Walk Away Joe Read Online Free PDF

he glanced her way. After giving her a pensive, assessing once-over from beneath half-lowered lashes, he went back to what he was doing.
    From the corner of her eye, she saw Tag bolt out of the tack room, a saddle hefted over his shoulder. When he saw her, he stopped dead in his tracks. With a wary glance from her to Tucker, he very discreetly turned on his worn boot heel and headed back where he’d come from.
    Great, she thought. Just great. At least she didn’t have to wonder anymore if Tag and Lana knew what had happened last night. It had been a long shot, anyway. The Lord had seen fit to bless her with a great set of pipes. Her threats and screams had probably carried all the way to San Antonio.
    Dragging in a bracing breath, she walked the fifty yards in grim silence. Stopping beside the stall, she watched Tucker work a flashy little bay gelding’s forelock through the bridle.
    When he neither acknowledged nor seemed to notice her presence, she tucked her hands into the hip pockets of her jeans and cleared her throat.
    When he still didn’t bother to look her way, she lifted her chin and tried not to sound miffed.
    “I came to apologize.”
    The only sign he gave that he’d heard her was a slight pause of his hands before he finished buckling the strap beneath the gelding’s jaw.
    “I was out of line last night,” she continued, determined to tough it out. “I’m sorry I put you in an uncomfortable position.”
    Without ever looking her way, he ran an assessing hand along the colt’s withers. “Yeah, well, I figure we’ve both got a few things to be sorry about.”
    She closed her eyes and let out a deep breath. If he sensed her relief that it was over, or how hard it had been for her to face him in stark, harsh daylight, he didn’t let on.
    He could have thrown what she’d done back in her face. In fact, she’d expected him to. But for some reason, he’d chosen not to. Just as he’d chosen not to take her up on her offer last night. On both counts she was grateful. On both counts she was surprised.
    More than that, in that moment she thought it might actually be possible to like him for what he’d done. But only a little, she warned herself. Tucker Lambert hadn’t gotten his reputation out of a box of cereal. He’d earned it with his fast-and-loose life-style and his don’t-give-a- damn ways.
    He was a demon in blue denim, a bad seed, she reminded herself as she looked his long, lean frame up and down. Dressed in blue chambray and faded jeans, a light layer of Texas dust coating his leather chaps, he looked too gorgeous for his own good. It was biology, not benevolence, she reminded herself, that flecked his flirty blue eyes with enough dazzle to charm the sun from the Texas sky— or a yes from the woman he chose to turn it on.
    Thank God she’d never been a sucker for a killer smile or bought into the line that all a bad man needed was a good woman to straighten him out. Tucker Lambert needed more than a good woman. And whatever he needed, it was a cinch he wasn’t going to get it from her. According to Karla, he was beyond redemption. No romanticizing about his uncharacteristic nobility last night was going to make that fact go away.
    But she still owed him, and now that the lines of communication were open, all the words she should have said when Karla and Lance left her at Blue Sky tumbled out in one big, massive breath.
    “Look,” she began, determined to make things right, “I know the way the wind blows. I know Karla and Lance sprung me on you and for some reason they’ve got you up against the wall on this one so you had to let me stay. You don’t want me here. I appreciate that. I don’t even blame you. I wouldn’t want me here, either.”
    She paused for a deep breath. “On top of it, I know I haven’t exactly been the model houseguest. Lana has gone out of her way to make me feel comfortable, and I’ve gone out of my way to be distant.”
    He finally met her eyes. “Seems