How to Marry a Cowboy (Cowboys & Brides) Read Online Free PDF Page B

work, say, “Well, shit!” and to start all over again. It worked when she couldn’t remember where she put her favorite bracelet.
    Annie Rose giggled, and it felt so good that it turned into laughter. She held the booklet to her heart for several minutes before she put it in the secret compartment of her suitcase. Someday she wanted a set of little blond-haired girls exactly like those two.
    ***
    Twenty kids jumped in and out of the pool, traipsing water all over the deck, eating hot dogs by the dozens, and downing enough soda pop to put them on a weeklong sugar high. Girls giggled in groups. Boys bowed up to each other like cocky little banty roosters.
    Annie Rose sat with her back to the sliding-glass doors into the house and remembered her ninth birthday party. That was the first one Gina Lou came to, and they’d formed a friendship that lasted through school, college, and right up until the day that she ran away from Nicky. She’d missed her friend the past two years, but they both knew that Nicky had the resources to locate her through Gina Lou, so they’d made a clean break.
    A tall red-haired woman pulled up a lawn chair close to her and sat down. “So you are the new nanny? Are you nuts or do you have rocks for brains?”
    “I hope neither. Do you know something I don’t?” Annie Rose asked.
    “Honey, those two girls have been nightmare children since they were born. I had them in first grade. Worst year in my teaching experience. I went home every day cussing and swearing that I wouldn’t go back the next morning,” she said.
    “That bad, huh?” Annie Rose asked. No wonder Mason hadn’t tossed her out on her ear.
    “Those girls would drive a saint to the asylum. I’m Dinah Miller, by the way. I understand your name is Annie Rose?”
    Annie Rose nodded. “Pleased to meet you, Dinah. Does one of the children in the pool belong to you?”
    “That little red-haired boy in the blue bathing suit. He’s got a crush on Doc Emerson’s granddaughter, Kenna. I can’t get ready for nine-year-old kids to talk about going out with each other. But at least he doesn’t like Lily or Gabby. For that I can be thankful,” she said.
    “I thought they all hated each other, the way the boys are all jumping in and out of the pool and the girls are all grouped up, giggling,” Annie Rose said.
    “I’m a school teacher, so we see this all the time. The boys are posturing for them, and the girls are giggling because of the boys,” Dinah said.
    Lily came running up to Annie Rose’s side, holding out a hair ribbon. “Mama, Mama, can you put this back? Matty untied it, and it fell out.”
    “Mama?” Dinah asked.
    “Daddy says she’s our nanny, but we’ve decided that she’s our new mama. We found her on the porch this morning. She was asleep on the swing like Sleeping Beauty, but she was wearing a wedding dress,” Lily said.
    Annie Rose tied the ribbon around the ponytail in a perfect bow. “There you go, sweetie. Go have fun. Your daddy says that you are opening gifts inside the gazebo at four, and that’s only fifteen minutes from now.”
    Dinah laughed. “Kids sure have an imagination, don’t they? Nannies don’t show up in wedding dresses.”
    Mason pulled up a chair and sat down beside Annie Rose, giving her a quick wink that kicked up her pulse a notch. Hopefully, Mason and Dinah would think her red-hot cheeks were the result of the hot summer sun, but she knew better.
    He chuckled and said, “Oh, yeah, they do. On this ranch, all nannies have to wear costumes. In case you didn’t know, Annie Rose wears a ball gown to do housework and a bikini to cook supper and the paparazzi goes crazy when I attend the Oscars.”
    Dinah nodded toward him. “Hello, Mason. Nice party. The kids always love a pool party. Did you know that Doc bought them real goats for their birthday? And I’ll be willing to bet dollars to doughnuts that those two insist on taking them in the house like pets instead of barn