Second Hope Cowboy Read Free Page A

spoken to Cash.
    He’d told her everything—how Tucker sold him the ranch, took off for a while and came back to work at the Brooke Creek Ranch. She’d driven by the land owned by the Brooke family, parked and got out. When she saw Tucker baling hay, she’d lost all nerve and left before he saw her.
    Brave enough to come here today, she knew now she should have stayed away.
    Each time he’d looked at her she could see his pain of loss—or maybe she was seeing her own. Guilt certainly could play on a person’s mind.
    Turning the key, the engine purred alive and she backed out of the driveway, tears falling to her cheeks. She brushed them away, but they came faster than she could manage them. She should never have exposed herself to vulnerability, and yet she had because she couldn’t bear to see the Havens house sitting vacant when so many memories lived within the four walls.
    She followed the bumpy dirt road, the car’s shocks squeaked and the bottom scraped. Much like the turmoil inside of her.
    The tears rolled faster and she wiped them, but her sobs grew heavier. The ache throbbing through her body made her limbs weak.
    She stared out of the window into the foggy darkness, struggling with the past and her chaotic life. Tucker had no clue that she’d broken up with Blaise. Would that have changed Tucker’s mind about the house?
    He was a stubborn man who’d never back away from something, especially if it meant losing face.
    Just when she thought things couldn’t get any worse…
    Lightening lit the sky and rain came down in sheets, making visibility nearly impossible.
    “Mother Nature, you picked a bad time to be pissed off,” she murmured.
    Hope scrubbed her eyes and the burning turned to fuzziness. Reaching across the seat, she lowered the glove compartment door and shoved her fingers through the papers, knocking out items onto the floor. Where were all of the fast food napkins? Tissues? She finally found one shoved at the very bottom.
    She dabbed her eyes at the same time a strong scent of baby powder burned her nostrils. Her deodorant had melted! “For heaven’s sake.”
    Her eyes stung. Her sinuses ached.
    Thunder cracked the sky followed by another bolt of lightning that struck a tree along the roadside, sending a large branch into the road. One-handed, and blinking eyes, she jerked the steering wheel, barely missing the obstacle.
    Breathing a sigh of relief, she laid her palm against her chest, wishing her heart to slow.
    And then a moving dark blob shot out in front of her. Deer! The first, a large buck, passed quickly but then came a second, a third and fourth. They stopped in the middle of the road, eyes wide in the headlights.
    “Run! Move out of my way!” She gritted her teeth.
    The deer stayed frozen. Hope slammed her foot onto the brake. Her tires skidded on the wet dirt, sliding, sending the tail of the car swerving to the right.
    The next few seconds seemed to tick by in slow motion. The deer finally jumped out of her path, just missed being hit. The sky lit up with more lightning, twigs and branches pounded the roof of her car as it continued to glide sideways along the narrow road until hitting the ditch, front end first, with a loud thump.
    Her head hit the steering wheel and a white light flashed before her eyes.
    But she was alive.
    Her head hurt. Bringing her fingers to her forehead, she felt wetness. In the lights from the dashboard, she could see red on her fingertips. Her adrenaline pumped, her heart raced and dizziness washed over her.
    CHAPTER TWO
     
    Tucker stood on the porch, watching the taillights of Hope’s car fading down the lane. His head still ached and he wanted to send his fist through one of the beams. He’d allowed his anger to get the best of him. Hope was right, they both carried scars from the past.
    Seeing her had scratched all of the old wounds, poured poison into the raw abrasions.
    Just when he thought he could move on, forget her, he had to face the