Where the Heart Leads by Jillian Hart

wanting to get rid of me.”
    “I’ll survive.” Humor made his eyes a warm, tender gray as he watched his daughter cross the street. “I don’t know where I went wrong. She was so sweet when she was little.”
    “She’s adorable.” That was the plain truth. Aumaleigh took a deep breath. She was over the pain, over the past, but was she over the anger? No, as it was brewing. “What do I have to do to get rid of you?”
    “Good question. Maybe beat me with a long stick. Throw a cow pie at me. Kick me in the shin?”
    “If only that would work.” Aumaleigh noticed Gemma watching through the window. She glanced down the boardwalk and there was her niece, Annie, standing in front of the Bluebell Bakery openly staring. Any moment now Fred was going to step foot outside the post office and rumors would start to fly. “When is your daughter going back to Ohio?”
    “Soon. I’m keeping her for a little longer. She’s determined to get my house set up before she goes.” He stared down the street, when all he wanted to do was to soak up the sight of her. To memorize all the little things about her he needed to learn anew. “Seth and Rose seem happy. They had me and Leigh over to supper last night.”
    “Oh? I hadn’t heard a thing about it. Yet. I’ve got to go. I have a ranch to run.”
    “I heard you inherited quite a spread. Ranching is in your blood.”
    “Yours too.” She smoothed a wrinkle in her skirt self-consciously. “Did you ever build that ranch you hoped for?”
    “I sure did.” The land he’d bought in the same small town in Ohio had never been the ranch he’d dreamed of having for her. The young man he’d been had been so sure that he needed money and standing to truly win her and keep her. He’d wised up, and in life his hard work had paid off. “I’ve retired now. I can enjoy the good life.”
    “Here in Bluebell? Maybe you’d be happier somewhere with more things to do. Like New York.”
    “That’s nice and far away. I’m sure you’d like that. Can I ask you a favor?”
    “I don’t know.” She arched a slender brow, studying him warily. “We’ve reached a truce, but I don’t think that entitles you to favors.”
    “I know Leigh was asking questions about our past. Don’t feel obligated to answer. You can tell her no.”
    “That’s
your favor?”
    “Yes. Let’s leave the past alone.” Time may have passed, but Aumaleigh had never been one who could easily hide everything. Her heart was still tender.
    “All right.” Her gaze met his, and there was no smile there, no twinkle. He missed the way she used to look up at him full of humor and alive with love.
    Would she ever look at him that way again?
    He didn’t know. But he was determined.
    “Here, let me help you up into your buggy.” He held out his hand, palm up, not wanting to give away how much this chance meant to him. “It’s the gentlemanly thing to do. Any man worth his salt would do the same.”
    “Is that so?” A smile touched her soft lips, but sadness stole the life from her eyes. “I don’t think there’s one man in this town I’ve let help me into my buggy, who wasn’t an employee or a nephew-in-law.”
    “Don’t try to use that against me.” He moved in, took her hand in his since she wasn’t being agreeable. The instant they touched, his chest cinched tight. A mix of old emotions, both good and bad, haunted him.
    But so did new ones.
    If they’d never met, if they’d never loved, he still would be standing here just like this, caught in the moment between taking her hand and helping her up into her buggy. When their gazes met, he could see into her, see the lonely heart some stupid young man had broken long ago.
    If he’d never known her, this moment would still have changed his life. His pulse came to a stop at the silken warmth of her hand in his. He breathed in her faint roses scent. As she lowered her foot onto the running board, he caught hold of her elbow with his other hand to