Page 7 of Enticed
“Dear Lord,” I said under my breath. This woman would be the death of me. Senior citizens weren’t supposed to act this way. “I thought Mom was taking you today since she needs to run to the bank.” For once, I thought I was off the hook and would have the morning to catch up on chores.
“Asher is sick, and his mom worked a double last night. RaeAnne offered to watch him so she could sleep and Jacek wouldn’t have to call out of work. Poor little fella won’t even let her put him down. I don’t want to bother her with this.” My little nephew, Asher, was the light of all our lives, and I hated to hear he was sick. Gigi was right. Mom didn’t need to be bothered with this while she took care of him.
“Alright,” I said, resigned. “Let me put Juniper up.” I settled my horse in her stall and tossed a couple flakes of hay into her feeder, giving her an affectionate scratch between her ears and planting a kiss just above her muzzle. She let me this time, most likely because of the hay. She could be prickly at times, hence her name, and sometimes would snub me if she was in a mood.
“Let’s go, Granny Cougar,” I instructed when I emerged from the barn, looping my arm through hers, and walking her to my car. Then I drove her into town where I would have to turn her loose on society.
“Don’t get arrested, and don’t sexually harass the wait staff,” I instructed as I parked in front of Gigi’s favorite brunch spot. I was only half joking. She and her sisters were known to get a little out of hand after a few too many mimosas.
“I can’t make any promises,” she announced with a wink before opening her door and stepping onto the sidewalk. Her sisters spotted her as she approached the entrance and immediately greeted her with hugs. They waved at me excitedly, and I waved back, pulling away before they could rope me in to join them. I didn’t feel like having my love life—or lack thereof—analyzed or speculated on, and I certainly didn’t need them trying to hook me up with their hairdresser’s son or the town’s new pharmacist or whatever new man was on the market these days. They were sweet as pie, and I loved them dearly, but they liked to meddle way too much, and I wasn’t falling victim to their disastrous, albeit well-meaning matchmaking schemes again.Besides, I only had eyes for one man. It didn’t matter that he was completely off limits. No one in this town could compete with my dad’s best friend.
CHAPTER SEVEN
GABE
It was Friday afternoon, and my baby girl was finally here. Celeste’s Mercedes kicked up a cloud of dust as it pulled down the gravel drive. I still had a couple more hours of work left for the day, and since Rory hadn’t been to the ranch since she was a toddler, I had her mom drop her off here instead of meeting us at my house.
The car had barely stopped when the back door flew open and my daughter sprang out of it, strawberry blonde hair trailing wildly behind her as she bolted toward me. Those sapphire blue eyes, so much like mine, locked on me.
“Daddy!” she squealed and jumped into my arms.
“Pumpkin,” I breathed, holding her tightly to my chest, and buried my nose in her hair. Her nearly orange hair that was damn near the shade of a pumpkin—and reason for her nickname—still smelled like cotton candy, just like I remembered. “I think you’ve grown since I saw you last,” I said, placing her on her feet and resting my palm flat atop her head. I moved my hand toward my torso, angling it up ever so slightly until it hit me an inch higher than the last time I “measured” her.
She gasped dramatically. “I knew it!”
Celeste approached, a soft smile playing on her lips as she took in our daughter’s excitement. I nodded toward her, searching for any lingering feelings of sadness or longing, but there were none. I’d made my peace with our marriage ending. Clearly, she had too. She looked happier and more at ease than I’d ever seen her.
“Thanks for bringing her here,” I said, placing my hands on Rory’s shoulders. “I know you don’t like it here, but I really wanted Rory to get to see the ranch.”
“It’s no problem,” she replied before dropping her gaze to Rory. “Why don’t you go grab your bag and Andy’s carrier while I talk to your dad?” she requested, and a twinge of unease settled in my gut.
“Okay,” Rory agreed before skipping back to the car. Celeste waited until she was safely out of earshot before turning to look at me again.
“You know, it wasn’t so much that I didn’t like the ranch,” she began, averting her gaze. My brows shot up in surprise. She’d always seemed unhappy here and did anything she could to talk me out of visiting. I truly thought she hated this place. “It was more about what the ranch meant to you and how I knew I’d never measure up,” she continued, and the revelation hit me square in the chest, knocking the air from my lungs. “This place—the ranch and this town—were home to you, and I took you from it. You came to life whenever we visited, but then when we left, you were sad for days, sometimes even weeks afterward. I knew Dallas would never feel like home to you because this was where your heart longed to be. And I thought maybe if we stopped coming back, it would finally lose its hold on you and you’d forget about it. I can see now how wrong I was.”
Guilt slammed into me. Had I made her feel like our family was second best all these years? Had she been so desperate formy love that she kept me away from the place she believed was more important to me than her and Rory?
“I’m so sorry,” I said, my voice cracking. “It was never my intention to hurt you.” She held her hand up to stop me.
“It wasn’t like that. I knew we weren’t in love, that we were both just trying to make the best of the hand we’d been dealt. But I wanted so badly to make it happen. I thought if we tried hard enough, the love would come.” My shoulders slumped with relief. For a moment I thought she’d been in love with me all this time, and I’d broken her heart.
“Don’t get me wrong, I love you in my own way,” she rushed to add, her lips curving in a tentative smile. “As Aurora’s father and as a friend, but I think that’s all we ever had.”
“I think you’re right,” I agreed. Our conversation ended abruptly when Aurora skidded to a halt next to us, dirt flying up around her.
“I brought Mr. Andy,” she announced, holding a bright pink pet carrier with a clear front window. Big, dark eyes blinked up at me, and his little whiskers twitched. He was kind of cute in his own way, though I hadn’t been thrilled with the idea of giving her a rodent for her birthday. She was dead set on it, though, and it was the only thing she'd asked for. Thankfully Celeste warned me he was coming, so I got him an enclosure and set it up, so he’d have somewhere safe to stay.
“Whoa, who is that?” Rory asked, her arm slowly lowering to her side as she stared at something past my shoulder, her eyes filled with wonder. I turned to find Jasmine trotting up the lane on Juniper, and I nearly swallowed my tongue. I hadn’t seen her much since the day I’d watched her practice, but every time I did, it was like a punch to the gut.
“That’s Jasmine,” I replied, trying to sound casual. Stupidly, I glanced at Celeste who was watching me with a curious tilt toher head. Her eyes were assessing, so I schooled my expression. “You remember Woody’s daughter, right?”
“I do,” Celeste replied, still studying my face.
“Is she the barrel racer?” Rory asked. She likely didn’t remember meeting Jasmine since she was so little the last time she saw her, but she’d heard me talk about training her and had even seen a few videos of her racing, though it was hard to tell from a distance that Jasmine and the girl from the grainy videos were one in the same.
And she wasn’t a girl anymore, a fact I couldn’t seem to make myself forget.
“She is,” I replied just as Jasmine looked up and caught sight of us. She waved, and I tipped my hat in acknowledgment, but that wasn’t good enough for Rory. She shot her free hand into the air and waved wildly like she’d been shipwrecked on a deserted island and just saw a rescue plane fly by. Jasmine tugged on her horse’s reins, changing course to head straight toward us. Rory watched in wide eyed fascination as she approached. I triednotto watch as she dismounted, averting my gaze just as she swung her leg over the horse’s side, putting her denim-clad ass right in my line of sight. Unfortunately, my gaze landed on Celeste who watched me with an amused smirk. She definitely sensed something was up. I’d need to get better at hiding my attraction to Jasmine if I wanted to survive working with her.
