Page 41 of Seaside Cowboy's Second Chance

There was a surprise, too. The once-rickety porch was propped with new boards, and it and the front door sported fresh white paint, probably done for the renter. Yet contrasting with peeling mud-hued paint on the rest of the house, it seemed like a Band-Aid slapped on a gunshot wound.

Dallas frowned. Skylar could guess what he was thinking. The same thought she’d had before. Why would an affluent businessman stay in such a place?

Grandma’s eyes widened. “I didn’t expect... this.” Her hands shook, and she clasped them together. “Earl said the cottage was renovated.”

Breeze barked wildly as she bolted up the steps. One of them seemed to have a plank loose because her paw nearly went through, and she whined.

“No! Stop!” Skylar screamed as all kinds of alarms sounded in her head.

Dallas ran after the dog, carefully avoiding the loose plank. Skylar jerked forward, then glanced at her grandmother. “Sorry, the porch doesn’t look safe enough for you.”

“You go ahead.” Grandma eyed the steps warily, then waved Skylar off. “I’ll just wait here.”

“Breeze!” Worried, Skylar climbed the steps fast, but the dog was already at the front door.

Breeze scratched at it and whined again. If anyone was inside, Skylar doubted they wouldn’t hear this ruckus, but she still knocked.

“Why don’t you stand aside?” Dallas moved her away from the door. His touch sent a wave of apprehension through her.

As her brain stuttered, she struggled to find her tongue. “Why? Do you expect bullets to start flying?”

He didn’t answer, just frowned. She missed their former camaraderie, how easy it once was. She nearly leaned into him, then remembered to step back. No answer inside the house, either, just as she’d expected. She told Breeze to keep silent and listened. Dallas seemed to do the same.

After a few long minutes, she shook her head. “I don’t think anyone is inside. Or... or hiding there.”

His brows furrowed. He didn’t look convinced, but he nodded. “I’ll walk around the house. Maybe I’ll see something in the windows. Would you like to wait in the car?”

She avoided the urge to roll her eyes. He needed to start seeing her as the independent, accomplished woman she now was, not a young girl he’d needed to protect. “Now, why would I want to wait in the car?”

“Maybe because it’s safer, Little Miss?” Grandma pointed out the obvious.

Skylar jammed her hands on her hips as she marched from the front door toward the steps. “I’m not a scaredy-cat!” Then she spotted something dark moving on the freshly whitewashed porch step. An insect? Relatively small, but moving in her direction...

She squinted. Did it have six or eight legs?

“Spider!” she screamed at the top of her lungs when she realized what that insect was. In just moments, it could run up her leg! Her heart leaped into her throat, and she leaped into Dallas’s arms.

With his eyes wide, he caught her in his strong arms. Held her. Her heart jumped into her throat for a different reason.

What... what just happened? Her ear was so close to his broad chest that she could hear his heartbeat. Like many times before. And when she’d tell him that, he’d reply, “It beats for you.”

Always.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, it registered as Breeze slapped her paw against the wooden plank where the spider was.

Skylar wound her arms around his neck before she could think of it, then looked up into his ocean-blue eyes and got lost there. Or maybenot lost. Maybe, once again, she found her way back to where she was supposed to be all along.

“Are you all right?” Grandma’s concerned voice threw Skylar out of her mental fog.

“Yes, Grandma.” Her voice came out raspy, so she tried again for more normal tones. “Yes.”

“I believe you’re safe now.” Dallas’s eyes crinkled around the corners, and his lips tugged up. “Breeze got your spider.”

Despite her fear of spiders, compassion for it tugged at her heart. The insect wasn’t at fault for her irrational fear. And a part of her—a scarily significant part—even felt grateful for the excuse to be in his arms again.

Unlike the other children at school, he’d never made fun of her for her fear of spiders. And after a school bully had put a live spider behind her collar, making her nearly lose her mind, Dallas punched the bully. Never mind that Dallas had been smaller than the bully at the time. Well, everyone knew how the Lawrence brothers had stood up for each other.

Enough of the trip down memory lane. Enough of leaning against him. No matter how good it felt.

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