Free Texas Tangle by Leah Braemel Page A

school, I don’t remember you saying you wanted to be a cop. I thought you and Dillon had talked about going into the landscaping business together.”
    His brows drew together, focusing harder on the bottle’s label. “Yeah, well, plans changed. I realized landscaping wasn’t for me.”

    While he picked at the label, she thought about the night she and Dillon had discovered Phil had taken everything she owned. And how Brett had held her. How right she felt in his arms. If he’d asked her, would she have gone to his place that night? Would he have asked?
    Sensing that once he removed the label, he’d leave, she took a deep breath. “You know, the last couple months when you’d drop in? I know you said it was to check on Phil, but I got the impression that maybe…”
    “Maybe what?” His gaze shot up and held hers for the first time that evening. Did she detect panic in his voice? It couldn’t be. Of everyone she knew, Brett was the most even tempered.
    “Every once in a while, I got the impression that maybe you wanted to ask me out.”
    His gaze slipped to the door as if he were gauging the distance. Then his lips compressed into a thin line, and he dropped his eyes again. “I was there to check on Phil. Just like I said.”
    She replayed all their conversations—all his visits while she was married to Wade, and afterward. Each time she circled right back to how he’d held her the other night, the way his head had dipped down toward her. “So the other night back at my place, when you were holding me out on the lawn, you weren’t going to kiss me?”
    “Nope.” He kicked his chair back and stood. With a jerky movement, he snatched the bottle and walked to the bin Dillon kept under the sink, depositing it there.
    What was going on?
    “So you aren’t upset with me for coming home with Dillon?”
    Without turning to look at her, he shook his head. “No.”
    The word snapped through the air like a whip.
    He took a deep breath and ran his hands through his hair. “Don’t mind me. You’re right, it was a tough shift. I guess I let it get to me more than I realized.”
    He started to head out of the kitchen, pausing when he got to the hallway door to say over his shoulder, “Dillon’s a great guy, Nik. You two belong together, and you deserve everything he can give you. I think it’s great that you two have finally gotten together.”
    With that, he left her alone with his hat and the pile of label he’d shredded.

Chapter Five
    Dillon positioned the chainsaw in the shade of the barn, where he could watch Nikki working one of her colts. She moved with a grace, yet handled the long line with a confidence borne over years of handling her precious Blues. No one else would know the smile she shot him was a hint of the sensual being she kept carefully hidden from others. She lifted her hand in a wave before returning her focus to the colt.
    Just last night, he’d been the focus of her attention on the porch swing. Man, that had been a sweet evening. Lying with her on top of him as the sun set, the breeze keeping them both cool. She’d had her hands all over him. And he’d returned the favor, discovering all her ticklish spots. It had been good to see her laughing. To feel her throaty moan reverberating through his chest when he’d gone down on her.
    Even now the fruity scent of her shampoo filled his head, and the skin on his chest tingled everywhere she’d touched. A hint of her strawberry-flavored lip gloss lingered on his tongue from when she’d kissed him earlier.
    She called an instruction to the pony, her voice strong and confident. Different from the soft, breathless pleas she’d whispered when he’d woken her that morning. The juxtaposition of strength and softness fascinated him.
    “You gonna work on that chainsaw, or you planning on oglin’ me all morning?”
    He laughed. “I plan on doin’ both, darlin’. You sure are a prettier sight than the inside of my workshed.”
    She stuck her