A Cowboy's Honor. Lois Richer

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СКАЧАТЬ agitation warning her to proceed with caution. “If I could only—”

      “It doesn’t matter.” Concerned about the white pinch of his lips, she pushed back her own gnawing uncertainties. “We don’t have to talk about it now.”

      “You’re the first person I’ve met who knows me. I want to talk, to figure things out,” he said, his voice slightly hoarse. “I just don’t know what to talk about. I—I’m afraid.”

      Yes, she’d seen fear crawl into his dark eyes a few moments ago. She just hadn’t recognized it. Dallas had never been afraid. Of anything.

      “What is it you’re afraid of?”

      “There must be a reason I can’t remember. Maybe I don’t want to. Maybe I committed a crime, ran away from the law or something.” He kept his head bent. “Maybe I was in jail and I don’t want to go back.”

      It was so preposterous Gracie almost laughed—until she saw his hand shake as he brushed away some crumbs.

      “I knew you very well, Dallas, and I’m fairly certain you were never in jail. You don’t have to worry about that.”

      “Then why don’t I remember anything?”

      “I’m sure you will. Don’t worry, you’ll think of plenty of things to talk about in a while. Didn’t the doctors say not to try too hard?”

      He scanned the park once more before his gaze came to rest on her. “You know, I wasn’t sure why I kept dreaming the word Dallas but it seemed like God was leading me to this city. This is only my second day here but it feels right. Not like California did. I didn’t belong there.”

      God led him here? Or had chance?

      Gracie preferred to think God hadn’t deliberately done this to her.

      Having found a subject, Dallas seemed inclined to talk. “Yesterday I looked at some maps in the library. I saw White Rock Lake and an article about the arboretum. It sounds silly, but they both seemed familiar. So I decided to see for myself. But when I got here, I couldn’t remember anything more. Everything is a big blank.”

      “Are you staying nearby?”

      “At a small motel not far away. And there’s a diner near it. It’s okay.”

      She handed him one of her cookies, mostly to buy time to think.

      So Dallas was back—a different Dallas. One who had no knowledge of their past. It was unbelievable, something she’d never anticipated.

      “When you knew me…” He spoke haltingly, as if still fearful of the answers his questions might bring. “What did I do? For a job, I mean.”

      “You’re an animal behavior specialist,” Gracie told him. That part was easy. “When I knew you, you had almost finished a contract working for a multinational company, traveling a lot to complete a research project. You talked about training horses after that. For police patrols, in New York, maybe? I’m not sure. You spoke of a number of different options, but they always included horses.”

      “Hey, maybe I was a cowboy.” He grinned.

      You were. My cowboy.

      You were supposed to come home.

      Dallas crumbled the rest of the cookie, held his outstretched hand on the bench and waited. After a moment another bird approached, and before many minutes had elapsed, it was eating from his hand.

      “Do you know where I used to live in the city?”

      “Actually, when I knew you, you had a place in Houston when you came back from traveling. I think your company owned it.” Gracie hesitated to tell him more, her fear crowding out the joy she’d begun to allow.

      This was not the Dallas she’d known. This man was a stranger. Every sense warned her to be careful about what she told him. Thankfully, she wasn’t the same naive woman she’d once been.

      Things had changed.

      Don’t forget the past. To relax her guard now could cost her everything.

      “Please tell me what you know,” he begged, withdrawing his hand so quickly the bird hopped backward, chattering angrily. “Please.”

      When she didn’t speak Dallas bent forward, holding her gaze with his own. “I want to go home,” he begged. “I’ve been away so long. Please tell me where I belong.”

      The ache underlying those words was Gracie’s undoing.

      “You belong to me,” she whispered. “I’m your wife. We were married in this park six years ago today. May 1.”

      For what seemed eternity Dallas said nothing, simply stared at her with an intensity that made her catch her breath. Then he reached up, cupped her chin in his palm as if he couldn’t help himself.

      The action was so Dallas, Gracie had to blink back tears.

      “I have a wife.” He might have said, I’m not alone, so great was the relief in his voice. “I am a married man.”

      Gracie glanced at his left hand. Her stomach clenched. His ring finger was bare, missing the plain gold band she’d slid on it six years ago.

      “Do we live nearby, Gracie?”

      “No.”

      Though she struggled to find a balance between his need to know and her need to feel safe, Gracie couldn’t deny this man was her husband. The green-gold eyes that had once melted with love for her, the hazel irises that deepened to a rich forest shade when he was serious, but lit up like Pharaoh’s gold when he laughed—they were the same.

      His hair was longer now, shaggy and unruly, matching his rumpled clothing and generally disheveled state. There were a few silver strands among the dark, just above his ears. He was thinner than he’d been, his jeans loose on the lean body he’d once kept in shape by jogging. Sunken cheeks and haunted eyes told her he’d survived some trauma.

      But underneath he was still Dallas, still her husband.

      And she knew nothing of how he’d spent the past six years.

      “Where do we live?”

      She could tell him that. It didn’t matter now.

      “We used to live in North Dakota in a little town called Turtleford. I’m a vet. My father had a practice there. I worked with him while you traveled for your business.”

      “The house where we lived—was it a big kind of farmhouse with dormers and a high peaked roof?”

      She nodded, surprised by the description.

      “I dreamed about it,” he said, eyes wide. “And a purple bedroom.”

      Gracie smiled and nodded.

      “You claimed the bedspread and drapes looked less intense in the store where you bought them.”

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