Page 71 of Seaside Cowboy's Second Chance

There were supposed to be a million reasons, but with him looking at her like that, she couldn’t recall even one.

Grandma gave Skylar a little nudge. “Go.”

He shifted from one foot to the other, some awkwardness still between them, though not as much as several days ago. They used to meet up with her running into his arms and him lifting her and whirling around, making her head spin for more reasons than one.

“Would you be okay going in my truck?” he asked. “No sense in taking two vehicles.”

She opened her mouth, intending to assert her independence. “Sure.”

The ride back to town was awkward until he took her hand. Then the years seemed to slip away, and she could imagine she was still a young, carefree girl, overflowing with her first love. Delighted it was mutual. Confident it would last forever.

She knew better now, but why not allow herself to imagine it for a few precious heartbeats?

Anticipation tingled along her skin. “What’s the surprise you talked about?”

He chuckled. “You’ll have to wait to see it. You were always impatient.”

“Not any longer. I learned to be patient.” She paused, remembering something. “Thank you for fixing the cottage’s railing and the porch and patching the roof. I was going to hire someone, but Grandma said it was taken care of. I don’t need to be a PI like your brother to figure out who did it.”

He shrugged like it was no big deal. “Mom would want me to help. And I did, too.”

Even if he didn’t do it for her, it still mattered a lot to her. The words escaped before she could stop them. Maybe she hadn’t learned to think before she spoke as much as she’d thought she had. “You mean a lot to me. And... and I missed you.”

“I missed you, too. More than you can imagine.”

The words reached her heart, and she locked them there as if it were her aunt’s antique trunk. “I have a great imagination if you don’t remember.”

“I do remember.” He sent her a long glance before returning his attention to the road. “Everything.”

When they’d dated, she’d been the chatty one, but now she discovered a comfortable silence with him. She was content just to sit there and have him hold her hand. Just have him beside her. That was all. So simple and yet so complicated.

Her phone playing a classic melody made her reach into her purse. Her aunt answered her text, but so far, nobody in her restaurant had seen this man. She promised to ask her friend, the owner of another restaurant. Of course, Auntie wanted to know why Skylar was searching for the guy, but answering that would have to wait.

“Aunt said nobody saw Wyatt at her restaurant.” Disappointment clenched Skylar’s stomach at the lack of results, but there was something else there. A bit of relief? She wasn’t ready to find out if the man was her father. But she couldn’t wait any longer, either. She’d waited twenty-six years already. Way too long.

Once in town, Dallas pulled up to the gas station.

“Could you please check your phone to see whether Barrett sent any new information?” She clicked her seat belt open.

“Let’s see.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket. “He says nobody saw Wyatt at the local hotels, either. He’s checking inns now.” He rushed around the truck, then opened the door for her.

At this point, she didn’t want to get her hopes—or fears—up, and she was right not to because they returned to the truck empty-handed. Even after Dallas had met the owner and sweet-talked his way into watching the camera recordings.

But at the grocery store, they hit pay dirt when one of the cashiers recalled seeing Wyatt.

“That man wore a cap drawn low and sunglasses. He bent to pick up a credit card he dropped. A boy was running through the store and bumped into this guy, knocked off the sunglasses and the cap,” the teen cashier with indigo hair and with a ring in his nose said. “The guy grunted something and put the cap and sunglasses back.”

Huh. That bump wasn’t intentional, but useful nevertheless.

“What did he buy?” Skylar moved closer.

“Chips, beef jerky, sodas.” The teen shrugged.

“Did anything stand out about him?” Dallas asked.

“Not really.”

Skylar thought of the SUV with tinted windows that ran her off the road. Would her own father do that? “When he left, did you by any chance see what car he went to in the parking lot?”

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