Cowboy Country. Linda Lael Miller

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СКАЧАТЬ for the night—he was—and headed for the cabin.

      Brody flipped on the lights and went straight to his computer to log on.

      While he was doing that, Barney drank loudly from his water bowl on the floor and then curled up on his dog-bed to catch up on his sleep.

      Once he got online, Brody skipped his email—he often went days without checking it—and called up his favorite search engine instead.

      Hunt-and-peck style, he typed Friendly Faces.

      Something like ten thousand links came up.

      He narrowed the search to dating services, blushing a little even though nobody was ever, by God, going to find out he’d stooped to such a lame-assed thing.

      There it was, the website Carolyn evidently hoped would land her a husband.

      Brody’s back teeth ground slightly; he released his jawbones by deliberate effort.

      Finding her took some doing, but eventually, Brody came across Carolyn’s profile. She was calling herself Carol, he soon discovered.

      For some reason, that made him feel a little better.

      He decided to send her a message.

      To do that, he had to sign up for the free trial membership, which was very much against his better judgment.

      Having no stock alias to fall back on, as Carolyn evidently did, he used his own name. Since he didn’t keep pictures of himself on hand, he uploaded a snapshot of Moonshine instead.

      That made him grin. According to Kim, no self-respecting woman would take up with a cowboy unless she’d seen his horse.

      He completed the few remaining cybersteps, and the way was finally clear: he could send Carolyn a message.

      Right off, Brody hit a wall. Now that he’d gone to all that trouble, he couldn’t think of a darn thing to say.

      Feeling mildly beleaguered, he sighed, sat back in his chair, frowning at the screen as if something might materialize there if he concentrated hard enough.

      Well, slick, he taunted himself silently, where’s all that smooth talk and country charm you’ve always relied on?

      Brody sighed again. Rubbed his chin pensively.

      This was ridiculous.

      A simple howdy ought to do, even if there was some bad blood between him and Carolyn.

      Only howdy wasn’t going to pack it.

      “For a good time, call Brody” sprang to mind next, and was mercifully discarded.

      He decided on Hope you feel better, and he was tapping that in when the instant message popped up.

      Hello, stranger, Joleen wrote. What luck to catch you online—is there a blue moon or something? Anyway, I wanted to give you a heads-up—I’ll be back in Lonesome Bend in a few days.

      Brody went still. And cold.

      Joleen had hit the road weeks ago, swearing she’d stay away for good this time.

      “Shit,” he muttered. Timing, like luck, was never so bad that it couldn’t get worse.

      Hello? Joleen cyber-nudged.

      Hi, he responded.

      Joleen was faster on the draw, when it came to keyboards. I was hoping I could stay at your place. Mom and Dad have room, but they’re not too pleased with me these days.

      Brody let out a ragged breath. Sorry, he wrote back, using only the tip of his right index finger. Quarters are too tight for a visitor.

      Still mad over that little spat we had? Joleen inquired, adding a row of face icons with tears gushing from their eyes.

      It isn’t that, Brody replied laboriously.

      Joleen’s reply came like greased lightning. Are you dumping me, Brody Creed?

      Brody sighed again, dug out his cell phone and speed-dialed Joleen’s number.

      “Hello?” Joleen purred, like she couldn’t imagine who’d be calling little old her.

      “I just think it’s time we called it quits,” Brody said, seeing no reason to bother with a preamble. “The sleeping-together thing, I mean.”

      “So you are dumping me!” Joleen chimed. To her credit, she sounded cheerful, rather than hurt. One thing about Joleen—she was a good sport.

      “Okay,” Brody said. “Have it your way.”

      “If I had things my way,” Joleen immediately retorted, “we’d be married by now. With a bunch of kids.”

      Brody closed his eyes. He could envision the kids all too clearly, but they were all dead ringers for Carolyn, not Joleen.

      “We had a deal,” he reminded Joleen gruffly. “We agreed from the first that we wouldn’t get serious.”

      Joleen laughed, but the sound had a bitter edge to it. “So it’s finally happened,” she said, after a lengthy silence. “Some filly has you roped in, thrown down and hog-tied.”

      “Nice image,” Brody said, without inflection. “And for your information—not that I owe you an explanation, because I sure as hell don’t—nothing has happened.”

      “Right,” Joleen scoffed. “Well, I’m coming back anyway. If you get lonely, I’ll be at my folks’ house, trying to convince them that I’m a good girl after all.”

      “Good luck with that one,” Brody said, sensing a letup in the tension, however slight. He’d never loved Joleen, and they’d had some wild fights in their time, but he liked her. Wanted her to be happy.

      “You and me,” Joleen mused, surprising him with the depth of the insight that came next, “we pretty much just use each other to keep everybody else at a safe distance, don’t we?”

      “Yeah,” Brody agreed presently. “I think that’s what we’ve been doing, all right.”

      “Huh,” Joleen said decisively, as though she’d come to some conclusion.

      “And it’s time we both moved on,” Brody added. You go your way, and I’ll go mine.

      “Just tell me who she is,” Joleen urged.

      “There isn’t a specific she, Joleen.”

      “The hell there isn’t, Brody Creed. I know you, remember? You’ve been on this path for a while now, coming back to Lonesome Bend, making up with Conner and Kim and Davis, building a house—” She made a moist sound then and, for one terrible moment, Brody feared Joleen was either already crying or about to. “Silly me,” she finally went on. “I thought all that talk about not getting too serious was just that—talk. We go way back, Brody.”

      Brody СКАЧАТЬ