Her Homecoming Cowboy by Debra Clopton

been left thinking he had no one. Not to mention the fact that Colt should be given the opportunity to know his son. I started looking for jobs in Mule Hollow immediately. Gabi, I came here to tell Colt, not to hide it from him.”
    “I believe you. I just didn’t understand. Wow, Annie, you almost died in a fire? That’s horrible.”
    Annie nodded. “It was just a calamity of errors. If a search-and-rescue team member hadn’t come by, seen my car running in the drive and hurried to check my place out again, I’d have probably burned out back in my storage room.” Annie shivered thinking about it. “I had gone back to our house after the evacuation notice was served and was grabbing what I could. Leo was safe at day care. We were given only a few minutes’ notice, but since my home and the landscape company I worked for were in the same area I had time to get home to save pictures and a few of Leo’s favorite things. Only, I went out back to grab a box of pictures and some stuff of Jennifer’s he would want one day. The door stuck and trapped me inside.”
    Gabi gasped. “The door just wouldn’t open?”
    “No. Nothing I did would open it. And there were no windows in the small building. It was horrible. I could smell the smoke getting closer and closer and it was filling up the room. I didn’t think I was going to get out. I prayed for God to help me and He did— He sent someone to open the door. That’s the only explanation I have.”
    “That’s amazing. I’m so thankful.”
    “Colt doesn’t want to tell Leo that he’s his daddy,” Annie blurted out. “I’ve faced a lot on my own, but I really do need some advice and insight about what to do. Why would Colt want that? I mean, this morning when he walked across the pastures to confront me, he seemed like he was furious that he hadn’t had the opportunity to be Leo’s daddy. But then he just handed me a check and told me he was going to be financially responsible but that was it. Something about not being worthy to be called Leo’s hero, much less his daddy.”
    Annie’s frustrations hadn’t let up and the words were just rattling from her. Gabi patiently waited and listened, then spoke.
    “He thinks he should have died in that car accident, not the Everson family. Especially those two children. Colt’s been messed up really bad, Annie. Jess and Luke have been extremely worried about him. It’s almost as if he’s had nothing to live for. He’s been holed up out there all this time, and that day you saw him at the office was kind of an intervention. They were trying to get him to snap out of his dazed, emotional state of mind. Like you, when you were stuck in that shed, we’ve been praying for God to help Colt. You and Leo have been so good for him. He came to Montana’s for dinner with all of us last night and he seemed like he was in a better place than he’s been in a long time.”
    Annie’s blood pressure came down a few points as remorse hit her. “I lost sight of what he’d been through. I can’t even begin to understand the emotions that come with being involved in a tragedy like that.”
    “Maybe he just needs time. Time and prayer. I know God’s got a plan. And despite what Colt is feeling right now, he wasn’t responsible for what happened. And even if he was, despite what he believes, everyone is redeemable in God’s eyes. I don’t think Colt believes that.”
    Annie was stunned. “Oh, Gabi, how could I have overlooked the need he must have to overcome what had happened in his life?” The reality that this wasn’t just about her and Leo sank in. Colt was struggling, and she kept forgetting that he had some major things to deal with besides the sudden appearance of a son. Annie asked God to forgive her for her shortsighted selfishness.
    * * *
    Annie was still praying off and on when she picked Leo up at day care. For this child’s sake she prayed all things would work out for the best.
    Annie was determined she would