“Since we’re on the subject of surprises,” he added, “I have to say it was strange I never ran into you at any of the rodeos.”
“So sorry to disappoint you. Did you think I’d follow your career so I could hound your heels, like the rest of your buckle bunnies?”
He grinned. “You must’ve followed something, if you knew about them.”
“How could I not know?” she asked, keeping her tone as honey-sweet as his eyes. “Even the wannabe champs on the circuit have their admirers.”
And Luke had been so much more than a wannabe. A bull-riding champion, one of the youngest on record, with one of the best records in rodeo. “I kept track of you, all right. For exactly the opposite reason—to know when and where you’d be competing so I could head off in the opposite direction.”
“Then it must’ve made things easier for you when I quit rodeoing.”
“I couldn’t have cared less.” Liar. His decision might have sent a shockwave through the rodeo community, but it had sure made her life less...stressed. Until she’d found out he had taken a job at the Roughneck. “But I’ll bet it made my daddy happy to know he could have you working for him.”
To her annoyance, he grinned. “I reckon it did. I’ll tell you what’s making him happy right now. Having you around again. The rest of the family likes it, too.”
And you, Luke? Her throat tightened as she held back the question. She had no desire to think about anything happening between them. She had already spent too much time thinking about what might have been, about what she once could have had but had lost.
Her throat tightening even more at the thought, she looked over her shoulder. Her so-called best friend stood near the drinks table, hanging out with Lizzie and Savannah. Great. Kim was keeping her distance. Giving her time alone with Luke. Just what she didn’t want.
Reluctantly, almost feeling his gaze on her, she turned back. “I told you the other day, I’m only here temporarily. Just while my family needs me.”
He nodded. “Guess you’re eager to get back home. I hear you’re still living down in Houston.”
Was he keeping tabs on her? She swallowed her irritation and fought to keep her tone polite. There were too many people around for her to respond the way she really wanted to. “After college, I wanted to stay on. I like it there.” Double liar.
“What’s the attraction that’s got you keeping yourself way down there?”
“It’s only a couple of hours away. I’ve got a job. I’m in sales for a company that manufactures Western wear. It’s small, family-owned, like the Peach Pit.”
“You couldn’t get me to live in the big city. Besides, you don’t miss your folks?”
“Of course I do.”
“You don’t visit often.”
“That doesn’t mean I don’t love my family. When Lizzie had...a health scare a few months back, I was here on the double. But I’m happy to have a life of my own, away from the ranch.”
How many more lies could she tell in one conversation? She wasn’t happy in Houston. Far from it. But she had fought for the choice to go to school there...just as she had fought to stay. It was easier than coming home and facing everything. Her childhood. Her history. Luke.
He would never know any of that. She would tell him one truth, though. “It’s a nice feeling, knowing I can take care of myself.”
He paused with the last bite of barbecued beef sandwich halfway to his mouth, then nodded. “I can understand that. I want my daughter to feel the same way—once she grows up, that is.”
Another topic she had no desire to deal with. “I’m happy to be independent.”
His eyebrows rose. “Is that what you call cutting yourself off from family?”
“What do you know about my relationship with my family? It’s been a long time since the days I used to share my troubles with you.” All too aware of the crowd around them, she forced a smile. “And I didn’t cut myself off. I learned how to live on my own. That’s something no one can take away from me.”
“Don’t be so sure,” he said softly.
Though he smiled, too, her heart skipped a beat at his suddenly bleak expression.
Unable to meet his eyes, she pushed a stray olive around on her plate with a fork and inhaled an uneven breath. She couldn’t handle seeing that unexpected touch of vulnerability in Luke’s face. She didn’t want to dwell on what had happened in his life once he’d walked away from her. Most of all, she couldn’t bear even to think about his grief over the wife he had lost or his love for the little girl he shared with that other woman.
To her relief, Kim finally returned to the table, bringing the napkins she’d supposedly needed. To her even greater relief, Luke grabbed his plate and cup.
“Take my seat,” he said. “I’ve got to be getting home.”
He nodded at them both.
Watching him walk away set off a familiar ache in the pit of her stomach.
Kim slid into the seat Luke had left. Carly welcomed the distraction, though Kim’s eyes already held questions. She would want to know what she’d missed. Carly couldn’t fault her for that. When it came to Luke, Kim had been in on the ground floor of Carly’s grand plan.
In senior year, she and Kim had both considered it a real coup for her to have snagged an “older” man, just on the verge of twenty-one compared to their eighteen. Obviously, despite knowing how hurt she had been over the breakup, her best friend believed she still had a thing for Luke.
“And, so...?” Kim prompted.
Carly shrugged. Under cover of the talk all around them, she lowered her voice and reported, “He sat. He ate. He departed. That was the extent of our big reunion, and that’s all it’s ever going to be.”
“Come on, Carly, you can’t be immune to the guy. He’s twice as hot as he was when you went with him.”
“And any interest I had in Luke Nobel cooled to sub-zero temperatures back then. It’s not like he meant a lot to me, anyhow,” she fibbed. “You know I only went out with him in the first place to try to get my dad off my back.” That had been her intention anyhow.
Too bad she had sabotaged herself.
No matter how strongly she’d objected, with graduation on the horizon, Brock had grown more adamant than ever about her taking her place at Baron Energies. At a desk job.
She had acted out, doing the worst thing she could think of—the only thing she could think of at the time—to make Brock Baron change his mind. She had dated Luke Nobel. Being an “older man” and living in a poor part of town earned an automatic two strikes against him—at least on her daddy’s list of high standards.
Yes, the perfect plan...
“But then you never told your dad anything about Luke,” Kim said. “You never told your family or anybody but me. Why not?”
Carly shrugged. For some strange reason, after her first date with Luke, her feelings about flaunting him in front of Brock and her family had done a one-eighty. “I didn’t need him for leverage anymore. I decided to get a backbone and stand up for myself, instead. I told Daddy point-blank I just had no interest in a job at Baron Energies. Then I flashed my acceptance letter from Houston at him and informed him I would be leaving town.”
Kim gasped. “You never told me that, either. How did he react?”
“As if I’d tossed a cow pie down in front of him.”
“You probably broke