Page 3 of Taking Charge (Lone Star Burn 4)
He remembered how Lucy had played with the spoon beside her coffee cup. “I was a challenging child. My mother always said I would do the exact opposite of whatever she told me to. She called it stubbornness, but I like to think of myself as spirited. I used to be, anyway.” Her expression had momentarily turned sad, but she forced a smile. “I bet you were easy to raise.”
Not quite. “I wouldn’t say that, but like a good whiskey, I’ve gotten better with age.”
Lucy had blushed and looked away. “That’s a healthy ego you’re sporting.”
That’s not all I’m sporting. David had kept that thought to himself, too. He wasn’t used to being so turned on simply by sitting next to a woman. He didn’t believe in love at first sight, but he’d never experienced anything close to how Lucy made him feel. Every time she touched him, even if it was as innocent as resting her hand on his forearm, his blood pounded and his cock jumped to attention. The more she spoke, the more he wanted to hear her voice. There was a natural easiness about being with her, a feeling he’d known her longer than a day. It didn’t make sense. It didn’t need to. It simply was.
Leaving her that night had been one of the hardest things he’d ever done. He’d come close, so close, to kissing her, but something in her expression had stopped him. Even though he was certain she felt the same way he did, she was holding back. Not scared. Nothing as simple as that. There was a sadness in her eyes, and some confusion, too. When he’d asked her what was wrong, she pulled away.
She’d thanked him for coming up to see her as if they hadn’t just spent the most incredible day together. She said she appreciated that he’d come all that way to offer her help, but that she didn’t need it. When he tried to push for how she’d solved the situation, she withdrew from him again. It had been a confusing end to their time together, so David hadn’t been happy when he left.
By the time he parked his truck in the driveway of the Double C in Fort Mavis, he’d rationalized her reaction. She was, indeed, going through a rough time. She’d lost both of her parents. She hadn’t spoken much of how her brother was doing, but that was also telling. Sarah had said Steven wasn’t doing well. With all of that on her plate, it was no wonder Lucy wasn’t ready to jump into a relationship. She needed time to heal.
He called her that night and every night that week. She was a hard woman to get to know, but she was slowly opening up to him. David didn’t ask to return yet. That would come in time. What they were building was just as important as how good he knew that first kiss would feel. Lucy needed a friend, and if that’s where she wanted them to start, that’s where he’d begin.
“That must be a mighty good coffee for you to smile at it like that,” Lucas said. He was in his early twenties and had worked with David since the day after he’d left high school. At David’s encouragement, he’d recently gotten a degree in animal husbandry.
David looked up, caught, but not embarrassed at Lucas’s quick sense of humor. He didn’t bother to try to hide his smile. For the first time in a long while, he was simply happy. “It is. It really is.”
Austin, another ranch hand who had been around long enough to appreciate the way they joked, added, “He’s been like this ever since he came back from Mavis.”
Austin’s brother, Gunner, shook his head in mock disgust. “Don’t try to ask him something from eight o’clock until midnight. He has that phone glued to his head with that same stupid look on his face.”
They froze as if anticipating a verbal smackdown from David, but he just smiled.
Lucas chuckled. “So, if you’re all in love or whatever, what are you doing here and not there?”
David looked down at his coffee again and pictured Lucy’s expression the last time he’d seen her. “Some things shouldn’t be rushed.”
The men around him scoffed. David raised his eyes, not minding their comments. He was their boss, but they were also a family of sorts. “Someday, when your testicles finally descend, you’ll understand. This is the one. Don’t ask me how I know; I just do. I’m going to marry Lucy Albright.”
Chapter One
Six months later
It’s all me now. I have to make this work.
Lucy piled the last of the delivered boxes in the corner of what had once been her father’s home office. One of her hands lingered on the top of a box. Things are about to change around here. Do I have what it takes to start a home business?
Home. Not too much remained of the original furniture passed down through five generations of Albrights. It had taken the sale of every heirloom to hold off the bank before Ted had stepped forward with a loan.
They say cowgirls don’t cry, but that’s a lie. They don’t cry in public. They don’t post their woes on social networks or burden their friends, but that doesn’t mean they don’t sob into their pillows at night. A person could only cry so much, though, before it started to change them. Just like a horse that stayed down too long, a person could be down so long they forgot how to get up.
That won’t be me.
No one has to teach me about hard work or surviving tough times. I can muck stalls from dawn until dusk without a break. I can shoot a rifle with deadly accuracy. I’m a survivor.
Six months of living on her own had changed her. She wasn’t afraid anymore. She still had more bad days than good, but she was determined to change that.
I don’t blame Steven for leaving. We should have told Mom we didn’t want this place instead of promising we’d keep it for our children. We wanted to cheer her up. We thought there’d be time later to remind her of how completely ill-suited we were to take it over.
A person could only hurt so much before they looked for a way to make themselves feel better. Steven had turned to alcohol just like their mother had. Thankfully, he’d left Mavis before it could claim his life as well. Wherever he was, she hoped he was putting his life back together, just as Lucy was determined to.
She sat on a folding chair and propped her feet up on one of the large boxes that had been delivered that morning. If only—a person could waste their life away on “if onlys.” If only my father hadn’t been too stubborn to go to the doctor, he might not have died in the living room while arguing with my mother about something that clearly didn’t matter in the end.
If only my mother hadn’t turned to alcohol for comfort, she might not have crashed the night of the storm.
If only my brother had come to me earlier before things had become so bad I couldn’t fix them alone.
If only I could stop thinking about a man who has most certainly forgotten about me. An image of David Harmon came back with painful vividness. Attending her friend Sarah’s wedding had brought Lucy face-to-face with another regret. It was impossible not to think of David without wishing life were different. Tall, blond, and rugged, with eyes so blue it was near impossible to look into them and remember what one was saying. If only we’d met before my whole life fell apart.
I shouldn’t be thinking about David like that while I’m engaged to another man.
Lucy rubbed her hands over her tired eyes. Problem is, I shouldn’t be engaged.
Her cell phone rang. Speak of the devil. It was Ted York. Lucy placed her phone back in her jeans pocket. Her neighbor was in his late twenties and attractive enough—a good, church-going man who hadn’t pressured Lucy for sex even though they’d been engaged for nearly six months.
But I don’t love him. I tried to.
Ted had proposed when Lucy’s brother had left, and Lucy had clung to his support. She’d hit rock bottom, and saying yes had felt like the only way she’d survive. She’d been honest with him about not loving him, but he said he cared for her enough that they could make it work. She’d wanted to please him and had almost convinced herself she did love him—until she saw David again at the wedding.
I’ve made so many mistakes. So many stupid, stupid mistakes.
I could have refused his help. I could have found a way to make the ranch profitable on my own.
What do I know about ranching?
Mom, if you’d known how it would all turn out, would you still have asked me to promise to hold on to this place? I’m the last person anyone should ask to save anything. I’ve done a bang-up job of making a mess of things.
Lucy wiped away one lone tear and laughed sadly. Poor Ted. I need to tell him the truth. What do you say when you realize you don’t love a man even though he stepped in when everyone else left? Ted’s help had gone beyond the loan to ensure the ranch’s survival. He’d sent his own men to handle everything for her. In the past six months, she hadn’t needed to be involved at all in the day-to-day running of the ranch. Ted had said he would take care of everything, and he had. Can’t hate a man like that. Lucy blinked back more tears. Why can’t I love him?
Lucy remembered the many times her parents had warned her that her dreams got in the way of seeing what was important in life. If her mother had been alive to ask, Lucy knew exactly what she’d say about Lucy’s engagement to Ted. It was the right thing to do.
She could hear her mother’s voice in her head: “Life is full of tempting, bad choices. You steer clear of those. You hear me, Lucy?”
Tempting, bad choices.
