Free How to Kiss a Cowboy by Joanne Kennedy Page B

vanity, pride, and lust. He loved to brag about how some sweet young thing kept calling him. He’d lead them on, then stop answering their calls once he’d gotten what he wanted.
    Brady was better than that. Not much better, but he was working on it.
    At least he and Suze had talked last night. She’d shared some of the problems she was having with her dad, with her finances.
    Wait a minute.
    Her finances.
    This was a chance for Brady to prove himself, to be a better man than Cooter. Suze might have rejected him, shoved him out the door, but he had a chance to help her, and he was going to do it.
    Red picked up the tab the waitress had dropped off and passed her his credit card. Sliding their lists of names into a binder he’d brought along, he started to stand up.
    â€œHey, wait a minute, Red. I got another one for you.”
    â€œYeah?”
    â€œYeah. Suze Carlyle.”
    Cooter let out a big har-de-har laugh, slapping his thigh. “That stuck-up bitch? She won’t give a man the time of day. I think she’s a lezzy.”
    Brady gave him a tight smile. “She’s not. Not that it should matter.”
    â€œShe’s not, huh? How do you know?” A slow smile spread across Cooter’s broad face. “You get a piece of that, Caine? Shit, nobody I know’s ever—”
    Red slid across the vinyl bench seat and stood. “Shut up, Cooter.”
    Cooter shut up.
    Brady slowly unclenched the fist he’d been preparing to drive into the side of the picture-perfect face that fronted Cooter’s tiny brain, and took a deep breath.
    â€œI’ve seen Suze Carlyle, Brady. I just don’t know if she’s got the look we want.”
    Cooter started to speak, then glanced at Brady and shut his mouth.
    â€œThat’s because she’s an athlete, not a model. She’s a great person—just the kind of strong woman you’re talking about. She dresses kind of sloppy, but I’m sure she’d change that if you gave her the deal. And that would attract a lot of attention. I mean, she’s a two-time world champion, and she’s always worn baggy jeans and men’s shirts. If she started turning up looking great in Lariat’s clothes, people would notice. I guarantee it.”
    â€œHmm.” Red tapped a pencil on the table, then wrote “Susan Carlisle” on Brady’s paper.
    â€œIt’s Suzanne, with a z and two n ’s,” Brady said. “And I think Carlyle is with a y . C-A-R-L-Y-L-E.”
    â€œGeez, you gonna marry her, Caine?” Cooter asked. “Seems like you know a lot about her.”
    Red ignored him. “Was her mother Ellen Carlyle?”
    â€œYup.” Brady grinned. “And when she takes off that old hat and dresses up, she looks exactly like her mom.”
    Actually, he’d never seen Suze dress up. But he’d seen her naked, and he’d seen her happy.
    Because for a little while, he had made her happy. And he’d discovered she had a beauty no other woman he knew could match.

Chapter 10
    Brady was smack-dab in the middle of the best rodeo season of his life when he pulled into the Grigsby rodeo arena for a photo shoot two months later. It was nearly Independence Day, also known as Cowboy Christmas for the amount of money a cowboy could take in at all the big rodeos that weekend. If Brady was as successful at those competitions as he’d been this past weekend, he’d be on his way to the National Finals in Vegas for the first time.
    Suze Carlyle might have thrown him out of her trailer, but she’d done him a big favor. He’d taken her advice and focused hard on his sport, and it was working.
    Not that she’d noticed. Despite his newfound success over the past two months, she hadn’t changed her attitude. Every time she saw him, she flipped that long, blond braid and tossed him a scornful glare.
    Tucking in his shirt, he adjusted his belt buckle and everything