The Bull Rider Meets His Match Read Online Free Page B

be to sign off on their reading sheets and take them to the library when they ran low on books.
    â€œWe finished our books last night,” Kristen said. “Mom’s picking up more today.”
    â€œUm...” Katie frowned a little. “We could clean our rooms.”
    Grady lifted a skeptical eyebrow. No kids he knew of volunteered to clean their rooms. “What’s the catch?”
    â€œIt’s almost time for allowance and if our rooms aren’t clean, we don’t get allowance.”
    Annie really had become a hard-ass. But she always had been a neat freak, so Grady understood the clean-rooms-linked-to-allowance thing.
    â€œCool.” They’d clean their rooms, get their allowance and he’d get some framing done. Win-win. “If you’re done by lunch and do a good job, I’ll add extra money to your allowance.”
    The girls exchanged excited glances, then started running toward the house, laughing as they went.
    Feeling rather smug, Grady went back to framing. He figured it was almost two hours until lunch. The girls would probably start cleaning their rooms, then segue into a session of cartoon streaming as they’d done the previous evening while he and Annie discussed futures—hers and his. His sister was struggling, but she wasn’t giving up. He was somehow going to help her without making her feel beholden. Neat trick, that, but he’d figure it out. In the meantime, he would rebuild the garage, patch the barn and reinforce the cellar stairs. He owned half the property, and it was only right that he help with the upkeep, despite Annie pointing out that he didn’t live there so he didn’t reap any benefits. He was reaping them now.
    Grady lost himself in the building process as the sun climbed in the sky. He glanced at his watch and realized almost two hours had passed since the girls went inside. He was hungry and thirsty, and he imagined the girls were probably also in need of lunch.
    He pulled his ball cap off as he approached the house and slapped it on his thigh. Annie had made sun tea the day before, and he needed about a gallon of it right now. He pushed open the back door into the kitchen and then stopped dead in his tracks as his boots hit a puddle and two pairs of startled green eyes connected with his.
    â€œWhat the—” He barely cut off the curse. Swallowing hard, he stepped over the wide puddle of tea and broken glass. “Hey! Don’t touch the glass,” he yelled as Katie started picking up the pieces with her bare hands. She instantly dropped the shards and stepped back, putting her hands behind her. Grady walked through the mess and took her hands in his, examining them closely. Other than being sticky from something chocolaty, they seemed fine.
    â€œAll right,” he said once he was satisfied he wouldn’t be rendering first aid. “How did this hap...” The word trailed off as he suddenly became aware of the condition of the rest of the kitchen, which had been close to spotless when Annie had left. Egad. Where had all that chocolate come from?
    He shifted his gaze back to his nieces, unable to find words. They seemed similarly afflicted until Kristen blinked at him, all wide green eyes and stricken expression. “We wanted to surprise you with a cake.”

Chapter Three
    Indeed, there were signs of cake making in the form of chocolate batter pretty much everywhere, including the front of the fridge, the cabinets and the floor. No fewer than five bowls were stacked in the sink, along with a gooey eggbeater lying on the counter. Grady picked it up gingerly and set it in the bowls.
    â€œWe aren’t allowed to use the mixer,” Katie explained, casually wiping her gooey hands down the sides of her pink jeans.
    Grady could only imagine the havoc they could have created with an electric mixer tossing batter around the room. “I see.” He rubbed his jaw as he took in the carnage. If