Free McKettricks of Texas: Austin by Linda Lael Miller Page A

herd on Austin. Not everybody’s cut out to do it.”
    She was about to call her future brother-in-law on his attempt to manipulate her with flattery, but Libby pulled up just then, tooting the horn of a classic red Corvette Paige didn’t recognize.
    After parking behind the truck and horse trailer, Libby got out of the sports car and approached, beaming.
    â€œWhat do you think?” she asked Paige, gesturing toward the shining vehicle.
    Paige blinked. “I think it’s really—red,” she answered, and then laughed, not out of amusement, but out of joy. Her big sister was so happy.
    Libby, meanwhile, climbed onto the running board of Tate’s truck, and the two of them exchanged a quick kiss through the open window. That done, she turned toward Paige again.
    â€œWere you going somewhere?” she asked.
    Paige sighed, shook her head. “Not really,” she answered.
    Tate said he and Garrett would be up at the barn, and the two of them drove off.
    Libby watched them go, a special light glowing in her eyes, then smiled at Paige and gestured toward the Corvette.
    â€œIt won’t do, of course,” Libby said, “but it’s sure fun test-driving the thing.”
    â€œWhy won’t it do?” Paige asked, thinking of her sister’s ancient Impala, with its rust marks and temperamental engine.
    â€œThere’s no room for the twins,” Libby told her, with a tolerant grin. “Or for babies or for the dogs, or for groceries or feed sacks—”
    Paige laughed. “I get the point,” she said. Then, resigned to the fact that she wasn’t going anywhere, for the moment at least, she watched as Libby walked back to the Corvette, got in and started the engine with a deliberate roar.
    As soon as Libby sped by, a flash of red, Paige turned her boring subcompact around and followed her sister up the driveway.
    Why fool herself?
    She probably could have resisted Austin.
    Resisting Molly, the rescued mare, was a whole other matter, though.

CHAPTER FOUR
    I T WAS THE SIGHT OF A HORSE TRAILER that brought Austin out of the house, Shep and Harry, the three-legged beagle, Calvin’s dog, scuttling to keep pace.
    Garrett and Tate gave him passing nods but didn’t speak. They were intent on unloading the new arrival.
    Austin, curious, unable to resist making the acquaintance of yet another four-legged hay burner, hung around, watching. Garrett opened the trailer and pulled down the ramp.
    The small horse lay in the narrow bed of the trailer, delicate legs turned under, barely strong enough, it seemed to Austin, to hold up its head. A black-and-white paint, under all the scruff and dried mud and thistle burrs, the poor critter had been hard done by, that was clear. Its ribs jutted out from its side, each one as clearly differentiated from the next as the rungs on a ladder.
    Austin spat out a swear word and started forward just as Libby and Paige drove up in two different vehicles—Libby was driving a jazzy red ’Vette, while Paige was in her dull subcompact.
    As if by tacit agreement, Tate and Garrett stepped back out of the way so Austin could climb into the trailer. Squatting beside the animal, he ran a slow hand along the length of her neck. The hide felt gritty against Austin’s palm, and damp with sweat.
    â€œMeet Molly,” Tate said, his voice gruff. Briefly, he sketched in the outlines of the call Libby had gotten from her friends at the animal shelter in town, told how he and Garrett had gone straight to the sparse pasture where the mare had apparently been abandoned—they weren’t sure how long ago.
    Never taking his eyes off Molly, Austin listened to the account, swore again, once he’d heard it all and processed it. The mare’s halter was so old and so tight that it was partially embedded in the hide on one side of her head—evidently, somebody had put it on her and then just left it. Her slatted sides heaved