Hard Lovin' Man. Peggy Moreland

      Her breath burned painfully in her chest. “Buddy,” she whispered brokenly. She limped slowly toward him, stooping to pick up the end of the lead rope. She straightened, lifting her hand to fist her fingers in his mane, then bent to examine the cut. “Oh, God, Buddy, what have you done?” she sobbed, and buried her face against his neck.

      “Lacey.”

      She felt a hand go around her shoulders while another gently pried the lead rope from her fingers. Sobbing, she was pulled into Mandy’s arms.

      “He’s h-hurt,” she cried, trying to push away. “I’ve got to take care of him.”

      “I know, honey,” Mandy soothed, refusing to let her go. “But Sam’s a vet. She’ll know what to do.”

      It would have been so easy to cling, to let someone else take charge, to give in to the warmth and comfort she’d been denied so long. But Lacey had been taking care of herself and what was hers for too many years to relinquish the control to someone else. Especially a McCloud. She sniffed furiously and backed from Mandy’s embrace, wiping a hand beneath her nose. She turned and saw Sam kneeling beside Buddy, while Jaime stood at the horse’s head, holding the animal steady.

      Gulping back the sob that threatened, she limped across the short distance that separated them and dropped to her knees beside Sam. “How bad is it?” she asked, unable to keep the trembling from her voice.

      “It’s deep,” Sam replied, frowning in concentration as she smoothed a skilled hand down the horse’s leg, checking for other injuries. “But not as bad as I first thought.” She glanced up at her nephew. “Get my bag out of my truck, Jaime. And I’ll need some antibiotic. There should be a vial in the refrigerator in the barn.”

      Her eyes wide with fear, Lacey watched Jaime jog away into the night. “Can I haul him?” she asked anxiously, turning back to Sam.

      “I wouldn’t.”

      “But I have a rodeo next weekend.”

      Sam must have heard the desperation in her voice, because she spun slowly on the balls of her feet to face Lacey. “I’m afraid you’re going to have to stay off of him longer than that.”

      Tears flooded Lacey’s eyes, and Sam laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Why don’t you stay here with us?” When Lacey opened her mouth to refuse, Sam squeezed. “Give him a week to heal. And a week for us to get to know you,” she added softly.

      Her hands still shook a little as Lacey made the turn at the Y in the road as Mandy had directed. On the seat beside her lay the key to the cabin, the concession she’d agreed to when Mandy had refused to allow her to drive into Austin to stay in a motel. Though all three of the McCloud sisters had offered her their homes, Lacey had refused their hospitality. The thought of the intimacy required in living for a week with any one of them was more than she felt she could handle. Her emotions were too raw, and much too close to the surface. Besides, she knew they’d already divvied up Jack and Alayna’s six foster children between them and would have their hands full caring for them while the newlyweds were on their honeymoon. She didn’t want to be a burden…but more, she didn’t want to be in their debt.

      She sighed wearily, thinking of Buddy bedded down in one of their stalls, of Sam tending his wound, and silently acknowledged that she was already in their debt.

      Seeing the cabin ahead, she parked her truck alongside it, then grabbed her duffel bag from the seat behind her. Climbing down, she groaned as pain shot into her hip, a result of the bruised muscle she’d gained in the fall. Limping gingerly, she headed for the porch and fumbled the key into the lock. She gave the door a push and stepped inside, feeling along the wall for the light switch. After flipping it on, she looked quickly around to get her bearings, then switched it off and headed for the far door and the bedroom beyond.

      Once inside the room, she dropped her bag and reached for the light switch.

      “Well, hello.”

      She jumped and whirled, a scream clawing its way up her throat. She nearly choked on it when she saw Travis lying in the bed, propped up on his elbows, grinning at her.

      “What are you doing here?” she cried furiously.

      Unconcerned, he sat up and plumped a pillow behind his head, then settled back against it. He folded his arms across his bare chest and smiled at her. “I was just about to ask you the same thing.”

      “Mandy gave me the key and told me I could stay here.”

      “My brother gave me a key and told me the same thing.”

      She stared at him, unable to prevent her gaze from slipping to the wall of muscled chest, the bulge of biceps on his folded arms, the sheet that draped his lower body from his navel down…and wondered if he was naked beneath it. Feeling the heat staining her neck, she jerked her gaze back to his. “B-but you can’t stay here,” she stammered. “I am.”

      He smiled and patted the mattress beside him. “There’s room enough for two.”

      With a snort of disgust, Lacey snatched her duffel bag from the floor. “I’m not sharing a bed with you.”

      “Why not?” he returned, feigning innocence. “We’re family.”

      “We are not!”

      “Sure we are. My brother married your cousin, so that makes us family, too.”

      Infuriated by his twisted logic, she whirled for the bathroom. “I’m taking a shower, then I’m going to bed.” At the door, she stopped and turned. “On the couch,” she added tersely then slammed the door between them.

      Travis heard the click of the lock, and tucked his hands behind his head, chuckling softly. Things were definitely looking up.

      When he’d tried to talk to Jack again as his brother and his new wife were preparing to leave on their honeymoon, Jack had refused once again to listen to reason. Travis’s threat that he was remaining at the ranch until he was sure that Jack wasn’t making another mistake hadn’t even fazed his brother. Jack had just tossed him the key to the cabin and told him that if he was staying to make himself at home, do a little fishing and maybe do a few repairs on the old barn.

      Travis’s smile broadened. Another week of his two-week vacation left to enjoy. A snug cabin, four lakes to fish and a beautiful woman to look at. Yeah, he thought smugly. Things were definitely looking up.

      Lacey couldn’t sleep. Her mind churned with the day’s events and her chest ached with all the emotion bottled up inside.

      A family, she kept telling herself over and over again. She had a family.

      But she didn’t want another family, she argued silently, punching her pillow and bunching it beneath her cheek as she flopped over onto her side on the narrow couch. The one she’d left behind in Missouri had soured her for ever wanting another one.

      The thought of her parents brought another swell of tears. All she’d ever wanted from them was their love, but they’d never been willing to give her even that. In retrospect, she could almost understand her stepfather’s coolness toward her. After all, he wasn’t her natural father, and he must have begrudged having to raise another man’s child as his own.

      Lucas. Her chest tightened painfully. He’d never even given her a chance. He’d simply turned his back on her and gone on with his life as if she had never existed.

      And her mother…she choked on a sob and pressed her hand over her mouth to smother it. The one person who should have loved her, didn’t. If anything, she resented Lacey. In her mother’s eyes, Lacey had robbed her of her dreams, and every time she looked at her daughter she was reminded of that loss.

      It didn’t help that Lacey had succeeded where her mother had failed. A professional barrel racer, JoAnn Cline had been forced to give up her goal of winning a world championship when she’d discovered she was pregnant with Lacey. Lacey, though, without the encumbrance of