Accidental Cowgirl Read Online Free Page B

elsewhere.”
    “How long did the bookie give us?”
    “Said he’d be back in a month. And that was generous. Said his boss had a soft spot for widows, but with a chunk of change this big, his soft spot could only last thirty days.”
    “Thirty days?” Cole sat down hard on a wooden kitchen chair. “Oh, my God, Decker. What are we going to do? You already maxed out your retirement and life insurance. Ma doesn’t even know that.”
    “Well, let’s hope she never has to find out.” He’d used all of his savings already, too, getting the mortgage current enough to avoid foreclosure. “We’ll figure something out. We don’t have a choice.”
    Decker put on his Stetson and his cowboy game face, determined to pretend he was confident they’d find a way out of the situation. It at least gave him the chance to try to do something right, after all the damage he’d done. “But we’re not going to figure it out tonight. Suppose we should go out there and meet the guests?”
    “Do we have to?”
    “Yeah, we do. But I’ll tell you this—if the Boston gals have that twang thing going on where they forget the letter R is a legitimate member of the alphabet, I’m calling in sick for the week. I cannot do another trail ride with that accent. I swear, I’ll shoot off my own toe to get out of it.”
    “Ha. Like Ma’d let you off that easy. She’d give you a big-ass Band-Aid and a tetanus shot and heave you on your horse herself.”
    “Who needs a tetanus shot?” A sharp voice startled both of them as Ma blasted through the swinging doors carrying three empty serving plates.
    Cole recovered first. “Nobody, Ma. You’ve given us enough of those damn things to keep us tetanus-free ’til we’re a hundred and fifty years old.”
    Ma piled the dishes on the shelf and swatted his arm. “I only gave ’em to you every ten years or so. You ever seen tetanus, you’d be happy I gave you all them shots.” She took a couple of covered bowls and bustled back through the swinging doors.
    Cole shook his head as he watched her go. “Did you find Roscoe?”
    “Long story.” Decker shook his head as he scooped another wing from the pot.
    “Ma was ready to skin you for being so late.”
    “She was just afraid I’d blow off the meet-n-greet, because she knows how much I love playing dress-up cowboy.” Almost as much as I love being back here, seeing Emily at every turn . He looked at the finger-painted picture of a barn and horse that was still taped to the cupboard by the sink. His little sister, frozen in time, never to grow up.
    “It’s keeping us afloat, Decker. You can’t argue with the figures so far this summer.” Cole fiddled with the brim of his Stetson. “Not that it’s gonna help us if we lose the ranch to some casino in Vegas, but at least we’ve got a chance at making the mortgage payments. Someguys would think this was a dream come true. New batch of women every week, most of them divorced and … hungry.” He waggled his eyebrows.
    “Well, I’m afraid I’m not one of them. And I need to get back to L.A. in a month.” If Decker got a little jolt of disappointment every time he said it, well, that was just too bad. He had no right to stay, once he helped Ma and Cole out of this hole.
    “So you’ve mentioned. A lot. So where was Roscoe?”
    Decker fiddled with the food on his plate as he considered what to tell Cole. Something about Kyla’s voice kept gnawing at him. It was familiar, but he couldn’t place why. And everything about her body was still bothering him. “I found him about an hour south of town.”
    “Oh, boy. What was he doing this time?”
    “He had some city girl doing jumping jacks in the road, in her bare feet.”
    “Jumping jacks?”
    “Some sort of dumb-ass sobriety test he made up, I guess. She was not amused, to say the least.”
    Cole rolled his eyes, scooping salsa with a corn chip. “Did you rescue her?”
    Decker pictured Kyla crossing her arms while spots had