ISBN: 9780373826513

Please, God. Let her be okay. Nikki bent over her little sister's hospital bed. Angelica was sound asleep, one hand clutching the ragged teddy bear that had slept beside her since birth… Mehr…

Please, God. Let her be okay. Nikki bent over her little sister's hospital bed. Angelica was sound asleep, one hand clutching the ragged teddy bear that had slept beside her since birth. Nikki brushed a lock of hair from the child's cheek and smoothed her palm down the length of silky black braid that lay against the pillow. She bitterly regretted the four years she'd lived away from Angelica. That time seemed wasted when it might prove to be the last four years her little sister had on earth. The wind picked up outside, the breeze finding its way through the open window to stir the drapes and cool the room with night air. Muted sounds of city streets at night drifted upward, reaching inside the room on the fifth floor of Denver's Adair Children's Hospital. Somewhere far below, a police siren grew louder before fading away, leaving only occasional traffic noise in its wake. Nikki glanced at her watch: 3:00 a.m. Even the hardiest of Denver's citizens must be sleeping. How she wished she were one of them. She hadn't slept an entire night through in weeks. Angelica stirred, moving fretfully beneath the light blanket. "Shh." Nikki brushed the backs of her fingers soothingly over the little girl's pale cheek. "Go back to sleep, sweetie. I'm here." Angelica sighed, pressing her face against Nikki's fingers and murmuring incoherently before settling once again. Footsteps sounded in the hall outside, then the faint swish of the door moving inward joined the muted beep of monitors in the quiet room. A smile of welcome curved Nikki's mouth and she glanced over her shoulder, expecting to see the night nurse on her rounds. Far from it. A tall man dressed in jeans, denim jacket and boots, his body tapering from wide shoulders to slim hips and long legs, stepped over the threshold. He halted just inside the room, the door easing shut quietly behind him. Beneath the brim of his white Stetson, his eyes narrowed as his gaze leveled on Nikki. An unexpected surge of joy and bittersweet pain swept through her before being swiftly burned away by a wave of anger. She'd known Cullen Bowdrie would arrive sooner or later. She knew that she needed him here. But she hated knowing that she was forced to deal with him. She'd managed to avoid him for more than four years, and if that time lapse had been a lifetime, it still wouldn't have been long enough for Nikki. "Cullen," she murmured, managing a stiff tilt of her head in greeting. "Nikki." His answering nod was just as brief, his deep voice as devoid of emotion as she hoped hers had been. He moved toward her, his loose-limbed stride evoking powerful memories that Nikki ruthlessly ignored. He paused an arm's length away, tucked his hands into the back pockets of his faded, snug jeans and studied her assessingly. Nikki refused to look away from his hard stare, though she felt the impact of that green gaze as if he'd touched her. "I wasn't expecting you tonight." Nikki spoke at last, her Fiction Fiction eBook, Harlequin<

ISBN: 9780373826513

A time to heal The scum of the earththat's how Nikki Petersen saw the cowboy who'd broken her heart four lonely years ago. Then suddenly, Cully Bowdrie becomes the only man who can help… Mehr…

A time to heal The scum of the earththat's how Nikki Petersen saw the cowboy who'd broken her heart four lonely years ago. Then suddenly, Cully Bowdrie becomes the only man who can help her. And when the guarded man walks into her little sister's hospital room, Nikki sees that he isn't the same man she once knewand that she isn't the only one in pain. As secrets and regrets smolder between them, they work to save the little girl's life. During their desperate venture, Nikki and Cully are drawn to each other, as they've always been. But will history repeat itself, or has their brush with life and death made them accept a love that never really died? Fiction Fiction eBook<