It Takes a Cowboy

His smile turned crooked. “I guess I’m not accustomed to thinking of my presence as being particularly important to anyone.”

As far as she was concerned, he had just made her point. “That’s exactly what I meant by differing expectations.”

“I’m trying to tell you our expectations aren’t as different as you think. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life chasing one meaningless adventure after another, having no one who really cares if I ever return. I’ve had my reasons for living the way I have, but now it’s time for me to change my priorities. I’m not like your brother, Blair. I know it’s going to take time to prove that to you, especially after my stupid mistake this weekend, but I’m asking you to give me that time.”

She didn’t exactly understand what he was asking. “Why would you want to change your whole life? Why would you want to give up the freedom you’ve had to go wherever you want, whenever you want, to do whatever you feel like doing?”

“Before your nephew moved in with you, you were free to do whatever you wanted, right? Except for your commitment to your work, you could come and go as you liked, responsible for no one but yourself. Given a chance, would you go back to that now? Would you send Jeffrey away so you could have your freedom back?”

“No, of course not.”

“Why?” he asked simply.

Although she suspected he already knew the reason, she answered anyway. “Because I love my nephew. I like having him with me. And because it makes me feel good to know I can make a difference in his life.”

He smiled at her as if she were a pupil who’d just given him a very clever answer. “Exactly. And now you know why I’m willing to make changes in my life.”

“No...why?”

“Because I love you,” he replied gently. “I like having you in my life. And because I hope I have something to offer you in return.”

His words hit her like a blow. She took an instinctive step backward, jerking her hands from his and holding them up as if to ward off another attack. “Scott, don’t—”

“Don’t what, Blair? Don’t love you? It’s too late for that. Don’t tell you? I’ve already done that, too.”

She was shaking her head, resisting a childish impulse to cover her ears. Hearing Scott tell her he loved her was simply too painful when she was so afraid to trust him with her heart. “You don’t know what you’re saying. It’s too soon. You can’t possibly—”

“You think I don’t know what I feel?” He shook his head. “Blair, I’ve spent most of my life running from love. Now that it’s finally caught up with me, I know exactly what it is.”

“It’s too soon,” she repeated helplessly. “You’ve known me such a short time. You can’t—”

“Are you telling me it’s too soon for you to have any feelings for me?” he interrupted gently.

She bit her lip and remained silent, unable to confess the truth.

“Blair? Are you saying our lovemaking meant nothing to you? That there’s nothing I can do to make you fall in love with me?”

How was she supposed to answer that without making herself completely vulnerable to him? “I...have feelings for you, Scott. I told you that before we made love. And I told you, as well, that those feelings frightened me because they seemed so ill-fa

ted. I haven’t changed my mind. I still worry that someone is going to be hurt. One or both of us—or, even worse, Jeffrey.”

“I love you, Blair.”

Her eyes closed and she moaned quietly. “Please, don’t...”

He cupped her face in his hands, bringing his mouth close to hers. “I love you.”

“Scott...”

His lips brushed against hers when he said it again. “I love you.”

Her breath left her in a sigh. “Oh, Scott...”

His mouth closed over hers, and her resistance melted away. He sounded so sincere. So certain. So convincing. And even though she was still terrified by the potential for disaster, she was only human. And she loved him.

“I’ll make this weekend up to you, Blair,” he muttered against her mouth, pulling her almost roughly into his arms. “I’ll prove to you that you can trust me, that I’m free to love you now.”

She curled her fingers into his travel-wrinkled shirt. “This is crazy.”