Loving The Country Boy (Barrett's Mill Book 4) Read Online Free PDF

back, she groused silently. It might not be fancy, but it was a large, solid car, and while it wasn’t hers, it hadn’t given her a bit of trouble.
    Unlike that fussy little sports car Avery drove, she thought with a frown.
    Born into one of Napa Valley’s original vineyard families, at first he’d been enchanted by her undeniable independent streak.
More than just a pretty face
, she could still hear him saying during their engagement party, smiling proudly at the woman he’d chosen to spend the rest of his life with. If she’d known just how short-lived his devotion would be, she would have shoved him into the pool at his family’s estate instead of accepting the five-carat diamond ring he’d slipped on her finger.
    Water under the bridge, she reminded herself, letting out a frustrated breath to cool her temper. Right now she had to get to work, so she notched the key back in the ignition the way Heath had showed her and tried again. Same result, with an annoying little ping thrown in to test her rapidly fleeting patience.
    Someone tapped on the window, and she all but shot through the roof in alarm. When she saw it was Heath, she rested one hand over her racing heart and cranked the window down with the other. “You scared me half to death.”
    “Sorry about that, but I was driving by when I heard the engine straining. What’s up?”
    “I don’t know what’s wrong with this thing. It started just fine all day yesterday. Then this morning—” She blew a raspberry, which wasn’t very ladylike but expressed her feelings perfectly.
    He laughed, and she trailed after him, watching him lever open the hood and peer inside. After about five seconds, he muttered, “Don’t look now, but your grandmother’s eyeballing us. Think she knows enough about cars to manage some basic sabotage? Maybe hoping I’d stop and help a damsel in distress?”
    Tess groaned. “Definitely. That would explain the hushed conversation she had with Chelsea last night. We already knew she and the baby were okay, so I couldn’t figure out what else they’d be whispering about. When I asked Gram about it later, she pulled the innocent act on me. ‘I have no idea what you’re referring to, dear,’” Tess mimicked her huffy response. “She had me convinced I was overtired and my imagination was playing tricks on me. She even sent me up to my room to get a good night’s sleep, like I was seven years old or something.”
    “That tracks with what Chelsea said to me yesterday at the mill,” Heath’s voice rumbled from under the rusty hood. “Apparently, she thinks we’d make a great pair.”
    “Of what?”
    “Good one,” he said, letting out another laugh.
    “They’re loony, both of them. Only crazy people would even think of putting us together, much less conspiring to make it happen. We’re like night and day.”
    “No argument here.” Extracting himself from the engine compartment, he took a brightly colored handkerchief from the back pocket of his jeans and wiped his hands before dropping the hood. “I think you’re set now. Why don’t you get in and give it a whirl?”
    She did, and the truck started right up. Of course it did, she thought, glancing at the house. She couldn’t see anyone, but she was confident Gram was still watching them to gauge the results of her trickery. “It’s kind of sweet, really. Don’t you think?”
    “Sweet and sneaky,” he said with a good-natured look. “Southern women can be that way, and I guess the Barretts are no exception. How ’bout you?”
    “Not me. If I like you, I’ll tell you straight to your face.”
    “And if you don’t?” he asked with a grin.
    “I’ll tell you that, too.” Pausing, she let out a sigh. “It got me in no end of trouble with my ex’s family. All his sisters-in-law are the polite, proper type. When we got serious about each other, I tried everything I could think of to be more like them. I thought I did a pretty good job of fitting in, but