Read Online Her Cowboy Hero (The Colorado Cades) by Tanya Michaels - Free Book Online Page A

front areas of the house, perhaps because they were still being decorated or maybe because Hannah hadn’t wanted to make them too personal, he hadn’t seen many family pictures. But hanging on the long wall that ran between the stairs and the downstairs bedrooms were a dozen portraits in different styles and sizes. Most were of Evan, a few showed him with his mother, but the largest was Hannah and Michael’s wedding picture.
    He didn’t want to look at it, didn’t want to put a face to the hero husband she’d lost. Didn’t want to look at the joy she radiated as a bride and think about how devastated she must have been to receive the news of Michael’s death. Why was it so hard to glance away? And why couldn’t he separate where her imagined pain stopped and his pain began? He’d had his own smiling bride, once, and thoughts of all he’d wanted for Natalie were like acid burning through him. If it had been within his power, he would have given her the world. I miss you, Nat. He hardly ever let himself think the words, but the truth of them was always there, beneath the surface.
    If she were here, she’d know what to say to a startled four-year-old who’d just been busted. Natalie had been a people person. He could almost hear her in his head. The kid thinks of you as a giant. Imagine how scary you must look to him.
    At the end of the hall were two bedrooms opposite each other, with a shared bathroom between them. To the left, he glimpsed a neatly made queen-size bed with a pale purple and dusky-blue comforter. He abruptly turned away. On his right, there were sounds of sniffling. He followed them into a room decorated with primary colors that were bright enough for the circus. The sniffling came from inside a red-and-yellow pup tent in the corner of the room.
    “Hey.” Colin knelt in front of the zipped flaps. “Can I come in?”
    There was a pause on the other side of the nylon. “Y-you won’t fit. Too big.”
    “Guess you’re probably right about that. Can you come out then? I brought your blanket.”
    There was a metallic whirr as the zipper teeth parted. A skinny arm shot out. Colin handed over the blanket, and the arm disappeared back inside the tent. Hard to say whether this could be considered progress. At least he didn’t rezip the door.
    Colin peeked through the opening but didn’t stick his head inside, giving the kid his space. “What were you doing on the stairs?”
    “I wanted to fly.” Evan twisted his blanket in his hands. “I know I can’t—not for-real flying—but I had on my cape and wanted to go fast.”
    “You would have gone fast, but you probably would’ve fractured some bones in the process. That’s why I yelled, because I was so worried about you.”
    “Yelling’s mean.” The sniffing started again. “You scared me.”
    “If it makes you feel better, I think you scared me more.” The fool kid could have broken his neck. Colin’s stomach churned. “The thought of telling your mom that something had happened to you... She would be—” Emotion swelled in his throat, making it impossible to speak. But, really, what could he say? There were no adequate words for what parents suffered when they lost a child.
    “Mr. Colin?” Evan’s voice was hesitant, but close.
    Colin jerked his head up, realizing Evan had partially emerged from his sanctuary.
    “Are you gonna cry?”
    “What?” Surprised by the question, Colin raised a hand to his eyes, realizing his vision was beginning to blur. Dammit. He looked back at the curious little boy, but for a moment, he didn’t see Evan Shaw. He saw Danny’s face. Danny laughingly demanding to be swung high in the air. Danny, solemn as he nodded his understanding that the oven was hot and that he needed to stay back. Danny worn out after a Christmas carnival, asleep on his stomach with his little butt curved in the air.
    That now-familiar suffocating sensation crowded Colin’s chest. He shot to his feet, wanting to put as much