The Lionhearted Cowboy Returns by Patricia Thayer Read Free Book Online Page B

chiseled-out letters, remembering all those years ago. She’d been new in San Angelo when Trevor Guthrie had come up to her in seventh grade and introduced himself. There had never been anything shy about him. From that moment they’d become friends. In high school things changed and they became a couple. From the first, Trevor had been her friend, protector and so much more.
    She traced the other name. Jeff. “Jeff Gentry,” she breathed.
    He was as opposite from Trevor as you could get. She would label him the strong, silent type, along with dark and dangerously handsome. The two boys had been best friends from an early age. Then she’d moved in. There were times when she wondered if Jeff had resented her for that.
    Sometimes she’d caught him looking at her.Nothing that had ever spooked her, but his gaze just caused strange feelings inside her. Then, after graduation, Jeff’s plans had been to go away to college. The only thing Trevor ever wanted had been to take over his father’s horse-breeding business. She’d also spent a lot of her time at the ranch, helping him with the training while taking college courses locally.
    She and Trevor had gotten even closer that year. He talked about marriage. After having lived through her own parents’ divorce, Lacey had wanted to wait a while. They’d argued about it a lot, eventually breaking up.
    During that time, Jeff came home from college for the summer. He’d contacted her and asked her to meet him at the cabin. Lacey went, surprised at the change in him. He’d filled out, literally turning into a man.
    When he started pitching to her about what a great guy Trevor was, she’d gotten angry, telling him that she needed some time and space. She’d told him she wanted to date other guys since she’d never had a chance to before. Feeling furious that Trevor had sent Jeff to plead his case, she’d slipped her arms around him and kissed him. To this day she couldn’t believe she’d done something so crazy. What she did remember was that it had been an unbelievable kiss. By the time Jeff had released her, she could barely stand without swaying.
    “Lace, this is wrong,” he had told her, but he still had kissed her again. Soon they couldn’t get enough of one another and had ended up making love on the single bunk. Lacey had suddenly realized her strong feelings for Jeff.
    But afterward Jeff could barely look at her. He’d told her he was sorry about what happened. When she’dtried to tell him that she wasn’t sorry, he’d informed her he was going into the military. Then he’d left the cabin, and she’d stayed and cried her eyes out.
    Over the next few weeks, Jeff had been scarcely around and she’d been miserable. She was in love with a man who wanted nothing to do with her.
    Jeff had finally left town without even seeing her. Trevor came to see her, though. In her pain, she’d realized that he was the one who truly loved her—and so three months later she’d married him.
    Over the years Jeff had only made it home about half a dozen times. She’d made excuses not to see him. Trevor had kept in touch by e-mail or gone to visit Jeff on base a few times, but that had only lasted those first couple of years. Then there’d been nothing from him at all.
    Her marriage with Trevor had gone through some rough times. Lacey hated the fact that what had happened that summer could have caused her husband pain. Trevor was a good man. The man who’d stood by her. Lacey had tried to be a good wife to make up for what was lacking in their marriage.
    But there would always be that summer. That night she and Jeff had betrayed Trevor.
    “Mom?”
    Lacey swung around to see Colin standing at the door. Her heart began to pound hard. He was safe. She rushed to him. “Oh, Colin.” She didn’t want to think about the possibility she could have lost him. She held him tightly as Jeff walked through the door.
    “Thank you,” she managed. “Thank you for bringing my son