Page 3 of Handling Skylar (Hope Parish #5)

“Pie?” he said with another smile just as compelling. “They’re about to start, and my daddy will skin me if I’m not front and center.” His eyes went a little dark and brooding again. “I don’t relish being the center of attention today of all days.”

“It’ll only take a minute.” He flashed a look toward his parents and Chase. “C’mon. It’s just pie. Pie makes everything better.”

He rose and indicated that I should go in front of him. “Pie then. It’ll wash away the bitter, huh?”

“Completely,” I said, moving past the chairs. River gave me an approving look as I passed, then exchanged a look with Verity and Aubree. The power of three indeed.

We walked across the lawn toward her stand just a few yards away from the gathering.

Samantha wasn’t there, she was supporting her fiancé, Chase Sutton, but her assistant Beth was and she gave us a sunny smile.

“Good afternoon, pie?” she asked. At our nods, she grabbed two plates.

“We have blueberry, rhubarb, apple, of course and pecan.”

“Pecan,” we said at the same time.

He smiled and said, “Ladies first.”

She cut two pieces and set them on the plates she’d prepared and gave us each the pie and forks. Jake went for his wallet, but I stayed his hand. “This is on me. I invited you.”

He hesitated then nodded, acquiescing as I pulled out my money from the back pocket of my denim shorts and paid Beth.

We dug into the pie and I closed my eyes, a humming sound of appreciation all I was capable of as the crust and filling melted on my tongue.

When I opened my eyes, Jake was staring at me like I was the entertainment, his intoxicating eyes giving me more ideas than I had a right to have for a man who wasn’t free. I could hear a little voice that sounded distinctly like River Pearl say: All is fair in love and war.

“Good,” I said and that seemed to snap him back to reality.

“I find myself always laughing around you.”

I took another bite and grinned. “That’s a good thing, right?”

He glanced over his shoulder, the burden of responsibility weighing him down and that brooding quality back in his eyes. “Skylar…”

“My friends call me Sky.”

He toyed with his pie and then took a bite, his reaction the same as mine.

“We all know what family can be like,” he said. “Mine is…complicated.”

“Mine is gone,” I said, solemnly, nodding.

“I miss fighting with them. I guess that’s the way it is.

It’s one big mess.” My former life of being the daughter of a working ranch owner had ended in tragedy and fire with my father’s and my good name dragged through the mud.

I didn’t for one minute believe he had been that desperate.

Not for a moment. When suspicion had turned to me and I was accused of both setting the fire and murdering my parents, that had been terrifying and wrong.

But the prosecutor and the police had lacked evidence and couldn’t prove I had been guilty of the accused crimes. Starting new was all I had—and my pride.

“Completely.” We stood in silence for a moment and he said softly. “I’m sorry about your family.”

“My brother died in an accident. My parents in a fire. Destroyed everything.” I was a little lost after the tragedy, but I had to move on. I couldn’t do that in my hometown where everything reminded me of them. Moving halfway across the country made it easier to breathe and to rebuild.

“Jake!”

We turned to find Anna Kate marching toward us like a general who was ready to reprimand one of her prized soldiers for being AWOL.

To say she was angry was an understatement.

“Your family is looking for you,” she snapped, pushing back her blonde hair, her rush across the center of town displacing her artfully placed curls.

“Really, Anna Kate? I’m quite capable of keeping track of the time,” he said tightly. “Thanks for the pie and the conversation…Sky.”

He turned and left, and I watched him until Anna Kate thrust her face into my field of vision. “You think you’re so smart. Why don’t you go back to Texas?”

“I’m not from Texas. I’m from Wyoming. Totally different states in case you’re not sure. You know, where Yellowstone National Park is located. You two have something in common—Old Faithful.

“What?” she said confused.

“It’s a really gigantic geyser and erupts on a regular basis as dramatically as you do.”

She sputtered, and Beth’s attempt at containing her amusement failed. “The state mammal is the buffalo and we’re proud of our western history and tradition as much as Louisiana is about its Southern hospitality—apparently you were behind the door when God was passin’ out the kindness.”

Her eyes narrowed at Beth’s strangled laugh. She waved her hand. “That’s all irrelevant. Jake knows where his responsibility lies and it’s not with a two-bit, mess of a shop cowgirl. Stay away from him.”

“Or what?” I set my hands on my hips, and in cowgirl speak that was me getting ready to get loud. “You’ll strangle me with your petticoats?”

She rolled her eyes. “I’ll bury you. Your business in this town will dry up into prairie dust.” She turned on her expensive heel and was gone.

“Well, she got the prairie right,” Beth said with a smirk on her face. “Strangle you with her petticoats...” Her eyes danced with her laughter in each word. She raised her hand, palm out, and I high-fived her. “That was great. You want another piece of pie? You deserve it. It’s on me.”

“Pie makes everything better,” I said. “Load up a piece of that rhubarb. I’ll take it to go.”

When she handed me the plate, she said, “That girl needs to be taken down a notch, and I think you’ve got the goods, sister.”

I had the goods all right, but she had Jake. I took my pie and headed back to the speech.

Someone bumped me, and I almost dropped my pie. When I looked up, I waved him off and went to go around him. His hand closed over my upper arm, and I froze.”

“Sky? Hey, long time no see.”

I looked into his earnest face and got a blank. Too thin, tall, with sharp eyes and a beak-shaped nose that reminded me of a hawk. I frowned. “Do I know you?” I asked, my voice hesitant.

“It’s Adam Myers.”

Still I couldn’t place him. “From Jasper Gulch. We went to high school together.”

I froze and my stomach did a little flip.

I hadn’t told anyone where I was going because I wanted to put my past behind me and move on.

But Adam knew all the sordid details of the arson accusations, my arrest. “Oh, right.” I said, looking toward the podium.

It wouldn’t be long now that Chase would speak. I didn’t want to miss a minute.

“I’m here on business in Lafayette. Maybe we could get together for dinner sometime?”

“Maybe,” I said.

“You own the Blue Coyote, I hear.”

I nodded and stepped back. “I’ve got to get going, but it was nice to see you, Adam.

I hope you have a great stay here.” The encounter with him got easily crowded out of my head when I saw that Jake was sitting closer to his parents now, looking harassed and grumpy, his arms folded across his chest. I just wanted to see him smile again.

I had to wonder if Anna Kate ever thought about that at all.

I settled next to her, amused she thought a chair between us could diminish my attraction to Jake.

I could almost hear her teeth grinding. Good thing there was a competent dentist in this town.

I calmly ate my oh-so-delicious pie. I was certain that Anna Kate would be eating crow.

There was one thing about cowgirls who owned their own businesses.

It took gumption and hard work. Texas my ass.

I came from strong Wyoming stock with backbone to spare.

Anna Kate had no idea what she was up against.

“You’ve got her on the run already?” River said in my ear. We entwined pinkies in a sign of solidarity. “I so don’t want that woman in our family.”

We released our fingers, and Braxton gave me an atta-girl look, Boone smiled with a conspiratorial wink, and Booker inclined his head. Talk about some powerful wagons circling around me.

How could I go wrong when I had all the Outlaws on my side?