Page 43 of The Cowboy's Redemption
He entered the cabin to see if she’d left anything else behind and found an envelope on the table. A note. She’d left him anote.
He picked it up. Tapped it against his palm. Opened it.
A piece of paper fell out. It didn’t say much, other than that Ryan had agreed she could take Tanoa, under conditions she’d meet, and her father would collect both horses for her in a month.
He should have paid more attention to his instincts. He’d overlooked how good she was at deflection—mostly because it had been working out in his favor. When she didn’t want to talk, particularly about feelings, she turned to sex.
They’d had a lot of sex over the past week or so, including last night.
He should have understood what was really going on. For her, sharing confidences was a lot more intimate than sex. She trusted him, but she didn’t want him to get close because she’d then have to put that trust to the test. Tanner had really messed with her head.
Levi’s head cleared. She had feelings for him. He knew it as surely as he knew how he felt about her. The intensity of them was what scared her, and he chose to take her running from him as a good sign. It meant sex was no longer working for her as an adequate deflection for the way she felt about him.
He crushed the note in his hand. He’d give her the month. Then, when she came for Lady and Tanoa, they were going to have the talk she’d distracted him from long enough.
She might have a problem with sharing her feelings, but he didn’t have the same reservations.
Chapter Fourteen
Levi
Amonth tothe day, Levi returned to the cabin after work to find Ford in the pasture, consoling Nova, because Tanoa—along with Lady—was gone.
Since Nova liked Ford almost as well as she liked Levi, he mounted the cabin steps and took a seat in Otto’s old chair so he could think about what it meant that Dana had come for her horses when she knew he wouldn’t be here.
Ford gave the forlorn blood bay a final pat, then vaulted the fence with one-handed ease. Levi had no idea how Ford managed to coax so much agility out of that giant frame. Thanks to a genetic predisposition passed down from those seafaring ancestors who’d vaulted from longboats on their way to maraud, more than likely.
Ford joined him on the porch. A bent willow chair creaked under his weight, sagging a little, but the sturdy weave held. “Dana’s father came for the horses this morning.”
“So I see.” Levi’s gaze swept the pen, empty except for the stallion.
She hadn’t come for them herself, meaning she’d been taking no chances.
Ford must have decided this was the right moment to break the vow of silence he’d observed over the past four weeks. “It’s pretty clear that Dana won’t change her mind,” he said. “We should talk about where things go from here once the six months are up, and now’s as good a time as any. I’ve got the night off. Dallas is going to give Hannah a hand at the brewery.”
Levi agreed. There’d be no better time than the present to hammer out details. He usually arrived home as Ford was leaving for work, and their paths rarely crossed for more than a few minutes a day. Plus, summer had shifted to fall, and winter would arrive fast on its heels. Then they’d have to move the horses inside, and that came with its own host of problems, since the horses couldn’t fend for themselves. Someone would have to be here, twenty-four seven, and Otto’s ranching setup was old school and labor intensive enough without the added complication of being off grid. It also left Ford with the lion’s share of the work, since he ran the day shift. With paying jobs to consider, a third set of hands would have been welcome.
Maybe Otto’s motives hadn’t been matchmaking. Maybe he’d seen an opportunity and simply been smart to include Dana. Maybe he really had left her what he would have left Tanner, as Ford assumed, knowing they’d need a third partner to do what he’d managed all by himself.
“Dana might not change her mind, but she’s still a third partner,” Levi said. “We should include her in this discussion, don’t you think?”
Ford’s blue-steeled, steady gaze asked him how stupid he was. “You sure she wants to be included in our discussions? Because based on her lack of communication with us the past month, my guess is no. Tate knows her better than I do, and she seems to think Dana wouldn’t be happy in Grand, surrounded by memories of Tanner.”
“Tate could be right.”
Ford pondered that. “Because they’re good memories of him or bad?”
If the time had come for the first discussion, it was past time for this one. Levi would never give up anything Dana had told him in private, but he could tell Ford what he believed.
“Dana’s memories of Tanner aren’t the real problem. She can’t move on with her life because the rodeo world won’t let her forget that she was once involved with one of its brightest stars.”
“Tanner?” Ford’s normally stony expression cracked. “Funny how people always seem so much better after they’re dead.” His tongue struggled with the worddead, a sure sign he wasn’t as stoic about it as he pretended. “He was good at his sport—don’t get me wrong—but talent is one thing. If Tate hadn’t kept his schedule organized for him, and he wasn’t so pretty to look at, he’d never have gotten as far as he did. He’d already started to lose interest. He’d saved up some money, and I know he spoke to Otto about buying in, but Otto knew better than to take him on as a business partner. Everything was always bright and shiny and perfect to him while it was new.”
Including Dana. The challenge all that perfection posed was what had drawn Tanner to her.
It drew Levi, too. But he liked the small, vulnerable chinks she revealed in unguarded moments, not the perfect face she put on for the crowds. There was so much more to her than what she allowed people to see. He pictured her in the motel room when she’d kicked him awake, with all that fiery rage over her helplessness directed at him.
“It’s because I can trust you.”
