To Have and to Hold (Cactus Creek Cowboys) by Leigh Greenwood Read Free Book Online Page A

wagon hitting her shoulder.
    “I wouldn’t have believed a wind could be this strong,” her father said.
    “Colby said there are spring storms like this all the time out here.”
    The muffled sound of Ben’s voice came from outside the wagon. “Let me in!”
    Groping for the buttons in the dark, Naomi managed to open the flap.
    Ben crawled inside, dripping water all over Naomi and the bottom of the wagon.
    “The next time you decide to go out in a raging storm, I’m not going to risk my neck to find you,” he complained through chattering teeth. “Colby thinks you’re crazy.”
    “Did he say that?” Naomi wanted to know.
    “Of course not, but what else could he think?”
    Something cold and wet landed on Naomi’s foot. Ben was changing out of his wet clothes. He was no longer a little boy. Even in the dark, she was uncomfortable at the thought of being next to a naked male.
    “It’s horrible out there. I begged Colby to get in the wagon with us, but he wouldn’t.”
    Another piece of wet clothing hit the floor.
    “He said it was his job to make sure everyone else stayed warm and dry.”
    More wet clothing. Did he have anything else to take off?
    “I told him anybody out in this mess deserved to be wet and cold.”
    She supposed the piece of clothing that hit her in the face was intended to hit the floor, but Ben’s aim was off because a tremendous gust of wind lifted the left side of the wagon off the ground and tipped it over. A half-dressed Ben landed atop his sister.
    The noise, the chaos, the confusion of raised voices contributed to the sensation that the world had gone crazy and taken her with it.
    Naomi shoved at Ben. “Get off me. I can’t breathe.”
    “I’m trying, but something’s on top of me.”
    “Is everybody okay?” her father asked over the noise of the storm.
    Ethan groaned. “Something landed on my leg. It hurts like hell.”
    Naomi decided this was not the time to tell her brother not to cuss.
    “We’ve got to go outside to set the wagon back up,” her father said.
    Ben objected. “I’m barely dressed.”
    “I don’t think anybody will care about that,” his father said.
    “ I care.”
    “Stay here,” Naomi said. “I’ll help Dad.”
    “It’ll take more than the two of us,” her father said.
    “Oh hell, I’ll come even if I am half-naked.”
    “Me too,” Ethan said.
    Naomi was the first to crawl out of the wagon…right into Colby’s arms.
    “Is anybody hurt? I saw the wagon go over.”
    Naomi was too shocked to speak. She hadn’t been in the arms of a man since she was a child. Now she’d been in Colby’s twice. She couldn’t take a deep breath until he put her down. Even then she felt dizzy. “Nothing serious, but I expect we’ll find a few bruises in the morning.”
    “Several of the men are coming to help set the wagon to rights.”
    “We can do it ourselves.”
    “The more people helping, the quicker it’ll be done. You may think yourself indestructible, but Ethan is wounded, your father isn’t a robust man, and Ben is young. This wagon probably weighs close to three thousand pounds. If you break the bows, you’ll be exposed to the weather for the rest of the trip.”
    If she had had any desire to argue with Colby, the raging storm would have prevented it. She watched as he positioned the men, explaining to each exactly what he was to do. She might not trust him, but he knew what he was doing. When he gave the signal, each man bent himself to his assigned task. The wagon resisted before being slowly lifted up to settle back on its wheels. An affirmation of their success was the metallic jangle as the contents of the wagon tumbled over each other.
    “You can’t stay in there tonight,” Colby said.
    “Naomi can stay with my wife,” Norman Spencer offered. “Sibyl is her cousin.”
    Norman offered to let her father and two brothers bed down in his third wagon.
    “Come on,” Noah said to Naomi. “You need to get out of those wet