Long, Tall Texans: Calhoun Read Online Free PDF Page A

Calhoun being overprotective as usual. It hurt her to hear about where he was going. Abby felt as if she were being choked to death. If only she were beautiful and blond, if only she could cope! But she managed to hide her emptiness. "That's great, Calhoun, you just enjoy yourself while I sit home alone. I'll never get a date as long as you're two steps behind me."
    "Dream on," Calhoun told her. "Hell will freeze over before you'd go out with a man like that."
    "There's a little town called Hell, you know," Abby told him. "It does snow there...."
    "If I were you I'd go home, Abby," Justin said, eyeing his brother. "It's Friday night. You might find a nice movie to watch. Come to think of it, I just bought a new war movie. You can watch it with me if you want to."
    She smiled. Justin really was nice. "Thanks. I might do that, since my watchdog doesn't want me out after dark," she added with a glare at Calhoun. "I'll bet Elizabeth the First had a guardian just like you!''
    Justin caught Calhoun's arm in the nick of time, and Abby took off running, her heart in her throat. It was odd how Cal-houn, usually so easygoing, had turned explosive lately. She did goad him, of course, but she couldn't help it. Fighting him was the only way she could stay sane and hide her feelings for him. If she ever started batting her eyelashes and sighing over him, he'd probably shoot her off the place like a bullet.
    She started her car and drove home, all the fury dying into I misery as she left the feedlot behind. What good was pretend-ing? Her heart was broken, because Calhoun was going out with one of his women and she didn't qualify for that title. She never would. She'd grow old with Calhoun patting her on the head. Once or twice she'd almost thought he felt something for her, that he'd begun to notice her. But if he had, he certainly wouldn't be running all over the place with other women. And he wouldn't ignore Abby unless she started a fight or got into trouble. She was his responsibility, of course. His headache. To him she was anything but a warm, attractive woman whom he might love eventually. That she'd never be.
    By the time she got to the house, she felt sick all over, but a plan was beginning to form in her mind. If Calhoun thought she was giving in that easily, he was in for a shock. She could have a good time, too, even if she didn't have a date. By golly, she'd get out and find herself one!

Chapter Three
    Abby ate a solitary meal. Justin was called to the phone shortly after they got home, and he told Maria to put his dinner on a tray so he could eat it while he watched the movie he'd bought. Calhoun had come home to change for his date, and Abby had made a beeline for her room and stayed there until after he'd left. She didn't even care how it looked; she was sick at the thought of Calhoun with some faceless blonde. That was when she knew she had to break out, even if just for the evening.
    She hadn't started out to rebel. But she couldn't sit home and watch the movie with Justin. She'd never hear a word of it; she'd just brood about Calhoun.
    So she got dressed in slacks and a blouse and brushed her hair. Then she called Misty.
    "How do you feel about helping me rebel?" she asked the older girl.
    Misty laughed huskily. "You're lucky my date canceled out Okay. I'm game. What are we rebelling against?"
    "Calhoun caught me at the revue last night and dragged me home," Abby told her. "And today he... Well, never mind,

    but he set me off again. So tonight I thought I'd like to sample that new dance bar in Jacobsville."
    "Now that is an idea worthy of you, Abby. I'll pick you up in fifteen minutes."
    'I'll be ready."
    Abby ran downstairs, giving no thought at all to how Calhoun was going to react to this latest rebellion.
    Well, he had his woman, damn him. Horrible pictures of his bronzed body in bed with the faceless blonde danced in front of Abby's eyes. No, she told herself, she wasn't going to let Calhoun's actions hurt her like