Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 64880 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64880 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
“It’s not a real pistol, Amelia Louise,” Gram said, pruning her lips. “It’s part of my costume for the Wild West convention next month. I figured I should practice riding in it with family first before I embarrass myself in public.”
“You look great, Gram.” Pike leaned down to press a kiss to her cheek. “You’re going to knock all those old cowboys out of their saddles.”
Gram beamed. “See, Mia, this is the way you behave if you want to be my favorite grandchild.”
Mia laughed. “You said I was your favorite last weekend.”
“Favorite granddaughter,” Gram corrected as she stood to give Pike a proper hug.
“I’m you’re only granddaughter,” Mia said, rolling her eyes. “I’m going to find Sawyer. Is he in the barn?”
“Yes,” Gram said. “I put him to work disposing of those terrible dolls you left last time.”
Mia made a stricken sound and dashed off the porch, shouting, “Don’t do it, Sawyer! Those are my naked cowboys! I have more plans for them!”
Gram giggled wickedly as she grabbed her cell phone off the table near her glass of tea and started down the porch steps. “I’ll be right back, Pike,” she whispered. “I need to snap a picture of Mia getting a taste of her own medicine. I’ve got those blow up dolls rigged to fall on her head as soon as she walks into the barn.”
Pike shook his head as he watched Gram scamper across the yard like she was sixteen instead of seventy-something. Gram could insist he was her favorite all day long, but she and Mia were two of a kind and getting tighter with every passing year. It was one of the many ways Lonesome Point had moved on without him. Back when he was in high school, Mia and Gram had constantly butted heads, but now they’d banded together to expand the ghost town and were friends as well as family.
Pike ambled down the steps and over to the line of horses, stopping near a mare with white socks and a shiny black tail he didn’t recognize. But that didn’t mean much. He’d lost track of how many horses called Gram’s barn home a long time ago. He wasn’t a part of this town anymore and usually that was just fine with him. He wasn’t the type who got homesick.
Or at least he hadn’t been until Monday night, when he’d lain awake wondering how different his life would have been if he and Tulsi had stayed together. He’d managed to keep his mind off depressing shit yesterday by helping Sawyer’s crew lay new floorboards in the ghost town schoolhouse, but last night had been a repeat of the night before. Every time he closed his eyes, Tulsi’s face floated in the darkness behind them. Every time he fell asleep, dreams of that happy life they’d never had tortured him awake again.
He didn't want dreams of Tulsi: he wanted the woman herself. At the very least, he wanted her forgiveness, but he had no idea how to go about apologizing for all the stupid things he’d done.
“What do you think, pretty girl?” Pike held his knuckles up for the mare to sniff. “Think I can convince her not to hate me?”
The animal blew out a long breath, setting its lips to flapping.
“Well, what do you know?” Pike asked, smiling as he stroked the animal’s neck. “You’re just a horse.”
“I’d be careful if I were you,” came a sweet drawl from behind him. “She bites when she’s impatient to get going, so watch your fingers.”
Tulsi. Again. He would call it coincidence that she’d appeared right when he was thinking of her, but he hadn’t stopped thinking about her for the past two days. He turned to see her stepping off the porch, a glass of tea in hand. She was dressed in faded blue jeans, a light pink tank top, and a tan cowgirl hat that had seen better days, but she still took Pike’s breath away.
“Hey you,” he said softly.
“Hey yourself,” she said, wiping one hand on her worn jeans. She looked exactly the way she had when she was eighteen and used to meet him in her father’s back pasture for a ride after school. Pike’s chest tightened as he remembered the way she would run to him and throw her arms around his neck, hugging him so tight there was no doubt in his mind that she was thrilled to see him.
Now, she stood with her arms crossed and her tea clutched to her chest, meeting his eyes for only a fraction of a second before her gaze fell to the ground and an awkward silence swelled between them. Pike wanted to say something to ease the tension, but before he could say a word, Ugly Ross and his date roared up the dirt road in Ross’s ancient bug, kicking up dust, which the hot summer wind whipped across the yard.