A Cowgirl's Secret - By Laura Marie Altom Page 0,42

been at in a very long time.

“Sure, Luke. I’ll do whatever you need in order for you and Kolt to grow close.”

He stayed silent for a long while. “I hope you get your house, Daisy.”

“I appreciate that.” He had no idea how much.

“Well…” He laughed. “Guess I should let you go.”

“Yeah. I have, um, stuff to do.” Liar. If Daisy had her way, she’d have curled up in her bed, chatting with him for hours. She liked the rich timbre of his voice. The way he’d made her loneliness disappear.

“Me, too.”

“Okay…” You hang up first, because I’m not strong enough to sever this tenuous tie.

He laughed again, this time slowly and sexily enough to make her stomach tighten. “Good night, Daisy. Sweet dreams.”

When he hung up, for a moment she felt lost. Then she remembered that when it came to Luke, she’d never even been found.

Chapter Eleven

“Congratulations,” Vera said early the next morning. “My sellers accepted your offer.”

“Eek.” Daisy did a happy dance in her office desk chair. Considering the amount of work she had ahead of her, she should’ve been terrified, but all she could focus on was the end result of raising Kolt in such a grand old home.

“I’ll be over this afternoon with final documentation, and even though we already know of a few existing trouble spots, I still recommend getting a professional inspection for possible foundation issues.”

After settling on a time to meet, Daisy tried concentrating on the few projects Barb had sent her way, as well as several more pro bono cases she’d taken, but she had a hard time concentrating when all she really wanted to do was start scraping and painting.

She called her mother to share the news, and then Wren and Josie.

Kolt would have to wait until after school.

As for the one person she most wanted to tell, Daisy knew she shouldn’t call Luke. Every time she spoke to him it was akin to ripping off a bandage a tiny bit at a time. He meant so much to her, but she wasn’t entirely sure why. Yes, they’d been the quintessential high-school sweethearts and shared a child, but beyond that, they were strangers. He knew nothing of her dreams or goals and she didn’t know his.

So why was it that whenever he was near—as he’d been the day they’d been out house-hunting—she was constantly checking herself to make sure she hadn’t inadvertently brushed against him or too often said his name?

Exhausted from overanalyzing every little thing in her life, Daisy pushed back her chair and stood at one of the windows overlooking the town’s busiest street.

All seemed normal in Weed Gulch, so why did she feel uneasy? Expectant? Maybe she shouldn’t have put an offer in on the house?

There she went again, second-guessing. But why? Why couldn’t she accept her lot in life and be happy?

With all of her secrets finally in the light of day, with Henry, she hoped, far, far away, at times her overall satisfaction meter felt unbearably full. Other days, the weight of what, in Luke, she hadn’t lost but had practically given away, felt crushing. The trick was not dwelling on the past. She had Kolt and the rest of her family, and a dilapidated house that might as well be a second child.

Deciding fresh air might help her mood, Daisy powered down her computer, grabbed her purse and keys and locked up.

Outside, she winced at the bright sun.

The heat blasted her as if she’d stuck her head in an open five-hundred-degree oven.

She climbed into her car, only to be that much hotter.

Damn, this stupid weather. When she’d talked to Barb that morning, she’d reported it raining and seventy-five degrees. Should she back out of her house deal and just go home? Would San Francisco still feel like home?

Arching her head back, she groaned, only to have an image in the rearview mirror catch her eyes.

On the back window, someone—no doubt, Kolt—had scrawled:

I See You.

Grinning, she started the engine and backed out of the lot. All of her worries were unfounded. What she needed to do was relax and fully embrace this new chapter in her life. As for Luke… Daisy had no choice but to be satisfied without him.

WEED GULCH GOSSIP had it on good authority that Daisy had gotten her house. On that evidence, Luke had stopped by Reasor’s for a big bunch of flowers and was now headed up the Buckhorn Ranch main drive.

In all the years he’d known the family, he’d rarely knocked