McKettricks of Texas: Austin Read Free Page A

same time, in that curious way of dreams, were not —her sisters, Libby and Julie.
    Wedding veils hid their faces, but she knew them anyway. Libby wore a luscious vintage gown of shimmering ivory, while Julie’s dress was ultramodern, a little something she’d picked up on a recent romantic getaway to Paris.
    â€œWe just want you to try on your bridesmaid’s dress,” the pair said in creepy unison. “That’s all.”
    â€œNo,” Paige said. “I’m not trying on the damn dress. Leave me alone.”
    They advanced on her. Garment bags had materialized in their arms.
    â€œBut you’re our only bridesmaid,” the two chorused.
    â€œNo!” Paige repeated, trying to retreat but stuck fast.
    It was then that a voice penetrated the thick surface of the dream. “Hey,” the voice said, low and male and disturbingly familiar. “You okay?”
    She felt a hand on her shoulder and woke up with a jolt.
    And a faceful of Austin McKettrick.
    â€œIt just keeps getting worse,” she marveled, gripping the arms of the poolside chair where she’d fallen asleep after a solitary lunch in the ranch-house kitchen.
    Austin laughed, drew up a chair himself and eased into it with the care of a man much older than his twenty-eight years. His beard was coming in, buttery-brown, and his hair looked a little shaggy.
    It ought to require a license, being that good-looking.
    â€œGee,” he drawled. “Thanks.”
    It galled Paige that after all this time, he could still make her heart flutter. “What are you doing here?” she demanded.
    Austin settled back, popping the top on a beer can, letting her know he meant to take his sweet time answering. A scruffy-looking dog meandered in and settled at his booted feet with a little huff of contented resignation.
    â€œI reckon if anybody’s going to demand explanations around here,” Austin said at long last, “it ought to be me. I live here, Paige.”
    She’d set herself up for that one. Even seen it coming. And she’d been unable to get out of the way.
    Paige drew a deep breath, released it slowly. “I’ve been staying in the guest suite for a couple of days,” she said after a few moments. “The lease was up on my apartment and the renovations on our old house aren’t quite finished, so—”
    Austin’s eyes were a lethal shade of blue—“heirloom” blue, as Paige thought of it, a mixture of new denim and summer sky and every hue in between. According to local legend, the McKettricks had been passing that eye color down for generations.
    He studied her for a long time before speaking again. Set the beer aside without taking a sip. “My brothers,” he said, “are marrying your sisters.”
    Paige sighed. “So I’ve heard,” she said.
    Austin ignored the slightly snippy response, went on as if she hadn’t said anything. “That means,” he told her, “that you and I are going to have to learn to be civil to each other. In spite of our history.”
    Paige recalled some of that history—youthful, frenzied lovemaking upstairs in Austin’s boyhood bedroom, thetwo of them dancing under the stars to music spilling from the radio in his relic of a truck.
    And the fights. She closed her eyes, remembering the fights, and her cheeks burned pink.
    â€œPaige?”
    She glared at him.
    â€œIs it a deal?” he asked quietly. “Is what a deal?” she snapped.
    Austin sighed, shoved a hand through his hair. He looked thinner than the last time she’d seen him, and shadows moved behind the light in his eyes. If she hadn’t known better, she would have thought he was in pain—maybe physical, maybe emotional. Maybe both.
    He leaned toward her, spoke very slowly and very clearly, as though addressing a foreigner with language challenges. “Whether we like it or not, we’re going to be