Page 16 of Second Chance With a Cowboy

Her brain reminded her that she was supposed to be angry with him, but her traitorous body didn’t care. She rolled over, taking solace in his arms as she let him hold her while the floodgates released, and she sobbed against his chest.

“It’s okay.” He stroked his hand over her head as he whispered into her hair. “Let it all out. Lorna’s gonna be okay. Everybody’s okay.”

When her tears finally ran out, she pulled back and peered up at him. “Sorry about that.”

“Stop. You don’t ever have to be sorry for showing emotion or for leaning on me.”

Leaning on him?She bristled, her shoulders tightening. She hadn’t been able to lean on him for a very long time.

He must have felt the change in her body, because he kept his tone low and even. “It was a lot tonight, but you did great.”

She huffed out a laugh. “No. I didn’t. I completely fell apart. I see myself as a smart, capable woman. I can write software code and can literally get lost for hours calculating the eigenvector slew of a spacecraft, but when my sister was bleeding and passed out in my arms, I was at a complete loss. Izzy was crying and Max was terrified, and I just stood there.”

“First of all, you were in shock. Nobody thinks straight when they’re in shock. Second of all, what the hell is an eigenvector slew?”

She laughed, and the tightness of her body released with the shift. “It’s the method of calculating a steering correction, called a slew, by rotating a spacecraft around one fixed axis.” She shookher head. “It doesn’t matter. The thing I’m trying to say is thatyouwere the real hero. I have no idea why or how you showed up when you did, but you saved the day.”

“I’m glad I could help. I meant it when I said I would do anything for you.”

Anything but stay in love with me.

The thought brought back the anger, but she was too exhausted to hold onto it. Chevy really had done so much. And maybe it was that she was too beat to care or maybe there was a part of her—a part she didn’t want to think too much about—who was happy to be back in Chevy’s arms, happy to have him holding her and telling her everything was going to be okay.

Their bodies had changed, his shoulders were broader, and she was quite a bit curvier than she’d been at eighteen, but they still fit perfectly together. Her mind could deny it, but her body knew. She’d slid into place next to him as easily as that final piece fits into an assembled puzzle—with a smooth click and a small sigh that signaled a feeling of completeness.

Leni had been leaving a night light on in her room, in case Lorna needed anything for the baby or Max needed her. The soft glow of the small light was enough to see Chevy’s face in the otherwise dark room, and now he was holding not just her body, but her gaze as he stared into her eyes, as if trying to communicate ten years’ worth of emotion and discussion without actually saying a word.

Except sheneededto hear his words, needed to understand what had happened, why he had changed, why he had been so in love with her and dreaming of a future together then suddenly claiming he didn’t love her at all.

But not tonight.

Neither her brain—nor her heart—would be able to handle that kind of conversation after the night she’d just had.

No—for now, she was content to lay in the circle of his arms, to appreciate the kind and thoughtful ways he’d taken care of her and her family—and to let him hold her.

She didn’t have to say any of that either. She was sure he knew. Mainly because she was looking back at him with true affection versus the murderous rage she was sure she’d had in her eyes that first day she’d seen him in the Mountain Brew and had been contemplating killing him and grinding his body up in the coffee bean grinder.

His gaze held affection as well. Then it dropped to her lips and changed into something else. Something like hunger and heat. Andneed.

She tried to take in a breath, but it caught in her throat as her heart suddenly felt like it was beating a million miles per hour.

While he looked at her lips, she studied his face. She knew it so well, knew the shape of his blue eyes, and the curve of his lips, although he hadn’t had the scruff of dark beard in his teens that he had now.

She reached up to touch the tiny scar at the edge of his eyebrow, remembering how he’d cut it diving into the lake one hot summer day when they’d snuck up to go swimming at his family’s hunting cabin that was tucked into the mountains above the ranch.

That day had been perfect. If she closed her eyes, she could almost feel the warm sun on her skin and smell the algae in the clear blue water of the mountain lake.

Chevy had snuck out some food from the kitchen at the ranch, and she remembered eating greasy potato chips and cold fried chicken—his grandma June’s famous recipe—and drinking iced tea from Mason jars as they sunned themselves on a giant boulder at the edge of the water. They’d kissed and made out, and she could remember the feel of the rough warm rockagainst her bare back and how brazen she’d felt when Chevy had loosened the ties of her bikini top and tossed it onto the bank.

He’d looked down at her half-naked body then about the same way he was looking at her mouth now. Heat coiled in her belly, and she tingled in places that hadn’t felt tingly in a long time.

She knew she shouldn’t—knew she would regret the action—but she couldn’t help herself. Her touch was feathery light, barely grazing his skin as she reached up and ran her finger across the scar. But it was enough for Chevy’s eyes to flutter closed and for him to suck in a breath as his hold on her waist tightened.

His eyes opened, but they narrowed as he shifted closer, and his arm brushed the side of her breast. Her nipples tightened as his gaze dipped to her chest, the pebbled nubs pushing through the light fabric of her pajama top, and they were both now very aware that she wasn’t wearing a bra.

Chapter Nine

Chevy leaned closer still, close enough that Leni could smell his cologne and feel the warmth of his breath on her cheek.

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