LITMIR.BIZ

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that bride-to-be?” Uncle Angus asked Tag as he hopped off the stage and came toward them.

      “Last minute preparations for the wedding,” Tag said. “You can’t believe the lists she’s made. It’s the mathematician in her. She’s so much more organized than I am. Which reminds me, Jackson and I have to drive down to Bozeman to pick up the rings.”

      “It took a wedding to get you Cardwell boys to Montana, I see.” Uncle Angus threw an arm around Jackson. “So how are you liking it up here? I saw that boy of yours. Dana’s got him riding horses already. You’re going to have one devil of a time getting him to go back to Texas after this.”

      Didn’t Jackson know it. He’d hardly seen his son all day. Even now Ford had been too busy to give Jackson more than a quick wave from the corral where he’d been with the kids and the hired man, Walker.

      “Ford is going to sleep like a baby tonight after all this fresh air, sunshine and high altitude,” Jackson said. “He’s not the only one,” he added with a laugh.

      “It’s good for him,” Harlan said. “I was talking to him earlier. He’s taken with that little girl.”

      “Like father like son,” Tag said under his breath as Allie came in from the back of the barn.

      Jackson saw her expression. “I think I’d better go check on my son,” he said as he walked toward Allie. He didn’t have time to think about what he was about to do. He moved to her, taking her arm and leading her back out of the barn. “What’s wrong?”

      For a moment she looked as if she were going to deny anything was. But then tears filled her eyes. He walked her around the far side of the barn. He could hear Dana out by the corral instructing the kids in horseback riding lessons. Inside the barn, his father and uncle struck up another tune.

      “It’s nothing, really,” she said and brushed at her tears. “I’ve been so forgetful lately. I didn’t remember that the band would be setting up this afternoon.”

      He saw that she held a date book in her trembling hand.

      “It wasn’t written down in your date book?”

      She glanced at her book. “It was but for some reason I marked it out.”

      “No big deal, right?”

      “It’s just that I don’t remember doing it.”

      He could see that she was still upset and wondered if there wasn’t something more going on. He reminded himself that Allie had lost her husband only months ago. Who knew what kind of emotional roller coaster that had left her on.

      “You need to cut yourself more slack,” he said. “We all forget things.”

      She nodded, but he could see she was still worried. No, not worried, scared. He thought of the black cat and had a feeling it hadn’t been her first scare like that.

      “I feel like such a fool,” she said.

      Instinctively, he put his arm around her. “Give yourself time. It’s going to be all right.”

      She looked so forlorn that taking her in his arms seemed not only the natural thing to do at that moment, but the only thing to do under the circumstances. At first she felt board-stiff in his arms, then after a moment she seemed to melt into him. She buried her face into his chest as if he were an anchor in a fierce storm.

      Suddenly, she broke the embrace and stepped back. He followed her gaze to one of the cabins on the mountainside behind him and the man standing there.

      “Who is that?” he asked, instantly put off by the scowling man.

      “My brother-in-law, Drew. He’s doing some repairs on the ranch. He and Nick owned a construction company together. They built the guest cabins.”

      The man’s scowl had turned into a cold stare. Jackson saw Allie’s reaction. “We weren’t doing anything wrong.”

      She shook her head as the man headed down the mountainside to his pickup parked in the pines. “He’s just very protective.” Allie looked as if she had the weight of the world on her shoulders again.

      Jackson watched her brother-in-law slowly drive out of the ranch. Allie wasn’t the only one the man was glaring at.

      “I need to get back inside,” she said and turned away.

      He wanted to go after her. He also wanted to put his fist into her brother-in-law’s face. Protective my butt, he thought. He wanted to tell Allie to ignore all of it. Wanted... Hell, that was just it. He didn’t know what he wanted at the moment. Even if he did, he couldn’t have it. He warned himself to stay away from Allie Taylor. Far away. He was only here for the wedding. While he felt for the woman, he couldn’t help her.

      “There you are,” Tag said as he came up behind them. “Ready to go with me to Bozeman to get the rings?”

      Jackson glanced toward the barn door Allie was stepping through. “Ready.”

      Chapter Four

      As Jackson started to leave with his brother, he turned to look back at the barn. Just inside the door he saw Allie. All his survival instincts told him to keep going, but his mother had raised a Texas cowboy with a code of honor. Or at least she’d tried. Something was wrong and he couldn’t walk away.

      “Give me just a minute,” he said and ran back. As he entered the barn, he saw Allie frantically searching for something in the corner of the barn. His father and brother were still playing at the far end, completely unaware of them.

      “What are you looking for?”

      She seemed embarrassed that he’d caught her. He noticed that she’d gone pale and looked upset. “I know I put my purse right there with my keys in it.”

      He glanced at the empty table. “Maybe it fell under it.” He bent down to look under the red-and-white-checked tablecloth. “The barn is looking great, by the way. You’ve done a beautiful job.”

      She didn’t seem to hear him. She was moving from table to table, searching for her purse. He could see that she was getting more anxious by the moment. “I know I put it right there so I wouldn’t forget it when I left.”

      “Here it is,” Jackson said as he spied what he assumed had to be her purse not on a table, but in one of the empty boxes that had held the decorations.

      She rushed to him and took the purse and hurriedly looked inside, pulling out her keys with obvious relief.

      “You would have found it the moment you started loading the boxes into your van,” he said, seeing that she was still shaken.

      She nodded. “Thank you. I’m not usually like this.”

      “No need to apologize. I hate losing things. It drives me crazy.”

      She let out a humorless laugh. “Crazy, yes.” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Tears welled in her eyes.

      “Hey, it’s okay.”

      He wanted to comfort her, but kept his distance after what had happened earlier. “It really is okay.”

      She shook her head as the music stopped and quickly wiped her eyes, apologizing again. She looked embarrassed and he wished there was something he could say to put her at ease.

      “Earlier, I was just trying to comfort you. It was just a hug,” he said.

      She met his gaze. “One I definitely needed. You have been so kind....”

      “I’m not kind.”

      She laughed and shook her head. “Are you always so self-deprecating?”

      “No, just truthful.”

      “Well, thank you.” She clutched the keys in her hand as if afraid she would lose them

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