Page 27 of Lucky Cowboy

Long distance. He was right about that. The closest they tended to be when he wasn’t visiting was just over two hours away. Not exactly ideal for any couple, especially not one starting out.

Then, there was her baggage, or rather, the disaster of her of time with Biggs. He’d pushed and cajoled and railroaded her into a romantic pairing with him when she hadn’t been interested. Once he’d persuaded her, he’d weaseled his way into controlling every aspect of her life. And sadly, that had included Val herself.

He told her what to do and say, even what costumes to wear while out there riding Maybelline. Looking back, it’d been ludicrous for her to ever put up with it. But she’d felt trapped, and it’d taken making a firm decision to leave him both professionally and romantically before she could be free. At least she’d never cared for him. She might not have seen through him like she should have, but now, she recognized him for what he was.

A cheat and fraud.

Maybe she should’ve balked at Mark’s request to become a couple based on those unhappy memories alone, but she couldn’t. Sheriff Mark Talbot was such a different man from Biggs that they might as well be two separate species.

Where Biggs had had a mean streak, Mark was endlessly compassionate, even when coping with a stressful situation. Where Biggs had been fake and phony, everything about Mark had been the real deal. Where Biggs had shoved her into a relationship before she’d been ready, Mark had been patient, extending her a shoulder as well as the hand of his friendship without needling her for anything else.

Until now. And even then, Mark wasn’t demanding anything of her. He wasaskingher if she might want to pursue this with him. Like any mature and caring man should do. The contrast between him and the conman known as Biggs couldn’t be anymore stark. Not to mention that she didn’t know if Biggs had ever wanted her as a girlfriend as much as he’d yearned to lay his hands on her earnings.

She bet it was the latter. Particularly since he’d tried to butt in as her manager since she’d given him his termination. He hadn’t been attempting to get back with her. No, he just wanted to rip her off.

What a sucky thing to do. What a sucky person Biggs was in general.

“I’m up for long distance if you are,” Val told Mark. Her words made her heart pump faster but not with trepidation. It was exhilaration that filled her. Joy. And an anticipation for the future.

“Yeah?” Astounded would be the best term to describe how much emotion Mark had packed into that single word.

“Yeah,” she said, her glee at the idea making her smile.

“Too bad I don’t know when I next be able to see you.”

That sobered her up. In a perfect world, they could simply go on dates and become attached like other people who dated did. But this wasn’t a perfect world, and they each had responsibilities that pulled them apart. Still, they’d figure something out. Make the time to be together whenever their busy schedules allowed.

It might not be ideal, but it couldn’t be that hard. Could it?

As the weeks marched onward, Val found out precisely how hard it could be. Any meetings they might’ve arranged became thwarted at every turn. Their issues were multi-layered. When she had free time, he didn’t, and vice versa. Her dad would be getting out of his skilled nursing facility in four weeks, but at no point during that window did Mark have more than a few hours where he could drive to Billings to be with her.

And once her dad was due to come home, Val would have to take at least a few days to get him settled and find out what his new normal looked like. She still wasn’t certain if he could be left by himself without someone to watch over him. Not that he was an invalid. But two major surgeries in such a short time meant his endurance was almost nil, even with all the physical and occupational therapy his nurses had been undertaking with him.

One time, when Mark had called in some favors to take a day off that he hadn’t originally scheduled, a dangerous top-security fugitive escaped during a transfer, and Mark and every other member of law enforcement within a five-hundred-mile radius had been required to be on alert for him. That had meant no time off and no abandoning Rocky Ridge to travel to a special residence with a horse barn and flower gardens just outside of Billings.

Her residence.

That left them with email, texts, calls, and face-to-face Zooms. They spoke every day, sometimes more than once, updating one another on how things were going and funny or peculiar things that had happened.

“Hear from Mr. Peterson today?” she asked Mark, referring to one of his frequent complainers lately. She’d learned that most of his job as sheriff hinged on vital duties, but a few of them were plain old annoying.

Mark blew out a sigh. “Oh, yeah. You know how yesterday he complained about the songbirds singing in the mornings?”

“Yeah.”

“Today, it was about an owl hooting in the middle of the night.”

“He knows you can’t control wild creatures or the behavior of nocturnal birds, right?”

“Apparently, he does not. I’ve been trying to explain that, but after saying it for the fifth time in a row, I finally just said, ‘Sure, Mr. Peterson. I’ll get right on that,’ and hung up.”

Val laughed. “I’m amazed at what some of these people think a sheriff does. Everybody on the circuit is all abuzz with the new scandal, have you heard?”

“Scandal? I don’t think so. What happened?”

“Down in Kissimmee, Florida, there’s a lawsuit alleging that a group of organizers had rigged the competition for gambling purposes. It’s going to be a multi-million-dollar suit against five people.”

“You ever ridden there?” Mark asked.

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