Sweet Talking Cowboy Read Online Free PDF

Her
father-in-law was now in a nursing home with Alzheimer’s disease and Maggie had
Shelly, her daughter.  They understood why Briann needed to return home to look
after her aunt.
    The drive to Atlanta gave Briann and Aunt Poog plenty of
time to talk, but also provided plenty of quiet time for inner reflections. 
Briann was beset with memories and they were not all welcome.
    In spite of her determination not to, she remembered her
first trip to Atlanta, when she was just twenty.  In fact, she’d just turned
twenty.  That had been a birthday she’d looked forward to for a long time.  To her
it was a big step toward being an adult.  Briann would no longer be a
teenager!  Uncle Mike agreed that the two years of junior college had been
enough to consider her educated.  She wasn’t interested in a career in the
business world.  She’d never wanted anything other than to be a horse trainer
and under his guidance she’d began to turn out some horses that were doing very
well on the show circuit.
    Briann had been dating Jeffery Butler, Slade’s younger half-brother,
for two years and he’d recently started talking about marriage.  Jeffery worked
with his father in land development and wasn’t the least bit interested in
horses, but he seemed to take her interest in them in stride.  Briann had always
been a part of that world.  She’d been friends with Jeffery all her life and
his assumption that they would get married at first surprised her, but it was a
comfortable relationship, so she decided it would be a natural progression of
their friendship.
    Growing up, her main interest had been Slade, the older of
the two brothers, and although he was almost eleven years older than her, he’d
allowed her to hang around and help with the training of the Butler Farm
horses.  Briann had learned almost as much from him as she had from Uncle Mike.
    She took a lot of teasing for tagging around after Slade,
but never from him.  When she was twelve, she showed up at the Butler barn one
summer afternoon to find Slade in the barn with an attractive woman.  The woman
stood to one side watching him while he saddled a horse.  When Briann entered
the barn, she hung back, hesitant to disturb them.  When he spotted her, he flashed
that big grin she loved so much and beckoned her over to them.
    “Ann, I want you to meet my right hand, Briann.  Briann, this
is Ann.”  He made the introductions casually.
    Briann looked the young woman over with a critical eye.  “Is
she your main squeeze?”  She enquired with childlike innocence.
    Ann’s pretty face turned pink, but mostly from pleasure at
being referred to as Slade’s object of affection.
    He grinned and playfully swatted Briann on the shoulder. 
“None yer business, brat.”
    Briann quickly wondered on into the barn to tack up the colt
she was there to ride, ignoring the older twosome as they departed from the
barn for a trail ride.  Ann was mounted on old, gentle Promise while Slade put
trail time on one of the colts.
    Briann rode her mount in the training ring, just adding
miles to his credit.  She was washing him down when Slade and Ann returned from
their ride.  The couple dismounted near the wash rack and Briann overheard Ann
suggest that they should just let the little girl put their horses away.  She
was tired and ready to get back to town.
    Slade shot a hooded look at the young woman.  “Briann helps me
train the colts.  She’s not a barn hand.  I’ll take care of our horses.  If you’re
tired, why don’t you wait in my truck?”  Ann never came back to the barn.
    Briann had always thought of him as an older brother, but as
she grew older, she felt a change in her feelings.  Slade had never treated her
like a pesky sibling.  He treated her with respect and affection, teasing her
and directing her horsemanship, helping Uncle Mike guide her into becoming an
extraordinary young horsewoman.
    Then when she turned fifteen, things changed