Cowboy Under the Mistletoe. Linda Goodnight

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      “Let her be the judge of that.”

      “You know what I mean, Allison. Don’t be muleheaded.”

      She hopped off the bumper, plopped a bag of plastic medical supplies into the wheelchair and went back for another. When he saw she wasn’t leaving no matter what he said, he joined her, unloading the items, much of which fit in the wheelchair.

      “So, how have you been?” she asked, her tone all spunky and cute as if no bad blood ran between her brothers and him.

      “Good.”

      “What does that mean?”

      He squinted at her over the tailgate. “You’re not going to give up, are you?”

      “We were friends once, Jake. I believe in second chances.”

      Friends? Yes, they’d been friends, but toward the end, he’d been falling in love with his best friend’s sister.

      He shook off the random thought. Whatever had been budding between two teenagers was long dead and buried.

      “How’s Quinn?”

      He hadn’t meant to ask, hadn’t intended to open that door, but he held his breath, praying for something he couldn’t name.

      “He’s the architect for Buchanon Construction now.”

      “Granny Pat told me he went to Tech with Brady.” He didn’t say the other; that Quinn’s full-ride football scholarship had disappeared on a bloody October morning. “Does he ever talk about—”

      “No, and I don’t want to either.” She glanced away, toward a pair of puppies galloping around the neighbor’s front yard, her eyebrows drawn together in a worried frown. “Quinn has a decent life here in Gabriel’s Crossing. Maybe the path wasn’t the one he’d expected to take, but he survived.”

      Jake slowly exhaled. “That’s good. Real good.”

      Quinn was okay. The accident happened long ago. Maybe Jake was no longer the hated pariah. People moved on. Everyone except him and he’d been stuck in the past so long, he didn’t know how to move off high-center. “What about you? Why aren’t you married with a house full of kids?”

      He hadn’t meant to ask that either.

      She shrugged. The pumpkin sweater bunched up around her white neck. “I’ve had my chances.”

      He was sure she had, and he wondered why she hadn’t taken them. “Still working for your dad?”

      “In the offices with Jayla.”

      “Little sister grew up?”

      “We all do, Jake.” She smiled a little. “I keep the books, do payroll, billing. All the fun numbers stuff.”

      “Put that high school accounting award to good use, didn’t you?”

      Her eyes crinkled at the corners. “You remember that?”

      He remembered everything about her, his cheerleader and champion when life had been too difficult to live. “Hard to forget. You wore that medal around your neck for months.”

      “Fun times.”

      Yes, they were. Before he’d destroyed everything with one stupid decision.

      “Faith’s getting married,” she said.

      Faith Evans, her sidekick. The long and the short, as the guys had called them. Faith had grown to nearly six feet tall by sixth grade, and Allison had barely been tall enough to reach the gas pedal when she’d turned sixteen. “Yeah? Who’s the lucky guy?”

      “They met in college. Derrick Cantelli. I’m coordinating her wedding.” She tilted back on the heels of her sandals, her warm brown eyes searching his. “Granny Pat told me you live in Stephenville now.”

      “Land of the rodeo cowboys.”

      “Do you like it there?”

      “Sure.” He glanced away, afraid she’d read the truth in his eyes. “We better get this in the house before Granny Pat starts hollering.”

      He gave the wheels a nudge with his boot.

      “Unlock it,” Allison said.

      “It has a lock?” He poked around and found the lever, released the device with a snap, and incredibly, the chair rolled a few inches. “How did you know that?”

      “Brady had knee surgery his last year at Tech.”

      Just that quick, the elephant was back in the room. “I watched him play on TV a few times. He was good.”

      But not as good as Quinn. No one in the state had been as good at football as Quinn Buchanon. Quinn, with the golden arm that had turned to blood.

      He gave the wheelchair a shove and rolled toward the front door.

      * * *

      He’d gone quiet on her again. When Allison thought they’d moved past that awkward stage, past his determination to be the rude, don’t-care cowboy, he had clammed up again. Between his reluctance and her brothers’ animosity, she wondered why she kept trying.

      But she knew why. Though she was a Buchanon with every cell in her body, her brothers were wrong to hold a grudge. Anger would not restore Quinn’s arm to normal. Anger would not regain his chance at an NFL career. All bitterness had ever done was make them miserable.

      Like now. If they knew she was here, her brothers would have a fit. Just as they would have a fit if they’d known about the other thing. They’d have done something crazy.

      But she was as drawn to Jake Hamilton today as she had been in high school. He was her buddy, her first love, and foolish though she might be, she yearned to help him, to be his friend again, to repay a debt of love and loyalty.

      If he’d revealed her secret nine years ago, maybe her family wouldn’t despise Jake so much. But he’d kept silent because she had begged him to. And he’d suffered for his loyalty.

      He could walk off and leave her in the yard every time she visited, but she wouldn’t stop trying. He meant too much to her.

      If that was pathetic, so be it.

      Grabbing a small black suitcase Jake had left behind, she followed him into the house. Her stomach sank like a brick in a pond when she spotted Miss Pat in the big blue corduroy recliner. The once vital, high-energy woman had shriveled to child-size in the months since her hip surgery. She looked a hundred instead of in her early seventies.

      “Hi, Miss Pat.”

      “Look here, Ralph, it’s little Allison. Isn’t she pretty as a picture?”

      Ralph? Who was Ralph? She looked to Jake for help but he’d moved around behind his СКАЧАТЬ