“I try not to be.”
“You ain’t been to church in a good long while.”
He should have known it would come back to that. “I’ve been busy.”
“Oh, land’s sakes, don’t give me that. I’m not sure what burr got under your saddle, but it isn’t so big that God can’t fix it.”
He smiled and shook his head. “I know He’s capable. But there’s no burr, just a busy life.”
“Help me to my car, then.”
They were on the sidewalk heading for the old Buick Iva drove. And that’s when he saw Ruby Donovan. She stood in front of the white car dressed in shorts, canvas sneakers and a T-shirt. Her auburn hair lifted slightly in the breeze and she pushed it back and held it with her hand as she watched him approach. Seeing her like that took him back to the first time he’d seen her. She’d been fifteen. He’d been seventeen. She’d just gotten off some crazy ride at the county fair. She’d been laughing at something her friend had said and walking toward the Ferris wheel.
Today felt a lot like that moment when they’d met. And nothing like that moment. Today when she looked at him her hazel eyes didn’t sparkle. Her mouth didn’t form that generous smile. No, she glared. He felt more than a little edgy seeing her up close and in person for the first time in twelve years.
One of these days he’d like to get an answer from her. He’d like to know what he’d done to deserve her walking away without even saying goodbye. He’d like to know how she’d gone from wanting to spend a life together to wanting nothing more than a free ride to college, compliments of his father.
But maybe it was better if he didn’t know.
* * *
Ruby sucked in a breath and tried to pretend her heart wasn’t tripping all over itself the way it had always tripped when she saw Carson Thorn. She’d managed to avoid him for a dozen years. That hadn’t been easy considering he lived just down the road from her grandmother. But somehow on her odd trips home she’d managed.
But seeing him, the tall rancher with the dark brown hair and brown eyes that a girl could get lost in, was like going back. It was like being in love again. And she wasn’t in love. He was no longer that boy, and she was no longer an impressionable teenage girl who believed in happy-ever-after.
It was this man who had taken those dreams from her. This man and his family. Until she’d met the Thorns she had always been good enough.
To see him helping her Gran to the car, that sizzled down deep where the red in her hair lived waiting to be unleashed.
She stepped forward, ignoring the confused look on his face. She ignored expensive cologne that smelled like the mountains and the ocean and everything good in between. She tried, desperately, to ignore the fact that the air seemed too thick to breathe when he was in her space. The need for oxygen meant she had to get him gone as quickly as possible.
“Thank you, Carson. I’ll help her to the car.”
“Be nice, Ruby Jo,” Iva warned.
“I’m being nice.” Ruby stepped close to help her grandmother off the sidewalk.
Iva leaned in. “No, you’re showing your claws. You have no idea, Ruby.”
“I have ideas.” She looked back. Carson was still there, watching them.
Her younger brother, Derek, was nowhere to be found. He’d said something about errands to run and he’d get a ride home. She didn’t like when he disappeared. She trusted him, but since cattle had started disappearing just a little too close to the time Derek had been released from prison, she knew he was going to continue to be a suspect until someone was caught.
These days everyone was a suspect.
She was surprised no one had tried to blame her since she’d arrived back in town only a few weeks ago.
Carson interrupted her thoughts, and that was too bad because she’d been trying to block him from her mind and her memories. He stepped past her and opened the car door.
Once Iva was situated, Ruby took her purse out of the walker and folded the contraption up to store it in the trunk of the car. She turned, and Carson Thorn was there. Without a word, he took the walker from her hands. If she’d trusted herself to speak, she would have told him that she could take care of things herself.
Funny that his name was Thorn, because he was a real thorn in her side. A thorn she’d prayed like the apostle Paul that God would remove from her. She’d tried to pray away his memory. And now? She didn’t need him lurking, being kind, respectful. She needed him to go away and not be a reminder of everything she’d lost and why she’d left Little Horn.
If it hadn’t been for Iva and Derek, she would have stayed in Oklahoma, and then she wouldn’t have had this issue to deal with. But she was home. And they did need her here. Her grandmother needed her.
“Is that frown for me?”
What should she say to that? She could say, of course it wasn’t. Or she could admit that it was. “I didn’t realize I was frowning.”
He leaned against the back of the car, long legs in new jeans and those expensive boots of his. The walker was still in his hands.
“You were definitely frowning.”
“I should have sold the ranch and convinced Gran and Derek to move to Oklahoma with me,” she admitted without intending to.
“What would have been the fun in that? You’re not a city girl, Ruby. You were born and raised in Hill Country, and you can’t outrun it.”
“I’ve been living in the city a long time, and I’m adaptable.”
His smile faded. “Yes, I guess you are.”
She wondered about that smile, why he acted as if it was all about him. She wondered if he had any clue how much his dad and sister had hurt her. How much he’d hurt her? It wasn’t as if she’d wanted to stay gone from her home. She’d stayed gone because she hadn’t been able to imagine seeing him with someone else. She was only back because Gran’s health had deteriorated and someone had to look out for Derek.
“Listen, we don’t have to do this. When we see each other, we don’t have to get tugged back into the past. It was a long time ago and I’m over it. I’m sure you’re over it since...” She shook her head. She wasn’t going there. “I have work to do.”
He stepped away from the back of the car and pointed, indicating she should open the trunk. When she did, he lifted the walker and stowed it inside. “There you go. Is there anything else you need help with?”
She stared up at the tall, overpowering rancher, surprised by the offer. She tried to see the boy she’d known in the face of this ruggedly handsome stranger. The features were stronger, more defined, more...everything. His eyes were shuttered against emotion. But she saw a flicker, maybe a hint of warmth.
“I don’t need help. We’ve always gotten along just fine.”
“Did you put up the surveillance cameras the league handed out?”
“I have them in a box. I haven’t had a chance to take them out, and I don’t know if I can do it myself.”
“I can help you put them up.”
She wondered if her mouth had dropped when he made that offer. Purposefully, she clamped her lips and shook her head. “I’ll read the directions and do it myself,” she insisted. Yes, she knew the only difference between her and a stubborn five-year-old was the lack of a foot stomp on her part.
“I was trying to help.”
“I know. And I really do appreciate that. But I can take care of things. Derek will help me.” She put a