His Heart to Have (Cowboys of Whispering Winds) Read Online Free PDF Page B

to foot; she was still nervous. 
    “Check the lobby office. Today’s the day the vendor is coming to follow up the new guest reservations and marketing system you set up,” Mrs. Callahan told her.
    “Oh no!” Allie exclaimed.  “How could I forget about that?  He’ll be here in a half hour.” She looked toward Jase with her eyes asking “what do we do now” look?
    “He rescheduled for this afternoon, but your mom wanted to go over the features again in case she had any further questions or confusion,” his mom answered before he could think of something.  Thank goodness, because Jase didn’t want to postpone this announcement. 
    “I’ll be right back,” Allie said and ran out the door, presumably to find her parents.  Jase debated following her but elected to stay back.  They’d be together soon enough.
    Ten minutes later he sat in his father’s office with beads of sweat on his neck, despite the brisk, late spring temperatures and cool breeze blowing through the opened window. Doubts assailed him, causing him to call himself every kind of a fool for going along with this. When Allie first claimed she didn’t see this as a real marriage, he should have ended it there. Instead, he was about to jump headfirst into a pot of boiling water.
    The door opened, and Frank Tyndale walked through, escorting his wife, with Allie right behind them.  Speculative looks passed between the parents. Inevitably, Jase wondered if they already guessed why they’d been summoned.
    “Have a seat,” Everett Callahan told his long-time friends.
    Jase stood and offered his seat to Vera Tyndale, Allie’s mom.   He stepped over to Allie, pulling her tight to him; she looked like a dear caught in headlights.  For all her bravado and sass, his best friend was full of insecurities he’d never understood the origins of.
    “You kids wanted to talk to us,” Frank said.
    Taking the lead, Jase gently led Allie to the center of the office.  “We wanted our parents to be the first to hear our news.  As you obviously know, Allie and I have known each other since we were babies. We’ve grown up together here at Whispering Winds and have always been good friends.” He paused to cast an adoring gaze to his wife. “Over this past year, we’ve begun to realize that our friendship has transitioned to something deeper, ultimately resulting to the revelation that we’re in love.  We’ve talked about marriage before and, well, while in Vegas we decided we didn’t want to wait any longer; right sweetheart?”
    He felt Allie relax a smidgen. “That’s right,” she said, smiling at him, playing the role of a newlywed. “Jase and I were married at a quaint, little chapel with Missy and Charlie as our witnesses.”
    Their eyes locked; he couldn’t take his eyes from hers if he tried. There was undeniable love reflected in them. Allie wasn’t a very good actress. She never had been, not to him at least. And if there was love in her eyes staring back at him that could only mean she also loved him, even if she hadn’t discovered it for herself yet. Suddenly, this provisional marriage didn’t seem like such a bad idea anymore. He had three months to make her see what he already knew; they belonged together permanently. Involuntarily, his head drifted closer to hers.
    “Ahhem,” came a subtle cough from a parent, breaking the trance he’d found himself in with Allie.
    Uncomfortable silence pervaded the room.  Jase didn’t trust himself to speak at the moment.  He stood ramrod straight, while Allie reverted to shifting her weight.
    “Looks like you owe me a hundred bucks,” Everett told Frank, breaking the silence. Their wives sent them both warning glares.
    “What are you talking about,” Jase asked.
    “Your fathers had a silly bet,” Diana Callahan, his mother, stated.
    “Care to elaborate?” he ground out through clenched teeth, not liking the direction this was taking.  You can’t place bets on love.  Isn’t