Wild Ride: BBW Western Romance (Under Open Skies Saga Book 2) Read Free Page B

was what he said, it was burned into her brain, right down to his voice. His dark, sultry voice.
    She knew he was going to be a hard sell, but she was determined to do it, and keep their interactions strictly business.  Even if the way he eyed her ample curves did threaten to unravel her at any moment.
    She was a business woman, and she trained for this kind of life. College was all about business and finance, but the last few years of working as a clerk in a few small offices were not enough to prepare her for running a business of this magnitude.
    So much for all those years as a glorified secretary.
    “ Ms. Brooks, I have your mother on the line, would you like me to put the call through ?” The question came through the intercom, and Kat nodded, before realizing that she needed to respond. It had been that kind of morning, no coffee, no breakfast, just an up and out kind of morning.
    Especially after the night she had, she was left reeling.
    “ Yes, please .” Kat picked up the phone and waited. Talking to her mother was not the most pleasant of experiences, but it needed to be done, or else her mother was going to think she was avoiding her.
    And the last thing she wanted to do was set her off.
    “ Darling, is that you ?” Her mothe r’ s voice wavered. She was probably on the second drink of the morning.
    “ Mom, how are you doing ?” Kat knew the answer to that question before she even asked it. It was silly game they played. Her mother tried to act as though she was fine, but the sobs always started before she got off the phone. Why . She would say. Not a question, but a wail. Why .
    “I’ m doing okay. How is the business going? I hear you are taking it by storm . ”
    A smile started to form at the edge of her lips .“ Hank been talking to you again ? ”
    “ How did you know? That is the only person who can bring me any comfort these days. Wish you would phone as often as he does .” Guilt dripped off her words.
    She knew that was going to come. Her father had been the brunt of her mothe r’ s unreasonable expectations for so long that she expected nothing less than to be the one who got all that blame after he was gone.
    “ Mothe r … ” She started, but was quickly interrupted.
    “ It is fine. I am used to being treated like this, Lord knows. When your father was alive we were left alone for so long, I almost forgot what he looked like. At the end of the season, he would come riding up, a big smile on his face as he got out of his truck, babbling about how h e‘ won the west ,’ or some garbage. That ma n… I still do n’ t know how to live without him . ”
    It always shifted, in that manner, first he was a devil and then a saint. But the truth was, he was neither. Just a man, trying to make a living, a legacy.
    Even if that meant leaving his family for a few months and earning on the rodeo. Then setting up shop in a little town among the plains of Ohio while his wife opted to stay in her lake house on the Erie.
    One that he bought her with his winnings.
    “ Mom, the business is doing well. How is the lake ?” Kat hated the lake. The homes were beautiful and so affordable she was able to rent one when she lived there after college, but it was n’ t where she wanted to be. She took every opportunity she could to get back to the lodge, with her father.
    He wanted her to earn her own way, those were his words, and she did that. Right up until the day he died, and left her with so much responsibility.
    “ Oh, the same as ever, you know nothing changes around here. Except for the faces. Roger Kinny passed away last week. Stomach cance r … ” The woman droned on and on about the various comings and goings of people in the area. Weddings, funerals, diagnoses of various ailments. She was a wealth of information about the community, people Kat did n’ t even know very well. So she just nodded into the phone, making various noises that sounded like she was listening. Because she was a good