The Sharpest Edge. Stephanie Rowe

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СКАЧАТЬ two fingers to her neck, he checked for a pulse. Slightly elevated, but steady.

      “Ma’am? Ma’am, can you hear me?”

      Truck door slamming, Hunter joined him. They peered through the blowing snow at the woman on the ground.

      Hunter’s face scrunched. “Did you kill her, Dad?”

      Adam’s apple bobbing, he gulped. “I—I don’t think so...”

      “How come she doesn’t wake up den?”

      Good question. Grim scenarios of head and spinal injuries floated across his vision. But he couldn’t leave her lying on the pavement. The freezing cold would send her into shock.

      Hunter squatted beside the woman. “God sent us a pwetty one, didn’t He, Dad?”

      Jonas lifted his hat and resettled it on his head. “She’s not...” But he could see where his son got the wrong idea about the woman.

      A big bow on her head, frothy ruffles of fabric also peeped from underneath the hem of her bright green coat. She did look like a gift package. Wrapped especially for him.

      Jonas frowned. Not him. Hunter. No... Not Hunter, either.

      His son was right, though. She was a pretty woman. He couldn’t tell the color of her eyes, but the reddish hue of her hair emphasized the alabaster fairness of her skin. She had a generous mouth—as if she did a lot of smiling.

      Not that there was anything to smile about at the moment. Who was she? What was she doing on a deserted mountain road in a snowstorm?

      Something catching his attention, Hunter wandered to the shoulder of the road. Returning, he handed a bead-covered purse to his father.

      Jonas didn’t like going through her private possessions, but if anything ever qualified as an emergency, he reckoned it was this. Lipstick. A brush. Breath mints. Keys...

      His head came up. Squinting in the fading light, through the falling snow he discerned the dull glint of an automobile parked on the side of the road. She must have broken down or run out of gas.

      A sports car. Something foreign. Something fast. And something that cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

      Not the usual vehicle found in the Blue Ridge. Had she been on the parkway and gotten lost? He dug deeper into her purse.

      A dead cell phone. A credit card. Figured. His efforts were rewarded when he came across a driver’s license.

      Hunkering near the woman, Hunter touched a tentative finger to the delicate skin on her hand. “She wooks wike a snow pwincess. Our snow pwincess.”

      “She’s not our anything, Hunter. Her name is Anna... AnnaBeth...” He held the license to the beam of the headlights. “AnnaBeth Cummings.”

      Not from around here—her residence was listed as Charlotte. A flatlander—as if the fancy getup and expensive car hadn’t already told him that.

      “Maisie’s got a book about a pwincess who fell a-sweep wike our snow pwincess.” Elbows resting on his knees, Hunter cocked his head. His cowboy hat tilted. “The pwince has to kiss her to wake her up.”

      Jonas pinched the bridge of his nose. “We don’t go around kissing people we don’t know, son.”

      “But she’s my mommy, Dad. It would be okay for me to kiss her, wouldn’t it?”

      And before Jonas could stop him, Hunter leaned over and kissed the woman’s forehead.

      She stirred.

      “It’s wowking, Dad.” Hunter bolted to his feet. “I told you. Maisie was wight.”

      The woman’s eyelids fluttered.

      “Kiss her, Dad.” Hunter tugged at his coat. “Help her wake up.”

      But it turned out the snow princess didn’t need his help after all.

      He found himself gazing into the loveliest, emerald-green eyes he’d ever seen. And something, not entirely unpleasant, shifted in his gut.

      Snowflakes brushed AnnaBeth’s cheeks. Her eyelids fluttered. She became aware of a biting cold. For inexplicable reasons, she found herself lying flat on her back in the road.

      A cowboy stood over her. Two cowboys. Or maybe she was seeing double.

      The smaller, duplicate cowboy leaned against the older one. Through her lashes, she took another quick, surreptitious look at the tall cowboy.

      For a split second, she believed somehow she must’ve fallen backward to another place and time. Yet truck headlights glowed on the pavement, and she guessed she hadn’t left present day. But, oh, how delicious this particular reality was turning out to be.

      The older cowboy pushed the brim of his gray Stetson higher onto his forehead, revealing short-cropped blondish hair. His features were rugged. His jaw chiseled.

      In short, he was every cowboy fantasy she’d ever entertained, all rolled up in the man looming over her in the middle of the road.

      A few years older than her, stark fear dotted his chocolate-brown eyes.

      If she hadn’t already swooned, she would have now. In the ordinary course of her life, she didn’t run across many men who looked like him.

      He was so totally swoon-worthy. Maybe this was a dream. A lovely, lovely dream from which she hoped never to awaken.

      AnnaBeth became aware that the little blond boy—the mini-me cowboy—was speaking. Patting her hand, he smiled, his small teeth white, even and perfect.

      She thought he said, “You’re going to be my mommy.”

      But she must have misunderstood. And, anyway, the man—God’s Cowboy Gift to Women—said something she didn’t catch in that delicious, raspy voice of his.

      She sighed, content to float forever in a cocoon of bliss. “A lovely, lovely dream...”

      “More like a nightmare,” the cowboy growled.

      Her eyes flew open. Okeydokey. He looked better than his manners. Trust AnnaBeth to find the one grouchy cowboy on the planet.

      Palms planted against the pavement, she pushed to a sitting position. Hello...

      As if someone had shaken a snow globe, the truck, the boy, the man and her insides whirled. Her world spun.

      The cowboy took hold of her elbow. “Not so fast, ma’am. Take it easy.”

      She put her hand to her head. Good to know he wasn’t totally devoid of manners.

      “Did you hit your head? Are you in pain?” He scanned her features. “Can you stand? СКАЧАТЬ