Hard Loving Cowboy--Includes a bonus novella by A.J. Pine

Author:A.J. Pine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2019-03-25T16:00:00+00:00

It was after nine when Violet hopped into the passenger seat of Olivia’s canary yellow Volkswagen Bug.

“Is this what you were driving when Sheriff Hawkins pulled you over?” Violet asked.

Olivia grinned. “Yep. And he didn’t just pull me over. He arrested me. Handcuffs and everything.”

Violet laughed. “Sounds like a great start to a relationship.”

Olivia clicked her seat belt into place and put the car in drive. “It was pretty disastrous, that day the sheriff and I met. I mean, I was the disaster. Not Cash. My parents had a nasty divorce and have been living hatefully ever after for too many years to count. The biggest lesson they taught me was that I never wanted to end up like them. It might have messed with my ability to commit. Your parents seem pretty tight, though, yeah?”

Violet cleared her throat. “They are. But I don’t think they have an origin story quite as romantic as yours.” After getting the real story, she wondered how much she really knew about the people who raised her—about the relationship she’d always wanted to emulate. “Let’s just say we might not be that different, you and me. I always thought my parents had this perfect, easy sort of love. So instead of being cautious, I dove headfirst into every relationship assuming if it was right—like they were right—that it would simply fall into place.”

Olivia gave her a knowing grin. “You thought you knew the answer. I thought I could run to Oak Bluff and find the answer. But the truth is, I was never asking myself the right question.”

Violet raised her brows and waited for her new friend to explain.

“It’s not about what made it work for your parents or my grandparents or what made my mom and dad’s relationship crash and burn. I was a runner. So the question for me was what would it take to get me to stay?”

“Cash,” Violet said, assuming the answer was easy.

She shook her head. “I mean yes, Cash, of course. But it was because when I was with him I was home. I didn’t want to run anymore because I was safe right where I was.”

Why was Olivia telling her all of this? They barely knew each other. And Violet wasn’t a runner. She knew exactly where home was. Other than her three years in college, home had been the same place for Violet’s entire life.

Olivia turned on the radio as the chorus to Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling” came on, and she started dancing in her seat. “Okay, wine expert, show me your real skills!” She sang along with the song, loud and off key but with such ridiculous joy that it was contagious.

So that was that, the end of a conversation that was starting to make Violet squirm. She welcomed the distraction.

Olivia lowered the windows, and soon the two of them were belting out each song that followed so that the thirty-minute ride was filled with fresh air and loud music, with all of life’s stresses tucked neatly away until tomorrow morning.

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