A Cowboy to Remember Read online

  It made no sense to her, but somehow there were two suns. One blazing overhead. She’d forgotten her bandana and her cowboy hat, and the sun was beating down on the back of her neck, beating down on the crown of her head. The other sun was setting in the distance, painting the sky purple and pink. She made her way toward the horizon on the back of a large brown horse, but she was riding backward. She could still see the horse’s tail flicking rhythmically as they made their way down the trail.

  And then there was this man walking beside the horse. A gorgeous Black man wearing a black cowboy hat and a Lakers jersey. Kobe 8. When she saw him, she realized the heat she was feeling wasn’t from the sun. It was the heat radiating from the smile on his face. She could feel that heat coming up from her stomach and spreading all over her cheeks and down the back of her neck. She could still hear his voice. He laughed at her, teased her. They were going to be late. She wanted to tell him to stop making fun of the way she was riding, but her tongue wouldn’t work. It didn’t seem to really matter, though. Deep down she didn’t want the teasing to stop.

  Evie tried to open her eyes again and this time her body was better prepared. Carefully she tried to sit up, pushing herself up against the thin pillows.

  “Hey. You’re up?” Evie looked over at the chair beside her bed. Everything was blurry, but she had heard the owner of that voice enough in the last twenty-four hours. It was Blaire. “Here. Here are your glasses.” Evie took the pink frames Blaire placed in her hand and slid them on her face. Much better. Her room was dim, but she could see. Blaire was wrapped in a blue hospital blanket, her legs stretched out in front of her.

  “Hey. How are you feeling?” she asked.

  “Okay,” Evie tried to say. She cleared her throat and tried again. “Better. Thank you. Did you sleep here all night?”

  “In the hospital? Yeah. One of the nurses pointed me toward an empty room. I got to spend a couple hours not in a chair. How’d you sleep?”

  “Okay. I think. I had a weird dream. I was riding a horse backwards.” She didn’t mention the man.

  “Oh wow. That must have been some dream.”

  “Did I ride horses? Do I?” Evie asked.

  “Um, I don’t know for sure, but maybe. You told me you grew up on a ranch. Maybe they had horses. You don’t talk about your childhood much, actually. Did the dream make you think of anything? Any memories?”

  Evie paused a moment and tried to get back to her dream. Bits of it were already fading. All she could see—and almost still feel—was the horse under her and the man. She could still see his smile and hear his laugh, but there wasn’t much else. She remembered yesterday. Meeting Blaire and the other two women, her agent and her assistant. She remembered the MRI and how nice Dr. Manzo had been and the sweet nurse who brought her double dessert, but whose name she didn’t catch. That was it. Nothing before waking up in the hospital.

  “No. I can’t think of anything.”

  “The doctor said it might take a few days. It’ll be okay.” Evie didn’t have any response to that. Instead she just watched Blaire as she started fiddling with her phone, before holding the screen for Evie to see. “Does this guy look familiar to you?”

  Evie looked at the picture of a large, muscular Black man in a suit, black cowboy hat in his hand. She thought back to her dream, but this was a different man. “No. Who is he?”

  “His name is Jesse Pleasant and you grew up with him. Nicole and I were talking and we think we might give him a call. He might be worried about you. I found a Jesse Pleasant Sr. who is also kind of a stone-cold silver fox, but he’s much older and he’s an actor on some BBC cop show. This is your guy.”

  “Is he an old boyfriend or something?”

  “I don’t think so. You never mentioned him like that, but he’s fine, isn’t he?” Blaire said with burst of laughter. Evie looked at the phone screen again.

  “He is handsome.”

  Evie tried to ignore the frustration she felt when Blaire’s smile faded a bit. Maybe handsome wasn’t the word Blaire wanted to hear.

  “Anyway, so yeah. We were thinking since—ya know, before—you told Raquelle this guy was your last-line-of-defense type of emergency contact, we could call him and let him know what happened, let him know you’re here. And then we can go from there.”

  “Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. Is he family?”

  Blaire’s expression really dropped this time. She reached out and took Evie’s hand. Her fingers were warm, so Evie did her best to hold still. “No, honey. Remember yesterday we mentioned it was just you and your grandma, and your grandma died about ten years ago. But let’s call Jesse. He might as well be family. Maybe. I think it would be good to at least talk to him. And maybe all together we can look at all of our options for when they are ready to release you.”

  “Right. Since I can’t remember anything.”

  “Right. But don’t worry. I got you, boo.” That little laugh was back again. A knot tied itself in Evie’s throat. She wished she could laugh with Blaire and share in whatever relationship she was sure they had, but there was nothing. Just Blaire’s warm hand on hers and lingering thoughts of an unknown man.

  Chapter 3

  Zach Pleasant did nothing to hide his smug smile. Once again, he got exactly what he wanted. His grandmother reminded him constantly that it wasn’t polite to gloat, but when he knew how much it annoyed his older brother Jesse, he didn’t see the point in reining it in. Their ranch foreman, Felix, wasn’t helping the situation either. His own grin of amusement tipped up the corners of his thick mustache as he glanced between the Pleasant brothers. All three of them stood around the large mahogany desk in the center of Zach’s office. They just had to finalize a few details and the deal would be done.

  “So you want to confirm delivery for the first Saturday in January?” Zach said.

  “Yeah, let’s go ahead with that. I’ll have a sit-down with Arnie and the boys. We’ll aim to have him down at your place that morning.” Don Milcher’s voice came through the speakerphone loud and clear. The Pleasants had done several deals with the quarter-horse breeder over the years. They’d been very pleased with everything Don had brought to the table and today was no exception. “I’m almost sad to part with him. My granddaughter’s in love.”

  “That’s exactly why I want to get him out here. We need a little something to bring that sparkle back to the youngins.” Zach had no Southern accent to speak of. He was born at Cedars, right in the middle of Beverly Hills, and raised in SoCal his whole life. Didn’t stop him from pulling out a fake accent every now and then for dramatic effect.

  “Alright. Alright.” Don laughed. “Now you’re laying it on a little thick. He’s already yours, Pleasant.”

  “Don, I’ll have everything handled by noon,” Jesse said.

  “Perfect. Always a pleasure, boys.”

  “Would you say it was a pleasant experience?” Zach added.

  Don let out a loud groan that rolled into more deep laughter. “Felix, give him a shot to the chops for me, will ya?”

  “I wish I could, man. I wish I could, but he cuts my checks.”

  “Can’t mess with a man’s money. Until next time.” They said their goodbyes and Zach ended the call. He leaned back in his chair, stretching his arms behind his head.

  “You happy now?” Jesse asked.

  “Brother, you know I am.”

  It was the start of another stellar week at Big Rock Ranch, Southern California’s most exclusive luxury dude ranch. Christmas was just days away and they were completely booked with families and couples who wanted to do something a little different this holiday season. The ranch was even booked for a large New Year’s Eve wedding to close out their year. And now Zach was about to be the proud owner of a gorgeous black-and-white paint foal whose sire he’d not so quietly coveted for years, the perfect Christmas present for himself—and the ranch.

  “I’m going to head back out. You need anything else from me?” Felix asked, looking bet
ween Zach and Jesse.

  “No, I don’t think so,” Zach replied just as his office door popped open. His baby cousin and assistant, Lilah, poked her head in the door.

  “Sorry to interrupt, but Jesse, there’s a Nicole Pruitt on the phone and she said it’s urgent. Something about someone named Evie Buchanan.” she said. At the mention of Evie’s name all the air was sucked out of the room. There wasn’t a day where Evie didn’t cross Zach’s mind, but there was a strange, unwritten rule amongst his family and any staff member who had been on since the days of Amelia Buchanan—no one mentioned Evie’s name.

  The sound of Felix’s Stetson slapping against his thigh snapped Zack out of his state of shock. “I’ll let you boys handle this.” Felix knew better than to hang around for this conversation. With a nod to both Zack and Jesse, he made a break for it, giving Lilah a fatherly squeeze on the shoulder as he went.

  “What the—” Zach’s gaze flashed back to his brother. To strangers Jesse came off as calm and cool, but Zach knew all his tells. He didn’t miss the way his brother’s throat worked. A thousand questions ran through his mind, and from the look on Jesse’s face, Zack knew he had the answers. Zack stood up so fast he almost knocked over his chair. “Did she say what it was about?” he asked Lilah, but Jesse spoke up before she could answer.

  “Tell her I’ll be with her in a moment. You can put her through to my office.” Jesse made for the door, but Zach was quicker than his brother, who had at least four inches and fifty pounds on him. He vaulted over his desk and blocked Jesse’s exit.

  “What are you doing? Move,” Jesse said.

  “What is going on?”

  “That’s what I’m trying to find out, so unless you’re going to WWE me to the floor and stop me from taking this woman’s call, I think you better get the hell out of my way.”

  “Fine.” Zach moved from the doorway, but followed Jesse as he marched across their shared reception area, by the sleeping form of Jesse’s dog, Clementine, and back into his private office. Jesse glared at him as he rounded his own desk, but Zach didn’t give a shit. He sat right down in one of the available leather chairs. “Put it on speaker.”

  This time Jesse gave in and hit the speaker button at the bottom of his landline phone. “This is Jesse Pleasant.”

  “Jesse, hi. My name is Nicole Pruitt. I’m Evie—Yvonne Buchanan’s agent. Yvonne’s assistant had you down as her emergency contact.”

  “Hello, Ms. Pruitt. I’m here with my brother Zachariah. Is Evie okay?”

  “She’s alright, but we have a bit of a situation.” Zach looked up and he could see the fear clamping down on his chest reflected in Jesse’s eyes. “There was an accident.” They both listened carefully as Nicole Pruitt detailed what had happened to Evie at the holiday party for the cast and crew of The Dish. Zach’s bedroom DVR was filled with episodes of the daytime cooking show, but he had only made it through one episode. Zach tried not to dwell on why that was as Nicole Pruitt went on to detail how Evie had been unconscious for nearly two full days and how she was now rolling through her third day of complete memory loss.

  “Why didn’t you call me when it happened?” Jesse asked.

  They could both hear the hint of annoyance in Nicole’s voice when she replied. “Mr. Pleasant, I found my client bleeding from a head wound at the bottom of a flight of stairs this weekend. I apologize if I didn’t think to reach out to a man that Evie has never mentioned before. She told her assistant only to call you in the case of a fatal incident. I needed to be sure calling you was the right thing to do.”

  Zach and Jesse looked at each other. There were some details missing. Jesse let out a deep breath and rubbed his bald head. “Okay, well, what can we do now? How can we help?”

  “Gentlemen, I’m willing to admit when I’m in a little over my head. The hospital is going to discharge her in a few days and I know Christmas is right around the corner, but she—”

  “She still has no memory and you don’t have a game plan,” Zach said.

  “Exactly. The doctors are optimistic that her memory will at least partially return, but I’m trying to think long- and short-term here. I’m thinking about her health and her career. She’s too recognizable and well-known to be walking around Manhattan with no clue who she is. And if we make it through the holidays without further incident, she has to be back on the set of a cooking show the second week in January, and I’m not sure if she remembers how to cook. Or how to play for the cameras.”

  “Damn,” Zack let slip.

  “Yeah, damn is right. And I know this is all kinds of wishful thinking on my part, but I’m hoping seeing your face might bring something back from her childhood. It’s not everything, but it would be something.”

  “Understood,” Jesse said. “I’m going to send you back to my assistant, if you can give her the details. I’ll be on the red-eye tonight.”

  “I’d appreciate that. Evie would too.”

  Zach watched Jesse as he transferred the call back to Lilah. “You’re Evie’s emergency contact?” he asked.

  Jesse grabbed the black Stetson his father had gifted him for Christmas a few years back. Zack had a matching hat in tan. “We’re not talking about this right now. You got things covered here? I should only be a few days,” Jesse said as he made for the door.

  “Hold the fuck on. Answer my question.”

  Jesse gestured toward his phone, his eyes flashing wide with exasperation. “Clearly I’m her emergency contact. And clearly there’s more important things for me to deal with right now than me explaining this all to you.”

  “Alright, well, I’m coming with you.”

  “Zach.”

  Zach sucked his teeth. “Man, nah. Don’t. Don’t act like I don’t know what’s going on between me and Evie. Or what isn’t. But you just said, Evie is the priority now. And I want to be there. Plus, which one of us do you think has a better chance of shocking her memory back?”

  Jesse sighed and Zach knew he had him. All three of them, their baby brother Sam included, had been close with Evie, but Zach and Evie had history.

  “Fine. I’ll get with Lilah and handle our flights and everything. You can go talk to Delfi and let her know she’s steering the ship while we’re gone, and then you tell Miss Leona that we might not be back by Christmas morning.” With Sam off with his latest girlfriend and their parents deciding not to return to the States for the holidays, the plan was for the two of them to spend Christmas with their grandmother and their baby cousin, but it looked like that plan was about to change.

  “Why are you acting like she won’t understand? She loves Evie. Hell, she might want to come,” Zach said.

  “Just go talk to her.”

  “I will. I got it covered.”

  Jesse started for the door before he paused and turned back toward Zack. “Whatever you’re thinking,” Jesse said. “Whatever you’re feeling, it stays here. You might want to be the one to swoop in and save the day, but that’s not going to work this time. And if Evie does remember you—”

  “I know.”

  “All that bullshit, Zach. I mean it. It stays here. And if you can’t handle that, then I’m leaving your ass behind.”

  Zach just nodded. Their dynamic had been set in stone the moment Sam learned to talk. Jesse was the brains, Zach the mouth, and Sam the charm, but now he heard Jesse loud and clear. Jesse would pull rank for Evie’s sake if he had to. Zach had screwed up big-time and pushed Evie away when she needed him most. Now was not the time to try and mend that fence, but that wouldn’t stop him from being by Evie’s side. This time he was going to be there for her, whether she knew him or not.

  * * *

  Zach usually had the ability to fall into the deepest sleep seconds after takeoff. But it was long after they’d reached cruising altitude on their red-eye flight to JFK and he was still wide-awake.

  Evie Buchanan. Holy shit. Back when they were kids he didn’t fully understand the way he’d felt about her, but now that he was
finally a grown man he could admit that Evie had been the first girl to really stir something in him. When she arrived at Big Rock to live with her grandma, she’d been awkward and shy, but it didn’t take long for her to break out of her shell.

  She’d followed Zach and his brothers all over the small valley town they called home, trying to keep up with them at every turn. They may have been the same age, but for a long time Zach looked at her as a little sister. They had a good time running from one end of the ranch to the other, and Zach had even better time teasing the shit out of her.

  He wasn’t sure when her obvious crush on him had gone from just that to full-blown infatuation, probably around the time her grandmother had made it clear that she didn’t want them left alone together anymore. Teenagers were sex-crazed hormone monsters, drawn together by the powerful magnets anchored in their genitals, according to Amelia Buchanan, but lustful wasn’t the way Zach would describe the situation. For him it had been a gradual thing. Slow, burning feelings (that, he could admit, did lead to Evie making more than one appearance in his teenage fantasies). By the time he realized what he felt for Evie was definitely more than just friendly affection and teenage horniness, she was gone.

  He became a master at explaining his feelings away. Charming was small. There weren’t many girls his age to begin with. Proximity was the problem. On more than one occasion, their mother had assured all her boys that they’d probably meet their wives in college, but deep down a part of him wondered if Evie had been the one.

  Ever since they’d gotten off the phone with Nicole, all Zach could think about was their last night together. He’d fucked up. He’d fucked up real big. So big that what he hoped would be his attempt to comfort and reassure her that he’d always have her back, ended with Evie in tears, begging him to stay out of her life. At first Zach had stopped himself from calling or texting Evie, because he wanted to respect her wishes. Weeks turned into years, and when he didn’t hear a word from her he knew she’d meant business. She truly wanted a Zachariah Pleasant–free life. He’d be lying if he said it didn’t bother the shit out of him.