Free The Color of Forever: Book Two: Forever Cowboys Series by Hope Whitley

perfect. Still, once bitten twice shy and Sam had been bitten many times. It was hard for her to believe that a man as wonderful as Ben could be real. She gave a mental shrug. Did it really matter if he was truly nearly perfect? She wouldn’t be around that long, anyway, so what did it matter if he turned out to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing?
    Best to keep things in perspective. Ben would be a delightful diversion until she could go back to the city.
    Nothing more.

Ben arrived right on time, as usual. That was yet another of his stellar qualities, Sam had discovered. He was punctual. She had had her share of inconsiderate dates who were either late or worse yet, no-shows who stood her up completely.
    Once a girl has experienced a few of those, a guy like Ben who was as good as his word about what time to expect him made a refreshing change.
    They saddled up the horses together, Ben giving the cinch on her horse an extra tug just to be sure it wouldn’t slip. Taking the lead, he rode at a sedate walk toward the forested area behind Marielle’s land. Samantha followed along on Taffy, thanking Mari mentally for having such a sweetheart of a horse available for her to ride during her stay.
    Soon they turned onto a trail that led through the trees, climbing steadily upward. It was a perfect day, in Samantha’s opinion. Blue sky, not too hot or too cold, a light breeze and surrounded by the unique fragrance of the resinous evergreens that surrounded them. Ben occasionally turned around to point out something of interest to her.
    “Look there, Samantha. See that bird?” Ben asked, stopping his horse and pointing to a colorful bird perched on a large fir tree to the right of the trail.
    Samantha heard a rat-a-tat-tat as the bird pecked at the tree. Okay, she hadn’t seen one in the flesh before now, but she did know enough about ornithology and had watched cartoons enough to deduce that this bird was a woodpecker.
    “It’s a woodpecker, right?”
    “Yes, more or less,” Ben replied. “It’s in the woodpecker family, anyway; a Yellow Bellied sapsucker, to be precise.”
    Sam looked at the brightly colored bird. It was mostly black with white on its wings and back, a brilliant red head and a yellow belly that she supposed was what gave the bird its name. “Are there a lot of woodpeckers here?” she asked.
    “Thirteen different types, altogether. Some of Wyoming’s most beautiful birds are rarely seen because they stay way up in the tops of the trees. I’m not a dedicated birdwatcher,” he went on, turning to smile at Samantha. “But I do enjoy their presence and hearing them sing. The spot we’re heading to is a large creek where I often see our one and only native species of Kingfisher. They only live close to water and watching them catch dinner is pretty interesting.”
    Sam had heard of Kingfishers but that was the sum total of her knowledge about them—just the name. She didn’t think it sounded all that interesting but didn’t want to be impolite so murmured her approval of their bird watching activities.
    The pale sun was warm on her back and shoulders and as she plodded along on docile Taffy, she felt herself relaxing by degrees. This horseback riding thing was okay, much better than she had anticipated. She found herself enjoying the scenery and the view of Ben riding along in front of her, as well.
    He sat tall in the saddle but was obviously very much at ease. No doubt he had been riding all his life, she thought. His shoulders were broad and manly, his waist and hips slim and from back here she got a good look at his cute backside. She admired his hands as he held the reins loosely … strong and manly with long, nicely shaped fingers.
    Hands were important to Samantha. She simply couldn’t feel attracted to a man with stubby fingers or delicate, womanly hands. To her it was a deal breaker. Okay, she conceded that maybe it was shallow, but she liked men with manly hands. Ben certainly fit that