SWEAT DRIPPED IN Heath’s eyes as he rode Destiny alongside the plodding, bellowing herd. Overhead, the intense sun bore down and cracked the earth. Everything was still, breathless, insects and animals alike sheltering beneath rocks or trees. He stared at the hazy sky, watching two vultures with their white-tipped wings circle slowly, deliberately, waiting for something somewhere to die.
The weather report predicted another record-breaking day of dry heat. Had he gambled correctly in driving the cattle from the natural spring to the next pasture? They’d lingered for nearly a week, nipping the forage down to its roots, but water alone couldn’t sustain the cattle. Worry twisted his gut. What if the next grazing area’s water hole had dried up?
“Some of ’em are getting gut fill.” Beside him, Jewel stared straight over Bear’s black head. He tore his eyes from her dainty profile and followed her gaze to the lumbering Brahmans. Concern burned in his chest as he noted their bouncing abdomens. Ribs and hip bones jutted slightly beneath thick gray hides. They weren’t starving, not yet, but they were losing weight. If the next pasture didn’t have enough water, some of the more fragile members of the herd would be at risk.
“Noted.” Heath clucked to a lagging Destiny, and she picked up the pace to tramp up a steep incline.
“We should have moved the herd a couple of days ago.”
Jewel’s know-it-all tone set his teeth on edge. “The spring’s one of our most reliable water sources. I wasn’t in a hurry to leave it.”
“If we hadn’t overgrazed it, we could have returned in a couple weeks.” Jewel screwed off the top of her canteen and drank a long gulp before passing it over.
He nodded his thanks and guzzled the tepid, slightly metallic-tasting water. “What do you mean?”
Jewel’s calloused fingers brushed his when he returned the canteen. His breath quickened at the sandpaper feel of them. Her skin was as rough as her manner, yet it electrified him somehow. “Pastures should be grazed for only a day and then returned to after a two-week break. It allows for regrowth. The idea is to raise the pasture with the livestock.”
He turned Jewel’s words over in his mind. “Makes sense.”
“Of course it does,” Jewel blustered. From the corner of his eye, he caught her pleased grin. An answering pulse of happiness loosened his joints and lowered his shoulders. He liked making Jewel smile. Too much.
“Is that part of the herd health report you gave your brother?”
“Not that he’s going to read it,” Jewel grumbled.
“I would.” The cattle dogs’ barking and Daryl’s “yip yip yip” filled the sudden silence. Heath sneaked a sidelong glance at Jewel. Her features seemed frozen in place, and her knuckles shone white against the tan leather reins. “If you’ll let me.”
“Why would you do that?” When she turned her head, he met her wary brown eyes straight on. “I’m a Cade, aren’t I?”
“I won’t hold that against you.” He mopped the back of his steaming neck with his kerchief. “Much.”
Her low belly laugh gave his heart legs; it leaped like a spring hare in his chest. “You’re admitting Cades know more than Lovelands,” she chortled.
“One does anyway.”
Jewel’s rose-colored mouth dropped open before she snapped it shut and lifted her chin. “Darn straight,” she vowed. “I’ll email you a copy.”
“All right then.”
“All right.”
A companionable silence descended as they rode. The steady clop of their horses’ hooves striking hard-packed soil, the lowing of the cattle and the panting, galloping dogs, tongues lolling, filled the quiet. Destiny picked her way across the rugged terrain. Loose rocks threatened to slide out from under her shoes if Heath didn’t keep a close eye on her footing. Some of the ravines were so steep, they never saw sunlight.
“Sierra said you left the Flower Gala meeting early the other night.”
Jewel guided Bear around a depression. “Couldn’t stand another minute of that hen party.”
“That bad?”
“They debated about rose versus blush-colored napkins for almost an hour.”
“Aren’t they both pink?”
Jewel let loose a long-suffering sigh. “Exactly. At least I got to see my family afterward.”
He didn’t respond immediately. Instead, his gaze drifted over her melancholy face and then down to her clenched hands. “You miss them.”
“Yes.”
“Sorry you’re stuck here.” He cleared his throat. “With me.”
“It’s—uh—not so bad,” she replied, her voice tight.
“How’s your family?”
“James said not to let you sweet-talk me.”
His nostrils flared with a heavy exhale. “What’s he worried about?”
“That you’ll persuade me to drive the Brahmans through our land.”
His shoulders stiffened. “I’m hoping you’ll come to that conclusion on your own. The herd’s growing frailer.”
Jewel’s teeth appeared on her bottom lip. “They’ll make it.”
“All of ’em?”
“All of them.”
“What if the next watering hole isn’t big enough? Or the one after that?” He tore off his hat and thrust his fingers through his damp hair. “How much longer can they go on? We’ve got weeks ahead of us without a drop of rain forecast.”
Jewel swiped her face with her kerchief. “Weathermen get it wrong.”
“Satellites don’t. Look. We could create a fenced area leading across Cade land for us to drive our cattle straight to the Crystal River. They won’t mingle with yours or cause any property damage.”
Jewel turned her head away, her jaw set. “It’d restrict our cattle’s movement.”
“Not much or at all, if we time it right.” In the distance, Heath watched Blue square off against a runaway Brahman. The cattle dog crouched, refusing to back down, until the large animal balked and rejoined the herd. Heath could relate. Going head-to-head with Jewel was a test of wills…one he was determined to win. “We could use temporary fencing and break it down as we leave.”
“No.”
“Why?” Frustration brewed deep inside. Jewel still clung to their old feud and the divisions he wished no longer divided them, especially when the cattle needed to reach the river soon.
“I can’t go against my family.”
His skin tingled, and the back of his throat burned. Whatever control he had snapped like a rubber band. “Because they’ve been so loyal to you?”
Jewel jerked back as if she’d been slapped, kicked Bear into a gallop and streaked off in a cloud of dust.
“Dang it!” He urged Destiny after her. “Jewel!” he shouted to be heard over the stomping, mooing cattle. “Hold up!”
“Leave me be!” she hollered over her shoulder.
He pulled Destiny up alongside her. “Listen to me!”
She averted her head and dashed away tears—tears he was furious at himself for putting there. “Why?”
“Because I’m sorry.”
Her eyes were shiny black as they locked onto his again. “What for exactly?”
“I shouldn’t have brought your family into it.”
She studied him, stone-faced. “And?”
“Plagued you about the Crystal River access.” He pulled his sticking shirt from his chest. “I won’t bring it up again.”
One eyebrow rose. “And?”
“And?”
Exasperating woman. What was she after now? Her fingers drummed on the rope she’d used to lasso calves earlier when she’d spied pink eye. His muscles clenched. Fine. He’d say it if only to make her smile again. “You’d make a good range boss.”
“Better than you.”
He choked on a laugh. “Don’t push it.”
“I’m not sure your fragile male ego could handle it.”
His shoulder lifted in a lopsided shrug. “If that lets you sleep at night.”
“Oh, it does, it does.” The mischief in her eyes twisted his lips into a wry smile.
Jewel was as entertaining as she was infuriating. And for all her bragging, she could put her money where her fast-talking mouth was, he thought as she cantered away to nip a breakaway pair back into the herd. He was starting to find more common ground with the unruly cowgirl than his perfect fiancée, which left him equal parts uncomfortable, guilty and exhilarated. She was his resourceful work partner, but that was as far as it could go.
Her continued attempts to outdo him were both annoying and humorous. Maybe she held her own with the Cade boys, but she was riding with a Loveland now. Big difference he’d say out loud if he didn’t think it’d be bragging. Nah. He let his actions speak for themselves and had found himself flaunting his skills, too. She brought out this unfamiliar tendency as well as the urge to bend her over his arm and kiss her.
What was it about the boastful cowgirl that set his thoughts in directions they had no right to go?
Once they reached the pasture, he paused to let his senses drink in the fresh mountain air, the sweet smell of wildflowers, the bellowing cattle. He wanted to imprint the moment in the folds of his memory, preserve it like one of his mother’s flowers between pages of her books. To remember: this is how it felt to be happy.
Free.
“Oh, give me a home, where the buffalo roam,” he sang once he dismounted and tied up Destiny, the words springing from him without conscious thought. “Where the deer and the antelope play…”
He heard Jewel approach on Bear and felt her eyes on him. As he launched into the chorus, a slightly flat alto joined him.
“Home, home on the range!” Jewel belted, singing with more enthusiasm than finesse, an amusing assault to his ear. She tethered Bear and then retrieved the camping gear stowed in her saddlebag.
Their voices mingled as they set up a makeshift camp, growing louder and twangier as he added extra country flourishes that got her giggling between words. When they finished with a rip roaring “Yee-haw!” they dissolved into laughter.
“Where’ve you been hiding all that talent?” he teased when they quieted again.
“Under a rock where it belongs.” Jewel handed him a pot for him to fill from the nearby creek and scratched her peeling nose. “Wish I had your gift.”
“It’s not doing me any good.” Her sharp glance made him wish back those telling words. He hurried to the thankfully flowing stream and dipped the kettle into it. The water level was the lowest he’d ever seen it for this time of year, he noted with a sinking heart. They wouldn’t have much time here. Maybe a week. Tops.
“But you still like gigging, right?” Jewel asked when he returned.
“Yes.” While he could… He hooked the kettle onto a rod stretched across an old firepit and lit a pile of leftover logs from last season. “Got a show Friday night if you want to come,” he shouted as Jewel filled a coffeepot in the stream. “Daryl and Cole can take the night watch.”
Jewel returned, dumped pungent grounds into the pot, then hooked it beside the dangling kettle. “What about Cole’s arm?”
“As long as he’s just watching the cattle, he should be fine.” Heath dropped slices of bacon into a four-legged cast-iron skillet he planted on the edge of the fledgling fire. “He can drive up to the pasture on the ATV.”
“Okay,” she said after hauling out a bag of potatoes and placing it between them. Her paring knife neatly peeled off the skin. “I’ll go.”
A wave of pleasure rushed through him. He wanted Jewel at the show just as much as he wanted her riding beside him. No logic applied to any of it, yet it didn’t change those indisputable and darn inconvenient facts. He flipped open his utility knife and grabbed a potato.
“What about Kelsey? Is she going?”
Heath schooled his features into blankness and pinned his eyes on the potato he circled with his blade. “Nah. She never comes.”
“Never?” Jewel’s voice rose in disbelief. Water splashed when she dropped her potato into the kettle.
“She’s not a fan of the honky-tonk scene.” Heath’s knife slipped. He winced and brought his stinging thumb to his mouth.
Jewel’s hands flew over another potato, neatly divesting it of its skin in one, circular cut. “Has there ever been anyone else besides Kelsey?”
“Dating, you mean?” Heath flipped the sizzling bacon with the side of his knife and his stomach grumbled at the salty hickory-cured scent. When Jewel nodded, he said, “No.”
Jewel added three more potatoes to the now-steaming pot of water. “Ever been tempted to date anyone else?”
Heath cracked his tense neck side to side. “Nope.”
Jewel’s thick eyelashes fell to her cheeks, all her attention on the potato she peeled. “You must really love her, huh?”
A heavy, breathless feeling flooded Heath’s chest. “How about you?” he countered, sidestepping the question he still needed to answer. Understanding grew cloudier every minute he spent with Jewel. “Ever been in love?”
Jewel snorted as she passed over the last tuber. “Only with my four-legged partners.”
Heath stared into her gorgeous eyes. “But someday…”
“I’m never getting married.” As if to underscore the point, water from the boiling kettle struck the fire with a loud hiss.
One side of his mouth curled as he watched Jewel remove the kettle, raise the metal rod another notch and reattach the pan. Jewel might not consider herself domestic, but she sure knew her way around a campfire cookout. “Famous last words.”
“I mean it.” Jewel retrieved mugs from their packs, hollered to Daryl to join them, and poured out the fragrant coffee. “I won’t give up my independence for a man.”
“What if you met a man who didn’t want you to change?” His mind turned to Kelsey and all the changes she demanded: stop gigging, quit ranching, work in her family business. He hadn’t asked her to give up anything.
Not one thing.
The unfairness of it struck him, followed by equal parts resentment and guilt as he sipped the tongue-scorching brew Jewel passed him. Did he have a right to those feelings? Kelsey had always been generous with him and his family.
“You’re talking about a rainbow-colored unicorn right there.” Jewel tipped up the brim of her hat and perspiration glistened on her freckled brow. “He doesn’t exist.”
He swallowed the urge to declare himself that unicorn and gulped more coffee instead. Growing up with a mother who’d blamed her family for tying her down and crushing her dreams convinced him to never stand in the way of others’ choices.
“Besides,” Jewel continued, her eyes darting to watch an approaching Daryl, “even if he did exist, it wouldn’t make a difference. Like my Pa said, I’m not the girlie-wife type.”
“Not all men care about that.” Outrage—for Jewel—stung him, sharp as a wasp. He set down his coffee and stirred the browning bacon. The melting fat crackled and splatted. “And why let your father’s opinion define you?”
“It doesn’t.” Despite Jewel’s bluster, it was clear that she, like him, had been affected by a negative parent. Another line of connection tethered itself between them. “All I care about is being free.” She poked the tip of her knife into the boiling potatoes to test their softness.
“But you’ve gone on dates…you’re not against that, are you?” Strange how the thought of other men, teasing Jewel, holding her hand, kissing her, made his teeth clamp tight.
“I’ve never gone on a date or had a boyfriend,” Jewel blurted, red-faced.
“Have you ever been kissed?” He whisked the skillet from the fire’s edge to let it cool while they waited to slice the potatoes into it for frying. Surely Jewel wasn’t completely inexperienced…
He caught a glimpse of her tortured expression before she leaped to her feet and stalked off, hands balled at her sides.
“What set her off?” Daryl hopped off Smoke, grabbed up his coffee and closed his eyes with a blissful smile as he sipped.
“Ah, you know, women…” Heath responded vaguely. Craning his neck, he stared at Jewel’s retreating back, mentally berating himself. He knew better than to pry.
Why did he want to know the answer so badly?
He didn’t intend on being Jewel’s first kiss, though he’d come close the other day. Still, the thought stayed with him as he began slicing the cooked potatoes, his mind returning to Jewel’s expressive, beautiful mouth as she laughed, sneered, teased. Did he want to be her first kiss…and her last? The idea brought him up short. This was uncharted territory, one he was in no position to explore with his future predetermined once he girded himself to accept it.
He dumped the potatoes into the skillet, added a chopped onion and returned it to the fire. Even if he was interested in Jewel—crazy as that’d be—she wanted to be independent, free. It wasn’t like she’d ever want to be tied to him…
Kelsey’s concerns about him spending time with Jewel returned to him. This forced proximity was messing with his head and confusing his already-cloudy heart. From now on, he needed to prioritize Kelsey and fight his unwelcome feelings for Jewel if he stood any chance of making up his mind by summer’s end.
* * *
“I LIKE YOUR hair down.”
At Sierra’s compliment, Jewel fingered the slightly damp waves skimming the off-the-shoulder blouse Sierra had lent her for Heath’s performance tonight. Not that Jewel had fussed with her appearance…much. She breathed in the fresh coconut-and-vanilla scent of her body wash (also borrowed) and eyed her pressed jeans and polished boots.
So much for just dusting off. This cowgirl had spiffed up for reasons she didn’t want to think about, since she suspected Heath was smack-dab in the middle of them.
“I—uh—didn’t have time to braid it.” Jewel winced slightly at the fib. It was partly true. She’d spent so long agonizing over what to wear, she’d barely had time to scoot out the door to claim her spot on the edge of Silver Spurs’s already-crowded dance floor. Her heart drummed, and her skin tingled with anticipation as she stared at the stage’s instruments, microphones and amplifiers awaiting Outlaw Cowboys.
When would Heath and the group begin playing? The familiar excitement to lose herself in their music thrummed inside her, harder than ever. She’d discovered more sides to Heath than just heartthrob singer. Sometimes he acted like one of her annoying older brothers, poking and needling her, showing off in the saddle and even prying into her love life. Why had he been so interested in her dating history or whom she’d kissed? Or more accurately…hadn’t.
On the other hand, he had a caring, protective side. He took pains to safeguard even the littlest members of the herd, like the injured calf. What’s more, he wanted to read her herd health report, which meant he didn’t dismiss her like her brothers. He respected her, which was all she ever wanted. Yet deep down she craved more than the sensitive cowboy’s respect.
When he’d asked her whether she’d change her mind about relationships if she met a man who valued her independence, she’d scoffed, then wondered. Could Heath be the unicorn she’d joked about?
An almost-married unicorn…
“You should leave your hair loose more often.” Jewel tuned back in to Sierra. “It frames your pretty face except…” A line appeared between Sierra’s delicate blond brows. “If these two strands were pulled back with a clip it’d really show off your eyes. Mind if I…?”
“Do I have a choice?” Jewel grumbled with more good nature than bite.
“No,” Sierra said through a smile.
Jewel sighed and subjected herself to Sierra’s fussing, enjoying it more than she’d imagined. Even her ma learned early on to hand Jewel a comb and back away fast. Sierra, on the other hand, seemed undaunted by recalcitrant subjects. Her unflappability must come from years working with the local wildlife population. If rattlers and raptors failed to fluster you, a curmudgeon of a cowgirl didn’t pose much of a challenge.
With quick, practiced moves, Sierra whisked back some of Jewel’s hair, secured the locks behind her ears and stepped back, lips pursed. “Perfect. You look like Karen Gillan.”
“Who?”
“She played Amy Pond in Doctor Who.” Sierra lifted her voice to be heard over a cheering group crowding a pool table while a Little Big Town song blared from wall-mounted speakers.
Jewel shrugged. “I don’t watch many movies.”
“It’s a TV show.” Sierra twined one of Jewel’s waves around her finger, then pulled it forward to dangle over Jewel’s collarbone. “Time-traveling Brits in space.”
“So, I look like an alien?”
Sierra’s deep blue eyes twinkled. “No. Amy Pond’s a human—and pretty, like you.”
Jewel fanned her face as more customers shoved through the door. The stench of body odor, spilled beer and crushed peanuts wove in the humid air. “Quit saying that or I’ll start believing it.” When they’d gotten ready, Sierra had showered Jewel with so many compliments she’d worried her swollen head might send her airborne. Sierra had even conned Jewel into a facial mask guaranteed to turn her skin to porcelain.
If porcelain had freckles…
Just her luck Heath had walked in before they’d washed off the green goo. When he’d drawled he preferred her freckles, he’d rendered her speechless and blushing like a schoolgirl. Her teeth gnashed at the downright embarrassing effect he had on her. Luckily, Sierra had mistaken her speechlessness for hurt and rushed to assure Jewel Heath was just acting like a typical, irritating big brother and not to mind him…only Jewel couldn’t stop “minding” him. He was getting under her skin, burrowing into her thoughts and coming dangerously close to her heart. Not a brother-sister type of feeling at all.
“You should feel pretty. Look.” Sierra nodded to the bar. “That cowboy has his eye on you.”
Jewel glanced at a leering bearded man wearing an enormous cowboy hat and a leather trench coat over fringed chaps. He waggled overgrown eyebrows at her and raised his beer mug. When he guzzled the brew, foam striped the furry animal masquerading as a mustache on his upper lip. “I think he’s either an alien or Sasquatch.”
Sierra’s cheeks bulged as she fought to swallow a mouthful of pop. “Don’t make me laugh when I’m drinking!” she sputtered after she set the glass down on the table behind them.
“Then don’t set me up with a Klingon.”
Sierra wagged a finger. “And you said you didn’t watch TV. Nice Star Trek reference, by the way.”
“I watched The Wrath of Khan in a drive-in once.”
Over Sierra’s shoulder, an old-time popcorn maker exploded to life when a server flipped the switch, the salted, buttered kernels popping harder than a Fourth of July finale. “Wish the Sunset Drive-in hadn’t shut down.”
“Heard some new owners are reopening it soon.”
Sierra clapped her hands. “We should go.”
Jewel nodded to the man at the bar. “I’ve got my date…”
Sierra snorted. “You might need to bring a cattle prod.”
“Or a phaser.” Jewel gave an approaching group of staggering men the stink-eye until they swerved away to play darts.
“If things get weird you could always say, ‘Beam me up, Scotty’ and—” Sierra stopped and made a face. “That was too far, right?”
Jewel chuckled. “We crossed the line way further back than that.”
“Look. Heath!” Sierra started to drag Jewel to the hall by the restrooms, then stopped short. “Now what’s she doing here?”
Jewel flickered Heath a quick glance, then frowned at the sight of Kelsey, clad in a white one-shouldered minidress and gold jewelry more fitting for a cotillion than a honky-tonk. Her loyal henchman, Lara, sipped a glass of white wine beside her. “Heath said she never comes to his gigs,” Jewel said, trying and failing to keep the disappointment from her voice.
“This must be her first time…and she looks uncomfortable.” As they watched, Kelsey seemed to fold into herself, her shoulders curving forward, her gold bracelets sliding as she clasped her hands in front of her. Lara’s disapproving expression suggested she smelled something bad.
“He didn’t mention it when he invited me.” A sinkhole opened in Jewel’s chest, carrying her heart down with it. She stopped fussing with the strings closing the front of her pretty shirt. Stupid her for reading too much into Heath’s invitation. Even dumber was letting down her guard around him. Again.
“He invited you?”
Jewel fidgeted under Sierra’s assessing stare. “It didn’t mean anything.”
“Of course not,” Sierra said slowly, sounding unconvinced and the tiniest bit amused. The Little Big Town tune ended, and the babbling voices and clinking glasses grew louder.
“There’s nothing going on between Heath and me,” Jewel insisted, then felt twice as dumb for sounding defensive. And guilty. Okay. Fine. Maybe something was going on…but clearly only on her side, more fool her.
“You’re dating Khan anyway, right?” Sierra teased, and Jewel grinned back, thankful she’d let the topic drop.
One nice thing about the Lovelands, they never pried, except for Heath. Jewel frowned. She was discovering a lot of good about her family’s old archrivals—the Lovelands were devoted to one another and cared about their land and its animals as much as her own. They’d been talking nonstop about Emma’s upcoming birthday party as if it were the event of the year. They treated one another, and especially the children, with the kind of devotion she’d give her own offspring.
She lost herself in the pleasant thought, then tamped it down. Mothering was not in this prickly cowgirl’s future.
A drumroll announced the start of the set, and Heath pulled loose of Kelsey’s grip to jog onstage. Outlaw Cowboys’ bass player, Clint, pounded a twangy beat and Heath grabbed the mic. Feminine howls of appreciation rose. In a fitted collared shirt, rolled up to his elbows to reveal strong forearms, and Wranglers hugging his long, muscular legs, Heath Loveland snatched the air from her lungs. Her chest burned as his full lips parted to sing the group’s opening song.
Every other noise receded save his bass voice. While his fingers flew over his electric guitar, he infused every note with emotion and meaning. He was gorgeous. Magnetic. A star. In that moment, he stopped being her nuisance of a cattle drive partner, her family’s arch rival and became the man she’d been dreaming of and thinking about nonstop.
It took her until the chorus to realize he sang a Prince song he’d rearranged into a driving country tune. The gravel of his voice added another dimension to it, an alluring one dancing along her spine and making her shiver.
His sapphire eyes locked on Jewel’s and he sang about wanting a kiss.
Her lungs quit right along with her heart. Was he singing to her? Singing about kissing her? Ever since he’d cornered her about whether she’d ever done it—she hadn’t—her overactive imagination conjured Heath as her first lip-lock, no matter how wrong the thought.
“Hey, Kelsey!” Sierra’s shout dragged Jewel from her trance.
“Hey.” Kelsey inclined her head. “May I?” At Sierra’s nod, Kelsey wedged herself between them, followed by Lara, who forced Jewel to step back. The artful pile of Kelsey’s blond hair now partially obstructed her view. Great. Awesome. Just what she’d come to see.
Then again, what had she seen? Surely Heath wasn’t singing to her about a kiss. He must have been looking at Kelsey when she’d come up behind Jewel and Sierra.
Had to be.
To think otherwise was dangerous.
Kelsey’s appearance at Silver Spurs proved she cared about Heath. Stupid Jewel for thinking the couple might not be suited, that Heath would do better with someone else like…
Like who?
Her?
Crazy. But somehow, somewhere the thought had taken root recently. She needed to stop it before she made a fool of herself and lost focus on becoming Cade Ranch’s range boss. If she kept the Loveland herd intact, despite dangerous weather and challenging terrain, she’d leave little doubt she was better than Justin. He had plenty of help and Crystal River access.
“How’s everyone doing tonight?” Heath shouted when Outlaw Cowboys ended their first set. Jewel hooted along with the appreciative audience in response.
“You don’t have to scream like heathens,” Lara griped.
“Woo-hoo!” hollered Sierra directly in Lara’s ear. “Heath!”
Kelsey summoned a weak smile. “I think I need earplugs.”
“Not the best way to hear a band,” Jewel sighed, exasperated at Kelsey and Lara’s complaining. Why come at all?
“I’m here to check in on Timmy Logan’s fund drive.” Kelsey nodded her chin to a manned table selling Solo cups for unlimited beer to fund a local boy’s bone marrow transplant. “And for Heath, not his music.”
“Same difference,” Jewel insisted. How could Kelsey separate the two?
Heath was music…it seemed as much a part of him as the blood in his veins and the oxygen in his lungs.
When Outlaw Cowboys swung into an original song about the home that could have broken a child, but built the adult instead, Jewel lost herself in Heath’s music again. He was undeniably talented. His good looks aside, some intangible quality connected him to others, especially Jewel. He sang with the same emotion crowding her heart, his lyrics telling the story of her life, as if he understood her—or some mysterious part she sensed more than she knew.
Her throat ached as he sang about the troubled childhoods that made you, not broke you, the hard lessons you learned, the mistakes you’d never repeat. Jewel’s father had dismissed her. Would she be as strong now if not for his rejection? She’d come through the fire transformed into forged steel as Heath’s lyrics promised. Nothing would bend her again, she vowed, singing along hoarsely. The powerful song deserved a spot on the radio—the Country Music Awards even. She believed in Heath’s music. Why didn’t he—or Kelsey?
“So? What’d you think of our boy?” asked Clint a couple hours later when he and the group joined Jewel, Kelsey, Lara and Sierra at the mostly cleared out bar.
“He’s very talented,” Jewel said, speaking directly to Heath. His eyes widened and bored into hers.
Kelsey pecked Heath’s cheek, then recoiled. “You’re so sweaty. Can we leave now? The fund drive’s finished.”
“Where’s the fire?” Remmy, the group’s drummer, signaled for some drinks, passed the bartender their Solo cups, then leaned a shoulder against one of its wooden pillars. “This is the first time you’ve seen the show.”
“You liked it?” Heath ducked his head, and his eyes flitted to Jewel.
“Of course.” Kelsey stepped in front of Jewel. “I’m glad I came out to support you.”
“You came for the fund-raiser.” An edge entered his voice. “I didn’t see you smile once.”
“The show rocked.” Jewel angled around Kelsey, not about to be sidelined by her. “You should have a recording contract.”
“That’s what we’ve been telling him.” Clint passed out the beer and sipped foam spilling over his Solo cup’s brim. “He should be taking advantage of his opportunity in—” He cut off when Heath shot him a hard look and shook his head.
Jewel’s gaze swung between Heath and Clint. Was Heath passing up an opportunity to pursue his music career? It’d be criminal if he did.
“You guys gonna help pick up the place?” called Silver Spurs’s owner.
Clint grumbled. “Are we the talent or the cleanup crew?”
“As long as we’re getting paid, who cares?” Remmy grabbed a bucket of suds and Clint and Heath followed behind him to bus the tables along with the waitstaff.
“What’d Clint mean about an opportunity?” Jewel collected the empty Solo cups littering the bar top.
Sierra sprayed a citrus-scented cleaning fluid over the surface. “He hasn’t mentioned anything. My family operates on a need-to-know basis.”
“Has he mentioned it to you?” Jewel eyed Kelsey. How much did Heath confide in her?
“That’s between me and my soon-to-be husband.” Kelsey toyed with her engagement ring.
“If you’re getting married, when’s the date?” Jewel challenged, hiding her disappointment at Kelsey’s pronouncement. She’d known Heath would marry his longtime fiancée, but to hear it in concrete terms hit her with blunt force.
Was she jealous?
“We’re getting closer to setting one.” A defensive note entered Kelsey’s voice. “Not that I’m worried. I know how Heath feels about me. If I sensed I wasn’t wanted, I’d leave.”
“Like how you came to your senses and excused yourself at the Flower Gala committee meeting,” interjected Lara. “We all have our lane. Yours is the off-road kind.”
Kelsey nodded sympathetically. “Not everyone’s cut out for society.”
Jewel stepped forward so fast Lara and Kelsey scrambled backward and clutched the seats behind them to keep from tumbling on their designer butts.
“Get this straight,” Jewel growled. “My opinion matters, as you’ll find out at the next Flower Gala meeting.”
And with that, she stalked from the bar. Sierra hurried after her, calling, “Stop.” Only Jewel wasn’t going to stop.
Or let others intimidate her again.
Maybe she viewed the Cade Ranch range boss position the wrong way. It’d give her power and shield her…but she’d be tougher still if she tapped into that strength on her own, wherever she went, in any situation. Even a Flower Gala meeting.
Wasn’t it about time she tried?