Holly Banks sat in the spring sunshine and tipped her face up to the sun. It was good to be back in New York City. And if she kept telling herself that, she might even believe it in, say, a year or two.
âYouâre doing it again.â
âHmm?â Holly glanced at one of the two women sitting with her, enjoying their lunch break. âDoing what?â
âSighing,â her friend Katie pointed out. âYouâve been doing that a lot since you got back. I thought vacations were supposed to make you feel goodânot depressed.â
Frowning a little, Holly argued, âIâm not depressed, Iâmâ¦â
She wasnât sure what she was. Happy to be home, sure. Grateful to be at work again at her job in Waverlyâs Auction House, you bet. Glad to see her friends and share lunch while they watched Manhattan parade past, of course.
Butâ¦there was a part of her that was still in Montana on the Bar G luxury guest ranch. And she had the sneaking suspicion that it was her heart.
âIâm fine,â she insisted. âJust easing back into life in the fast lane.â
âUh-huh.â Charlotte âCharlieâ Potter gave her a hard look, then shook her head. âSo why donât you say whatâs really going on, Holly. Youâve been back a week now and youâve hardly told us anything about the ranch. You saved up for a year to go on that vacation and you donât have pictures? Stories? Tales of adventure?â
âOr romance,â Katie put in as she crumpled up her lunch bag and tossed it into a nearby trash can.
Holly took a breath and held it. She couldnât tell her friends what had happened to her in Montana. It still felt too raw. Tooâ¦tender. So instead, she smiled and took a sip of her soda before giving them just enough, she hoped, to satisfy their curiosity.
âLetâs just say that cowboys are everything I dreamed they would be.â
Charlie gave a little sigh, her soft heart filling in all of the blanks. But Katie narrowed her gaze on Holly and said, âNo details?â
âNo,â she answered. She didnât want to give them the details because she didnât want to think about a certain cowboy. Didnât want to remember cold nights and chill mornings as dawn stained the mountains with glorious color. Didnât want to remember horseback rides through meadows so beautiful theyâd taken her breath away. Or the picnics by a swiftly flowing river. Didnât want to think about dark brown eyes and long, slow kisses that set fire to everything inside her.
It had all been a lie anyway, she reminded herself firmly. He had pretended to be somethingâsomeoneâhe wasnât. She had assumed he was just a simple cowboy. A regular guy. But he wasnât, so there was no point in torturing herself with the memories, was there?
The sting of hurt was still with her and Holly knew it always would be. She could pretend everything was all right. She could lie to her friends and tuck the hurt aside during the day. But at night her dreams were filled with what-might-have-beens. With images of him. With the memory of his touch. His smile. Hisâ
âEarth to Holly,â Katie said, giving her friendâs knee a shove. Then she frowned. âHey, are you okay?â
âIâm fine,â Holly insisted. And she would be. One day. All she had to do was concentrate on her job. Her life. Her future. All right here in the biggest city in the world.
The Fifth Avenue sidewalks were packed solid. New Yorkers on their lunch breaks hurried through the crowd while the tourists who flocked to Manhattan every year slowly meandered, getting pushed and shoved out of peopleâs way. The tourists lifted their gazes to admire the reach of the tall buildings, they took pictures and risked their lives stepping off curbs into Manhattan traffic.
These were the sights and sounds of home. Taxis blasting impatient horns, a hot-dog vendor shouting at a boy trying to slip away without paying, and on the corner a guy selling knock-off purses. It was spring in the city and busy enough to keep even Hollyâs mind occupied. She hoped.
âWell,â Katie murmured from beside her, âlooks like Montanaâs not the only place to find a cowboy.â
âWhat?â
âOh, myâ¦â Charlieâs words were a whispered hush of admiration.
Holly followed their gazes and her heart jolted. He was taller than everyone else on the crowded sidewalk, and the wide-brimmed cowboy hat he wore set him even further apart from the people surrounding him.
She couldnât see his face yet, but Holly felt his presence in every cell of her body. It was the same zip of electricity she had felt from the moment she met the tall, broad-shouldered cowboy. Beside her, she sensed Katie and Charlie both turning their curious eyes toward her, but she couldnât tear her own away from the man fast approaching.
Even from a distance, she saw his brown eyes flash as his gaze locked on her. She took a deep breath, hoping to steady nerves that were already fluttering to life in the pit of her stomach.