Free Tex Times Ten by Tina Leonard Page A

the food at Mayfest, you snacked on something out of your truck?” She felt his forehead, which actually felt pretty good to her. Maybe because it was him.
    “I was a little hungry. This was before you’d brought the cookies. Actually, it was before the raffle, even. It seems like hours ago.”
    “Go to sleep,” she said. “You’ll need all your strength for the rodeo. I’ll get you some ginger ale. Later, you can apologize for spreading stupid rumors about my cooking. And use your good manners to thank me for wishing you good luck with the cookies. You know, I could have baked for Ant, since, technically, he’s my rider.”
    “Do you believe that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach? My brothers say that’s what women think.”
    “Well, my Gran always said that’s the way it works.”
    “In that case, you were trying to kill me,” he said with a sigh. “You were trying to tell my stomach exactly how you felt about me, and my heart has heard the news.”
    She rolled her eyes. “You did this to yourself. I’m going to get that ginger ale now.”
    He closed his eyes and put a hand on her wrist. “No. Stay with me.”
    She hesitated. “Um—”
    “You’ve heard what babies men are when they’re sick.”
    He didn’t look like a baby. He looked like a six-foot-four-inch hunk stretched out on the bed, staring at her with dark hair falling into those gorgeous eyes. This was a man who could make a baby any time he put his mind to it. Her pulse sped up uncomfortably.
    “Or we could buck the trend,” he suggested, and she had the suspicion that he was ogling her a bit. “Let me baby you, baby.”
    Her pulse kicked into crazy time. “I think that might stretch the boundaries of our conspiratorial relationship—”
    “Cissy, shut up,” he said, pulling her into the bed and tucking her against him. “You have no sense of humor whatsoever. Now, let me get some rest.”
    Her eyes went huge. He was warm all along the back of her, and there were places on him touching places on her, intimately.
    “Hmm,” he said. “You make my stomach feel better. Like a hot water bottle. By the way, do you want me to lose?”
    “No,” she said, and he said, “Good girl,” and then dropped a featherlight kiss on the back of her neck. She closed her eyes tightly. No. He had not kissed her. His chin had touched her, or his cheek, or his nose, but it was nothing more than that. Or he was really ill. That was it—a comfort kiss.
    But it was clear his brothers were wrong aboutTex’s fear of intimacy. He wasn’t afraid of being close to her.
    Tex might not be afraid, but she was afraid of being close to him. Stiffly, she lay in his arms. She thought about her marriage, which hadn’t been much of a marriage. And then she thought about her family. Nine little faces and Gran. Her three siblings, whom she was terrified she might never see again.
    Tex breathed softly into her hair and muttered something that sounded like “poison.”
    She unstiffened and made herself relax by thinking about the riverboat she’d been on last month with Hannah and Ranger and the riverboat captain, Jellyfish. Even though she’d been there only a short time before Marvella found her, she’d been happy. Something about that riverboat had made her feel relaxed and at peace, the same way she felt at Gran’s. Maybe it was the water. Maybe it was the sensation of gentle movement. But there was peace and beauty all around, surrounding her with calm. She could see why Hannah had married Ranger there. She wished she could have been at the wedding.
    If she had a dream come true, it would be to own a riverboat like that and float forever. There were so many things in her life right now that were upside down. She couldn’t seem to stop worrying. But the cowboy muttering sleepy words in her hair had decided to take up her cause. And just being around him made her feel as if she was going to make it—somehow.
    Of course, he made her crazy,