The Last Ranch Read Online Free Page B

to be enjoying Anna Lynn’s constant attention, companionship, and care, and she’d noticed the lovely little spark of sexual tension that had been missing between them for so long had returned.
    For Anna Lynn, the week had been so pleasant she’d come to realize that
almost
being a wife was actually quite enjoyable. It also struck her that she’d spent more time sharing a bed with Matt, and more time in his company, than with any other man ever. He’d truly become the love of her life. The ironclad truth of it warmed her heart. And to cement matters, Ginny, who loved Matt almost as much as she adored Patrick, had been acting as though she’d stepped into the midst of her natural family. Anna Lynn had never seen her happier.
    She made no mention of her private thoughts to Matthew or Patrick. But the idea had begun to rattle around in her head that perhaps she should reexamine her need to preserve her fiercely held notion of independence at all costs. She’d lived by that one rule for so long the idea of possibly changing it was simultaneously appealing and disquieting.
    By the end of his first week home and their return from his initial follow-up appointment with Dr. Beckmann, Matt’s restlessness caught up with him. In a voice that brooked no argument, he announced to Anna Lynn that it had been too long since thesmall herd of mares and foals pastured in a mountain meadow had been looked after. He suggested an outing by wagon to the high country cabin in the San Andres, and proposed that they ask Patrick to come along to keep an eye on Ginny and her pony.
    The idea thrilled Anna Lynn. She asked him to put off the journey for a day so she could prepare a picnic basket for the trip up to the cabin, assemble groceries she needed for meals while they were there, get clothes and bedding packed, and put together a kit of bandages and ointments for the treatment of Matt’s eye. He agreed without complaint, but said he’d wait only one day.
    When she told Ginny they were going on an adventure to the cabin and she’d be allowed to ride her pony there, she whirled and skipped around the kitchen table like a pint-size tornado and wanted to leave immediately. Patrick curbed her exuberance with chores in the barn that included brushing and currying Ginny’s pony, Peaches, in preparation for the trip.
    That night on the veranda, Anna Lynn complimented Matt for his wonderful idea. “Everybody’s so happy you suggested it,” she added.
    â€œI reckon it is a good one,” he allowed with a slight smile. “And those mares and foals do need looking after.”
    â€œYou seem to be more your old self,” she ventured, reaching for his hand.
    Matt nodded. “I didn’t realize how deep a hole of self-pity I’d dug for myself. It took a while to climb out of it.” He suddenly laughed. “But I still have a hole to deal with, except now it’s the one in my head. I tell you, it’s a strange feeling to have an eyeball gone missing.”
    â€œIt must be, but you’re handling it wonderfully,” Anna Lynn replied. Every day she applied ointment and put a fresh bandage over Matt’s eye socket as Dr. Beckmann had ordered, and it
was
strange and somewhat unsettling to see the empty space where his left eye had been. She wanted to tell him how brave he was but instead added, “You’ll have a new eye soon, and then you’ll look just fine.”
    â€œNot soon enough,” Matt groused.
    Originally his new eye was to have been ready in three weeks, but swelling from the surgery had made Dr. Beckmann extend her estimate of how long it would take. Now it would be four weeks until Dr. Beckmann made the cast for the eye, and another three weeks to get the finished eye back from the lab.
    â€œShe did apologize for the delay,” Anna Lynn reminded him.
    â€œShe’ll learn fast in the army it’s all about hurry up and wait.”