his head. Buddy remained perfectly still except for his tail, which thumped gently on the wooden porch floor.
“Doggie!” the little boy said.
“Doggie,” Colt repeated, petting Buddy, too.
The get-to-know-each-other session continued for several more minutes. Finally, Austin straightened and toddled back to the wicker toy basket. He picked up his little red truck and took it to Buddy. Instead of handing it over to his new friend, he held it just out of reach. “Mine,” he announced, clutching it tight in his hand. “My toy.”
“It’s okay,” Colt soothed. “Buddy isn’t going to take it from you.”
Austin held tight to his belonging, and then moved away. All the while Buddy remained calm and content.
Watching, Shelley smiled. “I’m glad you kept him,” she said finally, looking Colt in the eye. “The two of you belong together.”
No, he thought, the two of us belong together. Always did, always would. If only we didn’t have such different outlooks on damn near everything. Pushing that unwanted thought away, he rose. “Well, apologies made, Buddy and I better be on our way.”
Shelley rose, too. “I’m sorry about all the bad feelings, all these years.”
Relief sifted through him. “Me, too.”
She lifted a palm. “Friends?”
Colt returned the amiable high five, glad the two of them were finally beginning to put the past behind them. “Friends,” he said.
Nothing more. Nothing less.
Chapter Two
“Yeah, well, I don’t believe it,” Rio Vasquez said in the locker room as he changed into his tan uniform. “No woman ever forgives a man for standing her up on one of the most important nights of her life.”
Colt fastened his holster around his waist. “We’re adults now. We were kids when all that went down.”
“Doesn’t matter.” Rio sat down to put on his boots. “The heart is still the heart.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Colt checked his flashlight and his gun. “You hot-blooded Latinos think you know everything there is to know about passion.”
“We do.” Rio stood and slapped his pal amicably on the shoulder. “And what my romantic radar says is that no grudge held that long is ever going to be set aside that easily.”
“Meaning what?” Colt joked back, studying Rio’s circumspect expression. “You think Shelley’s just pretending to forgive me?”
His friend shrugged. “I’m sure in her rational mind she thinks she ought to let the past be just that. Whether or not she can ever really trust you not to hurt her again is another matter entirely.”
Rio had a point, Colt conceded, as he walked out to his squad car to begin his nightly patrol. His truce with Shelley had come about a lot more quickly than he ever would have guessed possible. Partly because they both had a lot more life experience and hence were now able to sort out what was important and what wasn’t. Another factor was the pressure of the wedding, and their mutual desire to do right by their friends. But there were lingering feelings, of that he was sure.
He’d have liked to stay longer on her porch. Get caught up on more than just the basics. Forge new bonds.
But it had been clear, despite her deeply ingrained Texas charm and hospitality, that as soon as the olive branch was extended, she’d wanted him and Buddy out and on their way.
And that had to mean something. He just wasn’t sure what.
* * *
AT BEDTIME, SHELLEY OPENED UP the drawer in Austin’s changing table and got her second big surprise of the day. “Oh, no. Tell me we’re not out of diapers!” She rushed to the closet, then the diaper bag, Austin toddling along right behind her. Nothing. Which meant she was going to have to put Austin in the car and run out to get another box of disposables.
Not that Austin, who’d had an unusually long and late nap, seemed to mind being carried out to her Prius shortly after 9:00 p.m. “We go bye-bye,” he announced cheerfully.
“One of these days we’ll be completely unpacked and then it will be a lot easier to get organized,” Shelley promised as she strapped Austin into his car seat.
“Diapers!” Austin shouted, waving his arms.
Well, Shelley thought wearily, at least her son knew what they were after. Unfortunately, the only store open that late was on the outskirts of town, near the entrance to the Lake Laramie State Park grounds. For once, the Mega-Mart was not crowded with summer campers, so Shelley and Austin were able to zip in and out.
The problem appeared en route home as dusk was falling. Shelley had just turned onto the two-lane highway toward town and gone about a half mile when a pair of headlights coming the opposite direction wove into her lane, then out again, then back toward her.
Terrified, she hit her horn and brake simultaneously, steering her car as far onto the shoulder as she could go without actually swerving off the road. And still the oncoming vehicle kept heading right for her, weaving back and forth. Knowing she had no choice if she wanted to avoid a collision, Shelley swung the steering wheel farther right and veered off the highway to get out of the way of the wildly careening vehicle.
Her car shot forward as it completely cleared the shoulder and the low ditch beside it, then slammed down on the rough sagebrush-covered ground, bumping hard once, with teeth-clenching force, and then, to a lesser degree, again and again and again.
Finally, the Prius ground to a halt while the big sedan that had almost crashed into her continued on its way, not slowing down in the slightest as it swerved into the wrong lane yet again.
Only this time, she noted in slow-motion horror, the SUV coming toward it was not able to react fast enough. Despite the squealing brakes and blaring horn, the two vehicles collided with a huge boom. A dark-colored SUV went airborne before crash-landing onto its side. The instigating white sedan was thrust into a field one hundred yards south of Shelley’s Prius. And then all fell horribly silent.
Hands shaking, Shelley turned off her ignition but kept the headlights on. She hit the emergency flashers and swung around to look at Austin. He was still strapped safely into his car seat, but looked as stunned and shell-shocked by their unexpected leap off the road and near miss as she felt.
Her heart pounding, Shelley scrambled out of the car, opened the back door and removed her son from his car seat, clutching him fiercely.
My heaven, that had been close!
“You okay, li’l fella?” Shelley asked, stroking his back.
Austin nodded. He put his head on her chest. She could feel him trembling. Poor thing. Still cuddling her son in her arms, Shelley reached for her phone and dialed 9-1-1. The operator came on the line. Shelley quickly described what had happened.
“Is anyone hurt?”
“I don’t
