Free Red's Hot Cowboy by Carolyn Brown

ask me if I knew these folks; you asked me if I knew how to get here and then disagreed with me when I said I did.”
    “You could have been up-front and honest,” he said.
    Ace came from across the room and grabbed her hand, bringing it to his lips for a long lingering kiss on each fingertip. “I’m Ace Riley. Don’t pay any attention to him getting even. Can I take you to dinner next week?”
    Wil wanted to shoot his best friend.
    Ace had lovely blue eyes and blond curly hair. Just exactly what Pearl had always been attracted to; however, not one tingling sensation traveled from his lips through her fingertips to set her on fire. It did not affect her nearly as much as a single brush in the doorway with Wil.
    Austin laughed. “Come on in the kitchen and have some supper. Wil said he’d wait for you and he’s been bitchin’ and moanin’ like a little girl about being hungry.”
    “Come on now! I wasn’t that bad.” Wil moved across the room and put a hand on Pearl’s back to lead her to the kitchen.
    Gemma and Colleen followed them. Gemma was the shorter of the two sisters. She had black hair cut in short layers that framed an oval face, deep green eyes beneath arched dark eyebrows and heavy lashes, and a wide mouth. She took care of her short height with a pair of three-inch spike heels. She wore an olive green velvet skirt with three tiers and a white velvet peasant top with olive green edging.
    Colleen’s hair was that strange burgundy color that usually comes out of a bottle. Her face was a little rounder than Gemma’s and her lips a wee bit wider. She was a little taller than her sister but Gemma’s high heels equaled the difference. Her cute designer jeans, Western cut denim shirt with red velvet trim, and red boots said she was definitely a cowgirl.
    “How is it that all the times you were here you never met Wil?” Colleen asked.
    “God was protecting me against that renegade,” Pearl answered.
    And why hasn’t Wil made a play for one of Rye’s sisters? They’re both beautiful and have the same ranching background.
    “More like He was protecting me.” Wil didn’t take his hand away from her back until they were in the kitchen.
    “Are you children arguing?” Maddie joined them and set out the cranberry salad and other dishes that had been put back in the refrigerator.
    Pearl handed Maddie the present. “This is for you.”
    “You shouldn’t have and mustn’t do it again. At least not until next year,” Maddie talked as she tore into it. “Oh, I love it. You remembered how much I love cut flowers, didn’t you? Now get busy and make a plate. If Wil doesn’t eat soon I swear the boy is going to turn into an old bear. O’Donnells and Marshalls are both cranky as hell when they get hungry. And I hear that you worked him pretty hard all afternoon.”
    “He owed me big-time. I saved his neck from the noose this morning,” Pearl said.
    Maddie patted her arm. “I heard. I’m glad the electricity went out and he came to your motel.”
    Austin picked up a dessert plate with poinsettias printed on it. “I’ll have another piece of pecan pie. If I don’t get one soon, Gemma is going to eat it all up from me.”
    “I’ll have a beer with y’all while you eat,” Colleen said.
    “When did you and Colleen meet?” Austin asked.
    Colleen grinned. “We go back to when we were about eighteen. Pearl came to see her aunt and we wound up… well, we won’t talk about where we met or those two handsome cowboys that were there, will we? But I will say that this girl can out-party anyone I ever knew.”
    “That’s all muddy water under the bridge, isn’t it?” Pearl smiled.
    Wil had only known the woman a day and yet Colleen’s comment turned him green with jealousy. He picked up an oversized paper plate and began loading it full of turkey and dressing, candied yams, baked beans, and cranberry salad. “You hang back, you starve.”
    Pearl picked up a plate and got in line behind him.