Stepbrother Cowboy: A Western Romance by Lee Moore, Angela Kelly Page A

could see it in your eyes.”
    “Really? I thought it was the lack of sleep,” I wiped my eyes again and took another sip, killing the pot with a refill.
    “No, at the wedding reception.”
    “Is it wrong?”
    “What, that two people connected somehow? No.”
    “No, I mean, that she’s Bill’s daughter.”             
    “I don’t think that matters to them actually.”
    “What? How?” I was almost stuttering.
    “After Jackson talked to me about the kiss, I had spoke with your mother.”
    “Was she upset?”
    “More worried that if things go sour, you’ll leave the family again.”
    “I didn’t leave the family, I enlisted and…”
    “You ran away. You pushed your family apart and then left.”
    I hung my head in shame. She was right, and I deserved this. Still.
    “I know.”
    “Damned right you know. Now what are you going to do to fix this mess?”
    “What? Alison or Mom and Dad finding out that we’re-” I cut the words off.
    “Bah, they don’t care about you and Alison. Bill was smiling about it according to Meredith.”
    I hated my mom’s name, don’t ask me why, but I never used it. The formal tone Sandy was using slapped some sense into me. She was usually as profane as the cowboys she helped raise and mother. She was and always had been Jackson’s best friend, and now I saw her in a different light than the zany matchmaker who worked in the mess halls from time to time. She was also a fixer. That’s probably why she loved matchmaking. It was a gentle nudge, fixing relationships and just caring for people.
    “You mean about running away?”
    “Bill told me a week before you got here, that he’d love for you to forgive him.”
    “Forgive him? For what?”
    “You don’t know?”
    “Know what?”
    “That he your mom and him never quit loving each other.”
    “I didn’t know that then, but Alison’s been filling me in on all the details I missed out while I was being a shit head.”
    “That’s why Jackson was so hard on you, you know?”
    “Really?”
    “Bill never wanted to be the bad guy. He can’t have kids, and when your mom left him over it, it almost killed him. Fate, god, whatever you believe in, brought them back together and he had a son. A son he’d never had before. A son he always wanted… So he asked Jackson to be the bad guy… Bill didn’t want to be the stepfather who was just filling in.”
    “Oh god,” I wiped my eyes, knowing despite trying to never let it show, I’d just been hit by a baseball bat in the psyche, and the truth hurt, it hurt bad.
    “I didn’t know he cared,” I admitted after a minute.
    Sandy took me in her arms and I put my head down on her shoulder, trying not to cry.
    “He always has.”
    “I’m such an ass,” I told her shoulder, my tears falling freely.
    “You used to be. Be the man you should be now.”
    “I’m trying,” I said standing up, wiping my nose on my sleeve.
    “And go wash that shirt, that’s snot you got on it, you little shitbag.” Her voice lowered into a growl and I laughed, heading to the bathroom, to splash water on my face. I did change my shirt, because seven years later, Sandy still scared me.
    I was pulling the new shirt over my head when I heard the Jeep pull up, and rushed out to turn the coffee pot off and get my boots. Sure enough, Alison had driven it up right to the porch railing and Jackson gave a wave with his Stetson, before getting out and holding his hand out to me.
    “Morning, boss,” I told him.
    “Last warning kid, I’m not your boss,” he growled, but his eyes twinkled in amusement.
    “Any word from Owen?”
    “No, but he’s covering outside while folks are at the hospital,” I nodded and it made sense.
    “You want to drive?” Alison asked me, getting out and holding up the keys.
    “No, I think I’ll let you. Last thing I drove was about four and a half tons. Besides, I’m not used to all the new streets in town yet.”
    “Got ya.”
    “Ms. Sandy, I’ll