Page 49 of Take Me Please, Cowboy
“What?”Josie said, stopping next to him.
Numb, Rye nodded at the poster.“I know her.”
“What do you mean, you know her?”Josie asked, moving closer to the poster to read it for herself.“Who?”
“Ansley Campbell.”
“You do?”His sister glanced at him surprised.“How?”
He wished now he hadn’t said anything, but it had been such a shock to walk down the street and see her name.“I met her in Marietta a month ago when I was here for the Copper Mountain Rodeo.”
“Really?Then we should come tonight for the artists’ reception.I bet she’d love to see you.”
Rye made a rough sound, shook his head.“I don’t think she’d be that happy to see me.”
“Why not?Were you rude to her?”
He growled his frustration.He’d brought his sister to Bozeman, but he wasn’t escorting her to a gallery reception.“Not rude, no.But it’s not something I want to discuss.”
“Why not?”
“Why not what, Josie?”
“Why can’t you talk about it?”
“Because it’s… in the past, and once things are in the past, it’s better to just let things be.”
His sister took a step back, arms folding over her chest.“So, it’s like that.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he snapped.
“You hooked up.”
“We didn’thook up.She’s young, just a couple years older than Hannah.I don’t hook up with kids.”
Josie couldn’t suppress a smile.“You are so worked up.She did a number on you.”
“No, she didn’t.And Ansley did nothing wrong.She’s perfect.She’s gorgeous—so beautiful it took my breath away the first time I met her—and she’s talented.She’s kind and smart and she has backbone.She’s… special.”
“So, why wouldn’t she be happy to see you?What did you do to make her hate you?”
“I didn’t say hate.She just—oh, drop it.I don’t want to talk about it.”
Josie sighed.“You hurt her.”
Rye took an angry step backward.“I didn’t hurt her, not like that.After I broke this,” he added, nodding at his arm still in the sling.“I realized I couldn’t be in two places at once.I couldn’t take care of things at home, and make things work with her.”
“It’s a six-hour drive to Bozeman from Eureka.”
“Seven to Marietta.”
“Which is nothing for you, so clearly she wasn’t perfect, because if she had been, that drive would have been a piece of cake.”
“It’s a lot more complicated than that, sis.”
Josie shrugged.“I just don’t believe you, Rye.You would not let a seven-hour drive keep you from the perfect woman.That doesn’t make sense because you’re the most determined man I know.You never give up.You never quit—”
“This is different.I’m not free to pursue her.I’ve the family to take care of.”He abruptly stopped talking and turned away, hands on his hips, frustration in the rigid set of his shoulders.
