The Cowboy Next Door & Jenna's Cowboy Hero. Brenda Minton

it. Jay liked the husband of one of his childhood friends, Bailey Cross.

      Jay opened the gas cap, pushed the machine and shook his head. “No gas. He probably filled the gas can on the way over, so you’d have it.”

      “Of course.” She had the gas can and he took it from her to fill the tank.

      “I can mow it for you.”

      “No, I want to do it. Remember, I’ve never had a lawn.”

      The front door opened. Lacey’s sister stepped out with the baby in her arms. The child was crying, her arms flailing the air. Corry shot a look in his direction. He tried not to notice the eyes that were rimmed with dark circles, or the way perspiration beaded across her pale face. He looked away.

      “She won’t stop crying.” Corry pushed the baby into Lacey’s arms.

      “Did you burp her?” Lacey lifted the infant to her shoulder. “Corry, you have to take care of her. She’s your daughter. You’re all she has.”

      “I don’t want to be all she has. How can I take care of her?”

      “The same way thousands of moms take care of their children. You have to use a little common sense.” Lacey made it look easy, leaning to kiss the baby’s cheek, talking in quiet whispers that soothed the little girl.

      He could have disagreed with Lacey. Not all moms knew how to take care of children. He’d been a police officer for five years. He’d seen a lot.

      “I should go. I have to work today, but I wanted to make sure you have everything you need.” He told himself he wasn’t running from something uncomfortable.

      “We’re good.” Lacey looked down at the baby. “Jay, thanks for this place.”

      “It needed to be rented.” He shrugged it off. “But you’re welcome.”

      “Hey, wait a minute.” Corry moved forward, her thin arms crossed in front of her, hugging herself tight. “Aren’t you going to tell him about the stove?”

      Lacey smiled. “It isn’t a big deal. I can fix it.”

      “Fix what?”

      “One of the knobs is broken. I have to go to Springfield tonight. I can pick one up.”

      “What are you going to Springfield for?” Corry pushed herself into the conversation.

      “None of your business.” Lacey snuggled the baby and avoided looking at either of them. And Jay couldn’t help but be curious. It was a hazard of his job. What was she up to?

      “I can fix the stove, Lacey,” he offered.

      “Jay, I don’t want you to think you have to run over here and fix every little thing that goes wrong. I’m pretty self-sufficient. I can even change my own lightbulbs.”

      “I’m sure you can.” He looked at his watch. “Tell you what. You pick up the knob. I’ll have my dad come over and fix it tomorrow.”

      That simplified everything. It meant he stayed out of her business. And she didn’t feel like he was taking care of her.

      “Good.” She smiled her typical Lacey smile, full of optimism.

      He had to take that thought back. Her sister showing up in town had emptied her of that glass-half-full attitude. Maybe her cheerful attitude did have limits.

      “Do you want to see if the mower will start now?” He recapped the gas can and set it on the ground next to the mower. Lacey still held the baby.

      “No, I have to get ready for work now.”

      “See you at the diner.” He tipped his hat and escaped.

      When he glanced back over his shoulder, they were walking back into the house and he wondered if Lacey would survive her sister being in her life.

      And if he would survive the two of them in his.

       Chapter Three

      “I can’t stay out here all day, alone.” Corry paced through the sunlit living room of the farmhouse, plopping down on the overstuffed floral sofa that Lacey had bought used the previous day.

      Lacey turned back to the window and watched as Jay made his way down the road to the home he’d grown up in. A perfect house for a perfect life.

      For a while he’d even had a perfect girlfriend, Cindy, a law student and daughter of a doctor. The perfect match. Or maybe not. He was back at home, and Cindy was off to California pursuing her career. Lacey knew all of this through the rumor mill, which worked better than any small-town paper.

      And the other thing they said was that it was all because of Jamie. But no one really talked about who Jamie was and what she meant to Jay Blackhorse.

      “Come on, Lace, stop ignoring me.” Corry, petulant and high-strung. Lacey sighed and turned back around.

      “You’ll have to stay here. I have to work, and I can’t entertain you.”

      “I’ll go to town with you.”

      “No, you’re not going with me.”

      “Why not?” Corry plopped down on the sofa and put her feet up on the coffee table.

      “Because I said so.” Lacey rubbed a hand across her face. “This is not what I want to do every day, Corry. I don’t want to raise you. You’re a grown woman and a mother. If you’re going to be bored, we’ll find a sitter for Rachel and you can get a job.”

      Corry frowned and drew her legs up under her. The baby slept in the bassinet someone from church had donated to their new home. They both looked at the lace-covered basket.

      “You know I can’t work,” she whispered, for a moment looking vulnerable.

      “You stay home with the baby, Corry. Be a good mom and let me worry about working.”

      “I’m not worried about it.”

      Of course she wasn’t. “Fine, then you can be responsible for cooking dinner.”

      “I can’t cook. Well, maybe mac-n-cheese or sandwiches. Not much else.”

      “You can learn. I have cookbooks.”

      At the word cookbook she saw Corry’s eyes glaze over, and the younger woman looked away.

      “I want to call my friends and let them know where I am.” Corry plucked at the fabric on the couch. “They’ll be wondering what happened to me.”

      Lacey shook her head, fighting the sliver of fear that snaked into her belly when she thought about the kind of friends that Corry had. She didn’t want that old life invading Gibson.

      “You can’t drag the old in with the new, Corry.”

      “Just because you walked away from everyone doesn’t mean that I have to.”

      “I didn’t walk away, I started over.”

      “I don’t see how you can like it here.”

      Lacey stood up but didn’t answer. She picked up her cell phone and slipped it into her pocket, a way to let Corry know that she meant it when she said her sister couldn’t contact people from her past.

      “I’ll be home by four o’clock. But after dinner, I have to go to Springfield for a few hours.”

      “Fine, have fun. Don’t worry about me, stuck out here, alone, nothing to do.”

      “I won’t.”

      Lacey grabbed the backpack off the hook on the wall and walked out the front door, letting it bang shut behind her. She heaved the backpack over her shoulder