Rust Creek Falls Cinderella. Melissa Senate

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ his new silver pickup and got out, the sprawling dark wood ranch house, which literally looked like it was made from Lincoln Logs, making him smile. He loved this place—the house, the land, the hard work to get the ranch the way they wanted. Xander headed in, never knowing who’d be home. Hunter, the second-oldest Crawford (Xander was third born), lived in a cabin on the property. A widower since the birth of his daughter, Hunter and his six-year-old, Wren, needed their own space, but the girl still had five uncles to dote on her. Logan, the eldest, had recently moved to town now that he was married with a baby to raise, but he worked on the ranch, as they all did, so it was almost like he’d never left.

      The place sure had changed since the day they’d arrived. They’d mended fences for miles, repaired outbuildings, cleaned out barns, burned ditches and worked on the main house itself when they had the time and energy. A month later, it was looking good but they had a ways to go.

      He came through the front door into the big house with its wide front hall and grand staircase leading up to a gallery-style landing on the second floor. He saw his dad and three of his brothers up there, going over blueprints, which meant his dad had proposed a change—again—and his sons were trying to talk him out of it. There was many a midnight argument taking place at the Ambling A. When they heard the door close behind him, they all came downstairs.

      “Well, well, if isn’t the knight in shining armor,” Wilder, the youngest of the brothers, said with a grin.

      Xander made a face at Wilder and shook his head, hoping they’d go back to talking blueprints. “Lily is hardly a damsel in distress. She’s very focused on what she wants. She can definitely take care of herself.” The more he thought about her, about what they’d talked about, her plans, her dreams, the more impressed he was.

      Logan smiled. “Sounds like the date switch was a date match. Knox’s loss.”

      Knox wasn’t around. He probably had left to get away from their matchmaking father.

      “So? Was it a love match?” Finn asked. “When’s your next date?”

      Twenty-nine-year-old Finn was the dreamer of the group. He could keep dreaming on this one, because another date wasn’t going to happen.

      Lily was too young. And Xander was too jaded. She’d barely lived, and he was already cynical about love and guarded.

      Xander rolled his eyes. “Get real. She’s twenty-three. C’mon. And very nice.”

      “Ah, he used the kiss-of-death word. Nice,” Wilder said. “Nothing gonna happen there.”

      That settled for the Crawford men, they turned their attention back to the blueprints. Xander scowled as they ducked their heads over the plans, gabbing away as if they didn’t just dismiss a lovely, smart, determined young woman as “nice.”

      Oh, wait. He was the one who’d called her that.

      But his brothers had stamped her forehead with the word, which meant she wasn’t hot or sexy or desirable. All without even laying eyes on her.

      They’d written her off.

       And so did you. You’re the one who put her in the friend zone in the first place.

      His dad came in from the kitchen with a beer. “Ah, Xander, you’re back from the date! Have you already set up a second one?”

      “You don’t even know if we had anything in common, Dad,” Xander said. “Maybe we weren’t attracted to each other.”

      “I just have a feeling,” Max Crawford said with a smile and a tip of his beer at his son. That feeling should tell his father otherwise.

      “I think we’re just meant to be friends, Dad,” Xander said.

      “Meaning she’s not his type,” Wilder threw in. “Xander likes his women with big hair, big breasts, big hips and big giggles. All play, no talk.”

      His brothers cracked up.

      Xander supposed he deserved that. He did like curvy blondes who didn’t delve too deeply and liked to watch rodeos and have sex without expecting much in return other than a nice night out and a call once in a while. But one of those curvy blondes had managed to get inside him and surprise him, and he’d fallen hard, only to find her in bed with his best friend. The betrayal still stung. All these miles away from Texas.

      Max shook his head. “You boys should give ‘not your types’ a chance. You’d be surprised what your supposed type turns out to be.”

      Logan raised an eyebrow. “If I remember correctly, Dad—and I do—it was you who told me that a single mother of a baby was not the woman for me. And she is.”

      “Told you you’d be surprised what your type is,” Max said with a grin.

      Logan threw a rolled-up napkin at his dad and shook his head with a laugh. But last month, Xander had caught wind of some of his father’s arguments with Logan about dating a single mother. Max had hinted that if the relationship didn’t work out, there would be three sad hearts—including a child who didn’t ask to get dragged into the muck. Xander had known his father had to be thinking of his ex-wife and how she’d abandoned them all. Times like that, he forgave his dad for being such a busybody.

      Still, Xander was sticking to his type, but this time, there was no way any woman was getting inside. These days, he was only interested in a good time and he always made that clear.

      Except that hadn’t been clear to Lily Hunt. Oh hell. She’d thought she was going on a date in good faith, that had gotten all messed up, and then he’d stepped in to save the night—and had ended up making it worse. He shook his head at himself. Now he really did want to call her and doubly apologize, but how would that sound?

       Uh, hi, Lily, sorry for making your night go from bad to worse when you actually thought I was leaning in a for kiss.

      Getting stood up by Knox might have been more fun.

      He sighed.

      But maybe Lily was just out for a good time herself? Could it be? She seemed a little too focused and serious-minded for that, though. Still, with her life so set on track, perhaps she just wanted a nice night out and some laughs. It was possible.

      He tried to imagine Lily Hunt, with her freckles and big dreams and flashing green eyes, so full of life, out for a good time, giggling and whispering about what she was going to do to him while raking her nails up his thigh. Frankly, he couldn’t. First of all, her nails had been bitten to the quick. And honestly, he didn’t want to think of her in any way but as a new friend.

      “Well, I need to do some research on the cattle we want to add to the Ambling A,” Xander said. “See y’all in the morning.” He took the steps two at the time, wanting to get away from this conversation.

      Lily wasn’t his type. Plain and simple. And even if she were, he wouldn’t be interested in a relationship. Not anymore. Besides, he had the ranch to concentrate on and a new state to discover, not to mention a new hometown to get to know. That was enough.

      Just let the night go, he told himself.

      Upstairs in his bedroom, he sat at his desk and opened his laptop, fully СКАЧАТЬ