Cowboy Crushin' (Dalton Boys Book 3) Read Online Free

she sighed. She’d come here to change, and that meant staying off the bumpy dirt road of meaningless relationships. If she was going to stay on track, she needed to push that cowboy from her mind and focus on other things.
    She locked the front door and turned the sign to CLOSED. Then she went into the back and took down a big bowl. As she began to add ingredients for a new recipe that had been revolving through her mind all afternoon, her actions hit her.
    She was creating an apple pie cupcake.

Chapter Three
    Witt plopped down between his brothers at the breakfast table and reached for the basket of blueberry muffins. His father and Cash were deep in conversation about the latest auction and prices of Longhorn. He kept half an ear on it while his mind wandered.
    For days he’d been replaying his encounter with the woman in The Sweet Tooth. She sure left a sugary taste in his mouth.
    Kade jabbed an elbow into his ribs. “You gonna stare at that muffin or butter it?”
    He grunted and stuffed half of the muffin in his mouth. At the general store, he’d probed the woman behind the counter for information and discovered the new owner of the candy shop was named Shelby. She’d moved to Vixen a few weeks before and had been doing booming business.
    Surprising for such a small town. Then again, she’d done a great job of making the storefront enticing and her goodies looked delicious.
    “Witt, are you going to auction with me?”
    He looked up at his father. Ted Dalton was giving him that look again—the one that said he saw right through him. Damn, he probably knew Witt was thinking about dipping Shelby in chocolate and licking every single inch of her until he fell into a diabetic coma.
    “When?” Witt asked.
    “Wednesday. Hank and Cash will be coming along too, driving the cattle up.”
    “As long as I’m not stuck riding with Cash. He stinks.”
    A sausage link drenched in syrup launched from across the table and hit Witt between the eyes. He blinked to find Cash’s spicy Latina wife, Maya, holding her fork up like a slingshot. Cash choked with laughter and Momma gave Maya a high-five.
    Witt swiped his eye and licked his fingers, making noises of appreciation. “Thanks for sharing your breakfast, Maya. Your husband still stinks. Believe me, I’ve been around his dirty socks my whole life.”
    The teasing began and the table got rowdier. Witt settled back and ate without adding to the talk—his mind was back in Vixen.
    What was it about Shelby that intrigued him? He’d seen prettier women. But none as interesting as her. He liked that he wouldn’t have to bend down to kiss her, just grab her and press every inch of her against his body. But the connection between their gazes had been the real jolt to his system.
    His resolution to steer clear of the opposite sex was in the manure pile since setting eyes on Miss Shelby. His body said all bets were off. He kept thinking of returning for more candy but had no excuse. Momma’s birthday had come and gone.
    “Sure, I’ll ride along Wednesday. Today I’ll be out with Manny, branding the new cows.” He set down his fork and pushed away from the table. He nodded at the ranch hand seated at the end of the table beside his daughter, Maya.
    “Wait, Witt honey. I need you to do something for me today.” His mother got up and waved him away from the table.
    Witt’s radars went up. Momma only pulled one of them aside for a private word if they’d done something wrong or she was about to ask them to do something horrible. He followed her around the corner.
    “I need you to hook up the trailer and take a few animals into town.”
    Damn. “Why?” he asked in a slow drawl.
    “The school has a special activity going on for the kids. Games and snacks. They asked if we could provide the petting zoo.”
    Witt let his eyes roll back in his head. That meant wrangling their stubborn donkey into the trailer along with several sheep and goats. He felt the groan rising in