Her Homecoming Cowboy

“Colt, Colt!” Leo exclaimed, racing from behind the sapling.

Seeing two Leos running toward him, Colt fought off dizziness and willed the pain that shuddered through his shoulder to go away.

“Boy, it sure is good to see you,” Leo said, sliding to a halt in front of him. “I thought we was done for! Yessir, I sure did.”

Annie was breathing hard when she reached him. Fear shone in her eyes like red flags, intertwined with relief. “I don’t know where you came from, but—” Her voice broke and she visibly fought down the need to cry. “I’m so glad you came.”

“That was one mad momma.” Leo’s voice squeaked from having screamed so much.

“Yeah, it was.” Colt patted the kid on the head, pulling his gaze from Annie. “You’ve got to always go cautiously when you’re around mommas and their babies.”

“We were just walking, checking out the place, when Leo spotted the calf and raced off toward it. He didn’t see the momma,” Annie explained, her breathing finally getting back to normal. “I almost didn’t get Leo away from her. If you hadn’t shown up...” Her lip trembled and her unspoken words hung between them.

“You would have figured something out,” he encouraged her. Something told him she would have, too. His own fear subsided a little bit as they stared at each other.

“So where did you come from?” she asked, pressing a hand hard against her stomach as if holding back her fear.

He yanked a thumb back over his shoulder to indicate the direction he’d run from. “My place backs up to this one. My cabin is just over that fence and through the woods a little.”

Annie’s jaw dropped. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

“He don’t have to be kidding, Annie Aunt! I like it,” Leo exclaimed.

Colt chuckled. “I’m just as surprised to find you here as you are to find me here. Lilly doesn’t usually rent this house out.”

“That’s what I was told. It’s perfect for us, though.”

“We didn’t even know you lived in the woods.” Leo laughed, the joy in his eyes dug into Colt like pins and needles. “Ain’t that just a big ol’ kick in the pants?”

“Leo,” Annie warned.

“Sorry,” he said, looking up at Colt as if he were about to get thirty lashes. “I’m not supposed to say ‘kick in the pants.’”

“You are also not supposed to say ‘ain’t,’” Annie added, tugging gently on his ear.

He sighed. “Or ‘can’t,’ either.”

She chuckled at that, sending a warm shot of sunshine through Colt. It spread over him like rays melting ice, while she studied him with her pale gray eyes that again looked almost lavender in the morning light. Looking at her, it hit him how pretty she was. It wasn’t something he’d noticed earlier, and it startled him to be noticing now. She had a simple, quiet look about her, a peacefulness. It drew him to her and he couldn’t take his eyes off her.

Colt was startled by the attraction. It felt nice, and so did smiling and chuckling as he’d been doing since he’d hopped the fence. But it also felt wrong.

Feeling the sunshine she’d sparked inside of him fading into the darkness, he fought to hang on to it. All the while knowing he didn’t deserve to feel that warmth and goodwill.

His gaze lingered on her. She was thin, but today her jeans and blouse fit her better and she didn’t look as rail thin as he’d thought. Yesterday he’d believed she looked as though she was wearing someone else’s ill-fitting clothes. Today, knowing about the loss of her home, he realized she very well could be wearing clothes she’d received from others after losing her things in the fire.

“Can I come over to see your house sometime?” Leo asked, tugging on his shirtsleeve.

“Come over. To my house?” Colt repeated the question, totally caught off guard.

“Yeah, your house. Can I come?”

He didn’t want Leo coming to his house. But looking down at the kid’s big smile, despite not wanting to feel anything, Colt felt stinging prickles of warmth. Like water on frostbite, feeling crept through him. “No—” The harsh sound of his own voice stopped Colt midsentence. He’d already run from the kid yesterday and he wasn’t proud of it. Seeing the light dim in Leo’s eyes cut straight into Colt’s icy-cold heart.

Suddenly Colt knew he couldn’t kill that light, no matter how unworthy he felt of such adoration, could he?

Chapter Four

“Leo, it’s not nice to invite yourself to someone’s home,” Annie said, trying to distract Leo’s attention. The child was persistent—which was nothing new to her. She’d known him for six years and he’d been persistent from the beginning, when he’d come into the world a month early after several weeks of trying over and over again to arrive early.

Though she shouldn’t be surprised at the harshness of Colt’s words, she was.

Call her crazy, when she saw the man come vaulting over the barbed-wire fence to their rescue, Annie had almost heard trumpets announcing that the cavalry had arrived!

Looking at Colt now, she couldn’t think straight. Mere seconds ago she was so happy to see him that she very well might have run to him and flung her arms around his neck. Even kissed him, she was so out of her mind with relief. Now, he was lucky she didn’t haul off and kick him in the knees.

“No.” Colt placed his hand on her arm. “He can come. I’m sorry. It’s, well, it’s complicated.”

“You mean it! I can come to your house?” Leo exclaimed, giving Annie a moment to gather her wits about her.

On the one hand, the fact that Colt was apologizing was a good thing. On the other hand, the man had his hand on her arm and electrical jolts were pulsing through her arm straight to the pit of her stomach. His gaze was locked on hers, too, with an intensity that could have knocked her over if she had been any shakier.

“Sure you can,” he told Leo.

“Complicated” Colt had said—the cowboy had no idea how complicated it was, and it was getting more so with every passing moment.

For Leo, and for the fact that the man had just saved them, Annie relaxed and gave him a free pass.

“That would be a thrill for him,” she said, pulling her arm away.

Hastily he drew his hand back as if he hadn’t realized he’d been touching her. She couldn’t get over the fact that he lived practically in their backyard. How in the world had that happened? Still, of all the places for her to rent... This was not divine intervention, was it?

She was standing in a pasture with Leo and his father, and that was either an odd coincidence or a God thing, only time would tell.

Colt stared at Leo, a curious expression on his face. The two of them were locked in conversation about where exactly Colt’s cabin was. Leo had his hand hiked to his hip and his left leg slightly bent. He’d stood like that when he was in conversation ever since he was old enough to do so. He cocked his head to the side slightly and dipped his chin.

Colt was standing exactly the same way.

Annie’s heart started hammering. Colt’s eyes shifted to her, holding her gaze before he moved his attention back to Leo with the same contemplation. Annie’s hand went to where the collar of her blouse would be, but she forgot she was wearing a collarless shirt! Instead she ran a finger along the edge of her neckline in a nervous movement that in no way matched the clanging alarm in her head. Colt was taking it in—seeing the uncanny mannerism of Leo. The one that she had seen all his life, never knowing till now he’d acquired it from the genes of his father. Genes that ran deep despite the boy having never been around Colt in person.

Suddenly Annie saw other things she’d never seen before. Things that a photo hadn’t picked up on. Such as the way Colt’s eyes flashed sharply with intelligence. It was the same way Leo’s flashed when he was learning new things.

“Well, thanks for coming to our rescue,” she blurted out, anxious for Colt to leave. She didn’t want him figuring things out before she’d decided what she really wanted to do.

“Have we ever met before?” Colt asked, not taking her hint.

His eyes flashed with curiosity. Annie could practically see him rifling through his memory trying to place why she and Leo looked familiar. She knew she and Jennifer looked enough alike that people could tell they were sisters. However, there had never been a huge, jump-right-out-at-you resemblance. There was a similar thing that had gone on between them that was going on between Colt and Leo. Annie and Jennifer had the same expressions in different faces. They had the same voice and when she laughed there was a similarity. Not that Annie had had anything to laugh about since they’d come here, but she suddenly wondered how close Colt and Jennifer had been. Would he recognize Jennifer’s laugh if Annie forgot herself and really got tickled about something?

“No. I don’t think we’ve met.” She forced the words.