The Trouble with Texas Cowboys (Burnt Boot, Texas #2)(76)

“You two are crazy, fighting over a daisy petal.” He almost smiled. “Maybe you can’t forget where you came from after all.”

They grew tired of the petal after they’d killed it half a dozen times, fell down on the blanket at the same time, and went to sleep with Piggy’s leg thrown over Chick’s ears. It didn’t take long until the voice in Sawyer’s head sounded off loud and clear. He put a pillow over his eyes, but it didn’t go away.

“Shut the hell up!” he demanded, but it kept right on.

Of all the dumb-ass, stupid things to fight about. A damn daisy, and one that you sent her at that. It wasn’t like she put a rose in her hair. Hell no! She put them all in her office behind a closed door, so she didn’t even have to look at them. Granny told you that settling differences before sleeping was the secret to a happy relationship…okay, so she said marriage…but a relationship should work the same.

He sat up in bed and grabbed a pair of socks from the bottom drawer of the dresser, pulled them on his feet, and headed for her room. They might argue until dawn, but the air had to be cleared.

The sight of her sitting on the sofa, lit only by the moonlight flowing through a window, stopped him at the door. She held a ragtag daisy in her hand and carefully laid it in a bowl of water on the coffee table. Shiny tears dripped from her chin and ribboned down to her jawbone. She looked so fragile, with her chin quivering and her shoulders hunched over the cereal bowl, that his heart ached. He swallowed hard, but the lump didn’t disappear. He wanted to take her in his arms and make the pain go away, but his feet were glued to the floor.

“I ruined it, Sawyer. Just to show off to those fools who don’t matter, I ruined one of my precious daisies. It looks pitiful,” she said. “And you are mad at me. A part of me wants to tell you to go to hell, but the other part wants to kiss you, because my heart is hurting, and I’m still mad at you, so don’t try to talk me out of it. You are clamming up and being all holier-than-thou, like you are better than me.”

He switched on the light and joined her on the sofa, leaving a foot of space between them. “Evidently, I’m the dumb old cowboy who gives you daisies so you can flaunt them before the rich cowboys to make them jealous. Or maybe you were showing me that all I had was daisies when you could have been wearing an expensive rose in your hair.”

Her shoulders squared up, and the tears dried. She glared at him with flashing green eyes. “I’m not guilty of such shit! Dammit, Sawyer. I wore the flower in my hair because of what you said.”

“What I said?” he asked through clenched teeth.

“Yes, you said something about us not being together in public for the whole world to see. I can’t quote it word for word, but the idea is there. I was so damned proud of those daisies, I wanted to take a jar full of them to the bar and tell everyone that finally a cowboy gave me what I wanted. But I decided to wear one. I thought you’d be tickled that I was telling the world that we were together, but instead you got all pissy and mad and won’t even talk to me.”

“Miscommunication,” he said.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked.

“I let my past get in the way, and you did the same.”

The kittens bounded out of the bedroom, two energized bundles of fur after their romp with the purple petal, now ready to dive into their food bowl. Piggy growled at Chick, but the yellow kitten was a scrapper, pulling a portion of the dry kitten nuggets her way with her claws.

“You have to talk to me, Sawyer. From now on, you have to tell me outright if something upsets you,” Jill said. “It’s not miscommunication. It’s flat-out no communication. If I’d known the flower in my hair was going to set you off, I wouldn’t have worn it.”

“I do not have the right to tell you to take a flower out of your hair, Jill.”

“Well, I damn sure can’t read your mind, Sawyer, so you are going to have to use words.”

“Would you have taken it out of your hair if I’d asked?”

“We’ll never know now, will we?” Piggy finished eating and scampered over to Jill’s foot. “Do you think we are worth trying again?” Jill reached down with one hand and drew the kitten up to her lap.

“We’ve come a long way to start from scratch,” he said.

“This isn’t a trust issue. It’s a communication problem. We don’t start from the beginning. We start from about”—she looked at the clock on the wall above the stove—“six hours ago. Are we worth six hours?”

“Hell, yes,” he said. “I’ll make an effort to talk more.”

“I’ll try to speak before I act on impulse,” she said.

He offered his hand. “Shake on it?”

She put hers inside his. “Now can we please go to bed? I’m so sleepy and worn out emotionally that I can’t even think straight,” she said.

He picked up Piggy and laid her on the rug in front of the stove with Chick, then he returned to the sofa, picked Jill up like a bride, and carried her to the bedroom. He gently laid her on her side of the bed and pulled the covers up over her body.

“Hold me, Sawyer. I need your arms around me to reassure me that everything is fine between us,” she said.

He realized he’d forgotten to switch off the light, but it didn’t matter right then. He needed to feel Jill’s body next to his, to smell her hair and to kiss that soft spot below her ear. Tonight he didn’t need wild kisses, makeup sex, or even any more words. That things were settled between them before he shut his eyes was enough.