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“Must be nice,” he said, striding forward again. “To take a break from your life whenever you want one.”

  Fury moved through her, and she stared after him. “You have no idea what you’re talking about. I never get a break.”

  “That’s because you refuse to ask for help.” He tossed the words over his shoulder, the length of his strides broadcasting his anger. “Have a good day, Ivory.” He touched the brim of that sexy cowboy hat and continued toward the entrance of the restaurant.

  “I guess I’m uninvited,” she said to his retreating back, nowhere near loud enough for him to hear. She watched until he disappeared inside the surely air conditioned restaurant, and then she sighed, running her hand through her hair.

  It felt tangled and messy, and she hated that he’d seen her like that. She hurried to her car and turned on the air conditioning. “I took a break from you, Tripp, when you were getting too close to me. When things got too real. When I was afraid I’d fall in love with you, only to have you break up with me.”

  Ivory hung her head, everything in her wrung out. An alarm went off on her phone, and she sucked in a breath. Pulled everything back inside. Laced it tight.

  After all, it was time for her to pick Oliver up from school, and he deserved a mother that wasn’t one tick away from a breakdown.

  “Ollie,” she called from the sliding glass door. “Come on, baby. Dinner’s ready.”

  Her son left his toys in the sandbox and skipped toward her. “Look, Mama. I can skip.” He grinned so wide, his whole face shone with joy. He had no idea she’d spent too much at the grocery store that afternoon so they could have sausage with their pancakes that night.

  “Good job,” she said, stroking her hand over his silky hair. “Are you ready for summer?”

  “Yeah,” he said. “Dad said he’d take me horseback riding.”

  “Yep,” Ivory said as cheerfully as she could. Daniel had moved to Amarillo after their divorce, but he came to Three Rivers twice a month for his son. And he’d take Oliver the day after school got out for half of the summer.

  “Pancakes again?” Oliver asked, and Ivory flinched.

  “That’s right,” she said brightly. “With your favorite—sausage links.” She put the plate in front of him as he climbed up on the barstool. She’d added water to the syrup and heated in the microwave, stirring it all together. It was a little thin, but Oliver didn’t say anything about that.

  She flipped the pancakes on the griddle and served two to her son a minute later. She kept her smile on her face as she ate, but she could barely gag down another bite of pancake. She’d bought hot dogs as well, and she’d definitely have to switch up their diet tomorrow.

  Helplessness filled her, but she held back the tears until Ollie finished dinner. “Bath time, bud,” she said, her patience for this day almost gone. And she’d have to see Daniel on Saturday, look him in the face, and pretend like he hadn’t turned her world upside down with a few pieces of paper.

  Oliver didn’t get up and skip down the hall to the bathroom. He never did. She didn’t have the energy to fight with him tonight, so when he got down and went into the backyard instead of to take a bath, she said nothing.

  She sat at the kitchen counter and stared at the watery syrup. The empty plate which had held the sausage links. The pancakes she hadn’t been able to swallow.

  “What am I going to do?” She tilted her head toward the ceiling. Her parents lived in Tennessee, and she had absolutely no desire to call them. She’d left for college and never gone back, as her father had a drinking problem and turned mean when he drank.

  Daniel’s parents lived in the Texas Hill Country, and she hadn’t spoken to them since the divorce, three years ago. They’d never offered to help her, but they may have made arrangements with Daniel.

  He paid his child support, and without that, Ivory would’ve been in much worse condition than she was now.

  She exhaled, determined not to sit here and cry. Her jewelry-making wasn’t working out. So she’d get a job.

  With an ache in her bones, she got up and went to the back door again. “Ollie, come on,” she said. “Bath time.”

  “Mom,” he whined, and Ivory gestured to him. He argued a little bit, but he eventually came in and stomped down the hall to the bathroom. Ivory cleaned up the kitchen, glancing at the small cowboy figurine on the windowsill above the sink.

  Ollie had made it for her in school, and for some reason, Tripp’s handsome face appeared in her mind.

  If he was her husband, she’d have plenty of money….

  The thought waltzed through her mind so slowly. She really had time to think hard about it, ultimately dismissing the idea.

  “You’re not even talking to him,” she muttered to herself as Ollie started singing down the hall. And marrying him?

  Wasn’t going to happen, even if he did say he wanted to help her.

  Chapter Three

  Tripp spent the rest of the week on the ranch, working on moving the first harvest of hay into the right barn. He wasn’t a born and bred cowboy like his brother Jeremiah, but he did love being out on the ranch, under the hot sun, the scent of dust, horses, and hay in the air.

  He rubbed his nose as he tossed another bale onto the belt, sneezing a moment later. His altercation with Ivory was a few days old, but he couldn’t get her out of his mind. He’d wanted her to follow him into the restaurant and tell him off for judging her.

  He hadn’t meant to do that, and he’d spent a couple of nights on his knees, trying to repent of saying she’d taken a break from her life whenever she wanted one.

  She was a single mother, for crying out loud. Tripp didn’t have any kids, but he knew enough to know Ivory didn’t truly get a break from all she had to do, ever. He’d seen her jewelry, and she was really talented. She had an eye for colors and textures that his mind would never come up with.

  They’d spent afternoons riding horses, and she loved Texas though she wasn’t from the state.

  He knew she liked iced coffee and that her favorite pie was banana cream. They’d been together for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but she’d ended things sometime in January. Then he’d seen her again for a few weeks at the end of March and the beginning of April, and then she’d retreated again.

  She never gave much of an explanation for her exits from his life, and that alone drove frustration through him whenever he thought about it.

  “Gotta stop thinking about it,” he told himself, grabbing a hay bale in each hand. When Ivory was talking to him, he spent a lot of his spare time with her. When she wasn’t, he hit the weights at the gym, so he was really ripped right now.

  He thought about the woman at the front desk at the gym. Tammy wore leggings and a tight T-shirt every day, and she’d asked Tripp for his number that morning.

  And he’d given it to her. With a smile.

  “Gotta move on,” he said, though he had very little conviction behind the words.

  “Talking to yourself again?” Jeremiah came up beside him and tossed a bale onto the belt.

  “Hey,” Wyatt said from up above. “I can’t get them off that fast.”

  “Sorry,” Jeremiah called up to him.

  Tripp glanced at him and let a few more seconds go by before putting another bale on. He wasn’t going to deny talking to himself. He was the brother who did that, and he often muttered to himself in front of his computer as he animated the characters others had drawn.

  “So what’s goin’ on?” Jeremiah asked.

  “Nothing,” Tripp said, because this particular brother was still very much anti-female. But it had been two years now since the Walker brothers had left Austin and come to Three Rivers. Well, four of them, at least.

  “So Ivory,” Jeremiah said, adjusting his cowboy hat.

  “Liam told you.”

  “He may have mentioned that you ran into her the other day when you guys went to lunch.”

  “Why would he mention that?” Tripp hefted another bale onto the
belt.

  Jeremiah picked up the next one, and Tripp took a moment to stretch his back. “Because he’s realized he doesn’t like Kiley.”

  “That’s because he’s still hung up on Callie. I don’t know why he doesn’t just ask her out.”

  “He’s working on a strategy for that.” Jeremiah put his bale on the belt.

  Tripp threw on the last one, and Wyatt took it off at the top. Then he switched the direction of the belt and rode it back to the ground.

  “Lunch?” he asked.

  “Simone is making lunch at Shining Star,” Jeremiah said. “That’s why I came out. She called and invited us.” He cocked his eyebrows at Tripp. “Sure is nice to be invited.”

  “Hey, we said we were sorry,” Tripp said, frowning at his older brother. “Everyone is invited to lunch.” He and Liam hadn’t meant to leave anyone out.

  “I know.” Jeremiah smiled, and he truly wasn’t upset. Thankfully. An angry Jeremiah was something to behold, and Tripp didn’t need to see it anytime soon. “But let’s go clean up. She said we can come anytime.”

  “I’m starving,” Wyatt said.

  “That’s because you eat five million calories a day,” Tripp said. He’d literally never seen a human being consume as much as Wyatt did. Or wear a belt buckle so large, even to just load hay into a loft.

  “Hey, I’m not the one at the gym seven days a week,” he shot back.

  “Me either,” Tripp said. “I’m not going tomorrow.”

  “And he’s only been going this week because of Ivory,” Jeremiah said.

  “Ivory….” Wyatt said thoughtfully. “She’s the blonde you like, right?”

  “Been out with her a ton,” Jeremiah said. “She can’t make up her mind.”

  “I don’t know what she can or can’t do,” Tripp said, disliking Jeremiah’s assessment of her. “And we haven’t been out a ton.”

  “Enough to kiss her,” Jeremiah said, peering at him. “Right?”

  “That was last year,” Tripp said, like it was old news. He whistled for Penny to come, and she trotted out of the shadows and followed them back to the homestead. He wasn’t going to admit he’d been dreaming of kissing Ivory again. Or that he’d tapped out a dozen texts to her this week, only to erase them and then turn off his phone to remove the temptation.

  Jeremiah looked like he was going to argue with Tripp again, but Liam burst out of the house and said, “I got the job!”

  “No way,” Tripp said, bounding up the steps. “The Marvel contract?”

  Liam’s whole being glowed, and he tipped his head back and laughed. “The entire universe. It’s going to be amazing.”

  His brother was one of the best computer-generated imagery artists in the country, and landing a contract from one of the biggest names in the entertainment industry proved it. “You’ve been working on that for so long.” Tripp threw his arms around his brother and hugged him. “Congratulations.”

  “It’s a four-year project,” he said, accepting congratulations from Jeremiah and Wyatt too. “I can’t wait to get started. I have to go to California in a few weeks.” They went into the house, shutting out the heat while they washed up for lunch.

  Over at the Shining Star, Callie and Simone waited in the kitchen, chatting about something.

  “Ladies,” Liam said, always the charmer in a crowd. Tripp used to follow his younger brother of eight minutes around both his high school and college campuses. That way, they’d both walk away with a date.

  But here in Three Rivers, it seemed like those tables had turned. Of course, Tripp wasn’t doing well in the dating pool since wading in. But if there was someone doing worse, it was Liam.

  He slung his arm around Simone’s shoulders. “What’s cookin’ today.”

  She rolled her eyes as she giggled and pushed him away. “Burger bites,” she said. “We know how you Walker boys like red meat.”

  “I know I do,” he said, sidling over to Callie. “Heya, Callie.”

  “Afternoon, Liam.” She smiled at him with pure joy on her face, but something pinched around her eyes.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, his voice dropping. Amidst all the other hellos, their conversation got lost, but Liam hugged Callie and held her at arm’s length, saying something to her.

  Wyatt didn’t say a whole lot, but Jeremiah could talk about food until the cows came home, and he complimented Simone on the burger bites.

  “Okay,” she finally called. “Let’s eat.”

  Tripp was glad he was surrounded by so many people, because it meant he couldn’t disappear inside his head. Couldn’t obsess about Ivory Osburn, the woman who’d made it very clear she didn’t want anything to do with him.

  The following morning found him at the gym, despite his denial that he went every day. He couldn’t help how early he got up, and he couldn’t stand to putz around the house. Might as well get on the treadmill and build muscle before the rest of the world rose.

  He sweated through his leg workout, and he decided he’d earned a baked omelet from the pancake house. He stopped there and got a table for himself. He didn’t have to feel guilty for eating breakfast alone and not inviting his brothers. He’d asked them to go to the gym with him, and they’d all declined.

  Wyatt and Jeremiah had plenty to do around the ranch, and Wyatt had taken over some of the chores at the Shining Star while Rhett was on his honeymoon. And Liam was a sleep diva, and heaven help the man that woke him before nine.

  He’d ordered and sugared up his coffee when a woman sat down across from him. Surprised laced through him when he met her eyes.

  “Hi,” she said with a smile.

  Tripp was a nice guy, so he smiled back. “Hello.”

  “My name is Billie.”

  Oh-kay. “Hello, Billie,” he said, thinking she was way too young for him. She glanced out into the restaurant, and he followed her gaze. Sure enough, a table of three women stared at them, and Tripp lifted his hand in a wave.

  “Oh, honey,” Sandy said. “Don’t encourage them.” She pierced Billie with a glare. “Leave the man alone.”

  Billie just grinned at Sandy, who didn’t leave. “Tripp.”

  “Yeah?” He looked up at her, unsure of what to do in this situation.

  “Did you ask her to sit with you?”

  “No,” he said, spying his waitress coming with his food. He just wanted to be left alone.

  “Come on, Billie. Back to your own table.” Sandy snapped her fingers at the woman, and she heaved a sigh as she slid out of the booth. “He’s too old for you anyway,” Sandy added, and Tripp ducked his head as a smile touched his lips.

  “Be right back,” she said, and she escorted Billie back to her own table, leaned into it, and started lecturing the women there. Tripp was far enough away that he couldn’t hear what they were talking about, and his puffy, delicious omelet arrived, so he was a little distracted.

  Sandy returned to top off his coffee. “Sorry about that,” she said.

  “It’s fine,” he said.

  “Your brother used to draw quite a crowd of female fans too,” she said with a smile. “I’m not complaining. You come in everyday if you want.” She patted him on the shoulder and returned to work.

  Tripp kept his head down as he ate and sipped his coffee, wondering if this was what his life was going to be. Forty years old, eating breakfast alone, pining after a woman who wanted nothing to do with him.

  When he’d wasted a couple of hours at the pancake house, he finally slid out of his booth, tossing some money on the table. “Thanks, Val,” he said to his waitress, who smiled at him as he turned to leave.

  His phone rang, and he expected it to be one of his brothers, asking him where he was.

  Ivory’s name sat on the screen.

  “Ivory,” he whispered to himself. As if he was doing something wrong, he glanced around the pancake house to see if anyone had heard him. He hurried outside, where the hot air almost punched the oxygen out of his lungs.


  He swiped on the call. “Ivory?”

  Sniffling came through the line, but she didn’t say anything. Maybe she’d pocket dialed him. “Hello?” he tried again.

  “Are you busy right now?” she asked, her voice an octave higher than normal. She was obviously crying.

  “Not even a little bit,” he said.

  “Can you come over?”

  Absolutely, he thought, almost breaking into a jog to get back to his truck. He forced himself to walk and to say, “I think I can make that work.”

  “I’ll text you my address if that’s okay. Do you need a few minutes?”

  “I’m actually in town,” he said, feeling like a hopeless fool. Was he really going to go running back to this woman the moment she called? “I just finished breakfast at the pancake house.”

  She didn’t answer immediately, because she was very obviously upset about something. Probably her ex-husband.

  He’d thought about buying every piece of jewelry available in her online store, but she’d know it was him. Trying to give the woman charity had never ended well for him.

  “Okay,” she finally said. “I’ll see you really soon then.”

  “Okay,” he said, and she said she’d text him and ended the call.

  He positioned himself behind the wheel and turned on the truck so the air conditioning would start blowing. His phone chimed, and there was Ivory’s address.

  He’d never been to her house before. She’d always insisted on meeting him somewhere when they’d gone out before. She’d wanted to keep some distance between him and her son, whom he hadn’t met yet.

  His pulse thrummed in his neck as he put the truck in reverse. “Help me help her,” he prayed aloud as he backed out. He’d been praying to get the woman back in his life, and if he could only be her friend, well, that might have to be enough.

  “But let it be more,” he whispered to himself and maybe God too.

  Chapter Four

  Ivory paced in her house, her face so, so hot. She clutched the paperwork in her fist, thinking of all kinds of things she should’ve said to Daniel while he was there.