Her Second Forever

by Joanna Sims

  “Oh, no,” Lee moaned. “I think I hurt my stump.”

  Colt knelt down beside her, careful not to touch her but close enough that he could do her bidding.

  “I have your leg,” he said, holding her leg in his hands.

  Lee looked up at him, and all he wanted to do was dry her tears from her face. They stared at each other and then they both started to laugh. He was, in fact, holding her leg, and it was such a strange thing to say to a person that it added a bit of levity to an otherwise horrible moment.

  “Oh.” Lee winced. “It hurts to laugh.”

  “Do you think anything’s broken?” Colt asked.

  She shook her head. “No. I don’t think so. But I think I really did hurt my stump. I can’t use my leg if I did and I’ll be stuck using crutches. I can’t have that happen. Not now. Not during the summer session.”

  “Tell me what to do,” he said. “We need to get you back to the cabin.”

  Lee did her best to clean off the sock she was wearing, picking off twigs and clumps of dirt. “Here...” She held out her hand for the prosthetic. “I need to just put it on and see if I can stand with it.”

  Colt did the only thing he could do—wait and watch. Lee put her limb back into the socket and tried to use the suction valve.

  “It’s broken. Without the suction, my leg will just slip right out of the sleeve,” Lee said and then cursed loudly. “You’ll have to help me get up.”

  Colt helped support Lee while she pulled herself into the standing position. With her arm around his waist, Lee hopped next to him while they slowly made their way over to the horses. It was the first time Colt really understood how disabled Lee was without the prosthetic. If he hadn’t been there, how would Lee have gotten back to the ranch? As it was, he wasn’t exactly sure how they were going to get her back on the horse.

  “Got any ideas?” Colt asked, wanting Lee to tell him how she wanted to get back on the horse. She couldn’t walk to the cabin and it might hurt her even more if he tried to carry her piggyback. The horses were the best option to get her back quickly.

  “Can you lift me up and sit me down in the saddle like we do the kids?” she asked. “If you get me in the saddle sideways, I think I can swing my leg over.”

  So that’s what they did. Colt lifted her up and set her down in the saddle, then Lee swung her leg over the saddle horn and got herself situated in the center of the saddle seat.

  “I’m not used to riding without my leg,” Lee said, holding onto the saddle horn tightly.

  “I’m going to walk us out,” Colt said. “Just keep yourself in the saddle and I’ll do the rest.”

  “Obviously easier said than done.”

  Colt grabbed Mack’s reins and began the long hike back to his cabin. On the walk back, all he could think about was seeing Lee lying on the ground, crying. Never in his life had he been that afraid or helpless. It had never occurred to him how dangerous riding a horse could be for Lee in particular. She made everything look so easy with the prosthetic that most of the time he forgot that she had a disability. He supposed that was the point—that’s why Lee had perfected her walk with the prosthetic.

  “How are you doing back there?” he asked after a long stint of silence between them.

  “Besides being royally pissed off,” Lee said, “just fine and dandy.”

  “The minute we get you back to the cabin, I’m going to throw you in a hot tub with Epsom salt.”

  “I hope you mean throw figuratively.” She laughed and then moaned. “I think I’ve had enough being thrown for one day.”

  Colt was able to take them on a shortcut, shaving a good ten minutes off their trip back to the cabin. Lee swung her leg over the saddle horn and slid down the saddle into his arms. Balanced on one leg, Lee grimaced when she tried to hold on to him.

  “Just let me carry you,” he said.

  Lee thought for a quick second before she nodded. “Okay.”

  Colt dropped the reins for both horses, knowing that they would be preoccupied grazing on the grass long enough for him to get Lee inside. He would get her inside, then get the horses untacked, making sure, of course, to dislodge Lee’s leg from his saddlebag.

  “You scared me,” Colt said as he carried her up the porch steps.

  “I scared myself,” Lee admitted. “I haven’t fallen off since I was fifteen.”

  Lee reached down and turned the knob to the front door and Colt pushed it open with his foot. Colt carried her over to his couch and set her down gently.

  “This is ridiculous,” Lee complained. “I hate being carried around like an invalid.”

  “I’ll be right back,” Colt said. “Don’t go anywhere.” He cringed. “Jesus. Just pretend that you didn’t just hear me say that.”

  It was a stupid thing to say in hindsight, but at least he had managed to make Lee laugh again. Colt quickly gathered up the horses, put them in the pasture so they could continue grazing, left all of the tack in the front yard to be dealt with later and then he retrieved Lee’s leg and jogged back to the cabin.

  “Are you still okay?”

  She nodded, taking her leg from him and looking it over more closely.

  Colt tossed his hat onto the kitchen counter on his way to the bathroom. He began to fill the bathtub with warm water and then dumped two cups of Epsom salt in.

  “Let’s get you in the tub,” he said after he gave her a maximum dose of ibuprofen.

  Colt lifted her up off the couch and took her into the bathroom. After helping her undress, and grateful that she wasn’t fighting him every step of the way, Colt lowered Lee into the warm water.

  Lee sunk down into the water with a deep sigh. Colt sat down on the side of the tub and watched her.

  “Is it warm enough?”

  Lee opened her eyes and looked up at him. She reached for his hand on the side of the tub.

  “It’s perfect. Thank you.”

  Lee’s eyes drifted closed again and Colt felt his tense muscles starting to relax. She was safe. He had her home where she belonged.

  Suddenly, Lee sat up straight and felt around on her neck. “My locket. Where’s my locket?”

  “I haven’t seen it since before you fell off.”

  “I’ve got to go back. Please take me back so I can look for it.”

  “I’ll go back and look for it. You need to stay here and rest.”

  Colt picked Lee up out of the tub, wrapped her in a towel and then set her down on his bed.

  “Please find it, Colt.” Lee held on to his hand for a moment. “It’s so important to me.”

  “I’ll do my best, Lee. I promise you. I’ll do my very best.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  The Monday morning after the accident, Lee was resting in her bed at home. She hadn’t been so sore since the car accident that ultimately cost her a husband and a leg. Gilda and Boot and Colt, along with the volunteers, would make sure that the program continued to run smoothly without her. But it frustrated her to be so banged up that she could hardly get out of bed.

  “Hey, Tessa.” Lee answered the video call, happy to see her sister’s face.

  “Hey. How are you?”

  “I’ve been better,” she admitted. “I’m so sore, I can only use my prosthetic for a short time and it hurts to use my crutches. Basically, I’m hobbling around here with my walker. Such a drag.”

  “Thank goodness Colt was with you.”

  “I know. I would have been in real trouble if he hadn’t been there.”

  Tessa nodded, her dark brown curls framing her narrow face. Tessa looked back at her with her same hazel-green eyes. “I wish you would stop riding altogether.”

  Lee frowned. “I know. Mom and Dad said the same thing. But I’m living the horse life, Tessa. That’s what I’m doing. I can’t imagine never riding again. Just thinking
about it makes me want to cry.”

  They spent an hour on the video call, covering every topic from shared childhood traumas like walking in on their parents having sex to Grandmother Macbeth’s insistence on continuing with her predawn walks well into her nineties. Tessa always made her laugh and laughter was what she needed to keep her from going stir-crazy at home.

  “So, what’s the news on the IVF?” Tessa asked. “Are you still thinking about going through with it?”

  “I have the money now,” Lee said. “I can’t imagine not trying. Michael and I were so close right before he died. The eggs are already fertilized, just waiting for me to finish the process that we started together.”

  Tessa’s skeptical expression didn’t escape Lee’s notice. Her sister had never been a fan of the deathbed promise that she had made with Michael. Tessa didn’t believe it was right to bring a child into the world after the father had already passed away.

  “I know how you feel about it,” she said to her sister.

  “Do you know how Colt feels about it?”

  Her sister knew where all of her buttons were and she had pushed the largest one of all. Colt didn’t know anything about her plan to go through the IVF process to have Michael’s child. She had every intention of telling him when the time was right. For now, they were having a good time together—no promises were made between them. Lee knew that this time was coming to an end. She just wanted to get through the summer session and then she would sit down and have a long talk with Colt. If he couldn’t handle the idea of going on the IVF journey with her, then as much as she loved Colt, she would have to let him go. Nothing—not even her love for Colt—was going to stand in her way of keeping her promise.

  “You’ve got to tell him, Lee,” Tessa told her. “The sooner the better.”

  “I will.” She had already planned to tell him before they went to Callie’s engagement party. Before Colt went through the trouble of introducing her to his family as his girlfriend, she wanted him to have all of the facts about her future plans.

  “The longer you wait, the harder it’s going to be on you both.”

  Lee hated to admit it, but Tessa was usually right. Maybe Boot hadn’t given her such great advice about taking the relationship out on a test-drive before telling Colt about her plan for starting a family. Maybe she shouldn’t wait until the end of summer.

  “I think I’d better tell him,” Lee agreed.

  “Tell him now, Lee. You’re not being fair to him if you don’t.”

  * * *

  It wasn’t easy for Colt to split his time between his duties on the ranch and his volunteer work at Strides. He was tired but with Lee on bed rest, he knew he had to push himself to pick up the slack at Strides while holding up his end of the workload at Sugar Creek. After the last rider had their session, Colt packed up his things and headed downtown to pick up some takeout from one of Lee’s favorite restaurants. On the way, he spotted the jewelry store where three of his brothers had purchased engagement rings. Acting on his gut, he pulled his truck into the jewelry store parking lot and stared at the door for several minutes before he made a decision.

  I’ll be there soon, he texted Lee and then got out his truck and walked into the jewelry store.

  “Colton Brand!” The woman behind the counter was an old girlfriend from high school. “Are you lost?”

  “Hi, Laura.” Colt took off his hat and hung it on the hat rack just inside the door. “Nope. Not lost.”

  “Are you looking for a present for Callie? I saw her engagement announcement in the paper. I swear I was simply tickled pink about it. I still can’t believe someone like her managed to get engaged before I did.”

  “Callie’s very important to me,” Colt said, his face unsmiling.

  “Oh, well, of course she is,” Laura exclaimed in a squeaky voice. “I just meant it was unusual, that’s all.”

  The contrast between Laura, who obviously had some built-in bias against people like Callie, and Lee, who spent her life trying to enhance the lives of individuals with disabilities, couldn’t be more clear to Colt in that moment. How his taste had improved over the years. Running into Laura—voted the prettiest girl their senior year of high school—confirmed that he was in the right place at exactly the right time.

  “I’d like to see your engagement rings.”

  Laura laughed an insincere laugh that grated on his nerves. “Isn’t that for Callie’s fiancé to do for her?”

  “This isn’t for Callie,” Colt said. “This is for the woman I intend to marry.”

  * * *

  That night, Colt arrived at Lee’s house with an engagement ring in his glove compartment. Just as he had known when he first saw Lee that she was the woman he wanted to marry—he found the perfect ring for her immediately. It certainly wasn’t the right time to propose when Lee was still recovering from her fall. But he was going to propose to her as soon as the right moment presented itself. She wasn’t the type who would want an elaborate proposal. It had to be something simple, something meaningful—a moment about which they could reminisce for the rest of their lives.

  “Pasta primavera.” Colt brought Lee’s favorite dish into her room after finding a plate in her kitchen.

  Lee pushed herself up on the pillows with an expectant look on her face. Her hair was a mess, she still had sleep in her eyes and he couldn’t love her any more than he did in that moment. It had to be true love because he didn’t care one bit if she ever shaved her legs or wore makeup. He just loved her, inside and out.

  “Where’s yours?” she asked, taking the plate with a look of anticipation of good tastes to come on her face.

  “In the kitchen.”

  Colt grabbed his food and drinks for them both and then joined Lee for dinner in bed.

  “What did you get?” Lee asked him, waiting impatiently for him to get settled so she could dig in.

  “Spaghetti and meatballs.”

  “That was Michael’s favorite too,” Lee said off-handedly—it seemed that they couldn’t get through any time together without Lee bringing up her late husband. Colt boiled a little on the inside every time Lee put him in the conversation, but this wasn’t the time to raise the issue with her. This was the time to help her heal and get back on her feet.

  Chester was already taking up a large bit of real estate next to Lee, so Colt had to make space for himself on her other side.

  “You’re the best!” Lee took a big bite of the food and then made a happy noise in the back of her throat. “You have no idea how much I’ve been craving this.”

  “Yes, I do,” he said. “You’ve been texting me about it all day.”

  She laughed in between bites. “Sorry about that.”

  “No, you’re not.”

  “No, I’m not.”

  They talked and laughed all the way through their meal, and when they were completely stuffed on Italian food, Colt gathered up their plates and got himself ready to leave.

  “I’d better head out.” He returned to the bedroom.

  “Why?”

  “My truck isn’t exactly inconspicuous. The neighbors know I’m here.”

  “So?” Lee asked. “I’m injured and you’re visiting me.” She patted the bed next to her. “Don’t go. Stay. We’ll binge watch Game of Thrones.”

  Lee did have an ulterior motive for wanting Colt to stay. Her sister had been texting her, asking if she had spoken to Colt about her IVF plan. Now that Tessa was on the hunt, her sister wouldn’t give her a break until she filled Colt in.

  But as was always the case whenever she was near Colt, the TV got ignored and their attention turned to the sensation of their bodies pressed tightly together. She wasn’t necessarily proud of it. Being around Colt made her hormones go haywire and all she wanted to do was strip off his clothes. It was a new experience for her. It had been different with Micha
el—she hadn’t been in her thirties. She had been his first lover, so any experience in that department had been a shared experience. Colt brought a whole different skillset to the table, one she sincerely enjoyed.

  Colt rolled on a condom and then placed her on top of him. It was odd not having her prosthetic on—that had always given her physical and mental support. When she had it on, even if she didn’t look whole to other people, she felt whole. Without it, even after all of these years, she felt less than herself.

  “Are you sure you’re up to this?” Colt paused.

  Lee loved the feel of her skin next to his—he was always so warm. She kissed his neck on a particular favorite spot of his.

  “I feel better that you’re here,” she said, wanting him to focus on loving her and not her fall from the horse.

  Colt stopped entirely, leaning back his head and looking at her in the eyes. “I’m serious. You’ve been away from Strides this week. We need you back.”

  She leaned her head down on the spot where his heartbeat was pounding softly and wrapped her arms around him. This man was continuously so sweet to her. He was always so concerned about her. Why couldn’t she have him and her child? Maybe she was underestimating Colt again—just like she had when she met him. He loved her without her leg—why wouldn’t he love her with Michael’s child?

  “I’m coming back tomorrow, maybe not for a full day, but I will be back.”

  Those were the magic words. Colt made love to her slowly, gently, kissing her all over her body, bringing her to climax so many times that she lost count. He was insatiable for her and she knew that she was insatiable when it came to him. Colt lifted himself up on his arms so he was hovering above her, their hips connected. She reached up and put her hands on his face. She loved to watch him as he found his own release. The way he growled in the back of his throat, the strength in the cords of his neck, the tension in his biceps. From granite to flesh, he was Adonis come to life and he was making love to her.

  Colt dropped his head down so he could catch his breath, letting his shoulder-length hair brush across the naked skin of her breasts. He lowered himself down on top of her, letting her take his weight for just a moment before he moved over to her side.