Book 8: The Ninth Inning (Three Rivers Ranch Romance™)

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Sundays had never felt so problematic for Andrea Larsen. Of course, she’d been enjoying her day of rest for years, sitting by her mother at church, attending the picnic, and basking in the one day off she had each week.

Now, with Mama gone, Andy sat alone during the sermon, didn’t like lingering afterward, and escaped inside her boutique just to pass the hours until Monday.

Today, she unpackaged a new shipment of blouses perfect for the upcoming holiday season while the winter wind in Texas tried to get in through the shop window’s cracks.

She nursed a mug of hot chocolate, her mind far away—at Three Rivers Ranch, where Lawrence Collins worked. She couldn’t help thinking about him during the Thanksgiving season, as that’s when she’d broken up with him. But now, the tall, sandy-haired, bright blue-eyed cowboy dominated her thoughts.

Regret lanced through her heart, and once again, she contemplated calling him and apologizing. After all, she’d been wrong. He hadn’t been dating another woman in Amarillo, but going there to visit his younger sister who’d gotten pregnant and was afraid to tell her parents.

As quickly as the remorse had settled, her pride pushed it out. She could never tell him she’d been wrong, though in the quiet moments—like today—she fantasized about what life would be like if she could muster the courage to apologize.

Would he forgive her?

Could they start over?

Her phone chimed, a peculiar sound for a notification she didn’t recognize. At least it drove Lawrence from her mind. When she checked her device, she saw she’d received her first online order. Her brand spanking new system had just been implemented a month ago in anticipation of the holiday season, and a brief balloon of joy lifted her spirits.

Carly Sanders apparently needed a new black pencil skirt and a blouse in “green, white, and black.”

Andy didn’t stock everything, but she had just gotten in a selection of items in holiday colors—including green. She turned on her Internet radio as she browsed her boutique, some of the disquiet of this lonely Sunday drifting into the rafters.

Monday morning, before she usually left the loft above her shop, Andy armed herself with Carly’s purchases and set her car on the road. Almost an afterthought, she checked the delivery address.

Her stomach fell to her shoes when she saw she needed to drive all the way out to Three Rivers Ranch. A river of trepidation wound through Andy, mostly because the possibility of seeing Lawrence existed. Of course, she’d seen him at church and around town—it was a small place, after all. But she’d managed to put people between them and keep their paths from fully crossing.

Embarrassment ran with the anxiety. She really just needed to clear the air between them. Then she wouldn’t have to worry about seeing him at the grocery store, or the picnic—or the ranch.

She dialed Carly. “You want these clothes out at Three Rivers?”

Scuffling came through the line. “You’ve got them already?”

“Yeah, I just got a new shipment of holiday things over the weekend. You’re going to love the blouse I picked out for you. The stripes are fantastic and will look great on you.”

“That’s great.” But Carly didn’t sound like it was great. She seemed distracted.

“I was heading over to your place now.” Andy watched a pair of boys walk in front of her, clearly on their way to school. “But then I realized you set the delivery address to the ranch. Have you left for work yet?”

“Yeah. Yes, I’m here.” A door slammed on Carly’s end of the line. “I want to model the clothes for…uh, a Christmas party we’re having here at Courage Reins. That’s why I need them out here.” Murmurs came through the line, and Carly said, “I know,” to someone else.

“Is that okay?” she asked Andy. “If you can’t make it here and back by the time you need to open, you could come tomorrow.”

Andy frowned. If Carly didn’t need the clothes until tomorrow…. She shook her head. She was up, already sitting in the car. “I’m on my way.” Even driving eighty minutes round-trip was better than puttering around the shop. Again.

Carly emitted a tiny squeak before she hung up. Andy swung through a drive-through for a cup of coffee and set her car north. The gray skies complimented her mood as she drove.

She usually enjoyed the quiet, quaint atmosphere of Three Rivers. But she felt unsettled now that Mama had died. Now that she was all alone. Just her and her building now. She hadn’t had much romantic luck after Lawrence.

“Maybe because you compare every man to him,” she muttered to herself as she tried to take some measure of calmness from the beauty of the landscape. The blowing trees only satisfied her soul for a moment. Then she felt like those trees, being whipped and pushed whichever way the wind happened to blow.

Andy didn’t want to be ungrounded. Not anymore. She wanted to take control of her life, the way she had her business. She turned onto the dirt road leading to the ranch, a swift gust of wind knocking into her car. Tightening her grip on the wheel, she glanced into the sky and watched the swirling storm.

She urged her car to go a bit faster on the bumpy road, hoping to make it inside the building before the skies opened. Her teeth knocked together as she rounded the last corner. A new building, nearly complete, sat just on the corner, with fenced in arenas and another barn.

A dark haired woman Andy had seen a couple of times at church pushed her whole weight against a barrel, inching it along the dirt. She dusted off her hands and glanced at the sky, then at Andy as she passed.

She raised her hand in a friendly greeting, and Andy struggled to recall her name. She hadn’t come into the boutique before, and she’d rented the old Johnson house that had been empty for years.

“Brynn,” Andy said, proud of herself for remembering that much. She’d heard Brynn was starting a horse training facility at the ranch, and it looked like the rumors held truth.

Thunder rumbled the sky, and Andy focused. But the paved parking lot in front of the Courage Reins administration building was full.

Full.

She bypassed it, lightning flashing against the front windows of the building, and pulled down the lane where a variety of ranch vehicles crowded together. One space remained, and she swung into it and grabbed the bag containing Carly’s new clothes from the passenger seat.

She’d opened her door and stood when the deluge of rain came. Yelping, she cradled the bag in her arms and ran for the closest building to wait out the downpour.

Her shoes ate up the few yards to the horse barn, but they couldn’t escape the water. By the time she found refuge, mud had splattered her ballet flats and splashed up the calves of her slacks. At least the clothes were dry. Mostly.

“Wet out there.” The man spoke so quietly, Andy barely heard him. At least with her ears. That voice, though, was ingrained in her mind, buried deep in her heart. Had been since she met him at the rodeo and been charmed by his subtle strength. Had been for six months while they dated.

She turned as if in slow motion toward Lawrence, who stood a few paces away in all his glory. Black cowboy hat. Dark leather jacket. Jeans that stretched down his long legs to his boots. Her eyes traveled back to his before her vocal cords remembered how to work.

If only she could think of something to say. Her brain threw suggestions at her: Hey. Or maybe Good morning. Even How’s everything? would’ve worked.

Nothing came out of her mouth.

“You look great,” he said, taking a careful step closer.

“Thank you,” misted from her mouth, though nothing about her looked great. But she’d always been polite, even when confronted with difficult situations. One sweep of Lawrence, and she knew she’d hurt him badly. Unintentionally, but the breakup still sliced at her every time she thought of it, and she hadn’t been wrongly accused.

He kept coming forward, stopping only a few feet from her, and leaned against the railing. “Those Miss Carly’s clothes?”

Andy dropped the bag like it was crime scene evidence and she didn’t want to be seen with it. She combed her fingers through her sopping hair, wishing she didn’t look and feel like a drowned rat.

He bent to pick up the bag. “Looks like ‘em.” He glanced at her. “You’ve lost your voice or something?”

Andy blinked and then pressed her eyes closed for a long moment. “Good morning, Lawrence.”

He grinned, that sexy, soft smile she’d fallen in love with the first time she’d seen it. Her heart hammered against her breastbone.

“Mornin’ to you too, Miss Andy.” He stepped forward—again—and handed her the bag. She took it with numb fingers and waited for him to fall back against the rail. He didn’t.

He swept his hand down the side of her face. “I miss you.”

Her throat squeezed. Squeezed against the emotion in his voice. Squeezed against her own desire and longing to be with Lawrence again. Squeezed against the apology crowding her chest.

“It’s good to see you again,” she managed to say. Her arms itched to wrap themselves around him and hold on tight. Her feet urged her to leave, and leave now. The rain pounded the ground outside the barn, and she couldn’t escape. She peered into the atmosphere, wishing she could.

“Andy—” Lawrence started.

“I’m sorry,” she blurted. “Okay? I’m sorry I accused you of cheating on me.” Andy looked up, right into his dazzling blue eyes. “I was wrong.”

His eyes blazed, first with heat, then with forgiveness, and finally with happiness. “Yeah, you were.” He sighed. “But at least now I don’t have to ask Miss Carly to lie for me again.”

As lost as Andy felt inside his gaze, she still comprehended his words. “What?”

“She didn’t order those clothes.”

“She didn’t?” Andy realized she’d been leaning forward, and she righted herself before she did something she couldn’t undo.

“I did,” Lawrence said. “Wanted to get you out to the ranch so we could talk.”

Andy didn’t know what to say, what he could possibly want to talk about. She glared at him, conversation topics they used to enjoy completely off-limits.

Despite the way her mind whirred, trying to think through what he needed to say, the heavy load she’d been carrying for the past year dissipated, eased from her shoulders.

Thank you, Lord, she thought, for giving me the courage to apologize and for allowing Lawrence to accept it.

He paced away from her, and a blip of fear stole through her. He had forgiven her, hadn’t he?

* * *

Lawrence moved away from Andy, the intoxicating scent of her beachy perfume overwhelming his rationality. Plus, after he’d told her that he’d lured her out to the ranch with an online order from her boutique, she carried a violent edge in her eye, and Lawrence liked his nose whole, thank you very much.

“You can be mad,” he said. “But I was tired of avoiding you at church and in town.”

“All those cars in the parking lot….”

Lawrence turned and leaned against a post, a healthy distance from her. He kicked a smile in her direction. “You’d be surprised how long it takes to get enough people to move their vehicles.” Especially because they all wanted an explanation. Thankfully, Carly could charm a cat to give up its catch, and she’d been able to fill the parking lot before Andy arrived. Barely.

“So you left me that one spot.” Andy gestured toward the door, where the rain still fell. “Did you order up the rain too?”

“No, that was just lucky.”

She cocked her hip and folded her arms, and Lawrence wished the sight of her didn’t drive his pulse into overdrive. He watched her as her mind bent around his set-up. So much of Andy was reactionary—like the first time they’d met and she’d slid her hand into his during the barrel racing—but she also had a side of her that took time to process. Time to think through what she should say.

“Well, now what?” she asked, smoothing down her festive crimson sweater. She’d paired it with a pair of black slacks, which hugged her petite frame, and a pair of ballet flats, which bore the muddy evidence of her escape into the barn.

“Now nothing,” Lawrence said, though a dinner invitation sat on the tip of his tongue. “I just wanted to see you and tell you I’m not upset with you.” He wanted more than that, but he buried the words deep. Couldn’t speak them too soon.

She combed her fingers through her coffee-colored hair and trained her tea-colored eyes on him. He’d lost himself to her beauty before, and he felt himself falling again. He glanced away.

“Sorry about your momma,” he said.

She inhaled sharply, sending a hiss through the barn. “You came to the funeral. You already paid your respects.”

“Not to you.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets as they tingled in anticipation of holding hers. “You doin’ okay?”

“Fine.”

Which meant no. He wondered if she’d holed herself up in her loft, lost herself in her boutique, spent too much money and too many hours shopping online. One look at Andy, and he knew she’d done all of that.

“What are you doin’ for Thanksgiving?” he asked.

“Baking pumpkin pie and roasting a turkey.”

“For one?”

She lifted her chin. “Yes.”

“You shouldn’t do that.” He couldn’t stop himself from moving a little closer. Maybe not within arm’s reach, but near enough to smell that blasted perfume. “Come on out here. Kelly and Chelsea are preparing a feast fit for kings.” He nodded to the bag of clothes she still held. “Carly will probably need to order a bigger size after what they have planned.” He chuckled. “Don’t you tell her I said that, though.”

A ghost of a smile crossed her face. “It’ll be our little secret.”

Surprise jolted through him at the familiar words. A game they used to play during the months they’d dated.

“Don’t tell anyone I let you in my storeroom.” She gives him a flirtatious grin as she pushes open the door. “I never let anyone in here, not even Mama.”

“It’ll be our little secret,” he tells her as he enters, pulls her with him, and closes the door. He kisses her in the privacy of her storeroom, away from the window shopping ladies on the sidewalk. Their little secret.

Lawrence shook the memories from his head, but the fantasy that he and Andy could play such games again remained in full force.

She seemed to remember what the words represented, and her face turned to stone. “I can’t come for Thanksgiving.” She spun and faced the weather.

He joined her at her side. “Of course you can. You have nowhere else to go.” He put his hand on her arm for barely a breath. There, then gone. “You shouldn’t be alone at the holidays.”

“Will you go home to Amarillo?”

“Not this year.” He focused on the rain too, watched the wind drive it sideways. “My folks are goin’ on a cruise. I’m staying here. Maybe I’ll even help with the baking.”

Andy gave him the response he wanted—she threw her head back and laughed. “I’ll eat before I come out, then.”

“Hey, who says I haven’t improved since last year?”

She tossed him a smirk. “Have you?”

“Not even a little bit.” He nudged her side. “Does that mean you’ll come?” He didn’t dare to hope, yet the feeling swelled inside him, expanding until it filled his whole body.

She drew the silence into long ribbons, until the unease inside Lawrence threatened to tear him apart. He hadn’t dated anyone since Andy. He couldn’t. He believed her to be the only one for him.

Now he just needed her to believe it too.

He tilted his head toward the barn’s rafters. How do I make her believe it too?

He’d been asking God the same question for months, and finally he’d had the idea to use her online shopping service to get her to talk to him. But now he didn’t know what else to say, and the Lord was silent on the matter as well.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “I absolutely love the complete Three Rivers series. I love that it is a Christian romance that does not leave you disappointed. I also love how God guides each couple to their happily ever after.” ~Betty G.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “How wonderful to have everyone tied in at the end, sharing the joy of Christmas with each other! True family!! Liz really knows how to turn words into pictures in your mind, as you share tender moments with these special, wholesome, Christian characters! I can't get enough of her stories! Thank you Liz, for sharing your heart with us all!” ~Rhonda