Kissed by a Cowboy by Lacy Williams Page A

food
on the kitchen table and rushed to take the weight of the chair.
Last thing Justin needed was for that chair to topple over and land
on his only remaining good leg.
    "I got to thinking," Justin said, huffing.
"That it's time to get rid of this old thing."
    Their eyes met over the top of the stinky
chair.
    He knew what Justin was saying. More than the
recliner, it was time to let the past go.
    His dad had sat in the chair and drunk
himself to death. Maddox barely had any good memories of the
man.
    Ma had sat in this chair, swallowed by her
grief. After she'd lost Katie, she'd lost herself.
    Justin had almost done the same. His injury
had made him give up on life.
    But if he was man enough to get out of the
chair, he was on the road to total recovery. His hip might not be
fully functional, and he might always have a limp, but he could
move on.
    Maddox felt a hot burn behind his eyes. He
cleared his throat. "I'm proud of you."
    "Yeah, yeah." Justin leaned down to pick up
the crutch he'd laid across the fireplace hearth. "After you take
that out to the dump, you need to get in your truck and head to
Oklahoma City."
    Maddox grunted. He angled the chair toward
the door, eyeing the frame. The chair wasn't going to fit
upright.
    "I'm not kidding," Justin said. "You can't
just let a girl like Haley get away."
    Maddox pushed the chair across the floor. It
hung up on a patch of old carpet and he almost fell over the top of
it, getting a good wallop in the stomach when it rebounded.
    "Mad. I'm serious."
    "She's the one who left," he huffed. She'd
left him behind. Again.
    "And you've been moping around here for three
weeks. You've got two feet and a truck. So go get her and bring her
back."
    His heart panged once, hard. "It's not that
easy. I've got a lead on a job, but I've got to prove myself—"
    "Prove what?" Justin demanded. "Prove that
you're just as much of an idiot as our father? She's in love with
you—if you haven't messed that up. She'll stand by you."
    He wanted to believe...wanted to believe it
so badly.
    Maddox's heart thudded in his chest. "I've
been pretty stupid."
    "No kidding. What else is new? But she fell
in love with you knowing that football players have a couple screws
loose, so this little act of stupidity probably hasn't surprised
her much."
    Could he really take Justin's advice?
    What if she couldn't forgive him for breaking
her heart?
    Worse than that, what if he never tried to
put it back together?
    #
    Haley had
settled into her normal routine.
    Sort of.
    She went to work. And stared at her computer
screen all day. She wasn't getting a lot done.
    She came home. And tried not to stare at her
phone, willing Maddox to call.
    She'd called his house and spoken to Livy
several times, checking on the business, checking on the girl.
    She'd shied away from asking
about Maddox. When Livy had offered tidbits like he liked the root beer float
flavor , Haley had mm-hmmed and moved on.
    What was wrong with her?
    She had a car. Gas. Keys. She could drive
back to Redbud Trails any time. She wanted to take the man by the
shoulders and shake him. Or maybe kiss him.
    She didn't know what she'd been thinking that
last day. Maybe she'd let her grief blind her, or her fear.
    She knew there was something between her
and Maddox. It had been too strong to deny, and too strong to fade
away.
    She'd talked herself into a weekend trip and
had her keys dangling from her fingers when she exited her front
door. And stopped short.
    There was a big, dusty truck in her
driveway.
    She barely registered the truck before a
tall, dusty cowboy stood in her way, too.
    She threw herself at him. And he caught
her.
    "What took you so long?" she mumbled into his
shoulder.
    He rumbled a laugh. "Sorry."
She felt the press of his chin in her hair. "It took this big,
dumb Ox a little
bit to get things figured out."
    She tilted her chin back and squinted up at
him. "Don't call yourself dumb."
    He used the opportunity to rub his thumb
along the line of her