Gambling On a Heart Read Online Free PDF Page B

head were working. She hadn’t included Tracy and Bobby into her prayer without considering possibilities Zack didn’t even want to think about.
    “That’s nice. Bobby is your friend,” he said past the dry tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth.
    She yawned and shrugged under the hideously pink bedspread. The ruffle must have tickled her chin, because she pushed it away. “I like Miz Tracy, too. She’s your friend, isn’t she?”
    Tracy and him friends...fat chance. He hoped he never had to deal with her again. “I suppose.” He patted her covered chest. “Nighty-night, baby girl. I love you.”
    “Nighty-night, Daddy.” She grinned at him. “I love you more.”
    He leaned over her and kissed her forehead. “I love you ’til the cows come home,” he whispered, and into her arms placed the stuffed bunny Lisa had given to her when she was a baby.
    “We aren’t missin’ any cows.” She giggled and hugged the raggedy stuffed animal. “So, none of ’em needs to come home.”
    It was an old ritual. He chuckled and stood, giving her one last kiss on her forehead and feathered back her black hair. “Then I’ll have an even longer time to love you. Now go to sleep.”
    She nodded, yawning again. He tucked the sheet and comforter around her. For several moments after he’d turned out the light, he stood by the door until her breathing evened into sleep.
    He snagged a beer from the fridge, then made his way into the big master bedroom next to Mandy’s room. His grandparents had built on the master suite when they’d married. He’d completely gutted the bathroom and modernized it, much as he had the kitchen, when he’d moved in almost two years ago. He’d never be as good at carpentry as Dylan Quinn was. Dylan had practically rebuilt the old house on Butterfly Ranch, but Zack had learned from trial and error and called in the experts when he got in over his head. The work had helped him come to terms with living in a house he’d always dreamed of sharing with Tracy.
    Like the rest of the house, the walls of the room were off-white and the wood trim aged oak, but the flooring was plush forest green carpet, which his feet sunk into as he crossed to the sliding glass door leading out onto the patio. He looked out over the darkened land. A horse whinnied in the distance, and from somewhere out on the ridge, a coyote howled for its mate. Stars twinkled overhead and the last of the season’s fireflies flickered in the tall grass, which he really had to find the time to mow.
    He drank from the longneck bottle. How many times had he and Tracy lain on the bank of the lake out in the pasture with fireflies dancing around them?
    He gulped down more beer and turned away from the yard. What the hell was wrong with him? She’d cheated on him with his best friend. Regardless of what Mandy was planning in that precocious little mind of hers, he was never falling in love again. It hurt too damn much when it all fell apart.
    Setting the bottle on the patio table, he pulled his smart phone from his pocket and checked his voicemail. The only message was from his mother-in-law wanting to know if he’d considered coming to Wyoming for Thanksgiving.
    He supposed he should think about it. The Fosters had only seen their granddaughter a half-dozen times since Lisa’s death two years ago, and for all of those times, they’d come to Texas. But he wasn’t ready to go back. He’d sworn he’d never set foot in Wyoming again after Lisa’s death.
    Surprised not to have a call from his second in command, he dialed Dawn Madison’s cell number. She answered and he asked, “Madison, what’s going on?”
    “Sheriff, it’s your day off. Why the hell are you calling me?”
    “Because I am the sheriff and figure it’s my duty to know if the people who elected me are safe.”
    “Well, other than watching Simms get fatter with each creampuff he stuffs into his mouth and listening to Grant complaining about not getting any,