Page 36 of A Rogue Cowboy's Kiss

She squeezed his hands. “Oh, Falcon,” she whispered. “That’s the lie everyone tells themselves. That we’re not worthy of what we want, of what we dream of, of who we are meant to be, of life at the highest level. But it’s not true. We’re all worth it.”

He closed his eyes, focusing on the feel of her hands in his. “If I was, then I’d be able to do it.”

“Really?”

He opened his eyes. “Yeah.”

“Or is it possible you just don’t know how to do it? That no one taught you? That you have to learn how to do it like anything else in life? Or that you’ve decided you can’t, so you’re blocking it? Are any of those options possible? Is it remotely possible that there’s another reason why you don’t heal people, other than that you aren’t worthy of it?”

He stared at her, contemplating her response. “I don’t know,” he said slowly.

“Of course you don’t know. Because who knows how that works? I don’t know.”

Laughter started bubbling up inside him. “That’s a lot of ‘knows’ happening there.”

She threw up her hands. “I know!”

They both burst out laughing, and suddenly his tension was gone. Simplygone.After years of thinking he was losing his mind, Bella had made him feel normal. Safe.

Safe.

He sat back, stunned by the word that had popped into his mind. Safe. He never thought about being safe or not. He just gotup every day and lived it. But until this moment, this healer shit had scared him.

And suddenly, it didn’t.

SEVENTEEN

Before Falcon hada chance to relax, Bella tapped his palm. “Who is making your hands heat up right now? Who needs you?”

He tensed. “I don’t know. There are a lot of people around.”

Bella raised her brows. “Look around. See.”

“Bella—”

She leaned forward. “If you really can heal people, and you’re refusing to do it, then you’re betraying yourself, the world, and everyone who was like us as kids, needing help, with nowhere to turn. If you can help one person avoid the kind of suffering we both lived with, and you refuse to even try, how can you live with that?”

He stared at her, anger rising from deep inside of him. “I’ve fucking spent my life trying to make a difference.”

“No. You spent your life on a revenge quest, which is now over, andnowyou get the chance to maybe be to someone what Brody was to us. Safety. Love. A chance at life.”

He fisted his hands. “I’m not that man.”

“Maybe not.” She tapped his balled-up hand. “Look around. Tell me who it is. You know that. I know you do.”

He stared at her. “Bella?—”

“Is it her?” She pointed at a woman walking past on the boardwalk.

He couldn’t keep himself from glancing over. “No.”

“What about that man on the beach with the red towel?”

His gaze slid out across the sand. “No.”

“The little girl in the yellow hat putting sunscreen on her legs?”

Unable to stop himself, he sought out the yellow hat girl on the beach. She was sitting with what appeared to be her parents and sister. “No—” He paused as his gaze went behind the family to a boy with brown skin. He was alone, building a sandcastle. Maybe seven years old.

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