The Cowboy's Baby Bond. Linda Ford

the family way.” Johnny’s tone might be cold and indifferent, but it did not disguise the depth of his pain at being so callously used.

      Willow pressed her palm to his forearm. “I’m sorry. No one deserves to be treated like that.”

      He glanced at her hand.

      Feeling more than a little embarrassed at touching him and offering him comfort, she withdrew and clasped her fingers together in her lap.

      He pulled in a long breath, as if he hadn’t filled his lungs during the entire telling of his story. “I learned a valuable lesson. Don’t trust a woman just because she smiles sweetly at you and speaks the right words.” His jaw muscles bunched. “Without truth and trust in a relationship, a person has nothing.” He stared past her. “Nothing but lies, trickery and deceit. I’ll never trust a woman again.”

      His words accused her. She had not been entirely truthful with him. Not that he had any right to expect she should be. They were but fellow travelers in search of her sisters.

      “At twenty you’re a little young to be making such broad statements,” she told him. “Besides, didn’t you just say to me that, in time, grief loses its grip and it becomes possible to live again? To laugh? To plan? Even to marry again? Or in your case, to love again?”

      The words echoed through her. If only time would change things.

      But time could not undo the past.