Page 11 of Want You Back (Second Chance Ranch #1)

Chapter 11

Maverick

Now

I was woefully unprepared for the experience of standing next to Colt at the gate to the indoor riding arena attached to the stables. Colt smelled like a memory, evidently still using whatever brand of soap he had in high school. His shoulders were broader, body more muscular and bulky, voice deeper, but his power to infiltrate all my senses remained unequaled.

My attention should have been fully on Hannah and her first time on a horse. She had helped Kat and Willow saddle Magnolia and had progressed to a slow walk around the arena, following Willow’s lead on Pepperjack. However, Colt was right the hell there after decades of me pushing down the memories of everything we’d been to each other, everything I’d left behind.

“When are we gonna get you up on a horse?” Colt drawled, apparently not content to merely torture me with his nearness.

“If I have any say, never.” I snorted. I knew how to ride, of course. Any Lovelorn boy who didn’t know the basics of riding and ranch chores wouldn’t have lasted long, not with my father at the helm. But horses had never captivated me, not in the way they seemed to have seized Hannah’s imagination.

Taking my focus off Colt, I watched the girls parade around the ring. Had it ever been as magical for me? Sitting up tall, in command of a big animal, learning how to harness its power. Hannah’s expression was one of utter rapture—Christmas, birthday, and favorite band concert tickets rolled into one. Somewhere back at the ranch house were photo albums of the three of us as kids, stacks of pictures of Mel and me, in particular, learning to ride, and not one smile as wide as Hannah’s. Being a Lovelorn was serious business, a lesson I hoped she never learned.

“Uncle Maverick, Willow says there is a trail ride coming up,” Hannah called out, doing an admirable job of keeping her body language straight ahead, not turning in the saddle or jerking the reins. “She says maybe I could go!”

“You’ve only been on a horse all of twenty minutes,” I answered, raising my voice to be heard yet keeping a teasing tone. “Trail rides are long, hard, and honestly, a little boring.”

“Boring? Nah.” Hannah sounded like boredom on horseback was an impossibility when I had vivid memories of a sore ass and burning quads that said otherwise. I’d been forced into more than a few to appease my father. “And I’ve been riding long enough to know I wanna go.”

“If she keeps practicing, she might do okay on the ride.” Kat was absolutely no help as she walked along with the girls. “It’s the annual charity one the ranch sponsors every year, an easy ride and one night camp.”

“There are likely spots left, but all riders under eighteen need an adult present.” Colt managed to agree with Kat while also sounding way too smug for my taste. “Think Faith would mount up?”

“You know that answer.” My voice was tight. In the days since we’d been back at the ranch, I’d tried to keep myself busy, answer questions for Grayson, get up to speed on current operations, and entertain Hannah. Faith, on the other hand, had engaged in long phone conversations with friends back in Houston and taken up day drinking. Or maybe she’d never stopped, a thought I preferred not to dwell on. And with Faith dropping the ball on parenting, who was I to deny my niece the joy the horses were clearly bringing her? “Gah. Hannah really loves this, doesn’t she?”

“She does.” Colt nodded, tone turning more thoughtful. “Resilient kiddo, coming from Houston society life to being a cowgirl. Reminds me of Willow, the way she seems able to roll with change.”

“They do seem like they are friends already.” Across the arena, the girls laughed at something Kat said, and Hannah’s beaming face was all the encouragement I needed to make an effort with Colt. “You wanna stay for supper? I promised Hannah I’d show her how to make homemade pizza on the grill. I’ve got the dough slow-rising in the fridge.”

“You cook?” Colt’s eyes widened. Understandable since he’d known me during the years when my father chased me from the kitchen, and Colt’s aunts and mother did more than their fair share of feeding me. We’d camped together a lot in high school, but hotdogs and marshmallows had been the extent of my outdoor cooking skills. “This I want to see.”

With a busy mother who’d resumed her career as a nurse after his father died and a pack of younger siblings, Colt had more culinary skills than I did back then, producing bacon, eggs, and grilled cheese in a cast iron skillet over the fire. My mouth salivated, a sudden undeniable craving for toasted bread, cheap cheese, and Colt. Always Colt.

And why I was so eager to show off my new skills to him was a subject best left unexplored.

“When Dad refused to give me an allowance because I dared to go to school in California, not Colorado, I had a series of jobs at hotels, including in the kitchens. Learned a lot. Discovered I loved cooking for friends, entertaining.”

After years of too much quiet with only my father and me at the ranch, I’d been only too happy to form a vibrant friend circle in California, fill my life with joyful noises, trying to banish the roaring silence of the past.

“I didn’t know he cut you off entirely.” Frowning, Colt gave a weary exhale.

I hadn’t wanted him to know the extent of my arguments with my father, who’d been livid that not only had I applied to colleges in LA and San Francisco, but I’d dared to win a scholarship to a prestigious business program a world away from this ranch.

“Not the sort of thing Melvin Lovelorn would brag about.” I shrugged. I was years removed from the pain of going from a privileged life at the ranch to the freedom of counting every last penny in LA. “Think he thought I’d come around, but all it did was make me more determined to stay gone.”

“I see.” Colt’s tone turned wooden, gaze distant and unreadable. Damn it. He was the one who’d told me to go. How was I supposed to know he’d been hurt that I didn’t visit?

“Colt—”

“Watch this, Uncle Maverick,” Hannah interrupted with impeccable timing. I dutifully turned my head in time to catch Hannah executing a deft change of direction with Magnolia, grip on the reins as sure and steady as her voice as she commanded the horse.

“Better keep an eye on that one.” Colt’s measured tone covered layers of unsaid meaning. Better keep my attention where it belonged—on Hannah, not the past.

“I might do the trail ride.” I always had been impulsive where this man was concerned, but I managed to add, “For Hannah.”

“Suit yourself.” Colt’s mood had shifted from earlier when he’d seemed ready to goad me into coming along into something more aloof and bitter, the past looming ever large between us, a canyon we weren’t likely to ever escape. “Be good to have a Lovelorn present. I’m sure Kat can find you a suitable mount. Something slow and easy, you being so out of practice and all.”

“Uncle Maverick! Willow’s going to show us some racing now.” No longer on the horse, Hannah bounded up, effectively robbing me of the chance to make a witty comeback. I wanted to snap at Colt, tell him all the ways in which I was most assuredly not out of practice. I wanted to shake him, demand to know if the memories kept overtaking his brain too.

Instead, I dutifully watched as Willow transformed into a near clone of her mother, racing down barrels with a single-minded determination, delivering the sort of tight turns and controlled speed Betsey had been known for.

I’d been the one to leave, and from all reports, Betsey and Colt hadn’t married until years later, Willow likely arriving seven or eight years after I’d left. Regardless of the facts and logic, my hands clenched like Betsey had won and I’d lost. In reality, though, Colt was the one who had lost and lost big, burying a spouse, someone he’d promised to love forever. And if I knew one thing about Colt, he kept his promises.

My divorce had been rather public and messy and heartbreaking, but nothing like what Colt had endured. I wished there was something more I could do or say, something beyond I’m sorry. We’d both had our share of losses, and words were nothing more than empty air.

Perhaps I couldn’t help Colt, but I could be a good distraction for Willow and Hannah. To that end, after the lesson was done, I threw myself into host-with-the-most mode, laying out pizza toppings and joking with the girls. I put on a playlist with their favorite band to keep the mood light as well as distract from Faith being notably absent.

“How can I help?” Colt asked as the girls danced around in the great room adjacent to the big kitchen.

“I’ve got it.” I was used to shooing guests out of my kitchen, but Colt wasn’t having it.

“I’m sure you do, but put me to work.” He punctuated the offer by marching to the big farmhouse sink and washing his hands.

“You always did like to be useful.” I sighed, but I wasn’t truly put out. More time working with Colt wasn’t a bad thing. I placed the metal mixing bowl of dough onto the center island. “Here. Divide the dough into equal balls for eight personal-sized pizzas.”

“My mom jokes I have no idea how to do time off, but she’s not wrong. I took off the weekend of the trail ride though.” Colt’s tone was a guarded warning of sorts, as if his presence wasn’t my main inducement for agreeing to go. “Good dad points and use a few vacation days both.”

“It’ll be a great chance for the girls to get to know each other better.” I gestured toward the open area in front of the TV, where Hannah was showing Willow a new dance trend.

“Probably shouldn’t encourage the friendship with Hannah leaving as soon as y’all find an exit, but it’s nice to see Willow so happy.” Colt offered a half-smile as he watched the girls. Willow broke into a fit of giggles as she first ran into an ottoman and then bounced off the arm of the couch. “And silly. Hasn’t been enough of that in our house.”

“Friends are great, even temporary ones.” I stepped closer. And maybe Colt needed fun in his life as well. I could offer that. “Or old friends.”

“Don’t get ideas, Maverick.”

“I’m not,” I lied. But Willow wasn’t the only Jennings who was far too serious. Colt used to have the best laugh, and I was determined to hear it again. Maybe I couldn’t stick around, but surely I could be good for a smile or two.