toward the horse stalls. “Damn, that was hard. You should’ve seen Jess’s face. She looked at me with those big brown eyes of hers, and asked why her mom didn’t love her anymore.”
Reed stood there stunned. He knew Lynn’s leaving had been bad, but Colt hadn’t told him what a bitch she’d been. “You sure picked a winner.”
“You’re right about that. The only good thing I got out of that marriage was Jess. She’s worth whatever hell I went through.” Colt shoved his hands into his jeans pockets. “School starts the day after tomorrow. It about takes a crowbar to get Jess out of bed, and she takes forever to get ready. Classes start at eight. If she isn’t up by seven, she’ll be late. You need to leave by seven forty-five.”
Reed jotted down information about Jess’s routines, the location of important documents and anything else he thought he might need to remember.
“She seems nervous about starting high school this year.” Colt shook his head. “I don’t remember us worrying about the kind of stuff she does—imagined slights, who’s best friends with who, who said what about her outfit. The worst arguments are about boys. Girls are downright mean to each other. And their fights...” Colt whistled through his teeth.
“Worse than ours?”
Colt nodded as they walked past another stall. “We pounded on each other, but then it was over. Not with girls. When they get mad the emails and tweets fly. Girls divide into two camps. Then the tears start. Sometimes for days, and Jess won’t talk about it. Then when I think it’ll never end, they’re all friends again.”
Lord help him. He’d rather fight off a hostile takeover than face what Colt had just described. Why didn’t society ship all teenage girls off to an island, and allow them to come back only once their sanity returned?
“You’re not making me feel better about this. What do you do during all this drama?”
“Drama? That attitude will get you in trouble.”
Reed froze as a lilting feminine voice washed over him. How many times had he heard that sultry voice in his dreams? Way too many to count, but never once when he’d come back had he sought her out. He wasn’t one to borrow trouble. They were too different. He couldn’t live here again, and she wouldn’t live anywhere else. More important, though, she wanted children and he didn’t.
He glanced over his shoulder at the woman coming out of a horse stall two doors down. She’d been pretty in high school, but the word failed to describe her now. Tall and willowy, even dressed in dirty jeans and a shapeless scrub top, without any makeup, the woman before him could stop traffic when she crossed the street.
Avery McAlister.
Staring at the beautiful blonde in front of him, he knew he’d been right to avoid Avery, because seeing the only woman he’d ever loved hurt worse than any blow he’d taken from his father.
Chapter Two
“Avery, what are you doing here?”
“It’s good to see you, too, Reed.” Avery laughed nervously as she forced herself to remain outwardly calm despite the blood pounding in her ears.
The last time she’d seen him he’d been tall and lanky, but in the years since, his frame had filled out in all the right ways. His shoulders were broader now, and he might even have grown an inch or two. His chiseled features, strong jaw and short black hair remained the same. Dressed in tailored slacks and a pinstriped shirt, Reed Montgomery, the boy she’d dated and fallen in love with in high school, had grown into a fine-looking man.
And he didn’t show the slightest hint of guilt over breaking up with her via email all those years ago.
Avery tried to shut off the memories, but they broke free. She and Reed had met in Mrs. Hutchison’s kindergarten class. They’d been seated at the same table and were busy drawing when Bennett Chambers yanked the yellow crayon from her hand. She’d been about to punch him in the arm when Reed whispered something she couldn’t hear to Bennett. The boy’s eyes widened and he paled, then a second later she had the yellow crayon.
They began dating their sophomore year of high school and fell in love soon after. In their senior year, Reed gave her a promise ring and they started making plans for their future. They both wanted to go to college. He’d received a scholarship from Stanford to study business, and she had one from Colorado State to study veterinary medicine, but he promised to come home as often as he could. Then a month after leaving for California, he sent her a short email. He loved living on the West Coast. He didn’t want to come back to Colorado. Ever. He didn’t want to get married. He didn’t want children. He thought it was best they end things.
Being young, foolish and unable to let the relationship go that easily, Avery had called him. When he didn’t answer, she’d left tearful messages on his voice mail, begging him to talk to her, which he never did. Then she wrote long letters that came back unopened.
Staring him down now, she reminded herself she wasn’t the naive teenager willing to beg a man not to break up with her anymore, and she was damned if she’d let him see how much his coming back shook her.
“I’m here checking on Charger’s injured foreleg. I’m a vet now, and the director of the Estes Park animal shelter.” Take that. I went on with my life and made something of myself.
“I’m glad you’re doing well, though I’m not surprised. You always could do anything you put your mind to.”
Except hang on to you.
Their small talk sounded inane considering how intimate they’d once been. “What are you doing here, Reed?”
“I’m staying with Jess while Colt’s in Afghanistan.”
So that’s what had brought him back. She turned to Colt. About the same height as his younger brother and almost as handsome, Colt had inherited their mother’s blond hair while Reed resembled their dark-haired father. “I’ll keep you and Jess in my prayers while you’re gone.”
Colt nodded. “I appreciate that.”
“You’re staying here for what, a year? Eighteen months?” she asked Reed. “You must have a very understanding boss.”
“A year. Luckily I own my own small company, and thanks to Skype it shouldn’t be too difficult to run things long-distance.”
He was still as confident as ever, Avery mused, and yet she wondered if Reed’s plan was one that looked great on paper, but wouldn’t work well in practice.
“Wow. You own a company.”
“It’s not as glamorous as people think. I put in more hours than any of my employees, and I get a salary like everyone else. Most of what the company makes goes right back into developing new products.”
A cell phone rang. “I’m sorry. I’ve got to take this call,” Reed said.
As he moved away, his phone glued to his ear, Avery turned to Colt. “Are you sure about this? I think running a business long-distance will be harder than he thinks.”
“I don’t have a choice.” Colt explained about his mother-in-law’s health issues, the age
