Her Summer Cowboy Read Free Page B

assured her.
    *
    There was something about this woman that got to him. He liked her fierceness in protecting her grandfather, but he knew it was more than that. Her skin looked soft. Hell, why was he noticing something like that and wondering how it would feel.
    He walked back over to her; even standing on the top step of her porch she still wasn’t taller than he was. He put his hands on her waist and lifted her down to the path where he was.
    “Man-handling me? That’s your answer?” she asked, shaking her head so that tendrils of her thick auburn hair bounced around her heart-shaped face.
    “Not exactly. Just didn’t like you talking down to me,” he said.
    “Like you’re doing now?” She put a few inches of space between them and he noticed her legs again as she moved. The skirt she wore ended just above the knees. He knew she wasn’t dressed for seduction yet there was something about her that made his mind stop working.
    “Indeed. You ready to go?” he asked. He’d been tempted to kiss her. Hell that was stupid and he needed to get them back to the fairgrounds where she could do her thing and he could escape.
    “I already have my bag packed. Let me go and grab it. You want a cold drink?” she asked.
    “Nah, I’m good,” he said. This place was nice and everything but he wanted to get back and drop her off. Put some distance between the two of them. And he was going to have to figure out another place to sleep. He didn’t want to be that close to her all night long.
    “I’ll be a second,” she said, going back inside. The garden beds in front of the house were filled with white gardenia bushes and the fragrance permeated the air. His mom had always loved that scent and he smiled to himself thinking of her.
    She’d be happy he was going home. Of course just because his brothers thought their father was ready to make peace, didn’t mean he was. He had to wonder if maybe up there in heaven she was pushing him on this path. Sending him an old man who missed his family and the granddaughter who felt too much but was too afraid to show it.
    He didn’t know but for the first time in about seven years he actually felt like he was right where he was needed.
    “Let’s go,” she said, walking down the path in front of him. She’d donned a straw cowboy hat, which looked good on her, and changed her heels for cowboy boots. She looked cute and she looked country. As soon as he opened the door to the cab of his pick-up truck and she climbed in, he realized that the hat and boots were like a knight’s armor.
    She was using them to keep the world from seeing the real woman. But it was too late for him. He’d already witnessed her as she’d gone all mama bear to protect Alan. She’d do anything for him and that made Hudson like her just a little bit more than he should.
    They got back just as most of the crew were arriving. Hudson watched as Alan took the stage with his back-up singers. And suddenly the cowboy hat and the boots weren’t armor on her anymore. From his spot in the back of the rehearsal hall he watched Emma hug the other singers and then take her place at one of the microphone stands.
    Her voice was pure and strong when she sang and he liked watching her sing. Saw that the emotions she’d been struggling with at the mansion earlier all disappeared. And it made him wonder why she was teaching elementary school in Georgia when she clearly loved singing.
    “Y’all sound even better than last summer. Since this is the farewell tour and since I’ve got my best girl with me, there are some old songs I’d like to do. Emma will duet with me on I Couldn’t Have Loved You More , Tasha will duet with me on Let’s Tear It Down , and Mo, The Other Woman . I’m going to add in a couple of Keith’s songs because you know we get a few of his fans and so there are new parts for you to learn on Sweet Girl and All Night Long ,” Alan said.
    Emma had gone stiff as soon as he’d announced the plan,