Free I am Not Your Melody: (steamy cowboy romance) by Shoshanna Evers Page A

wasn’t Melody — silent, depressed Melody. She’d hated living on the ranch with him, hated collecting the eggs from the chickens, tending to the garden. She wouldn’t even go near even his most gentle horses. Zach, Eric, Jay, and Chris had done everything in their power to make her feel at home on the ranch as well, but nothing worked. She’d retreated further and further into her shell.
    On the night she’d left him to go stay at her mother’s house — even her own separate bedroom wasn’t far enough from Bill for her — the fateful night she swerved in front of some poor trucker on his way home, and died. When Bill heard the devastating news, he’d wondered if she’d done it on purpose.
    He still wondered.
    Melody was the closest thing he’d had to a relationship with a woman that went beyond the few dates and sex. But could it truly have been love when the other person didn’t love you back?
    It was strange to have another woman in the house, especially since Allie was the exact opposite of Melody. She was feisty and loud where Melody was not, even short when Melody was tall. Allie had kissed him with such passion, but Melody had stopped even pretending to want or desire him, her own husband.
    So he needed to stop looking at that door and imagining that Melody was behind it.
    Allie was her own woman — the kind of woman Bill had never imagined himself feeling attracted to, despite the fact that seeing her name in his inbox had been the highlight of his day for the past several months. Yet here he was, interrupting himself when he was with her just to look at her, to hear her shout or whisper or feel her brush up against him…
    No, Allie was no longer just an unseen confidant, no longer solely the woman he’d befriended online sight-unseen. She was here , right behind that door, in person.
    What would happen between them, now that their relationship had been brought into real life?
     
     

Chapter Seven
     
    When Allie woke up, it was to a rooster crow at dawn.
    She shot up in bed. What the heck had happened? She’d only meant to take a little nap.
    That was a whole half-day wasted last night, when she could have been cleaning up the bar. Apparently Bill had let her just sleep all the way through till morning, She must’ve really needed the sleep after all that driving, so it was probably a good thing.
    And she wouldn’t have wanted him waking her up, right? That would’ve involved him coming into her room while she slept, seeing her so vulnerable like that. She didn’t want to be vulnerable in front of Bill. He needed to learn as fast as possible that having half-ownership with her meant she was also the boss. Not only him — in addition to him.
    Two bosses; that could work, why not?
    She peered her head out the guest room door, but didn’t see him. The cabin was small enough that if he was there, she’d know.
    “Bill? Are you here?” she called, just to be sure.
    No reply.
    Allie grabbed her toiletry bag and went into the bathroom, with its river-rock floor and shower stall. No tub.
    When she was all showered, dressed (sensibly this time, in jeans and a tank-top with a sweater for the early-morning chill), and ready to get to work, Allie walked down the driveway that would eventually lead her to the gravel road to the farmhouse.
    It felt good to walk. In Miami, she’d been afraid of the very real threat of getting mugged… or worse. There had been too many stories on the news about crimes against early-morning female joggers (and in one recent instance, a woman just waiting for her bus). That and the sticky, humid heat of Florida had always kept Allie from exercising outdoors.
    But here in Bear Creek Saddle, the air was crisp and smelled of cows, grass, and manure, (which wasn’t nearly as disgusting as she’d have imagined it would be). Maybe she was just getting used to it? Either way, the walking helped clear her mind.
    By the time she’d reached the farmhouse, she was glowing with