Book 5: Sixth Street Love Affair (Three Rivers Ranch Romance™)

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The confines around Juliette Thompson’s heart had never been so weary. Of course, she hadn’t travelled to Montana for a wedding alone, where the man she had a crush on had brought another woman, in well, ever.

It’s your own fault, she told herself as she watched Garth and his summer sweetheart—Gwen, or Jenn, or was it Jenna?—stand and inch their way down the aisle toward the airplane’s exit.

They hadn’t booked the same flight north, because Juliette had flown in as late as possible for her nephew’s wedding. But as her luck would have it, she and Garth-plus-one were on the same plane back to Texas. And she’d had an aisle seat only a few rows behind them, a birds-eye view for everything they did. If Garth had seen her—and recognized her with her new blonde locks—he hadn’t acknowledged her.

Not that she blamed him for that, either. She sighed as she reached into the overhead compartment for her carryon, determined to duck into the first available Cinnabon shop and drown her self-loathing in frosting and gooey bread. That should give Garth and GwenJenn a chance to get out of the airport, lessening the probability that Juliette would have to face him.

She’d have to soon enough, anyway. He seemed to call the veterinary clinic where she worked a couple times a month, and since she’d worked with the animals at Three Rivers for so long, Doctor Bent always asked Juliette to go.

That was how her infatuation had begun with the tall, mysterious Garth Ahlstrom. She’d had her eye on him during those few visits each month, but the ranch and the construction on Courage Reins kept his attention elsewhere.

How was she to know he’d been her previous husband’s friend? She’d never met any of Brad’s friends—he’d made sure of that. But by the time Juliette had made the connection, she’d already started something with Garth she didn’t want to end.

But end it she had. Decisively. Even if Garth continued to call and come over after church for her Texas barbecue. After a few weeks, he’d stopped, widening the hole in her heart that had been there since her marriage ended nearly a decade earlier.

She ordered a caramel pecanbon, already in a diabetic coma just from the smell inside the shop. Once she had her tasty treat, she found a table in the corner where she could watch the airport travelers inconspicuously.

She wasn’t sure why she cared—Garth and Girlfriend had gotten off the plane several passengers ahead of her, but she took her time devouring the roll, mostly to waste minutes before she had to drive home to her empty house. Well, she did have two dogs and a cat who would be excited to see her.

Juliette had loved animals since age three, when her dad—once the foreman at Horseshoe Home Ranch in Montana, where her nephew Tom now worked—had brought home their first family dog. A golden retriever, Minnie had charmed everyone, most of all Juliette.

She’d earned her veterinarian technician degree the year she’d married Brad, and she’d been happy to have the certification when she left Montana for good. She usually never stayed in one place for more than a couple of years, though she’d been in Three Rivers for three now.

She’d chosen the small Texas town because Tom lived here, making it the last place Brad would think she’d gone. Most people on the run avoided places where their family lived.

Then Garth Ahlstrom had entered the picture. As far as Juliette knew, he didn’t know about their mutual connection through Brad. And she’d like to keep it that way.

“You’re too old for him anyway,” she muttered as she got up and put her cardboard tray in the trashcan. Yet another lie she told herself to keep the walls around her heart from collapsing. After all, the man was thirty-two, only three years her junior.

She drove the distance from Amarillo to Three Rivers, the radio on loud so her thoughts couldn’t settle onto one topic for too long. She pulled into town, a soft sigh escaping her throat. Three Rivers had captivated her from the first moment she’d visited several years ago.

Then, she’d flown under a false identity, with fake papers she’d spent hundreds of dollars to get. Brad didn’t know where she’d gone then, and he didn’t know where she lived now. It was the only way she’d been able to escape the marriage, escape him.

She reminded herself of this—of why Garth couldn’t know she’d once been Juli Thornton, devoted wife to the largest rodeo winner on the PRCA circuit. Devoted wife who suffered under his brutal fists whenever he wasn’t on the road.

Juliette shook her head to dislodge the memories that had crept up on her. She passed the elementary school, the familiar pang to have a family still as sharp as ever beneath her breastbone. Brad hadn’t wanted children, and he’d beaten her so severely once, Juliette wasn’t even sure she could have a baby.

With night closing in fast, Juliette stopped admiring the tall trees and green spaces in Three Rivers, the shops she loved to visit on the weekends, her favorite New York-style deli, and focused on getting home.

She turned on Sixth Street, the motion so automatic she didn’t have to think. She slammed on the brakes a moment later, not having seen the navy vehicle just around the corner, idling on the curb.

Juliette pulled the wheel to the left to avoid hitting the truck. The truck that was all too familiar….

Her sedan came to a screeching stop just as Garth got out of his truck. He wore the smile that made Juliette’s insides dance, but she refused to let herself return it. He motioned for her to roll down the window, but she set her mouth in a straight line and shook her head.

She tapped her wrist like she had an ultra-important appointment to get to—on a Sunday evening—and put her car in drive. Not that it mattered. She lived only three doors down and by the time she’d pulled into her carport, Garth stood in the driveway.

“Evenin’, ma’am.” He tipped his hat to her, another cowboy behavior she happened to adore.

“What are you doing here?”

He gestured down the road. “Jenny’s mother lives on the corner. She wanted me to drop her there.”

Juliette didn’t know how to answer. She certainly didn’t know everyone in Three Rivers, but she’d never met the blonde woman Garth had touted to Montana.

She tossed her own bottle-blonde hair over her shoulder, biting back an invitation for him to come in for coffee. She’d already had sixteen ounces at the Cinnabon—as her bladder was suddenly reminding her.

“So you and Jenny?” She hated the jealous undertones in her question.

He shrugged. “Maybe.” He glanced over his shoulder like the woman would be standing there. “But probably not.”

Juliette couldn’t ignore the swelling of happiness in her chest, the press of it almost eliciting a smile from her. She caught it just in time. “Well, I have to go in.”

He took a few quick strides forward. “Why?”

She looked back at him, trying to formulate an answer. “Because Teddy and Grant need me.” The dogs. She could always use them as an excuse. “I only paid my sitter to come this morning.”

“I’m sorry about Betsy Ross.” He ducked his head and ran his fingertips along the brim of his cowboy hat, a sign of his emotion.

Sudden sadness clogged her throat. “She was in a lot of pain.” Juliette missed the exuberant great Dane who’d died of cancer over the summer. She’d wished Garth had been in her life, that she hadn’t ended things with him, that she knew how to apologize and fix things between them.

“Did you fly home tonight?” he asked, cocking his head at her. She had a love-hate relationship with the way he looked at her. She loved the heat he always carried in his eyes, the slow smolder she was sure would incinerate if she’d allow him to touch her. She hated the way he seemed to be able to penetrate her carefully crafted defenses with such a simple gaze.

“Yes,” she said. “You?”

“We were on the same flight, Juliette.” He took another step forward. “I saw you.”

“Really?” She backed up a pace when she realized how near he’d come. All the way into the carport, to the backdoor on the sedan. “I didn’t see—”

“Yes, you did.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets and stayed put. Thankfully. “Your hair looks nice. Different. But nice.”

“Thank you.” She didn’t know what else to say, so she scrambled up the few steps that led to the house. If she could just get inside, she wouldn’t have to see him, smell him, succumb to him.

“Well, good night.” She twisted the key in the lock and pushed open the door. She stepped inside and firmly shut it behind her, leaving Garth in her carport. Resisting the urge to tiptoe to her living room and watch through the blinds until he left, she instead moved through the kitchen and dining room and turned into the laundry room. Teddy and Grant started wagging their tails, and Juliette let the dogs out of their kennels. The dogs who were always happy to see her, never expected her to tell them things she’d rather not.

* * *

Garth stood in Juliette’s carport, wondering how much strength it would take to bust down a locked door. That would probably be the easy part of getting Juliette to talk to him. Really talk to him. Tell him why things between them seemed to be going just fine until that fateful day in April.

Three months had passed since then. Three painful months of sitting by himself at church, of attending the community picnics with a large group instead of enjoying a private feast in Juliette’s backyard.

The worst part was Garth didn’t even know what he’d done wrong. What he’d said to drive her away. He couldn’t remember what they’d spoken about, or where they’d gone, or anything. One day she was hot, the next day cold. And now, blonde.

He turned away from her door the same way he turned off his thoughts. He’d have to repent for lying to her about why he was parked at the end of her street. He seemed to have a love affair with Sixth Street, and he didn’t want her to know how often he’d parked there, waiting for her to leave simply so he could catch a glimpse of her.

He didn’t need to add stalker to his rap sheet, that was for certain. His cowboy boots made angry clunking sounds as he crossed the pavement and jumped into his still idling truck. He’d driven fast from Amarillo to Three Rivers, dropped Jenny at her house on the other side of town, and high-tailed it here so he could see Juliette when she got home. She’d taken a long time, and he’d had to turn on his truck so he didn’t die from the heat inside the cab.

He aimed the truck toward the ranch, suddenly desperate to get back to his cabin. Going to Montana, even for a visit, had unsettled him. Reminded him of everything he’d worked these last two years to forget. Everyone he needed to leave in the past.

Physically leaving his wife behind had been hard when he’d done it two years ago. Making room for someone else in his life mentally, emotionally, and spiritually was proving to be ten times more difficult.

He’d started the process with Juliette, and he’d thought maybe he really was ready to open his heart again. He hadn’t compared Juliette to Kim, hadn’t thought of Kim when he was with Juliette, hadn’t told Juliette about Kim.

“So I still have some guards in place,” he muttered to himself. “Big deal.” But intellectually, he knew his barriers were a big deal. Knew his style of communication—stalking and short conversations—created an obstacle he’d have to fix at some point.

Garth parked next to his cabin and went inside. He’d left it clean, and since he’d been gone for a few days, the items on his ranch to-do list would be a mile long. His personal to-do list only contained one thing: sleep.

But he couldn’t do that very well, especially since the day didn’t seem to fade into full darkness until close to midnight. He found himself on the back porch, his dog, Leo, at his feet, staring at the range.

A pang of longing for snow hit him unexpectedly. He’d hated the snow in Montana, but Kim had loved it. When she’d been diagnosed, her one wish had been to live to see another winter. She’d made it through Christmas and the New Year, something Garth thanked the Lord for every day of his life. He hadn’t wanted to associate his wife’s death with the holidays and relive it every year. Her death in January had definitely made his life easier.

He scratched Leo’s ears as he chuckled to himself. Like burying Kim during a Montana January had been easy.

Garth brought Leo into his cabin when he finally felt tired enough to fall asleep. The hound started snoring before Garth did, but he eventually drifted into unconsciousness, taking Juliette’s slim figure, bright blue eyes, and quick wit with him.

He woke to the sound of pounding fists on his front door and Leo whining in the hallway. Garth stumbled through his dark cabin, sure he’d only slept for a few minutes. His brain felt foggy and his muscles limp as he wrenched open the door.

Ethan, his best cowhand, stood there, worry etched all over his face. “Coyotes, boss. Two bulls are down. Haven’t been able to account for all the cattle yet.”

The haze in Garth’s mind evaporated. “Call the vet. I’ll be out in two minutes.” He returned to his bedroom for a pair of jeans and a fresh pair of socks. It only took him sixty seconds to be ready, and he hurried down his steps and around the admin trailer, where he found Ethan on the phone.

“Doc’s callin’ Juliette now,” he said after he hung up.

Even as Ethan led Garth to the bullpen in the nearby pasture to assess the wounds on the two bulls, he couldn’t help smiling. Juliette couldn’t avoid him if it was her job to come out to Three Rivers Ranch.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Another awesome read by Ms Isaacson! Love her story line, characters, Christian based and happily ever after. I also like hearing references about some of the characters from her other books in this series. This was a quick, sit down and read it through book...I loved everything about it!” ~Kathy J.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Liz Isaacson crafts words that bring story to reality. Using real life issues, Liz demonstrates the thoughts and emotions of her charcters that lead to choices yielding results. Hers are stories of people who navigate through life's challenges and come out on the other side in victory.” ~Nina