Christmas Cowboy: Will of Steel / Winter Roses. Diana Palmer

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ you say so.”

      “I do!”

      He loved to wind her up and watch the explosion. She was so full of life, so enthusiastic about everything new. He enjoyed being with her. There were all sorts of places he could take her. He was thinking ahead. Far ahead.

      “You’re smirking,” she accused. “What are you thinking about?”

      “I was just remembering how excited you get about new things,” he confessed. “I was thinking of places we could go together.”

      “You were?” she asked, surprised. And flattered.

      He smiled at her. “I’ve never dated anybody regularly,” he said. “I mean, I’ve had dates. But this is different.” He searched for a way to put into words what he was thinking.

      “You mean, because we’re sort of being forced into it by the wills.”

      He frowned. “No. That’s not what I mean.” He stopped at an intersection and glanced her way. “I haven’t had regular dates with a woman I’ve known well for years and years,” he said after a minute. “Somebody I like.”

      She beamed. “Oh.”

      He chuckled as he pulled out onto the long highway that led to Billings. “We’ve had our verbal cut-and-thrust encounters, but despite that sharp tongue, I enjoy being with you.”

      She laughed. “It’s not that sharp.”

      “Not to me. I understand there’s a former customer of the florist shop where you worked who could write a testimonial for you about your use of words in a free-for-all.”

      She flushed and fiddled with her purse. “He was obnoxious.”

      “Actually they said he was just trying to ask you out.”

      “It was the way he went about it,” she said curtly. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a man talk to me like that in my whole life.”

      “I don’t think he’ll ever use the same language to any other woman, if it’s a consolation.” He teased. “So much for his inflated ego.”

      “He thought he was irresistible,” she muttered. “Bragging about his fast new car and his dad’s bank balance, and how he could get any woman he wanted.” Her lips set. “Well, he couldn’t get this one.”

      “Teenage boys have insecurities,” he said. “I can speak with confidence on that issue, because I used to be one myself.” He glanced at her with twinkling black eyes. “They’re puff adders.”

      She blinked. “Excuse me?”

      “I’ve never seen one myself, but I had a buddy in the service who was from Georgia. He told me about them. They’re these snakes with insecurities.”

      She burst out laughing. “Snakes with insecurities?”

      He nodded. “They’re terrified of people. So if humans come too close to them, they rise up on their tails and weave back and forth and blow out their throats and start hissing. You know, imitating a cobra. Most of the time, people take them at face value and run away.”

      “What if people stand their ground and don’t run?”

      He laughed. “They faint.”

       “They faint? ”

      He nodded. “Dead away, my buddy said. He took a friend home with him. They were walking through the fields when a puff adder rose up and did his act for the friend. The guy was about to run for it when my buddy walked right up to the snake and it fainted dead away. I hear his family is still telling the story with accompanying sound effects and hilarity.”

      “A fainting snake.” She sighed. “What I’ve missed, by spending my whole life in Montana. I wouldn’t have known any better, either, though. I’ve never seen a cobra.”

      “They have them in zoos,” he pointed out.

      “I’ve never been to a zoo.”

      “What?”

      “Well, Billings is a long way from Hollister and I’ve never had a vehicle I felt comfortable about getting there in.” She grimaced. “This is a very deserted road, most of the time. If I broke down, I’d worry about who might stop to help me.”

      He gave her a covert appraisal. She was such a private person. She kept things to herself. Remembering her uncle and his weak heart, he wasn’t surprised that she’d learned to do that.

      “You couldn’t talk to your uncle about most things, could you, Jake?” he wondered out loud.

      “Not really,” she agreed. “I was afraid of upsetting him, especially after his first heart attack.”

      “So you learned to keep things to yourself.”

      “I pretty much had to. I’ve never had close girlfriends, either.”

      “Most of the girls your age are married and have kids, except the ones who went into the military or moved to cities.”

      She nodded. “I’m a throwback to another era, when women lived at home until they married. Gosh, the world has changed,” she commented.

      “It sure has,” he agreed. “When I was a boy, television sets were big and bulky and in cabinets. Now they’re so thin and light that people can hang them on walls. And my iPod does everything a television can do, right down to playing movies and giving me news and weather.”

      She frowned. “That wasn’t what I meant, exactly.”

      He raised his eyebrows.

      “I mean, that women seem to want careers and men in volume.”

      He cleared his throat.

      “That didn’t come out right.” She laughed self-consciously. “It just seems to me that women are more like the way men used to be. They don’t want commitment. They have careers and they live with men. I heard a newscaster say that marriage is too retro a concept for modern people.”

      “There have always been people who lived out of the mainstream, Jake,” he said easily. “It’s a choice.”

      “It wouldn’t be mine,” she said curtly. “I think people should get married and stay married and raise children together.”

      “Now that’s a point of view I like.”

      She studied him curiously. “Do you want kids?”

      He smiled. “Of course. Don’t you?”

      She averted her eyes. “Well, yes. Someday.”

      He sighed. “I keep forgetting how young you are. You haven’t really had time to live yet.”

      “You mean, get fascinated with microscopes and move to New York City,” she said СКАЧАТЬ