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Devon continued to stare at Barbara, confused.
Barbara chuckled. “That look on your face says I was right to bring this one along tonight.” She patted Cole’s upper arm. “We need to get the word out about his sculptures.”
Sculptures? Devon was sure her confusion had left furrows on her forehead so deep you could plant crops in them.
“Turns out he has a real talent for making these beautiful metal sculptures,” Barbara said.
“Mom,” Cole said, sounding a little embarrassed.
Devon barely suppressed another grin.
“I don’t know that beautiful is the right word,” Cole said as he shifted his gaze to Devon. “I just weld together old scrap pieces that nobody wants.”
“Pfftt,” Barbara said with a dismissive wave. “Don’t listen to him. I stick by my assertion that his work is beautiful. You should come out to see it sometime.”
Devon caught her mouth before it fell open. The last thing she needed to do was spend more time with Cole. At least not until she managed to purge her brain of those long-ago memories of him and got used to seeing him around town again. She knew he’d been back living on his family’s ranch with his mom for a few months, but she’d probably seen only him twice.
You know it was twice—once at the Primrose Café and once when he’d been talking with Liam Parrish outside the hardware store.
She’d heard he’d retired from the rodeo circuit, but that was about it. And she hadn’t been about to start asking questions about him. That would draw too much unwanted attention and questions directed back at her.
“Mom, I’m sure Devon is busy.”
Once again, Devon pulled herself back to the present, hoping she hadn’t offended Cole by being so obviously surprised by the fact that he was an artist, one who was going to take part in the Arts and Crafts Trail.
“Maybe after the trail’s opening weekend, I’ll leave the shop in Mandy’s hands and drive it myself. It’d be good to be familiar with all the stops in case anyone asks about specifics.”
What would Cole look like working on a sculpture? Every time she’d thought of him in the years since high school, his image was always attached to rodeo and bulls. She imagined him with a welding iron, shaping pieces of metal to his will, sweat drenching his body to the point that he had to remove his shirt.
Ahhh, she couldn’t think like that. She had to get out of there before she said or did something monumentally stupid and embarrassing. A glance at the smile on Barbara’s face made Devon wonder if the older woman had some idea the route Devon’s thoughts had been traveling. Forget about embarrassing. More like mortifying.
When Ryan Teague stopped to speak to Cole and Barbara, Devon made for the exit as if the back of her pants were on fire.
She was already a few steps out the front door when she stopped. Because she’d evidently ticked off fate today, her mother was walking straight toward her and it was too late to make an escape. When Devon spotted the nice-looking man in an impeccable suit accompanying her mother, a sinking feeling appeared and immediately dropped to the bottom of Devon’s stomach.
“Devon, there you are, dear,” her mother said, too bright and cheery. Devon wondered if anyone besides her could tell that it was a facade. “I think something’s wrong with your phone. I tried to call you earlier. I thought you’d want to know so you can check on it.”
Her mother knew good and well Devon had most likely ignored the call, but this was all a show for the man beside her. He might be a perfectly nice guy, but the mere fact that Devon knew what was coming soured her on him. Not to mention he didn’t look at all like the kind of man she found attractive. His blond, perfect, high-end-magazine-ad appearance didn’t fit in here in Blue Falls, and he certainly wasn’t a good fit for Devon.
Not like Cole.
Stop thinking about him, especially in front of your mother.
Devon wasn’t entirely sure her mother didn’t have the ability to read minds. Angela Newberry just chose to ignore what she found there.
Her mother gave Devon’s outfit—white drawstring cotton pants with pale orange pinstripes and a billowy orange peasant blouse—a disdainful look that her companion couldn’t see.
“Sweetheart,” Angela said, pouring on the mother-daughter closeness act a little thick, “I didn’t want you to miss the opportunity to meet Steven Jackson. He’s an attorney for one of your father’s important customers, in town only for today. I told him he simply couldn’t leave Blue Falls without exploring the charm of our fair town.”
Devon resisted the urge to strangle her mother, instead deciding to beat her at her own game.
“I wouldn’t dream of denying you that opportunity, Mom. After all, you know more about the town than I do since you’ve lived here longer.”
The slight narrowing of her mother’s eyes told Devon she was going to pay for that comment later when Steven Jackson was nowhere near to hear it. Still, her mother didn’t listen to reason. She simply refused to believe that Devon didn’t like any of the men her mother deemed appropriate for the only daughter of one of the county’s wealthiest families.
“I can’t, dear,” her mother said. “I have a meeting that was planned before I knew Steven would be here.”
Yeah, right.
“If it’s an inconvenience, please don’t worry about it,” Steven said.
Before Devon could respond, her mother said, “Oh, nonsense. I’m sure Devon is free and would love to be your tour guide. I just heard that they have a new chef at the Wildflower Inn, too. You’ll have to try it out and let me know how the food is.”
Devon wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if poor in-the-middle Steven could see the steam coming out of her ears.
“There you are, sweetie. Sorry we got held up in there.”
Devon turned to Barbara, who’d stepped up beside her. Cole had to be close by, but Devon didn’t look for him. She wasn’t willing to risk that certain rush of heat up her neck and into her face in front of her mother.
“You ready to go?” Barbara asked Devon.
She was about to ask Barbara what in the world she was talking about when she realized the older woman was throwing her a lifeline. It didn’t matter why, Devon decided to look at it as a gift from the universe and roll with it.
“Yes.”
She could almost feel the anger radiating off her mother.
“Excuse us, Barbara, but Devon was making plans with Steven.”
Devon barely kept herself from telling her mother she was being rude. How could anyone be rude to Barbara Davis? She was as sweet as pie.
“Devon already has plans to have dinner with us,” Barbara responded. Was that a little edge to her voice? What was going on here?
Her mother’s expression revealed a moment of shock, over in less than a blink when she pasted on her fake smile. “Perhaps you can reschedule. Steven is only in town from Dallas for this evening.”
Steven looked like he wanted to be snatched up by a giant eagle and carried right out of this really uncomfortable situation. Devon didn’t blame him.
Devon sensed movement on her left a moment before someone wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
Not someone. Cole.
She stiffened, afraid that if she moved he would disappear, taking his delicious warmth and fresh, clean, honest scent with him.
“You ready for dinner?” he asked. “I’m starving.”
She was starving, all right. Starving for air. Starving for a regular heartbeat. Starving for the ability to be able to look up into his eyes without revealing just how much his simple gesture was rocking her world.
Chapter Two (#ulink_f03c391d-76c9-59ff-b4ee-474a8a1bcd2f)
When Cole wrapped his arm around Devon’s shoulders, she went stiff as a fence post. He wondered if he’d made a miscalculation of how she’d respond, but then she relaxed a fraction and played along with the tale he and his mother were spinning by the seat of their pants.
Though he suspected his mother was up to something, he followed her lead. It was that or continuing to watch Devon’s mother bully her. How the older woman was treating her daughter raised his ire, the same way he was angered anytime he saw a parent belittling or mistreating a child. He’d damn near gotten himself thrown in jail up in Wyoming the time he’d intervened when he’d seen a woman grab her little girl by her ponytail and nearly drag her out of a restaurant. Thankfully, there had been enough witnesses who took his side that he’d avoided ending up behind bars. But he wouldn’t have done anything differently even if he had ended up there.
Granted, Devon was a grown woman, but that didn’t suddenly give her mother the right to embarrass her in public.
“It was nice to meet you, Steven,” Devon said, sounding sincere. “I hope you enjoy your visit to Blue Falls.”
“Thank you,” the man beside Angela Newberry said.
Cole fought the strange urge to dislike the guy, but it appeared Steven had been roped into this awkward situation unknowingly.
Angela appeared as though she was about to protest again, so Cole steered Devon away from her mother and toward the parking lot. Yes, it was partly to prevent Devon from having to endure any more pressure from her mother, but it was more so he’d remove himself from Angela’s presence before he said something that would embarrass both his mom and Devon.
“Devon,” Angela called out.
“‘Bye, Mom.” Devon threw a wave over her shoulder without looking back.
As they put distance between themselves and Angela, Devon didn’t move to extricate herself from him. Most likely it was because she knew her mother was probably staring at Devon’s back, but it felt good to have his arm wrapped around a woman again nonetheless.
Oh hell, he was not going there. If he could be sure Angela wasn’t watching them, he’d be the first to step away. The absolute last thing he needed in his life was a woman. He’d been down that path more than once, and it always ended up dead-ending in Craptown.
When they maneuvered their way to the other side of his truck, he lifted his arm away from her and let it fall to his side while he propped his other arm along the side of his truck bed.
“Thanks for the rescue,” Devon said, not making eye contact.
He wondered if she was embarrassed because he’d witnessed the disagreement between her and her mother or if it was that she’d allowed him to pose as something he wasn’t. And would never be. He might convince himself to go on the occasional date, but from now on it was going to be casual one-and-done for him. Getting serious with someone led to marriage, and he’d tried that twice already and neither had ended well. There was no third-time’s-the-charm.
“No problem,” he said.
She shifted from one foot to the other, as if she might be about to turn and leave.
“You’ll need to come out to the house now,” his mom said as she joined them.
At that, Devon looked up.
“If you don’t, your mom will find out and know this was all a ruse. Plus, it’d be nice to visit anyway. And you could see Cole’s sculptures.”
There it was, his mother’s undying belief that “the one” was still out there for him, the woman who would love him and give his mom grandchildren. He could tell her a million times that he was done with marriage and she still refused to believe him.
“Neither of those marriages worked out because neither of them was the right woman,” she’d said on more than one occasion.
He’d finally stopped wasting his breath. She’d figure it out when year after year passed by with him still single and childless. Leave it to his younger brother, Cooper, to be the provider of grandchildren. Maybe then his mom would abandon her determined hope for Cole’s happily-ever-after.
He expected Devon to decline. Instead, she nodded.
“You’re probably right. I hate that you all got sucked into the gravitational pull that is my mother’s belief she can find the perfect man for me.”
His mom made a dismissive sound. “Don’t worry about it. We were happy to help.”
In fact, his mom sounded a bit too happy. And for a moment, Cole wasn’t sure if all that barely contained glee was solely because she might have some matchmaking up her sleeve. Now that he thought about it, he remembered the occasional offhand remark from his mom about Angela Newberry that indicated she didn’t like the other woman. He hadn’t thought about it much when she’d made those remarks, but now he wondered if there was some bigger story there.
His mom clapped her hands together once. “Well, we better get going before Angela gets suspicious.”
If Devon’s mom had a lick of sense, she was already suspicious. But he guessed they had to run with this a while longer. As he slipped into the driver’s seat of his truck, he couldn’t help but glance toward where Devon was walking to her car. There was no denying she was pretty with that head full of long, curly red hair. And despite the fact that she lived in Texas, her skin wasn’t tanned. Maybe with her fair complexion she burned easily and took caution in the sun.
“She’s certainly grown into a beautiful woman, hasn’t she?”
He shifted his attention to his mom sitting in the passenger seat. “You can just stop right there.”
“What? I can’t say when I think someone’s pretty?”
He snorted. “We both know where you’re going with this, and my view on the whole idea hasn’t changed.”
His mom sighed. “Fine. Maybe you two can at least be friends. With a mom like hers, I’m sure she could use them.”
“What’s up with you and Angela Newberry anyway?”
“She’s always been too snooty for words, thinks she’s better than everyone else.”
He still thought there might be more to the story, but he also knew when his mom wasn’t going to say more on the subject. “Good enough reason for me.”
He started the truck and pulled out onto Main Street, not allowing himself to check the rearview mirror to see if a certain redhead was following.
* * *
DEVON SHOOK HER head as she followed Cole and Barbara toward their ranch. Perhaps going through with the visit was overkill, but sometimes it felt as if her mother had eyes and ears everywhere. Not for the first time, Devon wondered how her life would be different if she’d moved away from Blue Falls, hundreds or even thousands of miles away from her family.
No doubt her mom would still find a way to know everything she was doing and criticize it. To Angela Newberry, Devon had chosen a life beneath her. She was supposed to marry a man with the right pedigree according to her mom, take part in carefully chosen causes and pop out a few babies while her husband was brought into the fold at Diamond Ranch Western Wear.
Ugh. The image made her skin crawl. It wasn’t that the thought of marrying and having children repulsed her. But, funny thing, she’d like to be the one picking the husband in that scenario, preferably someone who looked at the world as she did, who wasn’t bedazzled by her parents’ money. Even the name of her parents’ huge ranch and the namesake clothing company that produced high-end Western wear for everyone from governors to famous country singers didn’t sit well with her. It sounded pretentious. She hated pretentious.
She much preferred her little sustainable farm, where she raised chickens, goats and sheep, spun wool, made goat’s-milk soap. It provided the peace and freedom from stress that she’d lacked growing up. Money often couldn’t buy you the things you wanted most. She’d even chosen a simple name for her home, Phlox Farm, because the hillside next to her house had been covered in bright purple phlox the first time she’d seen it. So unlike Diamond Ranch, where the only diamonds to be found were on her mother’s hand or in her jewelry box.
The day she’d visited her farm, it had been love at first sight. When her mother had found out where Devon was moving, she’d sworn Devon had lost her mind. Her mom didn’t realize that by saying that, it only made Devon more convinced she’d done the right thing by buying it.
She lifted her hand to shade the setting sun trying to blind her through the driver’s-side window. Leaving thoughts of the past in the past where they belonged, she focused on the pickup in front of her, and not getting so lost in her memories that she drove too close to it.
Cole looked over toward his mom, putting his strong profile on display. Devon’s heartbeat did a disconcerting fluttery thing, causing her to take a slow, deep breath to calm the rhythm. She had to purge this problematic attraction, especially if she didn’t want to trip over her own tongue and make an idiot of herself while she had to spend time at the ranch.
She nearly hit the brakes and turned around. She’d ceased letting her mother have power over her decisions years ago, and yet here she was, willing to go hide out at the Davis ranch simply because her mom was trying to fix her up again.
This wasn’t your idea.
No, but she hadn’t put the kibosh on it, either.
Good grief, she was putting too much importance on the impending visit. She liked Barbara, who was friendly and a faithful customer of the fabric section of A Good Yarn. Both she and Cole had helped her out, so the least she could do was maybe have a cup of coffee with them, take a gander at Cole’s work, say some appropriately complimentary words, then head home to that bath and book that seemed to keep getting further and further away.
Several miles north of town, Cole finally put on his left-turn signal and pulled into his family’s ranch. She wondered what it had felt like to him when he’d returned home after several years on the rodeo circuit. When he’d left right after high school, his father had been alive and his younger brother had still been at home. Now it was Cooper out riding the circuit, so Cole had come home to only his mom.
