How a Cowboy Stole Her Heart by Donna Alward Page B

dropping around her feet. Clay would never love her, and she had to stop this insanity now. If she couldn’t have all of him, she at least wanted to keep his friendship.
    â€œDawson said this would be a mistake.”
    Clay’s eyes glittered dangerously. “Leave your brother out of this.”
    Meg ran her tongue over her lips. “But I can’t, Clay, because he was right.” It pained her to admit it but it was true. She swallowed, blinked, breathed. “We don’t want the same things, and I’m not prepared to take any gambles right now. The Meg who went away…not all of her came back. There are parts of me that’ll never come back. Some more obvious than others.”
    She pressed a hand to her right breast and saw the moment Clay understood. Any teasing, any sexual frustration he had been feeling fled and he looked both fascinated and horrified.
    â€œYou mean…all of it?”
    â€œYes. No lumpectomy. Full mastectomy, and a few lymph nodes for good measure.”
    His ruddy cheeks blanched. “So you…I mean…”
    He was so uncomfortable that she felt pity for him. But she’d been right to push away. What if he’d touched her without realizing? It would have been too humiliating. No matter what anyone said, a breast form was far fromthe same thing. Not for him and not for her. And judging by his reaction now, the only thing she would share were the words. He could barely handle those. He wouldn’t be able to handle the scars, or the sight of her as less of a woman. The idea of letting herself be that vulnerable and watching him turn away nearly stole her breath. She couldn’t do it.
    â€œI wear a prosthetic—a form inside my bra.”
    Clay uttered a curse word, pulled out a chair and sat down.
    Meg let out her breath. She’d said it. She pulled out the chair beneath her hands and sat across from him. “When we were outside tonight, at the inn, I said you couldn’t say the word. If you can’t say it, Clay, you can’t handle this. And so I stopped you before it could blow up in our faces. You got caught up in it today, just like me, that’s all. You’ll thank me later.”
    She wanted to believe that was true, but all she wanted was to feel his arms around her again. He wasn’t the only one who got more than he bargained for today.
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    â€œI can say it,” Clay protested, his lips a thin, grim line. “I just didn’t think you wanted to hear it. You hate it when people bring up your illness. You want to pretend it didn’t happen.”
    It was only a partial truth. She did hate it, but she was right. He hated cancer. He was afraid of it. It was merciless and didn’t discriminate. Tonight he’d wanted to forget about it. Meg was so gorgeous, so alive in his arms. When she’d rested her head on his shoulder as they’d danced she’d started something that he’d finished on her porch step. He was attracted to Megan Briggs and he’d conveniently forgotten all the reasons why he should stay away. He hadn’t been able to help himself from takingher in his arms, kissing her. It was the damnedest thing. What shook him right to the bottom of his shoes was that it felt so right .
    It had felt like everything was clicking into place until the moment she’d frozen in his arms. In a way he was glad she’d put on the brakes. The last thing Clay wanted was to play games with Meg, and what else could it possibly be? He wasn’t interested in anything serious, and it was impossible to be anything else with Meg. He knew her too well. They’d shared too many secrets as friends. That type of connection wasn’t something he could be careless with.
    As he looked at her now, he knew it was more than just their friendship on the line, too. Meg was scared. For all her protests to the contrary, Meg was still scared to death and pushing her into something based on