The Western Dare (Harlequin Heartwarming) Read Online Free PDF Page B

reason she’d signed up.
    He turned, planning to introduce himself to Emily’s offspring. Instead, he nearly mowed down Brittany Powers. Camp’s eyes bugged. Brittany’s fingernails weren’t painted red—they were half silver and half black. At least, on the hand possessively clutching his sleeve.
    “Nolan,” she whispered breathlessly, a speech pattern he’d noticed her developing over the last weeks of the semester. “I’m positively freaked by horses. You’ll take care of mine, won’t you?” Her fingers walked up his shirtfront and fiddled with the silver medallion he wore around his neck.
    He frowned into eyes outlined in kohl and shaded in luminous silver—colors that matched her nail polish but left her looking oddly like a raccoon. Debating how to handle an effective rebuke in the midst of so many people, he caught Emily’s expression of disgust. Surely she hadn’t pegged him as a cradle robber.
    “I’m not traveling with the train,” he snapped at Brittany, firmly setting her away. “Follow Maizie. She’ll show you how to harness the teams. According to her, the Clydesdales are big, lovable teddy bears. You’ll do fine, Brittany.”
    “What do you mean, you aren’t traveling with the wagon train?” A chorus of angry voices almost blew Camp off his feet. Suddenly, Sherry, Gina and Emily all converged, hands on hips, eyes flashing.
    Warily, he sidestepped a cameraman, and aligned himself with the wagon mistress. She spit a bead of tobacco, two drops of which splashed on his boot.
    “Uh-huh,” she mused in that way Camp had come to find exceedingly irritating. “These the gals who’ll stick until death to prove you wrong?” she murmured.
    Smile plastered to his lips, Camp held up a palm. “Listen...ladies...I figured I’d make you nervous breathing down your necks. Maizie gave me a list of your scheduled stops. I plan to pop in at regular intervals and pick up these data sheets.”
    “If you aren’t going,” Brittany said, pouting, “then I’m not, either.”
    Gina gathered the others to caucus. After a brief discussion, she broke free. “That’s about the size of it, Campbell,” she said. “If you don’t go, we all quit.”
    “Hooray,” chorused the Benton kids. “Let’s go home, Mom.”
    Emily advanced on Camp. “I’ll have you know I gave up a chance to teach summer school. I need that stipend. What do you plan to do about it?”
    “Look.” Camp raked a hand through his hair. Mentally he added up how much he’d already forked out. The money was nothing compared with the fact that he’d promised his department chair a publishable paper by the start of fall term. “You all agreed to be part of my study. No one said I had to travel with the train.”
    “I thought it was understood,” Sherry said.
    Gina crossed her arms. “Well, we could go and write any old thing on his data sheets. Skew his study! He’d be none the wiser.”
    “Oh, but that wouldn’t be right!” Emily exclaimed, eyes bright with concern even after the others silenced her with glares.
    As if things weren’t already going down the toilet, Camp’s colleagues drove in next. Hearing a reporter explain to the newcomers why everyone was milling about, he shook his head and groaned. “Listen to this great front-page caption,” the man bragged, “‘Local College Prof Fails Test.’”
    Sherry snapped her fingers. “Could you maybe add ‘Beaten By Women’?”
    Camp’s knees all but buckled when Lyle Roberts clapped him hard between the shoulder blades. “Camp’s just fooling around. I assure you he’s one hundred percent committed to this project. Of course he’s driving a wagon. He wouldn’t dream of backing out before every last woman here falls by the trail.”
    “Lyle!” Camp weighed available options for digging out of this mess.
    “Uh-huh,” grunted Maizie. “Gonna be the shortest wagon train in history.”
    “Okay...hold on,” Camp shouted. “It’s no big deal. Brittany,