One True Love (Cupid, Texas 0.5) Read Online Free PDF Page A

bedroom window and stole his horse to get away. The sheriff got a posse together and they chased poor Mingus all the way to Jeff Davis County.”
    “That’s a long way.”
    “Now about this same time,” Rosalie went on. “This was before Cupid was founded, mind you, there were more women than men in Jeff Davis County, ’cause most every man of fightin’ age had gone off to the Civil War.”
    “Except for outlaws.”
    “That’s exactly right,” Rosalie said. “So because of that, they made a rule around here that if any single woman in the county wanted to claim one of those outlaws, they could marry them and save them from being hung.”
    “That sounds like a strange custom.”
    “Nonetheless, it’s true.”
    “The women must have been pretty desperate.”
    “Oh, they were. Especially Miss Louisa Hendricks. She was plain as an old mud fence, but she wanted a baby real bad.”
    “Poor Louisa.”
    “Life ain’t fair sometimes. Mingus had heard about the getting’ married rule and these caverns so he came here to hide out. He didn’t really want to get married, but if was he gonna get caught, then this was the place to get caught in.”
    I hung on her every word, completely enthralled with the tale.
    “He pushed as deep into the cavern as he could and he ended up in this very room.” Rosalie swung the flashlight over Cupid again for dramatic effect.
    I tried to imagine it. Stumbling in here, the sheriff and his posse hot on your trail.
    “Mingus heard the law crashing behind him, coming for him. There was no escape.” Rosalie moved the beam from Cupid to shine it on the back of the cave wall. “As you can see, there’s no other way out.”
    “What did he do?” I whispered.
    “He fell down on his knees at the Cupid statue and he prayed like he was in church. Pleaded with Cupid to touch the heart of some kind local woman so she’d agree to marry him. And that’s where he was when the sheriff found him.”
    “Did they hang him?”
    “ ’Course not. This is a love story. Just when they was putting the noose around his neck, Louisa Hendricks stepped up and claimed him. The preacher married them on the spot.”
    “And they lived happily ever after?”
    “They did indeed. They fell madly in love and it was all because of Cupid.”
    I took a deep breath. It was the most amazing story I’d ever heard.
    “C’mon,” Rosalie said. “It’s time to get. We gotta long walk back.”
    I didn’t want to go. I wanted to stay longer and think about Mingus and Louisa and the blasphemous magic of praying to Cupid, but Rosalie was right.
    We left the caverns, blinking against the brightness of the afternoon sun. We were trying to decide where to eat our picnic when a brand-new Dagmar rolled to a stop outside the cavern entrance. Behind the wheel was a slick-looking man with a thin black mustache, Charlie Chaplin eyebrows, and a gray fedora. He honked the horn.
    I took one look at him and my brain lit up: BOOTLEGGER.
    “Hey tomatoes, wanna lift?” he invited.
    I shook my head vigorously.
    But Rosalie ran to the car. She had the picnic basket and she climbed into the seat beside him. “C’mon, Millie. Let’s hitch a ride.”
    I shook my head. “I don’t know this man.”
    “It’s Buddy Grass, I went to school with his sister Gwynnie.”
    “I didn’t.”
    Rosalie scooted across the seat and Buddy slipped his arm around her shoulder. A sneaky suspicion came over me. Had Rosalie set up this rendezvous with the bootlegger? Was he her secret boyfriend? Did they engage in barneymugging?
    “Forget her,” Buddy said. “We don’t need no alarm clock anyways.”
    I scowled. “What’s an alarm clock?”
    “A chaperone.” Rosalie tittered. “She’s kinda dumb,” she whispered loudly to Buddy.
    “This isn’t a good idea, Rosalie.” I sank my hands on my hips.
    “It’ll be fine,” she assured me. “We’re just going for a drive.”
    “Well, doll?” Buddy Grass wriggled his Charlie Chaplin