HER HEART FOR THE ASKING
by
Lisa Mondello
SMASHWORDS EDITION
* * * * *
PUBLISHED BY:
Lisa Mondello at Smashwords
Her Heart for the Asking
Copyright © 2001 by Lisa Mondello
First Edition published 2001 by Avalon Books
Second Edition published 2012
Smashwords Edition License Notes
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.
* * * * *
"Ms. Mondello presents a beguiling story that keeps you turning the pages."
Susan Mobley - 4 STARS - ROMANTIC TIMES MAGAZINE
Promises made...Secrets kept...
Mandy Morgan swore she’d never step foot in Texas again after Beau Gentry left her for life on the rodeo circuit eight years before. He once promised he'd love her forever. But he'd abandoned their love for the rodeo and she hadn't seen him since. Now she's back in Texas. Her uncle’s heart is failing and Mandy has to convince him that surgery will save his life.
She never dreamed the first thing she’d see when she stepped off the plane would be her biggest nightmare...the one man she’d never stopped loving.
Beau Gentry had the fever for two things: the rodeo and Mandy Morgan. But for Beau, loving Mandy was complicated by his father’s vendetta against her uncle and a promise he'd made to an old friend. Hank Promise, Mandy's uncle, was more like a father to Beau than his old man had been. The hardest thing Beau had ever done was leave Mandy behind for the rodeo. He can still see the bitterness and hurt on her face. It has killed him all these years to think Mandy had forgotten him...maybe even in the arms of another man.
But now they’re both back in Texas, and Beau's going to do all he can to win back her love.
* * * * *
Ebooks available by Lisa Mondello
The Marriage Contract ##
All I Want for Christmas is You ##
The Knight and Maggie’s Baby##
Nothing but Trouble
Cradle of Secrets – Harlequin Love Inspired Suspense**
Her Only Protector – Harlequin Love Inspired Suspense**
Yuletide Protector – Harlequin Love Inspired Suspense
Fresh-Start Family – Harlequin Love Inspired Romance
In a Doctor’s Arms – Harlequin Love Inspired Romance
Her Heart for the Asking***
His Heart for the Trusting ***
The More I See ***
*** TEXAS HEARTS SERIES
## Fate with a Help Hand (Massachusetts) Series
** Cradle Series
* * * * *
This book is dedicated to Natalie Damschroder. I could never have done this one without you if you hadn’t been there for all the others. Many thanks my friend!
* * * * *
HER HEART FOR THE ASKING
Chapter One
"What are you doing here?" Mandy Morgan asked, dropping her too-heavy overnight case on the sun-roasted tarmac. After a grueling forty-eight hour work stint and a five-hour flight from Philadelphia, she stood wilting under the brutal Texas sun, facing her biggest nightmare.
Beau Gentry.
She groaned inwardly, drinking Beau in with her eyes as if she hadn't had a drop of water in months. Eight years was more like it. If she were eight years smarter, she would be moving her aching feet as fast as she could in the opposite direction. But all she could do was stare at eyes so bright they rivaled the blazing sun. At lips so kissable she'd spent the better part of her adult life trying to wipe the memory clean from her mind.
She had expected Beau would have aged some. When she allowed herself to think about him at all, she reminded herself. The faint lines etched in the corners of his sleepy gray-blue eyes gave a hint of maturity, but most probably caused by long days in the cruel sun.
She fought the urge to take a closer look at his ruggedly handsome features, but failed. How could he have gotten better looking after being abused by every bronc-busting horse on the rodeo circuit? His angular jaw, strong and determined, was shaded with beard growth that was probably a day old, maybe more. Mandy suspected if Beau grew a full beard, it would grow in thick and be the smooth texture of his almost black head of hair. She forced aside past memories that gave her such knowledge with renewed irritation.
The man didn't even have the decency to have a crooked nose. What should have been bent and awkward from being broken a few too many times was instead long and straight, shaped perfectly between high cheek bones most women would swoon over, or kill to have themselves. But on Beau Gentry, it was just one thousand percent robust cowboy.
Damn him.
"I'm your ride out to the Double T," Beau said, gripping the edge of his white straw cowboy hat and tipping it in a cordial gesture.
She ground the heels of her low pumps into the soft tar to contain her growing irritation. Did he think she was an idiot? "No way."
"'Fraid so," he said, his expression slightly askew.
"Hank didn't mention anything about you coming to get me when I spoke to him on the phone."
"I suspect he thought you would have found some excuse not to come if you knew I was picking you up."
"He would have been right. Why didn't one of the hands come get me?"
Settling his hand at the base of his neck, Beau replied, "You're looking at him. As of three weeks ago I am one of the ranch hands at the Double T."
What?! Mandy fought the urge to keep her surprise from showing, but immediately failed. Beau Gentry was the son of her uncle's biggest rival. It hadn't stopped her from falling head over heels for the man on those long, lazy summers she came down to the ranch to visit her aunt and uncle. Of course, back then, rodeo was all Beau cared about, not his father's spread. Not her, she remembered painfully.
He was going to go PRCA and be a world champion. It was his dream and all he ever talked about. He was good enough to do it, too, Mandy thought wryly. So good, he hadn't given her a second glance when he rode out of Texas without her eight years ago on the heels of a golden sunset.
Her chuckle was almost hysterical. "You really expect me to leave this airport with you?"
"That was the plan," he said smiling, his gray eyes seeing more of her than she wanted him to see. He held his ground. He had to know how difficult it was to see him after all this time. It didn't matter that he didn't share her unrest. He could have at least had the decency to think about her feelings. But then he hadn't thought about her feelings eight years ago when he broke her heart, so it didn't seem he was any more incline to do so now.
Beau Gentry might be clueless, but there was no way Mandy was going anywhere with him. No way she'd spend the next two hours bouncing up and down in a hot pickup truck breathing in his scent and wrestling with memories...
Mandy twisted on her heels and surged in the opposite direction. "Forget it," she called over her shoulder.
There had to be a cab going somewhere. Anywhere. A hot, sticky bus would be a lot more inviting than spending the next few hours in inescapable close quarters with Beau.
"Mandy, what are you going to do, walk all the way to the Double T?"
"I'm sorry you were dragged out here like this, Beau. But I'm afraid it was a waste of your time. I...can rent a car."
Behind her, Mandy heard his heavy sigh and the sound of his boots stop short on the tarmac. Defeat? Regret? She wasn't sure, but she was very sure she shouldn't care.
Since Mandy had just come off a forty-eight hour work-marathon and let her cell phone battery run down, she concentrated on finding a payphone.
"It's been a while since you've been around. The car rental service went belly up here two years ago. About the closest thing you could do to get away from me right now is to take a cab to the bus depot. And I'll just have to pick you up when you get to Steerage Rock anyway."
She stopped walking when she reached the pay phone just outside the small terminal, angling back to see where Beau was standing. The airport was small enough not to have gates. All passengers exited the plane on the tarmac. She glanced past the booth to the boarded up window near the entrance to the small building that housed the air tower, the terminal and a small restaurant-a fast food diner of sorts. The peeled paint of the weather-beaten banner didn't hide the letters of a rental car company that indeed had gone out of business.
She blew out an exasperated breath of frustration in the already hot Texas heat. She wasn't ready to give up. Right now, a bus looked as if it might be a possibility, since the last orange taxi just pulled out of the parking lot with one of the passengers who'd been on the same flight she'd taken. She remembered seeing a bus depot not far from here when Uncle Hank used to pick her up. It wouldn't take her all the way to the Double T, but close enough not to put Uncle Hank or Aunt Corrine out when she called and asked for a ride.
She was being ridiculous. Part of her knew that, accept her behavior as being childish. But part of her rationalized it as necessary. She knew all too well the dangers of being with Beau Gentry. It had taken Mandy too long to get over him and she wasn't about to let anything allow the man to seep into her heart again.
"I can manage," she said resolutely.
"I suspect you could. You seem to have done fine for yourself, judging by the fancy clothes you're wearing and that designer luggage."
With a fistful of quarters in her palm, she swung around, cradling the phone in her other hand. Leveling him with a warning stare, she said tightly, "I don't think you're in a position to judge me after what you did."
His face showed a momentary flash of regret. "That was a long time ago, Mandy."
She gripped the quarters in her hand, felt her pulse hammer in her wrist. "I have a long memory."
Turning her attention back to the task at hand, Mandy decided the phone book was useless. What was the company name on the side of that yellow cab? It had been eight years since she'd been in Texas. Eight years was a long time for a county to change. Who could she possibly call if her one and only ally in Texas sent the one man she swore she'd never lay eyes on again?
Defeated, she dropped the out of date phonebook, and chided herself for not charging her cell phone before she left for the airport. She had most of her numbers on speed dial and couldn't even recall the number for the Double T. It would teach her to let her cell phone battery run down again, leaving her unprepared.
"Tell me, Beau. Why did you come here? Someone else could have easily come for me. Why did it have to be you?"
His gray-blue eyes lost some of their luster and grew solemn. There was a time long ago when she thought she could stare at those eyes and be lost in them for hours. You still could, she realized with sudden regret.
Not a good sign.
He adjusted his hat in that lazy way he always did. "Because Hank asked me to. That's why."
There was her life in a nutshell. Beau was asked. And Mandy wasn't. Mandy was never asked, she was told. And like the good girl she was raised to be, Mandy always complied.
She thought back to the conversation she'd had with her mother just three days ago with renewed irritation.
"I'm not asking, Mandy," Leandra Morgan had said over the phone.
I'm telling you.
Her mother didn't have to actually say the last part for Mandy to know what she was thinking. It was a given. It followed every request the woman ever made. I'm not asking you to keep your tongue. I'm not asking you to come to your cousin's party. I'm not asking you to apologize to your father. I'm not asking you to work for the family business...or date the son of your father's biggest client. I'm telling you.
Three days ago Mandy had sat in her downtown Philadelphia office on the phone with her mother, impatiently drumming her foot on the lift on her chair. "I am knee deep in this project for Dad, Mom. There's just no way I'm going to be able to get away. I can't make both of you happy at the same time."
"You'll just have to find a way." Leandra's voice came like static over the phone. "Your uncle...isn't himself. It's been a long time since you've visited him in Texas. I think it would do him some good to see you again. I think it's time you go."
A tug of emotion had squeezed her chest. It had been years since she'd visited Uncle Hank and Aunt Corrine at the Double T. She'd never told her mother why she'd stopped her summer visits, and thankfully, her mother had never pushed for a reason. Mandy suspected her mother had just accepted her decision to not make her summer vacation as Mandy asserting adolescent independence, wanting to remain in Philadelphia to enjoy some summer freedom with her friends. She'd never spoken about what happened that last summer. Never confided of her first love. And that was just fine with Mandy. She didn't need to be reminded.
"I'll call Uncle Hank and explain. I can't get away now. He'll understand," she'd said.
"You make it happen, young lady." I'm not asking.
A voice boomed over the outdoor loudspeaker announcing the arrival of another flight. Mandy was immediately pulled back to the present, back to Texas, and the hot tarmac she now stood on, heels sinking into the sun-softened tar.
"We've got a couple of hours ahead of us. I'm going to get something cold to drink for the ride," Beau said, ambling toward the building. Turning back, he asked, "You want something?"
Yeah, I want you to go away. I want to forget the way you broke my heart all those years ago. But she knew that was futile. She'd been a fool to think she'd gotten over him. If eight years and countless dates with very eligible men hadn't exorcised the memory of Beau Gentry from her heart and soul, nothing would.
Mandy glanced at him, defeat sitting just beneath the surface of her composure, and shook her head.
How could he act so normal? How could he be asking her something as simple as whether she wanted a soda when the last time they'd seen each other had been such a sham?
And how dare he be so handsome after a two hour ride in a hot pickup truck? His white tee-shirt stretched taut across his muscled shoulders. She knew first hand just how strong those arms were when they were wrapped around her in a warm embrace. After years of breaking every wild bronc on the circuit, they were sure to be even stronger.
There wasn't an ounce of body fat on the man. His jeans weren't a tight fit, even baggy in a few places where she longed to lazily roam her hand over and on a few occasions long ago had. But on Beau, there was nothing sloppy about it. Just high voltage sex appeal that had her rampant heart doing an acrobatic dance right there on the blazing tarmac.
And he was nonchalantly asking if she wanted a soda.
The door closed behind him as he stepped into the building and Mandy watched through the tinted window while he wandered over to the soda machine in the corner and made his selection. He stood there, his weight shifted lazily to one hip in a never-do-care way.
She tore her gaze away from her torture. Beau Gentry might look like a dream come true from the cover of Modern Cowboy, but she was an utter disaster after her long flight. Suddenly aware she was still wearing yesterday's silk suit, she ran her hands down her skirt in a futile attempt to smooth out the wrinkles. Giving up, she rummaged through her purse for a barrette and a comb. Anything to pull together hair that had become unruly from neglect, heat and the wind. Settling on a hairband and her fingers as a comb, she wrestled her normally-wavy-gone-curly-in-the-heat dusty blonde hair into a pony tail. She hated that it made her look sixteen again. But there wasn't much she could do until she could get back to the ranch and unpack her things.
As Mandy watched Beau walk out into the sunshine with two Root Beers and a bag of chips in his hand, she reasoned she wasn't as vulnerable as she had been then. Letting the likes of Beau Gentry stomp on her heart was something she wouldn't do ever again. She was a woman now. She could do this. She led corporate business meetings. She used her innovative ideas to dazzle prospective clients into spending millions of advertising dollars with her father's firm. She'd just purchased an elegant townhouse in one of the trendiest sections of Philadelphia. All she had to do was pull herself together and she could handle this situation like the professional she was.
"I'm not going," she said, cursing inwardly for sounding like a spoiled child. So much for the corporate executive touch.
Beau's lips curled into a slight grin. He wouldn't win any points if he ticked Mandy off by laughing at the way her chin tilted up in defiance. That hadn't changed much. Or the flash of fire in her deep brown eyes. They still looked as black and contrasted wildly with the natural streaks of blond in her hair. He'd always found that appealing, adorable as all get-out. Already his fingers itched to dig in and let the soft curls of her hair tumble in his hand.
But she had changed. Any fool could see that Mandy Morgan had blossomed into a five star beauty while he'd been out roaming the country these last eight years.
She was still slim as she was at sixteen, but her figure had filled out in all the right places that made a man take notice. The light rock in her hips that had taunted him when she was sixteen had matured into a graceful sway he found hypnotizing. Although she'd chewed off most of her lipstick, he noticed she now wore a slight hint of makeup on her cheeks and eyes, giving her the more exotic look of a woman.
And she still had the power to make his head spin like a lasso chasing a calf. He longed to see her smile again, hear her laugh bubble up from her soul. But given the way things ended between them, and the way she stood before him now with her arms knotted tightly in front of her chest, her jaw set, he knew she wouldn't crack a smile just to spite him.
Lord only knew why Hank insisted he be the one to pick her up at the airport.
"Did you hear me?" she finally said when he didn't answer her.
"Yeah, I did."
Her dark eyes widened slightly. "Oh. Good."
Beau reached down and picked up her leather garment bag, watching as her bewildered eyes followed his movement.
"It doesn't change anything though. Hank asked me to pick you up at the airport and bring you home, and that's what I'm doing if I have to toss you over my shoulder and drop you in the pickup."
Mandy gasped. "You wouldn't dare!"
"Wanna try me?" He couldn't help but smile. She just looked too darlin' getting all hot and flustered. She had to know he wouldn't give up. Not just because she was virtually stuck, and knew it, but because she knew he would never refuse Hank's request.
She sighed and closed her eyes. "You touch me and I'll..."
"What?"
"I'll..."
"Afraid of what you'll do?" His smile widened just thinking. "Or are you afraid of how you'll feel in my arms again?"
A veil of pain hooded her delicate features. She wasn't just defeated, he realized. She still hurt after all these years. Guilt stabbed at his gut just thinking of how she was going to feel when she finally reached the Double T and she learned the real reason she was called back to Texas.
Somehow, on those long drives from rodeo to rodeo these past eight years Beau had fantasized about Mandy forgiving him one day for what he'd done. Maybe even understanding why he'd had to do it. As the years went on, he figured she'd have forgotten all about what the two of them had shared that summer, and moved on with her life. He didn't want to think of her finding comfort with another man, forgetting the way she used to melt like butter in his arms, the way they breathlessly clung to each other to steal just one more kiss before turning in each night. But it would have been easier for her if she had.
Looking in her haunted eyes now, Beau realized that was truly a fantasy. Her pain was still as raw as the day he'd left her eight years ago.
He gripped the bag of chips he'd just bought from the vending machine so hard it popped.
"Look, we have a long ride ahead of us. If you want, you can blast the radio with any station you want and pretend someone else is driving."
"You'll just start whistling to remind me you're there," she said, staring at the ground.
She remembered. Every trip to the local rodeos he'd been pent up with anticipation. She liked to listen to the radio in the truck and when he was nervous, he'd whistle and it annoyed the tar out of her. But she teased him anyway, telling him if he was going to whistle, he could at least do it in key.
Having her remember that one small detail gave him a slice of hope. No, they'd never be able to pick up where they'd left off eight years ago. That part of his life was dead and buried. But maybe he'd have a chance to repair the damage he'd done. Maybe they could be friends.
Mandy threw her purse over her shoulder and headed toward the parking lot, leaving him to deal with her luggage. His eyes were drawn again to the graceful sway of her slender hips and the memory of her silky soft lips against his.
Being friends with Mandy as a consolation prize to having her in his arms did nothing to dispel the loneliness he suddenly felt in seeing her again after all these years. But it would have to do.
# # #
Chapter Two
Beau carefully settled Mandy's suitcase in the back of the pickup, being mindful to cover it with a thick tarp to protect it from the hot sun. Mandy hadn't waited for him to extend his Texas charm by opening the door for her. Instead, she climbed into the cab herself, and practically slammed the door in his face.
He supposed he deserved that. She wasn't happy having been forced into this position any more than he was.
Hank had asked him to pick Mandy up at the airport this morning. These past three weeks Beau had been at the Double T, Hank had made no mention of Mandy at all except to say that she was doing well. And he had only offered that little tidbit of information when Beau's curiosity had won out and he finally asked Hank directly about her.
Hank had to have known Mandy was on his mind. It was no secret to anyone that he and Mandy were an inseparable pair that summer they were together. But Hank never uttered a word, even a month ago when he called Beau asking for help.
After all the things Hank Promise had done for Beau, Hank had only ever asked two favors of him. It wasn't the most opportune time for him to drop everything. Lined up ahead of him were some of the best rodeos of the year. He'd been in top form all season and he knew this year he had a shot at winning the World Championship. He'd won other championships before, competed against the world's best, but never managed to win the title for himself. This year was his year. He was sure of it.
But then Hank had tracked him down while he was on the road. His old friend would never had made such a request if it wasn't exceedingly important. Beau owed all he knew about rodeo to Hank Promise. In many ways, Hank had formed him into a man far more than his old man had, much to Beau's dismay. Maybe if Mike Gentry's vendetta against Hank buying the Double T hadn't been so strong, Beau wouldn't have been so drawn to it in the first place.
But regardless, here he was eight years after walking out of his father's home, after walking out of Mandy's life in search of world fame and fortune on the rodeo circuit. It had torn him apart to leave her behind, but in an ironic twist of fate, he'd come full circle. He was back in Texas, back at the Double T with Mandy Morgan by his side.
Only this time, instead of loving him with all her heart and soul, she despised him.
Jamming the key into the ignition, Beau gunned the engine. Mandy was sitting so far on the other end of the wide bench seat her hip was pressed against the door. He turned on the radio to hide his disappointed sigh as he pulled out of the airport parking lot.
Was this what it was going to be like? With him living in the bunkhouse, working at the Double T, and Mandy living in the house, they were going to run into each other. And if Hank was serious about his plans, they'd be running into each other a great deal.
They'd only gone a few miles on the interstate when Mandy leaned forward and switched off the radio. Beau took his eyes off the road only long enough to glance at her and see that she was staring at him. Questions shadowed her deep brown eyes, making her appear almost lost.
"Why did you really come back, Beau?" she asked softly.
"I told you. Hank asked me to."
"That's it?"
He nodded, making sure his right hand was firmly on the steering wheel while his left was lazily draped along the open window.
"And you just said yes? Just like that. You just dropped everything and decided to come running back to Steerage Rock after years of staying away?"
Beau heard the unspoken question, even if she didn't say it aloud. Was the reason you hadn't come back in eight years to avoid seeing me? That was a little harder to answer than the rest. He hadn't come back to Steerage Rock for a lot of reasons. Partly because he didn't want to keep hashing out why he wasn't settling down and working the Silverado Cattle Company with his father. Mike Gentry never understood anyone else's goals but his own. There wasn't a way in the world his old man would ever understand why he couldn't work alongside him at the ranch.
Beau had reconciled himself to that long ago. He'd tried to be what his father wanted. He'd learned all about ranching with the intent of one day taking over the family spread with his three brothers. But it had never been his dream.
Beau had the fever for rodeo even before that first time he'd ridden over the pasture trying to steal a peek at the Double T when he was ten years old, just to see what his dad was fussing and fuming about. He'd never understood his father's vendetta against Hank Promise, but he understood the fever for riding a wild bronc. And with Hank's help, he'd become one of the best bronc bareback riders on the circuit.
"Yeah, Mandy, Hank said he needed me and I left everything behind. I owe him a lot."
Shaking her head, she stared out the window, averting her gaze. She had her elbow pressed against the door and her fist tucked under her chin. Every so often, a gust of wind whipped wayward strands of hair that had fallen from her ponytail around her face and she'd briskly push them away.
Silence dragged on for a few minutes and Beau contemplated turning the radio on again to drown out his hammering heart and the vacant sound of tires eating up the miles of road ahead. Then Mandy spoke again.
"I can't imagine why my uncle would forgive you for what you did. I told him, you know. Right after you left, I told him the real reason you'd been hanging around the Double T. You must have done some smooth talking to get back into his good graces."
"Hank doesn't harbor any bad feelings for what's happened over the years."
She snapped her gaze at him. "What makes you so sure?"
"Mandy, it was no secret my father lived and breathed to make Hank's life miserable. It wasn't going to happen, of course, because Hank's not that kind of man. Dad had never gotten over the fact that Hank outbid him for the Double T all those years ago. He's always wanted that spread as his own and Hank knew it."
"Uncle Hank bought the Double T fair and square."
"I know that and you know that. If my father wasn't so stubborn, he'd probably see that, too. But after all these years, I doubt that will ever happen. It would have been a lot better if ol' man Barrows hadn't promised he'd sell the land to dad before he died. Once the family and lawyers got hold of the estate, none of that mattered."
"Then why did Hank ask you to come back when he knows..."
"Despite what you think, I'm not the enemy. If it's good enough for Hank, why can't it be good enough for you?"
A cold cloud swiftly covered her features. "You know it's different," she answered quietly.
He glanced back at the vacant roadway ahead. "Yeah, maybe you're right. Why didn't you ever come back?"
"How do you know I didn't?"
"I've been at the Double T for three weeks now. Cowboys may not say much, but when they do, they're direct. You remember Mitch? He started working as a hand the last summer you visited the ranch."
"Vaguely. Lanky kid with freckles?"
Beau couldn't help but laugh. "Well, I wouldn't exactly call him lanky, but he remembers you quite fondly and mentioned you hadn't been back. How come?"
"What do you want this time?" she asked, ignoring his question.
It was his turned to be confused. "What do you mean?"
"You must want something if you're giving up everything you love, everything you've worked so hard for, just to come back to Steerage Rock to work as a cowpoke for my uncle. Come on now, Beau. You have a shot at World Champion this year. It had to be something big."
His lips curled into a slow grin, earning him a bigger scowl from Mandy. "You keeping tabs on me?"
"Never mind. Forget I asked."
He should, Beau thought. It wasn't a good idea to be flattered she'd gone to lengths to find out how he'd been doing. And it wasn't his place to reveal to her the real reason he'd come home from the circuit. Even if it was only for a short time. But something deep inside told him he'd be repeating the mistakes of the past if he didn't at least warn her. He'd kept his mouth shut eight years ago because it had been the right thing to do. This was different. This time they were talking about Hank's life.
"What made you come back after all this time?" he asked, figuring if there was even the slightest chance she knew something, he could unload the rest. After all, she'd come running, too.
"Mom said uncle Hank hasn't been himself. It's been a while since I've come out for a visit. She thought it would help lift his spirits some. Although I can't imagine how."
"I think she's right."
Mandy stared at him for a long moment, much like she used to do years ago when she was deciding whether to tell him a secret or keep it to herself. Back then, she'd always end up climbing right across the cab, turning his head and kissing him right while he was driving. He'd end up swerving across the road recklessly until his heart stopped pounding and she settled next to him in the middle of the seat.
His heart pumped furiously now just with the memory, and he felt himself grow hard. Those were foolishly wild times for them when all he cared about was having Mandy Morgan in his arms as he rode from one local rodeo to the next. Recklessly passionate times they'd shared.
But this time, she wasn't climbing across the seat to saddle up next to him. This time Mandy just stared with suspicion flooding her expression. Her voice was grave as she spoke. "What aren't you telling me, Beau Gentry?"
He hesitated. In a few hours, she was going to hear the truth anyway. What did it matter if he was the one to tell her? The least he could do was warn her. Give her time to come to grips before she saw her uncle.
"It's Hank's heart," he said quickly.
The small gasp that escaped her lips had his chest constricting. He longed to reach across the seat and touch her. To give her an ounce of comfort for the fear she must be feeling. But he knew comfort from him was probably the last thing she'd accept.
"Hank's always been healthy as a horse."
"I know."
"H-how bad?"
He swallowed as he glanced at her. Her eyes had filled with moisture, but her tears remained unshed. "He needs surgery very soon or he won't make it."
"Oh, God." She buried her face in her hands. "Why didn't anyone tell me? Why didn't Uncle Hank or Aunt Corrine...or my mother tell me?"
"Does it matter? You know now."
"When is he going in for surgery?"
"That's just it, he's not."
"What? You just said he needed surgery or he'll...die."
"I suspect that may be why your mother urged you to come for a visit. To talk some sense into him. He has this foolish idea that he'll go when the Good Lord says it's his time. He wants nothing to do with bypass."
"But that's ridiculous. People have bypass surgery all the time and live normal, healthy lives for years afterwards. Why would he risk his life this way?"
"I'm not sure, but no matter what anyone tries to tell him, he insists he's not going under the knife. Maybe he'll listen to you."
Determination flared up in her tear-filled eyes. "You'd better believe he will. I can't believe he's being this foolish."
"I'll probably get my hide chewed out when we get back to the Double T for me telling you like this, but at least it won't be a shock when you finally get there."
The sound of the truck's tires rolling down the highway filled the air between them. Mandy stared vacantly out the window as the breeze blew the tendrils of hair framing her face about in a wild fury.