Page 51 of New in Town

Of course Laurel takes him up on the offer immediately. Breaking from Brett’s embrace and gliding over to the stables, she emerges soon after with her horse, Dune. The once wild palomino glows in the sunlight, a truly impressive animal.

“Want to join us?” Grey asks Brett.

His friend grins back. “I wouldn’t dare intrude on her grilling you. Enjoy,” he replies, tipping his Stetson to his fiancée.

Grey side steps the calf, untied and up roaming the pen, and mounts Bullet. He guides his horse out and around to where Dune and Laurel await them, then together they travel across the field.

“So… how’s it going?” she asks after a moment. “We are happy to have Pippa overnight anytime, but I seem to recall you saying something about rules. And this just being for show. I didn’t think sleepovers were a part of that.”

“They weren’t,” he says with a sigh.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“It’s just hard, she’s new to town. And Arlo pretty much asked her out for me. She even asked me last night if I only agreed to this as a favor to him. I understand the reason for the rules, she didn’t know anyone, not even me yet. I need to respect that.”

“But like you said, she didn’t know you then. You’ve gotten closer. What if she wants things to change too?”

“Sometimes I think she might. Then she makes comments about this being until your wedding again like she doesn’t want it to change. I should just take whatever she’s willing to give me. Anything to keep her in my life.”

“Grey...” Laurel starts softly. “Would that make you happy?”

“Happier than being without her completely.”

She purses her lips. “But what would make youhappy?”

He loosens a sigh; he knows what he wants. “What would make me happy? That’s easy, to be her everything.”

When Laurel doesn’t reply immediately, he glances over to see her gaping at him. “Grey! Do you not understand that women all over the world would kill to have your sensitive, sexy cowboy self proclaiming that to them?”

“Who says I’m sensitive?”

“You read poems about nature to your dog.”

“Dammit, I keep forgetting Cooper can hear me when I’m out on my porch.”

“Tell her,” she says sternly.

“I’ll think about it,” he promises before turning his sights back on the land before him. Right now, he just wants to enjoy this ride.

“I have one more thing to say,” Laurel replies, her tone softer again. “It’s a fault of your parents that they left you without a word. Not a fault of yours. You aren’t your past. My point is—you deserve this.”

He nods, thinking about how quickly he believed that Maddie wanted Dane instead of him that night. His hesitation comes from his hang ups, as he calls them. But the way Maddie looks at him, believes in him—maybe it is worth a shot.

24

MADDIE

There is just enough time to swing through Lou’s, although it will be close. It is an easy choice, satisfying Grey is more important to Maddie than magical coffee and pastries. And they are seriously magical.

It has become a routine to take a seat atop the stool and have a baked good with Lou before work. Just like Henry had done, or so she was told. She hasn’t asked Lou anymore about Henry, nervous to learn something that will threaten the fragile life she is building in Sterling Ridge. Something that will remind her why she shouldn’t be here.

“You know who I ran into this morning?” Lou asks as he slides a slice of banana bread before her.

“Who?”

“Grey James. Coming right around the side of the building,” he says with a knowing smile. “Good guy, that one. Glad to see him happy.”

She blushes, that means Lou saw him coming out her door. “Um, yeah, well we are—”

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