Suddenly Texan Read Online Free Page A

“The same Christie you mentioned earlier?”
    â€œYes, the motel owner and my partner. Didn’t I mention that she’s Cal’s wife?” He slowed the truck.
    Amanda’s eyes widened just a bit and she swallowed. “No, you didn’t mention that,” she answered in a very neutral tone. “Is everyone related around here?”
    â€œNot everyone,” he answered. “For example, I’m not related to Christie or Cal.”
    â€œThank goodness for that,” Amanda murmured as he pulled near the house. Now that was an odd thing to say!
    Â 
    T HERE WERE TWO HOUSES on the Rocking C. Amanda wasn’t sure why, but she assumed the older one was the house where her mother used to live with the boys and her husband, and the newly built one was probably where her brother Cal and his family lived now.
    Someone had money. The oversize two-story house was a combination native limestone, brick and wood. It was large, with a turret, big windows and heavy double front doors. While the older house had very little landscaping, this one had shrubs and flowers defined by a limestone border, and a real yard covering the slight hill. A woman’s touch, Amanda assumed.
    She turned her attention back to the light brick and wood one-story ranch style home. “This house is older, isn’t it?”
    â€œYes, that’s where Cal and Troy grew up. The new place was just finished last year. Christie worked with an architect to get what she wanted. Like I said before, she has excellent taste and knows quality.”
    â€œYes, I can see that. Is anyone living in the original house now?”
    â€œNo, I don’t think so.” Leo put his arm across the back of the seat and studied her, his brow slightly furrowed beneath a swirl of golden hair. “Why, are you looking for a place to rent? I don’t think Cal would be interested. His brother, Troy, and his wife, Raven, stay at the old house when they visit.”
    â€œNo, I didn’t mean that I was interested for myself. It’s just that…well, it’s still a nice house and it seems a shame that it’s…abandoned.”
    Leo’s face revealed his confusion. Darn it, she’d asked too many questions. Made too many comments. But she’d felt such an affinity for the older house, the onewhere her mother had lived for years with her husband and sons before she’d fled.
    If only her mother had told everyone the truth about the daughter she’d given birth to in Arkansas and left there with her parents to raise, they could have lived together in this house. Maybe things would have been tense at first, but Amanda was pretty sure they could have worked out their problems.
    After all, that’s what families did. Mentally stable people in families, she corrected herself.
    â€œSo, you want to see the chickens?”
    â€œOh, sure.”
    Leo put the truck in gear and drove around the house toward the barn. On the right side of the gravel drive was an area fenced with small gauge wire and wooden railings. A big flock of chickens pecked and scratched at the brown clumps of grass, and when they heard the truck, some of them extended their wings and ran faster than Amanda thought possible across the pasture.
    â€œThose are speedy chickens.”
    â€œThey don’t know my truck.”
    â€œAre you telling me they’re smart enough to know the difference between one truck and another?”
    â€œMaybe. Did you ever see the animated flick Chicken Run ?” he asked as he headed toward a pasture fenced in heavy planks. “No.”
    â€œVery funny movie, especially if you like the Steve McQueen classic, The Great Escape. You should come up some night. I have both on DVD. I make a mean bag of popcorn, and I love to discuss movies.”
    As much as she’d enjoy seeing Leo’s condo—and more of Leo—she didn’t have the luxury of a movienight. “I’m only