Page 4 of All Night with the Cowboy
“I can’t imagine being at home with kids. It must be…” she wasn’t sure what the word was.Boring? Repetitive?“But I do totally get the operating on coffee and zero sleep thing, that’s one thing I do understand.”
“Rewarding,” Hannah said for her. “It’s all meant to be so rewarding, and I get it, I do. I love my kids so much my heart just about bursts sometimes, but I’m stillthe old me, too. I want to drink too much every once in a while and sleep in, or just talk to another adult for longer than thirty minutes without someone throwing up on me or pooping or needing to be fed.”
“You realize you’re totally putting me off ever having children, right?” Lauren teased. “You may never be an aunty if you keep being so honest with me about this whole child rearing business.”
“You’d actually need to meet someone first, you do know that, don’t you? And your last boyfriend doesn’t count because he was a douche bag.” Hannah said as crying erupted in the background. “You haven’t started dating some gorgeous player, have you? Because if you have I want every juicy detail. Don’t leave anything out!”
Lauren laughed. “Not a chance. You know I’m way too professional for that.”
She heard it all the time from Hannah, and her mom, and just about every other woman in her life. She even received raised eyebrows from the player’s wives and girlfriends early on, until they’d quickly realized they had nothing to worry about where she was concerned. She just didn’t look at the guys she worked on like that. She took her job as physical therapist with the Texas Rangers seriously, and she would never, ever date a player or let anything happen to ruin her career. Or theirs.
“I was calling to say that my trip is next week,” she said, talking louder as the crying intensified. “In case you’d forgotten.”
“Ha!” Hannah scoffed. “Like I’d forget the exact hour you’re flying to some magical island and leaving me in domestic bliss.”
“I just, well, things have changed a little, so it’s not exactly the vacation I planned.”
“Don’t tell me you’re working in the off-season again? You need a proper break!”
“Well, it’ll be part vacation, part work,” Lauren told her. “Heavy on the vacation part though.”
“I’d doanythingto be going to Fiji right now, so I guess if you have to combine it with some work, so be it.”
“The work’s with, um, well, with Tanner. You remember Tanner Ford?”
There was silence down the line. She had no idea where the crying child had gone or if Hannah was even there still.
“Tanner?” Hannah suddenly hissed. “TannerFord? Quick, spill, I’ve locked myself outside for a minute.”
Lauren smiled as she imagined Hannah on the other side of the door, with pudgy-faced, sticky-fingered little ones pressed to the glass, watching mommy from inside.
“It’s a professional trip for him. He’s injured and his sister called me to see if I’d work on him. He needs intensive rehab to get ready for the next season, and…”
“Is he okay with this? I mean, you kind of broke the guy’s heart, Lauren.”
And mine. Lauren had never, ever forgotten the deep burn in her chest and the pain that reverberated through every inch at her when she’d walked away from Tanner. It was heartbreak like she’d never known before, and she’d made sure to protect herself from it ever happening again, too.
“I guess I’ll find out soon enough,” she replied. “Honestly, he’s probably forgotten all about me. He’s a professional bull rider now and I doubt he’d have agreedto me treating him if he had a problem with it, and I said the only way I could work on him was if he met me in Fiji.”
“Wow. Just, wow,” Hannah sighed. “Sorry, the kids are staring at me through the glass like I’ve abandoned them. I’d better go.”
“Okay, see you later.”
Lauren hung up and smiled to herself as she walked, imagining Hannah with her kids. They were a handful, with twins who weren’t yet two years old and a three-year-old too, but they were gorgeous. She was happy focusing on her career for now, but sometimes when she talked to Hannah or visited, it made her think about the future. She’d been so focused on work for so long that she needed to start making an effort with her social life, otherwise she’d probably wake up at 50, alone and wondering why the hell she’d never made an effort to go on any dates. And she knew she had a type—the guy who was fun for a little while but was never going to be anything serious, or someone nice who she had no intention of committing to. Deep down she knew she needed to put the effort into meeting the right guy, but…
There’s always online dating, she thought, shuddering at the thought as she stopped outside her favorite caféand headed in to order a juice.Over my dead body.
Chapter 2
“I feel like a kid being bossed around by his big sister,” Tanner grumbled as he stood, propped against the fence, watching Mia ride. She was on her favorite mare, Indi, the only horse she was still exercising regularly now that she was six months pregnant.
“Except I’m your little sister,” Mia called out, “and all I did was find the best PT in the state to work on you. You need to stop moaning and accept it.”
“You do remember what it was like when Dad called in Sam, right? I recall you hearing he was the best horse trainer in Texas and still managing to act like a wildcat.” He wasn’t going to let her get away with acting superior on this particular topic.
Mia pulled up in front of him, her horse blowing heavily. His sister was laughing. Why the hell did she find his plight so goddamn amusing?
“And look at me now,” she said, gesturing to her stomach. “A belly full of baby and a cute-as-a-button kid inside the house. Maybe you’ll rekindle things with Lauren? It could be good for you.”
