The Cowboy Next Door & Jenna's Cowboy Hero

She groaned and he glanced sideways. She looked heavenward and shook her head. “Jolynn, she’s the main contributor to the rumor mill, bless her heart.”

“We’ll deal with it.” He didn’t want to deal with it. Lacey squirted mayo on her plate and dipped a corner of her sandwich into it before she took a bite. He pulled the onions off his burger.

“Thank you for the sandwich.” She spoke after a few minutes. Jay nodded. The quiet between them had been nice. He didn’t really want to admit it, not even to himself, but she was easy to be around.

“You’re welcome. Tell me something, Lacey, why and how do you do it all?”

“Do it all?”

“Work doubles, go to school.” He shrugged. “You’re going to school, right?”

“I never graduated from high school.” She turned a little pink and took another bite of sandwich.

“Okay, work, school, church, the nursing home, cleaning and nursery. Why?”

“Because I…” She looked away, the summer breeze picking up dark hair that had come loose from her ponytail. She brushed it back with nails that were painted dark pink but were chipping at the ends.

She smiled at him. “Because it makes me feel good to be a part of this community.”

He didn’t buy it.

“I’ve always tried too hard, too,” he admitted. “It isn’t easy, being a Blackhorse and knowing people expect a lot from you.”

She choked on her last bite of sandwich. As she gasped for air, he handed her a clean napkin. She wiped her eyes and took a deep breath.

“I’m not trying to do anything.”

“Okay.” But she was.

He sighed and let it go, because he couldn’t explain what Lacey didn’t want to hear. They were fighting a battle that had already been fought and paying for sins that were already paid for. They were forgetting the grace that covered a multitude of sins.

“Jay, if you want to say something, say it. I’m really tired and not in the mood for games.” She looked at him like he really had just fallen off the turnip truck. “What exactly are you trying to tell me?”

“That you don’t have to work so hard to be accepted, or worry that God will kick you out of His house.”

Her eyes widened and she moved away from him, picking up her empty Styrofoam as she went. “You do know.”

“Lacey, that isn’t…”

She lifted a hand, a hand that shook. “I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want to hear what you think of my life or what I’ve done, or how it was okay. You don’t know how I feel.”

No, he didn’t. He shook his head and she walked away.

* * *

Bailey answered the door on the third knock. She opened the door, eyes a little sleepy and blond hair wispy. Lacey shoved trembling hands into her pockets.

“You were sleeping.”

“No, I wasn’t.” Bailey yawned, proof that she had been asleep. “Come in, I could use company.”

“Good, because I’m looking for a place to hide.”

“You’ve come to the right place. I’m here alone. Cody and our little angel went to a horse auction in Tulsa. They won’t be back until tomorrow.”

“I don’t really want to fall apart in front of Cody and Meg.”

“You, fall apart?” Bailey motioned her into the house that she and Cody had built earlier in the spring. They had just moved in last month.

“Me, fall apart, never.” Lacey followed her friend into the kitchen and pulled out a bar stool at the island.

“Have they found Corry and Rachel?”

Lacey shook her head. She wrapped her hands around the glass of iced tea that Bailey put on the counter before she sat down across from Lacey.

“Well?”

“Jay knows.”

“Knows where they are?”

“Knows about me.” She slid her hands up the glass and they came away wet and cold from condensation. “I guess I knew, but I wanted to believe that only the people I wanted to tell would know.”

“He won’t tell anyone.”

“I know he won’t.” Or did she? She could only remember the look on Lance’s face when he learned the truth. He had been shocked and disgusted. Jay had shown pity.

She wanted to cry, because the past couldn’t be undone. What she had done couldn’t be forgotten. It was in black and white, for anyone to find. She had been arrested for prostitution. It had felt dirty then, and it still felt dirty.

“God forgives, Bailey, I know that. But forgetting and forgiving myself is the real trick. People are so quick to judge, and to walk away. Everyone thinks they know the story and how to fix it.”

“I know.” Bailey shrugged slim shoulders. “Okay, I don’t know. But in a way, I do. I came home from Wyoming pregnant. It wasn’t easy, and it obviously couldn’t be hidden.”

Lacey nodded, because she had met Bailey when Meg was just a baby. The two had become friends because they’d both felt a little lost and alone that first year of Meg’s life, and the first year of Lacey’s life in Gibson.

“I don’t want Jay to look at me the way Lance looked at me.”

“He’s a different person.”

“True, we’re not dating and he doesn’t feel like I’ve kept something from him. I should have been honest with Lance from the beginning.”

“Maybe, but if he’d loved you, he would have taken time to understand. Just remember, Jay and Lance are two different people.”

Lacey smiled, and it wasn’t hard to do, not with her best friend sitting next to her. “You can give up the matchmaking, my friend. I’m not going to be the dirty sock in the Blackhorse family’s clean sock drawer.”

“That’s the most absurd statement.”

“I like a touch of absurdity from time to time. But you have to admit, it’s a fitting analogy.”

“It’s not. And because you made such a ridiculous statement, you have to make us a salad.”

“Bailey, can I really stay in Gibson if everyone finds out the truth?” Lacey looked at her friend, hoping for answers. The thought of leaving left a wound in her heart because this town really was home.

“You can’t leave, Lacey. What would we do without you?”

“Make your own salad?”

“See, I’d be lost without you in my life.”

Lacey hugged her friend and then hopped down from the stool. “I’ll make your salad, but you have to make ranch dressing. That’s what friends do for each other.”

Her cell phone buzzed. Lacey pulled it out of her pocket and groaned. “It’s Jay.”

“Answer it.”

“I don’t want to talk to him. He can leave a voice mail.”

Bailey grabbed the phone and flipped it open. “Hi, Jay.”

She talked for a minute and then handed the phone to Lacey. She wasn’t smiling, and Lacey’s heart sank with dread.

“Jay?”

“Lacey, Corry is in Springfield.”

“Okay. Where in Springfield? What about Rachel? Are they okay?”

“I’m afraid that’s all the news that I have. They haven’t caught them.”

“Caught them?” She took shallow breaths and sat back down on the stool. “What does that mean?”

“She and her boyfriend robbed a convenience store. Lacey, they had a gun.”

“Rachel?”

“I’m sure she’s still with them.”

Lacey closed her eyes, fighting fear, fighting thoughts that told her that Rachel would be hurt, or worse. She didn’t want to think about what this meant for her sister. “They don’t know for sure?”

“They don’t. Do you want me to come and get you? If you can’t drive, I can come over there.”

She could drive, of course she could. Her hands shook and she didn’t want to think, to let it sink in.

“I can drive myself home. Will you call if you hear something?”

“You know I will.”

“Okay.” She sobbed a little, not wanting him to hear. “Jay, thank you.”

“You’re welcome. And I’m sorry.”

She closed her phone and slipped it into her pocket. Bailey’s hand was on her shoulder. “It’ll be okay.”

“I don’t know how.”

“Let Jay drive you home.” Bailey sat down across from her, their salads forgotten.

“No, I’m fine. You need to eat. Little Cody Junior can’t go without food.”

“I’ll eat, but you need to let friends help you through this. Lacey, you’ve always been there for me. Let me be here for you. Let Jay be a friend.”

Jay, a friend? It felt like a mismatched shoe. It didn’t fit. It was a little tight. A little uncomfortable.

* * *

Jay hung up from the call to Lacey and concentrated on driving, on not getting distracted. As he pulled up to the barn, he noticed his parents on the porch. They were home. He hadn’t expected that.

His dad greeted him as he got out of the truck.

“I wondered if you were coming home any time soon.” Bill Blackhorse smiled and winked, talking the way they had talked to one another a dozen years ago.

“Did you think I would pull a stunt and miss curfew?” Jay smiled back.

“Nah, not really. But as we came through town we saw your truck and Lacey’s car at the church.”

“I was just doing what Mom asked, making sure Lacey was okay.”

“Lacey is a wonderful young woman.”

So that’s the way this was going. Not that Jay was surprised. His dad had introduced him to Cindy, too.

“Dad, we’re neighbors, maybe friends, nothing more.”

His dad patted him on the back and they walked into the barn together. “Jay, it’s okay to fall in love again.”

“Is it, Dad?” Jay pulled his saddle out of the tack room. “I need to work that black mare.”

“Working the black mare isn’t going to undo what’s happening to you. You’re letting go. I guess maybe you feel guilty.”

Jay shrugged. He faced his dad, and it wasn’t comfortable. He wanted to let it go, the way they’d been letting it go for years now.

“Dad, I can’t forget Jamie. I can’t forget that I loved her.”

“No one said you had to forget. But let someone else in. That’s all I’m saying.”

Jay walked out the back of the barn. At the gate he whistled and the horses, ten of them grazing a few hundred feet away, turned to look at him. A few went back to grazing. He whistled again and they headed in his direction.

“What you’re saying is that I should let Lacey in.” Jay smiled, glancing at his dad in time to catch a shrug and a little bit of a sheepish look. “Dad, you can’t push us together. From what I hear, Lacey is still getting over Lance. I still have a wedding ring in my dresser drawer.”

“I’m asking you to pray.” Bill reached out to pet his favorite gray mare. “I’m asking you to let God heal your heart. Maybe that’s why you came home. Time to face what happened and move forward.”

“I think I am moving forward.” Time to let go of the girl he loved? He didn’t know if he could.

The black mare, Duckie, a strange name for a horse, was at the fence. Jay slid the halter over her head and clipped on the lead rope.

His dad opened the gate and Jay led the mare through, moving fast to keep the other horses from following. Bill closed the gate behind him. A car door closed. Jay led the horse to the barn and tied her.

Lacey walked through the doors, her face a dark silhouette with the setting sun behind her. He heard his dad behind him.

“I’m going to the house.” Bill patted him on the shoulder as he walked away, greeting Lacey with a hug.

“I’m sorry. I should have called.” Lacey looked a little lost, like she wasn’t sure. She stood a few feet from him, from the mare. “She’s beautiful.”

“You don’t have to call.” He looked over the mare’s neck at the woman leaning against the wall. “You okay?”

“I’m fine. I was on my way home from Bailey’s and I realized I really didn’t want to go home. There’s no one there.”

“The police will find her, Lacey.”

“And take her to jail.”

“They won’t take Rachel to jail.”

She reached to slide her hand down the neck of the mare. Jay slid the saddle pad into place and then lowered the saddle onto the mare’s back. The mare turned to look at him, but she stood still.

“Do you want to ride her?” He tightened the girth strap and knotted it.

“Could I?”

“I think so. I’ll show you how to rope.”

“No way!”

He smiled and it felt really good. “Yeah way!”

“I’d love it.”

It would keep both of their minds off what they didn’t want to think about. He didn’t want to think about letting go of Jamie. She didn’t want to think about her little sister going to jail.

“Come on, we’ll take her out to the arena.” He led the horse and Lacey walked a short distance away. “You do know how to ride, right?”

“Of course. You can’t live around here for six years and not know how to ride.”

He laughed because she bristled like an angry cat.

“Let me ride her first and then she’s all yours.”

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