Always a Cowboy by Linda Lael Miller Page A

He was a loner and she understood that, but he was also an intelligent, articulate man who could talk about his feelings; he wasn’t inclined to do it.
    Talk about being between a hard rock and a deep pool... Red needed to write his own book of quaint sayings and shelve it right next to The Cowboy Guide to a Successful Relationship .
    â€œSo I chose the difficult one, didn’t I?”
    â€œMaybe.” Blythe didn’t evade her question. “In a lot of ways he’s the easiest. He does what he’s going to do and that’s it. He’s never going to pull you in fifteen different directions, and he won’t lie to you. If you want it straight from the hip, that’s exactly what you’re going to get, like it or not.”
    Chose was a dangerous word. It implied that she’d made a decision. Perhaps she even had...
    Blythe took difficult and made it simple. “He’s worth it.”
    It would be different if Luce disagreed. But Mace had said the same thing.
    â€œI wasn’t looking for this.”
    Blythe took that in stride. “Sometimes it just finds you.”
    â€œNow you sound like Drake.”
    â€œOr maybe he sounds like me?” She smiled. “We have spent some time together in our lives.”
    That did bring a laugh. “Okay, I concede that he might sound like you. Pragmatic and down-to-earth.”
    Grace pulled up just then, got out of her car and slammed the door. Hard. She stalked up the steps—as much as a very pregnant woman could stalk—and dropped her purse on the wooden floor of the veranda. “If I could drink, I would, but I can’t. Is it wrong to say I had a bad day at the resort? That doesn’t seem right. Who could have a bad day at a beautiful resort? Me, that’s who. Some of those cookies have my name on them. Don’t risk both your lives by eating them all while I go to the bathroom for about the four hundredth time today.”
    Blythe was unfazed. “Harry made an extra batch.”
    â€œShe has a good sense of how the universe works. I’ll be right back.”
    Blythe was laughing out loud, but she had a sympathetic look on her face as her daughter-in-law disappeared into the house. She settled comfortably back in her chair. “Near the end it gets rough. Childbirth right in front of you and either you don’t know what to expect or you do know what to expect. Between a—”
    â€œHard rock and a deep pool?” Luce supplied helpfully. “According to Drake, it’s one of Red’s favorite sayings. It’s become my new favorite, too.”
    â€œRed is quite the character, no doubt about that.” Blythe poured another cup of tea. “Speaking of babies, this is a personal question, but I do hope you want children.”
    Wow, talk about moving too fast.
    Luce didn’t have a facile response to that one. She was rescued by Grace, who returned to the porch and lowered herself into a chair with a sigh of relief. She’d discarded her shoes in the meantime and come out barefoot, her red hair loose, and accepted a cup of tea and a cookie. “I’ve been waiting for this all day.”
    Through a mouthful, she added directly to Luce, “Slate loves the footage of you and Drake. Thank you. He’s been struggling with how to open the film. No pun intended, but that’s picture-perfect.”
    He might be happy about the picture, but Drake wasn’t. Faintly, Luce said, “My pleasure.”

CHAPTER EIGHT
    I T HAD BEEN a long week.
    Drake had come to the conclusion that those shots of him and Luce might be the death of him.
    Mostly because everyone knew about their unwitting role in the film, and the ranch hands had plenty to say. His current infamy—because he’d kissed a young woman under a moonlit sky—was drawing laughs from everyone, and not just on the ranch.
    â€œHey there, Romeo, what can I do for you?” Jack Dunlap, who ran the