Texas Rose Forever (Texas Rose Ranch #1) Read Free Page A

Prudence Lehman married Carlton Rose they lived here for a while until he built her the big house.”
    He’d always loved the cabin. It was one giant room with a huge, round wood-burning stove in the center. Over the years, the stove had been converted to a fireplace, a bathroom was added off to the side, and everything had been updated with electricity and modern appliances, but it still held the spirit of the old place.
    “Dugout?” CanDee glanced over her shoulder at him. “Like dug-out-of-the-ground dugout?”
    “Yes, ma’am. It was three rooms and quite cozy, from what I’ve heard. I seem to remember there’s a box of letters and old newspaper clippings around here somewhere that talks about it. I think there’s even a picture taken right before it caved in.” He followed her into the kitchen alcove.
    She pulled out a plastic pitcher from under the sink, tucked the flowers inside, and filled it with water.
    “How charming. A photograph right before it caved in.” She shook her head. “No wonder Brunhilda looks so angry in that tintype with her husband. He’d probably just told her about his grand plan to build her a dugout. She must have loved Lacy a lot. People do strange things for love. Personally, I draw the line at dugouts. It must be impossible to keep the floor clean with it being made of dirt and all.”
    It was on the tip of his tongue to ask her what crazy thing she’d done for love, but he didn’t know her that well. That he wanted to know her that well struck him as odd. She was easy to talk to, which he didn’t find most of the time in women—or men, for that matter. It wasn’t that he was shy, it was just he didn’t have much to say.
    “Then again, maybe it wasn’t love. Don’t take this the wrong way, but your however-many-times-great-grandmother was not a handsome woman. In fact, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that she’s the single ugliest person that I’ve ever seen. I’m guessing that men weren’t lining up to marry her.” She leaned against the counter next to the sink. “Come to think of it, was Lacy a sighted man? Apart from a mustache that was the size of a small dog, he wasn’t half bad looking. Maybe Brunhilda was from a really wealthy family or like you said, she made spectacular peach preserves.”
    Laughter made his chest shake. “Are you always like this?”
    “What?” Her eyebrows arched.
    “Saying what you’re thinking . . . always looking for the motivation behind things.” With the exception of his mother, women rarely said what was truly on their minds. At least Naomi, his ex-wife, hadn’t. She’d professed all her love while screwing his best friend . . . and that hadn’t come close to the worst thing that she’d done.
    She shrugged. “I guess. I’ve never really thought about it. I’m a writer. Motivation is everything.”
    “Really? What’s my motivation for missing my party to come here?” He liked her. True, she said the most bizarre things, but at least they were never stupid, only clever.
    Her eyes narrowed in contemplation. “Let me see.” She tapped her right index finger against her closed lips. “Off the top of my head, I can think of three reasons. The first and most obvious is that your mom probably threatened you with bodily harm unless you came over and made things right.”
    She shook her head. “But I don’t think that’s your primary motivation. I don’t know you that well, but based on the whole noble-cowboy thing you’ve got going on, you couldn’t stand the idea of offending a lady.”
    She’d nailed it. He’d known CanDee three whole hours and she already knew him better than his ex-wife ever did. “What’s the third thing?”
    She smiled mischievously. Whatever lipstick she’d used made her lips look like shiny ripe peaches. “You want to find out if I secretly videotaped you dancing and if so, if I’ve posted it on YouTube. I’m betting you’re prepared to kill me and hide my body in