“Me too, sweetheart.” I hold her tight and close, afraid of so much as breathing. “Me, too.”
“Know what else?” she asks, eyes sparkling. “I’m gonna teach Rebecca how to really surf next summer. She’s gonna rip! And I’m not even gonna think about my scar again ’cause it doesn’t matter anymore,” she says. “That scar’s just a tiny part of me.”
Pure wisdom, from the mouth of a nine-year-old, and the thing is, I know that she’s right. I know that of all the perfect, beautiful memories that Alex and I once shared, of all the new memories I’m forging with Rebecca and Andrea—and of all the most tragic times in my life—one thing is true.
For better or worse, they’re all a part of me.
About the Author
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Look for these titles by Deidre Knight
Now Available:
Parallel Fire
An injured horse. A wary woman. Healing them could cost his heart.
Second Hope
? 2009 JB McDonald
Nat Jackson knows what she’s good at: healing horses. Relationships? She learned about the price of those from her mother. When Cole Masterson shows up at her Second Hope ranch with a bad shoulder and a lame horse, she’s more than willing to treat the animal. But his money comes with a catch—he insists on staying at the ranch while his horse undergoes treatment.
The horse, she can handle. Resisting the man…that’s a complication she doesn’t need.
Money is no object when it comes to his horses, and Cole knows Second Hope offers the best in equine rehab. He hadn’t counted on Nat’s fractured heart awakening his desire to mend it. Her skills have his horse on the fast track to health, though. There’s not much time to work his way through her defenses before it’s time to leave.
Nat has no intention of getting her hopes up only to have them dashed. Cole’s already thrown his heart over the fence—and he has no choice but to follow it in pursuit of the woman of his dreams.
Warning: This book contains hunky cowboys, gorgeous horses, awesome cowgirls, lots of tight Levi’s, and heartbreaking injuries. Oh, yeah, and m/f sex.
Enjoy the following excerpt for Second Hope:
Cole’s gaze landed on her. She was looking about as if seeing a treasured friend, gaze light with joy. The filtered sunshine poured over her, making sweat-damp skin glow, creating soft shadows in the curves of her body, the planes of her stomach. Her tank top was snug, outlining the heavy curve of her breasts and the long lines of muscle down her torso. Jeans hung low on her waist, a leather belt with a silver buckle accentuating the swell of her hips.
Streaks of dirt smeared one arm and shavings pooled near her ankles, in the folds of her jeans. Her scuffed boots had mud caked on the heels. Her nails were dirty, and her black hair had escaped from its braid, clinging to the long line of her neck.
“It’s beautiful.” Cole smiled softly.
Nat glanced at him. The moment of realization when she knew he’d been watching her was plain. She laughed quietly and looked away, wandering off toward the nearest oak. “I’ve always liked this place. When I first started the ranch I’d come out here just to get away. Clear my head. See something alive and growing, rather than the horses that needed so much help. Out here, nothing needed me like that.” She glanced back, one hand spread on the trunk. “We got a lot of wrecks, in those days. We couldn’t afford the best of anything yet, and a lot of the horses were rescues. A lot of them couldn’t be saved.”
He didn’t know what to say, so he simply remained quiet.
She looked at the tree, head tipping back as she gazed upward into its branches, chin tucking as she lowered her face, tracing the line of the trunk back down to her hand. Her thumb rubbed over a scar in the bark, and she smiled faintly. “This was the first horse we managed to pull through. Just Aaron and I then—he was a snot-nosed little punk trying to get as far from his family as he could without leaving the horse world. Blue mohawk and stoned every night. And then we healed King, and something about that healed Aaron.” Her smile grew, blooming across her face. “He called his parents that night. He’d run away when he was sixteen, and it was the first time he’d spoken to them in five years.”
“Maybe he just needed to know he could do something good without them.” Cole could remember the first time he’d succeeded at a job without standing on his father’s or brother’s shoulders. It had been liberating. For the first time, he’d felt grown up.