Free Her Summer Cowboy by Katherine Garbera - Her Summer Cowboy Page B

stirring to life in him and pretending they were together somewhere else.
    He walked over and sat down next to her on the bed. She arched one eyebrow at him. “Seriously?”
    “Woman, it’s your fault for cupping my butt in the airport. I’ve been thinking about you since then.”
    Moving so fast she startled him, she straddled his lap and pushed his hat off his head. She pushed her fingers through his hair and brought her mouth down on his. Her tongue rubbed over his and she kissed him in a way that made him almost forget his name.
    The she stood up and winked at him. “Well that’s to keep you until later. You’ve got to see your dad and teach me to ride a horse, and we only have a week.”
    He stood up and ambled over to her, tipped her chin up with his finger underneath it and leaned down to give her a soft, slow kiss. Pouring all the technique he could muster with his body on fire for her into it.
    Then he picked his hat up and walked away. He slowly walked down the stairs and stood there in the hallway. It was hard to believe he was back home and that once this summer was over he’d stay here. He had to figure out what was next.
    Being with his brothers had been nice and it felt right in his soul to be here again. But there was something missing. Something that it almost felt like Emma could fill except she wasn’t going to stay in Marietta. She was going to be going back to Georgia.
    *
    The horse she’d been given to ride was called Buttercup and was an easy-going mare. She followed Hudson’s horse on a rough sort of trail that meandered alongside a thick ribbon of a river. He hadn’t said much to her when he’d come back from his father’s. Just that his dad hadn’t been at home. He had a tight look around his face that she remembered from dealing with her own folks when they’d been alive.
    There were times when she missed them so keenly it was almost a physical ache. Even knowing they sometimes hadn’t gotten along she’d still take them back. He pulled his horse to a stop in a small copse of trees and gracefully got off his horse. She sat there staring at him.
    She wasn’t sure she could hop off with as much grace so she waited until he turned to his saddlebags and swung her leg over the saddle. It was a long way down and she sort of hung there with her boot reaching for the ground before her arms gave way and she landed hard, but upright.
    “Nice job. We’ll make you a cowgirl yet,” he said.
    “Maybe. I certainly enjoyed the ride. This is the kind of place Gramps is singing about when he talks of God’s country.”
    “It surely is,” he said. “Just drop your reins on the ground and Buttercup will stay put.”
    She did as he’d said and got the thermos of lemonade out of her saddlebag and the bag of cookies he’d given her to carry. He had a thin blanket that he’d taken from his saddlebag and then held his hand out to her.
    He was subdued now. Not the brassy, cocky guy—though he’d never really been that way with her. He’d sort of been like that with his brothers. But not with her. With her even when he was trying to keep her from Gramps, he’d always been kind.
    He spread the blanket out under the trees and she sat down while he took the saddles off the horses and let them graze. He came back setting his saddle down at one end and leaning back against it.
    It was hard to read the expression in her eyes as she stared out at the horizon.
    “What’s between you and your dad?”
    He shrugged those big shoulders of his and reached for cookies, taking one out and eating it. “Some old stuff. He refuses to budge an inch on anything. So do I.”
    “It might be best to back down,” she said.
    “You don’t even know what the argument is about,” he said. “Are you really siding with my dad?”
    She crossed her arms under her breasts and sat up straighter. He didn’t look quite as relaxed now either. That was when she realized he was spoiling for a fight. She was tempted to