welcome.” She squeezed Scout tighter and continued onto the porch and down the steps, feeling as though someone had sucked the air out of her lungs.
Clouds covered the sun as she hurried to the Victorian house next door. She could only imagine what was going through Cash’s mind. Everyone knew what a huge crush she’d had on him as a kid. And seeing him now, that same sensation had wriggled through her once again. Then he called her darlin’.
She stomped up the back steps. That single word was like a splash of icy water. The last time she fell for that line it had cost her far more than anyone knew.
She nuzzled Scout’s wiry fur. “Can I get some sugar?” Some people thought her crazy for talking to her dog like a baby. But her brothers’ opinions weren’t of any concern to her. Besides, Scout was her baby and Taryn loved her every bit as much as her brothers loved their kids.
Scout licked her nose.
“Thank you.”
Inside her parents’ kitchen, she set Scout on the wooden floor and shrugged out of her fleece vest. Cash still looked as amazing as she remembered. The only thing that had changed was that the good-looking boy had grown into a fine-looking man. The kind that knew how to make a woman feel special. Loved.
That is, until he was finished with her.
Like Brian.
Gooseflesh prickled down her arms.
I’m not totally heartless, darlin’.
She tossed her vest over a hook near the door, slumped into one of six straight-back chairs surrounding the oak table and rubbed the chill away.
If only her shame were so easy to erase.
Cool air infiltrated the room as her mother, Bonnie Purcell, swept through the door with several grocery sacks.
Taryn shoved to her feet. “Let me help you, Mom.”
“Oh, thank you, honey.”
She took the bags, settled them on the granite countertop—her mom’s big splurge when she had the kitchen remodeled last spring—and unloaded the items while her mother removed her jacket.
“I see there’s an SUV parked in front of Art’s house. I wonder if Cash has arrived.”
Scout’s nails clicked against the hand-scraped oak as she trotted across the kitchen to dance at her mom’s feet.
Taryn focused on emptying the bags. If she let on that she’d been next door, her mother would home in on that and assume Taryn still had a crush on Cash.
Her mom scooped up the dog, continuing toward Taryn and staring next door.
She followed her mother’s gaze. “Uh, yeah. I saw him go inside.” Not a lie, just not full disclosure.
“I bet Art is tickled to death.” Her mother turned her way, brushing her dark brown bangs to one side. “That boy has always held such a special place in his heart. I think he really believed Cash would end up in Ouray one day.”
“Didn’t he take over his father’s company or something?” Trying to act nonchalant, Taryn dumped a fresh bag of flour into the large glass canister on the counter.
“I don’t think he took it over, just stepped in to run things when his father got sick.”
Taryn had been too wrapped up in herself back then to remember what happened. “Sick how?”
“Cancer.”
She dared to meet her mother’s gaze. “Is he okay?”
“Oh, yes.” Her mom set Scout to the floor. “But it was touch and go for a while. They make livestock trailers, you know. Cattle, horses....” She wadded up the empty grocery bags and tucked them in the pantry. “From what I hear, the company has really grown with Cash at the helm. There aren’t many young men who would give up their own dreams to step in and help their father like that.”
Once again, Taryn’s gaze trailed to the house next door. Perhaps. But she knew all too well that a guy could live up to his family’s expectations and still be a heel. Her heart had the scars to prove it.
Turning, she concentrated on the rest of the groceries. Yep, the best thing she could do was steer clear of Cash Coble. Because no matter how enticing it might be to revisit childhood dreams, Cash was a heartbreak waiting to happen. And she had no intention of going through that ever again.
“I can hardly wait to see him,” her mother gushed. “Which is why I went ahead and invited them for dinner.”
Taryn halted, terror clipping through her veins. “Dinner? Tonight?”
“Why, yes. We agreed to move our family dinner to tonight since you’ll be at Blakely’s wedding rehearsal tomorrow.”
“I know that, but Cash isn’t family.”
“He’s just like family. And he’s only in town for a few days. Besides—” Her mother grabbed a package of toilet paper. Matchmaking mirth glinted in her gray-blue eyes as she started out of the room. “I hear he’s still single.”
Taryn cringed. “Mom, please don’t go there.” The last thing Taryn needed was a man. What she did need, however, was a life. Some semblance of a future. Twenty-seven years old and she still lived with her parents. How was that for pathetic?
Sure, she loved climbing and teaching people to overcome their fears, but she couldn’t live at home forever. She needed something to call her own. And since this morning’s chat with Mr. Ramsey at All Geared Up, Ouray’s one-stop shop for outdoor enthusiasts, she just might have a plan.
But first she had to make it through dinner.
Cash let the cream-colored sheer curtain fall back into place and turned away from the window that overlooked the yard between Gramps’s house and the Purcells’. He still couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d said or done something to offend Taryn. But, for the life of him, he couldn’t figure out what.
She’d seemed so friendly initially. Then, suddenly, it was as if he’d slapped her. The hurt in those incredible blue eyes right before she charged out of the house had bothered him ever since.
“How about some pie?” Gramps called from the kitchen.
Cash shook his head, willing the crazy thoughts out of his mind. “Sure.” He bypassed the antique drop-leaf table that had been tucked against the dining room wall and joined his grandfather.
Taking a seat in one of the four green vinyl chairs, he pulled out his phone. “You have internet, Gramps?”
“Inter-what?”
“Internet. You know, the World Wide Web, computers...”
“No, sir.” Standing at the narrow strip of faux butcher-block counter between the refrigerator
