Perfectly Able by Suzannah Daniels Read Free Book Online

headed toward the front door.
    “See ya when you get back,” she said.
    I hurried out the front door , eager to get my run started before the day heated up. Five minutes into the run, I realized that I’d forgotten my hand towel. Groaning, I turned around.
    Taking the porch steps two at a time, I burst through the front door, planning to make a quick grab for my towel and hit the road to minimize my delay.
    With my fingers still wrapped around the doorknob, I froze . Ava stood in front of the couch in a pink and black bikini, her long blond tresses pulled into a messy bun. My eyes fell to her ample cleavage and followed the narrow lines of her slender waist to the flare of her hips. She was beautiful, and while that would have been enough to render me speechless, it wasn’t the main reason that I found myself tongue-tied.
    He r lips turned down in a frown, and she watched me with vibrant blue eyes like prey observing its predator.
    “Your leg,” I managed to ground out in a voice deeper than normal . My eyes fell to the metal bar that extended just below her knee and disappeared into an artificial foot. “You’re missing a leg.”
    Her gaze followed mine . “Oh, my gosh! You’re right!” She then began frantically looking around her, snatching up the throw pillows from the couch in a dramatic display of searching. “Where’d it go?”
    I immediately felt horrible for my reaction . Holding my palm up in a conciliatory manner, I said softly, “I’m sorry. I just didn’t expect it.”
    She gave me a sad smile . “It’s okay. I’m used to it. I’m sure you must be thinking how horribly inadequate I am.”
    “Inadequate? ” I asked in surprise. “No, I’m thinking not only have you finished a triathlon, even if you were a few seconds shy of the deadline, but you finished it with one leg, which really puts the pressure on me .”
    A smile broke across her somber face.
    “And I’m thinking you look incredibly sexy in that bathing suit,” I added. “And please don’t think me insensitive, but I have a huge Halloween party every year, and I’m thinking that you would make one helluva a pirate wench.”

     
     
    Chapter 4
     
    Ava
     
    “A pirate wench, huh?” I asked, snatching one of the decorative pillows from the couch and throwing it at him. “I hate to disappoint you. While I do have some spare legs, I’m afraid a wooden peg leg isn’t one of them.”
    He rubbed his palm across his bare chest and shot me an endearing grin . I exhaled a breath that I’d been holding since he’d first walked in the cabin.
    Years of experience had taught me that it was impossible to tell how someone would react when they first learned about my leg . And not unlike most girls, I was even more self-conscious around the opposite gender. There were times when I didn’t give a crap what people thought, and then there were times when I worried myself sick. Jack had dealt a major blow to my confidence, and no matter how many times I told myself to forget him, that he wasn’t worth the anxiety, my heart refused to listen. I had been devastated, and the ordeal had left me wanting to cower in the shadows. That was why I’d come here. I knew I needed to get it out of my system and move past it. I needed to renew my resolve. While I hadn’t expected to meet Ridge here, the fact that he had taken such a lighthearted approach to the discovery of my amputation had been a huge relief.
    And the fact that m y amputation hadn’t been the only part of my body he’d noticed had boosted my ego, melted away a sliver of my self-doubt.
    “Is that why you wouldn’t go swimming with me?” he asked, pointing to my prosthesis.
    To answer affirmatively would be to admit what a pathetic state of mind I was in. I blinked as I wondered how to answer. I supposed to acknowledge it out loud would be a start to getting over this hump. I wasn’t crippled because of my leg. I was crippled because of the delicate emotional states that I