Her Cowboy Dilemma. C.J. Carmichael

Чтение книги онлайн.

      Chapter Three

      It wasn’t true. Farley wasn’t the last man on earth she’d want to be with. But she had told him he was. One minute before leaving the dance she’d gone to as his date—on the arm of another man.

      At least, she’d tried to leave with another guy. Oddly enough, she couldn’t remember the name of that other guy anymore. But she did recall that she’d been the one to ask him to dance. With Farley on the sidelines, silent and angry, they’d danced an entire set together before she’d convinced the other guy that he wanted to drive her home.

      They’d left the dance floor arm in arm. But Farley, in a voice that was not open to negotiation, had stepped in at that point. “You came to the dance with me. I’m damn well seeing you home safely.”

      The other guy had stepped aside hastily then, no doubt having assessed Farley’s size and the girth of his biceps, and decided he liked the current shape of his nose just fine, thank you very much.

      Cassidy had endured a fifteen-minute drive in Farley’s truck during which time not a single word was spoken. When they’d pulled up to the ranch house, he’d been out of the truck so fast that he had her door open before she’d even located the lever to do it herself. With his arms crossed over his broad chest, he’d stood watching until she was safely inside her home. Only then had he driven away.

      And he’d pretty much never spoken to her since then.

      Did she blame him? No.

      Was she embarrassed for the way she’d acted? Hell, yes.

      The truth was, she never should have accepted his invitation to the dance in the first place. But he’d caught her off guard in the Lonesome Spur Bar on the night of her twenty-first birthday. She’d been out having her first legal drink with a group of friends when he caught her eye and crossed the room.

      She’d been ridiculously excited. Farley was older, hot and sooo handsome. And suddenly he had noticed her, too.

      “Is it true?” he’d asked her, dark eyes smoldering with an emotion she’d never seen in them before. “Pretty Cassidy Lambert is no longer jailbait?”

      “I stopped being jailbait a long time ago,” she’d announced with a voice full of sass and vinegar. That didn’t mean she wasn’t quaking inside. She’d assumed Farley was completely out of her league. But now he was finally seeing her as someone other than his friends’ annoying little sister.

      He’d asked her to the Harvest Dance being held in the community hall the next evening. She’d accepted. And then all it had taken was one dance in his arms and she’d panicked.

      Simple as that.

      “Is it too late for me to apologize for my behavior that night? I was just a kid.”

      “No.” Farley placed a hand on the desk. “If you’d still been a kid, I wouldn’t have gone near you.”

      “I suppose that’s true. But I was young.”

      “It wasn’t the classiest move I’ve ever seen, Cass. But it was honest. You always were one for knowing what you wanted.” He paused, then added pointedly, “And what you didn’t.”

      She stared at him mutely. How could he talk as if he knew her so well, when she, herself, had never quite figured out why she’d acted the way she had that night? She hadn’t been then, and wasn’t now, a man-crazy sort of woman who liked to go on lots of dates and play one guy off another.

      “I should get going. I’ve got another call to make before I head back to my office. You’re clear on how to handle the strangles?”

      She nodded, not bothering to point out that he’d only eaten one of her mother’s sandwiches. She guessed that her company wasn’t conducive to a good appetite on his part. She’d been so wrong to think that talking about that night would clear the air between them or ease her guilty conscience.

      If СКАЧАТЬ