The Texan's Engagement Agreement. Noelle Marchand

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       Chapter Two

      Chris’s gaze continued to search his father’s for any indication that he was in pain or short of breath. Olan hated the worry his heart condition added to the family. This wouldn’t be the first time he’d tried to downplay one his heart episodes with a distraction. Olan was flushed, but it only seemed to be with excitement, so Chris reluctantly allowed his attention to be drawn elsewhere.

      It landed on the woman standing just in front of his father. A hat dipped low over her right eye. Yet it did little to hide the perfection of her slightly turned-up nose, the rosy blush racing across her high cheekbones or the sweet curves of her bow-shaped lips. She was beautiful. She was familiar. She was achingly familiar.

      He caught her chin, tilted her face upward and got lost in her light green eyes. “Adelaide.”

      A fleeting smile touched her lips. “Hello, Chris.”

      Silence filled the air. He released her. His words came out as more of a growl than a greeting. “What are you doing here?”

      Olan slapped Chris’s back just hard enough to knock some sense into him. “Son, is that any way to greet your fiancée?”

      Time slowed. Chris saw Adelaide turn toward his father. He knew exactly what was going to happen. The truth was going to come out. He could almost see the disbelief, the shock, the disappointment on his father’s face. His imagination went even further until he saw Olan’s face whiten, his hand covering his heart as he sank to his knees in pain. Chris couldn’t let that happen. Instinctively, Chris reached for Adelaide. He caught her by the arms, tugged her toward his chest, then stifled whatever she’d been planning to say with a quick, ardent kiss.

      All it took was one slow blink of her long lashes for the dazed look in her eyes to change to pure fire. She opened her mouth to say something rude and incriminating so he kissed her again—gently this time. For a second he feared she’d pull away. Instead, she responded hesitantly by lifting her chin. Her fingers tentatively touched the nape of his neck, then slid into his hair. Suddenly, he was the one who was distracted. It wasn’t just by her kiss, either. It was the wisp of a dream that came with it, the vision of what could have been if she hadn’t rejected him.

      But she had—soundly and irrevocably with little explanation and no warning. He’d do well to remember that.

      His father clamped a hand on Chris’s shoulder, no doubt to remind him that they had a store filled with gaping customers. “Why don’t you two take a walk and sort some things out?”

      By “some things” Chris was certain Olan meant a wedding date. In response, Chris gave a quick wave and a nod on the way to the front door. He didn’t have time to do anything else because Adelaide wasn’t going to stay quiet for long. He barely managed to tug her outside, then into the nearby alley beside the mercantile, before she whirled and punched him in the shoulder. “Have you lost your ever-loving mind?”

      He winced more at her yelling than the blow. Realizing they needed a bit more distance from the street for privacy’s sake, he grabbed her hand and dragged her around to the back of the building. Placing his hands on the wall beside her waist, he caged her in and waited for the lambasting to stop. She’d lost her hat and a few tendrils of her auburn hair had tumbled loose to gleam in the sunlight. She distracted him from the temptation to smooth them back into place by pushing at his chest. It didn’t move him an inch. Her eyes flashed in frustration. “What were you thinking?”

      Realizing she’d finally taken a breath, he tilted his head and lifted a brow. “You know, all of this indignation would be a lot more convincing if you hadn’t kissed me back.”

      She froze. A blush suffused her cheeks. Her eyes met his, then narrowed. Her gaze drifted to his mouth. From the look on her face, he wasn’t sure if she was going to kiss him again or slap him. He figured a distraction was in order. “Adelaide, what are you doing here?”

      To his relief, she calmed down enough to lean against the building though she continued to glare. “My stepfather had business in town.”

      “How long are you staying?” He forced the words out, not wanting to acknowledge that a small part of him had hoped she’d come back intending to fulfill her promise to marry him. Not that he would have agreed to anything that ludicrous. Trusting her with his heart would be akin to trusting Billy the Kid to look after the Johansen’s cash drawer.

      “We’re leaving on the next train.” Her gaze turned searching yet guarded. “Why did you kiss me?”

      “I couldn’t let you tell my pa that you weren’t my fiancée anymore. He still thinks... Well, my whole family, except for Sophia, still believes that you and I are planning to get married eventually. I never told them we—you broke off our engagement.”

      “Then this is the perfect opportunity to do so.” She tried to dislodge his hand from the wall СКАЧАТЬ