Page 31 of All Night with the Cowboy
Lauren grinned. “I could eat a horse.”
Tanner let her go first, and she disappeared for a bit as he sat down. He stretched his leg out, happy that it didn’t hurt quite as bad today. Maybe all the strapping was working, or perhaps she’d been right about the root of the problem being elsewhere in his body. She’d sure worked hard on his hip and upper leg the day before.
When she returned, she was wearing cut-off denim shorts and a T-shirt and he coughed, almost choking on his juice. Well, damn. It was like someone had wound back the clock and sent him straight back to high school.
“Is there a problem?” she asked, sinking into the chair across from him and instantly picking up her fork and stabbing a piece of pineapple.
“Nope, no problem,” he replied, collecting his own fork and starting to eat the fruit platter.
It was filled with sliced banana, melons, pineapple, and strawberries.
“I didn’t pick you for a fruit kind of guy,” she said. “I thought you’d be all about the bacon and eggs, something fried maybe.”
“Something like Mama would make down on the ranch?” he laughed at himself. “In all honesty, I usuallydo cook my breakfast, but I was trying to impress you. And the fruit is actually damn good.”
“We are what we eat,” she said, devouring her food. “I always eat fruit and muesli, or if I’m in a hurry it’ll be a smoothie on the go, filled with fruit and some protein powder. I can’t exactly talk the talk to the players and not follow through myself.”
He finished most of his fruit and reached for the pancakes. He’d expected maple syrup when he’d made the order, but instead they’d been served with a side of double cream and strawberries. He raised his eyes and smiled at Lauren. “This negates all that healthy fruit, but damn.”
“Hey, I ran to the top of a mountain,” she said, pushing her fruit aside. “I can eat pancakes with not a trace of guilt.”
“You know, I’m starting to see a pattern with you,” Tanner said, setting his fork down and reaching for the coffee. It had been served in a pot, and he poured Lauren a cup first, then himself. “You set your mind to something; you have a pretty gutsy kind of determination.”
She shrugged, but he could tell that he’d hit the nail on the head.
“I suppose.”
“It’s weird, knowing someone so well for a short period in their life, then realizing you actually know nothing about the person they’ve become.” It was becoming abundantly clear that he didn’t know a lot about Lauren, not about the woman she’d become. “I feel like you’re so familiar to me, but you’re a complete stranger too.”
“Yeah, same here,” she said. “When I look at you, I don’t know, it’s like walking down memory lane, butI don’t know what makes you tick now. I mean, we were kids back then, right?”
Kids who’d loved the hell out of each other, he thought. Not that it mattered now, but when you’d spent most of your adult life with a chip on your shoulder about the girl you loved ditching you? It was hard to shake it off all in one go. He’d never trust her again, not with his heart, but he kind of liked the woman she’d become. Hell, he admired what she’d done. She’d followed her dreams, and she hadn’t stopped until she’d achieved what she’d set out to do.
“Can I ask you something, just for old times’ sake?”
“Shoot,” she said, smiling at him as she ate another big piece of pancake smeared with cream.
“Do you ever think about what would have happened if we’d stayed together? How different our lives might have turned out?”
She laughed. “Well, I sometimes wonder if I would have been barefoot and pregnant with child number four by now, but…”
He shook his head. “I shouldn’t have asked.”
“It’s fine. And to be honest”—he watched as she sat back in her chair, abandoning her food—“I actually used to think about it a lot. I’d wonder what you were doing, whether we’d have been able to make the distance work, whether we’d still be together.”
They sat in silence after she said that. It didn’t matter what they thought, whatmighthave happened. They hadn’t stayed together, and that part of their lives was long over.
“Maybe we’d have held each other back,” she said. “I often wonder if I’d have been able to do my job and hold down the kind of relationship we had.”
“You mean the not-being-able-to-keep-our-hands-off-each-other or spend-a-night-apart aspects?”
The color in her face told him she remembered their time together exactly as he did. He would never forget the intensity of what they’d shared—they’d had their share of fights, often fueled by jealousy or stupid teenage insecurities—but whenever they were together it was incredible. Every touch, every whisper, everything about them being connected had sent him wild. The thought of being alone with Lauren was enough to fill him with as much anticipation and adrenaline as riding a bull in the ring.
Tanner reached his hand across the table, wanting to touch her but not convinced it was the right thing to do. No wonder he’d hated her so passionately—everything about them was extreme. The love, the hate, the passion.
“My job’s demanding and I travel a lot. And so do you,” she said. “Would you have been happy doing another job or—”
“Maybe you would have followed me around.” He’d meant it as a joke but she clearly didn’t find it funny.
