Page 24 of A Summer to Claim Her Cowboy

Because she was the first woman since Anna. Because she was Frankie. Because sitting in the complication of those two truths was a little bit too intense.

But he stayed with her. Kissed her temple, watched as she stirred sleepily and came back to the land of the living.

“You good, Frankie?” he asked.

Her eyes widened. “Holy hell.”

“What?”

“It wasn’t a dream.” She shifted, then grimaced. “It definitely wasn’t a dream.”

“What?”

“I’m a little saddle sore. But not in a bad way. You are... Bigger than what I’m used to. Substantially.”

It was a hell of a thing that all these years of maturity had done nothing to dampen the immediate effect that had on him. It made him want to climb a damned skyscraper and beat his chest like a giant monkey. Because apparently raising two kids, losing a wife, hadn’t done a damn thing to really grow him up.

“What?” she asked.

“What?” he returned.

“You look punch-drunk.”

“I am a little bit. And also maybe a little bit overly enthused by your compliments regarding my size. Because I am a man.”

“Yeah. You definitely are.”

“I hope you know there was never anything wrong with you.”

She seemed like she wanted to say something more but swallowed hard instead and said nothing.

“I’ve been thinking about what I ought to say to you,” he said.

“And?”

“I don’t have anything good to say. Just something I promised you Iwouldn’tsay, and then also something that I think might be selfish.”

“Go ahead,” she said. “With the selfish thing. Don’t say the stuff I told you not to.”

He let out a long, slow breath. “Carter isn’t coming back for a while. Sky won’t be back until August. Sky coming back would make things complicated but... Right now, it’s just you and me. You need a place to stay, and I like having you here. I... We have the summer.”

The expressions that cycled through her face echoed inside of him. Joy to despair and back again. He felt all those things.

“Really? The whole summer?”

“You can’t live here and realistically expect that nothing is going to happen between us again.” There. He was grown enough to know that.

“I guess not. Unless you want to go out and find other women. Since I kind of broke the seal.”

“I don’t want that,” he said, the words coming out a lot fiercer than he intended. “I can’t imagine wanting anyone else.”

“Well, that’s nice,” she said. “Somehow I don’t think you mean that.”

“I do. Also, yes. The summer. You and me. I want to explore everything I’ve always fantasized about with you. And I want... I think it’s a good way to say goodbye. Because you’re right, the kids are grown. You don’t need me the way that you did. And I need to figure something else out. But the idea of just leaving kills me.”

“I don’t want you to just leave. And I don’t want anything to negatively impact our relationship. Because you’ll always matter to me. Always. You’ll always be family. And I think this is a good... It’s a boundary, right?”

He could see it now. They would have this summer. Hot and intense, because it was going to be. She was like a firecracker in his arms, and he was a man who had been deprived of spark for a hell of a long time. And then he would have to let her go. Let her go on and have the life she hadn’t had yet. Find a man. Marry him. Have his babies.

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