Her Cowboy Hero

“Hold still,” Tanner said, frowning as they both stood up. “Where’s your first-aid kit?”

“It’s nothing. Just a small cut.” She tried once again to pull her hand free but she had forgotten how strong and stubborn he could be.

Tanner’s mouth thinned into a grim line. “Just tell me where the bandages are,” he growled.

“Is everything okay in there?” Keira heard her father call out.

“Just fine,” Tanner yelled back. Then he turned to Keira, grabbed a towel and wrapped it tightly around her hand. He made her sit down at the small table in the breakfast nook. “Now. Bandages?”

“There’s a first-aid kit in the bottom drawer of the island. Far left side.”

“Good girl.” He strode to the island, retrieved the kit, then brought it back to the table. He opened it, then found what he needed.

“Give me your hand,” he said, his voice now quiet as he ripped open a bandage.

Keira tamped down her reaction and held her hand out to him. He knelt down in front of her, carefully removed the towel, dabbed at the cut as he examined it. “You won’t need stitches,” he said as he quickly wrapped a bandage around the wound. “But you’ll need at least two bandages.”

Keira tried to distract herself from his large hands gently maneuvering the second bandage onto her cut. She felt the calluses on his palms, caught the familiar scent of the aftershave he used, the smell of the shampoo in his hair. The overhead light shone on his hair, bringing out a faint sheen of gold in the brown, and Keira found she had to make a fist of her free hand to stop herself from reaching up and smoothing it away from his face.

The way she always used to.

Just then he looked up and their eyes met. Held.

His expression softened. She couldn’t look away and for a moment it was as if all the years between them, all the events that kept them apart, had been erased.

“Is everything okay?”

Alice stood in the doorway of the kitchen, her arms folded over her chest.

And her presence brought stark reality back into the moment.

“I...I cut myself,” Keira murmured, pulling her hand out of Tanner’s.

“Oh, my. Here, let me help you,” Alice said, skirting the broken dish to get to Keira.

“It’s fine now,” Keira said, tucking her hand against her side as she got up. “Just a cut. Tanner bandaged it up.” She was about to walk back to finish the dishes when Alice stopped her.

“Why don’t you take my place at the Scrabble game?” Alice said. “Tanner and I can finish up.”

“Sure. That’s a good idea,” she said, thankful for the reprieve.

But as she walked past Tanner, she caught his cynical smile, firmly back in place.

She paused just outside the kitchen, where neither Alice and Tanner nor her parents could see her. She took a moment, leaning against the wall, trying to get her bearings.

A little help here, Lord, she prayed, willing her tangled emotions to find the peace and equilibrium she had managed to attain before Tanner had dropped back into her life.

All she had to do was get through the next few days, she reminded herself as she pinned a smile on her face and walked out to where her parents sat by the table. Dad will get the saddle fixed and Tanner—and all the memories and pain he evoked—could be out of her life. Soon.

Chapter Three (#ulink_36e03cbf-59d1-5891-acc9-28e56bbc01d3)

The last time he’d been in this church building was for David’s funeral.

Tanner stood in the back of the foyer of the Saddlebank Community Church, looking over the gathered people, painful memories leaning into him. He pushed away his sorrow as he thought of his father and his brother, both now buried in the graveyard beside the church. For a moment he wished he hadn’t come, but lately he had felt the old hunger for his faith gnawing at him.

He’d arranged to meet George Bamford, owner of the Grill and Chill, about a place he could stay while he waited for his saddle to get fixed. There was no way he was staying at Refuge Ranch another night.

So he had two reasons to come to church this morning.

“Welcome to our services.” An earnest-looking young man wearing a skinny black tie and mustard-yellow shirt with a badge that said Usher handed him a bulletin and added a broad smile. Tanner didn’t recognize him. “Are you visiting?”

“In a manner of speaking, yeah,” Tanner said, taking the bulletin.

“Let me find you a place to sit,” the young man said, spinning around and starting down the center aisle, giving Tanner no choice but to follow him.

He stopped at the end of a pew and waved at Tanner, who gave him a quick smile and was about to sit down when he froze.

Keira had just walked in, and was moving into the same pew, sitting down beside Brooke, her old friend.

He couldn’t sit here.

He was about to move on to another empty spot in the opposite pew when Keira looked over at him. It would look too strange if he moved now, so he settled into the pew. But he couldn’t help a surprised look at what Keira wore.

Her long-sleeved black T-shirt and pants, and stark ponytail were a far cry from the bright colors, swirly skirts, dresses and done-up hair that she used to favor. Many a Sunday morning he would come to Refuge Ranch to pick up Keira for church. He’d always had to wait as Keira and her sister, Heather, chose their makeup, clothing and jewelry.

Today she looked as if she didn’t want to draw attention to herself. As if she were trying to hide.

He shot her another glance, surprised to find her looking at him. Then a flush colored her cheeks and she looked quickly away, turning back to Brooke. But her friend was leaning past her, looking at Tanner, the faint frown on her face telegraphing her disapproval of his presence there.

For a moment he regretted coming. But he pulled in a breath, ignoring both of them and looking at the front of the church, centering himself. He was here to worship. He shouldn’t care what Keira or her friend Brooke thought.

The worship team was assembling at the front, another surprise for Tanner. For as long as he could remember, Laura McCauley had played the old organ, coaxing maximum volume for her favorite hymns, making it barely wheeze for the songs she didn’t care for. In fact, she had played for David’s funeral, a long, steady requiem of mournful songs that had served only to make Tanner even more depressed.

But this group started a lively song that got Tanner’s toe tapping though he didn’t recognize the song they were playing.

Halfway through the first song he felt a nudge on his shoulder.

“You’re in my spot, young man.”

He looked up, puzzled, then repressed a grin.

Keith McCauley glared down at him, his mustache quivering over tightly pursed lips.

He had forgotten that Mr. McCauley had always sat here. His three daughters always took up the space between him and Keira. But that was many years ago.

“So. You’re back,” Keith said, his frown easing as he recognized Tanner. “You don’t usually sit here.”

Tanner shook his head as he moved over to give Keith room yet still preserve some space between him and Keira. “No. Me and my family always sat in the back.”