Rocky Mountain Hideaway (To Love Again Book 2) Read Online Free Page B

with the words. “It’s hard to watch someone you love die,” she offered instead.
    “That’s an understatement.” Tray dished shrimp Creole onto Isabel’s plate and shook his head. “Let’s move onto happier things, shall we?”
    “We could,” she agreed, popping a shrimp into her mouth. “Is that why you started college late?” She’d been thinking about Tray and his winning ways and easy manner. He looked young, but he navigated life with more life experience than his years would have graced him with.
    Tray seemed surprised by her question. “Yes, actually. I’d started college at one point, but then I went home to help on the farm … when Dad was sick.”
    “Are you happy to be back at school, then?”
    “Psychology has always been my first love,” grinned Tray.
    Isabel knew what he meant, and was surprised again at how much they had in common. The firelight danced off his open face, his mood completely changed with the shift in conversation. Isabel wanted to reach out and stroke his cheek, but reloaded her fork instead.
    “This is delicious.”
    “I’m glad you like it,” he smiled easily back at her. “Enough about me. How did you decide on psychology?”
    “Oh, that. Well, it was the school psychologist,” she began while Tray studied her. She didn’t want to tell this story to a man who clearly thought she was so sexy. She didn’t want to tell him how she was a lame teenager, the brainy girl with no social life. “I ended up in his office, and we used to play word games. Who is stronger, the ox or the fox?”
    “That’s a good one. Who is stronger?”
    “That’s the thing. There was never a right, or a wrong answer. If I said the ox was stronger, then he would ask ‘what if the fox’s intellect helped him outsmart the ox, would that make the fox stronger?’ It could go in circles indefinitely. I loved it.”
    “Good one,” laughed Tray, his green eyes twinkling. “For me, it was the contrast with life on the farm, where everything was just what it was. You didn’t look beyond or question what was, you just dealt with it. Psychology has opened up a whole new world for me. I finally feel like I have something to do.”
    Tray reached for the spoon, offering Isabel more creole before adding more to his own plate. Isabel could see he had more to say.
    “It’s as if I’m finally alive. I didn’t realize how bored I was on the farm. I knew I didn’t want to stay there, but until I found psychology I had no idea what else I might like to do.”
    Isabel saw this as the opening she had missed last time. “What do you plan to do?”
    “I haven’t decided yet, to be truthful.” He pushed a shrimp through the sauce on his plate. “I want to practice, and I think I might want to work with children.”
    “Children?”
    “Children who have been traumatized. Help them find their way out. Find their way back.”
    “Sounds like a passion.”
    “It is. But I still have a lot to accomplish before I get there.” Tray poured more red wine into the heavy goblets while Isabel studied the lines of his face. He had a strong jaw and almost perfect nose. A profile that could launch a ship. She wondered how such a young man had grown up to be so sensitive. Of course, she knew that his father’s early death had contributed. Watching a loved one die either pulled a family together, or pulled it apart. Apparently in Tray’s case, it had brought them together.
    Isabel drank deeply from her glass and considered how to move the evening along. She was in no rush, but things had turned serious and she wanted to lighten the mood. She knew the scene was set for the next part of the evening. After her shower, she had laid out her props and now there was nothing to do except move Tray closer to the stage.

 
    CHAPTER SIX
     
     
     
    “Back in a bit,” Isabel said, rising and leaving the room. Tray watched her go, the terry robe slouching off her shoulders. How she managed to make it look sexy, he