Ever since getting her business degree, she’d managed her parents’ local outdoor-sports store while they mostly enjoyed retirement. It was a good gig; she couldn’t complain. But there was a certain employee who was getting a lot of complaints lately, and she wouldn’t abide that. It wasn’t her favorite thing to fire someone, but it looked like it was coming to that. She’d need to talk to her dad about it.
But this had always been her oasis, the place where she could leave everything behind. She looked forward to the days when she gave Jared’s six-year-old daughters, Ashley and Mia, their riding lessons. They were eager students, which made them a pleasure to work with. The girls reminded her a lot of herself at a similar age, fascinated with the beautiful equine majesty, determined to harness all that power any way she could. That fascination had fueled her for years, and she wanted to pass on what was left of it to anyone willing to accept it.
She turned a corner, and the unfamiliar sight of Jared’s massive, gleaming red Chevrolet dually pickup came into view, parked near the arena. Macy frowned. Usually his mother brought the girls for their lessons, which was fine with her. It dispensed with any awkwardness, and Mrs. Stanton would stay around and chat with Macy’s mom until they were done. Their frequent visits with each other had been how Macy ended up roped into this deal in the first place, but she didn’t mind that.
What she did mind was unexpected encounters with her first lover, and memories of her most serious, longest-enduring relationship, when she had a date with Seth tonight.
“Great,” she muttered, pulling around to the old-fashioned red barn and parking beside the truck. Ashley and Mia had taken up residence on a bench by the duck pond, their favorite spot aside from the arena. They hadn’t even noticed Macy drive up. Their dad stood with one boot hooked in the fence, talking on his cell phone. He turned and waved when he saw her.
This so wasn’t what she needed. Jared Stanton was as single as they came now, and she remembered how he’d told her he wanted to dance with her at the bar the other night. It didn’t seem like a coincidence that he’d shown up this evening.
He’d always been just the sort of man she could really see herself settling down with. Stable, dependable, devoted to his kids. Someone with all her interests…heck, if she sat down and drafted a compatibility checklist, she could check off every box. On paper, he was perfection. And hot to boot.
They’d broken up not long after Macy had her accident. He’d wanted to be by her side but she’d chased him away in her anger and bitterness. He embodied too many memories of a life she’d turned away from. Shortly afterward, he married another girl in a rush. Macy had cried for days. When his twins were born only five months later, it all came a little clearer. He’d been trying to do the right thing, but in the end it was a dismal failure. His divorce had only recently been finalized.
“Hey,” he said as she got out of her car, and quickly ended his call. Thanks to the very erratic Texas winter, it was considerably warmer today; she barely needed her light jacket, and he was wearing a blue flannel shirt that brought out his incredible eyes. “About time you showed up.” A maddening dimple dug into his cheek. No way she couldn’t return that grin.
“What? I am so not late. You, however, are half an hour early.”
“Miss Macy!” the girls shouted in unison. Their ponytails, one brown, one blonde, flew behind them as they scurried over from the pond. They crashed into her, knocking her back a few steps as they threw their arms around her waist.
“Whoa there!” she laughed, hugging them back. “Glad to see someone appreciates me.” She cast an exaggerated glare at Jared over the tops of their heads.
“You’re appreciated, all right. Always have been.”
Macy let his flirting go right over her head. “What brings you out?”
“Thought I’d see how you’re doing, catch up…take you out to dinner with us, if you’re interested.”
“Oh…that’s really sweet of you, Jared, but I have plans after we’re done here.”
The grin turned a little sad, but he comically slapped a hand across his chest and took a step back. “Still shooting me down after all these years.”
“Stop that, now. Maybe I’ll take a rain check, okay?”
He nodded without further comment and set out to help her saddle up Rose and Trinity for the girls. The familiar rituals were so much like old times, it unnerved her. If things had been different, and she hadn’t been such a bitter über-bitch, maybe they’d be doing this for their own kids by now.
She slapped that thought aside before it could drag her down. She’d made her choices. Maybe they hadn’t necessarily been good ones, but she would own them now. Too much had changed to go back.
“You look incredible,” he said later, after they’d finished up and the girls scampered off for the duck pond again. It always took forever to wrangle those two up. The sun was just dropping behind the distant pines, and a chill breeze nipped Macy’s cheeks before they warmed with his compliment.
“Thanks. You look pretty great too.”
He propped the heel of his boot on the bottom rung of the fence and leaned his elbows back on the top. “You never did dance with me the other night.”
She laughed, certain her blush deepened as she thought about what she’d been doing that prohibited any further contact with him. “You actually remember? You were three sheets to the wind.”
“Naw! I had it handled.”
“Suuure you did.” Just like I did.
“I guess it’s my fault. I should’ve grabbed you up right then.”
She had absolutely no idea what to say to that. “I was…um, blocked in.”
“Yeah, if that guy beside you could’ve killed me with looks alone, I might not be standing here right now. Is he…surely you’re not with him, are you?”
“He’s…ah…he’s a friend. Of a friend. Friend of a friend’s boyfriend, actually.” Who I happen to be sleeping with. “We hang out.”
“Is that who you’re seeing tonight?”
“Yes.”
“Macy. Seriously?”
He was starting to piss her off. “What, Jared?”
“He’s just…not someone I’d imagine you would deal with very well.”
“I think I know who I can deal with and who I can’t.”
“I know Candace is dating Brian Ross.” He scoffed. “There’s an apple that fell way far from the tree…and then got punted across the yard. I never thought you would get mixed up with any friends of his, though.”
“I can’t believe you’re being so freaking…”
Judgmental. The same damn thing she’d been all this time. Not so long ago, she’d have agreed with him. She’d have chimed right in. Brian’s a thug. Look what he’s doing to my best friend, filling her full of ink and turning her into a pin cushion. He’s not good enough for her. He’s going to hurt her.
All thoughts she’d entertained, washed away with one simple statement from Seth the other night.
Brian is the brother I should’ve had.
And Candace loved Brian more than life. Candace wouldn’t love someone who wasn’t good enough for her.
“Look, Brian is great. I might not have realized it at first, but you know what? I couldn’t have picked a better guy for her if she’d asked me to.”
He held up both hands as if to fend her off, and she realized she was getting in his face. “I don’t mean to piss you off. I just…” He straightened and took her shoulders gently in both hands. Always such a gentle touch, sometimes frustratingly so. She hadn’t felt it in years. The sudden stark reminder made heat gather behind her eyes. “Macy, I always regret I didn’t fight harder for you. I regret that I left when you told me to leave. I always hoped you didn’t really mean it, or at least that you would someday realize you didn’t mean it. But then I messed it up. Everything happened with Shelly, and…” He stared off at some point over her head, and she knew he must be watching his daughters play. “I don’t regret that either, because it gave me Mia and Ash. But I saw you the other night at the bar with…that guy, and you looked more beautiful than I’d ever seen you, and if I could make everything right—”
Dismayed, she lifted her hand and covered his mouth with her fingers. “Jared? Stop. Okay? Don’t.”
“You wouldn’t even think about it? Whatever you’ve got going with him is that important to you?”
“It’s not even that, really. It’s…”
What? What was it? If this offer had come a year ago, hell, two weeks ago before Seth came back, how would she have reacted? If she wanted to settle down and have a family, the perfect specimen was right in front of her. He came with a family already built in. She loved Mia and Ashley, and they loved her.
She and Jared had history. She knew his quirks, what would make him laugh, what would piss him off. That he loved everything she loved and disliked everything she disliked. That the back of his neck was an erogenous zone.
Comfort. Safety.