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

is.”
    “I always wanted a horse of my own,” I said wistfully. “All we had was an old Shetland pony for everyone to use.”
    “You want a ride into town, Miss Millie? It’s a good six miles back to Cupid.”
    He hadn’t meant anything by the invitation. Only being neighborly. Couldn’t go daydreaming about things I could never have. “Thank you kindly. I will accept that ride.”
    He escorted me to his horse, climbed on, and then reached down a hand to help me swing up in the saddle behind him. His big hand held tight to my smaller one until I was safely in the seat.
    “You might want to hold on,” he said. “We’re going down a steep grade.”
    I wrapped my arms around his waist. It felt too intimate with my breasts mashed up against his back, my legs on either side of his, my hands clasped over his chest, but I secretly thrilled to the closeness.
    It was wrong, I know, but I couldn’t help having a few fantasies. What would it feel like to kiss him? I’d never been kissed. Never been courted. There hadn’t been much opportunity for it out in the hardscrabble sagebrush land where I’d been hatched. Cupid felt a million miles from where I’d come from, even though it was just a short distance south. It was a completely different planet.
    I locked my fingers together and held on tight, felt the steady rise and fall of John’s chest. Who knew that he would be so strong, his muscles so honed? His scent was honest, sunshine and leather and hard work. He did not smell of perfume as he had on the day I’d met him. I liked the contrast in him. He was both a man of the world and an ordinary cowboy. He could wear a fancy fragrance and six-shooters with equal ease. Not many people could straddle two worlds, but he made it look so easy.
    “How are you liking Cupid?” he asked.
    “Very much.”
    “My sister says you’re a good worker.”
    “I appreciate the job.” It was strange, having a conversation when I couldn’t see his face. Impossible to gauge what he was thinking.
    “How is your family?”
    “They’re doing well.”
    “Do you get homesick?”
    “Not as much as I did at first.”
    “It’s got to be hard, leaving your loved ones behind.”
    “You left your family behind when you went to the war,” I pointed out.
    “That’s how I know it’s hard.”
    “What was it like?” I asked.
    “The war?”
    “Uh-huh.”
    “Ugly,” he said. “I don’t like to talk about it.”
    Chastised, I shut my mouth.
    “You’re very brave,” he said after a while. “I admire that about you.”
    He admired me! “I’m not,” I argued.
    “You propped your mother up after your father died.”
    “She was destroyed. My daddy was her one true love.”
    “One true love, huh?”
    “Most people don’t get that in their lifetime,” I said. “They were very lucky.”
    “How do you know when someone is your one true love?”
    “You feel it,” I said, even though I had no personal experience of such a thing. “In every part of your being.”
    “And what exactly does that feel like?” He sounded completely amused.
    “Heaven.” I breathed.
    “What does heaven feel like?”
    “Home.”
    “So finding your one true love is like coming home?”
    “Yes.” I nodded even though he couldn’t see. “Except better.”
    “How’s that?”
    “It’s like coming home, Christmas, and your birthday all rolled into one and it lasts a lifetime.”
    “Tall order for anyone.”
    “But worth holding out for.”
    “Is that what you’re doing, Millie?” he said softly. “Holding out for one true love?”
    “I don’t know,” I answered honestly.
    “You don’t know if you going to wait to find your one true love?”
    “I don’t know if I want to find my one true love.”
    “Why not? It sounds wonderful, coming home, Christmas, your birthday all rolled into one and the feeling lasts a lifetime.”
    “Because,” I said, “when you lose that love, the way my mother did, it’s the worst pain in the