Chapters (43)
- Cover
- Dedication
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-one
- Twenty-two
- Twenty-three
- Twenty-four
- Twenty-five
- Twenty-six
- Twenty-seven
- Twenty-eight
- Twenty-nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-one
- Thirty-two
- Thirty-three
- Thirty-four
- Epilogue
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- AUTHOR’S NOTE
- Readers Guide
- QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
- About the Author
- What’s next onyour reading list?
She squeezed her eyes shut, tears bleeding out from beneath her eyelashes. LJ took a long step forward and cupped her cheek in one hand, barely daring to touch her.
“Say yes,” he whispered, his heartbeats counting out every second that passed as he waited for her answer.
“I can’t believe you had the balls to come back here after the way you left,” a male voice growled into the silence. “Now get your hands off my daughter.”
Thirty-four
LJ didn’t look away from Andra’s face, so pale and pretty beneath the shadow of her cowboy hat. Reality had rarely been kind to him, and yet he still found himself hoping she might answer. Instead, a tear slipped down her cheek, catching in the corner of her trembling lips. She didn’t even seem to register her father’s voice.
“Hey!” Bill half growled the word. “Did you hear me?”
LJ let his hand drop. Andra’s silence left him empty, the earth too big and wild beneath his feet. He turned around. “I heard you. And I didn’t give a damn.”
Bill Lawler’s face tinged red with rage. He ducked through the rails and stalked into the arena. LJ’s muscles tightened, and Andra’s head lifted.
“You had your chance,” Bill snarled. “And you couldn’t even look me in the eye.”
LJ’s cheek twitched as he remembered staring at the floor in the other man’s office, listening to everything he wanted being snatched out of reach. “And what chance was that?” LJ cocked his head. “Was that when you yelled at me for making her laugh, or when you threatened to fire me for loving her?” He figured it hardly mattered if Andra heard it now. She’d made her choice and it hadn’t been him.
At his side, she jolted. “Dad, what is he talking about?”
Bill’s jaw flexed under half a beard’s worth of unshaven stubble. “You can paint it any way you like. The fact is, you chose a paycheck over the girl you claim to love, just like I knew you would. Did you tell her that when she followed you halfway across the country?”
Retorts screamed through LJ’s head, but that was the kind of accusation so ridiculous the only answer was a broken jaw. Except this was Andra’s father, and of the two of them, Bill was the one she was going to listen to.
“He didn’t choose anything, Dad.” Andra’s feet stayed planted. “I was the one who left.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about, Andra.” Bill looked at LJ and jerked his chin toward the highway. “I grew up in a trailer park just down the road from here. I know the only people who don’t care about money are the ones who have enough, like my kids.”