Joshua and the Cowgirl by Sherryl Woods Read Free Book Online Page B

her.
    “Mind you, I’m not thrilled with the fix we’re in right now,” she said, “but I’d take this over Chicago any day. The skies are endless washes of blue. There’s no crowding, no city crime, no deep-down dirt. Life here is so uncomplicated. The people are honest and decent and hardworking. When I was a little girl, I used to dream of places like this. I couldn’t wait to come.”
    “Casey said you worked in a diner when you first got out here.”
    “I waited tables, did a little cooking until the customers rebelled at my burnt toast. The couple who owned it were kind. They didn’t ask a lot of questions about my past.”
    He heard the hint of censure in her voice, but it only spurred his curiosity. “What kind of past could an eighteen-year-old girl possibly have had that she’d want to hide?”
    She didn’t reply for so long that he thought he’d gone too far. Finally, her voice faint but defiant, she said, “I was sure you’d guessed by now. I was pregnant.”
    Left unspoken was the fact that she’d obviously been unmarried, as well, and that she was still deeply ashamed. He wished with everything in him that he’d been around to protect her back then, to claim her and Casey as his own.
    “You aren’t the first woman to make a mistake,” he reminded her gently.
    “Casey was not a mistake,” she said fiercely. “I love her. She’s the very best thing in my life.”
    He squeezed her hand tightly. “Sweetheart, I know that. Anyone seeing the two of you together would know it. But at eighteen you were alone and scared. It must have been hard for you.”
    “It was hard and it was lonely, but it was heaven compared to what I’d left behind.”
    She pulled her hand free and lurched on ahead, obviously desperate to put distance between them. Questions raced through Joshua’s mind, but this time he wisely kept them to himself. Probing Garrett’s secrets, understanding how she had become the pricklish, solitary woman she was today were not on tonight’s agenda. Tonight was all about survival, getting the two of them to that cabin before this hateful blizzard froze them to death. If nothing else, he had touched a nerve so sensitive that the fire of her anger would keep her going awhile longer.
    * * *
    Garrett hated remembering. She had spent too many years forgetting, setting up a dam against the inevitable tide of hurt. Yet no matter how hard she tried, the memories always flooded back. Every time they did, they were just as fresh, just as painful as they’d been on the day she’d caught the bus west from Chicago. Right now, hip-deep in another drift of snow, she hated Joshua for making her remember. She wanted to get as far from his penetrating questions as she could.
    It was only when she’d covered another half mile or so with him trudging silently behind her that she realized he’d purposely goaded her. He’d given her the incentive to keep going when her whole body had wanted to sink into nothingness.
    The irony, of course, was that the farther she went, the closer she came to the time when they would be alone in that cabin with no way left for her to avoid the probing questions about her past. She could retreat into stubborn, defiant silence, but she had a feeling Joshua knew exactly how to get around a woman’s resistance. If she didn’t want to talk, he’d suggest occupying her time with something far more intimate and dangerous. Every kiss they’d shared told her that she’d be far better off talking, gabbing until she was blue in the face. She’d be wise to tell him about the cattle, about Casey, about Wyoming, even about the past, if only it would keep the undeniable, growing attraction between them safely at bay.
    Realistically, though, she knew there weren’t enough words in the world to do that. As miserably cold as she was, she had only to look into his eyes to feel a stirring of heat. She had only to feel the strong clasp of his gloved hand around her own to feel