Valentine's Cowboy Read Free

the exciting plans they had for their wedding guests the week before their Valentine’s Day wedding. And Shelby had insisted that she take part in each and every event planned. So much for time alone to think about her life. Still, it all sounded like such fun that she figured she could use her second week here to deal with all of that stuff.
    “Val?” Shelby asked again, sounding concerned about the lack of response.
    “Sorry, spaced out for a minute,” she apologized. Her gaze shifted out the sliding doors of her third floor condo to the exquisitely landscaped grounds. Vast areas of finely bladed green grass, bushes of dark pink bougainvillea lining one side of the sidewalk leading to the kidney-shaped pool and cabana surrounded by towering coconut palms. Miles of brilliant blue water lie directly behind that, defined by the line of white waves rolling to the light caramel-colored sandy beach. “I so love this place,” she said on a sigh. “No wonder you and Dale want to live here.”
    Shelby snorted. “We won’t if Big Bro gets his way.”
    Valentine felt her protective instincts bursting to life. Big Bro already had a lot to answer for, in her totally biased opinion! “Now what has he done?”
    “He wants Dale and I to take over the ranch back in Kansas, which is crazy. Dale’s from Maui. He wouldn’t have a clue how to run a ranch, even if he wanted to, which he doesn’t.”
    Shelby heaved a sigh much too heavy for someone so young. “I’m being torn between wanting to please my brother, and wanting to make my fiancé happy. Dale is furious with Sam for even asking this of us.” She hesitated. “I hope the two of them can be civil to each other this week.”
    “This week? Are you telling me your sainted brother has relented and decided to come here after all?” She was stunned, and pleased at the same time. She couldn’t discuss anything Shelby had told her in confidence, but she would find some way to make her displeasure with him known.
    “I did everything but cry over the phone to get him to come. He caved when he finally understood this is something I really, really wanted of him.” Her tone turned gentler. “I love him, and he loves me. Life hasn’t dealt him a fair hand, but he’s always tried to do the best he could.”
    “Whoever is in charge of dealing out ‘life’ cards deals lots of unfair hands.” She didn’t have much sympathy for the man.
    Shelby was quiet a second before saying thoughtfully, “Sam’s wanting us to take over the ranch really surprised me. It’s been his world for so long. Now I’m beginning to think there are things about him I never knew.”
    Then she lightened up and said, “I called to remind you about the mai tai party and hula lessons tonight down by the pool. You’re coming, aren’t you?”
    Valentine had considered passing on it since she was functioning on so little sleep. But she couldn’t resist the excitement in Shelby’s voice. Besides, she loved mai tais. And learning to wiggle her hips in a semblance of a hula—which is exactly all she’d be doing she was sure—sounded kind of fun. “Count me in.”
    “Great! I think it starts in an hour. Wait until you see the Hawaiian stud muffin they’ve got lined up to man the bar in the cabana tonight! Hotter than hot, I tell you.” She giggled. “Don’t tell Dale I said that. He thinks he’s a stud muffin, too. And he gets kind of jealous.”
    She hung up after agreeing to keep Shelby’s secret. She slumped against the counter. Why couldn’t she find a stud muffin of her own? Then she remembered what she’d concluded back in her office: that maybe she wasn’t meant to have a relationship with a man. That maybe she’d been dating the wrong gender.
    An image of a hunka-hunka burning love flashed into her mind and she slumped even more. The image definitely wasn’t of a woman. No, it’d been that same image of the bare-chested cowboy sitting on an enormous horse she’d had