Her Homecoming Cowboy. Debra Clopton

words were choked and she didn’t miss the flash of compassion in his reaction. So the man did have a heart buried in there somewhere, Annie thought with a smidge of relief.

      Always ready to tell a story, Leo placed his hands on his hips, cocked his little blond head to the side and studied his hero even more intently—if that were even possible. “My Annie Aunt always says life kicks you in the pants sometimes. But you just gotta go with the punches.” He was as serious as a little old man and she could have pinched his sweet cheeks!

      “How old did you say you were?” Luke Holden asked, clearly impressed.

      “I’m six. Annie Aunt says I came into the world as a twenty-year-old—and that’s real old. I already lost a tooth and everything. See.” He grinned and showed off his missing tooth.

      That got a chuckle from Luke and Jess. Even Colt’s lip quirked upward on one side.

      “That’s terrible,” he said, his gaze sliding to her. “You lost your home.”

      There was something missing in the depths of his eyes. It was as if she were looking at a lake, a totally still lake with no ripples in sight. Butterflies fluttered in the pit of her stomach.

      “Yes,” she offered. More than intrigued by the man, she wasn’t willing to accept that her pulse had actually increased as those soulful brown eyes held hers. She wanted to add more, speak intelligently; however, nothing came out.

      “That’s terrible for you and all the others who lost their homes,” Colt continued. “We’ve been lucky here to have had only a few small grass fires that were caught early.”

      Jess, who’d seemed content to listen as he studied his brother, added, “Those fires near Austin have been rough. Not as bad as the Bastrop and Montgomery fires last year, thankfully, still bad enough. Right, Colt?” he asked, and it sounded all the world to Annie like the man was trying to keep his brother involved in the conversation.

      “We didn’t lose any lives in our fires,” Colt said again, quietly. His brows bunched and he glanced away, toward his truck. Even took a step toward it as if impatient to get away.

      It hit her then that he’d been hurrying to leave when he’d barreled from the building. “I’m sorry,” she said, meaning it. “We’re keeping you from something.”

      “No,” Luke and Jess barked at the same time.

      “Don’t go,” Leo said, tugging at Colt’s pants, causing Colt to halt midstep.

      “I need to get out of here. I’m sorry.” He looked down at Leo, and Annie’s heart tugged ruthlessly, stealing her breath with the sharpness of it.

      “You can hang on a few more minutes, Colt. Can’t you?” Luke asked, clamping a hand on Colt’s shoulder and squeezing.

      Her gaze latched on to that hand—was Luke squeezing extra hard on Colt’s shoulder?

      “Yeah. Sure.” Colt hit his brother with sharp eyes.

      Call her late to the dance—there was definitely something churning beneath the surface here.

      “I need to get back to my place.” His words were quiet. And in that quietness she heard a very firm edge that was as clear as a heavy steel door slamming shut. Luke’s jaw hardened as he held his peace. He didn’t say anything more about Colt sticking around.

      Uncertainty crashed into Annie with equal force. How would he react to the news that she’d come here to share with him? It would take more than this off-the-cuff meeting before she made her decision.

      That was for certain.

      “What brought you to Mule Hollow?” Luke asked, directing his questions at her, as if that would keep Colt from leaving. “I know it’s not just to see my bullheaded brother.”

      Oh, if he only knew. “Actually, we were looking for a change. And I realized since my job at the landscaping business had burned up in the fire right along with our home, there was nothing holding us there any longer—”

      “She decided it was time to make a fresh start,” Leo said, grinning, as if reciting her very words. Words he’d heard her say more than just a few times.

      Annie tousled his hair. “Right, I needed to find a new job and I knew if I started one there, I might never get up the nerve to relocate us.”

      Or the courage to tell you the truth.

      Her plans for how to break the news to Colt rattled through her brain—all unusable. She’d forced herself to do this because it was probably the right thing to do, understanding that only time would tell if that were true. And also because Leo might need his daddy someday. A flashback of being trapped inside a burning building reminded her all too vividly of when she’d had that epiphany.

      Pulling her thoughts away from those less pleasant ones, she saw Leo grinning up at Colt. He was rocking back and forth on his little cowboy boots as his eyes, so full of adoration, drank in his hero.

      “Annie Aunt said we was coming on an adventure. I like adventures a lot. My momma used to tell me lots of stories about having adventures on bull riding and bronc bustin’ and rodeo’n.” He grinned wider at Colt. “You were always in the stories!”

      Colt looked shocked, or as shocked as a man who was showing little emotion could look.

      “You’ll have to come out here and ride horses. Isn’t that right, Colt?” Luke nudged Colt with his elbow when the man said nothing.

      For a minute Colt looked like he was going to say something, but instead he reached for his door, wrenched it open and climbed inside the cab of his truck.

      How rude—right in the middle of a conversation, the man was just going to drive off! And, he’d barely acknowledged Leo. For them to have come so far and for Leo to be so excited about seeing Colt, she knew this was going to hurt.

      Just when she thought it was over and done, Colt looked down at Leo from his open window. “Hey, kid. I...I have to go. But take this.” He pulled the stiff blue rope from his truck. It had a loop on one end, and Annie recognized it was the kind used for roping steers.

      “Do you like to rope?” he asked, causing Leo’s eyes to grow wide.

      “I ain’t never done it before. Can I try?”

      Colt handed Leo the rope. “Sure you can. Practice with this—it’s yours.”

      “Thanks,” Leo gushed, his voice soft with awe, drawing the word out for a mile as he studied his gift.

      Colt was backing out of the driveway before Leo got the entire word out. Annie was speechless.

      “Colt, wait,” Luke called after him. But it was too late.

      The cowboy was gone.

      “Did you see what Colt gave me, Annie Aunt? Did you see what Colt gave me?”

      “Isn’t that something?” Annie managed, totally and completely perplexed by the cowboy driving off into the midday horizon. What in the world had just happened?

      Thank goodness Leo’s infatuation with Colt and the gift he’d been given distracted him.

      Luke bent down and held out his hand to his nephew. Annie held her breath as Leo stopped trying to make the loop go around and shook Luke’s hand.

      “You want me to show you how to hold that rope?”

      “Sure. Are you a bull rider, too?” Leo asked, letting Luke position his small hands on the rope. “Or a roper?”

      Jess laughed, stepping into the conversation. “Are you kidding? Luke couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn with a rope.”

      Instead of getting mad, Luke’s mouth twisted into a wide grin. “Don’t listen to him. He and Colt are the better ones with the rope in the family, but ask them who taught them.”

      Annie