Page 9 of Rogue Cowboy
“You’re okay, you’re okay, you’re okay,” Cole intoned, and she wondered who he was trying to reassure—her or him.But why would he care?He could have come back any time over the past five-plus years.But nope.Not that she’d wanted him to.
“Breathe.Remember how to count?In for four.Hold for four.Out for four.”
He pressed her hand against his chest and matched his breathing to his slow words.He repeated.Again.Then again.
“I can’t,” she confessed even as she tried, but kept tripping up and she was practically hyperventilating.
His large hand cupped the back of her head.
“Breathe, Riley.In for four.Hold for four.Out for four.Tell me about your tree.”
Her shoulders hurt from her trying not to let them bounce up and down as she attempted to suck in air.
“Breathe.You told me about your tree on the ranch.The special one.The ponderosa pine that was in the small grove of silver maples.The one you’d ride out to picnic under.Climb to catch the glimmer of sun on Miracle Lake.”
“How the hell do you know this?”Rohan’s voice was tight.
“Get the kit.We’re crowding her.She needs air.”
Rohan must have listened because the energy around her settled.
“Close your eyes.See the tree.Feel the bark.Rough?Smooth?”
She clung to his voice.He just felt so calm, so strong in the storm that even she wanted to do what he said.She closed her eyes to stop the humiliating tears.Cole was the kindest man in the world.Maybe even kinder than her father.And he’d mostly seen her at her worst.Of all the times for him to show up—and she’d fantasized about a reunion plenty—this was not the smoothly sexy ‘look what you passed up’ of her dreams.
She could listen to that low sexy rumble of a voice forever.Had briefly fantasized that she could.
Childish idiot.
“Rough,” she whispered, picturing it, remembering.She put her hand out, Cole’s palm was rough against hers.Warm.Strong.
Safe.
But men were not safe.She’d learned that.
Cole had saved her.But then left her alone.
“What did you smell?Remember.You told me.”
She opened her eyes.She knew he wasn’t here to stay.She’d known this day was coming.Was shocked it hadn’t come years ago.But she was a Montana cowgirl.She’d once rode with the wind.Stood on the back of a horse and done tricks.She’d once sung on stages to ten people and then ten thousand.She could do anything.She just had to believe it.Believe in herself again.
“I smelled wood.And pine.Earth.Hint of animal.And snow from the Copper Mountain, snow in the air, water in the breeze cool across my cheeks.”
She kept her eyes open this time, not wanting to miss the way his straight thick brows could be so expressive with their own language.And she’d always loved his eyes.Deep blue and yet with yellow and black flecks that reminded her of a wolf in the woods, watching out for her.
Yeah.She was still that girl rockin’ the fantasy that her white-hat cowboy would come and ride to her rescue.
“You’re wearing a black hat,” she noted, wondering if she should read something into that—maybe she’d better, when her cheek stopped screeching.
“I got it.”Rohan flung himself on his knees beside Cole like he was sliding into first base, and Riley realized her father and several of the rodeo committee weren’t far behind.
Riley scrunched her eyes shut again.“Fabulous.”
Could she look any more like an idiot damsel in distress?If she still had a media presence, she’d be canceled big time for being the epitome of the anti-cowgirl.
And here came Connor McFarland with a full medical kit.
“Eyes on me, Riley,” Cole said, his voice a lullaby in between the sharp explanations and questions, and she felt the band constrict around her chest again, and her stomach churn.She was going to throw up.She’d been fighting it since the hit.And why not.Give Cole a repeat of the first time he’d saved her because no good deed, right.Remind him why he left and stayed gone.
