Cowboy's Kiss Read Online Free PDF Page A

grizzly bear. By the time he’d finished with Linc, Beth and Jackson, any one of them could run the ranch single-handedly. And if this blasted woman wanted to live here, she was going to learn what it was all about, too. From the ground up.
    As Jackson watched coffee as black as coal tar drip into the pot, he realized that the more he thought about putting that mouthy little woman to work, the more the idea appealed to him. Dirt and grime and dust. Manure and chicken droppings. Sweat and blisters and backaches to beat the band.
    Oh, she was in for it. If he had to have her here, he was going to have some fun with it.
    â€œWe’ll just see how long you want to stay when you find out it’s no picnic.”
    No sirree. Sweet little behind or no sweet little behind, he was going to work it right off and relish every minute of it.
    Every single, solitary minute of it.
    And in the meantime, he’d just have to find a way to get the image of that particular backside out of his mind....
    * * *
    After traveling, getting in late, arguing with Jackson Heller and then stewing about it until the wee hours of the morning, Ally slept late. Luckily, so did Meggie, who slipped into her bedroom at eleven and finally woke her.
    â€œI don’t hear anybody else in the house,” the little girl whispered as she climbed onto Ally’s bed.
    â€œJackson had to go somewhere,” Ally told her in a normal voice. “We’ll have the place to ourselves for the day. I thought we could explore, get to know our way around, and then maybe swim after a while.”
    â€œDid you ask if it was okay?”
    â€œOf course it’s okay. We aren’t going to do anything but look around and swim,” Ally answered with a laugh, although she was beginning to wonder if being here at all was okay. Still, she couldn’t show that concern to her daughter. “Go get dressed. I need to call your grandmother and give her the phone number up here. Then we’ll see about something to eat.”
    â€œRemind Grandma to give the number to Daddy if he calls.”
    â€œI will,” Ally assured, biting back the urge to warn her daughter not to get her hopes up. Again. Instead she said, “Make your bed,” and sent Meggie back across the hall.
    Twenty minutes later Ally had left the message on her mother’s answering machine, dressed in her swimming suit, a pair of tennis shorts and a big shirt that covered it all, and had made her own bed.
    Breakfast was just cereal and milk, and while Meggie dawdled over hers, Ally checked out the kitchen.
    Like every room in the house, it was huge, open, airy and more functional than fashionable.
    Navy blue tile made up the countertops and back splashes. White cupboards lined three of the four walls; the matching appliances were all commercial size, though not industrial looking. Only the eight-burner stove and two ovens were stainless steel, but the mammoth cooking center was recessed in a cove all its own and was hardly unsightly.
    In the center of the room was a butcher block large enough to hold a side of beef, and off to one end was a breakfast nook that would easily seat twelve.
    To Ally’s chef’s eye, the place was a dream. Until she opened the cupboards and discovered only rudimentary pots, pans and utensils, and nary a Cuisinart to be found.
    If she stayed she’d have to send for hers.
    If?
    That thought surprised her, for it was the first time she’d seriously doubted that she would make her home here. She’d considered this move permanent. The new beginning she’d promised Meggie and herself. She’d thought it only a matter of time and seeing what she needed and didn’t need up here before she definitely sent for her things.
    The fact that she was hedging now made her realize just how intimidated she’d actually been by Jackson Heller. This was not something she was happy to acknowledge even to herself. And certainly not