They held hands all the way to the Jeep, where he helped her inside. So far, things couldn’t have gone better. They’d agreed that they wouldn’t take more time at the hospital. Megan offered to stay in the vehicle while Conner ran their gift inside.

* * *

He took the elevator up and slipped into the hospital room, where he found Travis and Maggie both asleep. Maggie had pulled her chair close to the bed. Her head rested near Travis’s side. A smile tugged at Conner’s lips as he laid the gold-wrapped box on the overbed table and stole out of the room again. His partner was a lucky man. Now, if only he could find the same kind of luck—and love—for himself.

Megan could be the one. He loved her looks, her laugh, and her unselfish way of helping her family. The chemistry between them was sizzling hot. But he’d had chemistry before. What mattered every bit as much was honesty.

Before the accident that had ended his rodeo career, he’d been engaged to a beautiful, sexy woman. They’d broken up when he’d found out she’d lied to him about her past and about her whereabouts when she wasn’t with him. What she’d actually done had been forgivable. What he couldn’t forgive was the fact that she’d lied to his face, more than once.

To make matters worse, the breakup had happened the night before the buck-off that had shattered his hip. Had his emotions clouded his concentration? Or had the accident been a pure twist of fate?

Conner would never know. But he hadn’t trusted a woman since. The question now was, could he trust Megan enough to break free of the past and love her with all his heart and soul?

Megan had shown no sign of mentioning her secret identity. But maybe she just didn’t know how to bring it up. As he crossed the parking lot to the Jeep, he thought of a way that might encourage her. At least it was worth a try.

“I’ve got an idea,” he said as they headed homeward on the highway. “Let’s play a game. First I tell you something you don’t know about me. Then you can tell me something I don’t know about you. Okay?”

Did he detect a slight hesitation? “Sure,” she said. “You start.”

“Here goes,” he said. “I hate peanut butter. When I was little, I put this big glob of it in my mouth and almost choked to death. To this day, I can’t stand to eat the stuff.”

“Yuck,” she responded. “I can’t top that.”

“We’ll see. Now it’s your turn.”

She seemed to be thinking. Maybe she would finally tell him her secret.