her to give him her pony. âI donât have any money. Aunt Daisyâs buying mine and Betsyâs.â
âThen maybe sheâll pay for me?â he said with a wink in Daisyâs direction.
Bonnie shrugged.
âHow was your week?â he asked Kolt after obligatory greetings to Wren and Bonnie. Was it wrong that part of him damn near feared talking to Daisy? She made him hot and bothered and took his mind from the most important thing on the dayâs agendaâsharing quality time with Kolt.
Not Koltâs sexy-as-hell mom.
âThought you couldnât come,â Daisy said, hating the way her pulse raced at the mere sight of Luke. She felt the way she had back in high school. Save for the ten years sheâd been gone, theyâd attended this event together literally every year of their lives.
âHey,â Wren said, waving Robinâs chubby hand at Luke.
Luke playfully snatched the babyâs hand, pretending to chew.
Robin shrieked with laughter.
Watching him interact with the infant hurt Daisy to her core. Worse yet was the look on her sonâs face as he saw his father interact more easily with a child who wasnât even his.
âYouâre looking mighty spiffy,â Luke finally said to their son. âI like those cowboy duds.â
âThanks,â Kolt said almost pensively. âI didnât know if other kids wore this stuff, but since they do, I like it.â
âWhat events have you seen so far?â Luke asked as they stepped up in line.
âBarrel racing. Itâs pretty cool. But Iâm mostly excited for bull riding. Thatâs what my uncle Cash does.â
As a professional bull rider, Cash was ineligible to compete, so he typically hung around back, helping with the chutes.
Wren shook her head. âTo my eternal dismay. As if itâs not bad enough I have to worry about him smashing his head in wrestling with a bull, heâs got so many groupies he could form his own girlsâ school.â
Laughing, Luke said, âAnd knowing the size of your husbandâs ego, he loves every minute of it.â
Kolt said, âUncle Cash told me he loves Aunt Wren best, âcause she kisses likeââ
âWhoa there, bud.â Cash sauntered up to them, blasting them with his thousand-watt smile. âDonât be spilling all my secrets. You canât let the ladies know how much you like âem, otherwise that gives âem leverage to break your heart.â
âOh, stop,â Wren said, pummeling her husband with her free hand.
Daisy glanced Lukeâs way and their gazes locked. For a heady second, hot summer sun melting the sense from her head, everything was back the way it had once been. She was with Luke. Then she remembered he could hardly stand the sight of her. Heâd only kissed her to prove all that had once simmered between them was now dead. Only, for her, it should be, but sadly, wasnât.
Moving up in line, Daisy was relieved to have finallyplaced their funnel-cake order. Maybe once theyâd eaten, Luke would trail off to find his family, and stop distracting her.
âWhat do you think?â Daisy asked Kolt after heâd taken his first bite of the funnel cake.
All smiles, with his nose and chin white, he said, âThis is amazing!â
âTold you so,â Betsy sassed. âYouâre dumb for never eating this stuff.â
âYeah, well, youâre dumb and ugly for being a girl.â
âHey!â Daisy warned. âKnock it off.â
âItâs okay,â Bonnie said. ââCause heâs dumb and ugly for being a boy.â
While nodding in agreement, Betsy stuck out her white, sugar-coated tongue.
While the rest of the party laughed over the kid antics, for Daisy, the moment had lost its sparkle. Standing not ten feet from her was Henry. Sneaking up behind the girls, he made a mock pounce for them, then tugged their matching
Tim Curran, Cody Goodfellow, Gary McMahon, C.J. Henderson, William Meikle, T.E. Grau, Laurel Halbany, Christine Morgan, Edward Morris