The Cowgirl Rides Away (Bluebonnet, TX Book 1)

CHAPTER FOUR: Zack

There wasn't much uglier scenery than South Texas in late winter. And January's cold rains gave way to sharp February winds that left Zack gasping for air and pulling on extra thermals and socks, but today he got to stay in and paint. By the time the sun finally appeared on the horizon, he was ready for a break. He'd been in his studio since four that morning, working on sketches of Hope from the photo she'd sent. He stood and stretched, aware of the cold seeping through the floor.

He stopped outside his studio door and turned up the heat, then poked his head in Travis's room. He lay stretched out on his back, dead to the world. With a smile, Zack quietly pulled the door to and headed down the hall, pausing at his desk long enough to turn the computer on. While it booted up, he put on a fresh pot of coffee.

His agent, Kate Bradshaw, lived in Dallas, so the computer was a necessity. She needed a way to keep in touch with him since, according to her, he lived in the boonies. Of course, she considered anything not smack-dab in the middle of urban sprawl the boonies.

Zack settled in at his desk and scanned his email. Two were from Kate asking about preparations for his June show in Houston and how work was progressing. All the usual things an agent worried about when money was involved...and one from Hope.

I've been thinking a lot about respect and sex. Get your mind out of the gutter J. I mean that by saying you want a virgin, you want a woman who respects herself. Am I right?

She was! Zack smiled to himself and kept on reading.

I've dated some, but never found anyone I wanted to spend all my time with. Sometimes I wonder if there's something wrong with me. Am I too cynical or too picky? I see other women getting married and having babies but I can't seem to figure it all out. I can't seem to buy into it, but that doesn't mean I don't want it. How do you know you've found the right person to spend   your life with? What if you marry someone then find your soul mate, then what?

And do we really even have soul mates?

Sorry to be on such a downer today. I just feel like you'll understand whatever I tell you, no matter how off-the-wall it is,but I feel weird, knowing you're out there somewhere and that you seem to understand me so well when I don't even know you. For real that is. Sometimes I wish I did. 

I wonder what would it be like to talk to you face to face, go for a walk with you, to touch you, or if everything would just be too weird. I mean, what if it's not the same? Would we go forward or backward?

Sometimes I think I'm just being weird J.

He liked her frankness. Zack smiled and scanned the rest of the email. She'd spent the day with her godchildren. And, from reading about how Lizzie used her to practice her nursing skills on, she wasn't above gettin' down and playing with them. But being around a happily married couple had left her with questions, a lot of them. More than once he and Jessa had talked about relationships. What worked, what didn't, what was realistic. They'd danced around each other, feeling each other out, getting the lay of the land in terms of hopes and dreams, wants and desires. He really liked her frankness.

She'd been to Santa Fe. And knew about Ghost Ranch. She dreamed of raising horses and wanted a big family. Despite the fact that hers wasn't close.

He chuckled again. Large families seemed to come with their own problems. Hell, even now, his brothers razzed him about his weight, in contrast to his lack of height. And the fact he'd rather paint than work cows or horses all day. They didn't understand his need to create anything, even music. Ty came closest, but even he didn't quite get it.