The Cowboy's Little Girl. Kat Brookes
of tears to his wife’s eyes. Her emotional response had him shifting uncomfortably where he stood. Maybe he had spoken a little harsher than he ought to have, but she’d done far worse to him all those years ago.
“I’m not Summer,” she insisted once more. “And she won’t be starting her life over,” she added, her lower lip quivering slightly with that announcement. “At least not here on earth. My sister’s gone.”
Had his wife suffered a head injury of some sort? Was that why she was claiming to be someone else? “Sweetheart,” he said, trying not to let the flood of emotions he felt at seeing her again show in his voice, “you’re standing right here.”
“Summer never told you about me, did she?” she asked as if she’d somehow been wronged. Then she shook her head and cast her gaze out across the yard. “No,” she said sadly, “of course she didn’t.” Turning her attention back to him, she said, “I’m Autumn Myers. Summer’s twin.”
He raised a skeptical brow. “Her twin?”
She gave a slight nod. “Yes.”
Tucker’s gaze zeroed in on her slender perfectly arched brows, to where they disappeared just beneath the much shorter strands of hair that now framed his wife’s heart-shaped face. “You have a scar,” he heard himself saying.
“What?”
“The scar above your brow,” he prompted with impatience.
“No,” she said, “I don’t.” Reaching up, she pushed the hair away from her face.
“Other side,” he muttered with a deepening frown. What kind of fool did she take him for? He’d been there when she’d gotten stitched up after her fall during one of her barrel races.
Without another word, she showed him her other brow. Even in the fading light of day, there was no denying the smooth expanse of skin where the scar had been.
Tucker struggled to drag in even the slightest of breaths. This woman standing before him was not his long-lost wife, no matter how much she resembled her. “Summer’s dead?” he said, the words soft and gritty as he tried to process that something like that could even be true. She was so young. And while he had harbored a ton of resentment toward his wife after she’d walked away from the life they’d started together, to the point where he never ever wanted to see her again, this was not the way he’d wanted that to happen. Tucker’s heart squeezed.
“Yes,” Summer’s twin replied. Never had one word been so filled with emotion.
“What happened?” he rasped out, finally accepting the truth for what it was. The woman that he’d once fancied himself in love with was dead. May she rest in peace.
“Summer took her horse out for a ride near our home in Cheyenne,” she began, tears shimmering in her eyes.
“Summer was living in Cheyenne?” he muttered in disbelief. That was where his wife had chosen to put down roots? Not back home in Texas, in whatever town it was she had grown up in, but in Cheyenne. In the very place they had exchanged their wedding vows. How had they never crossed paths? Not that he’d stuck around very long once things ended.
“Yes,” she began, the words catching as she looked up at him. “And if I had known about you...” She paused, shaking her head. “I’m afraid my sister didn’t always think things out the way she ought to.”
That was the Summer he remembered. But then that was another thing that had drawn him to her back then. They’d met at a rodeo, him a tough-as-grit bareback rider and her, a highly competitive barrel racer. They’d been young and reckless, looking to grab life by the horns and then hold on for wherever the ride might take them.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to interrupt. Knowing she’d lived so close just took me by surprise.”
She nodded in understanding. “Summer was on her way back to the house when a rattlesnake spooked her horse and she was thrown.” A sob caught in her throat with the last of her explanation.
“You don’t have to say anything more,” he told her, regretting the pain his question had caused her. While he no longer felt what he once had for his wife, Autumn Myers was still dealing with the grief brought about by the loss of her sister. He couldn’t even begin to imagine how he would feel if he lost one of his brothers.
“It’s all right,” she assured him as she swiped a hand over her tear-dampened cheek. “As her husband, you have a right to know. My sister ruptured her spleen when she fell. They did emergency surgery to repair it, and she managed to hold on for a couple of days, but then infection set in and her body began shutting down.”
Tucker closed his eyes, saying a quick prayer for the woman he’d married.
“That’s when Summer opened up about the secrets she’d been keeping. You being one of them,” she told him with a sorrowful frown. “I forgave her. I only pray the Lord did, as well.”
Tucker dragged a splayed hand back through his thick chestnut hair, trying to digest everything she was telling him. It was hard to believe that the high-spirited, headstrong girl he’d once loved was gone.
“I’m sorry,” he managed, the words coming out strained. He stood there, a part of him longing to close the door and shut reality out, pretend this moment had never happened.
“No,” she mumbled despondently as her gaze shifted to the car she’d driven up in, which was parked a short distance from his house, “I’m sorry. You deserved to know the whole truth a long time ago. I pray that someday you’ll be able to forgive my sister for the choices she made, as well.”
“The whole truth?”
“There is something my sister should have told you about before walking away from your marriage,” she answered.
“I’m not so sure it matters anymore,” he told her. He was over any feelings he once had for his wife. There was nothing Autumn Myers could say to him that would change anything.
“You still should have the right to decide if it does one way or another,” she said, her face a mask of determination.
It was clear she wasn’t about to let things go, not until he’d heard her out. Tucker nodded. “If it will take some of the burden off your heart, then I’m willing to hear you out. Would you like to come inside and talk? I could fix you a glass of ice water or lemonade.”
She nodded, her gaze drifting back toward her car once more. “But there’s something I need to do first.” With that, she turned and walked away.
Tucker stepped out onto the porch as he watched Autumn make her way to her car. It was clear her sister’s death still weighed heavily on her, driving all the way across the bottom of Wyoming from Cheyenne to Bent Creek just to inform him in person of Summer’s passing. Oddly enough, he found himself wishing he could say something that might set her mind at ease about what her sister had done. Something to let her know that it wasn’t her burden to bear.
Her sister’s passing. Nausea stirred in Tucker’s gut at the very thought of it. Time and distance from the situation had made him realize how hastily he and Summer had gone into their marriage. They’d been too young and far too impulsive to place the proper amount of thought into what they were doing as they stood before the judge at the Laramie County Courthouse that day. And, yes, he’d been hurt, and more than a little confused, when she’d taken off the way she had. Anger had followed. It had taken a fair amount of praying and suffering months of inner turmoil trying to pinpoint exactly what it was that he’d done wrong to send Summer running before he’d finally come to accept that she’d made the right decision in ending their hasty marriage. Whatever her reason may have been.
Not that it had ended completely. Legally, they were still husband and wife, something he’d made no attempt to rectify. One failed marriage was enough for him. As long as he and Summer were still legally wed, he could never make the same mistake again. Giving