A Cowboy's Pride. Karen Rock

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      Could she stay at Cole’s house and keep her professional distance?

      She met her eyes in the car mirror, her nerves jumping in her stomach. She’d worked too hard, on herself and her career, to be swayed by an old flame. Whatever feelings she’d experienced today were just echoes from the past. They had no bearing on her life now...she wouldn’t let them.

      She blew out a long breath then spoke to the car’s AI system.

      “Siri, dial Loveland Hills Ranch.”

      * * *

      “KATIE-LYNN’S STAYING HERE?” Cole paced in his family’s kitchen, clenched hands shoved in his pockets.

      “Her mother doesn’t have room for her.” Boyd swiped a washed plate with a towel and slid it into the rack above the sink.

      Cole grabbed a dish towel and thrust it inside a glass, swirling it as he imagined Katie-Lynn sniffing around the place, exposing all their secrets. “I don’t like it.”

      “I think it’s awesome!” Sierra breezed into the kitchen in a cloud of her orange-blossom scent, her blond hair wet from her shower, her red cowboy boots matching the sleeveless blouse topping her floral, ruffled skirt. She plucked the dried cup from Cole’s hand and stowed it in a glass-fronted cabinet. “Finally, another female to balance things out around here. Plus, she was my friend before you stole her, Cole.”

      “What’s your objection?” Boyd slid another plate into its slot on the drying rack. “Do you still have feelings for her?”

      “No!” He choked out his response, his throat tightening around the automatic denial.

      Sierra thumped him on the back. “Not buying that, big brother.”

      “I haven’t thought about her since she left.” He swiped at his stinging eyes, filled a glass of water and drained it.

      “Then why haven’t you dated anyone else?” asked his younger brother Heath, joining them. He carried his six-string slung across his back, one of the guitars he handcrafted as a hobby when he wasn’t ranching or gigging at local honky-tonks.

      “Too busy keeping track of you troublemakers.”

      Heath shook longish bangs out of his purple-blue eyes. “That’s your story?”

      “Yep. And I’m sticking to it.” Cole caught Sierra’s eye-roll. Why did they think he pined for Katie-Lynn all these years?

       Because you have been...

      The heart-shaped diamond engagement ring still in his nightstand called him out—just as loudly as Sierra and Heath.

      But seeing her today, noticing how much she’d changed, proved that even if he had carried a torch, it’d been for a girl who no longer existed. Katlynn was someone he didn’t know.

      “I’m heading out for my sound check.” Heath donned a brown cowboy hat and curved its brim. “See you two there?”

      “We wouldn’t miss it. You’re doing the new set, right?” Sierra placed the last glass in the cabinet and shut its door.

      “Classics and originals.” Heath shot them a quick smile then ducked outside.

      “He’s nervous,” Sierra observed, hooking a pot on the rack above their table.

      “Don’t know why he wastes his time with those songs,” Pa grumped. “Ain’t like he’s going to Nashville or getting famous.”

      “He’s not trying to be a country star, Pa.” Cole sprayed cleaning fluid over the cleared table and rubbed a paper towel over it, gathering crumbs.

      “And what if he was? What’s so wrong about that?” Sierra huffed, one fist on her hip.

      “It’s a road full of disappointment,” Pa observed quietly.

      Silence swelled, heavy enough to ache, as they finished the after-dinner cleaning. Cole supposed they all thought of Ma and how her unfulfilled dream to sing professionally drove her to drink. She’d taught Heath to play guitar and fiddle, the only one of her children interested in music...or who’d shown any talent for it. The rare times Cole saw her smiling, heard her laughing, was when she and Heath played together, those music sessions usually followed by even heavier drinking.

      “You kids ruined my life!” she’d scream, stumbling around the ranch, searching for her stash of booze. “I wish you’d never been born.”

      Or...

      “You trapped me!” She’d sometimes hit his father while hurling accusations. “Got me pregnant so I’d be stuck on this miserable ranch.”

      Cole must have made a noise because Sierra’s hand pressed his, yanking him back to the present, away from the mother who’d blamed him, her oldest child, for all her woes, for holding her back from her dreams. “Cole? You okay?”

      “Fine.”

      “Anybody home?” called a familiar, beautiful voice.

      His body clenched as if bracing for a blow.

      “In here, Katie-Lynn!” shouted Sierra, still staring up into his face. “Sure you’re okay?”

      “I’m fine,” he muttered under his breath, needing his sister to move her eagle eye off him. “And she’s Katlynn now.”

      When Katie-Lynn appeared in the kitchen, Sierra flung herself across the space and hugged her old friend tight. “Good to see you, girl!”

      “You, too.” Katie-Lynn’s eyes met Cole’s over his sister’s shoulder, and he ducked his head and draped his damp towel over the drying rack. “Thanks for letting me stay, Mr. Love—”

      She broke off when Boyd waved a spatula at her.

      “Boyd,” she amended with a slight catch in her voice. Cole glanced up and caught the pretty flush rising in her cheeks, her eyes still on him.

      “Want to come line-dancing with us? Heath’s playing, and he’s doing some originals, too.”

      “Oh—uh—I’m not sure,” Katie-Lynn wavered, her gaze now shadowed by her long, lowered lashes.

      “It’ll be fun,” Sierra implored.

      Katie-Lynn smoothed a hand over her sleek black dress, drawing his attention to the lush curves beneath the expensive fabric. Unwelcome heat flared inside him. “I’m not exactly dressed for the Hoedown Throwdown.”

      “I’ll loan you something. We’re probably still the same size.” Sierra stepped back, sizing Katlynn up. “Give or take.”

      “Um. I have interviews set up in the morning, so I should probably just go on up to bed.”

      “At eight o’clock?” Sierra scoffed, ever the dog on a bone when she wanted something bad enough. As the only girl among five brothers, she’d learned fast how to assert herself.

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