“You’re truly okay, then?” she asked, eyeing me suspiciously.
“I’m fine,” I said, letting out a small sigh. “I’m sorry I didn’t answer my phone when you called. I guess I just didn’t feel like talking to anyone. Especially about Cowboy. Besides, there isn’t anything left to say.”
Bobbie Jo leaned on the railing and snorted. “He’s always been an idiot. This just proves it.” She shook her head in disgust. “I am sorry it didn’t work out. I don’t know exactly what happened between the two of you, but I’m betting that somewhere in there, he’s the one who somehow screwed this up and is kicking himself in the ass right about now.”
“Doesn’t matter. It’s over.” I gave her a non-committal shrug and watched Joe and Clay shove the remaining box into my backseat. “Maybe in time Cowboy and I can still be fr—” A jacked-up red truck coming down the road halted my speech. Oh, great. Speak of the devil.
As the truck drew closer, my eyes met Cowboy’s. He slowed and waved, as if he were offering a friendly gesture to one of his neighbors. But if he expected me to wave back like we were friends, he could forget it. The only kind of gesture I was willing to give him consisted of one finger and wasn’t usually considered all that friendly. The jackass.
I turned my back on him for breaking my heart and started inside.
But before I made it through the door, his truck screeched to a halt just past my driveway. I whipped around to see him throw it in reverse and drive backward into the middle of my yard. Cowboy jumped out of his truck, glaring at the Barlow boys as they made their way back to the porch. “You two get the hell out of here and leave Anna alone!”
“Whoa!” Joe said, as he reached the top of the stairs. “We’re not here to cause problems. We’re helping Miss Anna load up these boxes. Why don’t you chill the hell out, dude?”
Cowboy marched past Clay and clomped his way up the stairs where I stood with Joe and Bobbie Jo.
I put my hands on my hips and glared at Cowboy. “That’s not a parking spot!”
“Oh, yeah? Well, it is now!” he sneered.
“God, you’re an even bigger asshole than I thought.” I turned and marched inside, flapping my arms in frustration.
A growl burst from his throat. “Get back here,” he demanded.
Surprisingly enough, I made it to the kitchen without him manhandling me. I’d fully expected him to be on my heels, but when I stopped and spun around, he wasn’t there. Peeking around the corner, I found out why.
He had tried to follow me through the open door, but Joe had stepped into Cowboy’s path and was now poking one large finger into his chest. “I think the lady wants you to leave.”
I stood off to the side, just out of their field of vision, but where I could see and hear both of them. With rage burning in his green eyes, Cowboy measured up the big guy in front of him. “If you want to keep that finger attached, I suggest you remove it.”
They stood there in an intense, heated stand-off that looked like it would never end. Thank goodness Bobbie Jo intervened, patting Joe on the arm. “It’s okay, Joe. I’ve got this. Why don’t you give us a minute?”
Joe nodded and walked by Cowboy, purposely bumping his shoulder as he passed. Cowboy rolled his eyes and started inside, but Bobbie Jo wasn’t having it. She put her arm up and blocked the door, scowling at him. “You really did it this time, didn’t you, Cowboy? Put your foot in it good.”
“Ya know, I’d love to stand around here talking about how I screwed up, but I have something more important to do.”
But Bobbie Jo persisted. “What do you want with Anna?”
Oh, I love having such protective friends.
“I just want to talk to her.” He peered over Bobbie Jo’s head and caught a glimpse of all the cardboard boxes in the living room. “What the hell is going on? Why are the Barlows loading boxes into Anna’s car?” He ran a hand over his distraught face. “Sonofabitch. Don’t tell me she’s leaving town.”
Bobbie Jo shrugged nonchalantly. “What does it matter to you? It’s not like you care.”
“What? I do care! Now let me in.” But Bobbie Jo didn’t budge. “Damn it, I need to find her. Get out of the way or I’m going to pick your ass up and move you.”
Something resembling a smirk lifted the corners of her mouth. “She’s probably in the kitchen packing up more boxes,” she said nonchalantly, dropping her arm from the doorway.
As Cowboy stepped inside, I slipped out of view and pretended to be busy.
“Anna…?”
I poked my head out of the kitchen and frowned at him. “Why are you still here?”
“I want to know where the hell you think you’re going.”
“Beg your pardon?”
“You heard me.”
I glared at him. “I’m no longer your concern, remember?”
Cowboy counted slowly under his breath, trying to gain control of his temper. “Stop this nonsense, woman. I won’t sit by and let you leave town all because I—”
“Because you what? Used me? Took what you wanted and moved on? Guess you were bored with me. Isn’t that how you put it?”
“That wasn’t true and you know it.”
“No, I don’t know. As far as I’m concerned, that’s exactly what happened. Now, get out.”
“I need to talk to you. To tell you something. At the very least I owe you an explanation and an apology.” When I crossed my arms and waited, he continued. “I was promoted to chief.”
“Good for you. Now leave.”
“Damn it, just listen. After I came out of recovery, the mayor stopped by to see me. I thought he’d heard about my injury and was coming to tell me he was appointing a new acting chief. But instead, he congratulated me for making chief.”
“What the hell does that have to do with me?”
“I couldn’t stand the thought of you living in fear that something would happen to me. That one day, I might be burned alive. You don’t sleep as it is. I didn’t want to give you any more nightmares.”
My mouth dropped open. “So you didn’t even fight for me because of that?”
“No, not just that. I…” He closed his eyes and breathed out slowly, gearing himself to say something he obviously dreaded. “I save people for a living. It’s what I do. But I…couldn’t save you. And to make it worse, the whole thing with Mandy was my fault.”
“Your fault?”
“Before I saw you in the library that first night, I…I flirted with her. No more than I did with other girls, but I hadn’t realized she was unstable and had taken any of it seriously.”
“So you’re saying you and Mandy were sleeping—”
“No. Of course not. Nothing ever came of it, but she got the wrong idea about me because I let her get the wrong idea. Just like everyone else around here.” He shook his head. “No one takes a playboy seriously. And my behavior with the women in this town hasn’t encouraged it. I’m sorry, sweetheart, but this was all my fault. I was doing what I thought was best…for you. To end things and let you move on without me.” He glanced behind him at the boxes stacked everywhere before his eyes landed back on me and he frowned. “But I don’t want you to leave. Damn it, Anna, I can’t lose you.”
Slack-jawed, I stood motionless and stared at him in silence for a full thirty seconds, waiting for a declaration of love or at the very least an honorable mention in the like department. But it didn’t come. As the realization sank in that he might never admit his feelings for me, I only blinked at him, which apparently wasn’t the reaction he expected.
He shifted his weight and sighed with annoyance. “Gonna leave me hanging or are you going to say something?”
“I…um…I’m not leaving,” I managed to say, watching the worry melt from his eyes. “Those boxes are filled with books I’m donating to the library.”
“Oh, thank God,” he said, the tension in his shoulders loosening. “When I saw them loading boxes into your car…well, you scared the hell out of me. I thought I’d lost you for good.” Then he opened his arms to me.