Page 217 of The Cowbears of Curvy Bear Ranch

“You have a hot tub here?” she archedabrow.

“Yeah. My brother Logan—who you just met for about five seconds—decided we needed one. He built it last week. He just finished a new barn for his wife, Kate, but apparently he caught the construction bug. Not that I’m complaining. I just haven’t had time to jump into thespayet.”

“If I had a bathing suit, I’d join you. I drove for two days to get up here, so my back could use the heat,”shesaid.

“You look like you’re about the same size as Madison was before she got pregnant. I could probably find one of her swimsuitsforyou.”

“Oh, I don’t want to bother her right now,” she said. “She’sresting.”

His bear huffed infrustration.

“I’m sure she wouldn’t mind,” heblurted.

“I don’t want to interrupt her,” Abby said. “I’ll buy a bathing suit in themorning.”

“Okay,” he said. “But if you change your mind, I’ll be out there latertonight.”

Really? Could you sound any more desperate?Damnbear.

“We’ll see,” she said with an enigmaticsmile.

His bear did a somersault at the possibility of seeing Abby in a bathing suit. The beast argued that it would be even better if he could convince her to go skinny dipping. Of course his bear would want to go from zero to naked in two-point-five seconds. The creature had always been hard to control. But in this case, he had toagree.

Too bad he’d vowed not to get tangled up in another relationship with a guest. He’d learned that lesson once before and now he was strictly hands off. He could look, but he couldn’t touch—regardless of how much hewantedher.

Chapter2

Abby stoodat the window in her bedroom at the B & B and stared out at the moonlit night. The serenity of the gently rolling hills across the lake did nothing to calm her nerves. She couldn’t stop wondering where Edward Lee Drake was right now. Was he stalking the streets of Dallas while looking for his next victim? Did he already have another boy locked in thebasement?

She clenched her fists. Maybe Browning was right. Maybe it was her fault. If Drake took another child, how could she live with herself knowing that she could have done something topreventit?

She turned away from the window and eyed the discarded novel on the bed. After reading the same sentence five times, she’d given up. So far, she’d tried reading, taking a hot bath, and pacing the length of the room for the last two hours. Nothing was working. And why would it? She’d failed at keeping a child predator in jail. If she could fail at something as big as that, how could she accomplishanythingelse?

A long sigh escaped her lips as she returned her gaze to the window. Movement near the end of the road caught her attention. As the dark blob moved closer, she realized it wasaman.

When he reached the front of the house, she recognized Cody. He looked up at the window and smiled. She stepped back in surprise. The digital clock on the nightstand glowed 10:30 p.m. What was he doing outside at this time ofnight?

Oh, right—thehottub.

She leaned forward and looked down to find him standing with his head cocked to one side. When he spotted her, he grinned and pointed to the side of the house. Maybe he was showing her the way to thehottub?

Come out, he mouthed while waving an invitation tojoinhim.

Although she didn’t have a bathing suit, she considered joining him. What better way to take her mind off of Drake? Escaping the disaster that was her life was the whole point of the trip. In that context, running out in the middle of the night made sense. Why the hell not? She could wear her bra and panties. Bikinis didn’t cover any more skin than that anyway. Besides, they were bothadults.

She nodded and held up a finger indicating that he should wait for her. She didn’t want to risk going out into the snow andgettinglost.

After taking off her clothes, she hurried into the bathroom to survey her body. Of course she’d worn granny panties for court. If she hadn’t been so upset, she would have stopped and bought new clothes during the fifteen hundred mile trek from Dallas to West Yellowstone. But she’d been too upset to do anything butdrive.

Her sensible white bra did nothing for her plump figure. Back home, she had a rainbow of pushup bras and shapers. A lot of good they did her now. Oh well, it wasn’t like she was trying to seduce the hot cowboy. She just wanted to get out of the silent bedroom. Talking to another person would help get out of the increasingly negative head space she’d floundered in for the lasttwodays.

After slipping into a fluffy white robe she’d found hanging in the bathroom, she tiptoed downstairs. Cody stood in thefoyer.

“Hey,” he whispered. “You ready to help me break in thehottub?”

“Break it in?” She archedabrow.

“Just a figure of speech,” he said innocently. It might have worked if he didn’t look like the cat that ate thecanary.