Friends To Roommates…To Lovers?

Living with the Cupid of Blue Falls, Texas—her aunt Verona—Elissa Mason should be married by now. Or so her friends tease. But Elissa is wedded to the family nursery she’s turned into a success. Following a devastating tornado, she has to rebuild and nothing’s going to distract her. Not even her new feelings for neighbor-turned-roommate Pete Kayne.

Deputy Sheriff Pete Kayne understands having a dream and doesn’t want to get in Elissa’s way. Especially after the tornado has taken his house, his truck, everything but his horse and his friends. All he’s got left to share is his heart. He has his own ambition: a chance to join the ultimate in law enforcement—the Texas Rangers. Elissa was his friend. That would have to be enough….

When did Pete Kayne get so ripped?

“Sorry, I thought you were gone already.”

At the sound of Pete’s voice, the voice of her friend, Elissa snatched her gaze away from his chest to find an awkward, embarrassed look on his face. She half turned and gestured vaguely toward her room. “I think I sort of slipped into a coma last night.”

“Me, too.”

She forced herself to meet his eyes as if nothing out of the ordinary was going on, that she hadn’t just ogled the pectorals of one of her best friends. “Are you late for work?”

He shook his head. “On this afternoon.”

She glanced at the bathroom behind him.

“Sorry,” he said again, this time moving out of the doorway to give her access. “I’ve got errands to run.”

Pete hurried past her toward the guest room. Unable to help herself, she glanced over her shoulder. Damn, his back was every bit as well cut as his chest, a fact she would have been much better off not knowing. Even after he slipped into the room and shut the door behind him, she didn’t move. Memories started tumbling through her head, and she realized she’d never seen Pete without a shirt on. And now she feared she’d never be able to forget the sight.

Dear Reader,

What if you found your true love in, literally, the boy next door? The one who’d been your friend for years? That’s the stunning possibility facing Elissa Mason when her good friend Pete Kayne loses his home to a tornado and moves into her guest room. One moment he’s the good guy deputy sheriff, and the next he’s the sexy man she can’t stop thinking about. As Pete, Elissa and the rest of Blue Falls pick up the pieces after the tornado, these two friends find a love neither expected.

I love friends-to-lovers stories, so I had a lot of fun writing Marrying the Cowboy. I hope you enjoy Pete and Elissa’s journey to their happily ever after and the return trip to Blue Falls, Texas.

Trish

Marrying

the Cowboy

Trish Milburn

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Trish Milburn writes contemporary romance for the Harlequin American Romance line and paranormal romance for the Mills & Boon Nocturne series. She’s a two-time Golden Heart award winner, a fan of walks in the woods and road trips, and a big geek girl, including being a dedicated Whovian and Browncoat. And from her earliest memories, she’s been a fan of Westerns, be they historical or contemporary. There’s nothing quite like a cowboy hero.

To the art department at Mills & Boon for all the gorgeous covers you’ve given me.

You’ve made me a very happy author.

And to anyone reading this who’s ever had a tornado rip through your life. My heart goes out to you for your loss, and I’m awed by your strength in the aftermath. As I write this dedication, it’s only been a few days since the massive tornado devastated Moore, Oklahoma, and more tornadoes hit Shawnee and other parts of Oklahoma. My heart aches for the loss of life, homes and livelihoods.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Excerpt

Chapter One

Ominous. That’s the word that came to mind as Elissa Mason stared at the western horizon from the front porch of the house she shared with her aunt. Angry, dark clouds were doing their best to snuff out the last sliver of daylight hanging at the edge of the world. A gust of wind pushed the wisps of hair that had escaped her ponytail into her eye and sent a soda can careening end over end down the street.

Verona, her mother’s older sister, came out of the house behind her. “Looks like we might finally get an end to this drought.”

“It’s what is coming along with the rain that I’m concerned about.” Already they were under severe thunderstorm and tornado watches for the remainder of the night. As thunder rumbled in the distance, Elissa couldn’t kick the bad feeling she had.

“Yeah, might be a doozy, but beggars can’t be choosers,” Verona said.

There was no denying that this part of central Texas was in dire need of rain. The ground was so dry throughout the Hill Country that it was cracking, and already ranchers were having to sell off stock because they didn’t have adequate grazing. Not to mention the fact that even native Texans were getting tired of baking every time they stepped foot outside, no matter the time of day. It was almost autumn, and there still hadn’t been any relief from the heat. The only ones who were likely seeing any benefit from this Hades-like weather were the electric utilities fueling all the air conditioners running nonstop.

As she watched the sky darken, she noticed Pete Kayne turning onto the street in his sheriff’s department cruiser. She waved as he pulled into his driveway next door. When he shut off the engine and got out of the car, he glanced back to the west, as well. Another gust of wind had him grabbing his Stetson to keep it from taking flight.

“Looks like you might have a busy night,” she said.

He took off his hat and ran his fingers through his dark hair. “That’s what I’m afraid of. Going to try to catch a nap in case I end up having to go back in.”

She smiled. “Good luck with that.” While she was a morning person, Pete Kayne definitely wasn’t. Sometimes she gave him extra-bubbly greetings in the mornings when he had to work first shift just to see the annoyed look on his face.

He gave her one of those looks now, the type shared by people who’d been close friends for a long time. She laughed as he headed into his little house. After watching the sky darken more, Elissa headed inside. She checked the weather coverage on TV until it started getting repetitive.

“We better go ahead and eat in case we lose power,” Verona said as she headed toward the kitchen.

“Not a bad idea.”

As they ate several minutes later, Elissa flipped through some nursery supply catalogs she’d brought home from work.

“Are they still planning to start on the addition Monday?” Verona asked.

A zing of excitement shot through Elissa as she envisioned the pottery studio in its completed form, a place where locals and tourists alike could come and learn to make their own pottery. And the new florist shop she was adding to her already thriving nursery and landscape décor business would boost sales during the parts of the year when people weren’t landscaping. “Yeah. I’m having to rein myself in when I look at these catalogs. I could spend myself into bankruptcy with all the neat stuff in here.”

Verona smiled. “Like taking a sugar addict into a candy store.”

Even with the newly minted loan she’d received for the expansion, Elissa couldn’t afford everything she wanted for the nursery. Like her best friends, India and Skyler, she had big dreams for her business, ones that often outpaced what she could bring to fruition.

Verona patted her hand. “You’ll get there, honey. Just look at everything you’ve done in a few short years. Paradise Garden is a destination now, not just a place where locals pick up something to stick in their flower beds.”

Elissa was proud of how she’d taken what had once been a little, family-owned nursery she’d worked at as a teen and turned it into a flowery, fragrant, sprawling manifestation of her dreams. That didn’t mean she couldn’t dream even more. The day she stopped dreaming about what Paradise Garden Nursery could be was the day she needed to hang it up.

After they finished eating and cleaned the dishes, Elissa plopped down on the overstuffed chair to do some realistic choosing of stock she wanted for the pottery studio and florist shop. Verona turned the weather back on and picked up her knitting.

Elissa fell so far into her work that she didn’t look up until Verona switched off the lamp next to her chair then clicked off the TV.

“Looks like the storms are tracking north of us, so I’m going to hit the hay. I’m meeting Annabeth for breakfast in the morning.”

Annabeth Watson had been Verona’s best friend for longer than Elissa had been alive. Along with Franny Stokes and Ingrid Stohler, they played some mad games of poker, too.

“Don’t you two get into too much trouble.”

“Pffftt,” Verona said as she waved off Elissa’s teasing warning.

Elissa laughed as she watched her aunt head down the hallway toward her bedroom. A few more minutes of circling products in the catalog and Elissa was yawning. A gust of wind rattled the house as she stood. Hopefully the weather would calm down so she could sleep. Her days started early and were always long, but she loved every minute of them.

Just as she was about to fall asleep, she heard rain begin to patter against her bedroom window. Good. Maybe tomorrow they wouldn’t have to water all the plants and shrubs covering the nursery grounds. As she drifted toward sleep, she began to dream she was floating on her back in the middle of a big blue sea.

* * *

ELISSA JERKED AWAKE, her heart beating frantically. It took her several of those heartbeats to realize she’d been awakened by the raging storm outside. A loud crash shook the house accompanied by the sound of glass breaking. She leapt from the bed and ran out into the hallway, nearly running into Verona. The tornado siren started howling downtown.

“We’ve got to get to the storm shelter,” Verona said over the wailing of the storm.

A freakish moaning over their heads caused Elissa to look up just as she heard what sounded like an approaching train. Something slammed into the side of the house, and the roof timbers sounded as if they were on the verge of shattering into kindling. The train sound drew closer.

“There’s no time!” Elissa opened the hall closet where they kept their jackets and shoved Verona inside. She wedged herself into the cramped space, wrapping herself around her aunt to protect her in case the house disintegrated around them.

The wind howled like a wounded animal intent on retribution. Verona made a sound of distress, half sob and half curse, and Elissa wrapped her arms more tightly around the woman who was like a second mother to her.

“We’ll be okay,” Elissa said, though she wasn’t so sure. It sounded as if the end of the world was upon them.

The angry-beast wailing of the wind mixed with the sounds of crashes and ripping timbers. Elissa feared each moment would be their last, that the house would be swept from its foundation, Verona and her along with it. Her legs began to shake from the strain of crouching on the balls of her feet. The sounds of destruction seemed to go on forever while they hid in the dark, praying the storm didn’t find their hiding place.

Gradually, the roar began to quiet. The creaking and popping lessened and then stopped altogether. Even after the storm passed, Elissa didn’t move, not fully trusting her ears that it was over.

“We made it,” Verona said, spurring Elissa to motion.

Careful not to bonk her head on the coat rod above her, Elissa pressed her hands against the walls of the closet to help her stand. Her legs felt no stronger than boiled noodles. She took a deep breath before she opened the door. Everything was dark, but at least the hallway seemed to still be intact. She reached up to the shelf above the coat rod and fumbled around until she found the large flashlight they kept there.

After helping Verona to her feet, Elissa flicked on the flashlight and pointed it out into the hallway. The family photos still hung on the wall, so at least part of the house was standing. Before investigating further, she grabbed a pair of old sneakers she used when she worked in the yard and slipped them on her bare feet.

Verona followed as Elissa made her way toward the living room. She tried the light switch, but it wasn’t a surprise that the power was out. She pointed the flashlight at Verona’s feet and saw that she’d slipped on a pair of sandals.

Elissa felt the damp breeze just before she stepped into the living room and found a large tree branch sticking through one of the west-facing windows. Rain had blown in through the broken glass, but that was nothing. They at least appeared to still have a roof over their heads.

“Careful where you step,” Elissa said. “The floor is wet, and there’s glass everywhere.” She stepped over one of the smaller arms of the branch. “I’m going to check outside.”

“Be careful. There might be electric lines down.”

She looked back at her aunt. “Stay in here.”

Verona appeared as if she might argue.

Elissa pointed toward the broken window. “See if you can find a way to close that up around the branch until we can get it removed.”

Verona finally nodded.

Elissa wished for daylight as she opened the front door and stepped out onto the porch. The night was so dark that she felt as if she were trying to light her path through a cave with a lightning bug. Thankfully the porch seemed to be intact, though the two rocking chairs were gone. They’d probably been reduced to kindling.

The wail of emergency vehicle sirens started downtown. Hopefully no one was hurt seriously. She pointed the flashlight in that direction and gasped. Pete’s patrol car sat upside down in the middle of her yard. She ran down the steps and toward the corner of the house. But when she aimed the flashlight toward Pete’s house, it wasn’t there.

“Oh, God, no.” Heedless of what lay in her way, she ran toward the rubble that was all that remained of Pete’s house. “Pete!” A huge lump rose in her throat and panic seized her as she swept the flashlight over the broken timbers and concrete foundation. Pete couldn’t be gone. Beyond India and Skyler, Pete was her best friend. Tears pooled in her eyes and her heart ached. “Pete!”

He had to be here somewhere, had to be safe. Why couldn’t he have stayed at work?

Loud banging to her left drew her attention. She pointed the flashlight in that direction and spotted the storm shelter halfway between her house and the remains of Pete’s. A mangled hunk of white metal lay against the door.

Pete. He had to be the one making that noise. She made her way through the obstacle course of debris. “Pete? Is that you?”

“Yeah,” came the muffled replay. “I can’t get out.”

Elissa stifled a cry of relief. “Hang on.”

She sat the flashlight on the ground so she could shove what had once been his washing machine away from the door. She grunted and cursed when her hands slid off the wet metal. Trying a different tactic, she stooped and gripped the underside of the washer. Gritting her teeth, she managed to roll the useless hunk of metal away from the door.

Needing to see that her friend really was alive, she jerked the door open. Pete climbed the last few steps up out of the shelter. Before she even thought about what she was doing, Elissa wrapped her arms around him and hugged him.

“Hey, what’s this?” Pete patted her back awkwardly.

She let him go and took a step away. And then she swatted him on the arm. “You scared me to death.”

He glanced past her toward what was left of his home. “You’re not the only one.” He glanced toward her house. “Are you and Verona okay?”

“Yeah. Tree through the window, but we’re lucky.” She looked again at the spot where his house had stood for as long as she could remember. “I’m so sorry, Pete.”

“It’s just a house.”

The hitch in his voice told her he wasn’t as okay with the loss of his home as he tried to seem. Her heart ached for him. He was such a nice guy, a good friend, and life kept handing him one horrible blow after another. The loss of his father when they were teens, his mother only months ago and now his home and all his possessions. She resisted the urge to hug him again.

He cursed, and when she glanced at him she could tell he’d spotted his patrol car. His personal truck had been in his garage. Lord only knew where it was.

“I’ve got to get to work, find out how widespread the damage is.”

“I’ll take you, or you can borrow my car.”

“Oh, my God.” Verona approached them with another flashlight in hand. “Pete, honey, are you okay?”

“Yeah.”

Verona had no reservations about showing Pete how much she cared about him and gathered him into a tight hug. “I’m so glad you’re safe.” She planted a kiss on Pete’s cheek.

Elissa couldn’t tell in the dark, but she’d bet money Pete was blushing.

Verona finally let him go and turned to look at the destruction. She shook her head. “It’s not fair that we got off so easily while you’ve lost everything.”

“Tornadoes are like that,” he said. Pete took a couple of steps then sighed. “I need to go to work. Nothing I can do here now anyway.”

“Let me get my keys,” Elissa said. She hurried back to the house but paused on the porch to look back toward where Pete stood in the dim glow of Verona’s flashlight. Anger welled up in her. Pete didn’t deserve this. The guy deserved a break, and already her mind was churning with ways to help him. Because that’s what friends did, they helped each other.

* * *

PETE FELT NUMB all over, as if he’d been dumped back into a nightmare he’d spent the past few months crawling out of. He didn’t think he was a bad guy, but it sure seemed as if fate got a kick out of punching him in the face on a regular basis.

He sighed and shook his head. At least he was alive, and Verona and Elissa escaped unharmed. He only hoped the rest of the area’s residents had fared as well. Right now he had to put aside his own problems and focus on work.

“Pete,” Elissa called from in front of her house. “Can you help me get the garage door up?”

With the power out, the garage door opener wasn’t going to do her any good. He closed the distance and stepped inside the dark interior of the garage. Elissa held a flashlight for him as he opened the door manually.

“You all be careful,” Verona said as Elissa and Pete got into Elissa’s SUV.

Elissa started the engine and backed out, steering toward the far edge of her driveway to avoid the back end of his upturned patrol car.

“I’ll send someone over here to get that out of your yard as soon as I can.”

“Don’t worry about that now,” she said. “It’s the least of our concerns.”

He deliberately didn’t look at what little was left of his home as she drove by. When she stopped at the end of the street, Elissa didn’t immediately turn right toward downtown. When he glanced at her, she was staring into the darkness to the left.

“I didn’t even think about the nursery until just now,” she said. “I need to go check if there’s any damage.”

“Wait until in the morning. More than likely the power is out there, too.”

For a moment, he thought she might actually turn that direction. But after a couple of beats, she turned right and drove him to the sheriff’s department. They must have the generator going because lights shone in the windows. Elissa waited until one of the electric co-op’s bucket trucks went by before she turned into the parking lot.

“Thanks for the ride,” he said as he opened the passenger-side door.

“Be careful if you have to go out, okay?”

He nodded, thankful at least that he had good friends if nothing else.

It wasn’t until he walked through the front door that it dawned on him that he was wearing a T-shirt, shorts and the old sneakers he kept in the storm shelter just in case something like tonight happened. His uniforms were probably scattered over half the county. It was doubtful his boots had ended up in the same place, and for all he knew his Stetson was impaled on some bull’s horn.

“Been trying to call you.” Sheriff Simon Teague gave Pete an odd look, probably because of what he was wearing. Or not wearing.

“Pretty sure my phone flew off with the rest of my house.”

“What?” asked Keri, Simon’s wife, who’d just hung up the phone.

“My house took a direct hit.”

“God, Pete, are you okay?” Keri stood, as if she might check him over head to foot for injuries.

“Yeah. I made it to the storm shelter, barely.” He’d almost not been able to pull the door closed, and as soon as he did he’d heard heavy debris hitting the outside as if trying its best to get inside.

“How bad is it?” Simon asked.

“There’s nothing left but the foundation and broken timber.” He ran his hand back through his hair, feeling half-naked without his hat. “And my patrol car is upside down in Elissa and Verona’s front yard.”

“Are they okay?”

Pete nodded. “Elissa gave me a ride over here. They’ve got a tree in their living room window, but that was the only thing I could see in the dark.” He glanced toward the 911 dispatch room. Anne Marie Wallace and Sierra Mitchell were answering calls as fast as they could. “How bad is everything else?”

Simon’s single curse word was enough to let him know they had a long night ahead of them. Which was good because he wasn’t quite ready to think about all he’d lost and where the hell he was going to live now.

Chapter Two

It took three tries, but Elissa’s call to India finally went through.

“Are you all okay?”

“Yeah,” India said. “Ginny is a bit shaken, but she’s curled up with Liam now. He’s reading her a story to try to get her back to sleep.”

“What about Skyler and Logan?”

“They’re fine. They just had rain and a little wind out at the ranch. You and Verona?”

“Tree through the window. At least that’s all I could see in the dark. But Pete’s house is gone.”

“Lot of damage?”

“No, I mean it’s gone as in completely gone.”

India gasped. “Is he okay?”

“Yeah, I just dropped him off at work. His truck is gone, too. And his cruiser is doing a headstand in my front yard.”

“I have a feeling this is all going to look so much worse in the morning.”

“Yeah. Listen, I’ll talk to you tomorrow. The road’s a mess, and I need both hands.” She didn’t tell her friend where she was headed because India would probably spout the same speech Pete had. But the nursery was a huge part of her life. She wasn’t about to sleep until she’d seen with her own eyes that it was intact.

“Okay, be careful.”

Five minutes later, Elissa wondered about the wisdom of her decision to drive out to the nursery. She dodged downed limbs and drooping power lines. When a gust of wind shook the SUV, she realized she didn’t even know if she might be in the crosshairs of another storm. She clicked on the radio and listened to weather and damage reports as she maneuvered through the mess the tornado had left in its wake.

Her heart started hammering well before she reached the nursery, when she came upon the shattered remains of a large cobalt-colored planter in the middle of the road. She tried to drive around the shards, but she’d be lucky if she didn’t end up stranded out here with a flat tire.

She crept through the obstacle course of detritus, some of which she recognized and some that had obviously come from nearby homes. Leaves were plastered against strips of pink insulation. A soaked cardboard box was wrapped around what looked like half of a dining room chair.

India was right. This was all going to look ten times worse in the light of day.

The closer she got to the nursery, the more nervous she became. Her heart hammered against her rib cage, and she kept telling herself over and over that everything would be okay. She hit her brakes when she saw the Paradise Garden Nursery sign twisted and hanging by one corner.

“No.” She drove the rest of the way and pulled into the parking area, letting her headlights sweep across her life’s work.

Tears pooled in her eyes as she saw the front of the building. It looked as if someone had run into it with a bulldozer.

She turned off the car but left the lights on. When she stepped outside, a light rain began to fall. Biting her bottom lip, she walked slowly forward, stepping over broken shards of pottery and twisted metal. The building wasn’t completely wiped from the face of the map, but she wasn’t going to be open for business any time soon.

She stopped walking and simply stood in the rain, hoping that with each blink of her eyes the scene would change. But it didn’t.

The sound of a vehicle approaching was followed by another set of lights joining hers. A car door opened and closed.

“Elissa?”

Even at the familiar sound of Pete’s voice, she couldn’t pull her gaze away from the building.

Pete stepped up beside her. “You shouldn’t be out here now. There’s another storm heading this way.”

“Tell me I’m not seeing this.”

He exhaled. “I’m sorry, Lis.” After a few more seconds, Pete wrapped his arm around her shoulders and steered her toward her vehicle. “I really need for you to go home. I can’t have you wandering around out here in the dark, exposed. There’s nothing you can do now anyway.”

His words finally sank in, and she realized he could have just as easily been speaking about himself.

“I’m sorry, Pete. I know this is nothing like losing your home.”

He opened her driver’s-side door and gripped the top edge. “This isn’t nothing.” He gave her a sad little smile, knowing just how much this nursery meant to her. “There’s time enough for both of us to face reality in the morning. But right now you need to get home safely and I’ve got to get back to work.”

She nodded. “Be careful.”

A growing sense of numbness took hold of Elissa as she made her way back home. None of what had happened tonight seemed real, more like a scene from a disaster movie. The next thing she knew, Godzilla was going to step out of the darkness to stomp on what was left of Blue Falls. But as soon as she drove down her street and saw again the empty spot where Pete’s house should be, the horrible reality finally sank in.

She got out of the car to find her aunt waiting for her in the doorway into the house.

“Where have you been? I tried calling, but I couldn’t get through.”

“The lines are probably overloaded.” When Elissa entered the kitchen, she closed the door behind her and leaned against it.

“What is it? Is Pete okay?”

“He’s fine.” She swallowed past the lump in her throat. “But that’s more than I can say for the nursery.”

“You went out there?”

“I had to know.” She met her aunt’s eyes and forced her own not to fill with tears again. “It took a big hit.”

Verona stepped forward and pulled Elissa into her arms. “I’m so sorry, honey. But we’ll get through this. We’re alive. That’s all that matters right now.”

Elissa knew she was right, that she should be thankful. She was, especially when she thought about how easily Pete could have died tonight, that there still might be people out there who had died or been injured. But that still didn’t erase the pain of seeing her nursery in shambles.

Wrung out, Elissa made her way back to bed. But even as tired as she was, she couldn’t sleep. Instead, she listened to the patter of the gentle rain and waited for daylight. Even though she knew the light might show her even more damage, at least she’d be able to tackle it. Sitting around waiting and not doing anything was so not her way. It was torture.

She heard a distant rumble of thunder once, but the worst of the weather seemed to have moved on, like a bully who’d thrown a punch and left his victim on the ground holding his bloody nose.

Sirens echoed every now and then through the night, and she wondered what Pete and the rest of the deputies were finding. Once again, Pete was managing to do his job while his personal life fell apart. It made her feel selfish for focusing so much on the nursery, even though she couldn’t help how she felt. That place was her livelihood, her life, her dream come true.

And now she faced having to clean up the mess and start all over. Sudden exhaustion pressed down on her, and she closed her eyes and begged for the release of sleep.

* * *

PETE FELT LIKE crying when he stepped into the barn at R & J Stables and saw Frankie turn to look at him. But then, it’d been that kind of day. He crossed the distance between them to rub his horse between the ears.

“Hey, boy. Looks like you and I both got lucky, huh?”

Frankie nuzzled against Pete’s hand as if he could tell Pete had been having a less-than-stellar day. Pete took a moment to lean his forehead against Frankie’s head, grateful that at least he still had this one thing to call his own. And if he’d had to choose which to save, Frankie or his home, he would pick Frankie every time. Named after his grandpa Frankie as a joke, Frankie the horse felt as much a part of his family as his grandpa had, ever since his grandpa had gotten him the horse when he started team roping in high school. Now, the horse was the only family he had left.

“Hey, Pete.”

He glanced over as Glory Harris came into the barn, carrying a saddle about half as big as she was. He didn’t insult her by offering to help her, though. Glory had been working at her family’s stables since she’d been in single digits.

“Not every day I have a sheriff’s department cruiser parked outside,” she said as she hefted the saddle onto a battered wooden table.

“Only wheels I got at the moment.”

“Your truck damaged in the storm?”

“Pretty sure since it blew away along with my house.” He tried to make light of it to keep from really dealing with the brutal fact that he was homeless, but a damn lump formed in his throat anyway.

“Oh, hell, I’m sorry.”

“Could have been worse.” He rubbed his hand along the side of Frankie’s neck. “Glad you all were spared.”

“Me, too. I don’t think I could face losing these animals.”

Most of them weren’t hers, rather those of boarders, but Glory had never met a horse she didn’t fall madly in love with on first sight.

“You going to take him out for a ride?” she asked, nodding at Frankie.

Pete shook his head. “No, too much work to do. I just wanted to make sure he was okay since I was in the area.”

She nodded in understanding. “Things settle down, you’re more than welcome to come over for a meal or a dozen.”

“Thanks.” He allowed himself a couple more minutes of the peace he felt with Frankie before he forced himself back to the cruiser and back to dealing with Mother Nature’s path of broken lives and dreams.

A couple hours later, Pete’s eyes burned from lack of sleep as he pulled into his driveway. Greg Bozeman was hooking his wrecker up to the patrol car to flip it back onto its wheels.

“You look dog tired, man,” Greg said as Pete got out of the extra patrol car the department had for when one of the others was in the shop for repairs. Or when one got demolished by a tornado.

“I feel like my eyelids are glued open and I’ve been body-slammed by the Hulk.”

“Yeah, that’s about how you look.”

Pete flipped Greg the bird, causing his friend to laugh. Considering all the destruction he’d seen in the past several hours, the laugh seemed out of place and welcome at the same time.

“Honey, you look as if you could use some strong coffee.” Verona descended her front steps with a coffee cup in one hand and an insulated beverage container in the other.

“You are my new best friend.” Pete leaned down and kissed her on the cheek.

“New? I thought I was already your best friend.”

Pete smiled. That also felt foreign, but he was thankful for her attempt at levity. He glanced toward the house. “I’m guessing Elissa went out to the nursery.”

A sadness passed over Verona’s face. “I’m not sure she slept a wink last night, and she headed out as soon as it started getting light. Only reason I didn’t go, too, is that Liam is coming over to get the tree out of the living room and put in a new window.”

“I’ll drive out there later.”

“You need to get some sleep first.”

“No time right now.”

She gave him a scolding look. “Well, whenever you do decide to get some shut-eye, come back here.”

“I don’t want to impose.”

“Don’t be silly. How many times have you cleaned out my gutters or mowed my lawn? I think I can offer you the extra bedroom.”

He nodded, too tired to argue.

The patrol car flipped over with the sound of stressed metal and breaking glass.

“I think this one’s done for,” Greg said with a shake of his head.

Yeah, it more resembled a pancake now than a patrol car. After watching Greg winch the car up onto the flatbed, Pete thanked Verona for the coffee again and headed out for round two.

By the time night rolled around again, he still hadn’t found time to drive out to the nursery. Every time he thought about it, something more pressing needed his attention. If he tried to drive anywhere now, he’d more than likely end up in a ditch.

“Come on, man,” Simon said as he stopped in front of Pete’s desk. “You can crash on our couch.”

“Nah, I’m good.”

“You sure?”

Pete nodded, though it felt as if that simple action took the last of his strength. He’d lost count of how many hours he’d been up.

After Simon headed home, leaving Connor Murphy and Jack Fritz on duty, Pete kept sitting at his desk, unable to work up enough energy to move. It wasn’t far to Verona’s, but it seemed a world away at the moment.

Sierra walked out into the hallway to the drink machine, her headset still on her head. She spoke with someone about a washed-out bridge while she slipped coins into the machine and retrieved some much-needed caffeine. She and Anne Marie had been working every bit as long as the rest of them.

When she ended the call, she walked toward him. “You look like you’re about to slip into a coma.”

“That’s pretty much what I feel like.”

“I’m so sorry about your house.”

“Yeah, me, too.” He rubbed his burning, itching eyes with the heels of his hands then glanced over at Sierra. “Listen, I’m just going to sack out in the back. I’m too dang tired to even walk to the car.”

“Okay.”

Somehow he found enough energy to push himself to his feet and head back toward the collection of holding cells. Blue Falls wasn’t exactly a hotbed of crime, so they didn’t have any residents tonight. Pete picked the first stall only because it required the fewest amount of steps to reach and collapsed onto the bunk. It wasn’t comfy by any stretch of the imagination, but he was pretty sure he’d sleep like a baby on a concrete floor at this point.

Despite his exhaustion, he stared up at the ceiling and replayed everything that had happened since he’d made a mad dash for the storm shelter he shared with Verona and Elissa, hoping they were already inside. By the time he’d seen that they weren’t, it was too late. Going back out into the storm would have been nothing more than suicide.

So he’d sat in the dark listening to the world ripping apart, his heart hammering, praying that they would be okay, cursing that he hadn’t had time to get them to the shelter, as well. That was his job, protecting people, and he’d felt like an utter failure as he could only imagine what all the noise above him meant.

Pete rubbed his aching eyes and then forced himself to keep them closed, to try to quiet his mind. But the images kept up their barrage, preventing him from getting the sleep he needed.

The swath of destroyed homes, the uprooted trees, the debris spread across what felt like the entire county. The disbelief and sorrow on Elissa’s face as she’d stared at the damaged nursery. Sure, he’d lost his home, but it was just a house, the place where he’d lived after moving out on his own. The things that hurt were those that he couldn’t replace, especially the family photos. His heart squeezed, making him wince. He couldn’t even take new photos to replace them with his parents both gone.

He shook his head, unwilling to think about that now. His thoughts drifted back to Elissa, to the shocked disbelief on her face that had seemed so out of character. It was rare to see Elissa Mason anything other than smiling or being deliberately ornery in pursuit of laughter. To see her standing there in the rain looking at the ruins of her nursery would have kicked him in the gut even if he hadn’t already been reeling from his own loss.

He considered rousting himself and going to her house to make sure she was okay, but his body just wasn’t willing to comply. It was as if everything other than his brain had temporarily forgotten how to function. As the thoughts continued to fly, he realized they were making less and less sense. The last thing he remembered before he stopped thinking altogether was the look of relief on Elissa’s face when she’d jerked open that shelter door. The edge of his lips ticked up as sleep finally claimed him.

When he opened his eyes again, it felt as if he’d just closed them. He blinked several times, disoriented. It took a moment for him to realize that someone was standing over him, a couple more seconds for the person’s face to come into focus.

“Really?” Verona said, her arms crossed. “You prefer a jail bunk to my empty guest room?”

Pete swallowed and blinked a bit more sleep from his eyes. As he lifted himself to a sitting position, he grimaced against the crick in his back. As he stretched the aching muscles, he reminded himself to never do anything that would make him a forced guest in this cell. He was beginning to think the concrete floor actually would have been preferable.

“Well?” Verona said.

“Sorry. I was just too tired to drive over. I did good to make it this far.”

“Well, then, I suggest you quit work a little earlier tonight. You give me a time, and I’ll have a nice hot meal ready for you.”

“Verona, really—”

“Boy, how long have you known me?”

Pete ran his hand over his face. “Forever.”

“Then you should know you’re not going to win an argument with me.” She ruffled his already mussed hair as if he were a little boy.

His heart ached at the gesture, at the memory of his mom doing the same thing. He nodded. “Okay.”

“Good. Now if I can just convince that niece of mine to come home at a decent time.” Verona turned and headed out of the cell, no doubt shifting her efforts to Elissa.

By the time he put in another long day, he didn’t need any convincing to head for Verona’s and the promised hot meal. Plus, the lure of a real bed instead of the torture rack of a cell bunk would be enough to make him crawl all the way to his street.

* * *

ELISSA STRETCHED HER back and stared at the heaping pile of lost revenue she’d spent the past two days constructing at the edge of the nursery parking lot. Dead plants and shredded lumber mingled with countless chunks of broken pottery and twisted metalwork. The pile was an ugly reminder of all she’d lost in the space of a few minutes, but she couldn’t get rid of it until she dealt with the insurance adjuster, whenever that might be.

Like the restoration of electricity, dealing with all the claims in the area was going to take time, no matter how badly she wished she could move both things into the “taken care of” column on her to-do list.

Left with barely any daylight, she turned and dragged her tired, overworked body toward her SUV. Her stomach growled to remind her that she’d not been eating enough to fuel all the work she was doing. Her employees had helped out earlier in the day, but they’d been gone for a couple of hours. She’d worked from near daybreak to dark the past two days, and she still didn’t feel as if she’d made a dent.

Still, she couldn’t complain too much, not when two lives had been lost at the edge of the county and others besides Pete had lost their homes. At least she had a comfortable place to sleep at night, some peace and normality. Suddenly, nothing sounded better than collapsing into her bed and sleeping for twelve hours straight.

As she drove back into the main part of Blue Falls, the lights blazing in the windows told her that electricity had been restored. When she reached the house and pulled into the garage beside Verona’s little car, Elissa didn’t immediately get out. Fatigue settled on her along with the realization that if she didn’t get more sleep tonight, she was going to run out of steam way before she got the nursery property cleaned up and on the road to recovery. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back, felt herself drifting.

Pecking on the window startled her fully awake. She gasped at the sight of someone standing there, someone not Verona, until she realized it was Pete. With a shake of her head, she unbuckled her seat belt and stepped out.

“What are you trying to do, scare me to death?”

“You’ve been sitting out here for ten minutes.”

“And you know this how?”

Pete crossed his arms and leaned one hip against the fender of her vehicle. “Because Verona and I are hungry, and we were waiting for you to come in.”

That’s when she caught the distinctive scent of freshly baked bread. Elissa’s stomach growled loudly at the mention of food.

Pete smiled. “Looks like we’re not the only ones hungry.”

“I can’t decide if I’m more hungry or exhausted.”

“Also know how that feels.” Pete nodded toward the door that led into the kitchen. “Come on. She made chicken and dumplings.”

Comfort food. That’s what they all needed right now, even though dumplings were usually winter fare. She made her way into the kitchen and collapsed onto the nearest chair.

As Verona set a fresh basket of yeast rolls on the table, she squeezed Elissa’s shoulder. “You’re working too hard, honey.”

“It won’t get done if I don’t work. And the longer it takes, the longer I don’t have any income.”

Verona slipped into her chair at the opposite end of the table as Pete pulled out a chair between them and sank onto it, looking every bit as tired as Elissa felt.

“All I’m saying is that it won’t hurt anything to sleep in a bit tomorrow, both of you.”

Throughout dinner, they talked about the storm’s aftermath.

“It’s so sad about the Claytons,” Verona said with a shake of her head. None of them really knew the older couple, but they’d seemed nice enough when they’d come into town from their posts as hosts at the state park campground several miles out of town. They’d been found in the twisted remains of their RV. “But it’s a miracle no one else was killed.” Verona patted Pete’s hand.

Elissa’s frazzled emotions had a lump forming in her throat at the idea of how close Pete had come to also being a casualty. She’d never lost a close friend, and the mere thought made her want to cry buckets. And she wasn’t even a crier. It was a sure sign that she needed sleep even more than she’d suspected.

“This was delicious,” Elissa said. “But I’ve got to hit the hay before I do a face-plant in my bowl.” She started to take her bowl to the sink until Verona waved it back down to the table, indicating she’d take care of the dishes.

“Sounds like a good idea,” Pete said, and stood, too.

As Elissa crossed the living area toward the hallway to the bedrooms, it dawned on her that she had no idea where Pete was staying. She turned to ask him only to find him right behind her. “You’re staying here?”

“Yep. Your aunt threatened me with bodily harm if I didn’t.”

“I did not,” Verona called from the kitchen.

“Close enough.” Pete smiled, and even though his fatigue mirrored her own, it was good to see that smile.

She wasn’t sure she’d be able to do the same in his situation. It was tough enough in her own.

“You don’t mind sharing your space with a smelly boy?”

Elissa actually laughed a little at that, remembering the long-ago comment she’d made when he and Greg Bozeman had tried to sandwich her between them during a particularly sweaty P.E. class.

“As long as you remember to put the toilet seat down, you’re safe.”

He gave her a salute. “Yes, ma’am.”

She rolled her eyes at him and resumed her trek to her bedroom. After making quick work of ditching her dirty clothes and slipping into her pajamas, she snuggled into her comfortable bed. It wasn’t until she heard the distinctive squeak in the next room that she remembered the guest bed was just on the other side of the wall, pushed long-ways along the wall as hers was. And for some odd reason, it felt weird to be lying in her bed that close to Pete. When she suddenly wondered what he slept in, she knew she’d gone way, way too long without sleep. She rolled over to place her back toward the wall, but damned if that same question didn’t plague her until she finally succumbed to the sandman.

Chapter Three

By the time Pete woke the next morning, the sun was streaming in the window and the little digital clock read 10:30 a.m. And despite the fact that he was in an unfamiliar bed, he didn’t think he’d slept that well in months, so much so that he didn’t want to move. Since he didn’t have to work until the afternoon shift, he lay right where he was for several more minutes, making a mental to-do list. He’d rather go out to the stables for a ride, but he didn’t have time. First thing he needed to do was find some cheap transportation. He’d get an insurance settlement eventually, but he couldn’t wait that long. He had a mess to clean up next door, and that required a truck.

Though he hated to do so, he forced himself to get up. Nothing on that to-do list was going to get done if he stayed in bed all day. It was likely that Elissa and Verona had been up for hours. But when he stepped into the hall, the house was quiet. Elissa was probably already out at the nursery, and Verona wasn’t a woman to sit idly at home when there were things to do and people to help.

He pulled on the clothes he’d taken off the previous night and made his way to the shower. He’d been standing under the hot water for a few minutes when his thoughts drifted to the night before. He’d listened as Elissa moved around in her room, how she seemed to be tossing and turning a lot after she went to bed. He’d gotten the distinct sense that something was bothering her. No doubt it was thoughts of the destruction to her business. Other than that, Elissa had always been carefree and perpetually happy.

As he shampooed his hair, for some reason his thoughts went back much further, to when Elissa had first moved in with Verona at the beginning of their freshman year. He’d been instantly in love. Well, as in love as hormonal teenage boys could get. But he’d also been the world’s biggest chicken when it came to girls and had never let her know how he felt, not even when they’d been paired up in history to create a diorama.

They had worked long hours creating the Coliseum in Rome filled with gladiators on the sand and bloodthirsty spectators in the stands, but he still hadn’t gotten up the nerve to ask her out. Eventually, the crush had faded away, leaving a close friendship. They’d worked together at the nursery in high school, and she’d been the one to encourage him to apply to the state police academy after his mother’s cancer went into remission.

He swallowed hard against the pain that still felt fresh, the knowledge that the cancer had returned and taken her life. He might be a grown man now, but there were times when he still felt like an orphan with both of his parents gone.

Pete shoved the thoughts away as he turned off the water and grabbed a towel. He had enough current problems to worry about without dragging up old sorrows. When he dried off, it hit him that he needed to address one concern before even a new vehicle. Clothes.

He stared at the rumpled jeans and T-shirt he’d had stowed in his locker at work. Without them he’d still be running around in the shorts and tee he’d had on when the storm hit. He had some new uniforms ordered, but he needed nonduty clothes pronto. Hell, he needed everything. Which meant he had to first go to the bank and get a new debit card. Damn, life was a pain in the ass when everything you owned blew away.

He rummaged in the cabinets until he found an unopened toothbrush. He needed to shave, too, but he’d wait until he could buy his own razor. It was bad enough that he was pilfering a toothbrush. Something about that act caused the events of the past couple of days to slam into him as he finished brushing his teeth. He cursed and shook his head. After rinsing the brush and his mouth, he stood with his hands pressed against the countertop for several seconds as he allowed himself a mini pity party. But then he turned on the faucet, splashed his face with cold water and toweled it away.

Feeling sorry for himself had never worked to his favor, so he wasn’t about to start now. Instead, he pulled on his worn jeans, thankful at least that there was one more clean T-shirt in the guest room.

He opened the bathroom door and was greeted with a yelp.

* * *

ELISSA COULDN’T BELIEVE she’d slept so late. After she’d finally gone to sleep the night before, she didn’t remember anything. Usually she woke up at least once in the night, but not last night. She’d slept like not just a log but a petrified log. She rubbed her hand over her face, trying to wipe away the groggy feeling.

As she reached for the bathroom door, it opened. She came fully awake with a cry of surprise. Her heart hammered against her breastbone until she realized it was only Pete and not some burglar who’d had to take a tinkle break before robbing her blind.

But as she looked up at him and noticed he wasn’t wearing a shirt, her heart refused to slow its frantic pace. The bare skin was damp and probably warm from the shower. And when did Pete Kayne get so ripped?

“Sorry, I thought you were gone already.”

At the sound of Pete’s voice, the voice of her friend, she snatched her gaze away from his chest to find an awkward, embarrassed look on his face. She half turned and gestured vaguely toward her room. “I think I sort of slipped into a coma last night.”

“Me, too.”

She forced herself to meet his eyes as if nothing out of the ordinary was going on, that she hadn’t just ogled the pectorals of one of her best friends. “Are you late for work?”

He shook his head. “On this afternoon.”

She glanced at the bathroom behind him.

“Sorry,” he said again, this time moving out of the doorway to give her access. “I’ve got errands to run.”

Pete hurried past her toward the guest room. Unable to help herself, she glanced over her shoulder. Damn, his back was every bit as well cut as his chest, a fact that she would have been much better off not knowing. Even after he slipped into the room and shut the door behind him, she didn’t move. Memories started tumbling through her head, and she realized she’d never seen Pete without a shirt on. And now she feared she’d never be able to forget the sight.

With a shake of her head, she entered the bathroom and locked the door behind her. It wasn’t as if she thought Pete was going to suddenly burst in, but she had the strangest feeling that she needed that extra barrier.

She pressed her hand against her forehead to see if she was feverish. Warm, yes, but she had the awful sense that the warmth had nothing to do with sickness and everything to do with embarrassment.

Even when she shucked her pajamas and stepped into the shower, she couldn’t stop thinking about how Pete’s lean muscles and toned skin had beckoned to her, begging her to run her hands up and over them. And then her traitorous brain shifted to thoughts of how Pete had stood in this shower naked only a short time before. Her entire body heated up more than could be accounted for by the stream of hot water.

Good grief, either she was having the strangest dream ever or she seriously didn’t get enough rest last night despite the fact that she’d been asleep twice as long as usual.

She hurried through her shower, but by the time she’d finished in the bathroom Pete was gone. Even with the house empty, she closed her bedroom door once she stepped inside. She sank onto the side of her bed. Her strange reaction to Pete had to be because of the stress she was under. All she needed was to work, get the nursery up and running again, return life to normal. Her being off-kilter, that’s all her weird reaction to Pete was. Nothing more.

With a shake of her head, she dressed and headed to work. When she arrived, she discovered India and Skyler walking back to India’s car.

“What are you guys doing here?” Elissa asked as she pulled up beside them.

“We came to see if we could help,” India said.

Not so long ago, India wouldn’t have been able to be away from her boutique during the middle of the day. But since getting married and becoming a stepmom, she’d hired some help to give her more flexibility with her time.

Elissa eyed Skyler as she got out of the SUV. “Not really the type of work you need to be doing.”

Skyler crossed her arms above her gently rounding belly. “I’m pregnant, not an invalid.”

“Okay, okay. Grouch.”

India laughed a little, earning a glare from their hormonal friend. “What? She’s right. You are grumpy.”

Skyler pointed toward India’s stomach. “Just wait until you get pregnant.”

India didn’t say anything in response, but the way her mouth twitched at the edges gave her away.

“Oh, my God,” Elissa said. “You already are, aren’t you?”

The twitching turned into a smile as India nodded.

Elissa and Skyler squealed at the same time and wrapped India in a group hug.

“Wait,” Skyler said as she took a step back. “You knew and didn’t tell us?”

“I just found out yesterday.”

Elissa swung a pointed finger between her two friends. “That’s it. No heavy lifting, no stooping, none of that for either of you.”

“Well, how are we supposed to help?” India asked.

“Name your babies after me?”

“What if we have boys?” Skyler asked.

Elissa smiled. “Mason’s a nice name.”

Skyler rolled her eyes.

Elissa laughed. “Those cowboys of yours don’t waste time, do they?”

“Bound to happen when we stay in bed half the time,” India said.

All three of them snorted with laughter. It felt good to laugh, to have good news. It felt normal, and that was exactly what Elissa had told herself she needed to get past her temporary lack of sanity earlier.

“It’s your turn, you know.”

It took Elissa a moment to realize that Skyler was talking to her. “What, to have a baby? Uh, no.”

“There’s nothing wrong with babies,” India said.

“Not when they’re someone else’s little booger and poop factories.”

India shook her head as if saying Elissa was silly to protest. “You would love a baby if you had one.”

The image of Pete’s bare chest and arms came to mind, along with the crazy thought that she at least wouldn’t mind the process of making said baby.

Good Lord, she had somehow misplaced her last brain cell. Maybe it had blown away in the storm and was floating in some Louisiana bayou.

“Is something wrong?” India asked.

Elissa shook her head, perhaps too vigorously judging by the curious looks her friends were giving her. “No, not if you two keep your matchmaking endeavors pointed toward someone else.”

“It’s not us you have to worry about,” India said. “You seem to forget who you live with.”

“No, I’m well aware I share a house with the Cupid of Blue Falls. But I’ve become adept at avoiding her arrows.”

Lord help her if Verona were ever privy to how Elissa had responded to the sight of Pete’s half-naked body. Heat whooshed through her at the mere thought of Pete’s name and the word naked in the same sentence.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” India asked.

“Yeah, just got to get to work. I’m late getting started as it is.”

“Tell us what to do.” India turned as if she would follow Elissa inside.

Though their trio spent a tremendous amount of time together, today Elissa just wanted them to leave. Until she purged herself of inappropriate thoughts about their mutual friend, it was too dangerous to be around them. They knew her just a touch too well.

“Really, there’s nothing suitable for two pregnant women to do. You really want to help me, go suggest someone to Verona to focus her matchmaking hoodoo on. That’s the last thing I need right now.”

“Fine, but you’re coming with us to the music hall tonight,” India said. “There’s a band from Dallas playing that Liam says is really good.”

“I don’t have time.” She gestured toward the damaged building as well as the two demolished greenhouses out back. “As you can see, I have a lot of work to do. And the insurance adjuster is supposed to be here today, though I don’t know when.”

“You’ve been going almost nonstop since the storm,” Skyler said. “You need some downtime.”

Elissa started to protest again, but Skyler held up her index finger to indicate she wasn’t finished.

“Plus, it’s common knowledge that you don’t refuse pregnant women. We get whatever we want.”

Elissa raised an eyebrow. “Does Logan know this?”

“Intimately,” Skyler said with a wicked grin.

Damn if that image of Pete didn’t pop into her head again. Her friends were right. She needed to get out, have a night of fun, dance and purge her head of troubling thoughts. Be the person she always was, the life of the party.

But by the time she finished work for the day and dragged herself home, she wondered about the wisdom of agreeing to meet her friends at the Blue Falls Music Hall. After all, there would be time for dancing and flirting after she got the nursery back up and running.

“Hey, honey,” Verona said as Elissa stepped into the house. “Dinner will be ready in about twenty minutes if you want to shower and get ready.”

Elissa gave her aunt a questioning look.

“The girls told me you all were going dancing tonight.”

“I’m too tired.”

“I know you’re tired, but it’ll be good for you to go out. Pete’s already finished with the bathroom, so it’s all yours.”

“Pete?”

Verona smiled. “Yeah, he’s going, too.”

Elissa’s lips pressed together as she took a calming breath. “Don’t.”

“Don’t what?”

Elissa didn’t buy the innocent look Verona shot her. “You know what.” She glanced toward the hallway to make sure Pete was out of earshot before returning her gaze to her aunt. “Pete and I are friends.”

“Which is why it’s perfect. You already know you like each other.”

“As friends. Jeez, that would be like dating my brother.” Well, not exactly. If she had a brother, she was pretty sure she wouldn’t dwell on the contours of his chest and abs.

“Just give it some thought.”

“No,” Elissa hissed as she heard Pete coming up the hall toward them. “Not one word.”

Verona sighed and went back to stirring the spaghetti sauce on the stove.

Elissa turned to head to her room, where she was seriously considering locking herself, but she ceased moving when she spotted Pete. He’d obviously gone shopping because his old, worn clothes were gone, replaced by a new pair of jeans, boots and a chocolate-brown shirt. He held a new tan Stetson in his right hand. She’d seen him in similar outfits hundreds of times, but the increase in her heart rate made her feel as if she were looking at him for the first time. Her friend had grown ridiculously handsome without her noticing. And it felt really weird to even think that.

She forced herself to act normally, which was way harder than it ought to be. “Hit the ShopMart?”

“Yeah. Not likely I’m going to find my old clothes.”

“You probably wouldn’t want them anymore if you did.”

“True.”

When Elissa met Pete’s eyes, she had the distinct impression he, too, was remembering their awkward run-in at the bathroom door that morning. She hated how her easy camaraderie with Pete felt as if it was slipping away, but she was determined to get it back and put this odd bobble out of her mind.

“Well, if I’m going dancing, I better clean up. I’m wearing about an inch of dirt. Doubt I’ll get many dance partners like that.”

As she moved past Pete, she pictured herself dancing with him. She mentally cursed. She’d danced with Pete a zillion times, and it had never been anything other than two friends goofing off and having a good time. As she stepped into the bathroom, she wondered how in the world she was going to avoid dancing with him until the image of his naked torso didn’t taunt her every time she looked at him.

* * *

AN HOUR LATER, Pete followed Elissa into the music hall. Even for her, she was walking faster than normal, as if she wanted to get away from him. He couldn’t help wondering if it had anything to do with him startling her that morning. But that shouldn’t have bothered her. It wasn’t as if he’d strolled out into the hall buck-naked.

But something was definitely up because as soon as they stepped inside she scanned the crowd and headed straight for India and Skyler. Fellow deputy Connor Murphy had to do a quick sidestep with his beer to keep from getting mowed down by her.

“What’s up with Elissa tonight?” Connor asked as he approached Pete. “She’s moving like she’s on her way to a fire.”

Pete shrugged. “Who knows? Pressing girl talk, I guess.”

Connor shook his head. “Women.”

Exactly. Just when you thought you had one figured out, she up and started acting strange.

“You been cleaning up your place yet?”

“Haven’t had time. Got to get a truck first, but haven’t gotten around to that, either. Had to go buy a new life today. It’s bad when you’ve got one pair of underwear to your name.”

“Ask Greg. He probably knows someone who has a truck for sale.”

Pete nodded. “Good idea.” In fact, he saw Greg over by the bar, not too far from where Elissa stood. “I need a drink.”

“Later.”

Pete made his way around the edge of the dance floor, crowded as usual with locals and tourists. His gaze connected with that of a pretty blonde who smiled at him. He gave her a small smile back but continued on his way to the bar instead of asking her to dance.

“Hey, Pete,” India called to him over the sound of the crowd and the band.

He waved, but she motioned for him to come over. As he drew closer, Elissa slipped onto the stool behind her. There it was again, the subtle moving away from him. Or maybe he was imagining it. But why would he be? Shaking off the questions, he directed his attention at India.

“Liam’s organizing another rodeo to benefit the tornado victims. Do you think you could get us a list of those affected?”

“Sure.”

“And include yourself, okay?” Skyler said.

“I’m fine. I’ve got insurance.”

Elissa shifted forward on the stool. “You know better than to argue with Skyler, even before she was pregnant and grumpy.”

“Someday when you get pregnant, I hope you have triplets. And that they’re hell on wheels.”

Elissa shot Skyler a look of horror. “Bite your tongue, woman.”

India laughed, and Pete found himself smiling at the familiar banter between Elissa and Skyler. Whatever weirdness had taken up residence in Elissa seemed to have disappeared, thank goodness. It was bad enough he was forced to invade her home, but he didn’t want to make her uncomfortable while he was at it.

Someone touched his arm. When he turned, the pretty blonde stood there.

“Would you like to dance?”

The crazy urge to look at Elissa gripped him, but he resisted. Trying not to read anything into his reaction, he instead smiled and offered his arm to the blonde. “Lead the way.”

As his dance partner told him her name was Candace and she was in town for a wedding the next day, he tried to pay attention. He was beginning to wonder if he’d been knocked on the head during the tornado because it was hard to pay attention to her. But he made the effort, even pulling her a little closer.

Before he even thought about what he was doing, he turned his gaze toward where Elissa had been sitting, fully expecting she’d found her own dance partner. Instead, she still sat on the stool, staring right at him.

Chapter Four

Elissa jerked her gaze away the moment Pete looked in her direction. What was up with her? She was beginning to think she’d taken leave of her senses.

“Are you okay?” Skyler asked.

Elissa shoved away her sudden, brain-addled interest in Pete and slipped off the stool. “No. I didn’t come here to sit on my butt. This place is for dancing.”

“Then go dance.”

Elissa made a vague gesture around the room. “Slim pickings tonight. You won’t mind if I steal your man, will you?”

Before Skyler could answer, Elissa grabbed Logan’s hand and dragged him toward the dance floor. He laughed in her wake.

As they found a spot on the dance floor just as an upbeat tune started, Logan twirled her into the crowd. “One of these days, if you’re not careful, Skyler is going to sock you one.”

“I’m quicker than her on a normal day, and she’s only going to get bigger.”

Logan winced. “Be glad she didn’t hear that.”

“Already touchy about her figure?”

“You have no idea. We had a Chernobyl-style meltdown this morning when she couldn’t fasten her pants.”

Elissa glanced through the crowd toward Skyler. “Maybe I should lay off for a while, though that’s a little like asking everyone in the world to stop posting their cat pictures online.”

Still, maybe Skyler and India both could use a little pampering. If she got a bit further along in her cleanup and rebuild of the nursery, maybe she’d suggest a spa day for the three of them. She could even get into shopping for baby things. Being a mom might not be on her radar, but by golly she was going to be the best honorary auntie the world had ever seen. She was going to spoil those kids so rotten their mothers would never forgive her. She smiled at that thought.

“That smile is never good.”

Elissa looked up at Logan. “What, this?” She pointed toward her mouth. “I’m as innocent as innocent can be.”

“Yeah, right.”

Elissa laughed and for a few minutes let go of all the things she could be worrying about if she let herself. She wasn’t a natural worrywart as her friends could be, so the past few days had been exhausting both physically and mentally. She had to find a way to deal with restoring her business without letting it fritz her brain and turn her into someone she wasn’t.

At the end of the song, a very determined-looking Skyler reclaimed the love of her life.

“Thanks for letting me borrow him,” Elissa called after her, then laughed.

In the next moment, Greg Bozeman pulled her into his arms and began guiding her around the dance floor.

“So, when are you and I going to run off and get married?” Greg asked, a big grin on his face.

Elissa smiled back. “As soon as I can stop seeing you mooning the town from the top of the water tower.”

“Lord, I’m never going to live that down.”

“You are a town legend.” Elissa laughed at the memory from their senior year when after a big win that sent the Blue Falls High football team to the playoffs, Greg and a few other players had convinced someone in Austin to buy them a keg of beer. They’d been relatively fine out on the back of Taylor Binghamton’s family’s ranch. But then Greg had gotten the big idea to moon Blue Falls under the light of a full moon. The only reason he hadn’t been arrested was that the sheriff hadn’t been 100 percent sure of his identity and Greg had hightailed it. By the time the sheriff had found him the next day, Greg was sober. Still, everyone knew it had been him. And despite his protest now, Elissa was pretty sure he liked being the star of that particular story.

“I guess I’ll have to settle for being a swinging bachelor for a while longer.”

“Yes, I’m sure it will be a hardship.”

Over the course of the next three songs, Elissa found herself dancing with three more partners, two friends and one insurance adjuster from Austin in town meeting with policyholders who’d suffered losses from the tornado. Despite his bore-her-to-death job, he was a fun guy. But as soon as their dance ended and she turned to find herself face-to-face with Pete, she totally forgot Insurance Boy’s name.

Pete pulled her into the next song, and she had to fight the totally stupid urge to plant her feet. She had no idea what was going on in her noggin, but if she refused to dance with Pete, she might as well skywrite that she was having odd feelings toward one of her best friends. They’d danced countless times before, just as she always ended up dancing with Greg and a lot of the other regulars at the music hall. Why it suddenly felt different didn’t make one lick of sense. But it did. He felt too close, and she was aware of every point at which their hands touched and where Pete’s other hand rested at her waist.

She had gone completely loony.

“Something wrong?”

She met Pete’s eyes and saw genuine concern there. It touched her more than it should. Pete was just a nice guy, one who cared about everyone.

“Yeah.” She shrugged. “I’m more tired than I thought.” She stopped dancing and gradually extricated herself, trying not to be obvious about it. “Honestly, I think I just hit the wall.”

Pete nodded toward the door. “I don’t have a lot of pep tonight, either. What do you say we cut out?”

What she really wanted was some time alone to get her head screwed on right, but she couldn’t say that. She had to ride out the rest of this odd trip on the crazy train until life, and her feelings toward Pete, got back to normal.

“Sure.”

“You’re calling it a night already?” India asked when Elissa told them she was leaving.

“Wow, outdone by the pregnant ladies,” Skyler said.

“Some of us have to rebuild our lives,” Elissa snapped. “Literally.”

Elissa caught the wide-eyed surprise on Skyler’s face and immediately felt like a bitch. “I’m sorry.”

Skyler grabbed her hand. “No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be so hard on you, not now anyway.” She pulled Elissa to her for a hug. “Go get some rest.”

All the way back to her house, Elissa couldn’t stop thinking about how edgy and out of character she’d been acting over the past few days. It had to be stress. Nothing else could explain her mood and actions, the hyperawareness she was suffering around Pete.

Maybe she’d simply lived too long without a guy in the house. She hadn’t lived with her parents for more than a couple weeks at a time since she’d left them to their globe-trotting professions and moved in with Verona at the beginning of her freshman year of high school. So it had been only her and her aunt living in a testosterone-free zone for more than a decade.

“You know we’re back, right?”

She glanced at Pete in the passenger seat. “Huh?”

He pointed out the windshield at the interior of the garage. “You planning on falling asleep in your car again?”

She mentally shook herself and reached for the door handle. “I swear, I feel as if I’ve been losing my mind the past couple of days.”

“You’re not alone.”

Elissa shot a look at Pete, trying to figure out if there was more meaning in his words than what there appeared on the surface, but he was already getting out of the car. Loony. She was completely and utterly loony.

Pete reached the door into the house first and held it open for her. Verona had evidently already gone to bed, because the house was quiet, and only a single lamp was burning in the living room.

“You know what I think will make you feel better?”

Her nerves doing an ill-advised dance, Elissa tried her best to appear normal. “Winning the lottery?”

“Something even better.” He moved into the kitchen and retrieved a lemon meringue pie and two forks.

Elissa glanced toward the hallway before returning her attention to Pete. “Put that back. She made it to take to her poker game tomorrow. She’ll kill us if we touch it.”

Pete gave her a devilish grin she didn’t see very often. “When was the last time we got into trouble?”

She thought about it a moment. “Probably when we filled the entire front yard with Oklahoma Sooners decorations.” Elissa would dare anyone to find a bigger Texas Longhorns fan than her aunt, and the mere mention of the Sooners was enough to make her growl. Having her entire yard “defiled” had made Elissa worry for the one and only time that her aunt might kick her out of the house.

“So what’s a little pie filching compared to the Great Sooner Attack?”

Elissa shook her head. “I’m going to tell her that you ate every bite.”

Pete walked past her, tipping the front of his hat up as he headed for the front door. “Then maybe I will.”

“Oh, no, you don’t,” she said as she followed him onto the porch. “You can’t tease me with pie and then not share.”

He offered her a fork. “Partners in crime?”

She huffed and grabbed the fork.

Pete sat at the edge of the porch at the top of the front steps, and Elissa plopped down beside him. Even with the electricity back on, she could still see the vast array of stars when she looked up at the sky.

“Pretty night,” Pete said as if he were reading her mind. “Hard to believe we all about blew away a few nights ago.” He glanced to the left, toward where his house used to stand.

“Are you going to rebuild?”

“Honestly, I haven’t had much time to think about it.” He stuck his fork in the pie then took the first bite.

Elissa cut a bite for herself and mmmed at the tart taste. Verona Charles never met a type of pie she couldn’t master.

“I’ve got to find somewhere to live, though,” Pete said as he cut another bite of pie. “Or your aunt is going to make me fat. Every time I step in the house, she tries to feed me. I think she believes I can’t feed myself.”

“Sometimes I think she wishes she had a family of her own. She would have been a good mom and wife. Maybe that’s why she’s always trying to take care of everyone in town.”

“Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate it, everything both of you have done for me.”

“We haven’t done anything. It’s not like anyone was using your room anyway.”

“I don’t mean just after the storm.” He took another bite and took his time swallowing it. “All the time Mom was sick, Verona was bringing over casseroles and cakes. And don’t think I don’t know you’re the one who set up the mowing and gardening brigade.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He bumped her shoulder with his. “Deny it all you want, but you’ll never know how much it helped Mom to see her garden doing so well last spring.”

A lump formed in Elissa’s throat at the memory, at how the garden had bloomed with more life each day as Pete’s mom’s had slipped away. Elissa didn’t spend that much time with her own mother anymore, but her heart still squeezed with a horrible pain at the idea of losing her. And Pete had lost not one but both parents before he should have. At the thought of how alone he was, how much more alone he’d be without friends, she found herself reaching over and squeezing his hand.

A sizzle of new awareness raced up her arm, but she didn’t allow herself to show it. What Pete needed now was a friend, and that’s exactly what she was and would always be to him.

Pete gave her hand a brief squeeze back then held the pie up toward her. She realized they’d eaten half of it already.

“If we both wake up with stomachaches, it will serve us right,” she said.

“You want to stop?”

“Are you kidding?” She grabbed the pie and took a big bite.

Pete laughed. “Yeah, I guess we need to get rid of the evidence.”

“Exactly. And then plead ignorance in the morning.”

“Or make sure we’re gone before Verona notices.”

Elissa stopped with a bite halfway to her mouth, then met Pete’s gaze. They gave each other a knowing look.

“Yeah, you’re right. Plead ignorance.”

They slipped into silence as they devoured the rest of the pie. When Elissa sat with the empty pie pan in her hand, she moaned.

“Ugh, I can’t believe we ate that entire pie.”

Pete leaned his elbows back against the porch. “Felt good, though, didn’t it?”

“For now. Not sure how I’ll feel in a few minutes.”

Elissa looked up at the sky again in time to see a shooting star. She didn’t point it out to Pete. Instead, she used her wish for him, that all the bad things were finally over for him. To her way of thinking, he’d already gotten his life’s quota of bad taken care of and was due a great future.

The sound of a truck engine and the rattle of a trailer drifted up the street from Main.

Elissa jerked her gaze to Pete. “God, I just realized I haven’t asked you about Frankie. Is he okay? The stables?”

“All safe.”

She heard the relief in his voice. At least he hadn’t been dealt that blow, as well. That was too horrible to think about. He’d had Frankie almost as long as she’d known Pete. Even though Pete didn’t use Frankie to rodeo anymore, he still went riding whenever he got the chance.

“Thank goodness.”

“That reminds me,” he said. “I hate to ask another favor, but do you have time to run me out to Walter Stone’s place in the morning?”

It was on the tip of her tongue to refuse, pointing out that she still had an incredible amount of work to do at the nursery. But she shoved that thought away. Hadn’t she just been thinking that Pete deserved to have things go his way?

“Sure. Why?”

“Greg said that Walter has a truck for sale that I can probably afford.”

You won’t have to drive him places if he gets his own truck. The little voice in her head taunted her, knowing that something weird was going on with Elissa’s feelings toward Pete, that part of her wanted to keep distance between them. She mentally smacked the owner of the voice. The odd feelings would go away if she just ignored them. Wasn’t the fact that they were sitting out here eating pie like the good friends they always had been proof of that?

After a couple more minutes of enjoying the quiet of the evening, Elissa lifted the empty pie tin. “What am I going to do with this?”

“I have an idea.” Pete took the tin from her and stood. When he headed inside, Elissa followed him.

He went straight to the kitchen, grabbing a sheet of the smiley-face notepaper off the pad hanging on the front of the fridge. She watched as he first washed and dried the tin plate then placed it on the countertop. He grabbed a pen and started writing on the notepaper.

“What are you writing?”

He didn’t answer, but when he finished he tapped the paper and moved away toward the hallway.

Curious, she checked out what he’d written.

Elissa ate your pie. I tried to stop her, but she was determined.

“Why, you...” Elissa crumpled the note in her hand, turned and ran for Pete.

With a wide smile, he ran down the hallway and into the guest room. She wasn’t fast enough to catch him before he closed and locked the door. “You’re a rat.”

Verona’s door opened. “What the devil are you two doing?”

Elissa heard the sound of Pete’s muffled laughter on the other side of the door. Keeping the crumpled note hidden in her hand, she said, “Pete ate the entire pie you made for the poker game. I tried to stop him, but he seemed mighty determined to eat the whole thing.”

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