Some cowboys are outta this world...

Astronaut Jason “Ace” McCoy tried to escape Cole’s Hill, Texas—and the memory of Molly Tanner’s dark eyes and strawberry-scented hair—among the stars. Now he and Molly have jointly inherited her father’s struggling ranch. And having failed his latest medical tests, Ace is on leave—maybe forever.

He’s determined to sort things out with the ranch and get back to Houston as soon as possible. What he isn’t counting on is that Molly’s only gotten more beautiful over the years...and she still wants him. The passion between them is hotter than rocket fuel—and just as dangerous. He can’t promise anything as long as there’s a chance to go on another mission. But even in orbit, this attraction has no rules...and no limits.

Don’t think. Act...

Jason’s skin was hot, his muscles hard under her touch, and damn if he didn’t smell good.

He arched one eyebrow at Molly but didn’t make another move. She felt the unspoken dare between them. Was she going to do this or back away as she had earlier?

“Hell.”

His curse lingered in the air around them as his mouth came down on hers. For a mouth that had always looked so strong and tough, it was soft against hers. He took the kiss slowly as if he had all the time in the world.

They had this night.

He tasted of whiskey and temptation. Two things she knew she should resist right now but was unable to.

She was tired of denying herself Jason McCoy.

She’d wanted him for longer than she could remember...and at last it seemed he was hers for the taking.

Dear Reader,

Hello! Welcome to the first book in my new series, Space Cowboys. I was born just before man walked on the moon, and my mom has an 8mm film of me crawling on the floor while in the background the television is tuned to that historic moon landing. From a very early age I wanted to be an astronaut—it seemed fun. Unfortunately for me you have to be really good at science and advanced math...something I’m not.

However, I am good at reading and researching, and when a conversation with my editor about how ranching is a major industry in parts of Florida (including the part where I grew up) turned to a “what if,” Space Cowboys was born. I got to combine two things that I love a lot, space—and the vast universe—and ranching. The series is set in Texas instead of Florida because all training at NASA takes place in Texas.

I had a lot of fun writing this book. I lived in Texas for five wonderful years and revisiting Texas through this story was like going home. I also love Jason and Molly, both strong-willed people who never take the easy path. They always stand by what they think is right, even if that means letting go of each other.

I hope you enjoy the first book in the Space Cowboys series!

Happy reading,

Katherine

No Limits

Katherine Garbera

www.millsandboon.co.uk

USA TODAY bestselling author KATHERINE GARBERA is a two-time MAGGIE® Award winner who has written more than seventy books. A Florida native who grew up to travel the globe, Katherine now makes her home in the Midlands of the UK with her husband, two children and a very spoiled miniature dachshund. Visit Katherine on the web at katherinegarbera.com, or catch up with her on Facebook and Twitter.

This book is dedicated to my darling husband, Rob Elser. Thanks for sharing your love of science and the universe with me and helping to sow the seeds of this series.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to my editor Laura Barth for helping to turn an offhand comment about astronauts and the Florida ranching community into a viable series idea.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Dear Reader

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Extract

Copyright

1

THE DOOR OPENED. Ace McCoy couldn’t see the figure standing on the porch due to distance and the shadow cast by the setting sun, but his gut told him it was her. And if he was a betting man, he’d wager she was more beautiful than she’d been at sixteen when he’d walked away without a backward glance.

He walked slowly toward the house; her dad had once said that the only way to move forward was past fear. And, though he wasn’t truly afraid of Molly Tanner, she was the one woman who had haunted him all of his life. Seeing her again after thirteen years made his gut clench.

“Jason—I mean ‘Ace’—McCoy,” she said, as if his call sign left a bad taste in her mouth. “Thought you’d never set foot on this ranch again.”

He was right. She’d matured into her features. The mouth that had once seemed too big was now full and sensuous. Her eyes were still as rich as dark chocolate and her brows were thick and serious. Her nose was pert and some would say cute. But he’d been on the receiving end of her temper, so cute wasn’t a word he’d use to describe her.

Her breasts were fuller than he remembered, her waist smaller, more nipped in. And her hips—ah, hell—those hips were curvy, beckoning a man to squeeze them and pull her closer. He still remembered the feel of her in his arms, the taste of her mouth, even though they’d only shared one forbidden kiss.

“I’m back because of your dad,” he said, taking off his cowboy hat as he stepped up onto the wooden porch that extended across the front of the house. There were two large clay pots on either side of the stairs and four wooden rocking chairs beckoned. But he knew better than to drop his guard. Not yet.

Maybe not ever.

In Houston he felt like a man in control, a man in charge of his destiny and his life. But a problem with the recovery of his bone density, revealed in his last post-flight medical exam, had him grounded indefinitely. And his mentor—the closest thing he had to a father—had left him half of this ranch. Returning to Cole’s Hill, Texas, made him feel as if he was stepping into the past, a past he preferred to leave behind.

The boy he’d been. The trouble that had dogged him. The stolen kiss that had cost him this, the only home he’d ever really had.

“He’s dead.”

“I know. I...”

“Don’t make excuses,” she said. “He always hoped you’d come back, and I guess he found the one way to get you here.”

“Dying is extreme even for him.”

“Yeah, it was,” she said, tears sparkling in her eyes as she turned away and dropped her chin to her chest. “It was so unexpected.”

He reached out and put his hand on her shoulder, needing to offer comfort and maybe find some himself. Mick had been a young sixty-five, and Ace was still shocked that an all-terrain-vehicle accident had claimed his mentor’s life.

Molly wiped her eyes with her hand and then stepped back from him. Her voice broke as she started to speak, so she cleared her throat and tried again. “He named you in his will.”

“I was surprised. He and I made our peace,” he said. “But the terms of his will caught me off guard.”

“Me, too,” she said. “I’m still processing the fact that he’s gone.”

“I would have come back for the funeral, but I was on the space station.” He was a commander with NASA who had dreams of being one of the first astronauts to set out on the long-term missions necessary to prepare for space travel to Mars. Upon returning from space this time, he’d undergone intensive rehabilitation in Houston to regain the strength and muscle astronauts lose from spending so much time in microgravity. For a while, he’d had trouble walking and couldn’t drive, so his trip to the ranch had been postponed until now.

“I know,” she said. “Dad was proud of you...of what you accomplished. Come on in.”

“You sure about that?” he asked.

At the moment he’d rather be pulling Gs during a launch, fighting the urge to throw up, than standing here. He’d always been more comfortable observing Earth than being on it. Nothing new there.

“Yes. It’s your place, too,” she said. She turned on her heel, disappearing into the house, leaving a trail of strawberry-scented air in her wake and more than a little regret. To be fair, the regret could be coming from him.

He stood there for a long minute, looking at the wooden frame, remembering the boy he’d been at fourteen when he’d first arrived at the ranch. He’d been surly, stand-offish, with a black eye and a busted lip. Molly had greeted him that day, too. She’d stood there with her long chestnut braids, watching him. He’d made some smart-ass comment and she’d put him in his place and walked away.

From that moment on he’d been following her. Even leaving the ranch, going into the military and becoming an astronaut had been about following her. The only man who could catch Molly was one who was aiming for the stars. He wanted to prove that he was more than the juvenile delinquent she’d met all those years ago. The boy-man who wasn’t good enough to kiss her or touch her.

“You coming or not, space cowboy?”

He shook off the mantle of the past, opening the screen door to follow her. It snapped shut behind him and his boots echoed as he walked down the hall to the kitchen. He paused when he noticed a framed photo on the wall. He put his hand next to it, staring at the image of himself in uniform with Mick standing so proudly next to him.

Yeah, the regret was all his.

He should have come back sooner, years ago when Mick had asked. But he’d been afraid of running into Molly. Afraid he’d ask more from her than a kiss. He’d known once he went down that road with her there’d be no coming back. And even as a teen he’d realized there was no real future for him on the ranch.

NASA hadn’t just given him a career; they’d given him a life he was proud of, a life he loved, and he didn’t want to risk being tied to the ground by emotions or expectations.

Ace wasn’t too sure who he was if he wasn’t in space. He felt that uncertainty more than ever now, with three months’ leave stretching in front of him. His commander wanted him to take a break before his follow-up medical exam and he was due for some time off, anyway. He was on a strict exercise regimen to regain bone density. Being outside the Earth’s gravitational field had an adverse effect on the human body and the doctors were monitoring Ace’s recovery closely to ensure astronauts sent on long-term missions wouldn’t suffer lasting damage.

“Jason?” she asked.

It felt strange to hear her say his name. He didn’t know who Jason was anymore. That mixed-up delinquent from the time before he’d joined the military and NASA? The boy whose mother had left him to fend for himself? “Call me Ace.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’ll try, but you’ve always been Jason to me,” she said. “I don’t remember you being this slow, though.”

“Maybe you don’t know everything about me.”

“Oh, that’s one thing I’m sure of.”

“You pissed at me for something?” he asked as he followed her down the hall and into the brightly lit kitchen.

“What would I have to be pissed about?” she asked. “We haven’t seen each other since I was sixteen.”

“Maybe that’s it exactly.”

She didn’t say a word, just stretched to open the cabinet over the sink. The hem of her blouse hitched up revealing the small of her back and her raspberry birthmark. She cursed and braced her hand on the countertop as she reached for the bottle of Maker’s Mark that was just out of reach.

Ace came up behind her, putting his hand on the small of her back. Unable to resist, he rubbed his finger over the birthmark as he reached over her head and snagged the bottle.

She made a startled noise and turned.

He stared down into those big chocolate-brown eyes and knew that all the years and all the distance he’d put between them didn’t matter. He still wanted her just as fiercely as he always had. He put the bottle on the counter behind her.

Her eyelids dropped halfway and a strand of hair fell across her face. He gently brushed it back behind her ear. With one hand on the small of her back and the other on her face, he leaned down and felt the exhalation of her minty breath against his lips.

Their lips touched for the barest of seconds, and then her eyes flew open.

“Well, howdy! I thought you weren’t ever coming back this way, Ace.”

He stepped back, keeping one hand on Molly, and turned to greet Rina Holmes, the housekeeper of the Bar T Ranch.

“Sorry for interrupting. I didn’t realize you’d already started the homecoming,” Rina said.

“There is no homecoming going on here, Rina. Jas—Ace helped me reach Dad’s whiskey. We are going to have a toast to him. You’re just in time to join us,” Molly said, tugging down the hem of her blouse as she moved away from him.

“Looked like a helluva lot more than that to me,” Rina said.

The housekeeper was in her fifties but looked more like forty. She wore her reddish-blond hair hanging around her shoulders. She had an easy smile and a curvy figure, and she’d been on the ranch since before Molly was born. She pulled Jason into a big bear hug.

“We’ve missed you, Ace.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t get here sooner,” he said. He watched Molly over Rina’s shoulder and noticed her hands tremble the tiniest bit as she poured three glasses of whiskey.

“Mick and me knew you were NASA’s shining star. Boy, you sure surprised us,” Rina said. “Never expected the punky juvenile to turn into an American hero.”

“Dad did,” Molly said. “Dad always believed Ace was going to do big things.”

“He did,” Rina agreed, turning and picking up one of the glasses.

“To Mick,” Rina said, raising her glass.

“To Mick,” Ace added.

“To Dad,” Molly said and she took a deep swallow of the whiskey. He couldn’t take his eyes off her mouth. He wanted to finish the kiss they’d barely started. Wanted that and a lot more. And he’d always gone after what he wanted.

He noticed that Molly still watched him with an intense stare whenever Rina wasn’t looking, but as they drank more whiskey and shared stories about Mick, the tension eased a little. And for a moment he had a glimpse of a different future. One that wasn’t written in the stars but was tied to the land. And that made him uncomfortable. Because it seemed more real than it ever had before.

* * *

MOLLY COULDN’T SLEEP. She knew where the blame lay. Just down the hall in the bedroom he’d occupied as a teen. During dinner with the ranch foreman, Jeb, and the hands, Jason had looked uncomfortable. He’d sat there answering their questions about what it was like to be an astronaut, but when everyone had headed to the bunkhouse he’d seemed lost.

Jason “Ace” McCoy.

It would have been nice if he’d gotten soft in the years since she’d last seen him. Maybe lost some of his thick dark hair or developed a potbelly. But she knew that was a foolish wish. NASA didn’t choose men who let themselves go to be part of exclusive missions. She had kept tabs on him, even if she hadn’t read every article about the hotshot Jason had become, the way her father always had.

She wondered sometimes if her dad had known about her crush on Jason. Probably. She hadn’t exactly been subtle that last summer he’d been at the Bar T.

She’d been too young to really understand the raw sexuality that was so much a part of his nature when she’d been sixteen, but at twenty-nine—now she understood it so much better. The only thing standing between them long ago had been his fear that her father wouldn’t approve. And she’d been too unsure of herself to be clear with Jason about what she wanted.

She slipped out of bed and pulled on her dad’s flannel robe. It still smelled of his aftershave and it was the closest thing she had to getting a hug from him. She wrapped her arms around herself for a long minute before she tied the sash as she opened the door.

The old hinges creaked as she did so. The ranch needed an infusion of cash. Everything was old and tired.

Including her?

Damn.

She really hoped not, but tonight, with Jason being back and Dad being gone, she was feeling...too much. A little down, a little wild, a little angry.

The night was warm and the full moon lit her path. The upstairs bedrooms ran along a corridor that was lined with floor-to-ceiling glass panes affording a view of the acres and acres of pasture that her ancestors had claimed and kept as their own. Each generation added their own stamp to their home, which had started as a big farm house, but had evolved into something unique with modern touches. She stood there for a moment, just looking at the land. She loved Texas. And this land was in her blood. She knew she’d do whatever she had to to keep the ranch, even if it meant swallowing her pride and getting along with Jason.

She wanted to confront him. Had since the moment he’d arrived. She’d sent him a card for his birthday every year for the first five years after he left, but she’d never heard anything back. She was more than a little angry. And it was the safest emotion for her to land on at the moment.

She had a gaping sense of loss from her father’s death and she knew some of the anger coursing through her was because she hadn’t spent enough quality time with him before he died. Sure, they’d done chores together and eaten with Jeb and the other ranch hands and sat in silence, but she’d never really gotten to know him. She had thought she’d have decades left to hear his stories and ask him questions.

Jason’s door was closed.

She reminded herself that he was no longer the boy she’d known so well...yet not well enough.

The too-brief kiss they’d shared in the kitchen had whetted her appetite, reawakened a desire that had never really gone away. He would leave again. To be fair, she’d probably want him to go. She knew she didn’t share power easily and the thought of having to make decisions about the ranch with him chafed.

“Molly?”

She glanced up and saw him standing in front of his bedroom. No shirt to cover that muscled chest of his, only a pair of low-slung jeans that clung to his hip bones. His hair was rumpled as if he’d run his fingers through it a few times. Hers tingled as she thought of touching him.

“I am pissed at you,” she said at last.

He rubbed his chest, the thin layer of hair there and the scar he’d earned trying to climb out his window when he’d first come to live with them. The Bar T Ranch had left its mark on Jason as surely as it had on her.

“I left so I wouldn’t hurt your relationship with your dad,” he said.

“That’s BS and you know it. You left because you were afraid.”

“Afraid?”

“Yes. Of me. Of getting tied to this ranch and never seeing the world outside its borders.”

He shrugged and took a step forward. She shivered. He was all masculine grace. He moved as if he owned the world, and given that he’d seen it from orbit maybe he did.

She wanted to be in control. But she couldn’t help wondering if giving in to lust would finally answer the question that had niggled at her for thirteen long years. Would he be the lover she’d always dreamed of? Sixteen-year-old Molly had been sure of it. Twenty-nine-year-old Molly had been disappointed by men before. But she wanted this, wanted him.

Always had.

“So...”

“You certainly aren’t any more eloquent than you used to be,” she said, closing the gap between them. Acting without thinking.

That was the key. Don’t think. She had been thinking way too much since her father died and she’d seen Jason’s name on the will. She’d been questioning why her father, whom she’d thought she’d known so well, had named him in the will and not just her. Did he think she needed a man’s help?

Stop.

Don’t think.

Act.

She put her hands on Jason’s shoulders. His skin was hot, hard under her touch, and damn he smelled good. She went up on her tiptoes, hung there balanced only by her hands on his body.

He arched one eyebrow at her but didn’t make another move. She felt the unspoken dare between them. Was she going to do this or back away as she had in the kitchen?

“Ah, hell.”

Jason’s words lingered in the air around them as his mouth came down on hers. For a mouth that had always looked so strong and tough, it was soft against hers. He took the kiss slowly as if he had all the time in the world.

They had this night.

Nothing was complicated in this empty house with the moon shining down on them. She held tightly on to his shoulders as he parted his lips and she felt the first thrust of his tongue in her mouth.

He tasted of whiskey and temptation. Two things she knew she should resist right now but was unable to.

She was tired of denying herself. Jason McCoy. She’d wanted him for longer than she could remember and at last it seemed he was hers for the taking.

No more regrets.

He settled his hands on her hips, drawing her closer, and the silk nightie she wore under the robe did nothing to protect her from the intense heat of his embrace. He thrust his tongue deeper into her mouth and she felt a fire start in her soul and fan outward.

She pulled back, looking up into his eyes. They were heavy-lidded, half-closed. Slowly he opened them.

2

MOLLY STARED UP into eyes the color of the morning sky, trying not to lose herself. She knew why she was out here in the hallway after midnight. But it was too much to believe that he’d wandered into the hall at the same moment, also unable to sleep.

“Why are you actually here?” she asked. Her voice sounded husky, needy. Too feminine. She might want to pretend Jason didn’t affect her, but that would be a lie. Her father hadn’t held with lying so neither would she.

“To see the land, to figure things out with you,” he said, but he’d turned away. He put his hands on his hips and looked out the big window at the inky-black sky beyond. She wondered if, when he looked at the night sky, it made him long to be back among the stars.

She had questions about that part of his life, but mostly, right now, she needed to not turn something meaningless into a big deal. Her dad had died. She felt tears burning her eyes. She hoped one day she’d be able to think about him without this gut-wrenching pain, but she wasn’t there yet. Would she ever be?

“Hey, you all right?”

She shook her head. “Just—”

Her voice, heavy with tears, sounded deep and almost unintelligible.

“It’s okay. I miss Mick, too,” he said.

Miss him. She ached with his loss. She still wasn’t ready to be on her own with the ranch or in life. She needed her father’s advice. Now more than ever.

More tears fell and all of a sudden she was sobbing. She had heard it said that grief was the photo negative of love, but she wasn’t ready to accept it. It was just a huge hole in her that could never be filled.

Jason cursed and then pulled her into his arms. He didn’t do anything else. Just held her as sobs racked her body and her emotions fell in a gush of tears. She had no idea how much time had passed until she was hiccupping softly and the tears had almost dried up.

“Sorry for that,” she said, taking a step backward.

“I’m not,” he admitted. He wiped the trail of moisture off her face and then sighed. “I’m also here because...I have a few health concerns after spending a year on the International Space Station and my commander wants me to take a break.”

“Oh. I appreciate your honesty. So what’s wrong with your health?”

“Nothing that some time in Earth’s gravity shouldn’t fix. Everyone is betting on that. But I’m mainly at the ranch for the reasons I gave you before—because we need to talk, to figure out what we are going to do with this place,” he said.

“And kissing me was...what was that?” she asked. Oh, God, had she once again thrown herself at Jason? What was it about him that made her abandon common sense?

Aside from his rock-hard body, chiseled jaw and brilliant blue eyes. Those were things any woman would find appealing. But she didn’t normally throw herself at men just because they were attractive.

“That was us. I guess it’s always been there between us, but we never really took the time to pursue it,” he said.

She arched one eyebrow at him. She felt energy and anger coursing through her, but she knew focusing on these feelings was just an easy way to pretend she wasn’t still missing her dad. “Pursue it?”

He shrugged. One of those gestures men make when they know better than to answer a woman.

“You just admitted you are leaving as soon as you get the all clear from NASA,” she said. “We aren’t pursuing anything.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” he said, moving closer to her. She felt the heat of his body and found it very hard to look away from his naked chest. Besides the scar on his left side, he had a tattoo that read To boldly go.

He took another step closer and she put her hand up. Kissing him had been foolish. She was a practical woman. She always had been. And now, with Dad gone, she really needed to think rationally. The ranch was in financial trouble, as it had been for years, and she needed to focus on that.

Not wonder what it would feel like to run her finger over Jason’s tattoo.

“What are you thinking?” he asked. His voice was low and it brushed over her senses like a warm breeze. She wanted to close her eyes and tip her face up, but she didn’t. She’d had her kiss. And it was hotter than she had ever expected. But now she had to go back to being Molly.

“Nothing.”

Nothing. Really? She was intelligent and her remarks had been known to leave men speechless, but with Jason she felt like she was sixteen-year-old Molly in the throes of her crush.

“Well, nothing I want to talk about with you,” she admitted. “I’m not myself tonight. And I want to be like Scarlett and put my troubles off for another day.”

“I’m not myself, either,” he admitted. “Who is Scarlett?”

“Scarlett O’Hara from Gone with the Wind. She’s famous for saying ‘Tomorrow is another day.’”

“Well, she’s right,” he said. “But for tonight we have two choices.”

“Only two?”

“Well, two that won’t get us into trouble,” he said.

There was a touch of mischief in his expression and she realized it had been too long since anyone had teased her. Everyone had been treating her as if she was fragile since her dad had died.

“I’m listening.”

“We can get that bottle of Maker’s Mark out of the cabinet and drink until it’s empty,” he said.

“Or?”

“Or we can saddle up the horses and chase the moon as it moves across the sky,” he said. “I recall that used to be one of your favorite things to do.”

She swallowed hard. It still was.

How could a man she hadn’t seen in thirteen years be the one person who knew her that well?

“Ride,” she said.

“Good choice. Meet you at the stables in ten?”

She nodded and walked away from him. She didn’t think as she changed into her favorite pair of jeans and her cowboy boots. She pulled her hair into a ponytail and walked out into the night.

* * *

THE STABLES HADN’T changed since he’d first visited them as a teenager. The barn was big and cavernous, the scent of hay and sweet corn welcoming him as he stepped inside. There was a narrow aisle between the horses’ stalls. Mick’s horse, Rowdy—named after a TV character from a Western Mick had watched in his youth—had always had the first stall.

As a teen, Ace hadn’t really appreciated being sent from Houston to some ranch out in the middle of nowhere. It had felt like the punishment it was meant to be. And he’d been just bratty and angsty enough to act like an ass for the first three months he’d been at the Bar T Ranch. But Mick kept giving him chores and allowed him the distance he needed to wake up and figure out that he’d made a mess of his life and that he was the only one who could fix it.

He walked past all of the hands’ horses before he came to the few horses Mitch kept for visitors. He saddled one with the name Carl on its stall door. Then he found Molly’s horse in the second stall. Molly had always used the stall next to her father’s. And while it housed a different horse than he remembered, the wood-burned sign she’d made when she was fifteen still hung outside the door.

He heard Molly’s footsteps behind him and turned to face her. He regretted leaving his bedroom when he’d heard her in the hall. She was a complication. Someone he’d never figured out how to deal with. Even from his moody, teenaged perspective there had been something about Molly Tanner that had made him want her.

“I saddled your horse,” he said.

“Thanks.” She took Thunder’s reins and led him to the mounting block.

Ace watched the way she moved. The long easy strides that made her hips sway with each step. The denim fabric of her jeans as it pulled tight around her thighs when she mounted the horse. She settled into the saddle and then glanced over her shoulder at him. Her chestnut hair was pulled up in a high ponytail and he couldn’t take his eyes off the long sweep of her neck.

“You coming, Jason?”

He nodded. NASA trusted him with millions of dollars’ worth of equipment and paid him for his opinion and his thoughts, but at this moment he knew he wasn’t worth a dime. He was speechless watching this cowgirl in her element. She was at home here. Even if something happened and God forbid she lost the ranch, Molly would know who she was.

He’d never felt fully himself until he’d been above the Earth, the blue planet so beautiful at a distance and the rest of the universe spread out before him. If he was permanently grounded because of his health...who would he be? It was his goal to be part of the Cronus test missions, but that might be out of reach now.

Cronus wasn’t an acronym for anything. All of the NASA missions were named for Greek gods and Cronus had been chosen for this program because he’d fallen from the sky and started a civilization on Earth, according to mythology. Many were hoping the Cronus missions and the Mars manned missions would do the same for that planet.

Before Ace had gone up to the ISS for a year, Dennis Lock, Deputy Program Manager for the Cronus mission, and Dr. Lorelei Tomlin, the team medic, had designed a fitness routine to get him ready for the long-term mission program and to see if they could counteract the expected impact of spending a year outside the Earth’s gravitational field.

He’d had very little spinal-fluid loss, which was the result they had been hoping for, and he’d recovered relatively quickly from the standard loss in muscle mass, but the bone-density loss he’d suffered—and the raised calcium levels in his blood that came with it—continued to be a concern. At his medical exam Doc Tomlin had been as upset as Ace was by the unusually slow rate of improvement. He’d taken a leave to see if being away from Johnson Space Center and a different, off-site exercise regimen would help.

Osteopenia had the power to end the part of his career he loved most—actually being up in space. Something he wasn’t ready for. He was determined to beat this any way he could.

He mounted Carl, and Molly touched her heels to her horse’s sides and made a clicking sound, leading the way out of the barn.

The night was cool, not cold, and the sky was clear. Early May in south Texas wasn’t really hot yet, at least at night. For a minute he forgot about riding and just stared at the sky. His heart took a punch and he felt a sense of fear and loss. He had to be cleared for more missions.

“You okay?” she asked.

He thought seeing the stars would remind him of who he was, but it just emphasized what was at stake.

“Yeah,” he lied.

She loped along the fields past the grazing land where the cattle were kept, and he stopped thinking and just followed her.

Her ponytail flew out behind her head as she rode and it took all of his skill to keep up with her. Eventually he realized that Molly wasn’t riding with him. She was racing away from something.

Her dad.

He stopped trying to keep up and let her ride as hard and fast as she could. Even though he knew there was no running away from the ghosts that were carried in one’s soul.

Molly pulled up a few hundred feet in front of him and tipped her head back to the sky. He couldn’t help noticing again how long and slender her neck was. Everything about her body was sleek and elegant.

When he pulled up next to her, he noticed that her eyes were wide and wet.

“I forgot how much I love to ride at night,” she said.

“Me, too. It’s exhilarating.”

“It is. Thank you for this. I know you came here to figure out what to do with the ranch, not to deal with Mick’s hot mess of a daughter.”

“You’re not a hot mess,” he said. “I came back for you, too. We both have to decide what to do about this complicated legacy Mick left us.”

“Yes,” she agreed. “But not tonight.”

“Definitely not,” he agreed. “Where to now?”

She tipped her head back toward the stars again and he did the same. His breath caught as his eyes skimmed the sky finding what he was looking for. The International Space Station. Knowing where to look made it easy for him to spot it. He watched it moving slowly in orbit and thought of all the time he’d spent up there. He’d clocked more time than most of the other guys on his team.

“What are you looking at?”

“The space station,” he said.

“Where is it?”

He lifted his arm and pointed. “It’s in a slow moving orbit.”

“What’s it like up there?”

He shrugged. “Better men than me could probably put it into words. I just know up there...I’m free.”

“Like me when I’m riding,” she said, quietly.

He didn’t respond, just looked up at the sky, realizing he was going to do whatever he had to in order to get mission-ready again. He wasn’t done with that life. Not yet.

* * *

THEY GOT OFF their horses and left them to graze as they continued, walking. This was a side to Jason she didn’t know. In fact, there was a lot to the man she had no idea about. He’d been a boy when he left to go into the military and started on his path to becoming an astronaut. And though they’d lived in the same house for a few years, they’d never had deep conversations.

Tonight she thought she finally had a glimpse of the real man.

“What’s going on with you and your career?” she asked. “You said there was a medical issue.”

“It’s complicated.”

“Which means you don’t think I will understand it or you don’t want to talk about it.”

“You’re one of the smartest women I’ve ever known,” he said.

She smiled. “That’s because I whipped your butt at AP calculus back in the day.”

“I’m a little better at it now,” he admitted.

“And I never have to use it. Ironic, isn’t it?”

“Life is complicated,” he said. “Way more so than we ever could have guessed in high school.”

“True. So you don’t want to talk about your health and I can respect that, but I need to know if you are in danger. We’re a good forty-five minutes from the nearest hospital.”

“I’m okay,” he said. “It’s not anything that’s going to kill me while I’m here.”

Health concerns.

He’d said it like that because he didn’t want to talk about it and make it seem more real. Giving it a name would mean he was fighting something serious. Instead of, say, a cold or a muscle strain. Those were things anyone could beat. This? He wasn’t sure. But being purposely vague would just make it seem more mysterious to her and he doubted she’d leave it alone.

“I have some symptoms of spaceflight osteopenia.”

“I don’t know what that is,” Molly said. “But it sounds like osteoporosis. Does it have something to do with your bones?”

“Yes. In microgravity, astronauts don’t put weight on our back or leg muscles, and the longer we’re up there the more they start to weaken and get smaller.”

“Have you lost height?” she asked.

He shrugged. “When I first returned to Earth I was a bit taller, but now I’m back to normal. They are more concerned with my raised calcium levels and loss of bone density.”

“What can you do?” she asked.

“I’m doing it—or I will be, at least. Working on the ranch, lifting, putting my body to good use, all of these things are going to help,” he said with more than a bit of hope and bravado. “I’m supposed to be tested again in three months. I did an advanced regimen during my time on the ISS and if Doctor Tomlin’s theories are correct I should improve more quickly than others have in the past. Part of my mission on the ISS was for her to test the effects of prolonged exposure to space. She has me trying different exercises and a special diet to decrease my recovery time.”

Molly nodded. He’d shared his medical information but hadn’t really told her what that meant to him.

“How long are you going to stay?” she asked. She needed to know. She needed to make plans. That was what she should be doing instead of walking in the moonlight with Jason McCoy. But here she was.

“It’s three months to my reevaluation. That should give us some time to figure out what to do with the ranch.”

“I don’t want to sell it,” she said. “And I can’t buy you out. Not now.”

“Oh. I was really hoping to sell my half to you. My life isn’t here at the Bar T.”

“Dad borrowed some money from you, so you must know the ranch isn’t as profitable as it once was,” she said.

“I could just sign over my half to you. NASA pays me well enough, and by rights the ranch should be yours.”

That idea didn’t sit right with her. After all, he’d already put money into the ranch and never got a cent back. “No. Thank you for the offer, but Dad wanted you to have this for a reason. He wouldn’t have felt right not paying you back, at least. And even though I don’t understand or appreciate why he made us full partners in this ranch, I won’t go against his wishes. Maybe you will find that you like the ranching life.” Every once in a while the breeze blew in the right direction and the scent of his aftershave wafted on the wind.

“I don’t think I will.” He stared up at the stars again, looking as if he would fly up to them now if he could and leave everything earthbound behind.

“There’s a lot more to you than I remember,” he said. “Though, to be fair, I don’t remember much except that you could outride me.”

“Fair enough,” she said. “All I remember was that I really wanted to kiss you and you were determined not to get involved with me.”

He laughed.

She watched him a second and then smiled. It was the first time since her dad’s death that she’d felt...happy.

He noticed her watching him and raised one eyebrow at her.

“You made me smile.”

“I’m glad,” he said. “I like your smile.”

“You do?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She shook her head. “How many women have fallen for your ‘aw shucks’ routine?”

“A fair few,” he admitted with a sheepish smile. “Not everyone is impressed with my being an astronaut and having stayed on the ISS.”

“Really?” she asked. It gave her the shivers to think of the things he’d done and seen. “I am.”

“You are?”

“I’ve only left the state of Texas once and that was just to go to Louisiana to pick up a bull Dad had purchased. So you having left the planet is a big deal,” she said, wondering who would disagree.

He stopped walking and turned to look at her. His features weren’t clear in the darkness, but she felt his attention on her.

She licked her lips and tried to step back because she was a hot mess, as she’d said earlier. And Jason was feeling uncertain and worried about his future. This was the worst possible time to be kissing him. And more—she wanted more.

She knew that.

She’d been alone for too long. It had been over eighteen months since she’d ended her last relationship and most of the time she was just fine getting her romance fix on television or in books. But tonight, standing out here in the moonlight with him, she craved...something more.

She never gave in to impulses. That was a lie—she had tonight. She’d left her room, gone into the hallway. He’d kissed her. And when their lips had met...she’d changed.

Something fundamental had shifted inside of her and she was honest enough to admit she didn’t know how to react to it. She should never have kissed Jason. She should have left him in the past, in those teenage-girl dreams.

But he was here and that kiss was fresh in her mind. Her lips tingled and she realized that being this close to him stirred something inside of her that she usually did a good job of ignoring. Stirred the passion and the desire that she preferred to think she was the master of. That she had been able to control until Jason.

“Jason...”

“Yes?”

“Why did you stop walking?” she asked.

“Because I wanted to show you this,” he said. He drew her into his arms and she started to lift her face to his, her eyes slowly closing. But he turned her so that he stood behind her and put his hand under her chin, tipping her head back toward the sky.

She was on fire with need. But he treated her like a friend.

They were friends.

Just friends.

She repeated that over and over again as he pointed to the stars. Was the passion she felt one-sided?

3

ACE KEPT HIS touch light on her chin as he tipped her head up to the sky. He wanted more. Hell, she was more addicting than his first taste of flying Mach 1 had been. But he wasn’t back for good and she deserved more than a summer fling.

He had always loved the stars and the sky but, more than that, the freedom they had represented. He knew life had been different for Molly. She’d had her dad and when her mom had passed she’d had Rina. She’d grown up in a house filled with love and support. He hadn’t. He’d wanted to escape and run as far away from Texas as he could get.

Ironic that he’d ended up finding his home in Houston. He’d thought he’d have to leave that city far behind to find peace, but he’d been wrong. It wasn’t the first thing he’d been wrong about and he doubted very much it would be the last.

“What am I looking at?” she asked. Her voice was soft like the gentle breeze stirring around them and her hair smelled of summer strawberries. He remembered the way it had looked falling in disheveled waves around her shoulders and was tempted to remove the elastic holding it in place now.

“Venus,” he said. “Venus takes only a fraction of one Earth year—225 days—to orbit the sun once, so we see it frequently in the night sky. Sometimes Jupiter and Mars line up with it—it’s rare, but you can see all three in a triangle in the sky.”

“Now?”

“No. Usually closer to sunrise,” he said.

“What’s it like to see the sunrise from orbit?”

He wasn’t sure he could put it into words. He wasn’t one of those poetic guys who turned their adventures on the space station into books. Despite his time with NASA, he was still more of a cowboy, he guessed, even if he didn’t want to be tied to the Earth.

“It’s awesome,” he said at last.

She chuckled.

“Awesome?”

“Yeah, got a problem with that?”

“Not at all,” she said. “Good to know that you haven’t changed all that much.”

For a moment he didn’t follow and then he remembered when he’d first come to the ranch. All he’d said to everything was awesome in a sarcastic tone.

“Forgot about that. I don’t use the word much anymore. Must be something about the Bar T that brings it out in me.”

“Must be,” she said, stepping aside. “I guess we should think about heading back.”

“If you do, you’ll miss the best part.”

“What’s the best part?” she asked, turning in his arms. She had her head tipped back and their eyes met in the inky darkness. It was hard to read the expression in hers and that made him feel a bit freer. She wouldn’t be able to read the expression in his eyes, either. He didn’t want her to see how much she affected him.

He traced one finger down the line of her neck. “You are so delicate-looking in the moonlight. Like the Carina Nebula.”

“I’ve never heard of it,” she said. Her words were soft, and he had the feeling she was waiting for something.

Him?

“It’s not as well-known as many of the other nebulas. It’s found in the southern sky.”

“South like southern hemisphere?”

“Yeah. Remember how I wasn’t sure where Montana was for the longest time?” he asked. He’d been so green when he’d lived here. When he was surviving on the streets, the only things that had mattered were food and staying away from the authorities. He’d never done well in school until he’d come to the Bar T and hadn’t had those worries anymore.

“I do. But you always knew the night sky,” she said. “Was it because of... I don’t know much about your family. Dad always respected the privacy of the guys who came here. Said if you wanted me to know your story, you’d tell me.”

“Nothing to tell. I knew the sky because I read a book when I was younger, before things got rough, about sailors who navigated using the stars. It just sort of stuck.”

“Probably like me and Misty of Chincoteague. If I hadn’t already loved horses, that book made me.”

He didn’t dwell on the past, especially his childhood. There was nothing but pain and humiliation there and the future had always been where he’d seen himself. But he realized now how much of the man he was today had been shaped by those events. He was a maverick, even in the Cronus program. Always pushing boundaries and going on missions that others thought twice about. It was why his boss was determined that he get back in top physical condition as quickly as possible.

He was realistic enough to know he probably wouldn’t be part of the Mars mission team since the first one wouldn’t likely happen for at least another twenty years. The test missions, though. The long-term journeys and a possible moon base. Those were all programs he was interested in.

But Cronus was close to his dream mission. They’d be taking up the components for the first base between Earth and Mars. They’d establish the way station and each mission would continue to test human endurance in space.

“Like that,” he agreed. But he wasn’t thinking about their conversation anymore. He was thinking about Molly. And how she’d always been just out of his reach. He had been afraid he wasn’t good enough for her as a teenager, and he realized now that he’d also been running from anything that hinted at a normal life. Still was.

But in the moonlight, with the horses neighing behind them, it was easy to see that none of that mattered. He cupped the back of her head and lowered his mouth to hers. Slowly, in case she wanted to pull back. But she didn’t.

She rose on her tiptoes and put her hands on his shoulders. She held him loosely for balance and he felt the brush of her breath over his lips a second before their mouths met. He moved his lips over hers and closed his eyes.

He knew he couldn’t stay, that this could never be more than a few moonlight kisses, but somehow that seemed perfect to him.

* * *

THROWING CAUTION TO the wind wasn’t her MO, but this was Jason. And she knew no matter what happened with his health, he wouldn’t stay here on the Bar T Ranch for long. He had always been destined for bigger things.

She sighed and almost let her thoughts derail her, but then she shook her head. Shook herself. Not tonight. Like she’d promised herself earlier this evening when she left her bed...no regrets.

Pushing her fingers into his hair, cupping his scalp, she tilted her head to the side to deepen the kiss. Now that they had been out here riding and talking, he tasted different to her. More like adventure and the promise of things she’d never be brave enough to take for herself.

He tasted like a man who was leaving, the same way he had that long-ago summer when she’d wanted to be sophisticated enough to seduce him into staying.

She pulled back.

“What is it?”

How could she tell him that suddenly she felt too silly, too foolish for him? She couldn’t. She wouldn’t. “Nothing.”

“Dammit, Molly. It’s just a kiss,” he said, his Texas drawl stronger than it had been earlier.

It couldn’t lead anywhere—that was the problem. Opportunities for real, lasting romance were lacking in this town and maybe she was tired of it. There weren’t a lot of men in Cole’s Hill that she would consider dating. Mainly because they were either ranchers like herself and busy with their own land, or she’d dated them in high school, or they weren’t her type. And she was here with Jason...Ace. It was hard to think of him as Ace.

“You’d think that I could just let go and have some mindless fun, but even now, with nothing left to lose, I can’t do it.”

He pulled her into his arms and hugged her. Just held her close. She wasn’t crying like she had been earlier. That flood of tears thankfully wasn’t near the surface. But the loneliness she’d felt lately, as she’d come to accept that her dad was truly gone, was back.

She turned her head to the side, rested her cheek against his chest and listened to his heartbeat. It was strong. Steady.

“Just once I want to be like one of those brash women on TV who takes what she wants and smiles as she resumes her normal life.”

“Aw, Molly,” Jason said, tipping her back and dropping a sweet, butterfly kiss on the end of her nose. “That’s not you.”

“More’s the pity,” she said.

He rubbed his thumb over her jawbone. His hands were firm but not rough. Not like hers, calloused and hardened from years of working with cattle and the land. As he touched her a slow heat began to burn deep inside. A shiver went from her jaw to her neck, then over her shoulder and down her arm. Her lips parted.

As Jason stared down at her, she wished she could read the expression in his eyes. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking, and she didn’t want to do something...what? Dumb? Too late. It had been too late since the moment her father’s attorney had revealed that she and Jason were jointly inheriting the Bar T. It had been too late since she’d realized he would be coming back and something feminine and needy had awoken inside of her.

She stared up at him, his eyes silvery pools in the dim light, and realized that she was a coward. All this wanting to be someone else wasn’t true to her. She was hiding because she was afraid.

She was twenty-nine. Well past the age when she’d thought she’d let fear drive her. She felt the wash of his breath over her and she closed her eyes—somehow everything seemed easier with her eyes closed. Then she felt his thumb rub over her bottom lip.

She sighed again.

He pulled her more fully against him, her breasts resting on his chest and their hips lightly touching. She felt the brush of his lips over hers. The intimacy of it heightened because the only senses she used at this moment were taste and touch. His body heat surrounded her. His arms were strong as he held her close.

His lips were warm and firm, and as he opened them over hers she let go and just experienced Jason. The way his tongue brushed hers slowly and then pulled back. The way he kept one hand gently on her shoulder, his finger stroking the pulse at the curve where her neck and shoulder met. The way he let the kiss develop between them with no rush or agenda.

She felt safe.

She felt like they could stand there all night rediscovering each other and the passion she’d been too young to really understand all those years ago.

She rubbed her tongue over his and he moaned a little, shifting her stance. He put one of his hands on her back and drew her even closer so that she was nestled in the cradle of his legs. He cupped her butt, caressing it through her jeans, and she shivered as sensation washed through her.

She put her hands on his hips, holding him as much to steady herself as to feel him. He was solid, muscled. And for the first time since he’d set foot back on the Bar T, she acknowledged that she wanted him, needed him to stay right here with her. But she knew he never would.

* * *

MOLLY FELT SO GOOD. He didn’t have a lot of time in his life for romance. He dated—well, if one-night stands and vacation flings could be called dating—but he had dreams that no woman could compete with. That had been true for longer than he could remember.

But Molly tempted him. She wasn’t casual—no matter how much he wanted to pretend otherwise. And he was tied to her and to this land until they could come up with a solution that would satisfy them both.

Then there was his health. He glanced up at the starry sky again and then cursed and closed his eyes. There was no place to run from this.

And at the moment Molly was the only thing that felt real to him.

He put his hands on her face. Felt the softness of her skin. The scent of her perfume surrounded him and his eyes drifted closed as he let go. Really let go of everything.

Her lips were soft under his, pliant. Her tongue rubbed over his and he sucked it gently into his mouth. One of his hands left her head and moved down her back, his fingers testing the resilience of her hips.

He groaned at the way her curves fit against him. It was as if she was custom-made for him the way his space suit was. He shifted back, lifting her off her feet.

She clung to him as she tipped her head and her tongue plunged deeper into his mouth. He hardened in a rush, rocking his hips forward until his erection was nestled at the top of her thighs.

Her legs parted and she wrapped them around his hips. He staggered backward and then realized there was nothing to lean against. He carefully knelt down and lowered Molly to the ground beneath him. He braced one hand on the soft grass and shifted so that he straddled her.

She turned her head to the side.

“My ponytail is uncomfortable,” she said.

He reached beneath her head and pulled out the elastic. Burying his fingers in her thick hair, he fanned it out around her head.

He stretched out next to her on the grass and drew her up on her side so that they faced each other.

“There’s an easier way to do this, but I wanted to see your hair down,” he said.

“Why?” she asked, her voice was quiet, shy almost.

Not the Molly who could tame a wild horse or quell an ornery ranch hand with just a glance. This was the woman he’d always wondered about. The one who sometimes wandered into his dreams before he sent her on her way.

“It’s beautiful.” He rubbed a few strands between his thumb and forefinger.

“No. It’s nothing special. Just sort of average.”

In her words he heard the implicit belief that she was average. And that shook him because she’d always been anything but.

“You know you’re not average,” he said.

“I think for this area of the country I am.”

“Nah, you stand out, Molly Tanner. You always have. Your eyes are like dark chocolate—a man could lose himself staring into those eyes—and your hair...it’s so silky and soft and I just want to bury my face in and breathe in the sweet strawberry scent.”

She stared at him. He wondered where the words were coming from, as well. Was he saying this because of the moonlight? Because for the first time in his entire life he had no idea what he was doing next and getting lost in Molly seemed like as good a path as any?

God, he really hoped not.

She watched him with eyes that asked too many questions he couldn’t answer, so he took her mouth in a kiss that was deep and filled with passion. That left no room for thinking—for either of them.

He pulled her into the curve of his body, felt her drape her thigh over his top leg and he nestled his throbbing cock against the center of her body.

The night deepened around them and still they lay there in the grass, kissing and caressing until his horse wandered over and nudged him in the back. He sat up and Molly sat up next to him.

It was too soon to take this any further. They were business partners...maybe friends...and sex wasn’t the best idea to keep things uncomplicated.

“I guess we should be heading back,” she said.

“Yeah. We don’t want to be out here when the hands start riding the fence and moving the cattle.”

“Definitely not.”

He helped her to her feet and they both brushed themselves off. She bit her lower lip and looked over at him. Questions, he saw them again in her eyes.

“Thank you for riding with me,” he said to divert her.

She was stubborn, and for a minute he didn’t think it had worked. But in the end she just nodded. “No problem.”

They rode back to the barn in silence and both of them stabled their horses without saying a word. He wasn’t as practiced as Molly and when he looked up from putting away his tack she was gone.

Gone.

It was probably for the best. But he already missed her.

4

MOLLY WASN’T HAVING the best day. Jason had left a message with Jeb that he was going to camp out on the land that evening and that he’d meet her at the lawyer’s office the next day. A horse had reared when she’d been trying to saddle it and its hoof had come down hard on her booted foot. She was pretty sure she had a deep bruise and hoped there were no broken bones.

So when she rounded the house and saw the big late-model Ford Bronco sitting in the circular drive she almost turned around and walked back to the barn.

The last person she wanted to talk to this afternoon was Wil Abernathy.

But the driver’s-side door opened before she could leave and she wouldn’t give him the impression she was running away.

“Afternoon, Molly,” Wil said as she came closer.

Wil was five years older than her and about as tall as Jason’s six-foot frame. He’d spent his life on his family’s ranch and the years had been good to him. Their derricks were still pulling oil from the ground and the Abernathys ran one of the largest and most successful stud farms and insemination programs in the country.

Wil was okay. A little too slick for her taste. The girls she’d gone to school with in Cole’s Hill had always said Wil, with his thick blond hair and blue eyes, looked like Brad Pitt. He had on his dress jeans—she could tell because they were dark blue denim and not faded at all—hand-tooled boots and a Stetson. All the Abernathy men wore Stetsons.

“Afternoon, Wil. What can I do for you?”

“I’m here to sweeten the offer I made your father,” he said. “Maybe we could go inside and discuss it?”

“I’m fine right here.”

“Damn. You are just as stubborn as your dad was,” he said. “I was sorry to hear about his death.”

“Thank you. Thank you, also, for the flowers you sent. I noticed you and your sister at the funeral service, as well.”

“Mick was a good guy and, despite the fact that he didn’t get along with my dad, I never had any problems with him.”

“He was a good guy,” Molly agreed. “I’m not selling.”

“You haven’t heard my proposal yet,” Wil said.

“Okay. Tell me,” she said. Sweat was dripping down the back of her neck and she felt every inch the working cowgirl talking to Wil. If she hadn’t been so determined to keep him out of her house, she could be inside drinking iced tea in the air-conditioning. But her father had always said no Abernathy would set foot in the house...and she was honoring that.

“I want to lease some of your land for grazing,” he said. “Damn, it’s hot. Want to sit in my Bronco if we can’t go inside?”

She shook her head. “Do you know why Dad was so insistent on keeping you and your kin out of the house?”

“I’m not entirely sure, but I think it has something to do with your mom,” Wil said. “My pops just said that the Tanners were sore winners.”

It was another story she’d never know since she hadn’t thought to ask her dad about it, really push him to tell her what had happened. But she was hot and tired and Wil was here offering her an olive branch.

“Why don’t you have a seat on the east-facing porch? There are ceiling fans and we get a nice breeze from the creek. I’ll get us something cold to drink.”

“Sounds good,” Wil said.

Molly heard him walking behind her as they went up the steps and she gestured to the right so he knew where to go. “Do you mind if I change out of these clothes?”

“Take your time. I scheduled the entire afternoon to be out here.”

“Thank you.”

She opened the front door and as she closed it behind her she tipped her head back and let the air-conditioning sweep over her. “Rina!”

“Yeah?”

“Wil is on the east porch. Will you bring him some iced tea?”

Rina poked her head out of the kitchen and looked down the hall at her. “Abernathy?”

“Yes. Be nice. He’s got an offer to lease some land. It might be the cash influx we need to bail ourselves out of this mess.”

“What about Ace?” Rina said, wiping her hands on her apron as she walked toward Molly.

“What about him?” Molly asked. “He’s not here and Wil is. I’m going to take the fastest shower in history and be right back down.”

Rina patted her shoulder as Molly sort of limped by her. “Okay, sunshine. I’ll keep him entertained until you come back down.”

“Thanks,” Molly said, walking past Rina up the stairs. She felt that urge to cry again. Not because of the pain or the situation but because her dad wasn’t here. She wanted to know what had happened between him and Wil’s father. Was she betraying him by even agreeing to listen to Wil’s proposal?

But he wasn’t there. She showered off the day and felt better for it. She pulled on a denim skirt and a sleeveless top then put on her flip-flops, inspecting the bruise on the top of her left foot. Pulling her hair into a ponytail, she went out to the porch where Wil waited for her.

He had a slice of lemon icebox pie and a half-empty glass of iced tea next to him on the table.

“Okay, Abernathy, tell me about this idea of yours,” she said as she sat down.

He leaned back in the rocking chair. “My sister wants to raise Scottish Highland cattle. It’s a small herd and I’d like to keep them separate from our stock and the bulls. Leasing the grazing rights to your land—the section that borders our ranch—would allow me to do that.”

He told her more about his plan and what he would pay. She took his proposal, which he’d thoughtfully typed up for her, and told him she’d get back to him with an answer in a few days. The deposit he offered wouldn’t be enough to clear their debt, but it would put a nice dent in it.

It was an option she should definitely consider. Actually, it was probably the best option she had right now.

She couldn’t help but think that she might have liked Wil if there wasn’t a family feud between them. He was a nice guy. Solid. The kind of man who knew what ranch life demanded and was happy to live it.

Not like Jason. Ace, she reminded herself.

Molly put the file in her office. She kept looking out the window, hoping to see Jason come walking up, but he wasn’t going to. He’d made a point of putting distance between them after the intimacy of last night. She knew she had to give up the idea that he was going to ride to the rescue. She was on her own.

* * *

DINNER HAD BEEN a loud affair with the hands all giving their opinions on what she should do with the ranch. It was going to affect all of them and she thought they should know that the ranch was in financial trouble. Even though she wanted to ensure their jobs, there would have to be changes. Jeb was the quietest man she knew and he’d just sat there listening to all the ideas. Most of the men weren’t too keen on a dude ranch and if Molly was being totally honest, she wasn’t, either. She didn’t want to have to cater to people on vacation.

“I’m just out of ideas,” she said at last.

“Something will come to you,” Jeb said. “It always does. In the meantime, I’m going to put some of the hands on land clearing. The acres down at the edge of our property haven’t been touched for a while and we should get them in shape for whatever you decide to do.”

“Thanks, Jeb.”

He nodded.

“Also, Dad left the ranch to both me and Jason McCoy. So he might be around over the next few months as we are figuring out what to do,” she said. No use pretending the decision was just hers, even if it did feel that way. She’d called Rupert’s office earlier and he’d made it clear that the will stipulated she and Jason had to make any decisions for selling or changing the purpose of the ranch land together.

“He’s a little rusty, but I think he might make a decent hand eventually,” one of them said.

Guffaws of laughter spread around the table.

“He might. He lived here as a teenager,” Molly said, once the laughter died down. “We used to run a last-chance program for troubled boys. They came from Houston mainly, but we got some from Dallas. Dad and Jeb were in charge.”

“Given how much hell Mick and I raised together, we figured we’d be good examples for straightening those boys out,” Jeb said.

“You were,” Rina added. “All of them have gone on to do good things.”

“Is that a possibility?” Jeb asked after the hands had finished eating and left to do their evening chores. “Do you want to take boys in again?”

“No. I’m not like Dad. I don’t have the strength to do that,” she said, getting to her feet and helping Rina clear the dishes.

“Fair enough. Just let me know what you want me to do,” Jeb said.

“I will. Thanks.”

“Girl, you know you’re like a daughter to me. You don’t have to thank me for doing what family does for each other,” Jeb said, giving her a quick hug on his way out the door.

Family.

The word had always been unspoken in the house. Aside from her and her dad, there wasn’t a blood bond between any of the other residents of the Bar T Ranch, but they’d always felt like a family. Even Jason, when he had lived there.

“What’s up?” Rina asked.

“Nothing.”

“Liar,” Rina said. “I’ve got a bottle of pinot noir that my sister sent for my birthday. Meet me on the deck.”

“Rina—”

“I’m not taking no for an answer. If you don’t want to talk, that’s fine. But you’ve been alone enough today and you still haven’t found the answers you’re searching for.”

“You’re right.”

“I know,” Rina said with a wink.

Molly just shook her head and walked out onto the deck that she and her dad had weatherproofed at the beginning of last summer. It was slightly raised, looking down over the large kidney-shaped pool. She walked to the sturdy pine railing and stood there looking out over the land.

The Tanners had been given these 760 acres in a land grant from the Spanish King back in the 1800s. For as far as she could see, the land was hers. They’d run cattle from the beginning and had found oil in the ’60s. They’d had several wells that had produced a nice income during her grandparents’ lifetime, but by the time Molly was born they weren’t producing as much. Her kingdom wasn’t what it used to be. Well, hers and Jason’s. She liked the view. She liked that she could see the pastures where the cattle were kept and the barn where the horses were stabled. She liked that beyond the pastures and buildings was land that hadn’t been developed or used for anything other than ranching and drilling.

Her heart ached at the thought of all she was facing. She needed her dad back, just for a few minutes so she could ask him what the hell he’d been thinking when he’d left half of the ranch to Jason. Why? She knew he had to have some kind of motive, but for the life of her it kept eluding her. The value of the land was so far beyond the debt they owed Jason.

The sun started to sink a little lower toward the horizon and the automatic outdoor lights kicked on as Rina walked out with the wine, a couple of glasses and a cheese tray. Hidden bug zappers under the deck kept the mosquitos at bay. She walked over to the seating area where two lounge chairs sat next to a low side table.

“Thanks for suggesting this,” Molly said as she took her first sip.

“I needed it, too.”

She was just now realizing she hadn’t been the best friend to Rina recently. She’d been too caught up in trying to keep moving so she didn’t break down. She reached across the expanse and squeezed her friend’s arm. “I’m sorry I haven’t been chatty lately.”

“It’s all right. You needed time to get used to things. So did I, but I was just feeling a little lonely. We haven’t had a girls’ night in a while and I figured if I was feeling it you definitely had to be, too.”

“I am. There are too many men here,” Molly said. “You know what I mean?”

“I don’t think that’s the problem. I think you’re more bothered by the one man who wasn’t at dinner.”

“I am,” she said, taking another sip of her wine.

“What happened between you two last night?”

“Nothing. Just a kiss.”

“A kiss. Want to talk about it?”

“No,” she said, fidgeting with the glass. “Maybe. It was nothing. But then it felt like something more. I sound like an idiot.”

“Men do that,” she said.

“Really? I’ve never known a man to do this to me.”

“Some men affect us like that,” Rina said. “The ones who change us.”

“Who affected you that way?” Molly asked, not wanting to believe that Jason could change her. She liked who she was.

“Never you mind,” Rina said. “I met him before I came out here to live with you. And his life kept him in Houston.”

“You could go to Houston, you know?”

“We’re both of us too stubborn to change,” Rina said.

Molly hoped she wasn’t like that, but she had a feeling she was.

They didn’t talk about men anymore that night. Just sipped their wine and watched the sunset. But Jason was on her mind and she suspected that Rina was thinking of the man in Houston. She realized that relationships were never easy and the thought brought her no comfort at all.

* * *

MOLLY STOPPED BY Jammin’ Java for a mocha latte the next morning. It was busy...well, as busy as a coffeehouse in a small town could be. She saw all the usual customers and they nodded and called out hellos to her.

Maybe it was the fact that Jason had awakened something in her when he’d kissed her—forgotten memories of a life she might have had—or perhaps it was because her father had died, but she had a sense that her life was never going to be more than this. That whenever she came into town for the next fifty years, it would play out just the same.

That thought used to bring her ease. Reminded her that she knew who she was and where she belonged. But that kiss with Jason under the stars two nights ago had stirred something inside of her. Something she wasn’t too sure would ever go back to sleep.

Lacey Duvall looked up from behind the counter and smiled when Molly walked up.

“Mocha latte?”

“Yeah.”

“I heard Jason McCoy is back in town,” Lacey said in a questioning sort of way. The two of them had dated a couple of times in high school. Maybe she was hoping to see him again.

“He inherited half of the Bar T. So he’s here to take care of that,” Molly said. “Then he’s going back to Houston.”

“You okay with that?” Lacey asked, turning to the back counter and grabbing Molly’s coffee from her teenaged assistant. “He’s been gone a dog’s age and you haven’t heard from him before now, have you?”

Lacey was a gossip, though not in a malicious way. Molly supposed it would happen to anyone who worked in a small-town coffee shop.

“It was a surprise,” Molly admitted. She smiled and nodded at the kid as she took her coffee from Lacey. “But of course I’m going to honor Dad’s wishes.”

The bell on the coffeehouse door pinged and Lacey turned to greet her next customer with a smile.

“Jason McCoy, I wondered if you were going to stop by,” Lacey said.

Molly stepped over to the bar to add a packet of sugar to her latte and then stirred it slowly. Way slower than was called for.

“I heard this place had the best coffee in town and had to check it out,” Jason said. When he’d left thirteen years ago it hadn’t yet opened.

“It’s the only coffee in town so I guess you are right,” Lacey said. “What’ll it be?”

“Hey, Lacey. Good to see you again. Filtered coffee, please. The biggest cup you have.”

Molly glanced over her shoulder at him. She wanted to play it cool. It was probably no big deal to him to make out with her, but it was a big deal to her. She realized just how limiting her life had been staying here. If she’d gone out and seen the world...maybe she wouldn’t be so fascinated by his damned blue eyes and firm mouth.

He stepped closer and looked down at her, a furrow wrinkling his brow.

“What?”

“I asked how you were,” he said.

“Good. I’d like to discuss a few ideas about the ranch. Maybe we can do that before we head over to see Rupert.”

“Okay. You want to talk here or in the park? It’s a nice day and I saw an empty bench on my way in.”

“Park sounds good to me,” she said. That way the town gossips—and, let’s face it, in a town this size everyone knew each other’s business—couldn’t hear what they were saying. Hell, it didn’t matter what they said—people were always going to talk. Many of them probably remembered how she’d followed Jason around town the summer before he left. How she’d tried wearing makeup and short skirts to catch his attention...

He called out a good-bye to Lacey. Molly noticed Lacey had her cell phone in her hand, furiously texting something...probably about them. She was embarrassed and a little bit...well...excited that she was being linked to Jason. And that was the problem right there.

He wanted her to buy him out or have her accept his offer to turn over his half of the ranch so he could leave. Go back to Houston. And the truth was she wanted him to stay.

They walked over to the park bench. She sat down on one end. Jason stood there for a minute then stooped to put his coffee on the ground by her foot. He stayed there so that they were at eye level and she looked at him.

“What are you doing?”

“Trying to see what’s going on in your pretty head,” he said.

“Don’t.”

“Don’t what?”

“Try to be charming,” she said. “Sit down and let’s talk about the ranch. That’s all we have between us.”

“We have a hell of a lot more than that.”

“Passion?” she asked, remembering the other night. “Dad always said passion leads to trouble.”

“And he was right. But not this time,” Jason said, putting his hand on her leg. “Are you ticked at me again?”

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