Desperado: Deep in the Heart, Book 2 Read Online Free PDF

hold a candle to Shiloh. Obviously, he had his work cut out for him, as he watched Stormy tug on Cody’s arm so that he had to lower his hand. Before the big rancher figured out what she wanted, she nipped a bite off his ice cream. Startled, Cody laughed out loud at her audacity.
    Tate wasn’t sure he’d ever heard the grim-faced rancher laugh before. Well, maybe the night Tate had run into Cody’s parked tractor. Cody hadn’t laughed about that, of course. He’d laughed watching Tate fall out of his car into cow muck. Sanctimonious son of a bitch had told Tate it served him right for drinking and driving.
    He didn’t figure Cody would laugh if someone helped Stormy see what Shiloh had going for it that Desperado lacked. The two of them walked toward the rides, and Tate cursed meanly.
    Way too cozy, he told himself. Gotta do something about that.

Chapter Three
    “I had a good time. Thanks, Cody, and Mary, fortaking me to the fair.”
    Cody nodded at her.
    “Bye, Stormy,” Mary said.
    Stormy got out of the truck and closed the door. Cody watched her walk into the Stagecoach Inn lobby before pulling out of the small parking lot.
    “I wish I was like her,” Mary said on a sigh.
    “What for?” Cody glanced at his niece sharply.
    “Well, she’s fun, for one thing.” Mary stared at him with big eyes. “You and Mom and Zach work so hard that you’re not—”
    “Much fun?” He turned his attention to the road.
    “Yeah. I mean I know you have to work hard, but sometimes I wish everyone wasn’t so serious.” She sighed deeply, with all the drama of a wistful teenager. “Mom and Zach have been extra-busy lately planning for the restaurant Mom wants to open.”
    “There’s a difference between playing and working, Mary. Life can’t be all play.”
    “Stormy’s having fun doing her work.”
    He stopped himself from saying that he didn’t consider making pictures to be work. Not honest, hard work, anyway. Then he gritted his teeth, realizing that he hadn’t known he’d felt that way. Whether he liked what Stormy did for a living or not, she was working, and it didn’t matter whether it measured up to his standards.
    “It’s different, Mary. I like what I do, your mom likes what she does, and Stormy, I guess, likes what she does.”
    “I want to be like her when I grow up,” Mary repeated. “I’m going to dress like her, too.”
    “That’ll please your mother.” Cody couldn’t help the sarcasm in his tone.
    “You don’t sound like you like Stormy very much, Uncle Cody.”
    He sort of did, he sort of didn’t. How was that for sitting on the fence? “She’s fine.”
    “Well, you think she’s nice.”
    He glanced at Mary for a second. “Nice enough.”
    “And you think she’s funny.”
    “Funny ha-ha and funny strange.” That he knew for sure.
    “You sure were laughing a lot with her.” Mary peered at him. “You have to like her. How can somebody you don’t like make you laugh that much?”
    “I don’t want to talk about it anymore,” he informed his inquisitive niece grumpily.
    “Gosh.” Mary sighed. “That’s what adults always say.” She suddenly gave him an impish smile. “Did you know you open your mouth real wide when you laugh hard, kind of like a puppet?”
    “No, damn it, I didn’t,” Cody replied, not catching the swear word before it popped out.
    “Well, you do.” Mary looked out the window. “I wish I was all grown up, Uncle Cody.”
    “Ah…ahem.” He cleared his throat and wondered what to say to his brother’s daughter. She wanted guidance and steering on the shifting sands of pre-adulthood. No light of intuition struck him. “It’ll happen soon enough, ladybug.”
    “I guess so.” She sighed heavily. “My friends were mean to me tonight. They said I dress like a child.”
    He looked at her in surprise. “I think you look nice.” She did, to his mind. She was wearing shorts, bobby socks, and a cap-sleeve top. Her waist-length black hair was in