A Maverick to [Re] Marry Read online

  But no. She and Derek needed to talk.

  She needed to tell him...what? There was nothing to tell him. It was over and it had been over for years and years.

  Still. They really ought to come to some sort of understanding as to how they were going to work together. Not to mention, she needed to know who in town knew about them. And how much they knew. And, from now on, what would be getting said to whom.

  Suddenly, everyone was standing and moving toward the door—everyone but Amy. She shook herself and leapt to her feet.

  And then once she was up, she just stood there at her chair, dithering over how to approach him, what to say to get his attention before he went out the door and she missed her chance to tell him...

  What?

  Dear Lord, she had no idea.

  She blinked and finally made herself glance in his direction.

  He was looking straight at her. “So, Amy, got a few minutes?” Those green eyes gave nothing away. “We should touch base.”

  Her heart pounding so hard she was lucky it didn’t crack a rib, she nodded. “A walk, maybe?” she heard herself offer lamely.

  “That’ll work.”

  It took her several agonizing seconds to realize that he was waiting for her to join him. “Oh!” she exclaimed like a total doofus and ordered her feet to carry her toward him.

  They all went out to the porch together and waved goodbye to Viv.

  Luke shook Derek’s hand. “Friday, happy hour. The Ace.”

  “I’ll be there,” said Derek.

  The Ace in the Hole was the only bar within the Rust Creek Falls town limits. Amy remembered it all too well from her short, unhappy visit to town nine years before.

  And then, last year, the Ace had garnered national attention when a reality show, The Great Roundup, had filmed final auditions there. Travis Dalton, Derek’s cousin, had been on that show and so had Travis’s now-wife, Brenna O’Reilly Dalton.

  Amy had watched the show faithfully every week. The scenes filmed in town had made her feel all warm and fuzzy, made her long for Rust Creek Falls, made her remember the good times growing up. Best of all, The Great Roundup had allowed her to get sappy and sentimental from the safety of her Boulder, Colorado living room. Never had she ever planned to set foot in town again.

  But now, here she was, about to get up close and conversational with the very reason she’d stayed away for so long in the first place.

  Luke and Eva went back into the house, leaving Amy alone with the gorgeous broad-shouldered stranger who’d once ruled her teenaged heart. She just stood there, like a lump. She had no idea what to say to him.

  He had his straw Resistol in his hand. He slid the hat onto his head and tugged on the brim to settle it.

  Everything inside her was aching. This couldn’t be happening.

  But it was.

  “Let’s go.” He started walking. She followed him down the steps and out into the late-afternoon sunshine.

  He turned for the big yellow barn where Eva and Luke would get married in less than four weeks. Amy came up beside him and they walked together, but not touching, neither saying a word. Somewhere far off, a lone bird cried, the sound faint. Plaintive.

  “Here’s as good as anywhere, I guess,” he said, stopping at a split rail fence fifty yards or so from the looming shape of the barn.

  For more reasons than she cared to contemplate, she didn’t want to look directly at him, so she turned toward the pasture on the other side of the fence. The papers Viv had given her crackled in her hands as she rested her forearms on the top rail and gazed off at nothing in particular.

  Silence. Out in the pasture, a bay mare snorted and shook her dark mane.

  Derek said, “You look good,” and she tried to read his tone. Careful? Thoughtful? Maybe a little angry?

  What did it matter, though, what was on his mind? She didn’t know him anymore. They were strangers to each other now and she needed to remember that. “Thanks. You, too—and, well, I don’t even know where to start.” She did look at him then. He was watching her from under the shadow of his hat. Waiting. She swallowed. Hard. “I have been wondering, though...”

  “What?”

  “Well, it would be good to have some idea of who knows,” she said, and then wanted to kick herself. Could she be any more unclear? He probably had no clue what she’d just tried to ask him.

  But as it turned out, he understood perfectly. “About us, you mean?”

  “Yeah. About, um, what happened thirteen years ago.”

  “Nobody in this town,” he said. “Nobody but me.” A slow smile curved his beautiful mouth. “Well, and you, now that you’re here. While you’re here.”

  She caught her lower lip between her teeth. “I would like it to stay that way.”

  “Just between you and me, you mean?”

  “Yes, Derek.” His name in her mouth tasted way too familiar. “Just between us. Can we keep it that way?”

  “You got it. I’ve never told a soul and I won’t start now.” And then he frowned. “But what about the Armstrongs? You didn’t ever tell Eva or her sisters?”

  “No.” Her silly throat had clutched and the word came out in a whisper. She knew her cheeks had to be lobster-red. “Ahem.” She coughed into her hand. And then she made herself explain. “I never told the Armstrongs the whole story. All they know is that you and I dated in high school. How about Luke? Your family?”

  “I meant what I said, Amy. I haven’t told anyone. It just seemed better to put the whole thing behind me. It’s the past and it needs to stay that way.”

  “I agree.” And she did. Absolutely, she did. She wished that none of it had ever happened.

  But it did happen. And it changed her in the deepest way.

  Did it change him, too, she wondered?

  Not that she would ever ask. She had no right to ask and she needed to remember that.

  He smiled again—halfway this time, one corner of his mouth kicking up. “Luke waited until after I said I would be his best man to tell me that you would be the maid of honor.”

  A strange, tight spurt of laughter escaped her. She quickly composed herself. “I see Eva all over that.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She got me to agree to be her maid of honor before she mentioned that you would be best man.”

  “So, you think she knows more than you’ve told her?”

  “Well, you know Eva, right? She’s a complete and unapologetic romantic. I think she suspects there was more than just a high school crush going on between us back in the day.” Another tight little laugh escaped her—and then she wanted to cry. Really, she couldn’t stand for him not to know what she truly felt, how much she regretted the way things had ended up. “Derek, I...”

  “Yeah?” His eyes held hers, a deep look, one that reached down into the center of her and stirred up emotions she wished she didn’t feel.

  “I, well, I just need you to know that I’m sorry. For everything.”

  Wow. She almost couldn’t believe that she’d gone and done it, apologized straight out. And as soon as the words escaped her lips, she kind of wanted to take them back.

  Because really, wasn’t he the one who’d told her to go?

  But what else could a person say at a time like this?

  “I’m sorry, too,” he said.

  “But it’s fine,” she blurted out.

  He nodded. “Yeah. You’re right. It’s water under the bridge. Years ago. Not a big deal.”

  “Absolutely. Over and done. We’ve both put it behind us. Derek, we can do this. We can be there for Luke and Eva. We can help make their wedding everything they deserve it to be.”

  He took off his hat, hit the brim against his denim-clad thigh, then put it back on. “Yeah. That’s our job and we can do it.”

  She straightened her shoulders. “We will do it.”

  “Yes, we will,” he agreed.

  And then they just stood there at the fence, staring at each
other.

  The silence stretched thin.

  He broke it. “Well, all right, then. I’ll be in touch.” And without another word, he turned and left her standing there.

  Chapter Two

  Feeling stunned by the whole encounter, Amy stared after Derek as he walked away from her.

  Once he reached the turnaround in front of the house again, he climbed into a mud-spattered red F-150 pickup. The engine roared out, the big wheels stirring up a cloud of dust as he drove away.

  What had just happened? She wasn’t sure. Had they actually forgiven each other?

  Well, at least they’d said the words. And that was good, she decided. They didn’t need to talk it to death. What was there to say, anyway?

  It was all in the past.

  Too bad they’d come up with nothing in terms of a plan for the bachelor party. He’d said he would “be in touch.” What exactly did that mean?

  Annoyance prickled through her. Okay, she got that she wasn’t his favorite person. But they did have to work together. He could have stuck around long enough to set a time and a place.

  She glanced down at the papers in her hand. His numbers were right there at the top of the first page—mobile and home. Would the home number be the main house at his family’s ranch, the Circle D? She’d had that number memorized all those years ago. It was burned into her brain and she remembered it still. But this home number was different. Did he live somewhere else now?

  He’d moved to the bunkhouse in April of their senior year, to give himself a little independence from his close-knit family. Back then, the bunkhouse number was the same as at the main house, but maybe they’d put in a separate line since then.

  Not that she cared. It didn’t matter to her where, exactly, he lived now. She just needed to know when and where they would meet.

  She shook her head at the stack of papers. If he didn’t get back to her in the next day or two, she would have to call him.

  No big deal.

  And really, he had said he would be in touch, right? What was she worrying about?

  Forget calling him. He would call her.

  And of course, that would be soon...

  * * *

  Amy barely got back in the door of the farmhouse before Eva was all over her. “What did he say? Is it okay between you? Was it hard, to see him again?”

  “Eva.” She managed a laugh. “Cut it out. It was fine. It was years ago.”

  “But you loved him.”

  Oh, yes, she had. But she wasn’t going there. “It was high school. And it’s all in the past. There are no problems between us and you don’t have to worry.”

  “I’m not worrying.” Her big blue eyes got bigger. “I just want to know, is the spark still there?”

  Amy wasn’t answering that one. No way. She kept it light, making a show of tapping her chin as though deep in thought. “Hmm. Is it just me or are you playing matchmaker?”

  Eva blushed the sweetest shade of pink. “I would never...”

  “Yeah, right.”

  They both burst out laughing at the same time and Eva said, “Okay, okay. I’ll butt out, I promise.”

  Amy gave her friend the side-eye. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

  * * *

  Derek didn’t call that evening. And he didn’t call on Tuesday.

  By Wednesday, the Fourth of July, she knew she should go ahead and reach out.

  Maybe a text. She wouldn’t even have to talk to him until their actual meeting.

  She put his cell number in her phone, hit the message icon and started typing, whipping out five different messages and deleting them as fast as she wrote them. After the fifth attempt, she decided she would just wait another day to deal with the whole reaching out thing.

  That night, she went into town with Eva, Luke and his brother Bailey, for a barbecue at their sister Bella’s house and to watch the fireworks in the town park later. That whole evening, she felt on edge just thinking that she might run into Derek.

  But she never so much as caught sight of him.

  The days were going by. They needed to meet up. But he hadn’t called.

  And she couldn’t quite bring herself to make the first move.

  * * *

  By Thursday evening, as he ate his solitary dinner in the house he’d built for himself on Circle D land, Derek Dalton was feeling more than a little bit jerkish.

  He’d told Amy he would get back to her. He needed to call her and set up another meeting.

  But even after all these years, it still hurt something deep inside him just to be near her. She looked the same—with long brown hair showing gleams of red in the sun, creamy skin, eyes that seemed to change color depending on her mood, brown to olive green and back again, sometimes with a hint of gold.

  Yeah. She looked the same. But even better, so smooth and classy. Luke had mentioned that she’d gone on to graduate school after four years at the University of Colorado. He’d said she had some high-tech accounting job and she owned her own house in Boulder.

  None of that information surprised Derek. Amy had been the smartest girl at Rust Creek Falls High, put ahead a year when she was twelve, so they’d ended up in the same grade. She’d been valedictorian of their small graduating class. Her dad was a rich guy from Boulder who’d given up the rat race for a while to become a rancher in the Rust Creek Falls Valley—and then moved back to Colorado when Amy left to go to college there.

  Derek never would’ve had a chance with Jack and Helen Wainwright’s precious only daughter if he hadn’t needed a math tutor to get him through Algebra II in his senior year.

  He shook his head. Him and Amy? That was an old, sad song and they wouldn’t be playing it ever again. He needed to get his mind off the past. There was zero to be gained by a trip down memory lane.

  Shoving back his chair, he picked up his plate and carried it to the counter. Outside the window over the sink, the sunset turned the bellies of the clouds to bright orange and deep purple.

  Maybe he’d head on into town, see if he could scare up a poker game at the Ace.

  Then again, he’d had a long day today, moving cattle, putting out mineral barrels. Tomorrow, he needed to be up early. He felt antsy and ornery. If he went to the Ace, it would be too easy to drink too much and do or say something he would end up regretting.

  He turned in early and had a restless night.

  But it could have been worse. At least he didn’t have a hangover at eight on Friday morning when he parked his pickup in front of the old warehouse at Sawmill and North Broomtail Road.

  Four years ago, he’d joined Collin Traub in his one-man saddlery business. At first, they’d worked in the basement of Collin’s house up on Falls Mountain. But then CT Saddles had moved to the warehouse. The larger space allowed them to buy more equipment and take on more projects. They were still a small shop, but the Traub name was a trusted one and their business kept growing.

  Derek thought about Amy constantly that day. Really, it was way past time he gave her a call. But the hours ticked by and he never did.

  His failure to get back to her was moving beyond jerkish, heading into jackass territory. But he still failed to pick up the phone.

  At five, Collin went on up the mountain to his wife, Willa, and their little boy, Robbie. Ned Faraday, who was sixteen and helping out at the saddlery for the summer, headed home for dinner.

  Derek washed up in the saddlery restroom and thought again about how he needed to call Amy. He even took out his phone and looked at it for a good minute or two before shaking his head and sticking it back in his pocket.

  At five thirty, he walked down the street to the Ace to meet Luke and his brothers for a drink. It was the five of them—Luke, Jamie, Daniel, Bailey and Derek. They took over a big table not far from the bar and ordered some pitchers.

  Jamie and Daniel Stockton were both happily married. Jamie had triplets, Henry, Jared and Kate. They were two and a half years old now. Jamie got everyone laug
hing with stories of the mischief the three little ones got up to. Danny spoke fondly of his wife and their daughter, Janie.

  And Luke? He mostly just sat there, slowly sipping his beer with a contented smile on his face. Everyone in town knew that Luke Stockton was long-gone in love with Eva Rose Armstrong and couldn’t wait to make her his wife.

  Bailey was the lone unattached Stockton brother. He’d been married and divorced. Like Luke and Daniel, he’d returned to town in the past year after more than a decade away. Now he lived at Sunshine Farm. He and Luke worked the ranch together, building a new herd, bringing the family homestead back from years of neglect.

  That evening, Bailey didn’t say much at first. But after a beer or two, he started making his feelings about matrimony painfully clear.

  “It’s a losin’ game is what it is.” He raised his glass to Derek, who’d taken the chair across from him. “And you, my man, are the only one at this table with the sense the good Lord gave a goat. You got the ladies all over you, but no woman ever tied you down and slapped on a brand.”

  Ignoring the sudden sweet image of Amy that popped into his head unbidden, Derek forced a wry laugh. “Put a sock in it, Bailey. Your brothers look pretty damn happy to me.”

  Bailey groaned. “They all start out happy, now don’t they?”

  “You’re getting obnoxious,” warned Luke. “Quit while you’re ahead.”

  But Bailey wasn’t about to take his brother’s good advice. “What I’m ‘getting’ is honest. It’s too late for Danny and Jamie here. They’ll just have to learn the hard way that marriage is a game for fools.” He leaned close to Luke and stage-whispered in his ear, “Get away. Get away while you still can.”

  “Knock it off.” Luke elbowed him hard in the ribs.

  “Ow!” Bailey rubbed his side. “Big brother, you got an elbow on you.”