Bartender's Beauty (Culpepper Cowboys Book 11) Read Online Free

hair today. I’m a mess!” She hurried off to pull on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. She ran a brush through her hair, pulling her shoulder length blond hair into a ponytail.
    When she got back to the kitchen, Austin was just coming back in. “That’s the last of it.”
    Susan smiled. “Thank you so much!”
    “Can you handle Mr. Gustafson if I take off with Dallas for a little bit?” he asked, knowing if he asked Dallas, she’d make excuses. “I was hoping I could talk her into lunch today. I have to work tonight.”
    Dallas bit her lip. “Dad’s in one of his moods,” she said. “I think I should stay.”
    “Your father’s always in one of his moods,” Susan countered. “Go have lunch with your friend. I can deal with the cantankerous old goat.”
    Austin grinned at the older woman, reaching for the necklace. “Turn around so I can put it on you.”
    Dallas obeyed, holding her ponytail out of the way. “I’ll go, but just this once. I’m not going to take advantage of Susan.”
    “I am!” He fastened the necklace before grabbing her hand and pulling her toward the door. “Thank you!”
    Susan waved them away. “Have a good time!”
    Dallas grabbed her purse from a table by the front door where she’d dropped it the previous evening, worried she might need it.
    As the front door closed, Dallas heard her father yell for her. “Dallas! I finished my breakfast! Why do I hear a man’s voice out there? You know better than to entertain men in my house!”
    Austin walked toward his truck, putting his finger over his lips. “She’ll handle it!”
    Dallas giggled as she slid into the passenger side of the truck, feeling like a rebellious teen. “You’re going to get me in trouble!”
    “You wouldn’t let me get you in trouble when we were in high school. We have lost time to make up for.” He started the truck and pulled out onto the highway.
    Once they were out of sight of the house, she leaned her head back, laughing. “I don’t know why it feels so good to sneak away with you, but it does!”
    He grinned, glancing over at her. “Because your father is the biggest jerk alive and you’re thrilled to be out of that house?”
    She sighed. “I wish I could get away without leaving poor Susan alone with him.”
    “He doesn’t talk to her like he talks to you, does he?”
    Dallas shook her head. “Nope. I’m afraid I’ve been singled out as his whipping girl in this life, but I have a feeling you understand that better than anyone.”
    Austin shrugged. “Our dads were made of the same mold. There’s no arguing with that. I’m taking you to the river for a picnic.”
    She laughed. “You can’t take me to the river. There will be teenagers everywhere. Isn’t that where the kids make out still?”
    He frowned. “Not for a few years. The cops were onto them, so they found a new spot. It’s out on the other end of town.” He hadn’t thought she’d dated in high school, so how had she known about the river as the make out spot? “Who did you go to the river with?”
    She gaped at him. “In high school? I never went. But I heard the girls talking about it in the locker room.”
    “Girls talk about stuff like that in the locker room too?”
    “You’d be shocked at what the girls talk about.”
    He shrugged. “Whatever. As long as none of the boys in high school took you down to the river.”
    “Who would? You, Kolby Culpepper, and Allen Jennings were the only boys who even talked to me in high school. And they only talked to me because you were my friend.” It wasn’t until she said the words that she realized they really were true. He had been her friend. She may have had no other friends in all of Culpepper, but he’d always been someone she could count on.
    “I guess that’s probably true. And those two knew better than to poach.” The three of them had been best friends in high school, and they still called each other at times when they needed a friend. Allen had brought