Page 55 of Second Chance With a Cowboy

Here goes nothing.

Andeverything.

“Hey Chevy, I want to tell you something,” she whispered, tipping her face up toward his. “I’m staying here.”

“Good,” he said, his voice a little drowsy as he pulled her in closer. “I like you here. Let’s stay in this bed all night.”

“No, Chevy. I mean, I’m stayinghere—in Woodland Hills. I’m moving back in with my sister. She’s already offered to remodel the basement.Andshe has it in her head that we’regoing to learn how to retile the downstairs shower together. I think she’s already started picking out tile and paint colors.”

He turned on his side, bracing himself up on one elbow as he searched her face. “Are you serious? Are you really thinking about staying?”

She nodded, taking his hand and entwining his fingers with hers. “I’ve already thought about it. And I’ve decided. Yes, I’m really staying.”

“What about Washington? What about Boeing?”

“That’s over. We’ll talk more about it, but for now, I want you to know that my life is here now. With you. With Lorna and the kids. I want to really be their aunt. I want to be your girl. I want it all, the late summer skinny-dipping, the fall football games with your crazy brothers, the winter nights curled up in front of the fire. I want to watch my niece and nephew grow up, and I want to do it all with you. I want—”

He cut off her next words with a kiss. A kiss full of promise and a future…and much more dessert.

“She’s upstairs in the shower,” Lorna told Chevy the next afternoon when he stopped by the house to drop off a plate of sandwiches Duke had put together from the brisket the night before. She was in the kitchen reading a book with Izzy in her lap and her foot up on a chair. “I just heard the water turn on.”

“I brought Max a box of Legos, and it should have a bunch of blue ones in it,” he told her, setting the box on the table.

“Oh, that’s so sweet of you. He’ll love them.”

“Leni told me his other blue one got thermally reconfigured.”

Lorna laughed. “Yes, it was quite traumatic.”

“I can imagine. You need anything while I’m here?” he asked as he put the sandwiches in the fridge.

“Nope, I’m good. Elizabeth took Max out for ice cream, and we’re about ten minutes away from taking a nap ourselves, so life is good.”

Life was good. He was back together with the girl he’d loved and lost, but she was staying this time around, and he couldn’t be happier. “You cool if I head upstairs to wait for her?”

“Yep. Just keep it down if you decide to join her. Some of us will be trying to sleep. And don’t need the reminder that they haven’t had a man in their shower in a very long time.”

He chuckled as he bounded up the stairs and into Leni’s room. The bathroom door was shut, but he could hear the shower running. He considered shucking off his clothes and climbing in with her, but he might scare the hell out of her if he just yanked back the curtain. Or knowing Leni, she might punch him in the nuts first and ask questions later.

Her bed was neatly made, because she was Leni and had always made her bed, even when they were teenagers, and he sat on the edge of the mattress to wait. In her fastidious way, her room was also neat, no clothes left out or piles on the dresser. Her laptop, a notebook, and a pen were lined up on top of the small desk she’d used when she was a kid.

If the room hadn’t been so neat, he might not have noticed, or been inclined to pick up, the folded piece of paper that had fallen to the floor in front of the desk. But he did, and the words at the top of the page caught his eye.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

This was a letter from NASA.

He sank back onto the bed. No, this wasn’tjusta letter. This was a letter congratulating Eleanor Gibbs on her acceptance of a position with them. A position that paid more money in one year than he made in five.

And the position she had apparentlyalready takenwas one she’d been dreaming of her whole life. This job was the whole reason he’d pushed her away the first time—so she would go to college and get this kind of chance to work in the field of space engineering.

But NASA—holy shit.

His heart ached, both at the excitement and pride—he wasso damn proudof her—and at the heartbreaking realization that he was going to have to push her away again.

Last night she had told him she was staying.

But there was no way in hell he was letting her give this up for him.

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