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Regan and Colt left the porch to get closer. He said, “I’m so proud of you, Anna.”
“And I haven’t fallen off and broke my neck, not even once.”
“Look at you,” Regan said, laughing. “Is the pony yours?”
She nodded. “His name is Shadow. Aunt Spring got him for me, and she taught me how not to be scared. Now me and Livy can ride together.”
Regan gave Aunt Spring a big hug. Colt did, too.
Spring said, “We’ve had fun. And she knows how to care for Shadow, too. Right, Anna?”
“Yes.” And she rattled off a litany of things she had to do to keep Shadow safe, well, and clean.
Regan’s eyes were misty. Anna had come so far.
Colt looked moved, too. “That is one big surprise, Anna, but guess what?”
“What?”
“If you want to come into the house for a minute your mama and I have a surprise for you, too.”
Anna slid off Shadow’s back, tied him to the post, gave his neck a squeeze that Regan found so endearing, and followed them inside. The door to her bedroom was closed. Colt said, “Close your eyes.”
She did and they took her hands and led her in. “Now, open them,” Regan said.
Anna glanced around. Her eyes widened and she began to cry.
Concern filled Colt’s face and he bent down. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s so pretty,” she whispered through her tears. With her hands steepled over her mouth, she took it in again: the bed, drapes, the new wardrobe holding all her new clothes. There was even an easel and a stool so she could draw to her heart’s content. She ran to her father and gave him a big hug, then did the same thing to Regan, who said, “There’s one last thing we want you to see.”
Colt opened the door and they all stepped out onto the little porch.
“Is this mine, too?” Anna asked excitedly.
“All yours.”
She took a seat on the bench. “I like this.”
Spring replied, “I do, too. I think I may sell my place and move in with you, Anna. What do you think?”
“Can I have it to myself for a little while first?”
Spring laughed. “If you must.”
That evening, after Anna went to bed, Regan’s doctor made a house call. She was stripped, teased, left breathless, and filled so much she forgot her name. When he asked her to lean up against her headboard, she said, “Yes, Doctor.” When he took a seat on her new vanity bench and invited her to ride, she said, “Yes, Doctor.” And later in the tub, when they washed each other slowly with a fresh bar of her lavender-scented soap, there were no questions or answers—just his growls and her soft soaring cries.
Chapter Twenty
Regan was searching through her bedroom’s chaos for her favorite hairbrush. She thought she’d left it on her vanity, but after moving aside an armful of nightgowns, three pairs of black stockings, and a pile of books to get to the surface below, the brush wasn’t there.
She was on her knees peering beneath her bed when she heard Colton ask, “Lose something?”
Still on all fours, she replied, “Yes. My best hairbrush.” She spent a few more seconds trying to spot the brush in the dimness, but spied only a shadow-shrouded boot, a handbag, and a pair of gloves she’d been searching for for the past few days. Straining to reach the gloves, it occurred to her that she was offering him a very nice look at her behind and she smiled inwardly.
“It’s a wonder you can find anything in here.”
She turned her head to view him over her shoulder. He raised his eyes smoothly from her behind and in them she saw—heat.Response coursed through her sinuously. She got to her feet.
