Heart of Texas Volume 1: Lonesome Cowboy. Debbie Macomber

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СКАЧАТЬ “His truck broke down, and, um, I’ve offered him a job.”

      A second of shocked silence followed. “You what?”

      The anger Grady had shown earlier paled in comparison to the fury that blazed in his eyes now. Savannah didn’t acknowledge his outburst. “Dinner’s in the Crock-Pot. Chili verde, your favorite.”

      Grady stared at her, his mouth hanging open, as if he didn’t recognize her as his sister.

      “I’ll have everything ready and on the table in ten minutes. Grady, would you be kind enough to show Laredo to the bunkhouse and ask Wiley to wash up?”

      “This is Wiley’s poker night,” Grady muttered. “But I—”

      “So it is,” she said, and headed up the porch steps and into the kitchen. Her heart pounced like a prairie rabbit’s at the approach of a hawk’s shadow. “Then there’ll just be the three of us.”

      It didn’t take her long to set the table for dinner. When she heard the door swing open, she squared her shoulders, and turned to greet her brother and Laredo with a wide smile. “I hope you two had a chance to introduce yourselves.”

      “We didn’t get around to exchanging pleasantries,” Grady snarled.

      “Laredo, I hope you’ll forgive my brother,” she said, placing the warm tortillas on a plate. “It’s clear he isn’t in one of his more cordial moods.”

      “Your brother?” The words slipped from Laredo’s lips in a low whisper of surprise.

      “The two of us are equal partners in the Yellow Rose Ranch,” she said as a subtle way of reminding Grady that she’d had every right to hire Laredo.

      Still grumbling under his breath, Grady pulled out a chair and reached for the blue-checked napkin.

      “Can I help you with anything, Savannah?” Laredo asked, looking around for something to do.

      “There’s a cold pitcher of lemonade in the refrigerator,” she said, hoping Grady realized it wouldn’t hurt him any to lend her a hand now and then. She tried not to be judgmental of her brother, but lately he’d grown so cranky and irritable. It was more than their perpetual money problems, she suspected, but whatever plagued him, he kept to himself. Savannah wished he’d be more open with her, share his troubles, but that wasn’t Grady’s way. Like their father he kept everything locked inside, preferring to carry the burden of his problems alone. Once again she wished he’d think about marriage. She had the perfect woman in mind.

      * * *

      Grady Weston was furious with his sister. He didn’t know what had come over her. It wasn’t like her to openly defy him, nor had he ever known her to pick up a hitchhiker. And never, not once in all these years, had she taken an active role in the management of the ranch. Yet in one single day, his levelheaded younger sister had not only gone against his express orders, she’d gone and hired him additional help. A stranger, no less!

      Grady wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, heard it with his own ears. Savannah wasn’t herself. He frowned at Laredo Smith, instinctively distrusting him. One look told Grady the saddle bum was an outsider, a drifter. Not to be trusted. Yet Savannah had invited the man into their home and their lives like a long-lost relative—and offered him employment. The problem with Savannah could be reduced to one simple explanation. She couldn’t see the bad in people. She was just too damn trusting.

      In spite of that, Grady had often admired Savannah for her common sense. But from all appearances, she’d lost every shred of good judgment she’d ever possessed. All within the space of a single day.

      “I can’t remember when I’ve tasted better chili,” Laredo said, serving himself a second helping when Savannah passed him the bowl.

      She lowered her gaze and Grady watched, amazed as color seeped into her cheeks. “I appreciate the compliment, but Nell Bishop’s the one who deserves the credit. It’s her recipe.”

      “My compliments to Nell, then, and to you, too.”

      Savannah’s blush deepened. If it wasn’t so pathetic, Grady might have rolled his eyes. The town was full of men who were interested in Savannah, but she hadn’t given one of them a lick of encouragement. Not a one. Then she happens on a complete stranger who doesn’t look like he’s got two dimes to call his own and she practically faints because he compliments her cooking!

      Grady shoved his plate aside, appetite gone. His day had gone poorly. A calf had died after a desperate struggle to save its life, and he wasn’t sure the mother was going to make it, either. He’d had the vet out, and they’d done everything they could, but it didn’t look promising. If that wasn’t bad enough, he’d found a break in the fence line. Luckily he’d been able to repair it before any of the herd had escaped.

      The problems never ended. Day in and day out, he faced one crisis after another, each one heaped on top of all the others. He didn’t know what it was to laugh anymore, didn’t know what it was to spend a night in town drinking with his buddies. Hell, he couldn’t even remember the last time he’d kissed a woman. In six years his life had boiled down to two things—work and worry.

      It seemed a million years ago that he’d been young and carefree. Everything had changed for him—and for Savannah—in the course of an afternoon. The life he’d lived before they lost their parents was little more than a vague memory.

      After a day like this the last thing he needed was for the one constant, the one sane sensible person in his life, to lose her bearings. Go loco on him. Grady glanced at Savannah and he felt his heart twist with sorrow, frustration, guilt. His sister was as lovely as those roses she cared so much about. She was still young and pretty, although she didn’t appear to realize that.

      Grady hadn’t saved the ranch all on his own, nor was he the only one who’d dedicated his life to building back everything they’d lost. He couldn’t have done it without her. Savannah had found a hundred ways to encourage him, lighten his load, and he didn’t thank her nearly enough.

      Regret settled in the pit of his stomach. He shouldn’t have laid into her the way he had when she got home, but damn it all, he’d been worried sick. It wasn’t like her to disappear and not tell him where she was going. In the past she’d always been conscientious about that, and with good reason.

      Even though the risk of her encountering danger was slim, an accident could always happen. It had to his mother and father. Caught in a flash flood, they’d been swept away in a matter of moments and drowned. Never would he forget the day Sheriff Frank Hennessey had come to deliver the tragic news. So it wasn’t that Grady didn’t trust Savannah, but her disappearance that afternoon had brought back memories he wished he could forget.

      But it was more than the memory of his parents’ accident that had distressed him. For three or four months now his sister had been asking him about the ghost town. In the beginning he’d answered her questions and hadn’t given her curiosity much thought, but when she persisted, he’d asked her a few questions of his own. That was when she mentioned the old roses. Damn fool woman was willing to risk her neck over something as...as unimportant as flowers. If that didn’t beat all, he didn’t know what did.

      Grady had warned her plenty, not that it’d done any good. Hell, he couldn’t have found the abandoned frontier town again had he tried. The one and only time he’d ever stepped foot in Bitter СКАЧАТЬ