Bad News Cowboy Read Free

mother had been gone, her father a slobbering drunk.
    Eli and Connor had done their best to take care of her, but when they’d needed help? He’d been all in. Making her smile had been his goal. Because she’d been so short on reasons to smile.
    An only child, he’d had no one around to take care of him. To cheer him up when he’d been smarting from a slap across the face delivered by his mom. He’d had the Garretts. And he’d soon realized that the void he’d felt from having no one to take care of him could be filled by offering Kate what he’d so desperately wished for when he’d been young.
    Somewhere along the way they’d lost some of that. Something to do with her not being a kid anymore, he supposed.
    The bell above the door rang again and Alison Davis walked in, carrying a white pastry box with a stack of brochures on top. “Good morning, Kate.” She offered Jack a cautious smile, tucking her red hair behind her ear and looking down at the ground. “Good morning.”
    â€œHi, Alison,” he said, softening his tone a bit.
    Though she’d left her abusive husband a year and a half ago, Alison still seemed skittish as a newborn colt. Maybe that was just him, too.
    â€œWhat brings you by?” Kate asked.
    Alison appeared to regroup in time to focus on Kate. “I wanted to bring you a pie. And also to ask if it would be all right if I put a couple of advertisements for the bakery here in the store. I have two new employees, both women who just left men who were...well, like my ex. I’m happy to have them working for me, but now I need more business to match the expense. One of them hasn’t had a job in fifteen years and no one else would hire her.” Alison let out a long breath. “It’s hard to start a new life.”
    â€œI’m sure,” Kate said. “Yeah, I’ll take a whole stack of those ads. I don’t think Travers will have a problem with it. But if he does, I’ll tell him he’s being stupid. And then he’ll probably change his mind because he’s pretty cool.”
    â€œI don’t want to get you in trouble,” Alison said.
    Kate snorted and planted her hands on her hips. “Nobody gets me in trouble unless I agree to be in trouble.”
    â€œI appreciate it.” She set the bakery box on the counter and took the brochures off the top of them. Then she lifted the lid, revealing the most perfect meringue he’d ever seen in his life. “Lemon meringue,” she said. “I hope you like that.”
    â€œI do.” Kate took the pie and moved it behind the counter. “I gladly accept. I promise to refer customers to you, too. If anyone comes in with a pie craving I can send them right down the street.”
    â€œI appreciate it. Really I appreciate what everyone has done. I thought when I quit the diner, Rona would be mad at me. But instead she decided to order all of her pies from me now that I’m not making them there.”
    â€œThat’s great!” Kate smiled.
    Yes, she seemed perfectly capable of being nice to other people. So it was him.
    â€œI have a few other businesses to go to. And I don’t want to distract you from your work.”
    â€œGreat—just leave the brochures here on the counter.”
    â€œThanks, Kate.” She offered a shy wave, then turned and left the store.
    Jack watched her go, then turned his attention back to Kate. “That was nice of you.”
    â€œI am nice,” she said.
    â€œTo some people.”
    She scrunched up her face. “Some people deserve it.”
    â€œOh, go on, Katie. You like me.”
    Kate looked at the computer screen, a slash of pink spreading over her cheeks. “I like my brothers, too, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to punch them in the face half the time.”
    She was blushing. Honest-to-God blushing. But he didn’t have a clue as to why.
    â€œThat