Grumpy Cowboy (Single Dad Collection)

She’s not happy.

She’s miserable.

She’s probably going to step down from her position with the Slammers.

It’s why Frank had her leave the ranch earlier than she’d planned.

I repeat my dad’s words over and over again in my mind.

Have I been wrong about what’s really going on?

Was there a reason Leah didn’t say goodbye to me and Joe?

I can’t stop myself from opening the console and pulling out the half-crumpled envelopes. I grip them tightly between my fingers, and my heart and brain war over the decision to read them.

My heart wins out, and before I know it, I’m opening the one with Joey’s name.

Leah’s handwriting is scrawled across the page, and I can’t stop myself from reading.

Jo-Jo,

I want you to know that you are the smartest, fastest, most gorgeous girl I’ve ever met in my whole life. The eight weeks I got to spend with you on the ranch were some of the best I’ve ever had. I’ll never forget about our sleepover or our Target trips or the day we adopted Ernie or the time we went horseback riding or…well, it’s safe to say, you and I made a lot of memories together.

I have to go back to Salt Lake City to help take care of big, huge basketball players on the Slammers team.

Honestly, I don’t want to go back. The ranch has become my favorite place to be, and you have become one of my favorite people ever.

Just know, if you ever need anything, I’m always a phone call away, okay?

That’s my cell ? 801-555-4532

I know I didn’t get to say goodbye and I hate that so much, but I’m starting to think that’s a good thing. Because this isn’t goodbye. This is just see you soon.

Love you, pretty girl,

Leah

Fuck. I sigh. Lean my head back against my seat.

Those words don’t sound like a woman who purposely didn’t say goodbye. Who didn’t care about hurting my daughter.

It sounds like the complete opposite.

It sounds like the Leah I know.

The one that feels like she took my heart with her when she left the ranch.

On a deep inhale and exhale, I find the strength to read the next letter.

The one written for me.

Rhett,

It’s just a little after 5:30 a.m., and I don’t have much time.

Frank sent my plane a few days early, and I’m being hurried to get out the door by a few of the Slammers’ execs, but there’s no way I was going to leave without saying goodbye to you somehow.

God, I hate the way we ended things last night.

I absolutely hate it.

I hate that I got angry and said things like summer fling and no big deal when that’s the complete opposite of how I feel about you.

I’m so sorry. So, so sorry.

You mean too much to me, take up too much space in my heart, for you to be a fling.

It’s why I wanted to try to make the long-distance work.

I honestly don’t know how I’m going to be able to move past our relationship. How I’m going to be able to move on. There are three words that I desperately want to say to you, but I refuse to say them for the first time in a letter.

But I’m sure you know. You HAVE to know.

You have my heart, Rhett. You’ve quite literally changed my life.

And this ranch, well, I’ve never had a place, not even as a little girl, that’s felt like home as much as being here with you and Joey does.

I just…I hate that we’re leaving things this way.

And I really hope you’ll call me because there is so much more I want to say.

But I guess, the most important thing of all is…all you have to do is ask me to stay.

Love,

Leah

I stare down at the paper in my hand. A million things are running through my mind—my dad’s words, Leah’s words, the way I feel about her.

She should’ve never fucking left.

She should still be here. With me. With Joey. At the ranch.

This place feels like her home because it is her home.

She belongs here with us.

I don’t have to think twice about my next move. Out of the truck, I stride right back into my parents’ house and find my dad sitting in his recliner.

“I need a plane.”

“Right now?” he asks, but that’s all he asks.

“Tonight or tomorrow. I’ve got somethin’ to get ready, but after I’m done, I want to leave as soon as possible. If you can’t get it by tomorrow mornin’, I’ll drive.”

Getting to his feet, he strides into his home office, and I follow right behind him. Within a minute, he’s on the phone and making calls.

And five minutes after that, he’s chartered a plane to come to the ranch by tomorrow morning.

“Nine a.m.,” he updates. “It’s the earliest I could get. Will that work?”

“Of course, that’ll work,” I say and let out a relieved breath from my lungs. The earliest I would have gotten there without getting Joey out of bed before the sun to drive would have been noon. This should buy me a couple hours. “It’s quite possible you just saved my ass.”