Free Cowboy Trouble (The McCord Brothers 1.5) by Delores Fossen Page A

overdose of sleeping pills. She’d taken the wedding ring, too.”
    Rico hoped just talking about this didn’t bring back all the painful memories for Natalie. But then the bad memories, like the good ones, would always be there. There was nothing she could do about that.
    “Why did your mother take the wedding band?” he asked. Because this still didn’t make sense.
    Natalie lifted her shoulder, which created some fascinating movement in the lace bra. It was distracting. And damn interesting. But Rico tried not to notice it because this conversation was important. Well, maybe it was. And maybe it wouldn’t ever be possible to understand the mind of a mentally ill woman.
    “My mom said that whole day is foggy, but she was afraid my father would throw the rings away. Which he might have done if he’d spotted them.” She drew in a long breath, and it caused her breasts to move again. “As for why she only took the wedding band and not both, we might never know.”
    Rico thought he might have an idea. “Maybe it was her way of saving the more important of the two rings for you.” If so, it’d worked. “Except she didn’t try to save herself.”
    Natalie made a sound of agreement. “But our elopement didn’t have as much to do with what happened as I thought. She said she just gave in to the depression. That’s why she wants to stay where she is, but by keeping the ring, that was her way of saying, it’s okay.”
    “But it’s not okay with your father,” Rico reminded her.
    She shrugged again. “No, but he’s like the Skinnies. He’s holding me in and not in a good way. If I keep letting him do that, I might pop. Also not in a good way,” she added. Then she added a sly smile.
    Despite the serious chat, the air was still zinging between them, and yeah, it felt as if something might pop. Something felt right, though, too. Rico was still in the cautiously optimistic department when he kissed her. As always, Natalie tasted like all the sweet things in his life rolled into one. That taste hummed right through him.
    Until he remembered that he should add a reminder to all this. Hard to do, though, because he had to wait for her to finish giving him her own kiss.
    “We might still suck at this,” he said with his mouth against hers.
    “Probably. Some of the time anyway. I think that’s the way it’s supposed to be, though. I don’t think anyone can avoid total suckage.”
    She was right. This wasn’t all sex and kisses, but it was a nice part of it. Nice holding her, too. And looking at her. Hell, there were a lot of nice parts.
    “I need to thank the county clerk,” she continued. “Her screwup was the best thing that could have happened because it brought me back to you.”
    It had, and Rico wanted to add his thanks for that. However, there was one more issue to be worked out. “You live and work in Austin, over an hour away from the ranch.”
    “I can work from home most days, commute on the others.” Obviously, she’d given this some thought. She kissed him, which always made everything better.
    Rico had one other point of possible contention. “My boots will always have cow shit on them.”
    She gave him a serious look. Then smiled. “Good. It’s exactly where I prefer cow shit to be.”
    It was the right answer. The right woman, too. If he hadn’t known that twenty minutes ago, he certainly knew it now. Of course, another kiss helped with that reminder. A nudge of her body against his did the trick, too.
    That left Rico with just one last thing to ask. “Natalie, do you want to stay married to me?”
    Her smile widened, and she caught on to his belt and yanked him to her. “I do.”
    * * * * *

ISBN-13: 9781460398210
    Cowboy Trouble
    Copyright © 2016 by Delores Fossen
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