Read Online Don't Mess With Texas by Christie Craig - Free Book Online Page B

tampon, a pen, a crossword puzzle book, a few receipts, a tube of lipstick and blush, a flash drive, a small can of Mace, and a pack of gum.
    He snagged a piece of cinnamon gum, and started dropping the items back into her purse. That’s when he realized the one thing that was missing. The thing most women kept as close as their credit cards. A cell phone. And that’s when he pretty much figured what happened. Turning around, he walked out of the ER and looked for the first exit sign.
    LeAnn O’Connor, on a much-needed short break, stepped outside of the hospital and walked to the small veranda where employees ate their packed lunches. The eight o’clock sun was gone, but its heat hung on, and the sky was still light. Half-afraid she’d launch into a stress-induced panic attack, she hoped the air outside would make breathing possible. Not that it was the inside air causing her lungs to fail. Nope. Her inability to breathe had nothing to do with air contaminants and everything to do with seeing her husband for the first time in nine months.
    She knew facing him was inevitable. She just hadn’t expected it to hurt this much. Or maybe she had. Maybe that’s why she’d been avoiding him. Her hands shook and the hole that existed where her heart used to be seemed emptier, bigger and more painful than ever. Tears filled her eyes, but she refused to let them fall.
    Heaven help her, but he’d looked good. And when he’d leaned across the counter and invaded her space, he’d smelled good, too. He’d smelled like… home. And that’swhat Tony had always been to her. Home. A sense of belonging, of believing she mattered, of having a special place in this big old world that hadn’t felt so lonely.
    Thanks to her sole parent, Colonel Becker, she’d seen a lot of that world. Texas, Florida, New York, California, even Germany and Japan. She’d moved a total of twenty-two times in her life. The day she graduated high school, her father had handed her a checkbook with enough money in it to cover her living expenses and college education. She got birthday cards, Christmas cards and an allowance until she finished college. She’d seen him three times since she’d graduated nursing school. He was, after all, a very busy man. LeAnn hadn’t pressed for more than he’d been willing to give her. But make no mistake, she knew what she had never received from her father and it was the thing Tony gave her. Love and the feeling that she belonged, that she had a home. But then that, too, was ripped away from her.
    Reaching up, she brushed a hand across her cheek, still feeling Tony’s touch against her skin. When, she wondered, would she stop loving him? When would she stop missing what they had, and accept her life now? Hadn’t she spent a lifetime accepting? She should be good at it by now.
    She’d read about a dozen self-help books and all the bits of advice had started to sound the same. Move on. Let go of the past. Learn to live with the grief.
    None of them, however, told her how to do it. How to forgive herself. How to forget.
    I’m off Sunday. I’ll be over around ten a.m
. His words played like music in her head.
    Closing her eyes, she knew Sunday couldn’t happen. She wouldn’t be there.
    Something warm and wet hit the tip of her forehead. She reached up, touched the mess and pulled her hand back. Eww. Bird poo. Looking up, she saw a white pigeon perched on the limb of a tree. “You’re kidding me?” she yelled at the bird.
    The dang thing ruffled his feathers and went for a repeat performance. Stunned, she didn’t move fast enough and the second drop of bird shit hit her on the cheek.
    “Just freaking great!” She wiped it off, or tried to. More than likely she’d just smeared it across her face.
    “Some people think that’s good luck,” a female voice said from behind her.
    Swinging around, LeAnn eyed the woman standing there in a hospital gown with a cell phone held to her ear. She held up her finger as if