Free A Knight In Cowboy Boots by Suzie Quint Page B

brother, they’re all tough ones to me.”
    Jake craned his neck to see what Zach held. “Is that a job app?”
    “Yeah.”
    “ Her job app?”
    “Yeah.”
    Jake took the paper from Zach. “How’d you get this?”
    “It was sitting on Claudia’s desk, so I made a copy.”
    “She applied for a job here? Before or after she shot you?”
    “After. This morning, in fact.”
    “That’s nervy.”
    “Not really. I got Rachel to arrange the interview.”
    Jake laughed. “I ain’t even going to ask how, but if I ever need Rach talked into anything, you’re gonna be who I come to. How much do you wanna know about this girl?”
    “Whatever I can find out.”
    “You thinking of marrying her? Seems kinda quick. Unless Mamma’s already on your back?”
    “No, she’s not on my back. At least not too hard. And I’m not planning on marrying the girl. It’s more … hell, it’s probably just my imagination running wild. There’s just things about her that don’t seem to line up right.”
    ”You know, for forty or fifty bucks, there’s places on the internet where you can find out all sorts of stuff about folks if you’ve got their social security number.”
    “Really? What kinda things?” Zach said as he pulled a hotel notepad out of the bedside stand.
    “Mostly official stuff. Things like birth records, marriage records. Is it worth it to you?”
    Zach paused. He’d be invading Maddie’s privacy, and she’d probably be madder than hell if she ever found out. But if she checked out, there’d be no reason for her to know. And if she didn’t … well, he’d deal with that then. “Yeah, it’s worth it.” He wrote the number on Maddie’s application down for Jake. As an afterthought, he added the number from the Lincoln. “I got her license plate, too. Can you find out about that?”
    “I think that’s tougher,” Jake said, “but I’ll see what I can do.”
    Zach dug his wallet out of his back pocket. “Here’s forty bucks. Let me know if you need more.”
    “You seeing her again?”
    “I’ve got a supper invite for tomorrow night.” Zach couldn’t help sliding a toe over into bragging mode. Regardless of his suspicions, she was still a hot brunette. “At her place.”
    “And all it cost you was letting her shoot you. You done good. Usually takes years of marriage for a woman to work up to that,” Jake said, letting some the wind out of Zach’s sails.
    “Oh, shut up.”
    “Let me know if she poisons you for dinner.”
    “Yeah, since you’re in pre-vet school, you can come and pump my stomach.”
    “Nah, we just shoot critters who’ve been poisoned. More humane.”
    “Thanks a lot.”
    “No problem.”
    “At least say nice things about me at the burying.”
    “You got it,” Jake said with a smile. “On my way out, I’ll tell Rachel your arm’s fine and that she’s perfectly competent to re-bandage it if you need it. I’ll let you know about the social security number soon, but this afternoon, I gotta study for a test.”
    “You? Study?” Jake was in his last year of pre-vet school at the College Station branch of Texas A&M. The Galveston branch didn’t offer veterinary studies, but Jake kept getting too distracted by the courses that interested him to take the unrelated core requirements a degree required. Galveston didn’t have those distractions.
    “Yeah. I gotta pass this Humanities course. I couldn’t care less about Baroque music, but I guess they think I have a hankering to play some for old Bessie one day.”
    Zach grinned at the mental image that conjured up. “Well, whenever you can. I don’t think she’s going anywhere. Like I said, it’s probably just my overactive imagination anyway.”
    *
    Just before noon, Maddie’s phone rang. She picked it up, half hoping it was Zach, calling to cancel. She got the first half right at least.
    “Hey. What are we having for dinner?”
    “Meatloaf and mashed potatoes with gravy. Isn’t that what you