Page 15 of Her Second Chance Cowboy

Nancy shook her head. “No, you have nothing to be sorry for.” She reached over and patted Bex’s hand. “Adults are supposed to act like grown-ups. Your daddy and I forgot to be grown-up about something, but that’s over now.” She looked at Colin. He could almost feel a gravitational pull from her eyes.Why does she have to be so damn beautiful?“I’m sorry,” she said, and although she was talking to Bex, he knew that she was talking to him too.

“I’m sorry too,” Colin said, and Nancy smiled softly over Bex’s head.

Bex looked from him to Nancy, and a gleam shone in her eyes. “Do adults forget to be grown-ups in a good way sometimes?” she asked. “Like, could they play hide-and-seek?”

Colin smiled. “I suppose that could happen.”

“Could it maybe happen tonight?” Bex wheedled. Colin glanced at Nancy, who nodded, and it was clear they shared a single thought: make this little girl smile.

“Who’s ‘it’ first?” Colin asked her, and Bex squealed in her happiness.

She threw her arms around his neck. “You, Daddy!” She let him go and grabbed at Nancy’s hand. “Come on, Nancy. We have to hide!”

Nancy smiled and allowed Bex to pull her outside into the dusky twilight. “Start counting, Colin!” she called over her shoulder.

Colin started counting, loud enough that they could hear him, “Ten! Ready or not, here I come!” he shouted and ran through the door. He found them quickly enough—hidden behind a bush near the front door—and Bex’s shrieks of laughter rang through the air. He chased Bex and tagged her before she could get back to a “safe” space.

Then, it was Bex’s turn to count to ten, and they repeated the process until they all had a turn. By the time their game wound down, it was truly dark outside, and they were all covered in mud. It was probably the most fun Colin had had in months. “Come on, Bex,” he called. “It’s bedtime.”

“I want Nancy to put me down!” Bex announced and threw her arms around Nancy’s waist.

“Oh, honey, I know your daddy wants—” Nancy looked to him, but Colin could only smile at the picture they made together.

“I don’t mind,” he said, “if you want to help, at least.”

Nancy looked genuinely shocked, and he was glad that he could exceed her expectations. She nodded, and the three of them tramped into the main house. He helped to set up the bathtub for Bex and told Nancy their bedtime routine: tub time, two books from the shelf in her room, and then lights out. “If you need anything, I’ll be in the living room,” he said. Bex came back from her room with a pair of pajamas, and Colin kissed her head. “Good night, darlin’.”

Colin did his best to give them space. He waited in the living room, scrolling through the day’s headlines on the phone. Time seemed to drag on, but in reality, Nancy appeared at the mouth of the hall only thirty minutes later, smiling like she’d just won some kind of prize. “She’s the best,” Nancy said.

He nodded. “I know.” Looking at her, mussed as she was, Colin felt something stir in him. He wanted her, even if he knew he shouldn’t want her, and he crossed the room to her. “You have something right here.” He brushed a dirt smudge from her forehead with her thumb.

“Me?” She giggled. “You look like you rolled in the dirt.” She stepped even closer and swiped a finger over his cheek. Colin could feel the heat of her body, smell her skin even past the mud, and when their eyes met, the tension between them tightened even more.

Despite all of his better judgement, Colin couldn’t take it anymore. “You look like you need to be kissed,” he told her. She let out a littlehuffof air, and her head tilted back, just a little. An almost-invitation that he didn’t take. Yet. “But I’m not sure you wantmeto kiss you though.” She huffed again, annoyed now, and Colin smirked. “I don’t think I can kiss you again,” he said. “Not ‘til you ask for it.”

Nancy arched her eyebrow. “Sococky,” she scoffed. “You really expect me to beg to be kissed?”

Colin didn’t want to admit it, but he needed her to ask. He needed that confirmation that he wasn’t the only one feeling this between them. He needed to hear it; he didn’t want to drive himself crazy with assumptions. “I think you will,” he said.

Nancy shook her head. “You’re wrong,” she insisted, but he could feel her shivering just slightly. “I was right when I said that we shouldn’t do this.” He nodded and tried to prepare himself for when she stepped away like she had at the stables, but she didn’t move.

“You should be headed back to the guest house then.”

She chewed at the inside of her bottom lip. “I should,” she agreed.

“But—?”

Nancy huffed. “But I—” She swallowed, and her eyes fell to his mouth.Say it, he thought,please, Nance, just say it. She met his eyes again and let out a shuddering breath. “But I want you to kiss me.” She very nearly whispered the words, but he heard them as clearly as if she’d used a megaphone.

He was moving before he even realized he’d done so. He cupped the back of her neck and tugged her in so that his mouth was on hers. Memories of kissing her rushed back: the junior prom under the twinkle lights; in the backseat of that beat up Pontiac she still drove; the teary farewell kiss before she got in the same car and drove out of his life. Thousands of kisses, and this one beat them all. He nipped at her bottom lip, and when she gasped, he deepened the kiss, tasting her.

Colin felt her hands track up into his hair, and he pulled her closer still so that she was nestled against him. It wasn’t close enough, but he would make do for now. Soon, though, he would need her on some horizontal surface. It was a growing necessity.

He was in the process of walking her back toward the wall when a voice singing, “Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are,” froze him in his tracks. He pulled back and listened as the rest of the lullaby filtered down the hall. “Bex is still awake.”

Nancy’s head hit his chest. “I should go,” she said. Her voice was muffled by his shirt.

Colin didn’t want to agree, but he had to. “Yeah.” They awkwardly pulled away from each other, and he noticed that she could barely look him in the eye. “Well, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

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