Cowgirl Up and Ride (Rough Riders #3)(127)

Only two days passed before his next gift arrived via her cell phone. A streaming video of her horse running alongside Nickel and Jester and Ky’s pony, Plug, in the frost-covered field behind Cord’s barn. Then a close up of Lucy from the star on her nose to the tip of her long chestnut tail, the gorgeous autumn sunset as the backdrop, with Cord’s husky voice in the background. “She looks happy here, huh? Ky and I are takin’ good care of her until you come back. I think Jester’s got a thing for that stubborn mare. I know the feelin’. Quit bein’ stubborn and call me, baby doll. I miss you somethin’ fierce.” The screen went blank.


AJ could scarcely see it through her tears. She hit redial and held her breath when Cord answered on the first ring.


“AJ? Is that really you?”


She sniffled and nodded.


“You okay?”


I am now. “Ah. Yeah. Thanks for the video.”


“You’re welcome.”


“And the tickets. The concert was awesome even if Keely got a little out of hand.”


He chuckled. “Don’t need the details on that one.”


“Thanks for the flowers, too. They were so…” She started to cry.


“Hey, now. No tears. I’ve been waitin’ to hear from you for two and a half damn months and it’ll bust my heart even more if you’re sobbin’ on the line the whole time. I can’t take it.”


“Okay.”


Pause. He sighed. “Please, tell me everything you’ve been doin’. Don’t leave nothin’ out.”


So AJ talked, half-afraid the conversation would be hopelessly one-sided, but Cord seemed eager to chat. An hour passed. Reluctantly, AJ said, “I have homework to finish.”


“Can I call you again? Same time tomorrow?”


“I’d like that.”


He cleared his throat. “I have somethin’ to say. I wish I could say it to your sweet face, but I ain’t about to let the opportunity pass me by again. When you asked me if I loved you, I should’ve manned up. I didn’t. I was a chickenshit, plain and simple. The truth is, I do love you, AJ. More’n you can possibly imagine.”


“Cord—”


“Let me finish while I still got the guts to do so. The last time I told a woman I loved her? She left me. So in my screwed up way of thinkin’, I thought if I didn’t tell you, you wouldn’t leave me.”


AJ was glad she was sitting down because she was light-headed and weak-kneed.


“You left anyway. I understand now that even if I woulda told you how I felt, you still woulda left—and your leavin’ had nothin’ to do with me.”


“You do?”


“Yep. Our partin’ coulda been a lot sweeter, though.”


“I think you telling me how you feel is pretty sweet.”


“Oh, you ain’t seen sweet, baby doll. Not by half.”


She smiled even when her belly did a little flip.


“Talk atcha tomorrow. Think of me.”


“Always.”


Cord hung up.


AJ snapped the phone shut after she watched the video again.


They’d take this one day at a time. Might not be the fairy-tale ending she’d envisioned, but it was a start.


***


For the next two months Cord wooed AJ over the phone.