Love Inspired May 2015 #1 Read Free

very soon.”
    â€œCan I go back in now?”
    Sliding the door back open, the doctor said, “You have a few minutes, then you can wait in here for us while we run the tests.”
    She nodded as she walked away, leaving Duke with the strangest feeling in the pit of his stomach as he watched the less than animated form of Lilly on that hospital bed. Joe stepped out of the room to join him.
    â€œShe’ll be okay.” Joe said it like he was comforting Duke.
    â€œOf course she will. Her mom is here now.”
    Joe gave him a puzzled look and shook his head. “You going in there?”
    No, he wasn’t. He had done his part. He’d been shaken to his core when he’d seen that car speeding down the street, seen her freeze in her tracks as the sedan screeched to a stop too late. It could have been worse, he’d told himself. Much worse.
    He shook his head, not wanting to replay it in his mind again. What he needed was...a cup of coffee. He made his excuses and headed down the hall. Joe started to follow.
    Duke put his hand out to stop the older man from tagging along, giving advice he didn’t want or need. “Give me a minute alone.”
    â€œShe’s okay, Duke.”
    â€œI know that.”
    He knew she was okay. He didn’t know if
he
was, though. He’d nearly put the nightmares to rest in the last year or so. He’d been almost back to normal. But now faces were flashing through his memory. Names he’d almost forgotten were surfacing. A man didn’t forget those young men, their names, their stories.
    He put his dollar in the vending machine and raised his hand, ready to pound his fist against the glass front, but then he stopped himself. His chest ached, and each breath had to work its way from lungs that seemed to be closing up.
    A hand touched his back, small and gentle. He didn’t turn. He knew that it was Oregon. He inhaled her presence, the soft scent of wildflowers.
    â€œAre you okay?” she asked.
    He nodded, slowing his breaths, feeling his heart return to normal. Yeah, he was fine.
    â€œWe have to talk,” she said so softly he almost didn’t hear.
    But he’d known this moment was coming.

Chapter Two
    O regon stood in front of Duke, his features chiseled in stone but somehow beautiful with his bright blue eyes, wide, smiling mouth and golden skin. He’d been just as beautiful thirteen years ago. She’d been eighteen. He’d been barely twenty. It had been the year her mom married a Texas rancher who raised quarter horses and didn’t mind Oregon trying to be a cowgirl.
    Now she had to tell him what she’d come here to tell him. It’d been a year since she’d first arrived in Martin’s Crossing. At first she hadn’t told him, because she needed time. Needed to make sure he was a person she wanted in her daughter’s life. She wanted to know that Lilly would have someone she could depend on. Someone who wouldn’t walk away, who wouldn’t let her down.
    â€œOregon?” His voice was cold. His tone hard.
    He knew.
    â€œIt’s about Lilly.”
    â€œWhat about Lilly?”
    â€œLilly is...” She looked past him, down the empty hall. Where were all the people who would interrupt, keeping her from having this difficult conversation?
    He took her hand and led her to a consultation room that was empty. She balked at the door. “We can’t just walk in there.”
    â€œWe can and will.” He pulled her inside.
    Once the door was closed, he pointed to a yellow vinyl chair. She sat and he stood in front of the door like a bouncer at a club. Blocking her from running? No. He stood because he had too much energy to sit. Sometimes in the early-morning hours she saw him running through the streets of Martin’s Crossing. Sometimes she saw him at night. Outrunning his nightmares, she thought.
    These were some of the many things she’d learned about him since moving