Iron Cowboy Read Online Free Page A

sound that made her think of luxury racers as she gunned the engine. If she closed her eyes and did that, sometimes it sounded just like a Formula 1 challenge car.
    â€œIn my dreams,” she laughed to herself. She wouldn’t earn enough in her lifetime to make six months of payments on one of those fancy sports cars. But it was just as well. The little black VW suited her very well.
    She pulled out of her driveway onto the dirt road that led out to the state highway. It had been recently scraped and a little new gravel had been laid down, but it was still slippery in the rain. She gritted her teeth as she felt the car slide around in the wet mud. At least it was flat land, and even if she did go into a ditch, it wouldn’t be a deep one. All the same, she didn’t look forward to walking for help in that molasses-thick mud. She remembered a long walk in similar red mud, overseas, with the sound of guns echoing…She drew her mind back to the present. Dwelling on the past solved nothing.
    By downshifting, not hitting the brakes and going slowly, she managed to get to the paved highway. But she was going to be late getting to the ogre’s house. She grimaced. Well, it couldn’t be helped. She’d just have to tell him the truth and hope he was understanding about it.

    â€œI specifically said ten o’clock,” he shot at her when he opened the front door.
    He was wearing jeans and a chambray shirt and working boots—you could tell by the misshapen contours of them that many soakings had caused—and a ratty black Stetson pulled low over his forehead. Even in working garb, he managed to look elegant. He looked like a cowboy, but they could have used him as a model for one made of metal. An iron cowboy.
    She had to fight a laugh at the comparison.
    â€œAnd you’re dripping wet all over,” he muttered, glaring at her clothes. “What the hell did you do, swim through mud holes on your way here?”
    â€œI stepped in a mud puddle on the way to my car,” she began, clutching a plastic bag that held his books.
    He looked past her. “I don’t know what the hell that thing is, but I wouldn’t dignify it by calling it a car.”
    Her eyes began to glitter. “Here,” she said, thrusting the books at him.
    â€œAnd your manners could use some work,” he added bitingly.
    â€œâ€˜Cast not your pearls before swine!’” she quoted angrily.
    Both eyebrows went up under the hat. “If that raincoat is any indication of your finances, you’d be lucky to be able to toss a cultured pearl at a pig. Which I am not one of,” he added firmly.
    â€œMy boss said she’d call you…”
    â€œShe did.” He took a folded check out of his shirt pocket and handed it to her. “Next time I order books, I’ll expect you at the stated time. I’m too busy to sit in the house waiting for people to show up.”
    â€œThe road I live on is six inches thick in wet mud,” she began.
    â€œYou could have phoned on the way and told me that,” he retorted.
    â€œWith what, smoke signals?” she asked sourly. “I don’t have a cell phone.”
    â€œWhy am I not surprised?” he asked with pure sarcasm.
    â€œAnd my finances are none of your business!”
    He glanced down. “If they were, I’d quit. No accountant is going to work for a woman who can’t afford two matching socks.”
    â€œI have another pair just like this one at home!”
    He frowned. He leaned closer. “What in the world is that? ” he asked, indicating her left sleeve.
    She looked down. “Aahhhhhh!” she screamed, jumping from one leg to the other. “Get it off, get it off! Aaaahhhh!”
    The large man in the house came out onto the porch, frowning. When he followed his employer’s pointed finger, he spotted the source of the uproar. “Oh,” he said.
    He walked forward, caught