Nothing Sweeter (Sweet on a Cowboy) by Laura Drake Read Free Book Online

everything. Sounds pretty straightforward to me.”
    “I know, but—”
    “Besides, I miss you like crazy.” Wyatt watched as Juan’s fingers touched his computer screen, as if to bridge the two thousand miles between them.
    Homesickness opened a hole in Wyatt’s chest, and he fell in. He’d looked at the local weather report thismorning; Boston would be covered in a perfect crystalline blanket of snow by now. “Did you go to La Vie for a chocolate croissant this morning?”
    “Is it Sunday?” Juan smiled into the camera. “Of course I did. Celeste asked where you were. When can you get out of there?”
    Wyatt rubbed his fingers across his forehead. “It’s not that simple. The ranch is in trouble. Even if I gave Max my half, he’d lose it in a year.”
    “So? Why is this your problem?” Juan leaned a bit closer to the screen. “You’ve heard from him what, five times in the past twenty years? He doesn’t care about you, Wyatt. Why are you wasting your time?”
    “He does care about me, Juan. He loves me. He just doesn’t know how to reconcile loving me with his upbringing. But it’s more than that.” He glanced out the window that overlooked the front yard, the road, and the vast acreage beyond it. “I’ve avoided this place forever. Too long. Dad’s gone—it’s too late to reconcile with him. I don’t know if it’s possible to get closer to Max, but I’m not staying here for him only.
    “I need to reconcile with this place, Juan. I blew out of here and never looked back. Coming here reminds me that I left things undone. The kind of things that eat at the back of your mind—your self-esteem. You can understand that, can’t you?”
    “Sure I can.” Juan’s sad smile pulled at him. “But don’t forget, while you’re wandering in the wilds, finding yourself, that you have a full, rich life here and a guy that’s sure missing you.”
    If he hadn’t been breathing the past in with the cold Colorado air, he would have hopped on the next planehome. “I’m not likely to forget, Juan, because I sure am missing you too.”
    On Friday evening, Aubrey sprinted to the mess hall, attempting to dodge fat raindrops. Once under the shelter of the porch, she walked to the end to look up at the sky. Purple, flat-bottomed clouds scudded from west to east, their white thunderhead tops broiling upward. She’d seldom noticed the sky in California; why bother? It was always blue, except for the transition to a smutty layer of smog at the horizon.
    The sky out here had personality. The dawn was optimistic; days like today, moody and angry. Sunsets seemed weary from a long day’s labor, a misty pink edged in gold.
But the nights…
The nights were velvet. Aubrey wrapped herself in them to ward off the chilly air and the memories that dogged her steps when the sun went down and she was alone.
    Her boots made a hollow thumping on the silver-gray boards of the porch. Voices trailed off when she opened the screen door. A few of the men mumbled a greeting as she passed. Brushing their cow ponies before dawn each day seemed to have broken the ice with the shy cowboys. She would never fit in, but she was getting used to their old-world manners and appreciated the deference they afforded her. They reminded her that, in spite of her job and her clothes, she was a woman.
    She looked forward to a chat with Tia Nita. Being surrounded by men all day had its advantages, but sometimes she yearned for the simple company of a woman. She pushed through the door of the kitchen to see the older woman struggling to lift a huge pot from the stove. “Tia!”She grabbed oven mitts from the counter and rushed across the room. “Let me help you.” She shooed the woman’s hands away and pulled the pot of beans from the stove, moving it to trivets on the counter. “You shouldn’t be lifting that, especially with nine able-bodied males within earshot.”
    “Bah. If I wait for them, we’ll be here until breakfast. Men do not