Six White Horses Read Online Free Page B

always was, Lije," Everett King grinned. "I may help, but you couldn't get me to stand on the backs of those two horses while I was trying to control the four ahead of them."
    "And I'll bet Patty feels the same about those bulls you used to ride," Lije laughed.
    "Either way, we're a team now," Patty inserted.
    "Talking about a pair of Kings, I saw your family before Diana and I left. They told me to be sure to give both of you their love and to let you know all of them are fine. Your mother suggested that you could write more often, Patty," Lije smiled.
    "She's right, I could," she sighed. "But I doubt if I will. You'd probably better carry the same message back from gramps and me."
    "Well, Blake," her grandfather turned to the third man at the table, "I never have heard you say what you think of that bay horse Lije is trying to sell you."
    "He's good," the man answered, turning his head to the side and smiling. "But I don't want to say how good for fear Lije will raise the price. We haven't started dickering yet."
    With the topic changed to rodeo and horses, Patty was able to sit back and pretend an interest in the conversation.
    The longer she sat, the tighter her chest seemed to constrict with pain at the sight of Lije's hand touching his wife's shoulder in light possession. Patty wondered if the ache in her heart would ever go away.
    "Is this a private party or can anyone join?" The low, drawling voice belongingto Morgan Kincaid brought an immediate tensing of Patty's muscles.
    "Pull up a chair and sit down, Morgan," Lije insisted.
    There was an answering serape of a chair leg behind Patty. Then a hand on the back of her chair was moving her to the side.
    "Move over, Skinny," Morgan ordered with mock gruffness.
    Flashing him a fiery look of irritation, Patty slid her chair away from Diana's. Every time he tormented her with that wretched nickname that he alone used, it made her feel like a bag of bones covered with a sack. Heaven knew she wasn't voluptuous, but her slender form did possess the necessary feminine curves.
    His muscular shoulders and upper arms rubbed against her as he settled into the chair he had placed between the two women. Unconsciously Patty flinched from the contact and was punished for the withdrawal by the arm Morgan laid along the back of her chair. The mocking glitter in his gaze derided the resentment that darkened her eyes.
    "This is quite a contrast," mused Morgan, glancing from Patty to the silvery blonde. "On one side I have the goddess Diana and on the other is a reincarnation of Annie Oakley."
    A slow anger began to seethe to the surface. "And I thought you were going to make some remark about Beauty and the Beast, with you naturally being the Beast, Morgan," Patty smiled with poisonous sweetness.
    "Careful, Skinny," he winked. "Your sarcasm is showing."
    Lije leaned back in his chair, surveying the two of them with that indulgent look that had always filled Patty's heart with overwhelming admiration.
    "Nothing has changed very much, has it?" Lije commented. "You two are still trading insults."
    "I guess it's just a case of New Mexico water not being able to mix with Oklahoma oil," Morgan suggested lazily, sliding Patty a mocking look.
    "I don't think I would have compared Patty with water," Diana spoke hesitantly. "Maybe air—like a warm, summer day."
    "No, it's water," Morgan assured her. "Placid and serene on the surface with treacherous undercurrents below. Besides, she's still wet behind the ears."
    "Well, you're just like oil—slimy!" Patty retorted.
    "Which makes me hard to catch. That's how I've managed to stay a bachelor." Her gibe slid away without causing any ripple of reaction on his smooth exterior.
    "I thought two years ago you said it was going to be your last season on the rodeo circuit, Morgan," Lije commented. "Your brother Alex was going to take over the stock contracting part of your operations, wasn't he?"
    "I considered quitting seriously for a while," Morgan shrugged