Free How to Lasso a Cowboy by Shirley Jump

refused. She liked her little bungalow, and liked calling her own shots, whether or not they were doctor-advised choices.
    Although sometimes she just up and took a walk—whichdrove Sophie crazy with worry—by and large, Grandma Watson would be sure to go out with a friend, usually with Mildred. The two of them were often coconspirators in Sophie’s life, both determined to find Sophie’s Mr. Right.
    â€œHey, Grandma, what are you doing here?” Sophie leaned over and drew her eighty-year-old grandmother into a quick hug. “Don’t tell me you’re meeting your own date.”
    Grandma Watson laughed. “Goodness, no. At my age, I don’t need a date, I need an electric blanket.”
    Sophie chuckled. “I didn’t know you wanted to come down here today. I would have picked you up and drove you over.”
    Her grandmother waved off the words. “You do enough for me, dear. I wasn’t going to call you. It’s such a splendid day, I decided to walk here on my own.”
    â€œWalk? All the way here?”
    Grandma made a face. “The doctor told me to exercise, and so I am.”
    â€œI know, but—”
    â€œDon’t but me, young lady. It’s only two blocks and I did just fine moving under my own steam.”
    Sophie wanted to argue that her grandmother should take more precautions. Her hip was still a fragile thing, and walking even a block alone wasn’t necessarily a good idea. Particularly as the days grew warmer. It may be the first part of April, barely spring, but the sun wasn’t paying attention—as the day moved into afternoon, the Florida temps were bumping at the bottom edge of the eighties. Too hot, in Sophie’s opinion, for her fragile Grandma. They’d had these arguments a hundred times in the past, though, and it hadn’t gotten Sophie anywhere.
    â€œSo, are you here with your intended?” Grandma asked.
    â€œI’m meeting the match Mildred gave me,” Sophie said. “I wouldn’t call him my intended anything.”
    Grandma laughed. “Well, you never know, dear, where love might find you. And I happen to think Mildred has excellent matchmaking skills. She’s been pairing up people for sixty years. Did you know she introduced Joe and Ellen? They’ve been married for forty-five years now.” Grandma wagged a finger at Sophie. “That could be you.”
    Sophie put up two hands to ward off the possibility. She was in no mood to get serious, or committed, to anyone. The end of her engagement to Jim had been a learning lesson and a half about how impossible it was to have it all—a fledgling business that demanded most of her time and meaningful relationship. The last straw had been Jim’s words after the rehearsal dinner— you’re going to have to choose, Sophie, because I refuse to be second banana to a cup of coffee. And in a public career like mine, I don’t need people joking about my working wife and her little coffee shop.
    They’d had a fight, and Jim had apologized, but by the next morning, Sophie knew she couldn’t go through with the wedding. The blinders had fallen off, and she’d finally seen the faults she’d been missing for so long. She could never marry a man who didn’t support her—then or now. And worse, a man in the public eye, who made his living catering to the very media that had hounded Sophie after she’d run out of the church. But she kept those thoughts to herself, because Grandma seemed determined to get Sophie married off.
    â€œSo how are you feeling lately?”
    Grandma patted Sophie’s knee. “I’m just fine, dear. You don’t need to worry about me.”
    â€œI worry all the same.” Sophie lowered her sunglasses and eyed her grandmother. “Are you doing your physical therapy exercises?”
    Grandma’s nod was less than convincing.
    â€œYou know you have to do them if