Cowboy's Kiss Read Online Free PDF

something she’d give in to.
    â€œLet’s take a look outside,” she suggested to Meggie then, as if familiarizing themselves with the place would remind her that she’d come here intent on making this more than just a lark she could be scared away from.
    The house itself was a two-story H-shaped structure built like a mountain cabin of split logs and mortar. Within the rear arms of that H began what yawned into four hundred square feet of brick-paved patio with enough tables, lawn chairs and loungers to service a large garden party.
    There was also a net hammock to one side and an enormous bricked-in barbecue with a pit next to it that Ally warned Meggie to stay away from when she suffered a mother’s paranoid vision of her child falling into it.
    Beyond the patio was the pool, predictably as large as any public one around. To the east was the former bunkhouse Beth had pointed out the night before from the sliding doors off the kitchen. She’d explained that after some quick and extensive remodeling, it had been turned into the home she and her Native American husband had moved into only in the past few days.
    Beside that was a much smaller house Ally imagined was a guest cottage, and—at some distance farther out—there was a barn, a pigsty, an extensive chicken coop, several paddocks where a number of horses grazed peacefully, and a windmill that turned eagerly against the hot breeze that was blowing as Ally and Meggie headed in that direction.
    The main house, the cottage, the patio and pool and even the renovated bunkhouse could have been on any highbrow estate playing at being rustic without actually accomplishing it. But the barn and everything around it, though well tended, left no doubt that this was a working ranch. And in the temperatures of that late August day, the smells that greeted them let them know it for sure.
    â€œP-yew,” Meggie said as they approached the barn, its great doors open wide.
    â€œAnimals and the scents that go with them on a sweltering summer day,” Ally informed.
    â€œCamp wasn’t like this.”
    The camp her daughter referred to was one they’d just spent two months at before coming here—another of Ally’s attempts to raise Meggie’s spirits. Ally had accepted a job as the camp cook in order for Meggie to be able to go while Shag’s will was in probate.
    â€œWe were in the mountains where it was a whole lot cooler and we never really got near the stables. The horses were always brought to us, remember?”
    But before they headed into the barn where a long center separated a dozen stalls on either side, Meggie spotted a filly in the adjoining paddock and veered off in that direction, apparently forgetting her complaint about nature’s odors.
    They spent nearly two hours on that area of the property, going from horses to cows to pigs to chickens to goats, as if they were at the zoo. When they finally did check out the barn, they even happened upon a box in one corner where a mother cat and four kittens had residence.
    By that time Meggie had brightened somewhat and stopped shooting furtive glances around as if they were thieves in the night who might be caught at any moment, even though they never saw anyone at all.
    And when her daughter dropped to her knees to play with the kittens, for just a moment Ally had a brief glimpse of the little girl Meggie had been before the divorce. It reminded her why they’d come here and gave her a renewed sense of determination not to let Jackson or his threats frighten her off.
    Back at the house Ally made sandwiches while Meggie fretted over their eating Jackson’s food. Ally assured her that, as soon as Shag’s son got home, she would discuss with him providing for her and Meggie’s share of things like that.
    Then Ally filled two glasses with ice and tea, and took it all outside onto the patio, where they passed what was left of the afternoon.
    Only as it