"There you go. As for me, I've got a good-looking cowboy firefighter standing outside looking ready, willing, and able to take me out."

"I'd say," Hedy lowered her voice to a whisper, "let him take you to the moon."

Lauren burst out in laughter, feeling relieved that she and Hedy were beginning to return to their old comradery.

"For now, I'm going to take these poor, old, tired bones to bed. You have fun." And Hedy quickly hung up.

"See you tomorrow," Lauren said to empty air, but she hoped against hope that her words came true. She felt sure if she could get her aunt back on a horse, she wouldn't hear any more about "poor, old, tired bones." Still, that was for another day. Tonight was reserved for Kent alone.

She quickly clicked off her cell, slipped it back in her purse, slung her bag over her shoulder, and stood up. A trip to the moon didn't sound half bad. And she figured Kent was just the guy to take her there.

When she slid open the door and stepped outside, he snagged her around the waist and pulled her close. She caught his fresh scent of citrus shampoo with a hint of leather and sage. Yum. He smelled good enough to lick all over and come back for more. Surprisingly, she giggled like a teenager at the thought.

"Want to share your humor?" He nuzzled her hair. "You sure do smell good."

She chuckled again. "That's what I was thinking about you. Mine's lavender. What's yours?"

"Who knows? Morning Glory mixes up a batch when she takes a notion and thrusts it on me. Wouldn't dare not use it."

Lauren laughed harder. "She's got you hornswoggled, doesn't she?"

"Me? I'm not alone. That goes for the whole town. No, make that the whole county."

"I hope she blends something special for me."

"Somehow I don't think that'll be a problem."

"Great!" Lauren hugged him, glancing out at his pickup. "Did you wash your truck again?"

He draped an arm over her shoulders and led her toward his pickup. "Yep. I cleaned it inside and out. I've got the comfort of my favorite gals to think about, don't I?"

"Thanks. It looks good."

He opened the front pa.s.senger door. "Take a gander at the backseat."

"Oh, Kent! You got a booster seat for Hannah." She whirled around and hugged him again.

"I thought it'd be easier than transferring your seat back and forth."

She put a hand to her lips, holding back strong emotions. He'd thought about them while they were separated during the afternoon, going so far as to find a way to make their lives better. And even more, he'd thought about their future and spending more time together. Maybe he wasn't so attached to his former fiancee after all if he could think about another woman, one with a child.

"What is it?"

"Here I was wanting you for your manly body and you go and make me think about wanting-"

"Wait. Back up. What was that about my manly body?"

She chuckled, rolling her eyes at him. "I'm not saying another word or you'll get the big head."

"With you on my arm tonight, I can't help but be the proudest cowboy in Wildcat Bluff County."

"I bet you say that to all the gals." She tried for lighthearted since his hazel eyes had turned dark with intent. Now was not the time or place to pursue what was obviously on both their minds, no matter how much she was willing to go there.

He pushed her hair back behind one ear, then leaned down and placed a soft kiss on her cheekbone. "No other gals. There's only ever truly been one for me. I know that now that you're back in town."

"Oh," she said on a breathy note. She wanted to say more, but he'd stopped her thoughts in their tracks with those words. Could he be feeling what she was feeling, as if nothing between them had changed in the years apart?

"Is that all you've got to say?" he murmured against her ear, and then gently nibbled the outer edge of the delicate sh.e.l.l with his teeth.

She shivered in response, feeling heat burn outward from her inner core to set her entire body on fire. "I wish we could step back in time."

"Tonight." He kissed her forehead, groaned with suppressed need, and backed up. "Tonight we'll make the lonely years go away. It'll be as if they never happened to us."

She sighed, wanting it to be so. "But what about our former-"

"Tonight it's the two of us. Okay?"

She nodded, tamping down her questions and concerns as her body continued to burn hotter with every soft word he spoke and every intent look he gave her.

He took a deep breath, as if to control his rising emotions, and dropped his hands to his sides. "Come on. Let's go get barbeque. It'll be dark before you know it."

"That's right. We always liked to watch the sun set over the Red River." She stepped up into his truck and sat down in an amazingly clean s.p.a.ce.

He leaned in and gave her a brash, brazen look. "But it's what we do after the sun goes down that's got me in a rush to get to Lovers Leap." He quickly shut the door and walked around the front of his pickup.

As if time had melted away, Lauren took a deep breath, feeling all safe and snuggly and excited in Kent's truck.

When he sat down beside her, started his pickup, and gave her a big grin, revealing his adorable dimples, she felt like a piece of chocolate on steamy summer days-a soft, gooey, hot mess.

Chapter 32.

A little later, Kent stepped out of the Chuckwagon Cafe carrying a bag of barbeque and fixings in one hand and two big drinks nestled in a container in the other. He frowned when he saw Lauren talking with Morning Glory on the boardwalk in front of his pickup. He'd asked her to stay in his truck so they wouldn't get hung up on their way out of town with folks in the cafe wanting to say h.e.l.lo, but he might as well have saved his breath because she'd been caught in Old Town anyway.

As he walked up to them, he saw Morning Glory point at the closed sign on the front door of Adelia's Delights, then point at Lauren. He'd never seen Morning Glory act so intense because she was always laid-back. He perked up his ears to hear their conversation.

"I don't care if you have to drag Hedy to Kent's barn kicking and screaming, you find a way to do it," Morning Glory said in a decisive voice.

Kent blinked in shock at those words, hardly able to imagine Morning Glory being so upset. He stopped beside them, looking from one to the other. "Ladies, don't let me interrupt, but sounds like somebody's got a burr under their saddle about something. Any way I can help?"

"Hedy!" Morning Glory grumped. "I swear that gal's got her head on backward. I'm counting on you two to set her straight."

"What'd she do?" he asked.

"It's not what she did," Morning Glory explained. "It's what she won't do."

"You lost me there." He held up his sack and shook it. "At the moment, all I know about is barbeque."

Lauren sighed as she looked heavenward. "I haven't told him yet."

"Why not?" Morning Glory demanded.

"There just hasn't been time."

"More likely you were putting your head in the sand." Morning Glory shook her finger at Lauren.

"You want to enlighten me?" Kent pushed for an answer.

"Hedy got all riled up when Lauren suggested she try hippotherapy, so Hedy came complaining to me that she wasn't going to do it." Morning Glory put her hand on her hips, necklaces jingling and jangling. "Like I was gonna support her malingering if she had an option to get better, even if it is a long shot. Quick as a duck on a June bug, I gave her a piece of my mind."

"How'd that go over?" Kent asked, shaking his head.

"About like you'd expect," Morning Glory said. "Made her madder than a wet hen. She stormed out of my store, closed her place early, and went home." Morning Glory clasped her necklaces in a fist. "Maybe I should've kept my mouth shut. I haven't walked a mile in her moccasins, so what do I know?"

"You know what we all know," Kent said. "We love Hedy and we want her back to her old cantankerous self."

"Maybe there's a better way to help her, but if there is, I don't know about it." Lauren gave a big sigh. "This is something I know how to do, and I've seen equine-a.s.sisted therapy heal others. Body and mind."

"Well, it sure as shootin' is worth a try," Morning Glory agreed. "Right now, Hedy's got her tail in a crack and she's not pulling it out."

"Not on her lonesome." Kent gave Lauren a sharp look. "I wish you'd told me sooner that Hedy had cold feet about hippotherapy. I would've talked to her about it today. Maybe I could've turned her head in the right direction."

"I didn't say anything because I was hoping she'd come around by tomorrow," Lauren explained with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Hah!" Morning Glory let go of her necklaces and flung wide her arms. "When has that gal ever come around after she got her mind set on a course of action?" She snorted indelicately. "That's why Hedy was a champion barrel racer. Nothing, and I mean nothing, got in between her and her win."

"If we could get her to bring that att.i.tude to hippotherapy, she'd be a winner again," Lauren said.

Morning Glory slumped as she glanced toward Adelia's Delights. "Tell you the truth, I'm worried sick about Hedy. What would I do without her? Even worse, what would the town do without her? It just don't bear thinking on."

Lauren reached out and squeezed Morning Glory's hand. "Don't fret. I'm working on a way to get Aunt Hedy up on a horse again. We're not going to lose her, not anytime soon."

"I guess I need some of my own medicine," Morning Glory said. "I need to trust that all will be as it should be. And that includes my dear friend Hedy's future." She looked through the necklaces hanging around her neck, selected one, pulled it over her head, and handed it to Lauren. "See if you can get Hedy to wear this one. I imagine she's too mad to accept anything from me."

"She's mad at me, too." Lauren looked at the pendant. "A soaring eagle piece of horse harness hardware is just perfect." She looked up at Kent. "But you'd better be the one to give it to her."

"I'll try, but I doubt she'll set a wheel inside my barn now." He frowned at Lauren, feeling renewed frustration. "If you'd told me sooner, I'd have made a special trip to her place today."

"Water under the bridge now," Morning Glory said. "Let's go forward from here and see what we can do to persuade Hedy."

"Okay," Lauren agreed.

Morning Glory glanced at Kent's food and shook her head. "Regret I've kept y'all from your meal. It'll be cold now."

"No matter," Lauren said. "Barbeque's good hot or cold."

"True enough." Morning Glory glanced back and forth between them as a sly smile came to her lips. "Better get on your way. You want to get up on Lovers Leap before the sun sets."

"How'd you know that's where we're going?" Lauren asked.

Morning Glory chuckled. "Let's just say a little bluebird whispered in my ear." She whirled around in a flurry of colorful skirts, opened the door to her store, and glanced back. "Now don't be a stranger." And then she stepped into Morning's Glory and was gone.

Lauren turned toward Kent, smiling. "She almost disappeared in a cloud of smoke, didn't she?"

"That's our gal. You never know what she's going to get up to next." He walked over to his truck, opened the pa.s.senger door, and glanced up at the sky. "Come on. If the sun gets any lower, we'll be out of luck."

"We're never going to be out of luck." Lauren walked over and sat down inside. "Don't you know that?"

"That's exactly right now that you're back in town." He grinned as he handed her the sack and drinks.

As he settled behind the wheel, he noticed Lauren quickly set the two drinks in the cupholder in the center console. She put the sack between her feet, glanced over at him, and raised a shoulder.

"You aren't mad at me, are you? I mean about Hedy." She slipped the smoothly knotted macrame cord back and forth between her fingers before she draped it over the rearview mirror, where the eagle hung like a good luck talisman.

"No." He gave a big sigh as he backed out of the parking place. "I just wished you'd trusted me enough to share that bit of information."

"I do trust you. It's just there was so much going on, what with the fire and the horses and Hannah and well, I apologize that I didn't tell you sooner."

"No apology necessary." He reached over and quickly squeezed her hand. "I thought we were in this together, so any information about Hedy is vital in making plans for her."

"We are in this together, but I'm used to working alone, so you'll need to give me a little catch-up time."

"You've got all the time you want, just so it's today." He chuckled, gave her hand another squeeze, and gripped the steering wheel with both hands.

She joined his laughter. "I'll tell you what, that barbeque smells so good I'm about ready to tear into the sack and start chowing down."

"You'd start without me?" He glanced over at her sitting in the shotgun seat as pretty as you please and generating enough heat in him so that he might need to flip on the AC.

"You know I'd never start without you." She said with a little bit of a growl as she gave him a smoldering look.

"Better put the straws in the drinks. I'm starting to need something cold."

She laughed as she bent over, dug two straws out of the brown paper bag, unwrapped them, and stuck them through the plastic lids on the drinks. "What'd you get us?"

"Traditional Texas."

"Sweet tea or Dr Pepper?"

"Which do you want? I got one of each to make sure you had your choice."

"Don't you remember what I used to drink?"