Page 61 of Claiming Her Cowboy Kiss

“Just say it. You like him, right?”

“Yes,” Maddy said.

“You get along?”

“When we’re together.”

“He’s busy with the music?”

“Yes.”

“Too busy, do you think?”

“Yes.” Surprise darted through Maddy, but she’d spoken true. Kyle was too busy with his music. He worked on it so much, almost to the point of desperation.

Momma knocked on the table, and Maddy looked up from her hands. “I asked, have you said something to him about it?”

Maddy shook her head and dropped her eyes again. She didn’t need to see Momma’s disapproval. She didn’t want another lecture. “Momma, I think…I think I want him…”

She took a deep breath and committed to vocalizing the thoughts in her head. She’d lived for so long in silence that Maddy had gotten really good at living inside her own head. She could take out her speakers any time she was tired of hearing things. Other people couldn’t do that, but Maddy had a true escape to her inner self.

She looked up and right into her mother’s eyes. “I want him to pick me over the music. Over everything.”

Momma’s expression softened. “He hasn’t?”

Maddy shook her head and let her voice rest. She was the one who’d made the move to Chestnut Springs, not him. She was the one willing to rearrange her schedule according to his whims and fancies. She was the one who sat in the bleachers and waited for him to finish with the band every night.

That’s his job, she told herself.That’s not fair.

She supposed composing and perfecting songs could be considered his job too. Maddy wasn’t sure.

“Maybe I should just stay here,” she said. “He’s going to be in Nashville a lot, and then touring all over.” She left the statement there, not really finishing it. It didn’t need to be finished out loud.

“You can’t just quit,” Momma said. “I know that much. You’ve said over and over how busy that ranch is this summer, and you’re not the type of woman to leave someone high and dry.”

Maddy wasn’t sure if that was a lecture of a compliment. It honestly felt like both. She nodded anyway, because no, she wasn’t going to quit. She liked and respected Holly and Blake too much to do that. “I’m going to go watch that painting webinar,” she said. “Holly said I could do a decorative block if I could get the cost below five dollars.”

“All right,” Momma said, and Maddy pushed away from the table. She went into the guest bathroom and fitted in her speakers. Even one would be better than trying to read someone’s lips on the screen or watching the captions instead of the painting.

She got set up in her parents’ office, which they barely used at all. Neither of them really cared too much about social media, and Daddy had no use for email. Maddy couldn’t live her life without being chained to a device, but her parents sure could.

“They seem happier than you,” she muttered as she sank into the desk chair. Several clicks later, she joined the webinar and opened a blank email to take notes in. She didn’t have her usual painting supplies here, but she was a great visual learner. Most of the time she didn’t even go back to her notes. She simply took them to solidify the ideas in her mind.

Her thoughts wandered while the woman swept deep purple paint over a block. She had stencils she’d use for the word SIMPLIFY, and Maddy really wanted to simplify her life.

Everything with Kyle felt so complicated, and she wondered if she cut him out, if she’d be more or less happy than she was right now.

She didn’t know, and that scared her.

* * *

A couple of days later,Maddy said, “Get in, Brewster,” to her dog. He trotted away from Miles, who waved to her as he walked backward. The border collie jumped in the car, and Maddy joined him by getting behind the wheel.

She’d been away from the Texas Longhorn Ranch for three days, and she and Kyle had talked once. She’d called him the first night, and they’d talked for about a half-hour. She’d left the ball in his court, and he had not bounced it back.

She honestly didn’t know if he’d been busy at his job, or he’d been obsessed with his work. They were two very different things inside Maddy’s head, and she couldn’t shake what she’d told her mother a few days ago.

She wanted to be the most important thing in Kyle’s life. “Face facts,” she said to herself, looking up into the rearview mirror to make sure it was indeed her lips moving. “You’re not.”

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