When the packing was done, Emily decided that she couldn’t sleep anyway so she might as well drive partway that night. She could stop out near Vernon for the night, and make it to the ranch before lunch the next day. Nikki hadn’t argued but gave her a hug and made her promise to text or call every day to keep her caught up on the news.
It was after ten when she reached the Vernon city limits sign, but she wasn’t sleepy. There was no need to pay for a hotel room when she wasn’t sleepy, she decided. Between the country music songs on the radio that kept reminding her of Justin and those two red suckers on her dresser at home, her every thought was on Justin. She hoped she hadn’t hurt his feelings too badly when she refused to let him go with her.
“We’ve got a request for several Josh Turner songs,” the radio DJ said. “So let’s make it five for Josh right now, starting with ‘Your Man.’”
Emily began to tap to the music with the steel guitar lead-in. Josh Turner’s voice reminded her of Justin’s, with that deep drawl. A shiver crawled down her spine as she remembered his whisper when he told her that she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever known. She imagined Justin singing each of the next three songs to her as the miles melted behind her.
“And we’ll end the Josh five top requests with ‘Soulmate,’” the DJ said.
Emily had never heard the song, and even though it was sung by a guy, she applied the same words to what she wanted, as a woman, when she committed her heart to a future with a man.
It was after midnight when she turned down the lane to the Big Sky Ranch. She passed the original ranch house on the right and kept driving down the lane for another mile before she parked outside the yard fence. The house was dark, but she still had a key. She left all her baggage in the car and slipped inside. Using her phone as a flashlight, she made her way across the familiar living room and down the hallway to her old bedroom.
She touched a small lamp on the bedside table one time. It gave off just enough light for her to dig around in a dresser drawer for something to sleep in. She kicked off her shoes and removed her scrubs. Pulling a nightshirt over her head, she crawled into the bed and closed her eyes.
She slept poorly the rest of the night, and at five o’clock she awoke in a sweat after dreaming about Justin making love to her in the cabin. She didn’t even try to go back to sleep but got up, found a pair of jeans in her closet and a western shirt, and got dressed.
She was sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee in her hand when her mother came wandering in. Anne stopped in the middle of the floor and blinked a dozen times.
“Am I seeing things?”
Emily pushed her chair back and went to hug her mother. “Mornin’, Mama. Coffee is ready. What’re we makin’ for breakfast? And where are my lazy brothers?”
Anne Baker was as tall as Emily but slim as a model. Her red hair was pulled up in a ponytail and her blue eyes sparkled just looking at her daughter. No one would ever guess that she was past fifty years old.
“They’ll be here when they smell bacon.” Anne hugged Emily again. “Let’s don’t even start it, so we can have some time to talk first.”
Emily took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “That might take so long that they’ll starve.”
“Not in one day.” Anne took her by the hand and led her back to the table. “Start at the beginning and catch me up, but give me time to pour a cup.”
For the first time ever, Emily wanted to tell her mother everything in her heart, but she wasn’t sure where to start, or how to word what she couldn’t even understand herself. “You want me to start with ‘in the beginning God made dirt’?”
“I’m all ears,” Anne said. “You can go back before that if you need to.”
“I’m in love with Justin Maguire. It sounds crazy. We’ve only known each other a few weeks, but…” Emily went on to tell her mother the whole story.
“I like that cowboy. We all do, but I wouldn’t tell your father that you’ve already been sleeping with him.” Anne smiled. “And don’t worry about his mother. She’ll come around and learn to love you as much as he does.”
“But he hasn’t said that he loves me,” Emily said.
“He will, and darlin’, I’m awful glad you trusted me enough to talk to me about this,” Anne said.
“I’m afraid he’s terribly disappointed that I didn’t want him to come with me, and now I wish I had brought him.”
“Never too late to ask him,” Anne said.
“Not after I said I needed some time to think about us. I had lots of that on the drive, and I’m sure that I love him.” She shook her head. “But I already miss him, and it hasn’t even been a day.”
“There’s a difference in loving someone and being in love with someone. I kind of see it in Darcy. She loves Matthew, but I’m not sure she’s in love with him. That’s why we want the prenup so badly.”
“I’m in love with Justin,” Emily said softly.
“Then tell him,” Anne said.
“Hey, you got a hug for your daddy?” Frank grinned as he opened up his arms.
Emily hurried across the room. Taller than her by six inches, her father was a big man with wide shoulders and a bit of a belly that hung out over his belt buckle these days. But in the wedding picture of him and her mother on the mantel in the living room, he’d been quite the handsome young cowboy.
“Why didn’t you tell us you were comin’ early?” Frank asked.
“I wanted to surprise you. Got a job for me today?”
“I could use another hand on a tractor. This time of year, we got lots of plowin’ to do,” he said.
“I’d rather fence, but I’ll gladly drive a tractor. It does have a radio, right? Or do I need to take my MP3 player?”
“It’s got a radio,” Frank said. “And welcome home, baby girl.”
Home?
That was in a little cabin on the backside of the Longhorn Canyon with Justin Maguire, and she intended to tell him as much as soon as she got back there.
Justin tossed and turned both Thursday night and Friday night. On Saturday morning he was up at five o’clock and made a pot of coffee. He’d never believed in love at first sight, or even love that happened in a short time. That was something that built over time, maybe a year or two, not in a month. But the simple truth was that he was in love with Emily.
Levi knocked on his door but came right in without waiting for an invitation. “Got coffee made?”
“In the pot.” Justin pointed. “What are you doin’ out here this early?”
“Cade’s sending me to Happy, Texas, to pick up a load of heifers. About a dozen from a ranch that’s sellin’ out and has some really fancy stock. Anyway, if you don’t have anything real pressin’, I wondered if you’d want to go with me. Tulia is on the way.”
“I wanted to go with her but…”
His phone rang and he grabbed it, hoping it was Emily.
“Hello.”
“Justin, this is Anne Baker. I’d like to surprise my daughter tonight. I know it’s a lot to ask, but could you come out here and join us for our reunion? She misses you, but she won’t call and ask,” Anne said.
“What time?” Justin asked.
“We put the food on the table at noon,” she said.
“I’ll be there. Might be a little late but don’t give up on me.” He ended the call and turned to Levi. “Give me time to get my bag packed.”
“You know I never would have picked that girl for you,” Levi said as he watched Justin toss clothes into a suitcase.
“Why?”
“I figured you’d fall for someone as wild as us, and then spend a lifetime tamin’ her down.” Levi grinned. “Or maybe spend a lifetime lettin’ her tame you down.”
A vision of Emily naked in the bed right over there—he glanced that way—filled his mind. There were different kinds of wild, and no one could ever say that what he and Emily had in that bed wasn’t better than anything he’d experienced with a bar bunny he’d sweet-talked into coming home with him from the Rusty Spur.