Lone Star Rancher Read Free

down.”
    â€œWell, he is seventy,” Clyde said. “Tell the old man to get knee surgery. Can’t you docs replace everything in the body these days, even brains?”
    â€œVery funny,” she snapped, but with humor in her tone. “I didn’t call to talk about our family.”
    â€œAh, so whose family do you want to talk about?”
    â€œNot a whole family, just Jessica.”
    An image came to his mind—a tall girl with skinny arms and legs and a narrow frame, a girl who’d been shy and awkward when Violet had first brought her out to the Double Crown. The two girls had become fast friends, which he’d found surprising. Jessica had looked and sounded exactly like what she was, a down-home Texan with a twang and few social graces. Violet and the girl had remained friends all these years, had even roomed together a couple of times.
    Even more surprising was the fact that Jessica was now a top model in New York, according to his sister. Since the world of fashion didn’t come close to being on his list of priorities, he didn’t know about that.
    â€œDo you remember her?” Violet asked.
    â€œSure. Tall, awkward girl who morphed into a fashion model or something. Is that her?”
    â€œYes. Uh, she has a problem.”
    â€œYeah?” He wondered what that had to do with him and the price of eggs in China or, closer to home, San Antonio.
    â€œThere’s this guy, a politician who’s sort of big in the city, respected family and all that.” She paused.
    Clyde felt tension in the back of his neck. He rubbed it away. “So?” he prodded, growing impatient.
    â€œHe’s stalking Jessica.”
    â€œCall the police.”
    â€œShe has. They won’t do anything. There’s no proof, just her word against his. Anyway, she’s been working hard and this creep keeps calling and breathing into the phone, then he gives this little smirky laugh and hangs up.”
    Clyde muttered a curse. He didn’t like people, whether men or women, who preyed on others.
    â€œShe’d planned on taking September and October off, so I thought it would be good if she got out of town.”
    He could sense what was coming.
    â€œThe ranch would be a perfect place for her to rest and to stay low while this jerk gets over his fixation.”
    â€œTwo months? I don’t—”
    â€œShe would probably only stay a month. You won’t have to do a thing. She can entertain herself. She just needs a quiet place where he can’t contact her.”
    Put that way, it was hard to refuse. “I don’t know,” he hedged. “Let me talk to Steven and Miles first.”
    â€œSteven doesn’t even live there anymore,” she protested. “He’s all wrapped up in his new ranch and remodeling the house for the love of his life. And Miles won’t care. He loves having a woman around to flirt with and practice his charm on. You know that.”
    â€œHuh,” he said, trying to think of a good excuse not to have her friend there and knowing it was a losing battle. His protective instincts were already prodding him.
    â€œThe problem is you, ” Violet stated.
    â€œMaybe,” he conceded, wondering if the man was at fault. Maybe the model had led him on.
    Once he’d been twenty-two and a gullible dreamer. He’d gone to Dallas for the annual ranchers’ association meeting and fallen headlong into love with a sweet-talking waitress who’d told him she was nineteen, pregnant and abandoned by both her lover and her family. He’d given her money and set up an account for the unborn child.
    Claudia had used him and his trust in her to bilk him out of a couple of thousand dollars.
    He’d even proposed, thinking to bring her to the ranch and share an idyllic life. The weekend they were to marry, he’d arrived at their meeting place in Dallas and waited…and waited…and waited.
    As the