“So, that’s a yes to me buying you a meal then? Cafeteria food, I’m afraid. Gut fill at least.”

  “Eve—is that even what you go by nowadays—not interested.”

  “Too bad, cowboy. We’ve got an hour to kill and I owe you for all you did for me.” She held up her hand. “No, wait, don’t turn this opportunity of a lifetime down. It’s the least I can do. And, after this, we’re even Steven.”

  “Who knew you could be this stubborn?” Food sounded good. Coffee, too. But just to hear her and look at her made him crave all things Eve. “Lead the way then.”

  He fell into step beside her, roaming down halls, and taking turns until he could never get back without a decent map. Just being with her again made his nerves jump. Walking beside her, watching the many staff members greet her warmly and she do the same in return, made Conner want to know more.

  She came up to his shoulder. He shifted as people rushed by. Brushing Eve’s arm, a shower of awareness blast through his entire being. He moaned inwardly. Conner longed to put his hand on her back or her waist or maybe even her hip, just to touch her again.

  “Here we are. Follow me.”

  That numb state he’d adopted about an hour after he’d practically kicked her out of the clinic last night evaporated.

  Conner wanted her—every part of her under him, over him, holding him. He bit down on the overwhelming need as he picked up a tray and moved down the line with Eve leading, giving him hints on what was good and what wasn’t.

  Finding a table proved easy with the late morning, pre-lunch crowd. Only a few people were scattered in booths, absorbed in their own trials as they stared off into space or absently sipped at coffee.

  “Come here often?” Conner sank down in his chair. His body felt like lead, weariness seeping into his bones.

  “I used to work here.”

  “The cafeteria?”

  Eve giggled.

  It sent a blast of heat ricocheting through his body.

  “My father would never have stood for that.” She pointed upward. “An office. Admin, mostly.”

  “How long?” Curiosity forced him to ask.

  “Most summers. All last year and up until today.”

  He shook his head. What happened? “Today? Why’s that?” He dug into his scrambled eggs.

  Eve sighed, resting her chin in her hands and looking at him.

  It unnerved Conner to be this close to her—this damn close—and not be able to reach out and trail his fingers along her soft, sweet lips and kiss her there.

  “You won’t believe this, but I’m tired of living someone else’s version of my life.”

  Something real and raw flashed in her eyes. It kicked him in his gut.

  “There’s more you won’t believe. I adore my family, honestly, I do. They can be so thickheaded and frustrating, though, especially my father.” Eve cleared her throat. “All I wanted to do was bring them all together.” She fidgeted with her silverware, avoiding his gaze. “The ex-groom was my ridiculous solution. I never realized I wanted love so badly that I would settle for less, if that makes any sense.”

  “Not in the least.” Confusion took hold. Solution? To what?

  The tops of her cheeks turned a dusty pink.

  That telling sign fueled his desire even more. He wanted to see her entire body heated like that, flushed from his touch. He bit back on a groan.

  “Here, I’m not the real me. I’m quiet and practical and trying to get my family to get along.” She snuck a peek at him from under her lashes. “It doesn’t work. I wanted them to be someone they weren’t just as I was being someone I wasn’t to fit in the mold.”

  “You’re not the city girl?” He swore he stopped breathing.

  “I’m more Eve than Elizabeth. I found her, well, me, on the McCall ranch. It’s not where I come from, but who I am deep inside no matter where I am. I’m stubborn—”

  “You don’t say.” He grinned.

  “And determined. I don’t like quitting. I’m stronger than I ever knew I could be. And I’m fierce and proud.”

  “Don’t forget a spitfire, especially on the back of Sugar.”

  She beamed then. “Amazing, huh? To me, too.”

  Conner didn’t want to ask, but he had to. “So, Eve, what’s next for you?”

  “Aunt Clara—I guess you figured out we’re related on my late mother’s side—and I are going to do what we always dreamed of and work together. Match people who have art to sell with people who want to buy—art collectors.”

  He took a long sip of his black coffee, swallowing the thickness gathering along with the brew. Now his heart felt like lead, too. And then she was gone again. For good. “There’s a big market for that sort of thing?”

  “Very big.” She smiled. “I guess Gramps didn’t get to tell anyone this, but your living room holds countless treasures.”

  “That stuff. Grams picked everything out, except for the rodeo buckles and trophies from her grandsons, especially Cody when he worked the circuit.”

  Eve lowered her voice and leaned it. “It’s worth a small fortune.”

  She could have knocked him over with a feather. Conner stared at her. “You’re pulling my leg.” It was there all this time? A way to save the ranch? Emotion clogged his throat. The McCall ranch would live on. Now, they had to get Gramps fixed and back home.

  “You get to keep it, Conn.” She blinked back tears.

  Something tugged behind his ribcage. She cared. One thing she didn’t fake. “My family gets to keep the ranch.” He couldn’t wait to tell his brothers. They had that. At least he had the ranch to rely on getting him through this searing ache of losing Eve.

  “Well, if it isn’t my bride.” The man sidled up to the table and laid a hand on the back of Eve’s chair.

  “Gavin?” Eve jerked and her voice squeaked out. “I thought you weren’t coming.”

  “You invited him to eat with us, Eve?” Rubbing this in my face?

  Conner dropped his fork and took a good look at the man. Salon-styled blond hair. The charming smile that didn’t reach his brown eyes. Wearing what must be an expensive suit, tie, and shoes that probably cost more than a small car. City-slicker.

  “To meet with me earlier.” She tensed. “With Daddy.”

  “This guy? He was the groom?” Shock rippled through Conner. Eve had fallen for him?

  “My bad call, Conn.” Her colorless lips barely moved.

  “Who’s this, Elizabeth? Some hillbilly you picked up along the way?” Gavin sneered.

  “Am I, Eve?” Conner watched her beautiful heart-shaped face pale. Had he been just a curiosity to her? An experiment? “Rebound?”

  “You should know me better than that, Conner.” A well of hurt flashed across her violet eyes.

  A rope wrapped around his chest and yanked hard. “But I hardly know you, if at all.”

  She blew out a breath. “If you don’t then no one else does.” Her tight smile came and went. “Do you want to stay for the rest, Mr. McCall?”

  “He’s leaving.” Gavin brushed a piece of lint from his jacket sleeve.

  “I’m staying.” Damn if he’d make this fool’s day. And a part of him wanted to protect Eve. Sick, McCall, real sick.

  “Daddy needs to know the truth, right, Gavin?”

  “What could you possibly think you know?” His sarcasm-laced question grated. He adjusted his silk tie and flicked a glance at the large, gold watch on his wrist.

  Jerk. He treated Eve like an imbecile. How could she have said yes to him, even for a second?

  Mutiny reared in her expressive eyes. Yes, fight, Eve!

  Conner sat back as Eve rattled off the drug trials, the unstable and unreliable cholesterol drug Gavin wanted to put her father’s name and face on commercials, and the last Tuesday national press conference. He whistled low. That’s what Eve had been up against? A dose of shock and alarm wrestled inside him. “Pretty hefty charges.”

  “None can be proven.” Gavin’s face went slack and he pulled back.

  “It doesn’t matter.” She smiled now, a satisfied one Conner loved to see. “I heard you and your boss at the church, Gavin. He wondered how even a slick salesman like you could stoop so low as to marry the doctor’s daughter just to get his endorsement for the new heart meds your company is pumping out. Me, a trophy wife, indeed!” Her cheeks turned pink.

  She’d found out and protected her father from the fallout. That’s why Eve ran! She’d protected her family from scandal. A swell of pride nearly choked Conner. She had honor and integrity and a hell of a lot more.

  “That’s ridiculous.” But Gavin stood fully now, tugging at his collar, and smoothing out his suit jacket.

  “I had to stop it in its tracks from getting that endorsement.”

  “You lost me that million-dollar bonus.” That cultured looked turned dark and ugly.

  “Sounds like you lost far more.” Conner butted in, wonder rushing over him.

  “Nothing’s better than money.”

  “Want to bet? You lost the girl.” Conner couldn’t drag the words back in.

  It was true, though. Money and greed were hollow victories and nothing if you didn’t have love in their life and heart.

  Eve gasped.

  That beautiful sound rushed through him. Again.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The day of the triple bypass surgery, Conner was a ball of knots. His family couldn’t leave the ranch, so he stayed, doing little to nothing, except care for Gramps.

  “Doctor’s in the house.” The familiar, older nurse peeked in. Facing Conner and Gramps, she rolled her eyes.

  Conner stilled as Eve’s father strolled in, head down, reading the chart.

  “Dr. Barrington.” He held out his hand. “I want to thank you for agreeing to do the surgery on my grandfather.”

  The doctor glanced at the outstretched hand and then up at him. “I don’t shake hands.”

  “Mine? Or anyone’s?” He dropped his hand to grip the railing on the hospital bed. How much had the man heard about him? He’d been curious to know what Eve told her father.

  A ripple of shock crossed the older man’s face and his eyes widened. “Germs. Nothing personal.” He took in Conner now, measuring and long. “You’re the cowboy. Clara says my daughter likes you. Very much. Is that true?”

  The air stayed trapped in his lungs. “You’ll have to ask Eve.”

  “Don’t go being shy about it now, Conn.” Gramps tapped his arm. “They’re sweethearts. Sometimes they forget. Like recently.”

  “You live on a ranch?” Dr. Barrington eyed him closely.

  “Yes. With cattle and horses. My family’s.” Pride filled his voice. “Third generation. It’s not pretty or glamorous, but it’s good, honest work and the best way of life for me.” I’m not changing for any one, understand?

  “I see.” He cleared his throat. “Every man must do what’s in his heart. No pun intended.” The good doctor actually cracked a smile.

  Gramps chuckled. The nurse nearly hyperventilated with laughter. And Conner nodded as he grinned. There was hope for Eve and her father, after all.

  Fight, Eve. Fight for what you need.

  Conner shook his Gramps hand, holding a few seconds longer than necessary. “Don’t be going chasing the nurses around, Gramps.”

  “As if I could or wanted to.”

  “I know. Grams was your forever girl.”

  “How about yours? She and you—one leaves me during visiting hours before the other comes to stay—are playing cat and mouse.”

  “It suits us just fine.”

  “Does it? Seems to me, the more you avoid each other is because the more feelings you have.”

  “You’re reading too much into it, Gramps.” Sweethearts? Funny.

  “Am I, son? Evie and you may try to ignore it, but it’s there. Everyone else can feel it.”

  There was an undeniable attraction mixed with sizzling awareness.

  He moaned now, wondering how he could pull back on that.

  They were city girl and country guy. Runaway bride and rebound cowboy.

  Opposites attracted; that was all it was...

  Yeah, tell that to your bleeding heart, McCall.

  Time flew by for Eve, spending most of her breaks during her one week resignation period with Gramps.

  “Looking good, Gramps. Your color’s coming back.” She arranged the spray of yellow flowers she’d brought in a vase.

  “Hope they spring me soon. Miss my family, my ranch, and little Sweet Potato.” His voice held a gravely sound now.

  “Soon enough.” Eve gulped hard, wondering how to bring up the next part. “Ah, I was thinking some...”

  “That sounds like me talking. You got something up your sleeve, Evie?”

  “Why, Gramps, how could you say such a thing?” But she giggled and went to sit on the chair near his hospital recliner. “Seems to me the McCall ranch is getting ready to wrap up the season. Maybe an extra hand could help out...” Fear bubbled up, but she stomped it down.

  “You want to come back to Honor?” His grin spread. “Well, I’ll be.”

  “This is just between you and me, understand?”

  “Conner doesn’t need to know yet.”

  “Perfect. We speak the same language.”

  “What about your family?” He frowned and then scratched his head. “Your father is a little brisk and standoffish when he sees you. It’s more of a feeling I get when he bumps into you here.”

  Eve blew out a breath and blinked away the sting of hot tears. “You’re right. It takes all parties to come together. He doesn’t seem to forgive anyone anything.” Her throat closed up.

  “About you running away?”

  “That’s the latest transgression.” She sighed. “He wears his hurt like a porcupine.”

  Gramps chuckled and Eve joined in.

  “It’ll take me years of pulling out one of those quills at a time. My stepbrothers and I have decided to never stop trying—even when he’s aggravating us to no end. He’s the only dad they have left and they want their kids to have a grandfather.”

  “Family is the most important thing, Evie.”

  “You taught me that you can keep them together even under the worst circumstances.”

  “Love wins out. Don’t forget that.”

  “I’m counting on it.” For Conner and her. She had to hang onto a slice of hope or she’d never be able to get through this.

  She, Elizabeth Eve Barrington, loved Conner McCall with all her heart and soul.

  Now, if only she could convince him it was the truth and nothing but the truth...

  Conner packed up the last of Gramps’s and his things from the hospital suite. The physical therapist gave Gramps his final seal of approval. After ten long days, it was time to head back home.

  A sad weight pressed against Conner’s ribs. In the last few days, he hadn’t seen nor heard anything about Eve, except that she’d no longer worked there.

  Gone.

  No goodbyes or farewells to him.

  Just like that, she was there and, just like that, she left.

  Everything he’d believed was true. Falling head over heels in love and then losing the love of his life meant nothing but crushing pain to follow.

  Maybe Eve never really felt anything for him. Rebound cowboy, at your service.

  “Ready, son?” Gramps rubbed his hands together. “I can’t wait to get home.”

  How could Conner dampen his grandfather’s spirits? “McCall country. Yeah, it’ll be great to get back to our little corner of the world.”

  “The best there is, I’ll have you know.”

  But Conner knew, for him, there would be always something missing. And for that, he’d have to live with it for the rest of his life.

  Another love. Another loss. Another ache. Somehow it seemed worse, because this time the woman he loved with everything he had in him was still out there somewhere, living, breathing, without him and beyond his reach.

  Home without Eve would never be the same...

  The long ride to Honor in the back of the rented luxury SUV limo—courtesy of Dr. Barrington, no less—was a welcome respite for Conner. And an amusing irony.

  Memories of the limo he’d caught up with that day in Dallas to return the bride’s veil, only to discover later, it was Eve, rushed back. As was then, it was now, Dr. Barrington had furnished both vehicles.

  Gramps slept, wanting to rest up for the party the family planned for tomorrow night.

  Conner dozed on and off, trying to make up for weeks of lost sleep in cramped beds or narrow chairs in the hospital suite—again, due to Eve and the good doctor’s connections.

  The farther their driver—a quiet, respectful older gentlemen—got from the clogged, traffic-congested city, the more Conner’s tension siphoned out of him. He ignored the AC and powered down the window, welcoming the sight of the patches of earth, the sweet smell of freshly mowed grass, and the occasional horse or cows in fenced in fields.

  With plenty of stops to walk around, stretch their legs, and grab a meal, Conner counted on being back by sundown. He hoped he could get in a quick ride on his horse and take in the McCall ranch today.

  Now, hours later, Conner directed the driver to the edge of Honor.

  Gramps had been a ball of energy the closer they had gotten and now leaned forward. “Who’s that in the police SUV blocking the street? Caleb?”

  The flashing red and blue lights and the vehicle stopped in the middle of the street could only be Conner’s oldest brother.

  “Roll down your window, Gramps. There’s Caleb rushing to you.”

  “Gramps. You’re a sight for sore eyes.” Caleb leaned in and gave Gramps a hug.

  “You stole my line, son.”

  Conner and Caleb reached out at the same time and grabbed hands in a fierce handshake. Their bond didn’t need any words right now; they were both relieved that their grandfather had survived.

  “I’m escorting you back to the ranch. Everyone’s waiting for you.” Caleb pulled away and went to speak briefly with their driver. “Just follow me all the way.”

 

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