One Hot Cowboy Read Free Page B

hadn’t liked that girl anyhow.
    “What you are is late,” he growled.
    “You were supposed to be in that lawyer’s
    office months ago to sign the papers to
    settle Auntie Dee’s estate. And you never
    showed for the appointment we finally
    rescheduled for last week.”
    Damn it, she didn’t want to have this
    conversation. Not right now, not while she
    was naked and he wasn’t. Cabe Dawson
    didn’t need that kind of advantage.
    “I . . . had things to do.” The excuse
    sounded weak even to her own ears.
    “Right.” He stared at her. “What kind of
    things did you have to do, Rose, that were
    more important than coming up here and
    settling the estate of the woman who all but
    raised you?”
    She didn’t like the guilt or panic that
    shot through her, an itchy, sickening coil of
    unwelcome emotions. She couldn’t explain
    why she hadn’t come, why she hadn’t been
    ready. Why she couldn’t face the empty
    house or Cabe Dawson or any of the
    pieces of the life she’d had in Lonesome.
    Fighting back a shiver, she crossed her
    arms over her breasts as her legs treaded
    water. If she’d started any one of those
    tasks, she’d have been that much closer to
    failing. To not getting it right. So she’d
    waited. And then waited some more, until
    she’d failed anyhow and could stop
    worrying.
    “Maybe I just wasn’t ready until now,”
    she suggested, as if she hadn’t had lists of
    tasks to check off and a timeline for doing
    so. As if she hadn’t frozen in panic and
    done nothing. Sweet procrastinator, she
    could almost hear Auntie Dee whisper.
    Someday, you’ll figure it out, get yourself
    started .
    Cabe didn’t move from his crouch by the
    side of the swimming hole, but that big
    body of his screamed frustration. He
    wasn’t buying the line she was selling.
    Cabe Dawson always had been good at
    recognizing bullshit.
    “Not ready.” His voice was too quiet.
    “Well, that’s a hell of a thing, Rose, when
    you’ve been asked repeatedly to come on
    up here, and you’ve never said why you
    couldn’t. What did you think was going to
    happen? We’ve all been cooling our heels
    waiting for you.”
    She stared straight ahead. There was the
    quiet disappointment, the disapproval
    she’d expected. She’d never pleased him,
    had she?
    “I should have explained,” she agreed.
    She should have. Of course she should
    have—and, instead, she’d procrastinated.
    Waited, like always, until the last possible
    moment.
    When she didn’t explain now, he waited
    her out, letting the silence stretch between
    them.
    “But I wasn’t ready, okay, Cabe?” She
    wasn’t going to cry. Instead, she blinked
    furiously, wanting to curse him while she
    just kept right on bobbing in place.
    “Hell, Rose.” His hand came up, then
    fell back to his thigh. “We would have
    been happy to wait for you to be ‘ready’—
    you know that. But, darlin’, you have to
    either show up or call.”
    “You just want to tear down the house
    and use the land,” she accused.
    “I do.”
    He didn’t bother sugarcoating his
    intentions, just hit her low and hard with
    the truth. A truth that wasn’t going to
    become reality if she had her way.
    “What if I don’t want to sell it?”
    “Hell, what else are you going to do
    with that piece of property? You’re
    obviously not the settling-down type, Rose,
    and it takes cash to run a place like that. A
    steady income.”
    “You don’t think I could do it? What if I
    want to fix the place up, make a home for
    myself here?” she said, her heart beating a
    little faster at her own audacity.
    He didn’t point out that she’d never
    before showed any inclination to do so.
    Then again, he’d had no way of knowing
    that she’d been hoping to make a success
    of herself, then come home to care for
    Auntie Dee and carve out a better life for
    both of them in Lonesome.
    She’d just expected to do so before she
    lost Auntie Dee.
    “Time to get out, Rose.” He reached out
    to