Chapter Three
Daisy-Mae
After primping my hairfor entirely too long—even though I knew it would just go flat anyway—I stand at my garden gate at twenty minutes past the hour waiting with a pastry box in my hand and a travel mug of coffee.West’s red Chevvy pulls up a beat later.
“Mornin’.”He tips his hat and climbs out of the truck to open my door, then he seems to take pity on me and helps me in by propping his hands under my ass.“Sorry.She’s a beast.”
I gasp in shock.“West Winchester!I know I might have put on a little baby weight, and sure, I may have just one giant ass now instead of two pert little cheeks, but didn’t your mama teach you not to insult a lady?”
West blinks as if I’ve just grown an extra head.“Oh hell, Daisy.I didn’t mean you!I meant my truck.”
I laugh and set my butt on the seat before thrusting the pastry box toward him.
He takes it with a confused look on his face.“What’s this?”
“Breakfast,” I say with a smile.“I’m just messing with you, West.I know you meant your truck.”
“But I already ate.”
I shrug.“Well, strap it to your horse and have it out in the field while you tag steer or something.”
“I’d need two hands for that but thank you.I appreciate the gesture.”
He closes my door and heads around the front of the truck to the driver’s side, setting the box on the bench seat.
“I appreciate you coming all this way to get me.”
“I told you not to mention it.”
“Well, I’ll just pay you in baked goods then.”
“I’ll get fat and the cows will have to move me around the pasture.”
“You?Fat?The great West Winchester with the arm of steel?”
“Naw, come on.You’ll embarrass me.I haven’t been the ‘great anything’ since high school, and even then, I’m pretty sure that name only stuck because the boys knew I hated it.”
I smile and glance out the windshield at the flower-lined streets giving way to dry grass and pastures as West drives us toward the ranch.“I barely even remember those days, but I’ll never forget that thirty-yard touchdown that led our little team to State.”
“You and everyone else in this town,” he shakes his head.“But I didn’t play that game alone.”
“It was like magic,” I say and feel the need to clarify when his jaw tightens.“Watching you on the field, that is.”
His brows pinch together.“I don’t know about magic.I sure loved the feel of that pigskin in my hands though.”
“You don’t ever think about what might have been?”I ask, but immediately regret it when he frowns.
“No good wondering about what might’ve been.Besides, my daddy had my life all planned out since before I was born.And the only field that ever mattered to him was which one the cattle were in.”
“I don’t know if I ever told you this, but I was so sorry to hear of his passing.Your daddy was a good man.Your family is ...”
“Nosy, bossy, overwhelming?”
“Perfection,” I finish with a soft smile and rub a hand over my distended abdomen.“I always wanted a big family.But, I guess, it’ll just be the two of us.You don’t know how lucky you are to have them ...even with all their crazy.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”He looks a little chagrined as he focuses on the road.“So, you ever hear from Eddie?”
I have no desire to talk about my low-life, cheating, soon-to-be ex-husband with Red River’s most eligible bachelor, so I decide not to tell him about the divorce papers that landed in my lap earlier this week.“Nope.”
