Red's Hot Cowboy Read Online Free

down,” the girl giggled. “Would you please call whoever is in room one and tell them to shut that howling dog up? He’s making more noise than we are. And the old lady in room three has been pounding on the wall with something. You’re probably going to find holes in the sheetrock tomorrow morning.”
    “Thank you,” Pearl said.
    She sighed as she hung up. Did all those businesspeople with bright shining eyes who sat across from her loan desk in the bank have days and nights like this? If they did, it was a wonder they didn’t throw in the towel and tell her to foreclose on their businesses. The dog set up another bone chilling howl. Delilah shot behind the sofa like a lightning streak and the phone rang again.
    “Front desk,” she said.
    “This is room five. My grandmother rented three rooms, remember. We’ve only got four towels and there are three of us in here and we all have to wash our hair and we need more towels,” a teenage girl said.
    “Come on down to the lobby and I’ll get some more ready,” Pearl said.
    “Oh, no! We can’t leave the room or Granny will get really mad. She looked out the window and saw that cowboy going into room one and said if we left our room we’d be sorry. Besides, we are already undressed and in our pajamas and it is freezing out there. You bring them to us,” she said.
    “I’ll be right down.” Pearl sighed.
    She gathered up half a dozen towels in case the girls all needed to primp again the next morning, put on her jacket, and braced against the bitter sting of sleet when it hit her face. Digger barked from the other side of the door in room one. Giggles and laughter came from room two. In the next room she heard nagging tones with a bit of pure old bitching thrown in. By the time she got to room five her nose was frozen and there was a fine layer of sleet on top of the stack of towels.
    She knocked on the door, yelled “room service,” and grumbled as she waited a full minute before kicking the door with her boot and yelling again.
    A teenage girl swung open the door. “It’s the towels,” she singsonged to her cousins.
    The oldest one looked up from the middle of the bed and then went back to texting on her cell phone. “Well, shit! I thought it might be that cowboy!”
    Pearl laid the towels on the bed. “I brought a few extra in case you need them in the morning.”
    “Thanks,” the older one said without taking her eyes from her cell phone where her thumbs were working so fast they were a blur.
    “Good night, ladies.” Pearl backed out of the room.
    She kept her head down against the blowing sleet and hurried back toward the lobby. If she had to go out again that night she was putting on a heavier jacket, for sure. She didn’t see the boots until she was face-to-face with the cowboy from room one. She came to a halt so fast that it made her woozy. When she looked up into his eyes, she just got dizzier.
    “You need to watch where you are going. You came close to plowin’ right into me,” he said.
    “You could have stepped to one side and let me keep going rather than stopping me in the middle of a sleet storm,” she snapped.
    “I tried calling the office but you weren’t answering. I was on my way to beat on the door. Those little girls in four are calling my room every five minutes. They’re giggling and saying that they think cowboys are sexy. They said if I’d bring beer we’d have a party,” he growled.
    “You got a cell phone?” she asked gruffly. Christmas Eve was supposed to be fun and magical, not crazy.
    He nodded.
    “Then simply unplug the motel phone from the wall and no one can pester you,” she said.
    He folded his arms across his chest. The woman was pretty with the sleet sticking to her red hair, but she looked like she had one of them hot tempers to go with her red hair.
    The wind was chilling to the bone and the tank top he wore with his flannel pajama bottoms did little to keep out the cold, but he wasn’t about to