Page 68 of The Cowboy Comes Home

The older man waved it off as he left the stage, but he was grinning.

These were simple shows, just the man and a guitar—although he did have a couple, one electric and one acoustic—and that voice. And after the first song, a rather rowdy, “let’s get this rolling” kind of opening that fired up the audience even more, Tucker gave her a rather amazed look.

“He sounds even better in person.”

She nodded, smiling happily. “Even without a band, and not an auto-tune in sight. He’s the real deal.”

Kane’s songs were matchless, from country rock to a bit more hometown Texas twang to some slow, soaring melodies, all with lyrics that made her chest tighten as they ran the gamut of every human emotion. When she glanced at Tucker, she saw he was as entranced as she felt. They stood for well over an hour, spellbound, until Kane shifted from the electric to acoustic.

“I remember when some on the crew would play his stuff,” Tucker said quietly. “It was always kind of in the background, down low because of the horses, and we were always scrambling, so I only heard bits and pieces. But I remember some of these songs, that got through even all that chaos.”

“That says a lot in itself,” Emily said. She started to say something else but stopped dead when she heard the opening to the next song. The gentle chords of the intro brought on that feeling again.

“Emily?” Tucker asked.

“This is my favorite,” she whispered, not to stay quiet but because it was the most volume she could muster.

As the song floated out, seeming to envelop the entire audience with that aching sort of longing that everyone had felt, sometime, Emily found herself watching Tucker instead of the singer. She saw him tilt his head as the lyrics began to register, the story of longing and loss, of feeling so very alone in the world, of help nowhere to be found. She saw the quick intake of breath as both words and voice dug deep into those hidden places. And she knew it was reaching him as it had always reached her. And when the last notes faded away, he met her gaze.

“Wow. He always rip your heart out like that?”

“That’s his way of saying to everybody who listens that you’re not alone, that he knows how it feels.”

“But…it gets to you.”

She smiled, just slightly. “He can even reach us lucky ones. And it helps me to help others, because when I don’t quite get their problem, I think of that song.”

And how Emily was that, to get that out of a song?

He was glad Kane started the show-ender before he said something stupid. But when he dedicated it to his beloved wife, Lark, “the woman who saved me, and brought me home, literally and in heart and mind,” then launched into the love song that had become his biggest hit, Tucker felt an ache inside he could no longer deny.

Any more than he could walk away from this woman by his side now without at least trying. Without finding out if they could build something out of what he could no longer deny was more real than anything he’d ever felt before.

Chapter Thirty-Two

As the crowdgradually thinned, Emily pointed at the bag of kibble in the crate of supplies in the back of the SUV. “It’s past dinnertime. Do you want to eat now, or shall we go back home?”

Tucker spun around as she posed the question to Lobo, giving her a look she could only describe as intense. The dog answered the question by immediately jumping into the SUV. Tucker just stared at her.

“Careful,” he said, his voice a little rough. “For a second there I thought you were asking me to go home with you, not the dog.”

She closed the hatch and turned to face him. She had the feeling this could be a crucial moment. She steadied herself.

“And if I was?” she asked.

His gaze flicked briefly to Lobo, then back to her. “You’d get the same answer.”

Her heart seemed to leap in her chest. Telling herself not to assume too much, she said as casually as she could, “Let’s go, then.”

As far as conversation went, the drive to her home held none. As far as tension went, on her part at least, it was packed solid. She snuck a glance at him now and then as she drove, but it was after nine PM now, twilight had set in, and she couldn’t be sure if she’d really seen his jaw tighten a couple of times as he stared straight ahead. The only time he shifted his gaze was when they passed the Jameson Hospital.

She wondered if that was because of all the time he’d spent in one. She didn’t like thinking about what that must have been like, the pain he’d gone through, and then to deal with his pitiful excuse for a mother on top of it, as he lay broken and hurting. She made a mental note to call her own mother soon, to thank her for being who she was.

Finally, as she approached the turn for the cul-de-sac she lived on, Emily spoke. “This is it. Last chance to change your mind.”

He turned his head to look at her then. “I’m only worried that if you change yours, I’m going to be stuck walking home, and that’s a hell of a hike.”

She couldn’t stop the grin that flashed then. Because there wasn’t a chance she was going to change her mind.

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