and dropped the sweetest of kisses on her lips. “The universe has never known what to do with you because you’re able to blast your way through any wall.” He stroked her cheek with a thumb, knowing that living in San Antonio was the only way for Jackie, or else she would have moved a mountain to have it differently. Just like he would have. “Keep smiling, sweetheart.”

A sob broke from her, and it was like a spear driven into Cole’s chest. He’d failed her. As emotion tore him apart, he vowed that he would make this better. He didn’t know how, only that this time he was going to fight.

* * *

Exhausted, Jackie fell onto her couch, dropping her purse on the floor. Her dad was moving to the city in four days. She had gone to the new memory-care facility after her second day at the library, to finalize paperwork and take a box of his belongings ahead of time to help him transition. One of the facility’s residents had been having a bad day, and an hour later, his screams were still echoing through her heart.

Jackie rolled onto her side and fished her phone from her purse. Her lock screen showed a picture of her and Cole cheek to cheek, grinning into the camera. She missed him. She missed everything about him, from the way he made her laugh, to feeling safe and secure, to being loved and cared for.

She turned onto her back again, setting her phone on her stomach. The ceiling above her was marked and stained. In the distance she heard sirens, and someone shuffling down the hallway. The sounds of the city were different, foreign, making her feel more alone.

Goose, who had barely left her bedroom since the move, came padding in, jumped up on the end of the couch and curled up on her feet.

Last night, Daisy-Mae, Jenny, Karen and Carly had made a foray into the city, scooping her up and taking her out for Tex-Mex near the Alamo. It was as though they’d known she’d need the soothing effect of friends after her first day in a new job, miles from everything familiar.

Not that she’d admit it to Karen, but the library work was mind-numbingly boring. Nobody was chatty, and there had been no interruptions like at the feed store in Sweetheart Creek, where someone she knew was always filtering through with a hello and some news. In the library, she’d spent the entire day taking stacks of books from the reshelving cart and placing them back where they belonged.

But it was an income. Money that would keep her close to her father.

As homesickness threatened to overwhelm her, she sat up and started making a mental list of ways she could make the city feel like it was her home. Instead of returning to Sweetheart Creek on the weekend like she’d planned, she was going to stay in her new neighborhood. She was going to introduce herself to at least one of her neighbors, even if she had to set up a chair in the hallway and wait for someone to come by. She was going to have coffee in the coffee shop down the block and learn the name of one barista, and fill in ten new job applications.

Take the city by the horns, show the universe she was going to blast through walls, like Cole believed she could.

She lifted her phone again as she lay back on the couch, her eyes watering as she took in her lock screen photo once again. Squeezing her phone, Jackie closed her eyes and made a secret wish, hoping that what Cole said about her and the universe was true. And that someday, somehow, she’d find her way back to the man she loved.

* * *

“You’re okay with Jackie moving to the city?”

Cole looked up from where he was holding a calf against the Texas soil so Brant could quickly check its tag. His brother nodded and Cole released the animal, which skittered and bolted back to the herd. The brothers were a fast team, a necessity to keep them safe in case a calf’s mother charged.

“I forgot I was her keeper,” Cole retorted. “Maybe I should ask ifyou’reokay with Jackie leaving.”

He was well aware that he was once again “single,” and that fact might make his brother nervous if he listened to the local gossip. All it had taken was for Cole to sit with April and Kurt for a minute or two in the diner yesterday, while waiting for Brant. Voilà! Rumors and speculation had started.

“I’m fine,” Brant said, an edge to his voice.

“You know I’m not interested in April.”

His brother chuckled, his spine relaxing again. “I know.”

“What’s that tone supposed to mean?” He’d seen the look on Brant’s face when Cole had walked through the ranch house door on Christmas Day. His brother hadn’t been happy to see him. Usually the most warm and welcoming one in the family, Brant was still a tad aloof with him. Plus he hadn’t matched Cole with a dog yet, which was telling.

“Nothing.” Brant closed his medical bag and strapped it to his saddle. Wordlessly the brothers mounted their horses and began the ride back to the ranch.

The silence ate at Cole. “Jackie moving wasn’t my decision.”

“The two of you looked like you were in it for the long haul.”

It had felt like it, too. They hadn’t ever fought, like he had with April. With her it had always felt like he was on quicksand, and one false move would get him sucked in. Being with Jackie had been so easy it had been almost surreal. Was it because they’d built their relationship on a fake foundation?

He didn’t think so. They’d started off fake, but everything from that first kiss onward had been real for him. They’d told themselves it was pretend so they could protect themselves from their fears.

Yet he had hurt her, just as he’d predicted. But instead of a fight hurting her, he’d done the opposite and not fought. Which made no sense. He’d been so careful with her, striving to not repeat his past mistakes. And he’d still blown it.

He could have gone the distance with Jackie. And now she was in San Antonio and he was here.

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