It's In His Heart (A Red River Valley Novel) Read Free Page A

major.”
    Several creases appeared over Coop’s brows.
    “Haven’t you read Ayn Rand?” His blank stare answered her question. “Oh, forget it.” Reading apparently ranked right up there with cleanliness on Coop’s list of priorities. Figured.
    The cowering pooch rolled onto its back, whimpering. Winston pounced and licked the other dog’s snout while humping away.
    Coop groaned again. “I didn’t think this night could get any worse.”
    “Winston’s neutered,” Ella reassured him.
    “Wouldn’t matter if he wasn’t,” Coop muttered. “Atlas is a he .”
    She couldn’t help it. A rumble of laughter started somewhere deep in her gut and echoed through the cabin.
    Coop glared at her. His head fell back on the headrest, and he covered his eyes again. “What happened to you, anyway? You look like hell.”
    “Thanks. You really know how to flatter a girl.” She looked down at her mud-streaked legs and shoeless foot. When she wiggled her toes, mud squished out. Yeah, she looked god-awful. “The road coming in was so muddy the Beamer slid into a ditch and got stuck. I had to walk the rest of the way here.”
    “You drove Bradley’s BMW up here in this weather?” An accusation hung in the air.
    She bristled. “I didn’t know it was going to rain.” She crossed both arms across her chest. “Besides, I got rid of our truck. I can’t relocate to a different state driving both.”
    “So if you’re moving to another state, what are you doing in Red River? And couldn’t you have called to tell me you were coming?”
    “And you could check your messages once every decade or so.”
    There went that muscle in his jaw again.
    A wheezing snore emerged from the corner. Winston and Atlas cuddled. Winston was fast asleep and both looked content. Well, they’d just seen more action in two minutes than she’d seen in the past two years. Too bad she didn’t smoke. If she did, she’d offer them a cigarette.
    “I’ll pull your car out of the ditch tomorrow, so you can be on your way.”
    Tomorrow? Three and a half years had passed since Bradley’s terminal cancer diagnosis. She’d come here to make peace with losing him before starting over somewhere else. She planned to give Coop her share of the cabin when she left, but she sure wasn’t going to let him push her out before she was ready.
    She wouldn’t be asking for much, just a little time in this secluded mountain retreat that had meant so much to Bradley. Before she turned the property deed over to Coop, she had to give her heart a chance to mend. It was her only hope of finding love again, of building a new life—a life that she hoped would include children and a man just like Bradley.
    Coop’s presumptuous statement needled her like a burr under a horse’s saddle. She narrowed her eyes. If he couldn’t give her a little space, then maybe she’d keep her share of the cabin. After all, he hadn’t offered to buy her out yet. Even if he did, she didn’t have to sell.
    One foot tapped against the wood floor. “What makes you think I’ll be leaving tomorrow?”
    “I’m here, for starters,” he sputtered.
    She shrugged. “You’ll have to go back to Albuquerque in a few days, right? You’ve got patients to see.”
    He glowered at her. “How long are you planning to stay, then? A week, two maybe?”
    Time to dig in and stand her ground. Ella planted a hand firmly on one hip and leveled a solid stare at him. “Try the whole summer.”

    She looked good. Too good. Even with her hair plastered around that heart-shaped face and black sludge oozing from the perfectly painted toes of one foot, Cinder-Ella , as he had secretly dubbed her when she and Bradley first started dating, looked incredible.
    In the beginning, Coop understood Bradley’s physical attraction to Ella. Her anal-retentive routine soon wore thin, though. She couldn’t handle a spontaneous act of fun if her life depended on it. When Bradley told him she didn’t much care for Red