Once Upon a Cowboy Read Online Free PDF Page A

held her tight.
    “I love you, jellybean.” His voice was gruff, and she knew he was crying, too. “Dammit, I love you. You go make me proud, okay?”
    She nodded miserably,her tears soaking his jacket. She looked up, and his watery eyes matched her own.
    “Thank you—for saving me.”
    He brushed the tears off her cheeks as he shook his head. “I didn’t save you, honey. You saved yourself. You called me instead of him. You didn’t go back.”
    He dropped his arms slowly, then braced his hands on her shoulders again. “Don’t ever go back, honey. Promise me you won’t evergo back.”

Chapter 4
    Cole picked up the hose and turned it on high, filling up the water trough in the corral just outside the stable. He heard Decker’s truck coming down the driveway and shook his head. While he’d been mucking out stables and fixing the fence that Apollo had blown through yesterday, Decker’d been up at his fancy-schmancy model home, schmoozing prospective buyers in his swanky suit and shinyshoes.
    Cole looked down at the hose as he heard the truck pull to a stop. He still owed Decker for the stunt he’d pulled last week that had left Cole covered with mud and who-knew-what-else, and it looked like revenge had just presented itself in an irresistible form.
    Was it childish? Definitely. Was it tempting? Oh, yeah. He weighed the consequences for a whole quarter of a second, then adjustedhis grip on the hose. He waited until he heard the truck door creak open, and then he stepped around the corner, aiming the hose squarely at Decker.
    First he heard the satisfying splash.
    And then he heard the distinctly un-Decker-ish squeal.
    The hose was aimed squarely at a gorgeous woman with dark hair and a white—
ah, hell
—white dress on. And that dress was becoming quickly transparent underthe spray of water he was aiming directly at her midsection.
    Oh. Shit.
    Jess.
    Her squeals finally knocked through his skull, and he let go of the hose, dropping it to the ground. Kyla stepped out of the passenger side of the truck, mouth open comically wide. She looked at a dripping wet Jess, then at him, then back at Jess, then back at him.
    “Cole?”
    Cole stepped toward the truck, hands inthe air. “I am
so
sorry. I thought you guys were Decker.” He took another step toward Jess, wary, but at the same time ridiculously mesmerized by the way her white dress was clinging to her yoga-toned body. “I swear, I thought you took your own car to the airport, Kyla. I never would have—oh God. Why are you driving, Jess?”
    Jess calmly closed the door of the truck, and Cole braced himself fora Ma-style dressing down. Instead, though, she walked toward him, one slow step at a time.
    “Well,”—her silky voice practically purred, and that damn smile lurked at the edges of her lips—“it’s good to see you, Cole.”
    He backed up a step. She looked like a frigging tiger coming in for the kill, one with a lacy purple bra that wasn’t doing a very good job of hiding the effect the cold water washaving on her.
    She pulled the ends of her hair around in front of her chest and wrung out the strands. He winced as water dripped to the ground.
    “Here I was looking forward to one of your big hugs, and what do I get?” She looked down at her body, but didn’t appear to realize that her dress was hiding pretty much—
uh
—nothing.
    “I’m so sorry.” He swallowed hard, dying to put his arms around herwet, glistening body.
    She whipped her head around to the left, pointing toward the stable. “Oh my God! What’s going on over there?”
    He shouldn’t have looked. He’d had a little sister long enough not to fall for it, but before he had time to realize she was just distracting him, she ducked behind him, picking up the hose he’d just dropped.
    “You know what?” She gave him that serene, gentle smilehe remembered. “Points for an original welcome, but you really should have gone with the hug.”
    And then the spray hit him directly