Must Love Cowboys Read Free

and morphed the tickles into goose bumps that skittered down my back. “Wouldn’t want to make a mess.”
    This wasn’t the same cowboy. The voice was as different as the attitude. Heat flooded my cheeks.
    He relaxed his hold but didn’t let go. Nuzzling my neck, he drew in an audible breath. “Mmm…your hair smells even better than the bread.”
    â€œOh, way to go, Dean,” another man jeered. “That’s sure to go down in history as the best pickup line ever.”
    â€œGive me a break, Nick,” the one called Dean said. “I wasn’t expecting a gorgeous blond to fall into my arms.”
    Positioned as I was, he couldn’t see my eye roll or my red face—yet. I stiffened as he spun me around. My gaze landed on the base of his neck where it met the open collar of a plaid shirt. Placing a loosely fisted hand beneath my chin, he tilted my head back.
    His smile stole my breath before the other details even registered. Freckles, dimples, big blue eyes, and an unruly thatch of sandy hair. Men might have made me nervous as all get-out, but that didn’t mean I never looked at them. This one was worth a second glance. And a third. And a fourth…
    â€œEnough of that, now,” Calvin barked. “Tina’s my best buddy’s granddaughter. I won’t have you teasing her.”
    â€œDidn’t know you had a best buddy, Calvin,” another man said. “Always thought we were your best buddies.”
    â€œMe and John go back to way before you were born, Sonny,” Calvin snapped. “You don’t know nothin’ ’bout it.”
    In response to Calvin’s reprimand, Dean released me, although he certainly took his time doing it. Another wave of tingles raced over my skin as he traced the length of my arms with his fingertips.
    He scanned my face with appreciative eyes then glanced at Calvin. “Never woulda guessed an old coot like you would be friends with a girl like this.”
    In the space of ten minutes, I’d been called a young lady and a girl . Clearly, these guys didn’t get out much.
    â€œYeah, well, I just met her myself.” Calvin waved his ladle at Dean as though about to swat him with it. “Back off and I’ll introduce you.” Placing a hand on my shoulder, he used the ladle to point at each man in turn. “Let’s see now… I imagine you’ve already figured out which one is Dean—his last name is Wayland, by the way. The bald guy with the handlebar mustache is Bull Russell. Sonny Ferguson is the kid with the curly hair. Nick Reno’s the one with the ponytail and the smart mouth.” He pointed at a rather tall, homely fellow. “That’s Joe Knight, the foreman.” I followed his gesture to the last man, who stood framed in the doorway. “And that mean-looking varmint over there is Wyatt McCabe.”
    Without his hat, he was even more formidable, and his eyes weren’t the only feature contributing to that impression. Tanned skin, dark beard stubble, and thick black hair in a crew cut gone wild with a rather prominent widow’s peak marked him as the rugged outdoor type. The sharp planes of his nose and the grim set of a small mouth with a full lower lip that should have been sensuous but wasn’t—at least, not at the moment—suggested he was not a man to be crossed. And then there were the eyebrows. Now that I could see them clearly, they reminded me of a seagull’s outstretched wings—if there was such a thing as a black seagull.
    One of those extraordinary eyebrows rose ever so slightly. “We’ve met.”

Chapter 2
    â€œReally?” Calvin shot me a questioning glance. “When?”
    â€œAbout twenty minutes ago,” I replied, ignoring the peculiar sensation deep within my pelvis as goose bumps tingled along my spine. “He’s the one who told me where to find you. Although we didn’t get