Suddenly Texan Read Online Free

it.”
    â€œSure, we can run by there, although the owners won’t be home today.”
    â€œHow do you know?”
    Leo looked back over his shoulder. “That was Cal Crawford, the owner of the Rocking C, going to his truck just as you were pulling in. He and the family are on their way to Fort Worth for the day.”
    Amanda’s heart pounded as she remembered the tall cowboy she’d motioned to pass in front of her car. Her older brother. The one most like their father. “You don’t say,” she said in a small voice. “I, um, need some coffee. I’ll see you at ten o’clock at the hardware store.” She felt distracted, disoriented and disturbed as she walked away from Leo.
    She’d just come within a few feet of her brother and neither one of them had realized it. Soon, though, Cal would know the truth.
    Â 
    A T A FEW MINUTES PAST ten, Leo rested his elbow on the center console of his truck and thought about Amanda as he drove out of town. She sat in the other bucket seat, staring out the window, looking apprehensive. Despite driving all the way from Oregon, she didn’t seem to be enjoying her visit to Texas. He knew there was something she wasn’t telling him, but for the life of him he couldn’t figure out what it might be.
    She wasn’t asking questions about the bank vault or the jewelry store, so he assumed she wasn’t a master thief. She wanted to know about how old certain buildings were, who had lived here the longest and what traditions or holidays the town celebrated.
    She was politely curious without ever revealing a thing about herself. She’d answered all of his questions neutrally, as if she were in a play and had memorized her lines. Their conversation had played out like a bad script.
    â€œSo, you’re from Oregon?”
    â€œI grew up there.”
    â€œYou must like to drive.”
    â€œYes, I do.”
    â€œLeave anyone special back in Oregon?”
    â€œNo, not really.”
    â€œSo, how did you get in the genealogy-slash-treasure hunting business?”
    â€œJust seemed like a good fit.”
    He drove the curving road he knew so very well while she continued to look at the countryside. Her short answers made him insatiably curious about why she was really here. He would have to elevate his game if he was going to discover Amanda’s secrets.
    He pulled to the side of the road, across from a black painted arch over a wide gravel drive. “Here we are. The Rocking C.”
    He watched Amanda lean closer to the window. She placed her fingertips against the glass and seemed to absorb every inch of the ranch sign and logo. She scanned the horizon next, looking at the fences and cattle and bison grazing on the green grass. The wind blew waves across the pastures.
    â€œThey have organic dairy cows and free range chickens, too,” he said.
    She straightened, as if his voice had snapped her out of her trancelike observation. “Can we go in there?” she asked, pointing down the drive.
    â€œI don’t see why not. Have you always been fascinated with farm animals?”
    â€œNo, I’m not… I mean, I read about this ranch on the internet. I’m interested in how they turned a traditional cattle ranch into this.”
    â€œIt’s a long story.” He looked both ways, then turned the wheel and steered his F-250 down the drive.
    â€œI’m not going to be in Brody’s Crossing all that long. What’s the condensed version?”
    â€œBasically, while Cal was serving active duty in Afghanistan, his younger brother, Troy, and a vegetarian from New Hampshire changed the ranch to keep it from going under. Cal was pretty peeved when he got home and found chickens and bison and dairy cows roaming the family land, where they’d raised Herefords for four generations. But eventually he came around. I guess Christie helped him see the light.”
    Amanda turned to him.