Chapter One
4thof July – Another event his parents dragged him to…
Wow! He hadn’t seen her in two years.
She’d changed. Filled out in all the right places.
His gaze traced her curves. Those legs. That ass. Damn.
He wished he could go up to her and say hi.
Lame.
She’d never talk to him. What would he even say to her? No one ever really talked to him. Not unless they wanted something. Usually from his father.
He hated being used. He hated that he couldn’t just go up to her, strike up a conversation, and have her begging him to take her out, take her to bed. He wasn’t that guy. He didn’t know how to be that guy, even though right now he’d do anything to be that man for her.
She made him hard. She made him want.
Then he got lucky and spotted some friends from school, who were friends with Brooke’s best friend. He could use them to get close to Brooke. Then maybe he’d have a chance.
Yeah right!
It could happen,he argued with himself.
Maybe it was meant to be.
Chapter Two
4thof July picnic at Brooke’s home…
Brooke Banks stared out at the crowd of people milling around the garden and seated at the picnic tables on the patio. Her best friend Mindy Sue was holding court by the pond with her boyfriend, Marco, and several of their college friends. They were entertaining themselves playing cornhole and horseshoes on the grass. They’d all come to support Brooke through this happy but difficult event.
“Brooke! Is that really you!” Mrs. Ellis’s mouth hung open as her gaze went from the tips of Brooke’s cowboy boots, up her legs and her slightly curvy body, to her green-eyed gaze. “Wow! You were always a pretty girl, but now you’re a beautiful young lady.”
She appreciated the praise. At least someone had noticed she'd grown up. “Thank you.”
“I’m so sorry about your stepfather. We’ve missed him these last two years.” Mrs. Ellis’s husband, the mayor, had been friends with Harland since they were boys in school.
Two years ago, her stepfather had died of a sudden heart attack. He’d held the annual picnic for all his friends, fellow ranchers, and community leaders. She missed him every day. She, her mom, and his son, Cody, hadn’t been ready to carry on the tradition after Harland’s passing. But this year, Brooke insisted they revive it. It was important to keep Harland’s memory alive. Traditions mattered and kept them together.
Plus she hoped it would help Cody look toward the future and see this place ashisnow, because he was the one carrying on in his father’s absence.
And it didn’t hurt that some of the most influential people in the state were here.
As a lawyer, Cody could use the connections with his father’s cronies. You never knew when you’d need a favor from someone with the kind of clout many of the individuals here today flaunted.
She nodded to the governor and his wife, who were chatting with her mother, Susanne, nearby. Mindy Sue’s father, Doug Wagner, was one of the most highly respected and successful defense attorneys in the state. There were three judges, plus the district attorney and several of his associates here, too, along with most of the business owners from three nearby towns. Everyone they’d invited showed up out of respect for Cody and his father.
And she’d been the one to pull all of this together, from the invitations to the catering, decorations, the music, games, and fireworks show. Every detail, she’d conceived and executed.
She hoped it showed everyone on the ranch that she’d grown up, because from the second she’d arrived home from college, she’d had to remind everyone she was twenty, not ten.
It started with their ranch hand the day she arrived home for summer break calling her little one. Paco didn't mean anything other than affection, but it made her feel like a little girl and not the woman she'd grown into. It didn't help that Cody refused to let her have even half a glass of wine at dinner. He never missed an opportunity to exercise his overprotective streak when it came to her.
Even more annoying, his girlfriend wasTeam Cody all the way. UGH! Of course she sided with him to score points.
Mrs. Ellis pressed her hand to her heart. “Time passes so quickly. We blink and…” She waved her hand up and down in front of Brooke. “Little girls turn into young ladies. Friends pass.” She waved at her misty eyes. “Sorry. I miss Harland.”
