Page 5

It has been with other women, he reminded himself, and some of the bubbling attraction inside him grew cold too.

“I’m living with Alex,” she said. “On a small ranch not far from here, actually. It’s called Coyote Pass. Not sure if you remember?—”

“Oh, sure,” Finn said as his Three Rivers memory fired at him. “Coyote Pass. We rode the horses down there one day, remember?” He burst out laughing, the sound of it going with this near-perfect almost-summer day. “Boy, was my daddy mad.”

He was glad to be home, as everything felt so much lighter here. “Old Man Tompkins owned Coyote Pass. Wonder what happened to him.”

“He passed,” Edith said quietly, without all of the gusto and joviality Finn had laughed and spoken with. He wasn’t sure why she seemed so melancholy about an old man passing away—especially one she surely couldn’t have known or been close to. “His family went through everything, but no one wanted the ranch. They listed it for sale, and Alex…well, you know Alex. He has a gypsy soul, and he’s wanted to return to Three Rivers since we left.”

“I knew Alex once,” Finn corrected gently. “Just like I knew you once.” He exhaled as another text from his momma came in. He dared look toward the homestead, and sure enough, she stood on the deck now, one hand up to her forehead to shade her eyes as she scanned for him. Part of him wanted to duck down behind the cars here in the Courage Reins lot so she wouldn’t see him. But the other part knew that wouldn’t be enough. She’d find him, and fast.

“Ten years is a long time,” he said, looking at Edith again. “I have to go. My momma wants me back at the homestead.”

Edith looked that way too, and when her attention came back to his, she nodded. “Okay, here’s my number.” She rattled it off quickly, but Finn had fast, fast, fast fingers from his time behind keyboards. He recited it back to her; she nodded again; he tucked his phone away.

“It’s so great to see you,” he said again. “I mean, really, really great. You have no idea.” Finn told himself not to get too carried away. He didn’t need to confess all of his female failures in the first fifteen minutes of his reunion with Edith. He wasn’t even sure it would become a reunion, his own attraction to her notwithstanding.

He couldn’t just walk away either, so he lunged at her and took her into his arms again. “We’ll talk soon, okay?” He swept his lips along her cheek and told himself to get out of there.

“Okay,” ghosted behind him as he walked away, his eyes locked onto his mother’s now. And oh, she’d have seen the beautiful blonde behind him and have multitudes of questions once Finn’s boots ate up the distance between then.

Sure enough, he’d only just started up the steps to the deck when Momma asked, “Who was that?”

He’d be thirty-one years old in a couple of months, and he didn’t have to hide an innocent kiss from his mother. He did wait until he’d reached the deck to say, “Edith Baxter, and I’m not talking about her.”

His mother didn’t frown the way she would’ve in high school. He was certainly old enough to date and fall in love now, and Edith had always been out of his league. That hadn’t changed one whit, so Momma had no reason to be upset. Still, she looked back toward Courage Reins, which sat across the lawn and across the street to the west, something contemplative on her face.

“Are you going out with her?”

“Nope.” Finn moved toward the door, because while it wasn’t technically summer yet, the temperatures in Texas always hovered too high.

“Did you ask her out?” Momma asked.

“Yes.” Finn opened the door and stepped into the blessed air conditioning. Several cowboys had been working, setting up tables and chairs, and most of them looked over to him. He wasn’t sure what rode in their expressions, but he didn’t like it. Pity, maybe? Reverence? Maybe simple wariness? He wasn’t sure, and Finn just wanted to escape.

“She told you no?” Momma asked, her voice shocked.

“It was a short conversation, Momma,” he said. “Because you kept texting me.” He surveyed the tables and chairs. “You don’t need me here.”

“I do too,” she said. “Daddy’s going to be home with the bus any moment, and your brother will want to see you.” She held her head high. “Plus, he picked up Grandma and Grandpa, and they’re simply dying to hug you again.” She gave him one of her piercing looks, and Finn really didn’t want to disappoint his mother. “You just ran off mid-sentence, the boys said.”

“Thanks, guys,” Finn said dryly. That got the other cowboys to smile a little. “I just saw a pretty girl, and well, I knew her.” He turned and looked out the window, but he didn’t see Edith standing on the sidewalk, running her hands through her hair to get it to lay flat. He’d seen her do that so often in the past.

Yeah, high school, he told himself. And he was way past high school.

“At least I used to know her,” he murmured to the trail of dust still hanging in the air, probably from Edith’s car as she’d left the ranch. “Does she work at Courage Reins, Momma?”

“She does a little training for Uncle Pete, yes,” Momma said, her voice wary.

“Who is it?” Beau asked as he came to stand next to Finn.

He looked at the foreman. “Edith Baxter.”

“Oh, sure,” Beau said easily. “She’s real good with horses. Writes books about ‘em and everything.”

“Edith writes books?” Finn really had no idea who she was anymore, but a stinging, fizzing need to learn and re-learn everything about her started in his gut.

“Bus is here,” Beau called next, and Finn blinked as the big yellow school bus filled his vision. His daddy drove it today, and the only reason Finn hadn’t gone with him was because he hadn’t wanted to put on a show. He didn’t need all the kids fawning over him, or Sammy bursting into tears at the sight of him.