Austin (New Horizon Ranch Book 8) Read Online Free

yesterday because you were weaving. From my vantage point, you were a danger to yourself and to others on that road and it was my duty to pull you over. You just ran that cow down and turned it back to the herd. You were doing your job. So was I.” His blood pulsed hard through his veins as he picked up his cup of water and left her standing there with her bad attitude.
    The woman clearly had a problem. He joined the line of men as they took their plates and filled them with cold fried chicken and potato salad. After burning up all morning in the August heat, the simple cold meal was welcome.
    “What’s up between you and Jolene?” Ty asked when Austin sank to a log next to the horse trainer. “Looked to me like you two were not happy with each other. Did something happen out there today I missed?”
    Austin didn’t know why she was so aggravated at him but he also didn’t want to get her in trouble on her first day of work. “Nope. Nothing wrong on my end.”
    Ty looked less than convinced but picked up a fork of potato salad and made no other comment. Ty was quiet like that, but observant. Austin decided it would be for the best if he avoided Jolene for the rest of the day or more questions would be asked.
    But that didn’t stop his gaze from finding her all afternoon. The woman didn’t like him and yet he couldn’t keep his eyes off her.
    By the time they got the cattle to the valley where they’d brand them and sort them the next day, he was madder than a trapped bull at himself for the fact that she’d been on his mind and in his line of vision all day. Trucks and trailers were waiting for them; they loaded their horses on the trailers and then loaded up into the trucks that would transport them all to the ranch and them bring them back out the next day for the branding and sorting. Just a few men would stand watch tonight and be relieved in the morning light.
    He climbed into the backseat of one of the trucks and waited as others loaded their horses and then climbed into the three trucks. He ended up moving to the middle of the backseat as one cowboy climbed in on the passenger side; almost immediately, two more moved in from the driver’s side. Jolene stared at him in shock as she climbed in and started to back out when she realized another cowboy was already squeezing in behind her. With no other place to go, she sank into the seat, her thigh and hip snug against his. BJ, the cowboy next to Austin, was a big ole boy, so Austin had to lean toward Jolene.
    He swallowed the tightness in his throat as she ended up nestled up against him. Her hat got knocked off in the shuffle of squeezing everyone into the too-small space and her soft hair ended up tickling his nose. Peaches. After a long, hot day when he was sure he probably smelled like the south end of the cattle he’d been herding, she smelled like fresh peaches. Sometimes life wasn’t fair, and right then he was sure with the truck stuffed with seven hot, sweaty cowboys that she was getting the raw deal and he had the best seat in the truck.
    They had a good twenty-minute drive through rutted pastures and down rough gravel roads before they reached the blacktop. Conversation was going on all around them but he couldn’t speak. All he could do was feel her up against his body and breathe in the soft scent of her shampoo. It was all he could do not to shift his arm so she’d be snuggled up closer. When they hit a bump, it so happened that she jostled next to him and had to grab his leg to steady herself. She looked up at him and in the dimming light of the evening, he saw a flicker of fire.
    “Sorry,” she mumbled and yanked her hand off his leg.
    Every muscle of his body had tensed. “Not a problem,” he grunted.
    He’d never been so tensed up in all his days as he was when the truck pulled to a halt in the ranch parking lot. BJ and Willie Ray took their ever lovin’ time getting out of the truck and all Austin could do was sit there and try not