One Brave Cowboy Read Online Free PDF

but she was pretty sure he hadn’t said that. Greg was baiting her. If she kept her mouth firmly closed, he would eventually go away. Maybe even without Mark if he could come up a glitch in his plan. News that the rattlesnakes had escaped from Reptile Gardens, maybe, or a tortoise quarantine.
    â€œWhy weren’t you watching him?”
    She hadn’t braced herself for that one. It was a fair question, and it had been haunting her since the incident happened. Sarcasm evaporated. Who was she to criticize—even silently—when she’d failed so miserably?
    â€œWe were doing chores,” she said quietly. “I thought he was—”
    â€œ You thought. See, that’s your problem, Cecilia. You’re always thinking. Meanwhile, he’s on the move, many steps ahead of you. And who the hell knows what he’s thinking?”
    â€œHe was playing with the cats.”
    â€œAnd what were you playing with? Huh? What were you playing with, Cecilia?” He grabbed her shoulder. “Or should I ask, who? ”
    Celia jerked away, but she took only one step back, fighting him off with a defiant stare. “You can askabout Mark. Obviously I wasn’t playing with Mark. I was busy doing chores, and, yes, that’s my—”
    â€œIt’s not your job. Your job is that boy right—”
    â€œHey, Mark.” Cougar strolled into the barn, flashing Celia a reassuring glance on his way to the cat’s nursery. He squatted, touched Mark’s shoulder and then a couple of kittens. “Are they all there? Did you take a head count?”
    Mark pressed a kitten under Cougar’s chin.
    â€œHave you figured out how many boys and how many girls? I think the calico’s a girl.” He stood easily, confident in the silence his appearance had created. Without moving from the position he’d taken, he looked directly at Celia and offered a soft, intimate, “Hi.”
    â€œHello.” Silken calm slid over her. “I understand you two have met.”
    â€œYeah, Mark introduced us.” Cougar reached down to ruffle Mark’s hair. The boy looked up and smiled. “I’m glad you’re here. You can help me pick out a horse.”
    â€œMy son and I have plans,” Greg said. “I just stopped in to see what she had to say about what happened yesterday. So far—”
    â€œI came over with Logan,” Cougar told Celia. “Called first this time.”
    â€œThat must be why the boys brought some of the horses in,” she said.
    He glanced at Greg as though he were an imageon a TV show that nobody was watching. “Mark and I can go take a look if you two need to talk.”
    â€œMark’s with me.” Greg moved to block Celia’s view of everyone but him. “It’s my weekend. Long as you’re both here, maybe you can explain exactly how my son came to be out in the road and why nobody saw him until he was nose to nose with—”
    â€œBecause he’s quick, and he’s small,” Cougar said. “Fate cut us a break. Be grateful.”
    â€œDon’t tell me to be grateful.” Greg pivoted and postured, hands on hips. “You don’t know what we’re dealing with here. But you will if I see any more evidence of emotional or psychological trauma.”
    Cougar chuckled. “You wanna sue me for something that didn’t happen? What are you, a lawyer?”
    â€œNo, but I have one.”
    â€œHave at it, then. If I harmed this kid, I’ll make sure—”
    â€œHe wasn’t hurt,” Celia insisted quietly. “He’s fine, and he doesn’t need to hear this.”
    â€œHe can’t hear, remember?” Greg’s challenge swung from Celia to Cougar. “Doctors don’t know why, but I do. It’s because his mother left him to—”
    â€œGreg, please. Let’s not do this now. You know what’s going to happen.” She