Rodeo Sweetheart Read Online Free

with laughter and his dad smirking beneath that thick mustache. What would it be like to have the freedom to chase his dreams, rather than follow his father’s plans? Ethan didn’t want to take over Ames Real Estate and Development.
    He didn’t know yet that he wanted to ride a horse for a living, either, but surely there was something in between.
    Footsteps thudded on the porch stairs and Ethan turned with a start. Samantha—no, Sam—joined him on the porch, her hands shoved in the back pockets of her jeans.
    “Back for more insults?” Ethan shifted to face her, resting his weight against the railing and crossing his arms over his chest. His heart thudded louder than her boots on the wood floor—real working boots, not the useless designer ones Daniel brought.
    Ethan fought to keep his expression neutral, his mind reliving Sam’s snappy comment from earlier in the day. No woman had ever spoken to him with such an attitude before, and to be honest, he was impressed. Sam was different from other women he knew—that was certain—and it had nothing to do with her cowboy hat or plaid Western button-down.
    Sam’s chin lifted a fraction as she stopped a few feet away. “I came to apologize. You’re our guest, and I was rude.” Her lips twitched. “I just really don’t like being called Samantha.”
    “I gathered that.” Ethan tapped his chin, pretending to be in deep thought. “Why not a compromise—Sammy?”
    Sam rolled her eyes. “Just stick with Sam and we won’t have any problems, okay?”
    “Deal.” Ethan studied her guarded pose, then held out his hand, for some reason anxious to make her smile. “Don’t real cowboys shake on truces?”
    Her brows rose. “I don’t see a real cowboy here.”
    Ethan’s hand fell to his side and Sam’s eyes widened to giant blue orbs. “I’m so sorry, there I go again.” She slapped her hand over her mouth and groaned. “I don’t mean to—I just—”
    “Have a lot of pent-up frustration?”
    Her arm lowered. “You have no idea.”
    “Don’t worry about it.” Ethan shoved aside the bruised portion of his pride and shot Sam a sideways glance. “Samantha.”
    Her eyes, greenish now that anger sparked inside, narrowed. “You’re impossible.” She clomped back down the porch steps and Ethan watched her leave, an unexplainable joy rising in his chest at having gotten to her once again.
    “See you on the trail, partner.” Ethan grinned as he braced his arms on the porch railing and watched her stalk to the main house. He had a feeling this working vacation was just getting started in more ways than one.

Chapter Three
    S am was up at dawn the next morning, partially because of her growling stomach and the full schedule for the day and partially because Ethan’s face had teased her dreams all night. There was nothing worse than tossing and turning in the midst of a dream you didn’t want to have—make that a nightmare. Who did Ethan Ames think he was, riding into her life as if he belonged there? So what if he was handsome? There wasn’t enough room in all of Texas for the size of his ego. Teasing her about her name, as if he should automatically be granted special privileges, was the last straw in Sam’s hay bale of tolerance. If money meant instant ego, Sam was glad she hovered on the poor side of the spectrum.
    But poor wasn’t going to bring back her father’s legacy.
    Sam dressed quickly in jeans and a button-down, then grabbed her cowboy hat off her dresser. Her eye caught the photo of her dad, taken nearly twenty years ago at the height of his rodeo fame, and she gently touched the worn wooden frame. She often wondered what their lives would be like if her father hadn’t quit the circuit when she turned seven. Wouldshe and her mom still be following him around in that beat-up RV, touring city after city, winning prize after prize? Maybe if her dad hadn’t quit and taken over his grandfather’s breeding farm to provide a safe life for his