Free A Hero for Her Heart (Truly Yours Digital Editions Book 885) by Nancy Toback, Candice Miller Speare Page A

Derrick almost spoke the words to himself.
    “Yes, well. . .” She inhaled the familiar scent of hay and straw, and tears stung her eyes. Two horses in stalls next to each other stretched their necks over the bottom half of the stall doors, and she rubbed the mottled gray face of the first.
    “The horses love you, huh?” Derrick smiled.
    “I love them, too.” Allie moved to the second stall where a stocky bay horse snuffled gently against her arm.
    “Do you have just these two?” Derrick reached out, stroked the horse, and his fingers trailed over her hand. She didn’t move. The rough feel of his fingers warmed her skin.
    “Yes. We had to sell the others.” A lump rose in her throat. The time was coming when she might have to sell these as well and her heart would break.
    “They’re both quarter horses. The gray is Storm. This guy is Pip. I named him after Dickens’s character in Great Expectations. My dad used to read that story to me. He bought me Pip when I was fifteen.” She hugged the horse’s neck and buried her face in his mane. “Pip has been like a friend to me,” she said almost to herself. “I used to hang on his neck and cry during the worst of my teenage angst.”
    Derrick went to Storm’s stall and patted his neck. “Beautiful animals.”
    Beautiful, she thought. Derrick Owens definitely cut a striking figure. “Do you ride?”
    “Yes. Not as well as you, of course.” His laughter sent a shiver of delight up her spine. “I can’t forget your wild ride at the parade.”
    And she couldn’t forget the feel of being in his strong arms. She found herself smiling despite the prospect of losing the land she so loved.
    Derrick sobered and looked her in the eye. “Shannon said your father died of a heart attack.”
    “Yes.” Allie stared out the barn door in the direction of the mountains. “Seems he had a ticking time bomb in his chest. We didn’t know until it was too late. He was quite a bit older than my mother, but they adored each other.”
    “And your brother and his wife died in a car accident?”
    “Yes. A terrible tragedy. Sometimes I relive it over and over again in my dreams. It had already been a bad day. They’d been fighting and. . .shouldn’t have been on the road.” Allie took a deep breath. “Well, anyway, thank God Danny wasn’t with them. Last minute, they asked me to watch him.”
    “Yes, indeed,” Derrick murmured and cleared his throat. “We should talk business. I know the thought of selling part of your property is hard. You appear to love it, and it’s part of your family history. I understand that.”
    “Yes.” Allie met his dark gaze to see if he was sincere. Those eyes—expressive and sensitive.
    Allie switched her gaze to Pip, gave him one last scratch, then walked back to the door. She wrapped her arms around herself and stared at the Blue Mountains. Lately she’d felt older than twenty-eight. She worked long hours, and when she did take a break, she felt guilty. The responsibilities were always there like clanging alarms waiting to be turned off.
    “What are you thinking?”
    She hadn’t heard him walk up behind her. He was so close she could turn and fall into his arms. Being held, having someone to lean on, would feel so good. She shivered. Would Derrick stick around long enough for her trust in him to grow?
    “I’m thinking that Shannon has a point when she says we all need balance in our lives.” Allie shrugged. “For instance, I love the mountains in the winter. I ski. Cross-country. I pack food and just go all day. Sometimes Shannon goes with me, but she chatters too much.” Allie snickered. “Though I couldn’t ask for a better friend, sometimes I need the solitude. But when I do it, I feel selfish taking time for myself.”
    “I don’t get the chance to feel guilty. My dad’s the travel agent for guilt trips.”
    Allie laughed. “Is he?”
    “Oh yeah.” Derrick’s eyes crinkled with a good-natured smile. “But I