Wild Texas Rose Read Free Page A

… “
    “Sonny Pogue, if your mama could hear you now!” Sue Ellen scolded.
    “Don’t you bring my mama into this.” Sonny sniffed and rubbed his sleeve across his nose.
    “She’d be ashamed,” Sue Ellen said.
    Sonny sniffed again, and subsided. But not for long. Nothing could subdue Sonny for long — he was too vulgar to sustain a snub. “Say, Rose, that stallion you rode here. That Goliath. He’s a pretty horse, but too big for a lady to ride. I’d take him off your hands for three hundred dollars.”
    Behind his back, Sue Ellen laughed silently, then winked at Rose. “That’s real neighborly of you, Sonny. Especially since Bubba Von Hoffman offered five hundred already.”
    “What?” Sonny huffed like the steam engine that rolled over the new Texas and New Orleans Railroad. “He’s throwing his money around.”
    “He likes what I’ve done with my breeding program,” Rose answered coolly.
    “But I’m your … we’re your friends,” Sonny whined.
    “When my daddy bought me those stallions twelve years ago, everyone laughed. You laughed hardest, Sonny.” Rose descended the last steps to the ground. “I’m not giving you Goliath.”
    “I’ll say five hundred dollars.”
    “I’m not selling him. To anybody. Goliath is my horse, as I am his master. We know each others’ minds and hearts, and he’ll allow no one else on his back.” Sonny had mined the bedrock of her resolution, and he seemed to recognize it, for he backed up. Allowing herself a smile, Rose said, “But I’ve got one of his foals I’m beginning to break — as pretty a mare as I’ve ever seen. Sue Ellen would look mighty elegant on her.”
    Sonny stopped, and his eyes narrowed. “Mares aren’t worth as much as stallions.”
    “Starbright is the first foal off that English chestnut mare you admired last time you were out at my place.”
    “Don’t have the money to be throwing around on a horse for Sue Ellen.”
    “That’s true.” Rose nodded judiciously.
    “That’s funny. Rose told me that Royal Lewis said the same thing,” Sue Ellen said, lying through her teeth.
    “Yes, until he saw … “ Rose tried frantically to finish the tale, but telling falsehoods was no talent of hers. Lamely, she finished, “ … you’re not interested in that.”
    She strolled toward the stable and heard Sonny’s boots as they struck the stairs behind her. “Wait a minute. Just a minute. What did Royal Lewis do?”
    Rose halted, started again, halted, providing enough tension to set the hook, yet not knowing what to do with the fish she’d landed.
    But Sue Ellen knew. She moved to the edge of the porch and wrapped her pale, soft hands around the rail. “Why, he bought one of Rose’s mares for his wife to ride. Ana Marie Lewis has been gloating no end, but I told her to nevermind. I told her my husband didn’t have the time or the money for such frivolities. I told her—”
    Breathing heavily, he yelled, “Damn it, Sue Ellen! You told her a damn sight too much. Just like a woman.”
    Sue Ellen shrugged her shoulders in a coquettish, well-practiced gesture. “If you can’t hunt with the big dogs, Sonny, stay on the porch. Royal Lewis made a wagon load of money on his cattle this year.”
    Belligerent, Sonny insisted, “No more than me!”
    “And he can afford to pay four hundred twenty-five dollars for a good horse for his wife. So don’t you go bragging you’re worth so much when you can’t ante up.”
    “Four hundred twenty-five dollars.” Obviously, Sonny hadn’t heard a word beyond the price. “Four hundred twenty-five dollars. For a horse. For my wife.”
    Sue Ellen had him headed right in the direction she intended, and now she went in for the kill. “For me?”
    “What?”
    Sonny started to straighten, but she reached out and massaged his beefy shoulders. “You’ll buy Starbright for me?”
    “Now, Sue Ellen … “
    “Oh, Sonny.” Clasping her hands, Sue Ellen leaned over the rail and gave him a clear