was startled by his overall appearance when he’d come barreling out of the office looking fierce and scraggly. He needed a shave and two weeks of sleep.
Very different from the photos Jennifer had hung in Leo’s room. Those were of a very clean-cut, slick-shaven cowboy with an intriguing glint in his eyes and mischief in his expression. This cowboy looked ten years older than the twenty-eight she knew him to be...still unbelievably handsome despite the hair that brushed his collar and the scraggly two- or three-day-old beard.
Getting over her shock, Annie bent to one knee and reached for Leo. His innocent face was a storybook of happiness as he clung to Colt Holden’s legs. He was six and had never latched on to anyone like Colt. Then again, this was a dream come true for him. A dream that was looking as if it had all the potential in the world of blowing up in her face.
The enormity of what she was here to do hit her with new force, and instantly fear for Leo gripped her.
She was a take-control kinda gal. The fact that she’d procrastinated this move for a year showed her fear and worry. It had finally taken a major Godly shove and a hard dose of reality to get her moving. She’d decided to take the bull by the horns, and here she was...feeling really stupid for bringing this child here before she’d checked the man out.
“Honey, let go of—let go of Mr. Holden.”
Bright eyes beamed back at her. “But, Annie Aunt, I’ve been waiting for-evvv-er.”
“Yes, I know.” She smiled, feeling a sense of urgency to extricate him as she gently took his arm and tugged him away. Looking up, her gaze locked once more with Colt’s alarmed brown eyes.
Annie’s heart sank. Ever since she’d learned who Leo’s daddy was God had laid a heavy burden on her heart. It had taken her house burning down to make her figure out what she wanted to do. And that was to come find out what kind of man Colt was.
Did any honor exist beneath that facade?
She’d been here all of ten minutes and things weren’t looking so good. She pushed on, though. “I’m sorry about this. I guess I should introduce myself. I’m Annie Ridgeway and this is my nephew, Leo.”
“Our house burned down and my room is gone,” Leo said, staring up at Colt with big, bright stars in his eyes. “But Annie Aunt told me we were moving here to your town and I didn’t even care anymore.” He cocked his head to the side. “Does Mule Hollow have a bunch of mules?” Prone to ask random questions, it was one of many more to come.
Colt’s brows crinkled in dismay. “Y-your house burned down?”
His 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
