Free Distraction by Tess Oliver Page A

laws— good or bad,” Libby continued.
    She nodded hesitantly. “But what about the king?”
Silence again.
    “You mean the queen?” Libby asked. “I’m sure she’s
sitting in her English castle sipping her overpriced English
tea.”
    Laughter circled the table but Poppy looked
distraught. Libby obviously sensed her worry and masterfully
changed the topic.
    “So, Cade, did you two break a lot of horses? Seems
you took more of a beating from poker than you did in the
corral.”
    “They were an easy bunch of colts,” Jackson answered
for me. “But there was this one filly, whooee, did she give Cade a
good licking. She shot him in the air just like one of those
geysers down in Yellowstone.”
    Samuel grinned. “I would have liked to have seen
that. So you were beat by a filly, eh? Figures.”
    I dropped my napkin on my plate. The chair back
creaked as I leaned against it. “No one said anything about her
beating me. She just tossed me into the air a few times. Faster and
smoother than any horse I’ve ever ridden. I bought her from Trenton
before I left his ranch. I’m riding out to pick her up
tomorrow.”
    “What about the east fence?”
    “It’s already mended.” My brother hated it when I
beat him to an order. “If you don’t mind, Libby, I think I’ll head
out to the porch for a smoke. The food was delicious as usual.”
    ***
    Warm air ushered from the house as the door behind me
opened and shut. The cool night breeze shuffled through the tree
tops near the house as I strummed my calloused fingertips across
the guitar strings. It took me only a second to sense that she was
the one standing behind me.
    “That’s a lovely tune.” The sound of her voice
traveled like soft fingers over my shoulder. She sat down on the
step next to me and hugged her knees to her chest. “We didn’t have
any music back in my village. It was forbidden.”
    I stopped strumming and looked down at her. I hadn’t
steeled myself for having her face so close to mine, and it took me
a second to find my tongue. “Forbidden? That’s one I’ve never heard
before.”
    She gazed out at the ranch, and I took the
opportunity to memorize her stunning profile. The side of her lip
curled up. “Of course, at home, my grandmother, sister, and I took
every opportunity to hum and sing. We were far enough away from the
village that nobody could hear us.”
    I squinted down at her. “I thought you looked like
the shifty type.”
    She smiled. A breeze blew through her hair and a long
lock fell across her cheek. She reached back and made a futile
attempt to tuck back into the pin it had sprung free from. “Poor
Libby spent a fine chunk of the morning trying to pin my stubborn
hair up but it’s just no use. There is far too much of it.”
    “Yeah, it’s downright distracting,” I said it with
humor, but I couldn’t have been more serious. I leaned my guitar
against the porch railing. “Something just occurred to me.”
    Her brown eyes looked glassy beneath the starlit sky.
“What is it?”
    “Do you mean to tell me there were no dances in your
village?”
    She shook her head and the same stubborn strand of
hair fell loose. She ignored it this time. “Sometimes my sister and
I would push aside the chairs in our front room and dance around
the floor.”
    “I feel sorry for the boys in that village of
yours.”
    “The boys?”
    “To have a girl like you floating around the village
and know that I could never dance with you, that would be nothing
short of torture.”
    “I’ve never danced with a boy. I’ve always thought it
sounded like something I would like, but dancing was
forbidden.”
    “Well, it’s not forbidden in Montana.” I pushed to my
feet and lowered my hand for her to take. “I’m better at roping and
shooting than I am at dancing, but I know a few steps.”
    She looked at my hand for a moment then placed her
palm on mine. It felt smooth and warm and right. I helped her to
her feet. “Now face me.” She