Read Online THE COWBOY SHE COULDN'T FORGET by Patricia Thayer - Free Book Online Page B

don’t want to be seen with me, we shouldn’t let anyone see when I do this.” His mouth closed over hers, and Ana wanted to cry out for him to stop, but that would be a lie. She’d wanted this since Los Angeles. His mouth slanted over hers and her arms wrapped around his neck as the kiss deepened.
    A soft moan escaped her lips as she moved closer, so close she could feel the hard planes of his chest. Oh, God. Her body was betraying her as she eagerly returned his kiss.
    He finally broke away and looked down at her. His dark gaze was heated. “It seems your kissing has improved over the years.”
    * * *
    The room was dark, as much as a hospital room could be. Colt couldn’t wait to get out of this place. To be able to sleep in his own bed, in his own house. He closed his eyes and realized that might never happen.
    If he didn’t get better, he couldn’t go back to the ranch—that was a fact. So he needed to get his strength back, to relearn to walk and talk again. It had been barely a week since his stroke, since his entire life fell apart.
    God, he was only fifty-four years old. What had happened? Lousy habits for one, along with stress and endless hours of work. That wasn’t any kind of life. He thought back over years of not caring about anything. He’d lost so much, he hadn’t wanted to go on, especially after the girls left home. Hell, he’d driven them away, and ended up all by himself. Vance was the only one who’d hung in with him and the ranch. Now Colt was pretty sure he would lose the Lazy S and rot away in some nursing home.
    He thought back to the early years and the joy he once had in his life. Luisa and their beautiful daughters. They were all gone, except for Ana. For some crazy reason she wanted him to survive. He felt a surge of hope. Maybe he could salvage something and at least have part of a family.
    He needed to get better. He glanced down at his lifeless hand and recalled what his therapist, Jay, had said: “You have to put in the time and hard work.”
    Colt stared down at his hand again, willing it to move. It seemed to take forever, but he finally lifted two of his fingers. Then he dropped his head back on the pillow and smiled, feeling for the first time in a long time that he wanted to do this. He thought back to his rodeo days and the determination it took to climb on a bull, to ride the eight seconds.
    Colt opened his mouth, working to form something more than a grunt. “Sss...second ch...chance,” he said in the silent room.
    The small accomplishment brought more joy than he’d felt in years. Suddenly, he didn’t want to just lie down and die. There were things he needed to change and correct before he checked out of this world.
    He closed his eyes, and this time sleep finally came, but so did a dream of his beautiful Luisa.
    She stood in the doorway, then it seemed she floated across the room to his bedside. She leaned in closer and he could see her face, her beautiful face.
    “Colton,” she whispered.
    Her voice touched off so many feelings, feelings he’d suppressed for years since she had abandoned him. Yet the pull was too strong to deny. “Luisa.” He tried to open his eyes, but couldn’t. “Luisa.”
    “I’m here, Colton.” She touched his face. “I’ve always been here.”

CHAPTER SIX
    “I’ M SO SORRY , Ana,” Sarah said as they sat at a corner table in the Big Sky Grill the next day. “I had no idea Mike was the guide going with Dad yesterday.”
    “It’s not a problem,” Ana told her friend. “It’s not like I’m going fishing with the group. So we won’t cross paths again.”
    Sarah munched on a French fry, then said, “Mike can be a pain in the butt sometimes with his flirting, but he knows if he steps over the line he’ll have to deal with Dad.” She leaned back in her seat. “And he likes his job too much for that.”
    Ana had always envied her friend’s relationship with her father, their closeness. “It wasn’t a problem. I can