A Lone Star Reunion

Hope Dillan thought she’d left the town of Braxton behind her—right along with the man she abandoned. But when her father falls ill, Hope anxiously flies home and finds former love Logan Cooper right where she left him. Being around Logan again feels like old times. The spark between them remains, but so does the secret that forced Hope to end things—one she knows will always keep them apart. When her father’s condition worsens, Hope feels the weight of everything she might lose. But how can she come clean to Logan without closing the door on their happily-ever-after again?

“Logan!” she shrieked, arms folded over her head.

This time he was the one chuckling. “You ready to call a truce, little darlin’?” he asked as he shifted the hose’s aim to the plants on the table beside her.

“Yes,” she sputtered as she turned to face him. Water clung to the spiraling strands of her hair like a heavy morning dew. Coppery curls hung in sagging, wet tendrils to frame her pretty face.

A memory came rushing back from the past. One that had been very much like this moment. He and Hope in this very same greenhouse, both armed with hoses. Both soaked clean through by the end of their water play. Both falling in love. Or so he had thought.

Logan shut off the nozzle’s spray and tossed it onto the ground beside him. “You can take it from here. I’ve got work to do.” That said, he walked out of the greenhouse.

And away from the painful memories of her walking away from what they’d once had.

KAT BROOKES is an award-winning author and past Romance Writers of America Golden Heart® Award finalist. She is married to her childhood sweetheart and has been blessed with two beautiful daughters. She loves writing stories that can both make you smile and touch your heart. Kat is represented by Michelle Grajkowski with 3 Seas Literary Agency. Read more about Kat and her upcoming releases at katbrookes.com. Email her at katbrookes@comcast.net. Facebook: Kat Brookes.

Their Second Chance Love

Kat Brookes

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, doesnot act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered.

—1 Corinthians 13:4–5

I would like to dedicate this book to my good friend Tammy Johnson, who talked me into submitting to Love Inspired after she sold her book to Love Inspired Suspense. Without her pushing me to take the chance, this book would not have been. I’d also like to thank my wonderful agent, Michelle Grajkowski from 3 Seas Literary Agency, and my two writing besties, Janice Lynn and Lisa Childs, for believing in me and brainstorming ideas with me for so many years.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

About the Author

Title Page

Bible Verse

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Epilogue

Dear Reader

Extract

Copyright

Chapter One

Logan Cooper grimaced as his gaze moved over the crisp white wedding invitation he held in his hands. One embossed with two shiny gold hearts with flowers woven around them. The matching fancy gold script announcing the specifics for his brother’s big day. A day filled with love and promises of happily-ever-after. But not all relationships had storybook endings. He knew that firsthand.

Nathan should know that, too.

A heavy sigh pushed past Logan’s lips.

How could his big brother have forgotten the depth of heartache that eventually came with loving someone? Either through something as painfully final as death, as was his brother’s case with his beloved wife, Isabel. Or by having the one who you love walk away, leaving your heart feeling as though it had just been trampled by a herd of stampeding cattle, as was the case with him and Hope.

Please, Lord, don’t let my brother be making a mistake by risking his heart again.

It wasn’t that Logan didn’t like Alyssa. She was everything good in a woman. Kind and caring. Compassionate and patient. All of which Nathan had needed desperately in his life. She’d brought him back from the brink of the emotional desolation he’d fallen into after Isabel’s death a little over two years before. Alyssa had even played a huge part in helping his brother find his way to the Lord again when no one else had been able to do so. But if something was to happen to her...

Logan shook the thought away. Nothing was going to happen to Alyssa. They wouldn’t let it. Setting the invitation and the fancy reply card that came with it onto the kitchen counter, he grabbed his truck keys, slapped his cowboy hat onto his head and headed outside. He had an order at Hope’s Garden to pick up.

Hope’s Garden. The local nursery, owned and run by Jack Dillan, had been named for Jack’s daughter, Hope, the girl Logan had once loved. He and Jack had been doing business together for years, despite the painful breakup that had gone on between Logan and Hope. Painful at least for him, because you had to love someone to be able to feel the pain that comes with losing them.

I don’t love you. Hope’s blurted-out declaration that day so long ago still rang in his ears. How had he been so wrong about her? About them? Shaking the ever-troubling past from his mind, he climbed into his truck and set off down the narrow dirt drive that fronted the three-bedroom log cabin his brothers had helped him build a few years before.

His gaze drifted upward as he peered out the front windshield, taking in the billowy dark clouds gathering in the morning sky above him. He prayed the rain would hold off until he’d picked up and delivered the trees he’d ordered for a job he was finishing up. Thankfully, the rain was expected to clear the area in a day or so, and temperatures were supposed to move up from the high fifties to the low seventies.

Thunder rumbled loudly in the distance as he turned off the main road and drove through the open gates of Hope’s Garden. “Hold off just a little longer,” Logan pleaded, casting a glance skyward. Loading and unloading trees in the cold and wet made for a miserable day.

A large greenhouse sat off to the left of the winding drive while rows of potted shrubs and trees lined the land to his right. Up ahead, the building that housed the checkout counter, and various fertilizers and assorted plant food options, looked an even brighter white against the darkening backdrop of that morning’s sky. To its right sat two more greenhouses, which held a large selection of potted annuals and perennials and thick, green ferns.

Parking near the entrance, Logan zipped up his jacket. raising its collar to protect himself against the bite of the spring wind gusting outside. Large drops of rain began to splatter across the windshield as he threw open the door, jumped down and made a sprint for the building’s entrance.

So much for beating the storm.

He hoped Jack had a fresh pot of coffee going. He could use a cup and he knew Jack would gladly offer.

Despite the unexpected and painful breakup he’d gone through with Hope nine years before, he and Jack had remained close. His friend had been every bit as stunned by the breakup as Logan had been. He’d fully expected them to marry after college and start working on a family of their own. When that hadn’t happened, Jack had given Logan a reason to get up every morning. He’d encouraged him to take what he’d learned while working for him at the nursery and start his own landscaping business.

Logan had taken the suggestion to heart, using his passion for trees and plants and flowers to build up a business that had taken root and had long since become one of the most sought-after landscaping service companies in the county. Logan would be the first to admit that he wouldn’t be where he was today without the unwavering trust and faith Jack had placed in his ability to start a business of his very own.

“Hello!” he called out as he pulled the glass entry door closed behind him.

Country music blared from the back office.

Grinning, Logan called out a little louder, “What’s a man gotta do to get some service around here?”

When Jack didn’t reply, he shook his head with a chuckle. His friend really did need to consider having his hearing checked. They’d made jokes about it in the recent months, but, in all seriousness, how did he expect to hear his customers when they came in with the radio blasting the way it was?

Logan rounded the counter and made his way down the short hallway to Jack’s office. One they had spent many a morning in before starting their workdays, talking over a cup of coffee and an occasional donut if Logan had time to run into town to pick some up for them on his way.

Reaching the office, he noticed the door had been left slightly ajar. The heady aroma of freshly brewed coffee drifted out into the hallway to join the music. Eager for a cup, Logan stepped into the room.

He’d no sooner opened his mouth to ask if his friend was trying to burst both of their eardrums with the radio cranked up so loud when his gaze dropped down from the vacant desk chair to the unmoving form on the floor beside the old oak desk.

“Jack!” Logan gasped, his gut twisting as he took in the sight of Hope’s father lying motionless on the cool, hardwood floor a few feet away. The radio lay on its side next to him along with an upturned aloe plant and the clay pot and soil it had once been nestled in.

Dear Lord, please don’t let Jack be gone.

* * *

The ringing of her cell phone had Hope Dillan stepping away from the filing cabinet where she’d been pulling several client files for the lunch meeting she had scheduled with the rest of Complete Solar Management’s marketing team that afternoon. Reaching into her desk, she dug inside her purse for her phone, wondering if there had been a change in place or time for their meeting.

A glance at the screen displayed a number she wasn’t familiar with. Bringing the phone to her ear, she said, “Hope Dillan speaking.”

“Hope, it’s Logan.”

She froze, anxiety immediately filling her. How had he gotten her cell phone number? Surely, her daddy wouldn’t have gone against her wishes and given it to him. Not after all these years. Years she’d spent doing everything she could to avoid crossing paths with Logan Cooper. Even changing her cell phone number, because Logan wasn’t a quitter and she wasn’t as strong as she’d like to be when it came to cutting all of her heartstrings where he was concerned.

Logan was the kind of man who, when he loved someone, did it with his whole heart. Even after she’d gone and broken it. If only things could have been different. If only God hadn’t decided to shatter her dreams. Their dreams.

“This really isn’t a good time,” she managed, her eyes tearing up as she spoke the words. She prayed she sounded less affected by his unexpected call than she felt at that moment. Because she was anything but unaffected. Her furiously pounding heart was proof enough of that.

The last time they’d spoken had been after the tornado struck Braxton, taking with it his parents, his sister-in-law and their neighbor, Mr. Timmons. She’d returned home for the funerals. How could she not? His family had been like her own.

“I had no choice,” he said. There was no missing the unsteadiness to his voice.

“Logan, we—”

“This isn’t about us,” he said, cutting her off. “I’m calling about Jack.”

“Daddy?” she said, her sense of panic shifting as his words settled in. “What about Daddy?” she demanded anxiously. She had just spoken with him the evening before and he had been his usual teasing self.

“He’s had some sort of spell.”

“What sort of spell?”

“I don’t know,” he said with a sigh. “I stopped by to pick up an order and found him on the floor in his office.”

A sob caught in her throat.

“I’ll know more once I get to the hospital,” he said.

The hospital?

“The ambulance just left,” he continued. “They’re taking him to County General as we speak. I’m headed there as soon as I close up the nursery.”

Hope shut her eyes, her phone clutched tightly in her hand. “Was he conscious?”

There was a brief hesitation on the other end of the line before Logan replied, “Not when I found him. But he was when they were loading him into the ambulance. He told me not to bother you at work, but I thought you would wanna know.”

“I appreciate your calling,” she said, shaking as she grabbed her purse from the open drawer. Then pushing away from her desk, she shot to her feet. “I’ll be there as soon as I can book a flight,” she said with forced calm, trying to hold it together when inside she was on the verge of falling apart. She couldn’t lose her daddy. He was all she had.

“Call when you get close to the hospital,” Logan said flatly. “I’ll make sure I’m gone before you get here.”

His stiffly spoken words broke her heart, knowing she had made him this way. Distant, almost hard. Tears spilled down her cheeks. Before she could respond, before she could tell him there was no need to leave on her account, he was gone. The line every bit as empty as she felt inside.

* * *

Logan sat next to Jack’s hospital bed, feeling helpless. A feeling that didn’t sit well with him. There had to be something more he could do for his friend. Jack had given him his first job. Had taught him everything he knew about flowers and plants and trees. And after encouraging him to take his passion for those things and start his own landscaping business, Jack had gone so far as to loan Logan the money to start that business up. He had long since paid Jack back the money he’d lent him. His business, Cooper Landscaping, had taken firm root. He had no doubt that his company’s success was due in large part to Jack Dillan’s support and guidance over the years, as well as his brothers’ bringing him in on several of their company’s construction projects. If the businesses or home owners contracting work through Cooper Construction were in need of landscaping to go with their newly built homes or businesses, Logan’s company was at the top of the recommended landscaper list his brothers provided to their clients. Being the only local landscaping company in the immediate area had no doubt helped, as well.

The steady hiss of oxygen being fed through the tube in Jack’s nose had Logan’s brow creasing in concern. He hated seeing his friend this way. Jack Dillan, at fifty-nine years of age, was still in his prime. He wasn’t the kind of man to sit around having others do things for him. He was a doer, grumbling anytime someone fussed over him. Except when Verna Simms stopped by to bring him some of her homemade chicken soup because she’d heard that he was suffering from a bout of the sniffles. He didn’t seem to mind the pretty widow and owner of Big Dogs, the local diner, coddling him. Not that Jack would ever admit to having a liking for the attention she paid to him. He was too set in his ways. But Logan knew better. Maybe he ought to give Verna a call. She’d have him back to his old self in no time. The thought of it brought a semblance of a smile to Logan’s tightly pressed lips.

Closing his eyes, he prayed for the Lord to give Jack the strength to pull through this health crisis. It had been hard enough having to call Hope with the news that her daddy was in the hospital. Now he was going to have to stick around, despite preferring to be gone when Hope arrived. Jack had asked him to call and tell Hope he was under the weather in case she tried to reach him, sugarcoating the truth and leaving out the details, which Logan refused to do. Hope needed to know the whole of it. Dragging a hand back through his own dark, wavy hair, he took in Jack’s pale face as he lay asleep in the hospital bed. “You’d best get to mending, old man. A lot of folks are gonna be counting on you for their garden flowers with spring being just around the corner.” He was gonna be counting on Jack to be there.

His gaze flicked to the clock on the wall, watching as the second hand made its painfully slow trip around the circle of numbers. Over and over. Tick. Tick. Tick.

Unable to sit there listening to the hiss of the oxygen and the beeping of the monitors any longer, Logan pushed out of the hospital chair and straightened his six-foot-four-inch frame. Casting one more glance down at his friend, he turned and made his way out of ICU. He figured he’d return a few work calls that had come in that morning. Anything to fill the time and keep his concern at bay.

The automatic doors eased closed behind him as Logan stepped out into the hallway. Digging into the front pocket of his jeans, he grabbed for his cell phone and had just settled back against the brightly lit corridor’s wall outside when a very feminine, all-too-familiar voice called out to him.

“Logan?”

His hand, still curled around his phone, dropped down to his side, his gaze shifting in the direction of the approaching hospital visitor. Hope. He stood frozen for a long moment, drinking in the sight of the woman he had once loved as she made her way toward him, wheeling a small floral suitcase behind her.

“Hope,” he replied, shoving his cell phone back into his jeans pocket as he pushed away from the wall. Her wide green eyes were red-rimmed and swollen. Her normally beautiful, sun-kissed face void of color.

“I know I was supposed to call when I got in,” she said, sounding panicked. “But my flight was delayed and all I could think about when we finally landed was getting here as quickly as I could.”

“Your daddy’s gonna be okay,” he told her with less conviction than he’d like to have put across. He had to be. Hope needed him. He needed Jack, truth be told. The older man was like a second father to him.

Sniffling, she brushed away a stray tear that had started down her cheek. Then she looked up, searching his gaze. “Have you heard anything yet?”

Instinct had him wanting to reach out and comfort her. But it was better to keep his distance where Hope was concerned. He took a moment to collect his thoughts, to tuck away the emotions Hope never failed to stir in him. Hurt. Anger. Resentment. Longing.

“Logan,” she said, the urgent plea pulling him from his troubled thoughts. “Please tell me.”

He heaved a heavy sigh. “The doctor stopped by to look in on your daddy about thirty minutes or so ago. He told us that the tests they’d run so far have confirmed that Jack suffered a stroke.”

“A stroke?” Hope gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. She shook her head in denial, sending long, coppery curls bouncing over her slender shoulders. “That can’t be. He’s not old enough. He doesn’t even smoke,” she went on as denial took hold.

He nodded. “I know. They’re still running a few more tests, but the doctor’s pretty confident Jack’s high blood pressure contributed to his having the stroke.”

Confusion filled her green eyes. “But Daddy doesn’t have high blood pressure.”

He frowned, knowing that Jack had probably kept that information to himself to keep Hope from worrying over him.

Understanding dawned in her eyes as she took in his reaction to her words. “He does,” she said, the words a mere whisper.

Logan nodded. “Yes.”

“And you knew about it?” she said, more a statement than an actual question.

“Jack made mention of it a while back,” he admitted.

“And you didn’t think to call and let me know he was having health issues?”

“I didn’t have your contact information,” he said soberly. “The only reason I was able to reach you today was because I got your number from Jack’s cell phone to make the call.”

“Oh,” she said, guilt lacing her tone. Her gaze dropped to the front of his shirt. “I’m sorry. None of this is your fault. I shouldn’t have snapped at you that way.”

“Don’t apologize,” he told her. “You’re upset. It’s understandable. We just have to keep in mind that this isn’t about us.”

“Agreed.”

“Our focus needs to be on getting Jack back on his feet.”

Her chin snapped up, her tear-filled eyes searching his. “So he really is gonna be all right?”

“He got to the hospital in time to put the odds back in his favor,” he explained, repeating the doctor’s earlier words.

“Thanks to you.”

“Thanks to the Lord,” he muttered. God had put him in the right place at the right time. “They need to get your daddy back on his medication, make adjustments as necessary to get his blood pressure under control. Once that’s done, he should be his old self.”

“Back on?”

“Apparently, Jack decided to stop taking his blood pressure medication about four months or so ago because he’d been feeling so well.”

“Oh, Daddy,” she groaned.

“There’s a good possibility he’s gonna require physical therapy of some sort, because he’s experiencing some muscle weakness on one side, mostly with his arm. Barring any unforeseen issues, he should make a near, if not complete, recovery.”

More tears sprung to her eyes. “I should get in there,” she said, her gaze drifting to the double doors leading into ICU.

“I’ll walk you back,” he said as he reached for the handle of her suitcase. “Jack’s in the first room on the left.” If one could call the small, glass-enclosed cubicle where patients could be monitored visually as well as with machines a room.

“Is he conscious?” she asked fearfully.

“Yes,” he answered with a nod as the ICU doors swung open. “However, he was sleeping when I stepped out here to return a few work calls.”

“Did you tell him I was on my way?” she asked as they entered the intensive care unit.

“He doesn’t know that you’re aware he’s in here,” he said evenly. “He didn’t wanna cause you any worry.”

“I’m glad you called,” she said. “Not that Daddy will be, I’m sure. The man’s too proud for his own good.”

Logan gave a shrug. “I did what needed done. He’ll get over it.” Jack had never been a man to hold grudges.

Hope stopped just outside the cubicle, staring at her daddy through the floor-to-ceiling wall of windows. “He looks so helpless. He’s never been helpless,” she said, biting at her bottom lip.

Logan stepped up beside her, his gaze focused on the man beyond the glass. “Don’t worry. You know Jack’s got more grit in him than most men I know. You’ve just gotta trust in the Lord to watch over him.”

“Where was the Lord when Daddy had his stroke?”

She sounded so bitter. Not at all like the Hope that he used to know. But the woman he’d thought he’d once known was little more than a stranger to him now. She’d seen to that.

“He was there,” he assured her. “I know it’s hard to see your daddy all hooked up to wires and tubes, but you’ve gotta stay strong for his sake,” he told her, resisting the urge to reach for her hand as he would have done back when they were a couple. Back when he was a naive teenage boy who thought he knew what true love was.

He watched as she shored up her slender shoulders. No doubt gathering the emotional courage to step into the room, into the reality of the situation she found herself in.

Logan followed, wheeling her suitcase up against the glass wall by the entrance where he stood waiting, giving Hope a moment of privacy as she moved to stand beside Jack’s hospital bed.

Reaching for Jack’s limp hand, Hope covered it with her own. “Oh, Daddy,” she said as her worried gaze took in the medical equipment that surrounded the head of his hospital bed. Leaning over the bed rail, she said softly, “Daddy, it’s Hope. Can you hear me?”

He stirred, his lashes lifting slightly as he peered up at his only child. “Baby girl?” he said, his thick brows furrowing in confusion.

She managed a bright smile, as she settled into the chair next to the bed rail. “You gave me a scare.”

“What are you doing here?” he asked in surprise.

“I wouldn’t be anywhere else.”

“But how did you know I was...” His words trailed off as his tired gaze shifted to where Logan stood waiting. One lone salt-and-pepper brow lifted. “You called her?”

He nodded. Not that he’d wanted to. “She had a right to know.”

“Not one for sticking to the plan, I see,” Jack grumbled.

“No, sir,” Logan replied with a shake of his head as he stepped closer. “Not when it means keeping something this serious from your daughter.” No matter how poorly things had ended between the two of them, he knew what it was like to lose a parent. Hope had already lost her momma. If Jack, God forbid, took a turn for the worse, she deserved the chance to say goodbye. Even if she had pretty much abandoned Jack when she’d moved away, her visits too few and far too short. Jack deserved more from his only child.

“I see,” his friend said with clear disapproval.

Betraying Jack wasn’t something Logan had done lightly. But his momma had raised him to do the right thing. This, in his opinion, had been the right thing to do, whether Jack liked it or not. “I’d do it again if the situation called for it,” he admitted.

Hope turned her head, looking up at him. “And I thank you. I’m sure it wasn’t an easy call to make, seeing as how Daddy asked you to keep this to yourself.”

She had no idea how difficult. Not only because of the news he’d had to give her, but also because hearing her sweet voice again had succeeded in twisting him up in emotional knots all over again. It had also stirred up the bitterness and hurt he’d long since tucked away.

“If not for your finding Daddy...” she continued, emotion drawing her voice tight.

“Yes,” Jack agreed with a nod. “If you hadn’t been there... Thank you, son. For everything.”

“Don’t thank me,” he told the older man with a smile. “Thank the man above. Appears He’s still got plans for you.”

“Appears that way.”

“Well, now that you’ve got family here, I’ll be on my way,” he said, needing to put some distance between himself and Hope. Pulling Jack’s smartphone from the front pocket of his flannel shirt, Logan placed it atop the narrow lap table that hovered over the foot of Jack’s hospital bed. “In case you need to reach me. Take care of yourself, Jack. I’ll be by tomorrow to check on you.” Looking to Jack’s daughter, he tipped his hat. “Hope.” Then turning, he made his way toward the open doorway.

“Logan,” Jack called after him, his voice weak.

He stopped then turned to find knowing eyes watching him.

“Everything will work itself out, son. The good Lord’s got plans for you, as well.”

He didn’t miss Hope stiffening at her daddy’s words of faith in the Lord. Just as she had earlier.

He acknowledged Jack’s words with another nod and then walked out of the ICU room. Back to what he knew best—landscaping.

But when his thoughts should have turned to that day’s business, they stubbornly refused. They were caught up in the change he’d seen in Hope. She wasn’t the sweet, smiling girl he remembered. The one he’d spent countless Sundays sitting beside in church all those years ago. The one he’d laughed with. Learned with. Loved. No, the woman he’d seen today had lost that spark of joy that used to light her green eyes. Even more troubling, she seemed to have lost her trust in God’s will.

He sighed, wishing he could push the troubling thoughts away. Getting caught up in Hope again wasn’t something he would ever allow to happen. But it didn’t mean he wasn’t affected by her rejection of a faith she’d once held dear.

Granted, there had been a time when her trust in the Lord had been shaken. Right after her momma had lost her long, courageous battle with cancer. But she’d been young and scared and hurting. His momma, who had been close with Hope’s, had done her best to step in and help fill in some of the void. She’d also been there to help an eleven-year-old little girl understand and accept that the Lord had a far greater plan for her momma.

Now he had to wonder if Hope had ever really accepted that. Had she merely put on a front about having faith all these years just as his own brother had done after the loss of his wife? Logan couldn’t even begin to guess what was going on inside her head. He’d already been so wrong about so many things where Hope Dillan was concerned. Best thing for him to do was keep his distance.

* * *

Hope watched him go, tears pooling up in her eyes. Logan Cooper was no longer the boy that she had fallen in love with all those years ago. He was a full-grown man. Tall, lean, broad-shouldered and with an even greater ability to make her heart pound. He was everything she had always dreamed about. Everything she could ever hope for. Not that it mattered. She had lost him long ago.

Frowning, she turned back to her daddy, who was watching her, his tightly pressed lips pulling downward. “Are you hurting?” she asked worriedly, forcing all thoughts of Logan Cooper from her mind.

“I’m thinking I should be asking you that question,” her daddy said.

She forced a smile. “I’m not the one lying in a hospital bed. Now stop worrying yourself over me.”

“No can do, honey,” he replied. “You’re my baby girl. It’s my job to worry over you.”

“Well, there isn’t anything to be concerned about,” she said, wondering if she was trying to convince her daddy or herself. Seeing Logan again, talking to him again, being so near to him, had left her thoroughly shaken. Pushing thoughts of him from her mind, she said, “And it’s my turn to worry about you. Not the other way around.” Standing, she reached out to dim the light over the hospital bed. “Now get some rest. We can talk more later.”

Jack nodded, his heavy-lidded eyes drifting shut.

Hope sat watching him for a long time, knowing how close she had come to losing him. The thought of no longer having him in her life had shaken her to the core. The Lord had already taken her mother away. A hurt that had only deepened when she’d learned she would probably never be a mother herself.

As it had so many times over the past nine years, a deep ache filled her at the thought. Her hand moved to smooth over her flat stomach, unshed tears filling her eyes. It would never grow round with a child. She would never feel the stirrings of life that came with carrying a baby of her own. Never find the true happiness she’d come so close to having before her life as she had known it came crashing down around her.

Chapter Two

“Logan?” his brother said, concern knitting his brows as he studied Logan from across the door’s threshold. Boone, the bloodhound mix Carter had adopted from the pound for Audra’s children, stood faithfully at his side.

“I know it’s late,” Logan began apologetically as he reached down to give the dog a scruff behind his ear.

“It’s never too late for family,” Carter countered. “Come on in.” He stepped aside, Boone moving with him as he swung the front porch door open wider.

Removing his cowboy hat, Logan made his way inside, his gaze sweeping the entryway of the old farmhouse his brother’s wife had purchased when she’d moved to Texas from Chicago with her two young children. Carter, who co-owned Cooper Construction with their brother, Nathan, had helped Audra with renovations on her house and the two had ended up falling in love. Now married and on the verge of adding to their already existent brood, Carter was happier than Logan had ever seen him.

“Audra in bed already?” Logan asked with a glance toward the stairs. He knew the children would be for sure. They both had school in the morning.

“Not yet,” his brother replied. “She’s in the kitchen cleaning up after the finger painting session she had with our little artists in the making after dinner. Who knew my wife was such a messy finger painter?”

“Maybe Alyssa could give her finger painting lessons,” he suggested with a grin. Their oldest brother Nathan’s fiancée had a degree in interior design and had taught art classes to children at the rec center where she used to live while working part-time for an interior design firm. Not wanting to be so far away from his brother and his little girl, Katie, Alyssa had left the life she had built for herself in San Antonio and was now teaching art classes on weekends at Braxton’s newly built recreation center. She was also in charge of interior design for any of Cooper Construction’s projects that called for it.

His brother nodded. “Might have to consider that.”

Logan cast a glance toward the front door. He really should go. Not stick around to lay his problems at his brother’s feet. Carter already had his plate full with a new wife, helping to raise her two beautiful children, whom he’d recently adopted, and a baby on the way.

“I know that look.”

He looked back at his brother. “What look?”

“The one that says you’re considering making a run for the hills,” Carter replied.

When they were teens and something upset them, one or all of them would take to the hills where they’d hike and camp and work through whatever it was that was bothering them. There was just something about the peace and tranquility of being surrounded by nature, not to mention the feeling of being closer to God that being higher up in the hills gave a man. But when it came to his troubled thoughts where Hope was concerned, there would be no answers.

“I feel like it,” he answered honestly. If he thought it would help to clear his head, he’d be driving up into the hills right now. Instead, he’d come seeking his brother’s counsel.

“So what’s up?”

“Jack’s in the hospital,” he said with a heavy sigh, struggling to keep the tide of emotion from washing over him.

Concern immediately lit Carter’s eyes. Understandably so. They were all close with Jack Dillan. “What happened?”

Logan dragged a hand back through the thick waves of his hair. “He suffered a stroke at work this morning. I found him on the floor of his office when I stopped by to pick up an order.”

“Why didn’t you call? Nathan and I would have met you at the hospital.”

“I knew you were finishing up a job in the next town over,” he explained. “Figured I’d wait until we had some answers.”

“No wonder you’re not yourself,” his brother replied. “Is he gonna be okay?”

“He’s got a long road ahead of him until he’s fully recovered, but the good Lord’s seen fit to give Jack more time here on this earth.”

“Praise God for that,” his brother muttered. “Does Hope know yet?”

Logan nodded. “I called to let her know what had happened as soon as the ambulance pulled away with Jack. She caught the first flight out of San Diego and managed to get to the hospital a little after four.”

Carter’s assessing gaze studied him. “So you’ve seen her, then?”

“I was there when she arrived.”

“That also explains this mood that you’re in,” his brother acknowledged.

“It’s not what you think.”

“That she refused to enter the hospital until you left?” his brother surmised, not bothering to hide his irritation where Hope was concerned. “Because that’s what I expect happened.”

Nathan and Carter were none too happy with Hope for the way she had handled the post-breakup with their younger brother. With the exception of the tearful embrace she had given him at his parents’ and Isabel’s funerals, her intentional avoidance of Logan and the scant number of times she could drag herself back to Braxton to visit Jack had his brothers harboring more than a little resentment toward her.

Then again, Logan harbored his own fair share of that same emotion where Hope Dillan was concerned.

“It didn’t happen like that,” he heard himself saying in Hope’s defense. Though why he felt the need to stick up for her was beyond him.

“So you left before she got there?”

He probably should have. Then he wouldn’t be struggling over thoughts of the past and feeling things he’d spent years suppressing. But Hope had looked so lost when he’d looked up to see her standing in that hospital corridor. All he’d wanted to do at that moment was comfort her. Thankfully, he hadn’t followed through with what instinct had been pushing him to do. It would have undoubtedly ended up with her pushing him away—again. And he’d had more than his fill of Hope rejecting him.

“Neither of us ran,” Logan muttered as he stood fingering the brim of his hat. “We were both there for Jack. It had nothing to do with us.” That was how it had to be, because there was no “us” when it came to him and Hope.

Carter nodded. “I’ll be sure to say an extra prayer tonight asking for the Lord to help ease your way while Hope’s home.” He reached out to clap a hand over Logan’s shoulder, giving it a supportive squeeze. “Come on in to the kitchen with me and we’ll have us a cup of coffee.”

“I really should be going. It’s been a long day.”

“Audra made pecan pie...”

Logan hesitated a long moment before a smile quirked his lips. “Pecan pie, huh?”

“Complete with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and caramel syrup,” his brother tempted even further, knowing Logan had the biggest sweet tooth of any of the Cooper boys.

Maybe he would stay. Just for a bit. And by the time he finished with his coffee and dessert he’d have his emotions, as far as Hope Dillan was concerned, corralled once more. Because there was no way he was gonna risk putting his heart on the line ever again. Not for Hope. Not for any woman.

* * *

Hope was startled awake by the familiar tune of “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” She sat upright in the chair next to her dad’s hospital bed. A quick glance assured the phone’s ringtone hadn’t awakened him as it had her. Hurriedly, she snatched the phone out of her purse, bringing it to her ear as she got to her feet and hurried from the cubicle. “Hello?” she answered in a hushed tone.

“Wasn’t sure you’d answer,” a voice far huskier than it had once been said at the other end of the line.

“Logan?” she said somewhat groggily.

A groan sounded. “I woke you.”

“I was only catnapping.”

“You probably needed it,” he replied. “Getting news like you got today tends to take a toll on a person. I’m sorry I woke you. Go back to bed.”

“Don’t apologize,” she said. “My back and neck thank you for waking me. But I’m not home. I’m still at the hospital. I guess I drifted off in the chair by Daddy’s hospital bed in a rather uncomfortable position.”

“How is Jack?”

“He’s doing well,” she replied, keeping her voice low as she stepped out of ICU and made her way to the family waiting area just around the corner. There she would be able to talk without waking her daddy, or disturbing the other patients. “If all goes well tonight, they’ll be moving him to a private room tomorrow.”

“Thank the Lord for that,” Logan breathed, his relief, as well as the faith he steadfastly clung to, evident in his voice. A faith she herself no longer looked to when times were bad. “I’m sorry to bother you on your cell phone again, but when I tried Jack’s it went straight to voice mail. I forgot that I had shut his phone off after calling you this morning.”

“You added my number to your contact list?”

“No. I would never presume to do that. It’s in my head,” he explained.

“You still have a knack for remembering things others would more easily forget,” she said with a wistful smile.

“You don’t have to worry about my calling you after you’ve gone back to California. For now, if need be, I know I’ll be able to reach you. The reason I called was to let Jack know that I’m gonna swing by Hope’s Garden on my way home from Carter’s to check on things. I didn’t want either of you to worry yourselves over it tonight.”

She started to tell him that his call wasn’t a bother, then decided it best that he believed that it was. Especially because the sound of his voice was something she could get far too used to hearing. So caught up in her thoughts of keeping a wall up with Logan, it took a moment longer than it should have for what he’d said to settle in. Hope shifted the cell to her other ear. “You don’t have to do that.”

“I don’t mind.”

He had already done more than enough for her daddy. Now that she was home, it was her responsibility to step in and see to things until he was back on his feet again. “I know you don’t,” she said. “But as soon as I can round up a taxi, I’ll be able to head home and see to those things myself.”

“A taxi?”

How else did he expect her to get home? “While I could probably make the walk from here to Braxton, it might take a while, and doing so in the dark and in the pouring rain might be pushing it.”

A warm chuckle sounded at the other end of the line. “You’ve been living in the big city for a mite too long, little darlin’, if you think you’re gonna round up a taxi around these parts, with the exception of the airport, with any ease,” he said with an amused chuckle. “That’d be like trying to find an ocean of in the middle of the Sahara Desert.”

Those two words wrapped around her, making her heart ache—little darlin’. She had to wonder if Logan even realized that he’d called her that. The nickname he’d given her back in high school when he’d first started working for her daddy at Hope’s Garden. Not that she was all that little at five-foot six-inches tall. But to a boy well over six feet in height back then, and to the even taller man he’d grown up into, it was easy to see why Logan considered her little. But she was no longer his darlin’. No matter what her heart still longed for.

“I hadn’t given it much thought,” she answered honestly. Not with her focus centered for the most part on her daddy and the long road to recovery it sounded like he was going to have ahead of him.

“No, I suppose you wouldn’t,” came his muttered reply on the other end of the line.

What exactly did Logan mean by that? She opened her mouth to ask and then closed it, deciding it best to let it go. He had every right to be angry with her. Truth was she was surprised he’d been as cordial as he had been, considering how she’d ended things between them.

Logan wasn’t one to quit on those he cared about, and if things were different, they’d more than likely be married with a few little ones running around. But things weren’t different. And she’d had to break his heart to ensure he’d have those Cooper sons and daughters he’d always longed for.

“Hope? You still there?”

His voice pulled her back to the present. “Yes. I’m here.”

“Thought maybe we got cut off there for a second. Phone service can be iffy inside hospitals.”

She didn’t correct his assumption. It was better he think her silence was due to phone service issues rather than her troubled thoughts.

“If you’re ready to head back to your daddy’s place,” Logan said, saving her the need for any response, “I could run on over to Coopersville and pick you up. Then we can see to the nursery together before I head home for the night. I left in such an all-fire hurry this morning once the ambulance had gone, I didn’t shut the register down or see to the plants.”

“I would have done the same thing. And thanks for the offer, but I’ll give Autumn a call to come get me.”

“Still doing your best to avoid me, I see,” he said evenly.

“I think we’re beyond that now,” she said, wishing it were true. But avoiding Logan kept her heart from wanting things she couldn’t have. From wanting him. “Besides, I wanted to let Autumn know about Daddy and maybe do some catching up.”

Autumn and Summer Myers, Braxton’s only claim to identical twins, had been her closest friends all through school. After high school graduation, they’d all gone off to different colleges. And with everything that had been going on in her life at that time, the breakup with Logan, dealing with health issues and her anger with God, Hope had withdrawn from everyone she’d been close to, even her dearest friends.

“If you’re counting on Autumn to come get you, you might be in for a long wait,” he told her. “She’s in Atlanta for some sort of Realtor conference this week.”

How did he know that? A heart-pinching thought passed through her mind. Were the two of them seeing each other? It wasn’t as if she expected Logan to spend the rest of his life pining away after her. She ended their relationship just so he could make his life with someone else. He deserved someone who could give him children. That would make him happy. Still, the thought of her best friend and the man Hope had given her heart to being romantically involved sat like a boulder in the pit of her stomach.

“Oh,” was all she could manage. She should have thought to have the taxi she’d taken from the airport drop her off at home first. Then she could have driven her daddy’s truck into Coopersville. But she’d been in such a panic that all she’d wanted to do from the moment her flight landed was get there to see for herself that he was all right.

A heavy sigh sounded at the other end of the line. “I’ll come get you.”

“No,” she blurted out in a panic. “I mean, don’t worry about me. I’ve got my suitcase with me. I’ll just spend the night here.”

“And how do you plan on getting home tomorrow?”

Hope frowned. That was a good question. There was no one else she could think to call. She had pretty much cut everyone she’d known growing up out of her life.

“I can leave the past in the past where it belongs if that’s what you’re worried about,” Logan said.

“Why are you doing this?” she replied, her guilt at what she’d done to him all those years ago pushing to the surface. “Offering to give me a ride when you of all people should wanna stay as far away from me as possible.” Her words ended on a quiver as she fought the urge to cry over his unexpected kindness.

“The easiest answer would be that I’m doing my Christian duty. But that wouldn’t be the whole truth of it,” he answered honestly. “I’m also doing it for Jack. He needs to focus on getting better, not focus his strength on worrying about you. Which, I might add, your daddy’s done every single day of his life since you moved away.”

He had? The guilt was swallowing her whole. “He doesn’t need to worry about me.”

“People tend to do that when they care about someone.”

His tone hinted that she wouldn’t understand that level of caring. She did. She had cared enough to let Logan go. Loved him enough to set him free to find the happiness he deserved. But then he wouldn’t know that. “I’m sorry I hurt you.”

A long silence fell over the line before Logan responded. “I’m sorry for not accepting your decision to end things between us,” he said. “I should’ve respected your wishes and let you go. But I was young and had a lot of false notions about what my future held for me. For us.”

“Logan...” she said, wanting to tell him that she’d wanted all the same things he had. Instead she fell silent. She couldn’t offer up any explanation that would make him understand. It was too late.

“Let me finish,” he told her. “What we had was special, but I know now that we were too young to be talking about marriage and kids. At least one of us had the sense to see that and do something about it. And you can stop worrying about being in the same room as me every time you come home, because I’ve come to terms with the fact that some things are just not meant to be.”

Like her having children. A warm trail of tears ran down her cheeks. That was hard enough to deal with, but to hear Logan spell it out so clearly. To hear it straight from him that he had gotten over her, over them, over all the hopes and dreams they had once shared for their future, that it had simply been nothing more than youthful imaginings, was almost unbearable. It had been so much more.

She swallowed the knot of emotion building in her throat. Stop being the fool, Hope Dillan. This is the way you wanted it to be. Needed it to be.

Pulling herself together, as she’d had to do so many times in her life, she replied, “If you’re sure it’s no trouble, I’d like to take you up on your offer to give me a ride home.”

“No trouble,” he assured her. “When would you like me to pick you up?”

“Would now be too soon?” she asked hesitantly. “Daddy’s finally sleeping comfortably and I need to get settled in at the house for my stay here.”

“Now works for me. I’m on my way.”

When the call disconnected, Hope brought the phone to her chest and closed her eyes. She could do this. It was only for a short time. Until her daddy got back on his feet and she could go back to the life she’d built for herself back in San Diego. Knowing that Logan had finally gotten over her helped to ease some of her guilt, even if it made her heart ache more.

Now all she had to do was keep a tight rein on her feelings for him. At the very least, keep them from being known, because she was still not the woman he needed in his life. One who could give him the future he’d always dreamed about.

There’s a good possibility you may never be able to conceive. She’d never forget those words, so gently given to her by her doctor when she was only a senior in high school, a young girl filled with hopes and dreams for her future. One with Logan. The endometriosis she’d been diagnosed with during her sophomore year had worsened, causing a buildup of scar tissue in her fallopian tubes that without surgery would more than likely cause infertility. But even with surgery, the risk of having a tubal pregnancy was greatly increased.

She’d seen what her momma and daddy had gone through after trying for another child only to see both pregnancies end in miscarriages because of the severity of her mother’s endometriosis. They’d been devastated.

She couldn’t do that to Logan. To herself. So at eighteen, with no mother to guide her, she’d made the only decision she’d been emotionally capable of making at the time. She walked away from her dreams.

Gone was the deep faith she had once held dear. How was she supposed to continue clinging to that faith when God had taken so much from her? First her mother and then her own ability to become a mother herself.

She and Logan had shared so many things. A love of family, a passion for the outdoors and the dream of someday marrying and having a handful of children of their own to raise.

Then that life-altering diagnosis changed everything and brought her perfect world crashing down around her. She would never be able to give Logan the children he deserved to have.

She had always been honest with Logan, but this was the one thing she could never share with him. If he learned the truth, she knew he would have given up his dreams for her sake.

So she kept the heart-wrenching news she’d gotten at the doctor’s that day so long ago to herself. Then she’d forced Logan out of her life by telling him she didn’t want to be tied down by a relationship when they went off to college.

Only Logan had been determined not to give up on what they’d had together, making everything so much harder for them both.

So she’d taken extreme measures—she’d lied to him. Told him that she didn’t love him. Not the way he wanted her to. Then she made it clear that he was wasting his time. To stop wishing for something that could never be. And then, with her heart breaking, she’d walked out of his life.

And now Logan was back in her life along with all those old feelings she’d tried so hard to shut off. But the damage was already done. Logan was only in her life again because of her daddy, nothing more.

* * *

Logan pulled up under the hospital overhang and threw his truck into Park. He was just rounding the front of the truck when Hope stepped through the hospital doors.

“Sorry I’m late,” he said. “Had to take a different route due to some light flooding on the main road.” Not a complete surprise seeing how much rain they’d gotten that day. And it was still coming down.

“I’m glad you didn’t try going through it,” she said as he swung open the passenger door and reached for the suitcase she had wheeled out behind her.

“I grew up here, remember?” he said as he took hold of the bag and lifted it into the truck, placing it just behind the front bench seat. “I know better.” Flash floods, no matter how passable the water on the road might appear, could easily sweep a vehicle away. They were even more dangerous this time of year when floods weren’t prevalent. Folks tended to be far less cautious.

As soon as Hope had settled herself in the passenger seat, Logan closed the door and then jogged around to his side of the truck. “Jack still sleeping?”

“He woke up right after I talked to you. I debated leaving him, but he insisted I go home and get some rest. He also added that he was counting on me to run things while he was incapacitated.” That last part had her mouth turning downward.

He studied her from across the truck’s dark cab, the glow of the hospital entrance lights illuminating her pretty face. “That could be a while,” he said softly.

She nodded. “I know.”

“Does Jack?”

“You know Daddy,” she said. “He doesn’t let much keep him down for long. He’s already chomping at the bit to get back to the nursery.”

“Being away from there for any amount of time has got to be real hard on him,” Logan agreed. Working at the nursery day in and day out helped to keep the older man’s loneliness at bay. Jack had admitted as much to Logan one morning over coffee not long after one of Hope’s rare visits home. Logan understood. Putting his time and energy into his landscaping business left far less time to dwell on his own loneliness.

“It’ll drive him crazy,” Hope said, bringing Logan back to the present. “I’m hoping that not only will it motivate Daddy to think twice next time before taking himself off his prescribed medication, but that it will also push him to work hard in therapy so he can get back to doing what he loves. In the meantime, I’ll be staying in Braxton to see that he does just that and to see to the running of the nursery.”

Jack’s recovery could take weeks, months even, before he was physically back to the point he was at prior to his stroke. That meant there would be no avoiding seeing Hope again and again. Was he ready for that? Not that it mattered, he decided. It was what it was.

“Won’t they miss you at work?” he asked, hoping that maybe, just maybe, she hadn’t thought things out completely and would need to get back to San Diego sooner rather than later.

“I’ve got vacation time as well as personal time built up that I can use during my stay here. If I need more, I’ll just take time off without pay,” she told him. “Hopefully, I can remember everything Daddy taught me about running the nursery. It’s been a while.”

“Just like riding a bike,” Logan said as he pulled out onto the main street. “I can lend you a hand for the next couple of weeks,” he said without thinking. The last thing he wanted to do was spend time doing something that would bring back memories he’d just as soon forget. Memories of when he’d first started working at Hope’s Garden for Jack and the time he’d spent getting to know Hope as the two of them worked side by side. Laughing together. Sharing hopes and dreams. Their first kiss.

“You have your own business to see to,” she countered, her response giving him the out he needed.

He nodded. “I do. But I just had a landscaping job that was scheduled for next week get pushed back to early April,” Logan heard himself offering, despite his reservations. He was doing this for Jack. Putting his issues with Hope aside for his friend’s sake. “I can help cover for you while your daddy’s in the hospital. That’ll free you up to spend more time with him while he’s there. Once he comes home, we can take turns looking after him and the nursery.”

“I should refuse your offer,” she said, glancing his way.

“But you won’t,” he said knowingly.

“I can’t,” she answered honestly. “But I wanna pay you for your time.”

He shook his head, his gaze fixed on the road ahead. “Not gonna happen. Jack’s my friend. I’m offering to lend a hand because of that.”

“You win,” Hope said with a sigh. “I have to focus on getting Daddy better right now. So whatever it takes, I’m willing to do it.”

He hadn’t won. If he had, the past nine years would have been a whole lot different. And winning wasn’t having a woman agree to keep you underfoot because she didn’t have any other choice.

He’d known when he’d made the offer that Hope would be a hard sell. Even Carter had tried to talk him out of spending any more time with her than he had to. But his momma raised him to be a good Christian. To help those in need. Just as his brother had helped Audra when she’d first arrived in Braxton.

Only in Logan’s case, there would be no happy ending. As soon as Jack recovered, Hope would return to the life she’d built for herself in San Diego. And he’d be left dealing with questions he knew going in that he’d never have the answers to.

“Logan...”

He glanced her way.

“I never really had the chance to tell you during the funeral services how very heartbroken I was over the loss of your momma and daddy. And Isabel, as well.”

That was because Hope had been in such an all-fire hurry to put distance between himself and her. There had been a quick hug followed by a teary-eyed “take care of yourself,” and then she was gone.

“You came,” he told her, his gaze returning to the road ahead. “That’s all that mattered. Momma would have been touched that you made the trip home for her service.”

“I loved her,” she said sadly, and he didn’t doubt her words in the least.

His momma had done her best to fill in for the friend she had lost far too soon, taking eleven-year-old Hope with her to teas and shopping and to get her hair done. All those things a mother and daughter would have done together. His momma had done those things, not only because of the love she’d had for the friend she’d lost, but because she’d just plain enjoyed spending time with Hope. She’d never had any daughters of her own to share those special moments with. Just three big, strapping boys who preferred camping, riding horses and long hikes in the woods.

“I loved both of your parents,” Hope added with a sniffle.

“I know you did.” It was him she couldn’t find it in her to love.

Silence fell between them the rest of the way to Hope’s Garden. The only sound came from the purr of the truck’s engine and the rhythmic swish of the windshield wipers as they pushed away the heavy rain.

When they turned onto the road that led to the nursery and Jack’s place just beyond, Hope sat up, her attention focused on the building ahead. “There are lights on in the office,” she said worriedly.

“I know,” he said, pulling up in front of the brightly lit building. Its warm glow filtered into the cab of the truck. “I was in such a hurry to get to the hospital this morning after the ambulance took Jack away that I forgot to shut them off. I did, however, remember to hang the Closed sign on the door and lock up before I left.” Cutting the engine, he undid his seat belt and reached into the front pocket of his jeans, pulling out Jack’s key ring. “You’ll be needing these.”

“He still has this?” she said, a bit misty-eyed as she ran her fingers over the pink daisy key ring, the colorful paint long since worn away along its edges. She lifted her gaze to meet his. “I gave him this for Christmas when I was in eighth grade.”

Logan eyed the key-laden piece. “Reckon it meant a lot to him for him to still be carrying it around.”

She laughed softly. “I probably should’ve bought him a cowboy boot key chain or something a little more manly. But I was big on flowers and anything and everything pink back then. I remember drawing pink flowers all over my school folders.”

“Back then?” he said with a snort as he reached for the handle on the driver’s door panel. “It went well beyond eighth grade. I seem to recall you doodling flowers all over my book covers when we were in high school.” His gaze shifted her way to find Hope biting back a grin. “Funny to you, little darlin’,” he said with a grin of his own. “Not so funny when you’re a teenage boy wanting to come across as rough and tough on the football field and your teammates are calling you ‘Pretty Posey Cooper.’”

A giggle erupted from her lips. “You never told me that.”

“And make myself come across as less than manly in your eyes as well as my teammates? Not a chance.”

“Oh, Logan, I’m sorry.”

“They were only having fun with me,” he replied. “Truth be told, it improved my game. In an effort to prove myself more than just a ‘Pretty Posey,’ I broke the high school’s record for total receiving yards our junior year.”

“I had no idea I was the reason behind that impressive achievement,” she said, her tone teasing.

She was behind so many things that had been good in his life. Yanking up the collar of his jacket, he said, “I’ll grab your suitcase.” Tugging the brim of his hat lower over his brow to shield his face from the driving rain, Logan stepped out into the downpour. After grabbing her suitcase from the back of the truck’s extended cab, he hurried around to help Hope get down, but by the time he reached her she was already stepping onto the puddled ground below.

Squealing as the cold rain poured down on her, she made a sprint for the front door of the large cedar-sided building, her laughter trailing after her as she left him behind.

Logan followed at a fast jog, suitcase in hand, a grin sliding across his face. He hadn’t realized just how much he’d missed hearing Hope’s laughter until that moment. “Afraid you’re gonna melt?” he asked with a chuckle as he stepped beneath the temporary shelter of the roof’s overhang.

She flashed him an impish smile. “Daddy does call me Sugar, you know.” Then she turned, hurrying to insert the key into the lock on the door as a gust of wind sent sheets of cold rain past them.

“Stands to reason, then, why you’re in such an all-fire hurry to get out of this here downpour,” he said. He nearly covered her hand with his own to help steady it, but held back from doing so. He didn’t want to remember what it felt like to have her hand in his, something that had once been so natural. As soon as the lock clicked, he reached past her to turn the knob, giving the door a gentle shove open. “Let’s get you inside, little darlin’. Can’t have you melting into a puddle of sugary sweetness at my feet.”

Before he could follow her inside, she turned, her petite form blocking his way. “Thank you for the ride.”

“Thank you for the ride?” He looked down at her questioningly. “That sounds like you’re sending me off.”

“I am,” she said, unable to meet his gaze. “There’s really no need for you to stick around tonight. All I need to do is close out the register and then I’ll head to the house.”

His brow tugged upward. “You’re asking me to leave you here to walk home in the rain?”

“It’s not like it’s a long walk,” she countered.

She had the right of it. Jack’s house sat in a thin copse of pines a few hundred yards behind the main nursery building. “Maybe so,” he grumbled, “but I don’t like the thought of leaving you here to walk home alone in the dark. In the pouring rain to boot.”

“Daddy keeps a handful of umbrellas in his office for customers to borrow on rainy days if they need one.”

His concerned refused to budge. At the same time, a tiny voice inside Logan was telling him to back off. That Hope was a big girl. One who was more than capable of making her own decisions in life. Even if they weren’t always ones he agreed with. “Reckon I’ll be on my way, then. Sleep well,” he said with a tip of his hat.

“You, too, Logan.” The door closed between them, shutting him out yet again. At least this time it was only a door. Not miles and miles of God’s green earth.

Lowering his head, he moved in quickened strides to his truck before he did something foolish like turn around and go back to insist that he escort Hope home. He’d thought he was finally moving past the unrequited feelings he had for her. That time and distance had given him a better grip on his apparently misguided emotions. But he’d been nowhere near prepared for his heart’s reaction to spending time with her again. Laughing with her again. Now all he could do was pray.

For Jack to regain his good health. And for himself, knowing there would be no escaping the pain of seeing Hope again, of spending time with her, and knowing her heart would never ever be his.

Chapter Three

“Morning.”

Logan’s gaze shifted from the plants he’d been watering to find Hope standing in the doorway of the greenhouse. She looked refreshed. More relaxed than she had the day before at the hospital. She wore a sweater beneath an open camel-colored jean jacket. Dark brown leather boots peeped out from beneath the bottoms of her jeans. The long, curling tendrils of her unbound hair looked like a slow-burning fire under the red-gold rays of sunrise.

“Morning,” he replied, trying to ignore the sudden thudding of his heart.

“You’re here early.”

“Habit,” he replied as he shut off the hose’s nozzle and turned to face her. “Better to start early in my line of work,” he explained. “So I’m usually up with the roosters.”

“But the nursery doesn’t open for business for another couple of hours,” she said as she moved past him to walk along two rows of plant-filled tables laden with newly emerging tulips and daffodils. “You could have slept in.”

He stood watching her, unable to keep from drinking in the sight of her. “Appears I’m not the only early bird around here.”

Reaching out she ran a finger over the droplets of water clinging to a slender green-and-yellow striped leaf of a variegated flax lily. “It appears I had the same idea as you.” Letting her hand fall away, she turned to face him. “Watering the plants. Then afterward, before I set out for the hospital, I thought I’d finish tidying up Daddy’s office and go through the orders for this coming week.”

“You were cleaning his office last night?” After he’d dropped her off more exhausted than not?

“I swept up the broken planter and soil, even repotted the aloe plant with the hope I might be able to save it.”

Her words had guilt tugging at his gut. “I’m real sorry you had to do that. I should have at least swept that up before I left for the hospital.” Truth was he’d forgotten all about the upturned plant. His focus had been on Jack.

“It’s all right,” she assured him with a smile. “I’d rather Daddy have had someone he knew with him at the hospital than concern myself with a little dirt on the floor. Besides, I grew up with a nursery in my front yard. Sweeping up soil spills is one of my many talents.”

“Speaking of which, I have bags of topsoil to put out.” He set the hose on the floor by his feet. He’d finish watering later, after Hope had gone.

“Why do I get the feeling I’m chasing you away?”

“I have work to do,” he grumbled.

“I see,” she replied, her scrutinizing gaze fixed upon him.

He sighed. “I’m supposed to be seeing to the nursery during the day so you can spend time with your daddy at the hospital. Or have you changed your mind?” Like you did with us?

“Boy, it’s starting to sound like a certain someone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning,” Hope teased in the same playful tone she used to use with him when they were teens and he’d had a bad day. It had worked back then. Now it only served to make matters worse.

“With due cause,” he replied. “I’m worried about Jack.”

“We both are,” she agreed. “But there’s something else bothering you.”

He released a frustrated sigh. “Look, I’m trying to respect your wishes.”

Confusion lit her pretty face. “My wishes?”

“That our paths cross as little as possible.” And from the way his heart had reacted to the sight of her standing in the greenhouse doorway that morning, respecting her wishes seemed like the smartest plan.

Hope folded her arms in front of her. “I thought we both agreed we were mature enough to put the past behind us while I’m here.” Then added, “For Daddy’s sake.”

She had a point. But then she hadn’t been forced to lock away her feelings for him. She didn’t have any. So this situation they found themselves in wasn’t anywhere near as hard for her as it was for him.

“Judging by that frown on your face, I’m guessing that you’re having second thoughts about offering to fill in here while Daddy’s down. I’ll understand if you wanna withdraw your offer.”

Doing so would probably be the wisest thing to do, but he’d made the offer to help out and intended to see it through. “Don’t read something into it that’s not there. I said I’d lend a hand and I’m gonna do just that.”

“Then you don’t have a problem with my helping you water the plants?” she asked. While the built-in, overhead sprinkler lines took care of most of the watering in the greenhouses, the various potted plants that lined the inner walls of the glass buildings needed to be hand-watered. “I mean it’s not like we’ve never worked together before.”

There had been a time he would have welcomed this opportunity to spend some time alone with Hope. But he was older and wiser, and he wasn’t about to let her get under his skin ever again. Because that was what a smart man would do.

Logan motioned to the hose he’d left lying on the ground. “You wanna water? Spray away. Like I told you, I’ve got other things I can be doing here.” Turning, he strode toward the open door.

A few steps away from making his exit, Logan felt the cold, wet spray of water hit him square in the back and travel downward. He froze, unable to believe that Hope had just squirted him with the garden hose. No, soaked him clean through was more like it.

Soft, feminine giggles behind him had him pivoting to face her. Raising an arm to shield his face from the water’s relentless spray, he said, “You’re playing with fire.”

Another giggle. “Then I reckon it’s a good thing I’ve got myself a mighty powerful garden hose to keep that fire from getting out of control.”

“Too late,” he said with a warning grin as he charged into the water’s cold, wet, arcing stream.

Hope gave a loud shriek as she spun around to flee, dragging the hose behind her.

Three long strides and Logan managed to step on the hose, easily jarring it loose from her grasp. Reeling it in, he took hold of the still-spraying nozzle and aimed it in the direction of Hope’s fleeing form. A stream of water went up and over the top of Hope’s head, raining down on her. It wasn’t a direct hit, one guaranteed to leave her as drenched as he was, but he made certain it was close enough to have her ducking.

“Logan!” she shrieked, arms folded over her head.

This time he was the one chuckling. “You ready to call a truce?” he asked as he shifted the hose’s aim to the plants on the table beside her.

“Yes,” she sputtered as she turned to face him. Water clung to the spiraling strands of her hair like a heavy morning dew. Coppery curls hung in sagging wet tendrils to frame her face.

A memory came rushing back from the past. One that had been very much like this moment. He and Hope in this very same greenhouse, both armed with hoses. Both soaked clean through by the end of their water play. Both falling in love. Or so he had thought.

I don’t love you.

Logan shut off the nozzle’s spray and tossed it onto the ground beside him. “You can take it from here. I’ve got work to do.” That said, he walked out of the greenhouse.

* * *

Hope stood staring at the empty doorway. What had just happened? Logan’s sour mood had turned playful and fun, both of them laughing over the unexpected water battle they’d found themselves engaged in, feeling at ease with each other for the first time in years. Then suddenly he was walking away, his parting demeanor a complete one-eighty from the playful side he’d shown her just moments before.

Pushing the damp curls from her face, she sighed. For the briefest of moments it had felt like old times. Comfortable. Fun. The two of them enjoying life. It had also been a reminder of what she’d given up. Of the forever kind of love she’d come so close to having.

If she were honest with herself, she knew why he’d walked away. And it was fortunate for her that Logan had come to his senses and put an end to things before they got any more carried away. She could never offer him the things he deserved, and the fewer reminders of what they’d once shared the better for them both.

While she’d surprised even herself with her actions, she didn’t regret what had happened. Not completely. Not when their playful respite had helped her to forget about the pain of the past and about the near-paralyzing fear she’d felt before learning that her father was going to be all right.

Hope made her way toward the abandoned hose with a deep sigh. Reaching for it, she turned its nozzle on and began working her way around the inner edges of the greenhouse, watering the vibrantly colored bougainvilleas and other assorted potted plants that lined the glass and metal walls.

Her thoughts turned to her daddy once again. He’d been asleep when she’d called the hospital that morning to check on him. The nurse on duty had assured her that he was still in stable condition, but that his blood pressure was still a little higher than they’d like to see it.

Fear of him having another stroke was always at the back of her mind. She couldn’t lose him. For the first time in years, she found herself wanting to pray. Wanting to ask the Lord to help heal her daddy. But praying hadn’t brought healing to her mother or to herself. All she could do was hope he was strong enough to get through this health crisis with the help of his very knowledgeable doctors.

When she was through with the watering, Hope gathered up the hose and returned it to the mount near the front wall. Then she stepped out from the protective shade of the greenhouse and into the morning sun. Closing her eyes, she tilted her face upward, welcoming the touch of its warming rays. The air around her smelled of pine and freshly turned soil with a hint of sweetness, no doubt from the flowers blooming inside the greenhouse behind her.

She inhaled deeply, feeling a calm come over her. A feeling of rightness. Because she was back at the nursery. A place that had been like an extension of her own home when she was growing up.

Just like Logan’s parents’ place had been. Even before she and Logan had begun dating she’d felt like she belonged there, like she was a part of their family. Mostly because their parents had been close friends and had spent a lot of time together at each others’ houses. At least they had until her momma had gotten sick and was taken from them. If not for her daddy’s love and Logan’s momma taking Hope under her comforting wing, she would have been a broken little girl.

If only Logan’s momma were here today. Because Hope was feeling very broken now. Like nothing in her life was right. The job she worked. The fast-paced city she had chosen to live in. Her discontented heart. Her abandonment of a faith she had once held so dear. But his momma wasn’t here and she was a grown woman who needed to find a way to live with the choices she’d made.

Opening her eyes, she searched the front nursery grounds, hoping Logan hadn’t witnessed her moment of self-reflection. Thankfully, he was nowhere to be seen. So she shored up her shoulders and made her way to the storefront, the building that housed the checkout counter, gardening goods for purchase and the office. As she’d told Logan, she needed to look over the calendar and the delivery sheets to see what orders were scheduled to be picked up that week and make certain he would be able to have them ready in time.

Exhaustion mixed with the steady thrum of rain on the office roof had lulled her to sleep in her daddy’s big, comfy office chair the night before. When she’d awakened, well into the night, the rain had finally stopped. Too tired to focus, she’d decided to call it a night and made her way back to the house to grab a few more hours’ sleep before tackling a new day.

She smiled wistfully as she looked around the main storefront. Her momma had loved this business. She’d built it with Hope’s daddy every bit as much as he did. So much so, they’d chosen to name the nursery they opened not long after Hope was born after her.

She moved about the room, tidying each and every shelf. While her daddy had never been one to fret over the fine details when it came to putting up the sale displays, it had been important to her momma. Therefore, it was important to Hope.

Twenty minutes later she stepped back from the assortment of gardening books she had finished sorting alphabetically to glance around the room. She had placed things in a way she felt would present the most appeal to the customers that would be passing through on a daily basis. Everything looked neat and inviting. She had no doubt her momma would have been pleased.

Satisfied, Hope made her way back to the office. Pausing in the doorway, she glanced about the room. The same room she’d nearly lost her daddy in if it hadn’t been for Logan. The thought of what might have happened had her stomach turning.

Settling herself into the leather swivel chair, she began sorting through a pile of paperwork. Sales flyers from their suppliers. Paid receipts that needed to be filed away. Purchases that had yet to be billed. Order sheets for pickups. And several letters postmarked as far back as a month ago.

As she was opening those up, she was surprised to find several past due bills from a couple of their suppliers, as well as for some of the utilities. But then in today’s day and age her daddy had probably taken care of the payment online and simply hadn’t taken the time to mark the paper bills as paid and filed them away. To be sure, she made a mental note to ask him in a day or so, once he got to feeling better.

Gathering up anything she had questions on, she stood and made her way outside to find Logan. This time she spotted him almost immediately, his tall, muscular frame making the trunks of the potted fruit trees look like sticks. He’d pushed his dark, wavy hair away from his face, the still-damp strands glistening beneath the rays of the awakening sun. Logan Cooper was a good man and a hard worker. He always had been. The kind of person who put his heart into everything he did. Just as he was doing now. He could have easily done nothing more than sit back in the office, waiting for customers to require his assistance. But he was seeing to everything her daddy would have taken care of himself were he there to do so.

As she watched him work, she thought back to those few moments they had shared in the greenhouse when no hurt or bitterness, or, as in her case, longing for a life she would never have, hung in the air between them. Only joy and laughter.

Her lips quirked up into a grin as she recalled the stunned expression on his handsome face when she’d taken his advice to “water away.”

Logan chose that particular moment to turn her way, his gaze narrowing. “Coming back for round two?” he called out, his husky voice carrying across the yard to where she stood watching him.

“Nope,” she said, holding up her empty hands. “No hose. You’re safe.” It was her heart that wasn’t safe. Not around Logan. “I’m sorry I got carried away earlier.”

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