Cowgirls Don't Cry(85)

“Jess?”


Her gaze snapped to his. “Sorry. Give him a kiss for me, okay? I’ve gotta get on the road.”


“Promise me you’ll drive safe.”


“I promise.”


“Promise you’ll call me as soon as you’re at your mom’s.”


It was so sweet he worried about her. Had Luke ever obsessively worried about her like this? Not that she remembered. She smiled at him. “I promise.”


Brandt kissed her again. “Have a Happy Thanksgiving.”


“You too, Brandt.” She slammed the door and backed out of her driveway. The last thing she saw as she turned the corner onto the main road was Brandt still standing on her steps, watching her go.

Luke definitely had never done that.

The drive from Moorcroft to Riverton was uneventful, with the exception of sporadic snow flurries drifting across the road. By the time she’d reached her mother’s house, both she and Lexie were ready to get out of the truck. She texted Brandt rather than calling him.

When Jessie saw her mom standing in the doorway, she had the urge to run straight into her arms, like she had as a child. So it was no surprise to either of them she did exactly that.

Her mom hugged her tightly. “Jessie! It’s so good to see you. I’m so glad you’re here.”


“Me too.” No matter where they’d ended up living as she was growing up, her mom carried the scents Jessie associated with home; coffee, Aqua Net hairspray, double mint gum and Jergen’s cherry-almond lotion. She inhaled deeply and sighed, happy that some things never changed.

“Come in. I’ve got a pot of coffee ready to go.”


“Thanks, but I’m wired enough as it is.” Jessie kicked off her boots, ditched her coat, hat and gloves.

Then she wiped Lexie’s paws. Her mom didn’t mind pets in the house just as long as she didn’t have to clean muddy paw prints out of her carpet.

“Where’s Roger?”


“At the college. He’ll be here later. He’s trying to catch up on paperwork so he can have the whole weekend off.”


Jessie didn’t really know her mother’s husband Roger Randolph very well. They’d met through the community college in Wheatland where he taught and she worked as an administrative assistant. By that time Jessie already lived on her own. Then she’d met Luke, married him and moved to the McKay ranch.

About six months before Luke died, her mom and Roger had relocated to Riverton. Roger was a nice enough guy, and he seemed to make her mother happy, so that’s all that mattered. “Is Josie coming?”


That gave her mother pause. “No. You haven’t talked to her?”


“She doesn’t exactly keep me on speed dial.” Jessie’s sister, Josie, had inherited her father’s wanderlust. After years spent waiting for Billy to get off the road, her mother had finally divorced him the year Jessie turned twelve. The sad thing was, it hadn’t affected Jessie’s life because Billy hadn’t been around much anyway.

But it’d affected Josie. Josie had romanticized her father and his lifestyle, so she took off right after she’d turned eighteen. It’d been a hard blow to their mother, and for that Jessie resented her younger sister.

Any close relationship they shared vanished when Josie did.

“I talked to her last month,” her mom said. “She’s working at a restaurant in Dallas.”


No big stunner Josie was in cowboy country in Texas. Jessie couldn’t muster interest in Josie’s latest escapade and refused to pretend. She also refused to mention to her mother she’d seen Billy because she doubted she could be civil about him, either.