Free Love Drunk Cowboy by Carolyn Brown Page B

alligator boots, and driving that Caddy.”
    “Are you saying I should change before he gets here?” she asked.
    “No ma’am. I think you are sexy as hell in that outfit. Just don’t be surprised if he hits on you and it won’t have a thing to do with the money Granny left in the trust fund for you. He’s already rich.”
    “What money? We always figured she barely got by from one year to the next. I mean, all she did was grow watermelons.”
    Rye chuckled. “I’ll let the lawyer explain it all, but honey, raisin’ watermelons is like finding gold. She told me part of it but I don’t have the whole story. She played her cards close to her vest. Speaking of which, if a couple of old girls from up at Ryan call and want to come down here for a poker game and you need a fourth hand, call me.”
    “Greta and Molly?”
    She grinned and his heart did a flip, skipped a half-beat, then raced like he’d run a mile on an uphill slope.
    “Don’t let those two old gals fool you into thinking they’re lousy at poker. Me and Granny played with them about once a month. They’ll clean out your bank account and laugh all the way out to Greta’s 1958 Chevrolet truck.”
    Her grin widened. Who would have thought those little blue-haired ladies would be crackpot poker players? Jefferson County was just full of surprises.
    Crates of colored eggs lined the bar and the table was barely cleaned up when ten thirty rolled around. Austin pulled the ponytail holder from her hair and shook loose a mane of dark hair to fall around her shoulders. She started toward the front door at the same time Rye headed for the back door. They collided in the middle of the kitchen floor. He wrapped both arms around her to keep her from falling and she grabbed him firmly around the neck. He looked down into her blue eyes, which were looking up at him. Once again time stood still and Rye felt like he was moving in slow motion. He leaned in and she rolled up on her toes. When their lips met it was like nothing he’d ever experienced before—hot and sweet, brand new and like destiny that had been waiting for him forever, and as he touched the tip of his tongue to hers, he felt his whole body respond with a rush of steaming need and raw desire and heavenly heat. That kiss came close to frying a hole in the kitchen linoleum.
    It set off bells in her head and fire down low in her gut that only a romp between sheets could put out and Austin was not that kind of woman. She did not fall into bed with a man just because he tickled her fancy. Casual sex was for other people; not Austin. The doorbell rang again but she thought it was the crazy music in her head. When it rang a third time she took a step back. “I don’t do that. I’m not that kind of woman. I don’t kiss a man.”
    His heart fell to down to the kitchen floor. “You aren’t straight?”
    “Yes, I’m straight!”
    “Then what are you talking about?”
    “I’m not loose legged, Rye. I’m pretty old-fashioned.”
    “Well, you better get your old-fashioned butt over there and answer the door because I think I saw the shadow of your lawyer giving up.”
    She took off for the door and he slipped out the back door, through the garage, and around the side of the house. He slid down the rough bark of the old shade tree in the backyard and put his head in his hands. He felt as if he’d known Austin Lanier for ten years but nothing had prepared him for the emotional roller coaster set loose in his heart and mind when he saw her in those overalls. Barefoot she was even sexier than she’d been in the fancy business suit down on the river when he’d first seen her and his world tilted ninety degrees to the left.
    Austin opened the front door and yelled in a breathless voice, “Are you Verline Lanier’s lawyer?”
    He was dressed in a three-piece suit that left no doubt that it had not come right off the rack at Sears but had been custom tailored to his slim build. His light brown hair was