Page 28 of Heart Like a Cowboy

“Understandable,” Alana muttered. “After all, Colleen walked out on him for another man.”

“She did,” Derek concurred. “And I get wanting to tear up an unread letter. Colleen sent me one, too, and my first response was to rip it to shreds,” he tacked on to that after a short pause.

Alana certainly recalled a similar feeling with her own letter. “And me. Mine was just a request for some sister time. I think she’s trying to mend fences or something since we haven’t spoken much since Egan and she split.”

Derek nodded again. “In the one she sent me, she apologized and said she figured what she’d done had hurt me, too, because of all the hurt it caused Egan.” He shrugged. “I’m not ready to dole out any forgiveness, but I will say the mention of her name doesn’t cause me to mutter things I shouldn’t be muttering.”

Alana supposed that was a start and probably what her sister had intended. “Did you tell Egan what Colleen had written to you?”

“No. Didn’t figure he’d want to know.” He paused. “But eventually he might want that. Might want to know what she wrote in the letter to him, too. So, that’s why I had Reba save it. I’ll keep it tucked away, and if Egan ever gets to the point where it’s something he wants to read, I’ll be able to give it to him.”

Alana nearly said she doubted that day would come. But then she frowned. Because it might come, especially since he’d see Colleen at the life celebration. Tilly had texted her about that shortly after she’d gotten the word from Egan. So, yes, Egan would see his ex.

And that bothered Alana.

She wanted to believe that bother was because seeing Colleen might hurt Egan, but it might just be that first step to forgiveness, too. That would be a good thing—and this is where she felt petty and selfish—but she didn’t want that forgiveness to lead to a reconciliation. The odds of that happening were slim to none, but Alana didn’t want Egan and Colleen back together.

Because Alana was lusting after him herself.

Oh, yes. Petty and selfish, indeed, and it spelled out the problem with having the hots for her sister’s ex. Added to that, it was stupid since Egan didn’t want to do anything about that dreaded heat.

Derek and she both turned toward the sound of approaching footsteps, and a moment later, Audrey came in. She was wearing her uniform, which meant she’d likely be leaving soon. Alana decided it was time to do as Maybell had done and give them some privacy.

“If I don’t get a chance to say goodbye before you leave,” Alana told the woman, “it was good seeing you.” Alana didn’t tack on aGeneral Donnelly,Mrs. Donnellyor Audrey’s given name to that. None of those quite felt right.

“It was good to see you, too,” Audrey replied, her attention already shifting to Derek.

“Mr. Donnelly, I’ll see you tomorrow,” Alana told him, feeling right about calling him that, and she headed out when Audrey snuggled onto the breakfast table bench next to her husband.

Alana had every intention of going straight to her car and driving to her office, especially since the forecast was predicting heavy rain in the next half hour, but she saw a sight that had her stopping in her tracks.

And drooling.

Egan was in the pasture just behind the house, and he was astride an impressive-looking white horse. His shirt was open, billowing in the breeze from the upcoming storm, and that was giving her a view of his chest. Of course, he was toned, tanned and had a six-pack. Of course, he was perfect and could have added abs model to his résumé.

She watched, the drooling going up a notch, as he made a sleek maneuver with the horse. A fluid, graceful turn followed by the horse going into a gallop. Rider and horse seemed to glide across the pasture, seemingly racing against the gathering iron-gray clouds.

This was cowboy Egan, and he was just as impressive and memorable as Top Gun fighter pilot.

Egan put the horse through a couple more maneuvers, earning him a thumbs-up from the ranch foreman, Jesse, who was watching from the fence. When Egan finally reined in, Jesse and he had a brief conversation before the foreman walked away and Egan headed into the barn with the horse.

Alana had no plans to join Egan. Not until he turned, caught sight of her and motioned for her to come closer. She did, like a moth heading straight to a flame, and she tried her level best not to stare at his bare chest.

Tried and failed.

Thankfully, it helped when she joined him in the barn because then she was up close and could focus on his face, which was just as impressive as the rest of him. He was a little sweaty, not in a “bad smelly gym” sort of way. But in a “hot guy” way. Since that wasn’t tamping down her pulse, she tried to focus on the barn instead.

Like the rest of the ranch, the barn was huge and much cleaner than she’d expected. There were stalls made of richly colored wood on each side, and the spacious floor in between the stalls was practically spotless. No hay strewn around, though there was a hayloft with a ladder made of that same wood leading up to it.

The temperature inside the barn was cooler and less humid than expected as well. Probably thanks to the industrial fans that’d been built into the walls. No doubt to keep the horses and give the ranch hands a place to escape the unrelenting summer heat.

“You were just with my dad?” Egan asked, his attention on the horse that he was now unsaddling.

“Yes.” When that came out as sort of a croak, she cleared her throat and repeated it. “I was just going over the basics with him about avoiding foods with the wordssurpriseorbetter than...” Good grief. She had actually gone there.

“Sex,” he filled in for her. He glanced at her and hoisted the saddle and carried it to a rack outside one of the stalls. “I was in the kitchen when Sadie Mendoza dropped off a cake with such a name.”

Egan hadn’t smirked at her bringing that up or the dessert’s name. His expression was serious, and she soon found out why.

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