The Weston Front by Gray Gardner Read Free Book Online

coming down from the adrenaline rush and anxiety and I found I could hardly make myself move.  My mind, however, was in overdrive.  What would have happened if no one had found Kelly?  Why was West being so nice?  Was I really going to stay the night?  Wit h hi m ?
    Taking my hand, he pulled m e to my feet and didn’t let go, leading me from room to room, each one bigger and grander than the last: formal dining room, formal living room.  We stopped in a room large enough to hold an entire guest cabin, with L-shaped, deep leather couches and a monstrous scenic window overlooking a rocky hill and a river, gleaming in the moonlight.  It must have been a common room, so I felt pretty safe in there.  I let myself fall back onto a couch as he draped me with a velvety blanket and sat down next to me.
    “You don’t have to…”
    “Just relax and close your eyes,” he sighed, sounding annoyed.  I rolled my eyes but complied as I exhaled and snuggled into the blanket.  I frowned when he reached around my shoulder and pulled me into his chest, but quickly grinned as he kissed the top of my head and stroked my back very lightly.  I don’t know how long he did that because I was asleep in the next five seconds.
     
    My eyelids burned.  I tried to open them but was blinded.  Squinting and turning my head down into my pillow, I found a leathery couch cushion instead.  Lifting my head, I peered around at my surroundings and slowly recalled where I was.
    “Morning.”
    “ Fucking hel l ,” I said in my throaty morning voice, jumping and leaning away from the tall, handsome, smoldering cowboy suddenly standing in front of me.  He sat back on a large square coffee table and held out a bottled water and two tiny pills.
    “For your headache,” he nodded, urging me to take them.
    I slowly sat up and grabbed my head as my brain pounded around inside.  How did he know I’d have a headache?
    “I called the hospital to check on Kelly and they asked about you.  Told me once the adrenaline wore off you’re have quite a headache,” he grinned, as I took the pills and downed the entire bottle of water.  I quickly smiled as he reached around from behind him and pulled out a white mug of hot coffee.
    “So,” I sighed, feeling a little more like myself in this large, ranchy room with the large, bossy cowboy. “Kelly’s doing alright?”
    It looked like he was fighting a grin as he quickly nodded and turned his eyes down to his own coffee mug.   “She has a long road ahead of her, of course.  But her rehab is taken care of and really all she has to do is take the first step herself.”
    Nodding, I reached up to brush my hair out of my face and found a messy heap on the side of my head.  Shit!  Setting my mug down quickly, I pulled out my two rubber bands and tried to brush the dark brownish red strands out with my fingers as casually as I could.  I had thick hair and it could be really unruly first thing in the morning.  West had the decency to let me pull myself together for a few seconds.
    “Here,” he offered when I finished grooming, leaning over and setting a folded pile of clothing on the arm of the couch.  I caught a whiff of his soap and my eyes half closed as I inhaled a second time.  He was trying not to grin again as he sat back on the edge of the coffee table.
    “Thanks,” I sighed, looking at the change of clothes and wondering where he’d gotten his own black Death Star shirt and dark washed Alice and Olivia jeans.  I glanced over curiously at that stupid smirk on his face, then bit my lip as I pulled the blanket back and found myself in nothing more than my underwear.  Gasping, I yanked the blanket up to my chin and hopped up off of the couch, trying furiously to wrap it around my back as I yelled, “West!”
    “I tried to just let you sleep peacefully there next to me,” he argued, standing and holding up his hands in surrender. “But you smelled like vomit…”
    “And your first