The Cowboy Next Door & Jenna's Cowboy Hero: The Cowboy Next Door / Jenna's Cowboy Hero. Brenda Minton

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СКАЧАТЬ pulled up to the barn, he noticed his parents on the porch. They were home. He hadn’t expected that.

      His dad greeted him as he got out of the truck.

      “I wondered if you were coming home any time soon.” Bill Blackhorse smiled and winked, talking the way they had talked to one another a dozen years ago.

      “Did you think I would pull a stunt and miss curfew?” Jay smiled back.

      “Nah, not really. But as we came through town we saw your truck and Lacey’s car at the church.”

      “I was just doing what Mom asked, making sure Lacey was okay.”

      “Lacey is a wonderful young woman.”

      So that’s the way this was going. Not that Jay was surprised. His dad had introduced him to Cindy, too.

      “Dad, we’re neighbors, maybe friends, nothing more.”

      His dad patted him on the back and they walked into the barn together. “Jay, it’s okay to fall in love again.”

      “Is it, Dad?” Jay pulled his saddle out of the tack room. “I need to work that black mare.”

      “Working the black mare isn’t going to undo what’s happening to you. You’re letting go. I guess maybe you feel guilty.”

      Jay shrugged. He faced his dad, and it wasn’t comfortable. He wanted to let it go, the way they’d been letting it go for years now.

      “Dad, I can’t forget Jamie. I can’t forget that I loved her.”

      “No one said you had to forget. But let someone else in. That’s all I’m saying.”

      Jay walked out the back of the barn. At the gate he whistled and the horses, ten of them grazing a few hundred feet away, turned to look at him. A few went back to grazing. He whistled again and they headed in his direction.

      “What you’re saying is that I should let Lacey in.” Jay smiled, glancing at his dad in time to catch a shrug and a little bit of a sheepish look. “Dad, you can’t push us together. From what I hear, Lacey is still getting over Lance. I still have a wedding ring in my dresser drawer.”

      “I’m asking you to pray.” Bill reached out to pet his favorite gray mare. “I’m asking you to let God heal your heart. Maybe that’s why you came home. Time to face what happened and move forward.”

      “I think I am moving forward.” Time to let go of the girl he loved? He didn’t know if he could.

      The black mare, Duckie, a strange name for a horse, was at the fence. Jay slid the halter over her head and clipped on the lead rope.

      His dad opened the gate and Jay led the mare through, moving fast to keep the other horses from following. Bill closed the gate behind him. A car door closed. Jay led the horse to the barn and tied her.

      Lacey walked through the doors, her face a dark silhouette with the setting sun behind her. He heard his dad behind him.

      “I’m going to the house.” Bill patted him on the shoulder as he walked away, greeting Lacey with a hug.

      “I’m sorry. I should have called.” Lacey looked a little lost, like she wasn’t sure. She stood a few feet from him, from the mare. “She’s beautiful.”

      “You don’t have to call.” He looked over the mare’s neck at the woman leaning against the wall. “You okay?”

      “I’m fine. I was on my way home from Bailey’s and I realized I really didn’t want to go home. There’s no one there.”

      “The police will find her, Lacey.”

      “And take her to jail.”

      “They won’t take Rachel to jail.”

      She reached to slide her hand down the neck of the mare. Jay slid the saddle pad into place and then lowered the saddle onto the mare’s back. The mare turned to look at him, but she stood still.

      “Do you want to ride her?” He tightened the girth strap and knotted it.

      “Could I?”

      “I think so. I’ll show you how to rope.”

      “No way!”

      He smiled and it felt really good. “Yeah way!”

      “I’d love it.”

      It would keep both of their minds off what they didn’t want to think about. He didn’t want to think about letting go of Jamie. She didn’t want to think about her little sister going to jail.

      “Come on, we’ll take her out to the arena.” He led the horse and Lacey walked a short distance away. “You do know how to ride, right?”

      “Of course. You can’t live around here for six years and not know how to ride.”

      He laughed because she bristled like an angry cat.

      “Let me ride her first and then she’s all yours.”

       Chapter Eight

      Lacey felt like a rodeo queen on the back of the black mare. The horse was gaited, so her trot was smooth and easy. Jay stood on the outside of the arena. She kept her eyes focused on the point between the mare’s ears and tried not to look at him.

      But she did look at him. He smiled and pushed his hat back, crossing his arms over the top rail of the vinyl fence of the arena.

      “Bring her over here.” He opened the gate and walked through, a rope in his hand. “Here you go.”

      “You really think I can do this?”

      “Why couldn’t you?”

      “I’m clumsy and uncoordinated.”

      He laughed again and she wanted him to laugh like that all the time. When he laughed she forgot that her sister was in the biggest trouble of her life, her niece was in danger…no, maybe she didn’t forget. It distracted her for a few minutes and the knots in her stomach relaxed a little, but she couldn’t forget.

      He put the rope in her hand, his hand closing over hers. His hands were strong and warm. He looked up, like that touch meant something, and she couldn’t look away, not this time.

      She realized she had one more problem she was going to have to deal with: Jay. Because his smile did something to her heart, shifting what had been numb and cold and for a moment making her believe in something special.

      “Here you go.” His voice was a little quiet and rough and she wondered if he felt it, too. “Take it like this and make easy loops. Don’t work it too hard. You have to look at your target. That’s what works for me.” He nodded to the horns on a post. “Give it a try and remember, she’s going to СКАЧАТЬ