The Cowboy Way: A Creed in Stone Creek / Part Time Cowboy. Maisey Yates

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СКАЧАТЬ to be that picky. A guy needs friends, and right now, Andrea and Nathan are the only ones I have.”

      Sadness pinched the back of Melissa’s throat. She said nothing more, but simply nodded in response to Byron’s words.

      Fifteen minutes later, having showered and gingerly dried herself off with little dabbing motions of her towel, she’d forgotten the brief conversation entirely. There were small cuts on both her knees, but they weren’t deep, and the bleeding had stopped. The rest of her body felt bruised, though, as if she’d actually been struck by Andrea’s car.

      After bundling herself into a robe, she padded along the hallway to the kitchen, whipped up her protein smoothie, and gulped down a couple of over-the-counter pain pills with the first sip. In another few minutes, she told herself, watching dully as water sheeted down outside of the window over the sink, she’d be right as—well—rain.

      Dressing took twice as long as usual, since every motion made some joint or muscle ache, but Melissa remained undaunted. She got herself into a pink-floral print skirt and a long white sweater, summer-light, and flicked on a few swipes of mascara and lip gloss.

      Between the rain and her recent shower, her hair had frizzed out, and she was in no mood to spend half an hour taming it with a blow-dryer and a brush, so she clamped the stuff into a loose roll at the back of her head with an enormous plastic clip and called it good.

      Tendrils drifted down around her cheeks and her neck—the look was softer than her usual tailored approach, more Ashley’s style than her own, but it pleased her, nonetheless.

      While she was inside, the rain had stopped, and the sun was out, bright as polished brass.

      When Melissa limped into her office, just before nine, Andrea was already there, standing in the middle of the floor like a sentinel and grasping a plain glass vase containing a huge bouquet of purple and white irises, most likely appropriated from the Crockett sisters’ garden, in both hands.

      “These are for you,” Andrea said anxiously.

      Melissa smiled, took the flowers and started to go around the nervous young woman, toward her own office. “Thanks, Andrea,” she said. “But you shouldn’t have. It really wasn’t necessary.”

      “You could have been badly hurt,” Andrea burst out, “or even—”

      Melissa paused, frowning. “I’m all right, Andrea.”

      Andrea’s eyes clouded over with tears. “I know you think—you think Byron was driving this morning, and that I’m covering for him, because of what happened before, to that girl, Chavonne. But I was behind the wheel, not Byron.”

      Melissa sighed, continued into her office and set the vase of flowers carefully on a corner of her desk.

      They really were beautiful, dewy and vibrantly colored.

      “What you do in your personal life is none of my business,” she said, looking at the irises instead of Andrea. They’d both learned a lesson; now, it was time to move on.

      “But—?” Andrea prompted, without inflection. Clearly, she wasn’t ready to let the subject drop. Melissa, on the other hand, would have preferred to pretend that it hadn’t happened.

      “You’ve come a long way since your foster-home days, Andrea,” Melissa replied, after drawing in and expelling a deep breath. “I hope you won’t throw all that away by doing anything foolish.”

      Andrea blushed miserably. “Like going out with Byron Cahill?”

      “I didn’t say that,” Melissa pointed out.

      “You didn’t have to,” Andrea said. Still, there was no anger in her tone or her expression.

      Melissa rested a hand on the young woman’s forearm. “Okay, for what it’s worth, here’s my opinion. Byron has to be going through some major adjustments right now. He has a lot to deal with, and so do you. Maybe it would be better to let the dust settle a little before you get too—involved.”

      Andrea tensed slightly. “Because he was in prison.”

      “Partly, yes,” Melissa answered. “And partly because both of you are young.”

      “Right,” Andrea said, her tone turning crisp as she turned on one heel to leave Melissa’s office. “I’ll get your messages.”

      Bemused, and still aching all over from the tumble she’d taken into the gravel that morning, Melissa put her purse away, sat down in her chair and booted up her computer.

      A tap at the framework of her open door alerted her to Tom’s presence. Melissa smiled, and even that hurt a little.

      Tom glanced in Andrea’s direction and then came inside Melissa’s office and closed the door.

      “We’ve got trouble,” he said. His tone was solemn.

      Melissa looked up at him, her smile a thing of the past. “Sit down, Tom,” she said.

      But he shook his head. “I’ve had a complaint from Ashley and Jack’s neighbors,” he told her. “About the guests. Since it’s sort of a—delicate matter, I wanted to run the report by you before I go over there.”

      Melissa closed her eyes for a moment. Dammit, that bunch of geriatric outlaws were running around naked again, and this time, someone had seen them.

      She did not need this.

      The B&B should have been Ashley’s problem, not hers.

      Tom cleared his throat, and his expression was diplomatic. His eyes twinkled, though, and he wasn’t in any rush to state his business, it seemed to Melissa. “They’re disturbing the peace,” he said.

      Melissa rolled her eyes. “Disturbing the peace?”

      “Apparently, they’re playing the stereo at top volume. Practicing the tango on the back patio.” Tom drew in a breath, his eyes still dancing with amusement. “The Crockett sisters are worried that the noise will scare their fish.”

      “Their fish?”

      “You know. Those fancy goldfish they have.”

      “And this is my problem because—?”

      “Well,” Tom said, “because Ashley and Jack left you in charge of the B&B, for all intents and purposes. I thought you’d want to know what was going on.”

      “Good heavens,” Melissa said.

      Tom chuckled. “I’m fixing to go on over there and have a word with those good folks, of course,” he went on. “I’m sure they don’t mean any harm. You can come along or stay here—your choice.”

      Melissa groaned as the weight of twin responsibility settled on her shoulders. “I’d better go with you.”

      Tom nodded. “That would probably be a good idea,” he allowed, his mouth twitching at one corner, “but maybe I should go in first, just in case.”

      “Just in case what?” Melissa СКАЧАТЬ