Cowboy: Healing With a SEAL, #3

By Heather Black

Cowboy
Who's going to love me now? This is the question I ponder on a daily basis. Sitting in the hospital watching as the doctors take more of my bicep away. I see the way she looks at me not as damaged but as a man. I promise to help her find her brother, but I didn't expect how close he was.
Maria
He is different from other men in my life, he's gentle and patient. He even says that his friends can help me find my brother who disowned me years ago on a misunderstanding.
Now I'm somewhere stuck in Mexico and I'm hoping that what he said about his friends finding people is dead on or else I will be dead.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Heather Black
• Release date: Dec 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201380755

Book preview

Dedication

To Wilma for the part of this story was inspired by Mike’s jump..  We still think of him often.  To my husband and kids who have helped me write by either being my sounding boards or providing the everyday laughter that helped to inspire some of the characters.  To my friends who don’t think I’m crazy by what I’ve written and are still willing to call me friends.

Chapter 1

Cowboy lay awake on his king-sized bed.  He’d just woken from his almost nightly nightmare about when he’d helped to rescue Skye, one of his teammates ladies.  He’d woken just before he crashed into the ocean without opening his reserve parachute and still tangled in the line to his primary parachute.  He knew that this wasn’t how it played out months earlier, however his mind took over at night and played his worst fear when he had this dream.

He’d watched as two of his fellow teammates had fallen in love with two strong women.  Each of the women complimented the teammate that had fallen in love with.  They were both had ties to the military either through service themselves or through family members serving.  Both women were also loving and cared for each of the other team members as if they were her brothers.

A few weeks after his discharge from the hospital he’d decided that he needed to move out of the house that the bachelors of the team shared.  There were too many memories there plus, watching as his teammates went out on missions without him was getting to be too much for him.  His career hung in the balance of the doctors and his own will to recover.  He had kept one thing about the brotherhood when he left, that was the protecting.  He’d had Crypt come over to his new place and install a monitoring system so that he could keep tabs on both Annie and Skye’s places when the men were out on missions.  He also made Crypt give him a crash course in computers since they weren’t much his forte.  His forte, if you asked was making stuff go boom.  Not much of a transferable skill if he were to get booted out of the Navy.

Cowboy had met Maria eight months ago after his third surgery.  He’d been groggy the first few weeks in the hospital, but by the third surgery he’d stopped really sleeping through the night, he only dozed in and out as nurses came and went what seemed like all night, but this one person would slip into his room and lie on the couch that pulled out into a bed.  They never made a sound when they entered or left.  Every time he’d woken up when the person had snuck in he’d see them curled up in a ball on the couch.

Finally, one night he’d woken up just as she was sneaking into his room.  His deep raspy voice and the light overhead his bed going on had scared her just as she was settling onto the couch.  She’d been embarrassed that he’d caught her sneaking into the room to sleep.  Maria had explained that she usually would stay in a vacant room, however recently the surgical recovery ward was full, and his room had been the one that looked like the safest bet for her to stay in.

She started to freak out thinking that he was going to call the nurse on duty, but instead a grin had crossed his face as he looked her over in the dim light of the room.  What he said next had surprised her even more.  The bed is more comfortable.  Trust me I know from experience.

She stood there with her mouth gaping open after hearing his statement dumbfounded for the next few moments.  When she finally spoke she said, Some of the beds don’t go back in quietly, and I didn’t want to wake you up when I left.  She tried to stifle a yawn that was threatening.

Instead of just saying ok and leaving her be he slid over in the bed putting his hurt arm on his side of the small bed and tapped at the open space while saying It’ll be a tight squeeze, but I promise to be a gentleman.

That was when she noticed the tattoo on his left forearm of a frog sitting on a lily pad.  What made it special was that hidden on the back of the frog was a trident.  She had seen a similar trident hidden on a frog once before, but had been told that she was reading too much into the tattoo.

As she was climbing into the bed he quietly asked her So, why are you here in the middle of the night?

The reply she gave him shook him to his core.  Well, you see my boyfriend works the midnight shift at his job and since he won’t give me a key, I have to leave at the same time he does, and since my shift doesn’t start till five I’m stuck here.  I usually drive here and sleep on one of the couches in an empty room till three thirty and then I get dressed and report to the ward for my shift.  Damn it she’s with someone.

Having heard her explanation, he quietly said to her in his raspy southern accented voice Then let’s get some sleep.  He then reached up and turned the light over his bed off and gently placed his arm on her side.

She laid there as his hand gently blazed a trail up and down her arm leaving a trail of warmth in its wake that she had become unaccustomed to, but craved from a man.  It had been a very long time since she had felt the tingle of feeling alive when a man touched her course through her body.  She could smell the soft scent of the hospital’s soap mixed with a soft scent of his deodorant.  She could feel the heat radiating from his bare chest as he pressed against her back.  He was hard, muscular hard everywhere.  She could feel his breath as he gently breathed, it warmed the back of her neck as did the heat radiating off him warmed her body.

She had caught a glimpse of his whole luscious body when he’d thrown the covers back to let her slip into the bed.  He’d been in the hospital so long he’d chucked the gown and was only wearing a pair of shorts.  The way the shorts hugged his muscular thighs left her almost drooling.  Not to mention the six pack abs that he had and well-formed pectorals.  As she had grazed her eyes up his body they landed on his arms.  Both had muscular forearms, but his left bicep looked almost half the size of the other.

When she had wiggled into the small bed he’d been mentally reminding himself that she was someone else’s woman.  He had been infuriated that her man would not trust his woman to lockup behind herself.  He’d heard of relationships with trust issues, usually it was the one who didn’t trust always wanting to check their partners social media, text messages or even phone call history, but never had he heard of someone not trusting their partner to lock a house up at night.

His quick survey of her before she’d climbed into the bed with him.  He loved the mocha color of her skin.  She wasn’t a bean pole woman she had curves in all places that he loved women to be curvy.  Just enough of an ass that a man could enjoy and those full breasts.  She’s got to be a healthy B cup if not a C cup.  How I’d love to get my hands on those.  Those lips were so full and kissable, perfect match to the rest of her body.  If he’d have to describe her to the men he would have to tell them to picture Angelina Jolie from her tomb raider days, only shorter.

He laid there for the next while grazing his fingers up and down her arm.  He’d seen the look on her face when she’d seen his missing bicep, but it hadn’t stopped her from crawling in the bed with him.  He’d seen some of the other nurses’ reactions as they’d changed his dressings and they always looked like they wanted to run from the room like he was a deformed monster.  She on the other hand had seen it, assessed that it was an injury and moved on like it was a normal thing.  Then she crawled into the bed.  He could smell the scent of the ocean on her hair and a mixture of pomegranate and honey on her skin.  He couldn’t deny the feelings he had, everything about her was turning him on making it hard to sleep.

He listened as her breathing starting to even out as she started to sleep.  He didn’t feel himself doze off.  The quiet alarm on her phone began to chirp waking him.  He hated to wake her because she looked so peaceful lying there next to him.  He just wanted to enjoy the moment.  Her alarm sounded for the second time.  I guess she was exhausted.  He nudged her gently while he brushed her hair from the side of her face.  Doll, I hate to inform you, but your alarm is going off.

Oh, Shit.  She said as she jumped up.  Her heart started to race as she groggily shut off her alarm.  How long has it been going off?  She asked Cowboy as she rushed around the little room gathering her things.

By my count it’s the second time it went off and usually most people have a one-minute alarm followed by a five-minute snooze so, we’re approaching seven minutes.  Cowboy said as he watched her in her frenzy.  It was cute to him watching her rush around like a chicken with her head cut off.

Shit I’ll never have time to go to scrub room to change clothes and get ready.  She said.  How come you were so exact with the time, you could have said about ten minutes.

Well, I blow shit up for a living and it’s kinda become a second nature to be precise.  Cowboy replied shooting her a grin his blue eyes piercing the low light in the room.  Why don’t you use my bathroom, you’re here anyway.

All she could do was shrug and head into his bathroom closing the door most of the way.  Great, I had to choose the room with the person who blows things up for a living.  So, how long you gonna be in the hospital?  She asked him curiously popping her head out the crack she’d left in the door as she undressed.

Welp, I’ve been here for three surgeries.  Cowboy said as he released a deep sigh.  Now it’s the poke and prod time for the next week or so and then on to physical therapy if they decide that I’m done with surgery.  Cowboy answered her question.

She got quiet after he’d answered her question only for him to hear the shower turning on.  A couple of minutes later