Read Why not Wyoming? (Wyoming Wilds Series Book 1) for Free Online Page A

away. Following the side of the lodge, she wandered
further from the door. Playing with her scarf, she searched for an answer to
his question. The way he’d phrased it, she could dodge the painful part. Any
other time, any other person, and she would have. CJ was different. She wanted
to get to know him and in order for that to happen, to give this any hope, she
had to open up too.
    “I moved into the city when my parents died. I was eighteen and
didn’t think that I could handle the responsibilities that came with a house
and property. Not to mention the memories.”
    Snow crunched behind her. Strong hands landed on her shoulders,
turning her against his chest.
    “I’m sorry,” he whispered, wrapping his arms around her.
    Annie shook her head, her nose rubbing against his worn black Carhartt.
“It was a long time ago.”
    “I don’t think the loss of a parent is something you just get
over. Let alone losing both of them.”
    “Yeah. You don’t picture losing both of them at the same time.
At eighteen, you aren’t really thinking about it at all.”
    “Car accident?” he asked, his lips pressed above her ear.
    She nodded. “I was at home, dancing around, basking in the
glory of having the house to myself for an entire weekend.” Annie paused,
swallowing against the choking guilt, even after all these years. “Then I’d
have given anything for them to walk back through the door.”
    CJ swayed slightly, one hand stroking up and down her spine in
a comforting caress. “I’m so sorry.”
    “Me too.”
    “Legal adult or not, eighteen is young to be completely on your
own. Especially with what you were going through. Wasn’t there family that you
could…?”
    Annie nodded vehemently. “Absolutely. Everyone wanted to help. I
had my choice of several offers. Crystal’s parents literally begged me to move
in with them. As horrible as it sounds now, I was feeling smothered and
overwhelmed and just wanted to be left alone to grieve.”
    “I can’t say I know what you went through, but I can understand
a need to be alone to sort through things.”
    She knew she should step back and pull her shit together, but
it was easier not to have to meet his eyes.
    “By the time everything was settled, I’d graduated so the
school district wasn’t an issue any longer. With the sale of the house, insurance
money, and a settlement from the trucking company, money wasn’t an immediate
problem. My aunt and uncle helped find me a nice condo in a new building with
parking and good security so they wouldn’t worry as much. I liked the view.”
She shrugged. “It took a while to get used to the quiet up there, but now its
home.”
    “Is that when you started writing?”
    That was safer ground. She took a step back, wiping away tears.
CJ shifted, keeping one arm around her and leaning against the side of the
lodge.
    “It’s when I decided to put it out there. I’d been writing
since grade school. I have boxes in my storage locker stuffed with notebooks
full of my scribbles. I’d always known I wanted to be a writer. My parents were
a little more practical. They wanted me to go to college, get a degree, and
have something to fall back on. I would’ve done it their way if they’d been
there, but their death made me look at how short life can be. They spent all of
those years scrimping and saving so that someday they could retire and do all
the things they wanted to do. What good did it do them?”
    “They made sure you were taken care of.”
    She hid her face in his chest again and punched him lightly.
“There you go saying the perfect thing again.”
    “I’m telling you, this is on you,” he said against the top of
her head.  
    “Uh huh.”
    “It never happened before you.”
    “Thanks.”
    He pulled his head back to look down at her. “For what?”
    “For listening. For not judging.”
    “What’s to judge? I’m thirty years old and if I lost my parents
tomorrow, I’d be a wreck. I don’t think you’re