Free Love Drunk Cowboy by Carolyn Brown

can’t go back out there with naughty thoughts like this.
    She flipped through the hangers in the closet while she removed her pajamas and put on a bra, but she’d brought nothing to wear while dying Easter eggs. She took a pair of khaki capris from a hanger and had one leg in them before she remembered that they cost too much to ruin with dye. That’s when she saw Verline’s faded overalls hanging in the closet.
    She and her grandmother were both five feet ten inches and there probably wasn’t ten pounds difference in their weight so the overalls should fit fine. She stepped into them. They were comfortable. She found a sleeveless chambray shirt, put it on and buttoned it up the front, then flipped the galluses over her shoulder and fastened them. She rolled the legs up to right under her knees and slid her feet into an old pair of rubber flip-flops she found on the closet floor. Then she secured her shoulder length hair up into a ponytail and giggled at her reflection in the long mirror. “Farmer Jane. Mother would be appalled. I should have Rye take a picture of me with my cell phone and send it to her. She would either drop dead with a heart attack or fly down here and jerk me back to Tulsa so fast I’d think this was all a dream.”
    Mismatched coffee cups filled with six different colors of egg dye were sitting on the table. Two crates of eggs were cooked, cooled, dried, and waiting. Rye was working on another crate when she walked in the kitchen. His mind went stone cold dead. Not one word would form and all he could do was stare. Dressed up she was stunning. In pajamas she was sexy. In those adorable overalls, she took his breath away.
    He started across the floor with a crate of eggs, stumbled, and had to do some fancy footwork to keep from dumping two dozen eggs right at her feet. Only four fell out, but he managed to step on all four in his attempt to get his balance.
    “I bet you say you can’t dance,” Austin laughed. “Only messed up four. That’s a miracle.” She rolled off several rounds of paper towels and bent down to clean the smashed eggs from the floor.
    He started at the back of her long legs but his gaze stopped at her rounded rear end just inches from his fingertips. He was glad he still had a crate of eggs in his hands or he would have patted that fanny even if it cost him a hard slap on the face.
    “I can dance. Want to go honky tonkin’ with me?” He set the eggs down, grabbed the paper towels to help her, bent down, and butted heads with her as she was standing up.
    The woman would think he was a klutz. Thank goodness she didn’t know about him forgetting to change out of his best clothing. Or that he’d actually forgotten the feed yesterday. Or that he’d come close to burning down the house the night before when he was thinking about her.
    He sat flat down in the floor. “I’m sorry.”
    She joined him, holding her head. “It was my fault. I should’ve said I was standing up.”
    “Let me see.” He pushed back her hair and checked her forehead with his fingertips. There was the heat again, boiling up from deep inside his body. He looked into her eyes and time stood still for what seemed like eternity. He knew this was a bad idea but a tractor trailer and a team of six horses couldn’t have stopped him from leaning in for that kiss, especially when Austin gulped and then nervously licked her lips. He just about pounced right then, but used every ounce of his willpower to move slowly. He could hardly wait to kiss her, but then the phone rang. He froze, and she stared at him for a beat, but the moment was over so he took a deep breath and sat back.
    Austin had wanted that kiss—she was just about drawn to that man’s lips like flies to honey—and then the blasted phone rang. She didn’t even care if his kiss did melt her lips off her face. She’d hire a plastic surgeon to build her some new ones.
    He helped her up with one hand.
    She grabbed the kitchen phone on the