Page 4 of A Summer to Claim Her Cowboy

“Walker, I’m desperate.” She looked at him all watery and tragic and whatever he’d been thinking of saying died in his throat.

“What?”

“Chad kicked me out. I don’t have anywhere to go. I was trying to wait until Sky was gone but...”

“What?”

“I have a proposition for you, Walker. I need a place to live, you still clearly need someone to cook and clean and I was hoping...well, I was hoping that I could live with you.”

CHAPTER TWO

FRANKIELOOKEDUPat Walker, way up, because the man was well over six feet and she was...not. She took in that chiseled, handsome face that had made her stomach tight since she was seventeen and tried to look pitiful.

She had a feeling she didn’t need to make an effort to look pitiful today.

She was sweaty and weepy and disheveled.

Then there was the simple truth that she found it difficult to look directly at Walker without her face getting hot.

It was a mess.

Frankly, it had been for ten years.

She could remember the first time she’d ever seen him. He’d come over to visit her dad and talk about the good old days when he’d been a ranch hand at Running Y way back when. But also, to update her dad on his life.

She had intentionally ignored the wedding ring on his finger.

She’d only been fourteen—it wasn’t like it mattered whether he was married or not. He’d never even looked her direction.

She’d just thought he was the most handsome man she’d ever seen in her life. Like something out of a Western movie. With his cowboy hat, his chiseled jaw, and his broad shoulders.

Then her dad had asked if she’d be interested in babysitting for him.

She’d been mildly devastated in a way that had been both gloriously painful and deeply romantic. Ideal for a fourteen-year-old basically. To find out that the man had a wifeandkids.

But that was the thing. He was aman. An actual man, and nowhere near her age. She had an innocent crush on him. She’d known that he was impossible, which at that age, made him even better. She could be filled with woe at all times knowing the only man she would ever truly love might as well have lived on the moon.

He was the firstmanshe’d ever had feelings for.

Some would argue the last. The only.

She’d tried. She’d really tried to put everything into her relationship with Chad. She’d moved in with him, intent on it being a thing. Arealthing. And now here she was, thrown out.

Because... Well, she wasn’t going to think about all the terrible,true, things he’d said to her. Not now. Not while she was looking up into Walker’s stunning green eyes.

There were just only so many humiliations a woman could take, really.

“He threw you out?” Walker repeated, his voice hard.

“Yes. We broke up. I know I don’t have anywhere to go, because since Dad sold the ranch, and him and Mom moved to Montana, I... I don’t have a place here. I don’t want to leave. All my friends are here...”You’re here. “I thought maybe, since you have a room in the house that just opened up... Maybe we could shift my responsibilities.”

Walker’s face was flat.

She knew him pretty well. In truth, she knew him better than she knew just about anybody. She had been near enough to living with him for the last eight years. She’d been besotted with him since she was fourteen, but of course back then it had been theoretical. So much so that in spite of it, she’d genuinely liked his wife.

And when Anna had died, she’d been devastated. Because Anna had been lovely. If there had been a woman on this earth worthy of Walker, it had been her. She’d been sweet, and she’dlovedhim, the kind of love Frankie felt he deserved. She’d been a great mother to the boys. And watching Walker go through that pain had been unbearable.

Frankie had become a constant caregiver by default. She’d just wanted to be there. Her parents had worried about that. About her. Being surrounded by grief and sadness when she was sixteen. But she’dwantedto do it. She had wanted to help in any way she could.

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