One Stubborn Texan

still fumed every time she thought of how easily he’d dismissed the bond they’d forged. And accusing her of making up the story about her poor grieving father’s nearly bankrupt business-how could he believe anyone would do that, much less the woman he’d just spent all night making love to?

Her cell phone rang, and she checked the caller ID: Russ again. He’d been leaving voice mail messages every couple of hours all day long and the previous evening, too.

Sydney couldn’t talk to him yet. Her feelings were too raw, too exposed. But she kept listening to the voice mails just to hear the sound of his voice and remember what it was like to be in love, if only briefly.

“Sydney, I’m searching for your office but I can’t find it. I’m standing out on the corner of Atlantic and Court streets looking like an idiot. Someone handed me a dollar because they thought I was homeless. Please help.”

Russ was here? In Brooklyn? The man she’d firmly believed would never set foot outside central Texas had gotten on a plane and flown to the biggest, most crowded city in America to see her?

She went to her window and looked out. Oh, my God. There he was, standing across the street by Your Personal Assistant, Inc., which was a mailbox and secretarial service. After a stalking incident a couple of years back, she didn’t give out her physical address to people she didn’t know. The address on her business card was the one Russ had found.

Her heart ached as she looked at him, so out of place with his cowboy hat and his jeans and boots.

She decided to take pity on him. She would direct him to her office, accept his apology and send him back to Texas where he clearly belonged. She dialed the number, and he answered instantly.

“Sydney?”

“I can see you from my window. Cross the street. Turn right and come in the second doorway. I’ll buzz you up. Take the elevator to the third floor.” She disconnected and watched as he followed her directions.

When he got off the elevator, she was standing in the hallway, waiting for him, her arms folded. She didn’t intend to make this easy for him. But then she realized she’d already made it pretty hard. He’d come all the way to New York just to see her.

“I was wrong,” he said.

“Wow, that’s a news flash.”

“I made a mistake.”

“You blew it, big-time. Do you know I was actually thinking about moving to Texas? That’s how crazy I am- was-about you.”

“You don’t have to move. I could live here. New Yorkers probably need outdoor adventures in the worst way. I could do tours of the Hudson River and, uh, sewer explorations or something.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You would never move to New York.”

“If that’s what it takes to be with you, Sydney, then, yes, I would. Not only yes, but hell, yes. Who cares about where you live? It’s how you live and who you live with that matter.”

She studied him, amazed at the lengths he was going to. Was it possible? Could he really care for her that much?

“You just don’t like it that I was the one to walk away.” She was grasping here, because he was getting to her. She’d sworn she would never speak to him again, that his name was no longer a part of her vocabulary. Yet here she was, standing a few feet from him, having to focus hard on not closing the distance between them and throwing herself against him, pressing her nose into his ubiquitous flannel shirt and inhaling that wonderful, manly male smell that was his and no one else’s.

“You didn’t walk away,” he argued. “I drove you away. I knew I’d made a mistake before your car cleared the garage. If you really don’t have any interest in seeing me, that’s one thing. But if you’re angry and hurt that I didn’t trust you-and you have every right to be-there might be a chance you’ll get over it.”

“In fifty years,” she shot back, folding her arms. “Or a hundred.”

“That mad, huh?”

“It’s not just that I’m mad. I…I…”

The elevator doors opened and a cleaning woman emerged with her cart and a vacuum cleaner. Giving Sydney and Russ a curt nod, she plugged in the vacuum cleaner and proceeded to clean the hall carpet.

Obviously they couldn’t continue this conversation here in the hallway. Reluctantly, Sydney turned and led Russ down to her apartment. The moment Russ entered her home, a streak of brown fur went straight for him. Blossom bounced on her hind legs, then rebounded off Russ’s knee and circled around in a dance of puppy joy. Oh, boy, a new friend.

“What is this?” Russ went down to the floor in a heartbeat, welcoming the exuberant puppy into his arms. She bathed his face in dog kisses.

“She needed a home,” Sydney said, cross that she’d been found out.

“You don’t like dogs,” Russ said, laughing as he tried to push the puppy away. It was like pushing the ocean.

“Do you wonder why? She’s the stupidest, most badly behaved animal on the planet.” Sydney sat on the arm of her sofa, defeated. “She would have ended up at the animal shelter if I hadn’t bought her. I was perfectly happy without a dog.”

Russ scratched Blossom behind the ears and amazingly she calmed down. “She looks just like Nero did when he was a pup. Are you going to keep her?”

“You want her? She’s yours.” Of course, she didn’t mean it.

“Okay. But I suspect if she comes, you’ll come with her. You’re crazy about this dog, I can tell.”

This conversation wasn’t going at all how Sydney thought it would. She hadn’t expected to be tempted. She had naively believed that seeing Russ face to face she could banish him once and for all from her thoughts, shut off the memories in a closed file in her mind and get on with her life.

“I can’t be with a man who’s going to think the worst of me at every opportunity. I can’t be with a man who doubts me, who has no faith in me. I’m not going to live my life trying to prove my loyalty. If I’m late for a date, will you assume I’ve been with another man? If I have a friendly chat with the grocery check boy, will you call it flirting? Will you be checking my pockets for notes from secret lovers, checking out my cell phone to see who I’ve been talking to?”

“I’m not like that,” he said, standing up and giving Blossom one last pat. “I’m not normally jealous or suspicious. I’m very laid-back.”

“What I saw yesterday morning was not laid-back.”

“It was an isolated incident. I was shocked by those reporters. You’d been talking on the phone earlier, kind of secretive in the middle of the night, and I put two and two together and came up with five hundred. It won’t happen again, I swear it. Just give me another chance. You can put me on probation.”

How was she supposed to say no to that? She was willing to bet this man didn’t humble himself very often. When she said nothing, because she was too busy hyperventilating, he kept going. She suspected he would keep talking until he convinced her or she kicked him out.

“I know we haven’t known each other very long, but I’m thinking you’re the one I want to be with the rest of my life. Sometimes a man just knows when something is right. I knew when I saw Linhart for the first time that I wanted to live there forever. I knew when Bert offered to sell me the general store that it was meant to be. And I knew when I held you in my arms when we were dancing, and even more when I kissed you, we had something special together. What I’m trying to say is that I love you.”

Sydney blinked back tears. Was this really happening?

Blossom was busy gnawing on Russ’s cowboy boots. Russ shook his foot, trying to dislodge the puppy. “Do you know how hard it is to declare your love with a dog attached to your shoe? C’mon, puppy, don’t take away whatever small amount of dignity I might have left.”

Sydney had run out of resistance. How could she not forgive a man with a puppy attached to his shoe? “I love you, too, you know? Despite my best efforts.”

His sexy mouth started to widen into a grin, but he stopped it. “Is there a but? As in, ‘but I could never spend my life with you’?”

She shook her head. “Can I kiss you now?”

“Um, Blossom beat you to it. Would you settle for a really good hug?”

She held out her arms. In a flash Russ had her in his embrace. He hugged her long and hard. “I was so afraid