The Airman's E-Mail Order Bride (Heroes of Chance Creek Book 5) Read Online Free PDF Page A

to live the ranch life with you for as long as you’ll have me. I don’t need diamonds or a fancy wedding, and I’ve always liked the back seat of an old Impala better than a soft bed in a four-star hotel. You’re looking for something simple and temporary. I can be simple and temporary. I can be complicated and permanent, too. It’s up to you.
    How about you toss your hat in the ring and give us a try? You might be surprised what you find out about yourself.
    Helena Warner
    Heather sat back and took a deep breath as she scanned her answer to Colt’s ad. It had taken a lot of trial and error—and a lot of swearing—to set up the fake persona she was using to hide her tracks. She’d bought a stock photo to send to him of a woman who bore her a slight resemblance, picked a name with the same initials as hers, then set up a new e-mail account to match.
    If her plan worked, she’d lure him in and get him interested in her as a single mother. Once he got used to the idea that the woman he was attracted to had a thirteen-year-old son, she’d reveal herself—and Richard—and hope that Colt had fallen so in love with her he didn’t turn tail and run.
    She wondered if her response would grab his attention. Would he catch her reference to their one teenage tryst in the back seat of her mother’s car, or would her note be buried in all the other replies to his ad? He was too damn handsome—he might be overrun with would-be wives.
    Heather’s hand hovered over the keyboard. She wasn’t sure she was ready to post the e-mail. Colt would probably—
    “Mom? Mom!”
    Heather hit send, then slapped the laptop shut to hide Colt’s ad just as Richard barged into her bedroom.
    “Can I have the leftover pizza?” Richard skidded to a halt near her desk.
    “As long as you have some fruit, too. Hurry up; we have to be at the airport by one-thirty.” That was close—he’d nearly seen what she was doing. She took a deep breath to try to calm her racing heart.
    Heather stood up and followed Richard into the kitchen. She grabbed an apple from the refrigerator and tossed it to him before sliding the leftover slices of pizza onto a baking sheet and putting them in the oven to warm up.
    “When do you think Dad will come home?” Richard took a seat at the kitchen table. She glanced at him, wondering if he’d seen Colt’s ad on her screen after all, then decided he couldn’t have.
    “I don’t know, honey. Soon, I would think.”
    “I wish we knew where he was.”
    “I know.”
    Colt’s work as an Air Force combat controller terrified her. She remembered when she’d looked it up on the Internet after talking to his brothers last summer. She’d barely breathed for days. A combat controller entered a region ahead of troops—by parachuting in or by other more dangerous methods—and then acted as an air traffic controller for everyone else. They worked under deadly conditions in hostile regions, paired with small groups of Navy SEALs or other Special Forces teams that had little chance of battling their way out again if they were discovered. Heather couldn’t believe Colt would put himself in such danger, but the more she thought about it the more she understood why the Air Force would choose him for such a job.
    Colt had always been capable. As the youngest he didn’t always get the respect from the others that he deserved, but back when they were teenagers, back when she was still dating Austin, she’d noticed his father always chose Colt when the job was really difficult. He flourished in a tight spot and his sharp brain saw things the others didn’t. His absolute confidence was one of the things that had attracted her to him back when they were teens.
    “You don’t think he’s dead, do you?”
    Heather snapped back to the present. “Of course not.” It was her worst fear, but the man had just placed a wife-wanted ad. He had to be all right, didn’t he? She wondered if he’d gotten in touch with his brothers