Wyatt: Return of the Cowboy Read Online Free Page A

“That suit looks good on you.”
    “Dad told me you were in town.”
    What Wyatt would have given to hear their conversation. Did his brother admit to inviting Wyatt or had he played dumb? “Can you break away for an early lunch? My treat.”
    “Sorry, got an appointment.” Jay motioned for Wyatt to accompany him. “Come on in. I have a few minutes before my client gets here.”
    The other bank employees cast curious glances in their direction while pretending to work.
    “I’m impressed.” Sitting in the visitor chair across from Jay’s desk, Wyatt noted the various plaques, certificates, awards and commendations prominently displayed. On the desk was a framed photo of Jay at a ground-breaking ceremony. “You’ve done well for yourself. You must be proud.”
    “I keep busy.”
    “I see that.”
    As kids, Jay hadn’t minded the incredibly strict rules their father imposed. Ted Malone was determined his sons not turn out like some of their regulars in the saloon. Paige’s mother, for one. If anything Jay thrived under their father’s heavy hand. He’d been an honor student, star athlete and rule-abiding son.
    Whereas Wyatt—a C student at best and more interested in horses than sports—had rebelled. By seventeen, he’d made a name for himself. The wrong kind of name.
    Both boys had changed, Jay in college and Wyatt after high school graduation—which was why Jay had been drinking the night of the accident and Wyatt sober. Their father, however, either didn’t see the changes in his sons or refused to believe them.
    “You here for the party?” Jay asked Wyatt.
    “I’ve been wanting to come back. Make peace with the family.”
    “Why now all of a sudden?”
    Unlike their father, Wyatt and Jay spoke on occasion. Once, twice a year on birthdays or Christmas. Wyatt called his brother, not the other way around. They spoke for maybe a half hour, just long enough to catch up.
    Wyatt’s conversations with his mother weren’t much longer but considerably more personal. Or, they had been until their disagreement in the hospital.
    “It’s actually not that sudden,” Wyatt said. “I had a lot of regrets about what happened. Nothing like an extended hospital stay, having the doctors tell you just how close you were to dying, to give those regrets new meaning. I’m sure you feel the same.”
    “I did at first.” Jay picked up a pen and began tapping it on his desk blotter. “What young guy doesn’t dream of playing pro football?”
    “And you were good enough.”
    “We’ll never know. But, as you said, I’ve been doing well. The bank hired me right out of college and promoted me every few years like clockwork.”
    “How’s Kerry Anne and the girls?”
    Jay rotated his computer monitor, showing Wyatt the screen saver picture of his attractive family.
    “Very nice.” Wyatt had two new regrets to add to his list: not attending his brother’s wedding and not being there when his nieces were born. “I can’t wait to meet them.”
    “You’re coming to the party then?”
    “It’s why I’m here.”
    “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Jay hedged.
    “I thought you wanted me there. You sent me an invitation.”
    “Even if I knew where you were, I wouldn’t have invited you. Not with the way Dad feels.”
    Not invited him?
    “Come on, Wyatt.” Jay gave a mirthless chuckle. “You know how it is.”
    “No, Jay, I don’t. Tell me.”
    His brother’s perfect-politician smile slipped. “I can’t have you making trouble while you’re here.”
    “For Mom and Dad?”Wyatt looked again at the photo on his brother’s desk, at the plaques and certificates, at the nameplate with the title Vice President engraved after Jay Malone. “Or you?”
    “Me?”
    “You’re afraid I’ll tell people it was you and not me who ran Dad’s car off the road.”
    All pretense was gone from Jay’s face. “Let it go, Wyatt. What difference does it make now?”
    “Everyone in town thinks I’m