Once a Cowboy Read Online Free PDF Page B

she kept thinking about Brodie. Maybe someday she’d have the opportunity to apologize for stealing his comb.
     
    B RODIE WOKE UP to quiet, like always. That’s the way he wanted it. His friends called him a people person because he acted outgoing on the rodeo circuit, but he was really a loner. He enjoyed the peace and the quiet. Maybe that had something to do with age, too.
    When he was younger, partying was in his blood. The more people around him, the better he liked it. Today life was more sedate and that suited him. He was comfortable with his life choices, but he’d probably alwaysregret the rift with his parents. At least they’d tried to work through it as a family. That was important to him.
    He showered and slipped into jeans. After shaving, he reached for his comb, but it wasn’t there. He looked in the drawer, then the cabinet. The comb had disappeared. He’d had it yesterday when he’d combed his hair to go see his mother. That was the last time he’d seen it.
    No one had been here, not even the cleaning lady. So what could have happened to it? Wait a minute. The lady in the Jeep had used his bathroom. Could she have taken his comb? What the hell would she want it for? It didn’t make any sense, but he was becoming increasingly intrigued. Why would Alex Donovan steal his comb?
    Next time he would be more careful who he let use his bathroom. It was a comb, less than five bucks so what did it matter? Sometimes girls who followed the rodeo circuit would steal an item that belonged to a cowboy they had a crush on just to have something to connect them. But Alex didn’t seem like a groupie and she hadn’t come on to him. She was friendly, that’s all.
    So what was going on?
    Finding another comb, he finished dressing and headed for the barn. He saddled his horse, Jax, a thoroughbred quarter horse he’d gotten from Colter, who raised them. With the dogs trotting behind him, he checked the herd and all the water troughs to make sure the cattle had water in the searing heat.
    Riding gave him peace and he enjoyed the movement, the rhythm, even the sun on his face and the calluses on his hands. He knew who he was—a cowboyin control. As his boots touched soil again the comb business nagged at him.
    Suddenly he wanted to find the lady in the Jeep—Alex.

Chapter Three
    Brodie arrived at his mother’s around ten. Propped up in bed, his petite, fragile mother looked pale yet she seemed much better than yesterday. Cleo fussed about, fluffing pillows and straightening the bed linens.
    “Brodie, my son,” Claudia said. “I’m sorry I scared you yesterday.”
    He sat in a Queen Anne chair, his hat in his hand, feeling out of place. “How are you today?”
    “Much better.”
    “She should,” Cleo said. “I’ve been waiting on her hand and foot. You know you’re not helpless, Claudie.”
    Cleo was the antithesis of his mother—she was strong, resilient and resourceful. But Claudia, her older sister, was her Achilles’ heel.
    “Cleo, please. I don’t want to argue today.”
    “Me, neither. And I don’t plan on staying in every night, Claudie, so get used to it.” Cleo winked at Brodie. “How about a cup of coffee, cowboy?”
    “I’ll settle for iced tea.”
    “You got it.”
    After Cleo left, Brodie searched for the right words and knew there weren’t any. He carefully placed his hat on his knee. “Mother, you can’t expect Cleo to stay home all the time. She’s sixty-four and enjoys her friends.”
    “Men friends, you mean.”
    “Whatever.”
    “She’s been married three times and has absolutely nothing to show for it. You’d think she’d appreciate a roof over her head.”
    He grabbed his hat and stood in a quick movement because he was about to lose every ounce of patience he’d been blessed with. “Cleo is not your personal slave and she has a right to her own life, whatever that might be.”
    “You always take her side.” Claudia sank farther into the pillows with a hurt