Cowboy Girl Annie Read Online Free PDF Page B

That sweet tooth of hers was making her a weak
human being. She almost felt guilty for taking advantage of
Jake.
     

Chapter 8
     
    In minutes, Jake was back and handed
her a white paper sack. “Let's go sit behind the bakery again. That
way we can rest our backs against the wall.”
    “ Sounds like a plan to me. My back
needs a lot of resting after how hard I fought that cart today.”
Annie pushed her grocery cart over by the wall, parked it and sat
down by Jake.
    She opened the sack and sniffed in
the opening, savoring the delightful smell. “I don't know how I'm
ever going to thank you for treating me so nice. I almost feel like
I died and went to Heaven today, Skinny Jake.
    Twice in one day, I've had doughnuts
to eat. The beauty of it is they aren't the hard as a rock ones
from a dumpster but fresh ones. When I woke up this morning, I
never imagined I'd be this lucky today. I don't usually have good
luck.”
    “ Sorry about that,” Jake
said.
    Annie shrugged. “That's all right.
I'm used to it. Anyway thanks for being so good to me and giving me
all these fresh doughnuts today.”
    Jake grinned. “You're welcome.
That's quite the sweet tooth you have, Cowboy Girl
Annie.”
    “ Reckon I got a sweet tooth for the
likes of you, Jake, you old softy.” Annie smiled at him as she
brought out the doughnut. She opened her mouth to take a bite and
hesitated. A large shadow loomed over her, blocking the
sunlight.
    “ So this is what you're up to today.
Just sitting here on the ground doing nothing. Those doughnuts look
good, you cain't afford to pay for many of those if you don't get
back to work,” said the large man, dominating their personal space.
He had the broad shoulders and the gut of a has been, professional,
football player.
    “ What do you want, Big Ed? Get your
say over with and leave. This is a private party,” Annie
barked.
    “ Now, now. You ought to be friendlier
than that. I’ve been looking all over creation for the two of you.
Just taking a short cut and lucky me, I find two of the hardest
working rummagers just sitting here like they don't need to work
anymore today.” He glanced at Jake's bulging canvas knapsack and
Annie's shopping cart. “Looks like you've had a good morning on the
hunt anyway.”
    “ For your information, that shopping
cart took me days of hunting to fill. That was a lot of hard work
when my old cart has a wheel that keeps freezing up,” Annie replied
in an icy voice.
    “ Same here. A lot of work and sweat
went into finding what I got in my knapsack and toting it around
takes a lot of effort,” Jake agreed.
    “ I'll repeat, what you want with us,
Big Ed?” Cowboy Girl Annie snapped.
    Big Ed lit a cigar and puffed as if
he had all day to answer her. Finally after he blew out a few puffs
of cigar smoke, Big Ed said, “I just wanted to pass some news along
to both of you. I've been telling folks about this protection
business I’ve started.
    See, the way it works is, you give
me half of your finds every day, and I keep anyone from stealing
your loot,” Big Ed said casual like as if their joining his
protection business was his way of just doing them a
favor.
    “ Besides you that is,” growled Annie.
“Don't sound like much of a deal to me no matter who steals our
loot. Someone else or you.”
    Big Ed's face turned beet red as he
glared at her with his fists on his hips.
    “ Annie, maybe we best hear Big Ed
out,” hissed Jake, staring at Big Ed's three henchmen giving them
the evil eye. He whispered out of the side of his mouth into her
ear, “Don’t make the big bruiser mad, or he'll set those mean goons
on us.”
    Big Ed was still concentrating on
Annie. “I don’t like the sass I just heard from you, woman. I don't
want anymore of your lip.” The big man leaned over and slapped the
doughnut from Annie’s hand to emphasize his point.
    Annie watched her fresh, delicious
treat roll away like a miniature, runaway car tire. It sickened her
to see dirt adhere to