Unbound Pursuit Read Online Free Page A

boot of yours by mistake, do you?” He raised one brow.
    Giving him a sour look, Tal muttered unhappily, “No . . .”
    He leaned back and placed his arm across the back of Tal’s chair. “Hey, we’re on vacation, darlin’, start acting like it, huh?” he teased her unmercifully.
    Tal agreed that she’d had that coming. “Okay, I’ll try.” She wasn’t taking good care of herself, as she should have been doing.
    The table had been set to perfection with cut-glass salt and pepper shakers, quilted placemats, glasses that Tal thought might be at least from the 1940s. The silver flatware, which had a delicate floral design on the handles, had been lovingly polished. The whole house was like a time capsule as far as Tal was concerned. She was a bit of an antique lover, and in the living room she had spotted a piano that had to be from around 1900, hand-carved oak rockers, plus a green velvet settee that was surely from the late 1800s. She was dying to talk to Daisy about all the furniture because she loved the layers of history in their home. It was as if each generation who lived there had added some thoughtful pieces of furniture or décor for the next generation to use and enjoy.
    “I really like your home, Wyatt. I love that it has so many antiques in it.”
    He chuckled. “Thank God you aren’t calling me an antique yet.”
    Tal burst out laughing.
    All the women in the kitchen turned their heads in unison, as if they’d rehearsed the move a hundred times before.
    “Oh,” Wyatt drawled to them, “the woman I’m gonna marry is callin’ me an antique like what we have in our house here, Mom.”
    Heat shot into Tal’s cheeks. She gasped, giving Wyatt an incredulous look. “I did not!” she protested loudly, giving him a severe, reproachful stare.
    Wyatt gave her that boyish, innocent look he always did when he was up to no good.
    Daisy chortled, drying her hands at the sink. “You gotta watch Wyatt, Tal. He’ll box you into a corner like a good quarter horse will corner a cow.”
    Giving Tal a smug look, Wyatt said, “But you love me anyway? Antique or not?”
    Tal gave him a dirty look. “You know I do. You are such an adversarial person!”
    Mattie crowed. “Oh, yes he is! You should have grown up with him, Tal. He used to pull all kinds of pranks on Cathy and me just so he could hear us squeal.”
    Cathy, who was closest, wearing a red apron around her waist, picked up a long wooden spoon, waving it warningly in Wyatt’s direction. “Tal, I think what I’m going to do is go to Hickman’s Hardware Store in Van Horn before you leave. You’re going to need one of these to whop that guy of yours alongside the head from time to time when he starts being an unmerciful pest. Stop it before it starts.”
    Wyatt sat up, his grin widening enormously, his delighted gaze on his sister. “Hey, Cat, are you gonna tie it up with a red ribbon for her?”
    That brought a howl out of the other two women.
    Cathy blushed red. “Ohh, okay, I get it. Gloves off. Fair enough. The war is on.” She waved the spoon menacingly in his direction again.
    Tal didn’t know what to think. Daisy and Mattie were bent over laughing so hard they were crying. Cathy looked absolutely embarrassed. She heard Wyatt next to her, chuckling indulgently, a big, satisfied cat smile all over his face, like he’d just stolen all the cream. He looked at her with feigned innocence she knew he didn’t have.
    Twisting back a look at Cathy, Tal felt sorry for her. “What’s this all about?” she asked her, keeping a sympathetic expression on her face.
    Growling under breath, Cathy went back to peeling the potatoes in the sink with quick, skilled movements. “When I was eight years old, I still believed in Santa Claus. Being the big mouth that I am, and so sure of myself, I went around telling everyone that Santa existed. Now, no one said he did or didn’t. Wyatt kept saying it was a myth. A legend. And I just didn’t want to hear