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“What are you not saying?”
That was the problem with being friends with someone most of your life. They could even read your thoughts, no eye contact required.
“Nothing. I’m worn out and I’ve had some wine. I just need to go to bed and sleep today away.”
“Do you know how to party on a Saturday night or what?”
“Not all of us have a sizzling-hot cowboy to get frisky with.”
“Maybe you could,” Devon said. “Last I heard, Ben was single. And you gotta admit he’s not hard to look at.”
She’d walked right into that one, hadn’t she?
“I’ll be sure to tell Cole you think so the next time I see him.”
“Listen, chickie, I received no end of teasing from you about Cole, so it’s my turn to dish it out.”
“Good night, Devon.” Mandy hung up and knew exactly how Devon would react the moment she did. They’d been through many similar scenarios since the moment they both acquired their first cell phones.
As if on cue, her phone buzzed with a text. With a sigh, she looked at the display.
You know you just confirmed you like Ben by hanging up on me, right?
Mandy took a swig of wine and texted back. Sorry, wrong number.
She imagined Devon laughing as she read the reply. Why hadn’t she just let Devon think her mother was the one driving her?
Because there was a part of her, the part that inhabited all giggly teenage girls and evidently never went away, that wanted to talk about a boy she thought was cute. And Ben Hartley was way beyond cute. She leaned her head back and closed her eyes, picturing how he’d looked standing there next to her car, talking to Greg. Tall, lean, his blond hair peeking out from under his cowboy hat. Her body temperature had gone up more than even the scorching heat of the day could account for, and it did so again now just thinking about it. Even the blissfully cool interior of her home wasn’t enough to prevent the flush to her skin.
Maybe this was all Devon’s fault. After all, her best friend wore a permanent grin of satisfaction on her face these days. It was only natural to want a little of that for herself, right? And she could do worse than Ben Hartley. Not that he was even interested. They’d lived in the same town for as long as she could remember and they’d never been more than classmates as kids and passing acquaintances as adults. But couldn’t the same be said about Devon and Cole? And look how that had turned out—wedded bliss.
Mandy shook that thought away. Ben was only going out of his way to help her because he felt responsible for the accident.
But a bit of fantasizing never hurt anybody, did it? No one ever needed to know what she thought about while sitting here in her own home enjoying her wine. Enjoying imagining what it might be like to kiss Ben Hartley.
* * *
OF COURSE HALF his family was outside and able to see his return in a truck more damaged than when he’d left earlier that afternoon. That was just how his day was going. And when he parked and got out of the truck, the amusement on his brother Adam’s and sister Sloane’s faces told him the pigeon story was already winging its way around the county.
“You’re just in time for dinner,” Sloane said. “We’re having pigeon pie.”
He moved quickly, grabbing her and tossing her over his shoulder and spinning her round and round.
Sloane banged on his back. “Put me down!”
He just laughed until the toe of her boot connected with his thigh. That caused him to release her so quickly she stumbled and nearly fell when her feet hit the ground.
“Can’t take a little teasing?” she asked.
“I’ve already had more than a little.”
“You had to see this coming the moment that bird flew in your window,” Adam said as he leaned against the front of his own truck.
Ben walked past his siblings. “Some days I wish Mom and Dad had adopted only one kid.”
“That would have been me,” Neil said as he appeared at the edge of the front porch, evidently on his way home to Arden.
Ben growled at his older brother as he shoved past him, as well, on his way inside. He’d retreat to his leather shop if he wasn’t so hungry he was afraid he might eat one of the saddles he was making.
As soon as he stepped into the kitchen, his mom hurried over to him and clasped his chin in her fingers then turned his head sideways the same way she had when Billy Castner had given him a shiner in the sixth grade.
Ben took a step back from her. “I’m okay. It was just a little fender bender. Stop worrying.”
She placed her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m your mother. It’s what moms do. I swear, I thought I’d get you kids grown and you’d stop giving me gray hairs.”
He tilted his head at that comment.
His mom held up a finger. “Not one word about how would I even be able to tell.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.”
She patted his cheek. “Smart boy.”
He’d stopped being a boy a long time ago, but he loved his mom enough to let her call him whatever she wanted. She and his dad had saved him from a life of way worse than overzealous mothering, after all. Not that he’d made it easy for them.
Damn, that was the last thing he wanted to think about. He’d rather deal with jokes about head-butting a pigeon every day for the next year.
“Doesn’t look like too much damage to your truck,” his dad said as he entered the kitchen.
“No. Mandy’s car got the worst of it.”
“How bad?” his mom asked.
“It’s crunched in the front. Probably the radiator is done for. Greg’s looking at it.”
Sloane snorted. “He’ll probably charge her a few dates to pay for it.”
Ben’s jaw clenched at the thought of Greg with his hands all over Mandy. What in the—
“Nah,” his youngest sister, Angel, said. “They already went out once. No spark.”
“Really?” his mom said. “Mandy’s such a pretty girl, and it’s about time Greg stopped flitting around like a butterfly and settled down.”
“Not everyone wants to get married and have two-point-five kids, Mom,” Adam said.
Their mom ruffled Adam’s thick, dark, wavy hair as she passed behind where he sat at the table. “They do when they find the right person. You’ll see.”
Ben disagreed in his mind but kept quiet. He’d never told anyone about his decision not to have a family. He knew it’d upset his mother especially, that she’d try to talk him out of it. Best just to avoid the topic altogether.
With the food on the table, they all settled into their places. All except Neil. Ben still hadn’t quite gotten used to his older brother no longer living under the same roof. He was pleased for Neil and Arden—they’d both been through a lot and deserved to be happy. It was just odd to be the oldest sibling at the dinner table now.
“Did you know the Websters’ place got subdivided?” he asked, steering the conversation away from settling down and producing heirs.
“I did hear that,” his dad said. “Seems as if it’d be a mighty big headache dealing with lots of deals instead of just one.”
“Mandy said they didn’t want to sell to anyone like Franklin Evans.” The man had thought the simple fact that he wanted the Rocking Heart was enough that Ben’s parents would just up and sell a ranch that had been in the family nearly a century. Ben still smiled every time he thought about how Arden had put the self-important jerk in his place.
His dad chuckled. “I always did like Tom Webster.”
“So Mandy bought part of it?” his mom asked, a little too much loaded curiosity in her tone.
“Yeah, couple of acres on the creek.”
“She got one of those tiny houses, didn’t she?” Sloane asked. “I saw them towing it through town some time back.”
“Yeah, not much bigger than our doghouse.”
“I think they’re fascinating,” Angel said.
“Not very practical, though.”
Angel shrugged. “Depends on what you’re looking for.”
“You sound like Mandy,” he said.
“That right?” There was no denying his mom’s curious tone.
Sloane elbowed him in the ribs, not hard but enough to draw his attention. “Now that she’s got Neil headed toward happily-ever-after, you know you’re next, right?”
“Never heard a rule that said marriages had to go in birth order. Maybe you’re next.” He glanced down the table. “You’d like to be the mother of the bride, wouldn’t you, Mom?”
This time the jab to the ribs was a bit more forceful.
“Indeed I would. And both of my girls will make beautiful brides.”
“I’m going to kill you in your sleep,” Sloane said under her breath to him.
He just smiled wide at her, grateful the conversation had veered away from him and Mandy. Not that there was a “him and Mandy.”
But after dinner, his thoughts kept straying to her as he headed to his workshop to log some progress on a saddle he was making for a rancher over in Kimble County who’d seen the feature Arden had written on his custom saddles in the Blue Falls Gazette.
He couldn’t stop thinking about how nice Mandy’s legs had looked below that flowered skirt. How many times had he seen Mandy Richardson in his life? Even spoken to her? Dozens. Hundreds, probably. Why today, of all days, was he suddenly attracted to her?
He’d just finished tacking a circle of leather to the top of the saddle’s horn when his phone rang. He tossed his hammer down on the workbench and pulled his phone from his back pocket. Greg Bozeman’s name stared up at him. Why was Greg calling him?
“Hey, what’s up?”
“You with Mandy?”
“No. I dropped her off at her place on the way home. Why?”
“I tried calling to talk to her about her car but got no answer. Thought you two might be together.”
Ben rolled his eyes. “Nope. Try her again.”
“Can’t. Hot date tonight. Can you call and tell her it’s going to be a few days before I can get her car fixed?”
“There’s this thing now called voice mail.”
“It was full. Couldn’t leave a message.”
“Fine, I’ll tell her.”
“Thanks. Gotta run.” As the call ended, Ben couldn’t help but wonder who in the world Greg was going out with. He had to have run through every eligible female in the Hill Country by now. The dude was either very careful or very lucky that he didn’t have miniature versions of himself running over all of central Texas.
Ben shoved the phone back in his pocket and picked up a thick, circular piece of leather that would hide the nail heads. But as he made his way through the familiar successive steps—carving a groove around the top of the leather, punching holes around the edge for the stitching, and sewing the layers together—he couldn’t help wondering why Mandy hadn’t answered her phone. Maybe she’d simply gone to sleep early. Or turned off her phone because she was just done with her rotten day. Possibly drunk herself into a stupor. Oh, hell, what if she’d wandered outside and fallen off that little porch and broken something? Or toddled down to the creek and ended up drowning in, like, a teaspoon of water.
What could it hurt to give her a call to pass on Greg’s message? No, he wasn’t calling just to make sure his suddenly overactive imagination wasn’t correct and that she hadn’t managed to meet her undignified end.
The phone rang three times before she finally picked up, sounding out of breath.
“You okay?”
She hesitated for a moment. “Ben?”
“Yeah. What have you been doing, pushing your little house to a new spot?”
“No, I was out trying to chase off what I swear was a mountain lion.”
“What?”
“I saw it out the window. At first I thought maybe I’d just had too much wine, but then the thing turned and looked at me. I was feeling a little bit too much as if he was sizing me up for his dinner.”
“So you went outside? I hope you had a gun.”
“No, but I made an unholy racket with a couple of cooking pots. Good thing I don’t have close neighbors.”
“You did have too much wine if you went outside without protection. Good Lord, woman. I’ll be right there.”
“It’s gone now.”
“Yeah, I’m coming anyway. Do not go back outside.”
“Huh. You always this bossy?”
“When the occasion calls for it.”
His parents, Angel and his niece, Julia, looked up when he burst into the house less than a minute later. When he unlocked the gun cabinet and pulled out his rifle, his dad stood, probably thinking there was some danger to their cattle herd. If Mandy really had seen a mountain lion, there very well could be.
