the chilly mountain starts to his days took some adjusting to.
After using the bathroom, then splashing cold water on his face, Wiley wound his way through the four-room log cabin to the kitchen. The place had been in his family for three generations, and though it had been updated with modern plumbing and electric, the hand-hewn logs held on to the original character. Age made them glow with a golden patina.
He rummaged through the fridge, but shouldn’t have bothered. No food fairies had shown up in the night. He settled on a protein bar and steaming mug of half coffee, half whiskey to dull his pain.
With his second serving of fragrant, fresh-brewed java and Jim Beam, he wandered out to the covered front porch only to get a shock.
Macy was hard at work in his garden.
She’d woven her mane of wild red hair into a loose braid, and hummed while planting green beans that looked larger than the ones her llamas had eaten.
Baby Henry sat beside her, happily shrieking each time he raked his fingers through the soft soil.
The sight of mother and child both incensed and mesmerized him.
Why were they on his property when he’d told Macy he didn’t need help? Why couldn’t he look away from the quintessential slice of normalcy they represented? Lord help him, but he envied her ability to find joy in the simple work.
He shouted from the porch, “I told you I could handle replanting.”
“Good morning!” Her pretty smile didn’t help his dour mood. “Gorgeous day, isn’t it? But I hear it’s supposed to be rainy by tonight—which is good. We could use a good old-fashioned toad strangler.”
“Why are you here?”
“Aren’t you cold with no shirt? It’s chilly.”
She’d pulled this same crap when they’d been kids—purposely ignoring him until she wore him down to do her bidding—usually, manipulating him to give her a ride on his horse or hike to the mountaintop lookout where Dot and Clem had forbidden her to ever go alone. How many times had he almost kissed her in that spot before chickening out?
Annoyed by the fact that part of him still craved kissing her, he asked, “How is it that you’re a full-grown woman, yet every bit as annoying as back when you weren’t tall enough to reach my belt buckle?”
She laughed at the dig. “For the record, I wasn’t that short, and at least I’m not lazy—still loafing around in my pj’s at almost ten o’clock.”
Wiley wanted to zing her back, but how could he when she spoke the truth? He never used to sleep this late. But when he had no goals beyond getting through the day, it wasn’t as if he had a whole lot to wake up for.
Henry shoved a dirt clump in his little mouth, then cried in protest.
“Silly rabbit,” Macy cooed while hefting the baby onto her hip. “It might look like nice, brown chocolate, but that dirt’s not quite as sweet, is it?”
She marched toward the cabin. “I hate to be a bother, but would you mind if I used your kitchen sink so I can wash out Henry’s mouth?”
Wiley struggled not to growl. “Help yourself.”
“Thanks. You’re too kind.” Her blown kiss only heightened his frustration.
While Henry roared at the indignity of having his mouth cleaned, Macy sang to the infant and hugged him and assured him everything would soon be all right. And it was. And when all that remained of his ordeal were his tear-stained cheeks and the occasional shuddering huff, the baby’s smile returned.
“He’s a charmer,” Wiley couldn’t help but note.
“Just like his momma?” Macy winked.
“Cocky much?”
“Only with smart-mouthed cowboys.”
Maybe it was the whiskey making him mellow, but he couldn’t hide his half smile. “You are something else. A sassy firecracker of a girl who drove me nuts, and now that you’re all woman, not a damned thing has changed.”
“Language,” she warned. “And thank you—I think.”
“You’re welcome—I think.” The overalls she wore were as kooky as her hair. The red long johns top clashed, yet somehow managed to only make her freckles and ample female curves pop. As a woman, the mischievous girl in her shone through, but she possessed an intriguing, all-grown-up feminine appeal from which he couldn’t look away. “Does your husband approve of you showing up on another man’s land first thing in the morning?”
Her smile faded. “Who said I was married?”
“Sorry,” Wiley said. “Guess since you have a baby, I assumed Henry has a dad nearby.”
“Yeah, well, he doesn’t.” When it came to discussing Macy’s ex, Rex, aside from the cute rhyme, there was nothing amusing about what he’d done. He not only cheated on her during her pregnancy, but left her two months after Henry’s birth. Macy’s best friend, Wendy, had warned her he was no good, but Macy had refused to listen. They hadn’t spoken since.
“Hey, I didn’t mean to start anything.” He bowed his head, and for the first time since their unlikely reunion, seemed genuinely affected by something she’d said. “I was just making conversation.”
“It’s not a problem. Talking about it makes me sad. I’m generally a happy person, and...” Her voice cracked, but she refused to give Rex any more power to darken her life. She swiped tears from her cheeks, then kissed Henry’s dirt-smudged forehead. “Anyway, thanks for letting me use the sink. I’ll finish in the garden and leave you on your own to do whatever it is you do.”
“Macy, wait.” She’d walked past him only to get a jolt when he reached out and touched her arm. Their contact had been fleeting, yet each individual fingerprint scorched through her thin shirt. She’d given him up such a long time ago, but her body remembered what her heart had tried to forget. When he’d left for the Navy, announcing he had no plans of ever coming back, she’d still been in high school and forced herself to move on. “Sorry I’ve been such a hard-ass.”
“It’s okay.” She didn’t want this attraction to him. Moreover, she didn’t understand it. Her father cautioned her to keep her distance from Wiley, but the part of her that had shared seemingly endless summers with him on this very land found it awfully hard to stay away. “Henry’s dad cheated on me. I had had a tough pregnancy, and we weren’t...together...for a while.”
“That doesn’t give a man the excuse to step out.” Was that alcohol on Wiley’s breath? “If anything, you having a rough time should have brought you closer.”
“Please, stop.” For some crazy reason, she found it easier to be with Wiley when he was salty. This new and improved kinder—possibly drunk—version knocked her off balance. “I’m over it and I suppose, in retrospect, if I’d have paid more attention to Rex’s needs, I wouldn’t be a single mom now.”
“You
