Free Blame it on Texas by Tori Scott Page B

to you. Don't make her choose between you and whoever she falls in love with."
    A crease appeared between his furrowed brows. "I wouldn't do that."
    "You might not mean to, but if you show your disapproval every time she gets interested in a man you don't think is suitable, you're forcing her to make a choice." She started to reach out to touch him, but his stiff posture made her keep her hand at her side. "Please try not to interfere between her and Jake."
     
     

CHAPTER SEVEN
     
    It was midnight and way past Katie's bedtime by the time the last guest left. Logan tucked his daughter in and kissed her good night, then went back to his office. He tried to work on the game he was designing, but he was too restless to settle down.
    He shoved his chair back and pushed one hand through his hair. He knew Megan was right about Carol and Jake, but he didn't want his sister to settle for a life of hardship when she didn't have to. She could marry a businessman just as easily as she could a rancher. And her life would be a damned sight better if she did.
    It was obvious he wasn't going to get any work done tonight. He stood up and stretched, then went into the kitchen and took a beer from the refrigerator. The house was quiet, the lights out. Everyone else had gone to bed.
    He left the lights off and went out the back door without locking it, not heading anywhere in particular. Deciding he needed to work off his frustration, he headed for the barn. Blue got up to tag along, but Logan told him to stay, then went back and put him in the house so he wouldn't follow him.
    The stall where Black Bertha had delivered her calf sat empty. They'd been moved outside to the large pen so Big Mac, as Katie had named him, could take a day to get his sea legs and Bertha could have time to recover before they were returned to the herd. Megan wanted to keep and eye on both of them for at least twenty-four hours. Logan shook his head. Megan had fallen hard for the calf, with his big brown eyes and a star in the middle of his forehead.
    Vets couldn't afford to invest emotionally in the animals they treated. That was a sure fire way to get her heart broken. But she'd waved away his concerns and said that her love of animals was the reason for her career choice and if she quit falling in love with them, she might as well quit her profession.
    Women. They let themselves get too emotionally involved in everything, and ended up hurt time after time.
    Logan grabbed a pitchfork and started mucking out the stall, piling the blood stained hay in a corner until he could dispose of it. Then he used a power washer to clean the floor before putting clean hay in the stall. He hoped the physical labor would make him tired enough to finally be able to sleep.
    ***
    Megan sat straight up in the bed, awakened from a deep sleep by a noise she couldn't identify. Then she heard it again. A deep, guttural growl. A coyote? No, they howled, didn't they? When it happened again, she shoved the covers back and slipped her shorts on under her long t-shirt, then slid her feet into her tennis shoes.
    Before she reached her bedroom door, she heard ferocious barking, then the sound of glass shattering. She took off running. Charlie's room was next to hers, so she stopped to check on him first. His eyes were open wide with fear. "Katie," he said in that strange, twisted language of his.
    "It'll be okay. I'm going to check on her now."
    Nancy and Jean met her in the hall.
    "What's going on?" they both asked at once. Jean looked scared, Nancy more curious than frightened.
    "I don't know, but I'm going to find out. Would you two stay with Charlie? He's worried about Katie."
    They nodded and went into his room and closed the door, so Megan went to Katie's room. Where was Logan? Surely he'd heard the ruckus?
    Carol was in Katie's room, on the phone. She waved at Megan to be quiet. "Jake, please, can you come over here? We've had a break in, and I can't find Katie. I don't know where Logan