Harlequin Western Romance April 2017 Box Set by Patricia Thayer

Author:Patricia Thayer
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781488013874
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2017-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Arden sat on the bench beside the pond watching the sun set. As a couple of ducks glided across the surface of the water, she thought how there might not be a more peaceful spot in all the world. Part of her waited for the familiar panic to rise within her as evening approached from the east, but her full-blown panic attacks had receded. She knew they might make a sudden reappearance at any time, but she felt better equipped to handle them now.

The past three weeks, since that night she and Neil had first made love, had been the happiest of her life. Not only did she find herself in his arms often, falling for him more each time, but she felt as if she was already a member of his family. She’d worked with Angel on the article about the state of family ranching across the West, which was set to be published in the next issue of a national magazine. Sloane had roped her into helping with the kids at one of her ranch camps and had helped her brainstorm ways to fund them for the future. Arden had written a feature for the Gazette on Ben’s custom saddles, which had been rerun in a couple of other papers owned by the same chain. She’d even played hide-and-seek with Julia on a couple of occasions.

But the times she treasured most were the stolen moments with Neil. Hungry kisses and promises of more just out of sight and earshot of some member of one of their families. He’d even caught her as she’d arrived at the Hartley ranch one afternoon and pulled her into the tack room of the barn for a particularly hot make out session.

All of those wonderful moments should have given her an instant answer to the question now weighing on her mind. That it hadn’t worried her. She didn’t want to hurt Neil or his family, but the further she’d gotten away from her horrible experience in Uganda and the more she’d dipped her toe into writing things other than local news and human interest pieces for the Gazette, the more she wondered if she’d really left behind the person she’d been before her capture.

“Be careful. Thinking that hard might make your brain ooze out your ears.”

She looked up in surprise, having not heard her father’s approach. That his footsteps hadn’t startled her was more evidence that she wasn’t the easily frightened mouse who’d arrived home feeling irrevocably broken.

“That would certainly be messy,” she said.

He sat on the bench beside her, and she noticed that he, too, was looking a lot better than when she’d come home. His color had the flush of health, and he didn’t seem to get tired quite so easily. She’d noticed him doing more around the house, too.

“Your deep thoughts have to do with that phone call earlier?”

“You heard that?”

“Yeah, sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

“They want you to come back, don’t they?”

She sighed. “Yeah, but I already made the decision not to weeks ago.

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