License to Love by Kristen James Read Free Book Online Page A

came close enough to see Brent on the ground.
    She looked so genuinely worried Brent wanted to smile, if he
didn’t hurt so darn bad.
    “Holy crap! What happened?”
    “Not crap, ma’am. The horse kicked him.” Dale held eye
contact with Brent and rubbed his chin, a nervous habit. “He wasn’t ready.”
    “Yeah,” Ivan joined in. “His mind must have been elsewhere.”
    Brent made a mental list of everything he’d say to them as
soon as he could talk.
    “Aren’t you going to help him up?” She knelt beside him.
    “Maybe we shouldn’t move him just yet.” Dale, at last,
sounded worried.
    Brent didn’t want all of them to worry over him, so he
forced himself up onto his elbows. This time he couldn’t hide the pain.
    “It’s your side, isn’t it?” Dale didn’t wait for the answer,
but braced Brent against him, pulled him to his feet, and started for the
truck. He called back to Missy, “I’m taking him in to the doc, but don’t worry.
He’s tough as nails.”
    “Do you want me to come along?” Missy offered. Brent wanted
to reassure her, but he sure as heck didn’t want her at the hospital with him.
    He waited until Dale got him in the truck before he looked
back. Ivan was putting Dancer away. Missy hadn’t moved and still watched as
they drove away.
    “Gets you fast, doesn’t it?” Dale asked as he steered around
a corner.
    Brent thought he meant the horse at first, until he looked
over. Dale met his gaze with knowing eyes.
    “Yup, took three days for Alice to get me.”
    Damn his side. He wanted to argue the point, but instead he
leaned his head back and closed his eyes. Maybe the pain was good. He could
think about it instead of Missy.
     
    * * * *
    She paced a while and then cleaned her cabin for something
to do, since they’d taken care of the horses for the day. After a huge sigh,
she started dinner. The least she could do was have something ready for him to
eat. They’d been gone four hours when she walked to his house to leave dinner
in his fridge.
    She was glad that he didn’t lock his front door. Of course,
the horses didn’t need to break in and steal anything.
    She put his dinner away and couldn’t help but think of the
first time she’d stood in his kitchen. How had so much changed so fast?
    Slowly, she walked into the other room and noticed how bare
the house looked. It needed a few small paintings, decorative rugs, something.
She shook her head at herself and left.
    Back in her house, she tried to finish a book but couldn’t.
At eight, she went outside, thinking she’d missed the truck.
    The cold knocked her back inside, so she got her coat and
stepped out again.
    A clear night. That didn’t happen too often. The stars were
suspended in layers, some close and some distant. She stared up for a minute
and listened to the night. A dove cooed several times as it settled in.
    She headed to the stables, noting that Brent’s house was
still dark when she walked by. The horses were in their stalls, but they didn’t
have blankets on them.
    She went stall to stall, securing the blankets on each
horse. She thought of them more as coats with Velcro in the front to secure it,
but Brent had called it a blanket. She didn’t worry about getting in the stall
with Jeffrey, Speckle, or the other horses, but Dancer watched her with knowing
eyes.
    “Hey, there.” She could feel each beat of her heart. “Don’t
kick me, too, okay?”
    She didn’t get behind him. From the railing, she leaned and
draped the blanket around him.
    His noises sounded sad. She stepped back and reached out
with one hand. What had happened today?
    When he nuzzled her hand, she got the impression he knew who
she was. Her heart grew heavy, the same way it had when she’d first slept in
Ben’s old house.
    “I’m Missy,” she said, surprised that she didn’t feel
strange for talking to a horse. “You miss him a lot, don’t you? I wish I knew
him more.”
    Dancer snorted. The truck rumbled softly down the