One Night With The Cowboy

Her breath caught in her throat and her heart actually skipped a beat before it resumed its rhythm, albeit a little harder and faster than before.

“It is you,” he said, in a low voice that was achingly familiar.

She ignored the racing of her heart and reminded herself that she wasn’t a teenager anymore. She was a twenty-five-year-old woman who could handle an unexpected encounter with a former lover without falling to pieces.

Buoyed by this quick internal pep talk, she managed to respond casually, easily. “Hello, Caleb.”

Though she couldn’t take her eyes off him, she was aware that both of her friends were avidly watching the interaction. She felt the weight of their stares—and their unspoken questions.

“I wasn’t sure it was really you at first.” He settled on the edge of her lounger, so that he could look her in the eye—despite the fact that hers were still shaded.

She was grateful for the protection, because Caleb had always been able to see too much of what she was feeling. And his sudden and unexpected appearance here had brought to the surface too many feelings that she’d thought were long forgotten—or at least deeply buried.

“I saw you waiting for the elevator earlier,” he continued, “but by the time I crossed the lobby, the doors had closed, and I decided that it couldn’t have been you, anyway.”

She didn’t know what to say to that—or if she was even capable of forming a coherent sentence. So many thoughts and questions were swirling through her mind, so many emotions battling for dominance inside her heart.

Her friends came to her rescue now, with Lily shoving her hand toward him. “I’m Lily—one of Brielle’s roommates in New York.”

Deeply ingrained manners forced him to shift his attention and accept the proffered hand. And Grace’s, too, when she followed the initial introduction with her own.

By then, Brie had recovered sufficiently from the shock of the unexpected encounter that she was able to string enough words together to say, “Caleb and I grew up together in Haven.”

“So the two of you are...old friends?” Grace guessed.

Caleb looked at Brie again, waiting for her to answer.

“Yes,” she agreed. “Old friends.”

He gave the slightest shake of his head then, as if he was disappointed by her response.

“We’re a little more than that,” he said, and though he was answering Grace’s question, his eyes never left Brie’s face.

“How much more?” Lily asked curiously.

He settled a hand on Brie’s knee, the casual gesture of a man accustomed to touching a woman.

Her breath caught in her throat as the contact caused her blood to heat and race through her veins, the effect of his touch exactly the same as it had been so many years before.

The barest hint of a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as he registered her body’s instinctive response to the contact before she drew her leg away. Then he shifted his attention to her friends and finally responded to Lily’s question.

“Actually, Brielle is my wife.”

Chapter Two

“Ex-wife,” Brielle said through gritted teeth.

But her short-lived marriage was a detail she’d never shared with anyone outside of her immediate family, so it was no wonder her friends were looking at her with nearly identical expressions of shock and disbelief right now.

However, it was Caleb’s focused gaze that unnerved her. “We’ve got a lot of catching up to do,” he said.

“So do we, apparently,” Grace murmured.

“I can’t believe you never told us you were married.” Lily sounded not just stunned but hurt.

And justifiably so, Brie acknowledged, as the two women had been not only her best friends but her surrogate family for the past seven years.

“It was a long time ago,” Brie told them. “And over almost before it began.”

“It was a long time ago,” Caleb agreed. “But over...well, I’d have to disagree with you on that, darlin’.”

“I’m not your darlin’,” she protested.

“Well, this might finally explain why she hardly ever goes out,” Lily remarked to Grace.

“And why she rarely goes out with the same guy more than once,” Grace added.

“That’s not true,” Brie said to her friends. “And I’d appreciate it if you didn’t analyze the intimate details of my love life in front of a stranger.”

“Our point is that there are no intimate details,” Grace said.

“And how can you refer to your husband as a stranger?” Lily chided.

“Ex-husband,” she said again. “And he’s a stranger to both of you.”

“Any friend of yours is a friend of ours,” Grace said, and turned to smile at Caleb. “So how far back do you and Brie go?”

“We went to school together, though I was a couple years ahead.”

“You were high school sweethearts?” Lily guessed.

“Secret high school sweethearts,” he clarified.

One of Grace’s perfectly arched brows lifted. “Why the secrecy?”

“There’s some...history between our families,” he explained. “And we knew they wouldn’t approve of our friendship—or our dating.”

“The Montagues and the Capulets,” Lily murmured, obviously recalling what Brie had told her when they were packing for this trip.

“Or the Hatfields and the McCoys,” he suggested.

“Tell us more,” Grace urged.

“I wish I could,” Caleb said, rising to his feet again. “But Brie will have to fill in the rest of the details, because I’ve got a wedding to get to.”

She’d thought nothing could surprise her as much as seeing him standing in front of her, but the way Brie’s stomach dropped in response to his words proved otherwise. “You...you’re...getting married?”

He sent her a look that she couldn’t begin to decipher. “I’m not the groom. I’m the best man.”

“Oh,” she said, and exhaled the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.

“We’re definitely going to find out from Brie if that’s true,” Grace teased.

Caleb grinned, appreciating her friend’s flirtatious humor.

It was the same familiar cocky grin that had always made Brielle’s heart pound and her knees weak. And it was frustrating to discover that, seven years later, its effect on her was undiminished.

“Joe Bishop’s getting married,” he said to her now.

She knew Joe, because he’d been friends with Caleb for as long as she’d known him, prompting her to ask, “Is the bride anyone I know?”

“The bride isn’t anyone he knows,” Caleb remarked dryly. “They met online seven months ago and in-person—” he glanced at the watch on his wrist “—about nine hours ago.”

“I never thought Joe was the impulsive type.”

“A lot of things can change in seven years,” he said, holding her gaze. “Then again, some things never do.”

“I’m so glad you wanted to come to Vegas.” Lily’s comment to Grace cut through the heavy silence.

“I just wanted to get drunk and lose some money at the tables,” Grace replied. “This live show is so much better than anything I could have anticipated.”

“Show’s over, ladies,” Caleb said apologetically. “I’ve got Joe’s grandmother’s ring, so I can’t be late.”

“Maybe we could just consider this an intermission?” Lily said hopefully.

He chuckled at that, but his expression grew serious when he turned to Brie again. “Will you meet me for a drink later?”

She shook her head. “I can’t. We’re here to celebrate Grace’s birthday and—”

“Just one drink. Six o’clock?” He glanced at her friends, as if to enlist their cooperation. “I’m sure Grace and Lily can manage to occupy themselves for an hour or so.”

“It doesn’t matter whether they can or can’t,” Brie said. “I’m here with my friends and we’ve got plans for dinner.”

“Plans but no reservations,” Grace piped up helpfully. “So we’re not on any particular schedule. And if we’re not still here after the happy couple say their ‘I do’s,’ we’ll be in room 1268.”

He nodded to Brie. “I’ll find you there later, then.”

Of course, she watched him walk away. She couldn’t help herself. And she couldn’t deny that he looked as good now as he’d looked the last time she saw him, seven years earlier. Maybe even better.

She suspected that her friends were watching him walk away, too, because it was only when he’d disappeared through the doors and back into the hotel that they turned to her.

“Oh. My. God.” It was Lily who spoke first. “I can’t believe you were married.”

“And didn’t tell us,” Grace added.

“Because it was for a very short while a very long time ago,” she said again.

“I don’t care how short it was or how long ago,” Grace said. “That’s not the kind of secret you keep from your best friends.”

“So maybe we’re not her best friends,” Lily suggested, sounding hurt.

“You know you are,” Brie assured them sincerely.

“And yet, you didn’t tell us about your hunky husband,” Grace remarked. “Not a single word.”

“Actually, she said a few words,” Lily noted. “But only after you told us about this trip. And there was definitely no mention of a wedding or a husband.”

Brie sighed, resigned to the imminent interrogation—and maybe a little relieved that she’d finally have the opportunity to unburden herself of the secrets she’d held on to for so long. But aware that her emotions were already running high, she’d prefer not to do so in public. “Can we continue this conversation upstairs?”

“Stalling for seven years wasn’t long enough?” Lily challenged.

“I’m not trying to stall,” Brie denied.

But she wouldn’t have minded a few minutes under the spray of the shower to clear her head and organize her thoughts. Except that after unlocking the door to their suite, Grace pointed to a chair, a wordless command to her to sit.

Her dark-haired, dark-eyed friend with the take-charge personality had always been the unspoken leader of their little group. The other two women sometimes teased her for being bossy, but they were mostly content to follow her lead.

And because Brie accepted that she owed her friends an explanation, she sat. Lily and Grace settled side by side on the sofa, facing her.

“So...you were married,” Grace prompted, when Brie remained silent.

“I was married,” she confirmed.

“Before you moved to New York?” Lily asked, seeking clarification.

She answered with a slow nod.

“Which means you were barely eighteen.”

Brie nodded again. “I was eighteen and—” her voice wavered and her eyes filled with tears “—pregnant.”

* * *

The silence that followed her announcement was so complete, she could almost hear her friends’ jaws drop.

Grace recovered first and asked, “You had a baby?”

Now Brie shook her head and pressed a hand to her chest, as if to assuage the ache that had never quite gone away. “No, I... I lost the baby.”

“Oh, sweetie.” Grace breached the distance to embrace her.

If anyone had asked, Brie would have said that she’d finished crying for her unborn baby years earlier—but the tears that spilled onto her cheeks now proved otherwise.

“Oh, crap.” That remark came from Lily, because any outpouring of emotion inevitably brought on her own tears of empathy. “We didn’t know...we didn’t mean... Oh, Brie, we’re so sorry. Oh, please don’t cry.” She shoved a box of tissues into Brie’s lap, after plucking a couple out for her own use.

She managed a watery smile. “You did so mean to push and pry—it’s what you do.”

“Well, okay,” Lily conceded. “But we didn’t mean to make you cry.”

“Although tears can be therapeutic,” Grace said soothingly. “So you shouldn’t be afraid to let them out.”

“I don’t think I can stop them now,” Brie admitted. It was as if she’d built a dam around her emotions and that dam had suddenly given way, allowing seven years of repressed feelings and grief to flood over her.

She told her friends everything: from the first terrifying suspicion that she was pregnant, to Caleb holding her hands while they waited for the result of the home pregnancy test, followed by his impulsive proposal and their impromptu trip to Vegas, all without telling anyone in either of their families about their plans. And then the fallout, when they finally got back to Haven and shared the news about their wedding and the baby with their parents and grandparents.

“Your grandfather actually had a heart attack when he found out you’d married a Gilmore?” Lily asked.

“I don’t know if the announcement of our wedding directly caused the cardiac arrest, but yes, he had surgery the next day.” She plucked another tissue from the box as her eyes overflowed again. “Four days after that, I had a miscarriage. And since the baby was why we got married, losing the baby meant there was no reason for us to stay married, so I went to see a lawyer and had divorce papers drawn up.”

“I’m sorry,” Grace said again, clearly at a bit of a loss for words.

“You don’t have to apologize. I should have told you both everything a long time ago.”

“We would have been there for you, if we’d known,” Lily said gently.

“Even without knowing, you were there for me,” Brie assured her friends. “When I first went to New York, I didn’t want to talk about it. I couldn’t. The hurt was too raw. Not even Regan or Kenzie knew all the details of what happened. And then...well, the more time that went by, the more I didn’t want to remember everything that happened.”

“Is this really the first time you’ve seen Caleb since you moved away?” Grace asked.

“It is,” she confirmed.

“That’s why you always avoided going home,” Lily realized.

“And why you weren’t thrilled about coming to Vegas,” Grace guessed.

“Well, I never actually believed I’d run into him here,” Brie said.

“And I never would have suggested coming here if I’d known,” Grace said, almost apologetically.

“It’s fine,” Brie said, wishing it was so. “And it was inevitable that our paths would cross sooner or later. Now at least that first awkward meeting is done—and it wasn’t even all that awkward.”

Her friends exchanged a glance.

Brie frowned. “Or was it more awkward than I realized?”

Lily gave a slow shake of her head. “No. At least, awkward isn’t the word I would have used to describe it.”

“I’d suggest sizzling as a more appropriate descriptor,” Grace added.

“Well, it is one hundred and six degrees outside,” Brie remarked.

“And about a thousand degrees hotter between you and your sexy ex,” Lily noted.

She couldn’t dispute the accuracy of her friend’s description. Because even though almost half of the more than eight million people who lived in New York City were male, she’d never met a man who turned her on as much as Caleb Gilmore. “He did look good, didn’t he?”

“I never understood the cowboy mystique,” Grace confided. “Now I do.”

“Of course, it doesn’t matter how ruggedly handsome he is,” Lily hastened to add. “We hate him for breaking your heart.”

Brie managed a smile, touched by the unswerving loyalty of her friends. “When I left Haven, I broke his, too,” she admitted.

“He shouldn’t have let you go,” Lily said.

But Grace shook her head. “He had to let her go.”

“Why?” Lily demanded.

“Because he loved her,” Grace said simply. “And he knew that she didn’t want to stay.”

“I couldn’t stay,” Brie told them. “There were too many memories—and too much heartache—in Haven.”

“But you loved him, too,” Grace noted.

“When I was a teenager,” she agreed. “And maybe for a long time after.”

“And maybe still,” Lily said, obviously choosing not to believe her friend’s previous denials.

“I’m not still in love with him,” she said again.

“Are you sure?” Lily pressed. “Because all the evidence suggests that you still have some pretty deep feelings for your cowboy.”

“What evidence?” she challenged.

“The fact that you didn’t mention his name to either of us—even once—in the seven years that we’ve known you.”

“That’s somehow proof that I’m still hung up on him?” Brie challenged skeptically.

“Actually, I think I agree with Lily on this one,” Grace said. “If Caleb didn’t matter to you, you wouldn’t have been so careful to avoid talking about him.”

“Or maybe I just didn’t want to talk about him,” she suggested as an alternative. “Maybe I didn’t want to think about the fact that I’d been in love and had my heart broken.”

“We’ve all had our hearts broken,” Grace pointed out.

“Yours probably more than most,” Lily interjected.

Grace shrugged, because it was true. “I do seem to fall in and out of love frequently and easily. But sharing the joys and heartaches with friends is part of the journey—and the healing process.”

“You’re right,” Brie said. “And I do feel better now that I’ve told you about my ill-fated marriage, but I don’t want to talk about Caleb anymore.”

“We’ll table the discussion for later,” Lily agreed. “Because you don’t have a lot of time left to get ready before he’s going to be knocking on the door.”

“I wouldn’t have to worry about that if someone hadn’t given him our room number,” Brie remarked, with a pointed look at Grace.

Her friend shrugged. “What can I say? Apparently I’ve got a weak spot for handsome cowboys.”

“So maybe you should go for a drink with my ex-husband,” Brie suggested.

“I wasn’t invited,” Grace pointed out.

“I’m still not sure why I was,” she admitted.

“Don’t worry about his reasons,” Lily suggested. “This is your opportunity to prove to your ex—and to yourself—that you’re one hundred percent totally and completely over him.”

“If you’re sure that you are,” Grace said.

“I am,” she insisted.

But as she stood under the spray of the shower and thought about the evening ahead, Brie couldn’t deny that seeing him again made her suspect she wasn’t as totally and completely over Caleb Gilmore as she wanted to believe.

* * *

Seven years after she’d walked out of his life, Brielle Channing still had the power to take his breath away—a fact that was proved to Caleb when he spotted her by the pool earlier that afternoon.

He’d given himself a minute to draw air back into his lungs and think about what he was going to say so that he didn’t stutter and stumble over his words, and he’d thought that first meeting had gone rather well. But seeing her had sent his whole world into a tailspin.

Although he’d made it to the chapel to witness the exchange of wedding vows, Joe had to elbow him in the ribs—twice—to prompt him to hand over the ring when requested by the officiant. Because the whole time he was standing beside his friend, he was thinking about Brie.

His first love. His wife. The woman he’d always believed would be the mother of his children.

The only woman he’d ever loved.

Yeah, he knew it was pathetic. And no way in hell would he ever admit it aloud to anyone else, but it was a truth he couldn’t deny to himself. For Caleb, it had always been Brie. She wasn’t just “the one”—she was his everything.

But she’d walked away from him, forcing him to acknowledge that she didn’t feel the same way. To accept that the love they’d shared was gone, the vows they’d exchanged were broken, the lives once joined together were now torn apart.

And he’d moved on. Or at least continued to live his life, working beside his father and brother, grandfather, uncle and cousins at the Circle G. He’d even built the house that he’d once imagined he would share with Brie, but he lived in it alone, and the three extra bedrooms planned for their children remained empty and silent.

Not forever, of course. Just because he’d lost Brie didn’t mean he’d given up hope on finding another woman to fill his heart and share his home. The only problem was, every other woman he met wasn’t quite right—because no other woman was Brie.

His brother believed that Caleb loved the memory of Brielle more than he’d ever loved her. Liam had encouraged him to see her again, insisting that he wouldn’t be able to move on with his life until he’d put his past with Brie behind him. Caleb didn’t think his brother was any kind of an expert, but since Liam had recently gotten engaged to Macy Clayton—a single mother of year-old triplets—Caleb was forced to acknowledge that his brother might know a little bit more about relationships than he did.

So tonight, he was going to have a drink with Brie—and finally confess the secret he’d held close to his chest for seven years.

Chapter Three

Caleb knocked on the door numbered 1268 and mentally braced himself to see her again. This time, it wouldn’t be a surprise. This time, he would be prepared.

Except that nothing could have prepared him for the stunningly sexy woman in the little black dress and skyscraper heels who suddenly appeared before him.

He felt breathless and a little dizzy, as if he’d been sucker punched. Then she smiled, a follow-up jab that nearly brought him to his knees.

“You’re punctual,” she noted.

“And you’re—” his gaze skimmed over her, from the sleek fall of pale blond hair that fell past her shoulders, to the deep vee at the front of her dress and the short skirt that hugged her hips and thighs, down long bare legs that went on and on to the narrow feet tied into strappy sandals that added four inches to her height “—wow.”

Her smile widened as she stepped back to allow him entry to the suite. “I left my denim and flannel in Nevada when I moved away. And because Lily helped me pack, I didn’t have anything more appropriate for a drink with an old friend.”

“I’m not complaining,” he assured her. But while the dress and shoes were nice, he suspected that he would have had the same reaction if she’d been dressed in a pair of jeans and an old shirt. Because Brielle had always been sexy, regardless of what she was wearing—and especially when she was wearing nothing at all.

Which was definitely not something he should be thinking about right now.

He cleared his throat and attempted to shove the tantalizing image to the back of his mind. “Now I’m really glad I didn’t take the time to change after the wedding,” he said, keeping his tone light.

“You look good in a suit,” she told him.

“I feel naked without my hat,” he admitted.

She chuckled softly. “I’ll bet you’re missing your boots, too.”

“I am,” he confirmed. “But Joe put his foot down with respect to my footwear.”

“The things we do for our friends,” she mused.

“Speaking of—where are Grace and Lily?”

“They went down to the casino.” She slid a key card into her handbag.

“You didn’t want to join them?”

“I was reminded that I had other plans,” Brie admitted.

He glanced around the suite and briefly considered suggesting that they stay in and order up drinks. But while that option would afford them more privacy, the proximity of the bedroom might be too much of a distraction—at least for him.

“Do you want to go to The Gilded Lion or The Reservoir?” he asked instead, opening the door for her to exit.

“I assume I can get a glass of wine at either, so I’ll let you decide,” she said, moving past him.

“It looked like you were drinking something fancier than wine at the pool earlier,” he noted.

“Several things fancier,” she acknowledged, as he closed the door behind them and checked to ensure that it had latched. “That’s why I’m sticking with wine tonight.”

He punched the button to summon the elevator. “Let’s try The Gilded Lion,” he suggested. “And maybe get something to nibble on along with the wine. I haven’t had a chance to eat anything all day myself.”

“Sounds good to me,” she said.

They rode down to the main level in silence and were quickly seated in a cozy booth by the hostess of the lounge.

After perusing the drink menu, Brie opted for a Napa Valley Merlot; Caleb ordered a draft beer and an appetizer sampler.