Free A Place Of Our Own (Contemporary Cowboy Romance) (Texas Heat series: Book 3, Jim and Maddies story) by Amelia Rose Page A

power board that was attached to the line running from the house across the way. It would do for now.
     
    She’d bought bottled water in town for drinking and took the ice cube trays from the freezer and poured water into them, before placing them back in the freezer. It was always good to have some ice.
     
    The fan was whirring away in the bedroom so she stripped down to her underwear, stretched out on the bed, and fell asleep straight away. When Jim came back with the water and noticed she was asleep, he decided not to wake her, even though thoughts of what he’d like to do to her were running unedited through his mind. However, tonight would be soon enough.
     
    He went outside and unloaded the fence posts and wire from the pickup before heading back over to the Circle O to pick up some of his clothes, feeling like he was riding on top of the world. He knew he would do well with the Angora goats and was prepared to work his butt off to make it happen.
     

Chapter Ten
     
    Jim was just about to drive through the gates of the Circle O, when Red’s car came screaming down the drive with Andrew at the wheel. To avoid being sideswiped, he found he had to pull off the road in quick time. “Crazy bastard,” he said under his breath.
     
    He drove up to the house to find Red and Penny on the porch, both visibly upset.
     
    “What’s going on?”
     
    “Oh, Andrew is having trouble facing a few home truths,” answered Red. “I expect he’ll need a few days to digest the discussion we just had about ethical business management. But he’ll see the sense of it when he calms down. He’s a good lad underneath but I think he’s been spending too much time listening to a few hard hitters in the Cattleman’s Association and its skewed his thinking to hell.”
     
    “Well, he’d better not bring his skewed ideas in my direction. I won’t stand for him coming between Maddie and me again.”
     
    “Sit down, Jim. Red, why don’t you go and take over the study for a while. It’s been a long while since I’ve had a good talk with Jim.”
     
    “All right, I can tell when I’m not wanted. Come and see me, son, before you leave.”
     
    “Sure, no problem, Dad.”
     
    “So, Jim, I take it you’re pleased with being able to settle down with Maddie now?”
     
    “Of course I am, Mom. It’s all I ever wanted.”
     
    “Now don’t take this the wrong way, Jim, but I need to ask you why you left it to Maddie to make it happen? You’ve hardly been here for the last two years because you’ve been in such a funk and riding fences is the only thing you’ve been good for. Not that there’s anything wrong with riding fences, but it’s like you’ve been withdrawn from the world and suddenly you’ve joined the human race again.”
     
    “I don’t really know, Mom. I guess I’d closed the door on having a future with Maddie. I had nothing to offer her and no way of buying a place of my own. It was hopeless, not to mention Andrew’s opposition to letting me buy part of the Circle O and his efforts to discredit me.”
     
    “Well, I can understand how that made you feel, Jim, and being rejected by the woman you love is no easy thing to deal with either but I have to say, you went about it the wrong way. I’ve held off saying anything until now because you wouldn’t have wanted to listen, but now I have to say a few things to you. Now you have Maddie back, you need to keep her.”
     
    “I have no intention of letting her go again, Mom.”
    “Well, I’m pleased to hear you say that, Jim, because I don’t think that girl deserves anything less after what has happened. Look, what I’m trying to say is I think you handled what happened two years ago the wrong way and I’d be less than a good mother if I didn’t try to help you from putting yourself into that situation again.”
     
    “I said I would never let her go, Mom.”
     
    “Yes, you did. But what I’m talking about goes deeper. You’ve always been