A Family For The Rancher. Allison B. Collins

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СКАЧАТЬ Why hadn’t he come back here before now?

      He tried to get out of the truck, and had to lift his left leg out. Yeah, that was why. Damn leg.

      Throwing his Stetson on the dashboard, he slammed the door, then picked his way across the uneven ground. About a hundred feet through the trees, the path opened up to sparkling blue water. He wanted in that pond so bad he could taste it. Yanking off his T-shirt, he threw it on the flat rock that sat a few feet up from the water. Leaning against it, the trapped warmth heated his backside, and he stripped off his jeans as fast as he could. Hauling himself onto the flat rock wasn’t as easy as he’d hoped, but he made it.

      A flash of light blinded him for a minute, and he realized it was the sun glinting off his leg. He punched the prosthesis, and was rewarded with stinging knuckles.

      Rustling from the bushes about six yards to the left caught his attention, and he squinted in the sunlight. Didn’t see anything. Probably some animal coming for water. As long as it wasn’t a bear or a mountain lion, he didn’t care. Unwrapping the binding on the leg, he pulled it off, held it up in the air, tempted to pitch it into the pond.

      A bloodcurdling scream split the quiet afternoon, scaring him so much he almost fell off the rock. He looked around for a predator crouching to attack. Standing near the water’s edge was a little girl with dark curly hair.

      Screaming.

      He froze. What the hell should he do? He was naked, holding a fake leg in the air, with a little girl screaming bloody murder. He grabbed his T-shirt and clamped it to his privates.

      “It’s okay. I won’t hurt you. Who are you?”

      The screaming continued, and he knew she hadn’t heard him.

      He tried to fit his leg back into place, but his hands shook so bad this time he really did almost drop it into the water.

      “Maddy! Madison!” a woman’s frantic voice called. Kelsey? A light dawned and he realized this must be her daughter.

      “It’s okay, Madison. I know your mommy.” His words were still drowned out by her voice. Her very loud voice.

      “Maddy! What is it? Are you hurt?” Kelsey stumbled through another break in the trees. She knelt down in front of the girl and frantically checked her over. “Sweetie, what’s wrong? I can’t help you if you don’t tell me.”

      The little girl’s screams subsided into gulping sobs, and she pointed at him.

      Even though he was a few yards away, he saw Kelsey freeze, prepared to pounce on whatever threatened her daughter. She grabbed a thick stick next to her, leaped to her feet and whirled around to face him.

      “Nash?” she asked, looking around the perimeter of the pond.

      He waved. “Hiya.”

      “Um...is there a wild animal here?”

      “Nope.”

      “Why is my daughter screaming?”

      He held up his leg. “I was getting ready to swi—”

      Maddy screamed again, Kelsey dropped the stick and picked her up. She walked several feet away and turned around so the girl wasn’t facing him anymore.

      This was the damn reason he didn’t want to be around people. Ever again. They’d see him as a freak. He’d come home to prove he was still the same person.

      But even a little girl knew he wasn’t.

      He started to climb down, then realized he was still naked. Looking up to ask Kelsey to leave, he could tell she’d just realized he was naked, too. Color swept up her neck, then her face, until she looked like a sun-ripened strawberry. Her eyes widened as she stared at him, her tongue darting out to lick her lower lip.

      He hardened instantly and hunched over, trying to hide it with the T-shirt. How could one look from her turn him on so much? Even when she was trying to calm her daughter down? Glancing at the water, he knew he needed to get in there. Fast. Or he’d embarrass both of them to no end.

      He looked up to ask her to leave, but didn’t see either of them. Great. He dropped the leg on the rock, wincing as it hit the granite with a clang. Scooting to the edge, he lowered himself into the water, grateful for the freezing runoff from the glacier that fed into the stream, filling his pond.

      Scanning the area once more, he was satisfied they were gone. Letting himself go, he floated, the sun heating his front, and the water cooling his back. His muscles relaxed, bit by bit, and the pain in his leg reduced to random twinges.

      He let the cold water soothe his aches. If only it could soothe the noise in his head. Squinching his eyes closed, he still heard the little girl’s screams echo in his brain. She’d been terrified of him. Without even opening his eyes, he knew he looked like a monster. Between the white scars against his tanned skin, and no leg—no wonder the poor kid had screamed.

      Great reinforcement for not having kids. Not that any woman would want him anyway. He didn’t want to mentally scar the kids he used to want, and hoped Madison would forget what she’d seen an hour ago.

      Maybe I can just stay here, never leave this place. A flash of Kelsey’s blue eyes squinting at him as she pushed him in rehab made him think she’d just hunt him down here so she could torture him some more. “Screw her,” he mumbled.

      And of course those words made him think about what it would be like to do that to her literally. Not that she’d let him. But considering the way his body reacted just thinking about her, he could at least fantasize in case he needed to take matters into his own hand. The cold water wasn’t helping right now, and he cupped himself, wishing...

      “I wanted to apol—”

      He jackknifed up, then his foot slipped off a rock, and he went underwater. Thrashing around for balance, he rose up for air, coughing up the water he’d swallowed.

      Kelsey stood at the edge of the pond, her hands plastered over her eyes. From what little he could see of her cheeks, they were blazing red.

      Great. Just great. Did she actually see me...?

      “Why’d you come back? Where’s Maddy?” he asked, moving his arms back and forth for balance, trying to stay upright.

      She lowered her hands to look at him. “She’s with my mother back at the car. We finished our picnic and I wanted to say I’m sorry for Maddy’s—” Her hands flew up again to cover her eyes.

      “What’s wrong?”

      “That’s really clear water in the pond there. Did you know that?”

      “Sure. The water all over the ranch is like this.”

      “You can see every rock, every plant, real clear.” She still hadn’t lowered her hands.

      He looked down and saw everything magnified in the waist-deep water. Dammit. He started swimming, or trying to, and ended up practically dog-paddling to the edge. The rock ledge loomed over him, and he reached to pull himself up. It had been a long time since he’d been to the pond, and he’d forgotten that to get out, he needed to СКАЧАТЬ