Page 72 of Heart Like a Cowboy

“I was at the diner and left my car there and walked over. Got here just in time, too, because Tilly was talking to Alana on the phone, and was trying to convince her to do something stupid.”

That got his attention, and Egan studied Alana’s face to see if there were any clues as to what this was all about. “What happened?” he asked as Alana took him by the hand and led him to the sofa.

Alana didn’t dismiss it, but she also didn’t launch into an explanation until she’d handed him a can of Coke. “Tilly wanted me to quit seeing you until after the life celebration.”

As demands went, that was pretty tame coming from Tilly, and soon, very soon, he’d want to know just how hard Tilly had tried to push Alana.

And how Alana had responded.

For now, though, he needed to wrap his head around the fact that Colleen apparently knew that Alana and he were seeing each other and that she wasn’t pitching a fit about it. That required some rethinking because Egan had been certain that Colleen wouldn’t want his hands on her kid sister.

“I’m not going to bite you,” Colleen assured him. “And I’m sure as hell not going to slap you the way Tilly did. I didn’t know about that, by the way, until Alana just told me. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have agreed to even attend the life celebration.”

That made Egan wonder how much more Colleen knew, but he didn’t have to wonder long.

“Alana told me about Jack’s cheating,” Colleen spelled out. Anger flared through her eyes. “FYI, I didn’t cheat on you. Yes, that’s a technicality since I fell in love with another man, but I didn’t have sex with that man until I’d left you.”

Egan wanted to roll his eyes. Or at least he thought that was what he wanted to do for a couple of seconds. Ditto for doling out a reminder that cheating of the heart was worse than cheating with other parts of the body. But then he realized that Colleen was a lot like the gossip.

And that he just didn’t care.

Not about why she’d left. Not about what she’d done after the leaving. He had his life, and she wasn’t part of it. Well, only a small part since she was Alana’s sister. But the anger he’d once felt for her was long gone.

It was about time.

And if this mess weren’t going on with Tilly, Egan was sure he would have felt a smidge of something he hadn’t felt in years.

Peace.

He got another smidge of the feeling when he turned to Alana, but the worry soon set in. “How hard did Tilly push when she asked you to stop seeing me?”

“Hard.” Alana brushed a quick kiss on his mouth. “I pushed right back. I didn’t come out and say go to hell, but I said enough that she might decide she doesn’t want me at the life celebration, after all.”

If that happened, Egan figured it would be a mixed bag of emotions for Alana. She’d want to be there, maybe, to see Jack being honored. But she might not want to be there so she could miss any of Tilly’s drama and misinterpretation of her son’s life.

“Alana told Tilly no,” Colleen verified. She lifted her hand as if on the witness stand and about to take an oath. “I heard it with my own ears. Now, maybe Tilly will hear it with hers, too, because I personally think it’s high time that Alana moved on with her life. You, too,” she added to Egan.

Who the heck was this woman? That was the snarky question that popped into his head. But when the snark flitted away, he nodded in thanks.

Colleen nodded back. “While I’m going on and on about what I’m thinking, Tilly should apologize to you for those slaps.”

Egan shrugged, shook his head and might have said something if Colleen hadn’t continued.

“Don’t you dare say you deserved it,” Colleen insisted, and then she paused. “Tilly filled me in about you asking Jack to come to see you. Well, I suspect you wanted to see him because I’d left you, and you wanted to pour out your heart to your best friend.”

Egan couldn’t deny that because it was true.

“So, if we use your logic or Alana’s, then I’m just as much to blame as the two of you are,” Colleen went on. “But you know what? I’m not going to take any of that blame, and you shouldn’t, either. Jack was there because he chose to be, and he was killed by someone who probably didn’t even have him as a specific target since it was a combat zone.”

That seemed to take some of the wind out of her, and she settled back into the chair.

“Every time you deployed or got in the cockpit, I was terrified,” Colleen admitted. “Alana felt the same way about Jack. Tilly, too. But we all knew what could happen. We would all pray that it wouldn’t. And that’s okay. Praying and being scared is okay. It’s not okay, though, to lay the blame on someone who loved Jack as much as you did.”

Colleen had tears in her eyes when she glanced first at Egan and then at Alana.

“Sorry,” Colleen muttered. “I might have overused the wordokaythere.”

The apology wasn’t flippant. Nope. Egan knew those tears were the real deal and that all of this had been gnawing away at Colleen, too. Apparently, guilt was claiming multiple targets.

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