A Cowgirl's Secret by Laura Marie Altom Page A

you’re back, you should try getting to know him the way a sister should.”
    â€œI know,” she snapped.
    â€œWhy so defensive? It was just a suggestion.”
    Standing, she headed for the door.
    â€œLeaving? So soon?”
    â€œI should never even have come.” Hand on the door latch, she had trouble getting it open.
    â€œIt sticks.” Behind her, brushing against her, he ever so deliberately placed his hand over hers, jimmying the hardware. Electricity sizzled between them, so hot it wasn’t a far stretch to fairly smell the nitrogen from a summer storm. It’d always been like that. Plenty of chemistry, but no communication. For an indulgent moment, Luke ignored the task at hand to focus on the sweet curve of Daisy’s back. The way she still fitted perfectly against him as if she’d been made solely for his pleasure.
    â€œI have to go,” she said.
    â€œUnpacking to do?”
    She shook her head.
    â€œThen what?” he asked in a voice hoarse with confusion as to why he was suddenly consumed with the elegant sweep of her neck.
    â€œI’m not sure. I’m just busy. Very busy.” Was it wrong of him to have noticed she still hadn’t budged so much as an inch? Just as he’d always had a knack for understanding nature, he used to wield that same talent with her. Leaning against him, she sighed and confessed in a barely audible whisper, “Y-you have to know leaving you wasn’t easy. Point of fact, it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”
    â€œThen why’d you go?”
    â€œI had no choice.”
    â€œLiar.” With everything in him Luke wanted to spin her around and kiss her as if the past ten years didn’thang between them like impenetrable curtains. But they did. Daisy Buckhorn never did anything without a reason, starting with parking her fancy car in his drive.
    â€œI have to go.” She gave the latch a hard jiggle, and this time succeeded in opening the door. Once outside, she hightailed it to her car. “I’ll give you a call about visiting Kolt.”
    As abruptly as she’d reappeared in Luke’s life, she’d just as efficiently exited. Question was—why?
    Â 
    â€œI HATE THIS CAMP and this hick town,” Kolt announced that afternoon upon entering the car. “When can we go home?”
    â€œThis is our home,” Daisy said with forced cheer that was getting harder and harder to summon. Navigating Weed Gulch Community Center’s traffic was no easy feat. At Kolt’s previous camps, along with his friends, he’d been picked up and delivered.
    Like a pizza.
    Another reason for the move—beyond the obvious of having Kolt finally get to know his father and her family—was so Daisy could spend more time with him, as well. The faster her career had grown, the more she’d relied on paying strangers to raise her son.
    â€œI was IM-ing Warren last night, and he and Phillip are going to spend the rest of the summer at Warren’s beach house. Why can’t I go with them?”
    â€œBecause you’re going to have a great time here…. Just as soon as I figure out how to get around this busted piece of crap blocking our way.” When honking her horn did nothing but make the driver in front of her slow allthe more, Daisy sighed. Why had she moved back to this town? Oh, yeah, to reconnect with the family who now barely spoke to her.
    â€œBut going to the beach would be way more fun than the crap I’m doing here.”
    â€œDid you learn that word today?” She finally had room to pass and gunned the powerful engine.
    â€œNo. But since you just said it, why can’t I?”
    â€œBecause I said so.” Traffic around the feed store slowed to a crawl. Were they giving away free samples of cattle chow?
    â€œThat’s not a good reason. Last time I said that, you told me a judge would never allow that in