The Cowboy She Couldn't Forget. Patricia Thayer

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      He watched Ana stiffen.

      He wasn’t going to be put off. “Do you remember her?”

      With a nod, she glanced away. “I was pretty young. But, yes, I can remember how beautiful she was. Her voice, her touch.” She turned back and he saw the tears in her eyes. “I wanted to hate her, but for years I just kept praying she’d come back and be our mom again.”

      He reached across the table and touched her hand. “That’s understandable.”

      She looked down at his hand and slowly pulled hers away. “Is it? Do you wish your mother would come back?”

      “Sure. Every kid does, especially when your dad isn’t around to feed you and you’re hungry.” Vance blew out a breath. “And you can’t go to school because you don’t have shoes. Kids make fun of you for things like that. But sometimes you’re just too hungry to care, when you know you’ll get that free meal at lunch.”

      He caught the look on her face and realized how much he’d disclosed.

      This time Ana took his hand. “Oh, Vance. I had...had no idea.”

      He shrugged it off. “No one did. At fourteen, I finally had enough and was trying to get away. I was big for my age and hoped I could go somewhere and get a job.

      “I hid out in the back of a pickup truck in the parking lot so I could get out of town. I didn’t know it belonged to Colt until I found myself at the Lazy S. I decided to sleep in the barn before starting my journey in the morning. Of course he found me.”

      Ana didn’t want to feel sympathy for the kid who had a rotten life. “And you became the son Dad always wanted.”

      “As I told you before, I only wanted to survive,” Vance stressed. “Colt was my only way out of a bad childhood. I’m sorry if you thought you had to compete against me for your father’s attention.”

      She shrugged. It all seemed so juvenile now. “It doesn’t matter anymore. Colt made his choices a long time ago and that’s why I can’t get my sisters to come back here.”

      “Maybe if they know about the state of the ranch... I mean, it’s part of their heritage, too. Their inheritance. Wouldn’t they want to preserve it?”

      Ana shrugged. “So far they haven’t seemed too interested in anything to do with Colt or the ranch.” She raised her gaze to meet his. “The trick is, how do I convince Josie, Tori and Marissa to come home?”

      “Tell them the truth. Colt needs them and you can’t do it all. At the least, you need help with his care.” He paused, then asked, “Aren’t they all living in California? You could go see them.”

      “Go there?”

      He nodded. “If you show up on their doorstep they have to listen to you. They should help you with medical decisions about your father.”

      She frowned. “You don’t know my sisters.” This could backfire in her face. “So I think you should go with me.”

      * * *

      The nurse raised Colt’s bed so he could finally sit up. What he really wanted was to get the hell out of this place. Not an easy task, since he was still weak as a newborn calf and he couldn’t move his right arm.

      “Is that better, Mr. Slater?” the nurse, whose name was Erin, asked.

      He grunted.

      She smiled again as she put the call button next to his good hand. “Press this if you need me. Your daughter will be here, too. Plus, they should be coming to talk to you about your therapy soon.”

      He grunted again. What good was that going to do?

      “It’s going to take some work to get back in shape, Mr. Slater, but you’ve got a good chance for a full recovery. But you’ll need to work hard.”

      As if he hadn’t worked hard all his life.

      The nurse turned on the television to a game show, then walked out of the room, leaving him alone.

      Most of the time he liked being alone. What choice did he have? Ranch work had filled in a lot of lonely hours. He released a breath and closed his eyes. What was he going to do when he didn’t have the Lazy S anymore? Sit in a nursing home somewhere until he died?

      Sadness overtook him as he closed his eyes and thought back over his life. His chest tightened when he thought of Luisa.

      He could still picture her as vividly as if it were yesterday. Small and delicate, Luisa Delgado was beautiful with all that thick, black hair and large eyes. Her olive skin was flawless. When he first saw her, at a rodeo, he’d thought she was an angel. When she walked up and talked to him, he figured he’d died and gone to heaven.

      After they’d married, weeks later, he’d thanked God every day, and especially when they were blessed with the babies, every one of them a beauty like their mother.

      The tightness in Colt’s chest worsened as he recalled the evening he’d come in from the range, so anxious to see his girls. Luisa had been moody and distant of late, with caring for the children. He’d offered to get her someone to help, but she said she wanted to be their mother full-time. Later that night he’d found her crying, and had asked her what was wrong.

      She’d only said, “Just make love to me so all the bad things will go away.”

      Colt released another sigh, recalling how intense their loving had been that night. When he’d walked into the house the next afternoon, there was a babysitter and his wife was gone. All that he had was a short note, telling him she no longer wanted a life with him and their daughters.

      He’d searched for her, wanting to beg her to come home, but he never found her. Then he got the divorce papers. That day his life as he knew it had ended.

      * * *

      Two days later, Vance sat next to Ana as the plane landed at LAX. He had no idea how he’d gotten roped into going to California.

      For one thing, he hated large cities and the crowds. Secondly, if there had been any animosity between him and Ana, it had been worse with the younger sisters. He had to just keep remembering he was doing this for Colt, and for Ana.

      The plane taxied to the terminal. “I’m not sure this visit will change anything,” Ana said, feeling a little nervous. Maybe it had something to do with the close quarters. Vance was a big man, and that didn’t leave her much room. “What if Tori and Josie refuse to help?”

      “Then we go back to Montana and figure it out on our own.” His hand rested against his jean-covered thigh. She was suddenly intrigued by his long, tapered fingers.

      He went on to say, “And we will figure out something. I promise.”

      She glanced at his face and saw his sexy smile. Her heart went zing and she had to look away. No! She wasn’t going to even think about this man like that. Okay, so maybe it was normal, since she hadn’t been in a romantic relationship in a while. That was still no excuse to think about Vance Rivers that way. She was no longer СКАЧАТЬ