Love Under Two Gunslingers Read Free Page B

the train’s engine. The constant clatter of the wheels on the tracks and the nearly bone-jarring and never-ending motion as the train made its way toward St. Louis were beginning to take their toll on her.
    The train began to slow. Again. Sarah turned her attention from looking out the window at the endless vista of farmlands and trees to watch the door at the end of the car. She’d had no idea there would be so many stops along the way. Sure enough, the door opened and the conductor began to walk through the car.
    “Normal. Approaching Normal,
Illinois
.”
    She thought she just might hear that nasal-accented monotone in her nightmares. And then as the town’s name registered, her mirth rose up and she chuckled. Across from her, Joshua joined her, his eyes crinkling at the corners, the blue of them sparkling with merriment. From beside him, Caleb shot his brother an annoyed look and then turned his grumpy-looking face back to the window again.
    She honestly didn’t know what to make of these two. She’d considered herself a fairly accomplished hostess as she’d acted in that capacity for her father before he’d remarried the year before. So it wasn’t as if she had no experience conversing with men.
    But these two seemed different than any she had ever encountered. One appeared stern and moody, the other cheery and unruffled. The fact that they were brothers was amazing enough. That they could actually be twins seemed impossible.
    Yet Joshua, happy to fill the journey with chatter, told her exactly that.
    Looking at them both caused an unfamiliar heat to curl in her belly. Her nipples tingled, and she felt an overwhelming need to clamp her limbs together tightly. These sensations shocked her, being totally foreign to her, but she knew what they meant.
    She’d never in her life felt any kind of stirring toward any man, and now she felt it toward both of these two dissimilar brothers.
    “Can’t say as I’d want to live in a place called ‘Normal,’” Joshua mused. “And if I did, I don’t expect I would go around telling anyone.”
    “Leastways it’s a town and not a goddamned city,” Caleb said.
    Sarah’s eyes widened as her gaze snapped to Caleb, who seemed to immediately realize his blunder. He shot her a fast glance, and she could have sworn he blushed.
    “Beg pardon, ma’am.”
    He appeared completely embarrassed, which to Sarah’s mind constituted a huge improvement over looking stone-faced. She cast a fleeting glance at Joshua who looked as if he was going to choke.
    “My Great-Aunt Maude used to say that the devil himself hid in cuss words,” she announced primly.
    “Yes, ma’am,” Caleb replied, still obviously miffed with himself.
    Now that’s interesting. He seems willing to submit to a well-deserved tongue lashing when I would have wagered he never took any rebuke from anyone .
    As much as she enjoyed seeing this new facet of Caleb Benedict’s personality, she was far too fair minded to let him dangle on the hook for long. She looked out the window at the gradually slowing scenery. “Of course, that damn woman has never been anywhere near Normal in her entire life. So what does she know, really?”
    This time Caleb was the one to give her a quick, wide-eyed look. In response to his shock, she could only smile.
    His laughter filled her with pleasure even as it entered her bloodstream and increased the sensation of attraction.
    The train came to a stop and the sounds of civilization, horses and people, a dog barking and some children laughing and playing, rolled in through the window on wisps of dust. Sarah sighed with the respite from train noise and motion.
    “I’m coming to the conclusion that this is your first train trip,” Caleb said.
    Sarah’s lesser angel wanted to comment on how nice it felt to no longer be totally ignored by the big, dark-haired man, but she easily defeated the impulse. She liked his dry humor and the way his lip curled up at the corner. She wondered