Free Text Order Bride by Kirsten Osbourne Page A

call
    her? Would that be too forward? “That would be interesting, I think. If you
    manage to do that, would you come to Texas and teach my students how
    to sit still?”
    “I keep trying to imagine your words spoken with a Texas drawl. Do you
    say y’all a lot?”
    She smiled. “Not a lot. It is a pretty common word around here, you know.
    I’m trying to imagine a Wisconsin accent when you text, but I’m not sure I’d
    know one if I heard one.”
    He read the words and smiled. How would she react if he just called? It
    was late, but he knew she was up. He had her number. Would she mind?
    He took a deep breath and threw caution to the wind, clicking the button to
    call her instead of sending her another text.
    She jumped when her phone rang instead of signaling a text. She’d put his
    name with his number, so she knew it was him. Why was she so nervous?
    She put the phone to her ear. “Hello?”
    “Amanda?”
    “Yes. Hi, Jason.”
    “Hi there. I had to hear your voice for myself. I hope that’s okay.” His
    voice was deep and his accent sounded strange. They certainly hadn’t
    sounded like that on Happy Days.
    “It’s fine. I almost asked you to call, but I was afraid I would seem too
    pushy.”
    He laughed softly. Her voice didn’t have as strong of a Southern drawl as
    he’d expected. “You should have. I wouldn’t have minded.” He paused for
    a moment unsure of what to say now that she was on the phone. “So tell
    me what you look like, Amanda.”
    She sighed. Here was the killer. In her experience, men liked tiny women.
    She was an Amazon. “I have blond hair and blue eyes. I’m thin.” She
    trailed off after that. “What about you?”
    “Brown hair. Brown eyes. Pretty boring really. How tall are you?” He sent
    up a silent prayer that she wasn’t a tiny little thing. He was way too tall to
    mess with a girl like that.
    “Here’s where you quit talking to me,” she said sadly. “I’m six foot two.”
    She waited for him to tell her he wasn’t interested in keeping the
    conversation going.
    “Really?” He couldn’t keep the excitement out of his voice. “I’m six six.”
    “Are you serious? You’re actually taller than me?” She knew that she
    probably sounded like an idiot she was so excited.
    “I’m serious. I’ve got to meet you now. You need to fly up here and spend
    a weekend with Stephanie so I can meet you.”
    She smiled. “I might be able to do that. After school is out, of course.”
    “How ‘bout tomorrow instead?”
    She laughed softly. “That’s probably not going to work.”
    “Darn. You can’t blame a man for trying, right?”
    “I guess not. I wish you’d called me a few weeks ago. I probably could
    have gone up during spring break.” She hadn’t done anything else. “Do
    you always have such terrible timing?”
    He laughed. “Yeah, I do. Always. I’m cursed!”
    They talked long into the night. When he finally glanced at the clock and
    realized it was after midnight, he mentally kicked himself. He had to work
    tomorrow, Saturday or not. “I really have to go. The cows need to be
    milked bright and early.”
    “I understand. I really enjoyed talking to you, though,” she said honestly.
    She was going to be sad to hang up.
    “I enjoyed talking to you, too. May I keep texting you? Maybe call again?”
    She smiled. “I’d really like that.”
    “I’ll text you tomorrow. G’night.”
    Amanda set her phone down with a smile. She felt like a girl in high school
    with her first boyfriend. She thought. She’d never had that first boyfriend in
    high school. She’d seen how her friends had reacted, though. She knew
    all the symptoms, and she was feeling them. Yeah, it was just a few texts
    and a phone call, but they hadn’t had a problem thinking of things to say.
    Maybe, just maybe, she wouldn’t always be alone. She fell asleep with a
    smile on her face.
    Saturday was errand day for Amanda. With everything she did, she found
    herself