Page 41 of A Cowboy to Call Her Own

“No one has told me that before.” Kelley chuckled again; her amusement spilled out into a soft tinkling laugh. “In fact, I put Frannie and Laura-Beth to sleep whenever I read out loud, even now.”

Pride’s ears twitched and then held in place, alert and open. Asher relaxed and said, “Well, I believe you have one admirer in that stall over there.”And one right beside you.But I can’t confuse things. After all, when Asher’s emotions got involved, everything tended to go awry and everyone ended up hurt.

“I don’t think it’s me,” Kelley protested albeit half-heartedly as if she hoped it was true.

“Only one way to test it,” Asher said, gesturing to her. “You have to keep talking.”

“About what?” Kelley asked.

Anything. Everything. Asher wanted to know all about her. He said, “I know you haven’t ridden in a while. You don’t need to explain.” He included the last words when he felt her stiffen beside him. He asked quickly, “But are you okay now? Because we’re going to have to get much closer to Pride to calm him and move him.”

“I think talking is easing my own nerves.” She squeezed Asher’s hand and asked, “Still, you won’t leave my side, right?”

“I’m not leaving either of you,” Asher said, the promise in his words. “Until Pride is someplace where he feels safe and calm.”And until you tell me to go. And mark my words, cowgirl, you will.His heart was off-limits. It had been for a while. There was no use denying he intended to keep it that way. And she deserved a cowboy who would love her without limits.

Kelley moved slowly forward with Asher and said softly, “Frannie should be here. My little sister has got the natural sense for horses.”

“I was thinking the same,” Asher said. “Dylan was built for this, not me.”

“You don’t really believe that, do you?” Kelley eyed him. Surprise crossed her face. “You grew up riding alongside your brothers. You are as talented as them.”

“That was a lifetime ago.” He had long since traded dust and denim for deadlines and dress shoes. It was not a move he regretted or even reconsidered. Until recently. Lately, he’d felt a pull for the trails he thought he left behind him.

“I know how that feels. When I look back it feels like some things were in a different lifetime,” Kelley said, still in that soft tone. “Sometimes I wish I could go back, if only for a day.”

“Any particular day you would choose?” He guided her closer to Pride’s stall.

The colt was quiet yet alert and diligently tracking their progress.

“Not a particular day, but rather a place.” The wistful tone in Kelley’s words caught his attention. Her face was upturned. A subtle contentment smoothed her expression. “It will come as no surprise to you that I had a garden of my own growing up.”

The joy in her expressive hazel eyes drew him in completely. He wanted to wrap his arms around her and pull her into him.Wrong time. Wrong place. And he was certainly the wrong cowboy for her. He asked, “Did you release your fireflies in your garden?”

“Of course.” Her laughter swirled through her words. “It was also the place where the garden gnomes played, and the fairies danced all night. I know this because the gnomes were never in the same place the next morning when I checked on them.”

He wanted to dance with her in that garden. Except he could only picture himself walking along city streets solo. He said, “I suspect you checked the garden every morning.”

“Like clockwork,” she admitted. “There were also stones moved. Doors open on the mini-houses. A new plant. Sometimes even butterflies and hummingbirds were fluttering around.”

“Sounds like quite the place,” Asher mused.

“It was enchanting,” Kelley said and sighed. “Do you know even when I found out that it was my grandparents rearranging the garden every night, it still didn’t lose its appeal. It meant even more, knowing they went out of their way for me.”

His cowgirl was enchanting. No way around that. Kelley deserved a cowboy who would give more to her than to his career, and make her the priority. But Asher’s relationship track record was mostly losses and not exactly the sort of stellar achievement worth betting a cowgirl’s heart on. Asher released Kelley’s hand, albeit more reluctantly than he wanted to admit, then propped his arms gently on the stall door, working not to crowd Pride or Kelley.

“What about you?” Kelley asked, curiosity in her words. “What day would you go back to?”

“Any day spent with my brothers in our treehouse.” Asher welcomed the childhood flashback. “We built it with my dad and Joe out by the hay barn pasture. My brothers and I spent hours there and even camped out on more than one night.”

“A home away from home,” Kelley mused.

“It was everything.” Asher smiled. There were too many carefree summer days to recount. But the treehouse and his brothers were featured in all his favorite childhood adventures. “It was our hideout. The place where we shared our secrets and lived out our dreams.”

“Is the treehouse still there?” Kelley asked.

“I don’t know,” Asher admitted and slanted his gaze toward Kelley. “I haven’t looked for it.” Ah, but the feelings—the delight and thrill and pure fun of being with his brothers—was there inside him still. And surprisingly simple to recall even after so much time spent apart.

“Why not?” Her eyebrows pulled together.