Free The Cattleman (Sons of Texas Book 2) by Anna Jeffrey Page B

door. Pic admired her perfectly-shaped body from behind. She was tall and slim, had a swimmer’s long lean muscles. She had been swimming on Drinkwell’s pitiful swim teams since adolescence. She was like a damn fish and Pic couldn’t swim a stroke. He even feared water that was more than knee deep. Though he had lost touch with her after he got married and she left Drinkwell, he had heard she raced in college.
    He watched her slip on the pink robe and tie it closed, hiding her nakedness. “When did you cut your hair?”
    “You just now noticed it?”
    “I noticed.” He grinned. “But I had other things on my mind.”
    “Last week.” Turning toward him, she ran her fingers through it and fluffed it out. “What do you think of it?”
    Her shiny brown hair had been past her shoulders for as long as he had known her, but now it was almost as short as his. He liked her hair long, but it was her hair. How could he tell her how to wear it? He shrugged. “It’s really short. But it’s fine.”
    “You don’t have to be so enthusiastic,” she said, laughing. She gave his shoulder a girly punch.
    Her laugh had a musical quality to it. Hearing it made him want to laugh too. “Baby, it’s fine. You look pretty no matter what length your hair is. You look like a pixie.”
    “ You think so?” She turned back to the mirror and picked at a few strands. “I guess it is sort of a gamin look. I know you liked it long, but I had it cut because it wasn’t in good shape and I’m going to be in the pool more now.”
    Thank God she had dropped the talk about babies. “Why’s that?”
    “Remember me telling you about the new coaching techniques I learned at that workshop I went to in Houston? I’ve been thinking a lot about it and I’ve decided to put some of what I learned in place here. I’ve revamped my program. Believe it or not, I’ll be bringing tiny little Drinkwell’s girls’ swim team to the cutting edge of the sport.”
    Pic didn’t doubt she could accomplish this. Besides his big brother Drake, she was the most positive-thinking, goal-oriented person he knew. She had been that way even when they were teenagers. “I thought it was already cutting edge. Those girls have won two state championships.”
    “But they can be better. And I’m going to teach them things some of them can take beyond Drinkwell.”
    “Big plans, baby. Sounds like a big job.”
    “It is. I’m doing it for two reasons only. Sarah Nelson and Alicia Gonzalez. They’re two of my returning seniors. You know their families, don’t you?”
    Sarah Nelson’s daddy was the only plumber in town and Alejandro Gonzales owned the only landscaping business. “Yeah, I know ’em.”
    “ Both of those girls are good enough to get scholarships.”
    His Mandy was a natural-born caretaker. “Good Lord, Mandy. Everybody in Treadway County already thinks you’re a hero, including me. Next thing you know, they’ll be hanging your picture alongside the rest of the school dignitaries.”
    She smiled. “Wouldn’t that be fun? But that isn’t what I really care about. What I really want is to get those two girls some help to go to college.”
    Before they could take the conversation further, Pic glanced at the digital clock on her vanity. “We’re gonna have to give up something, darlin’. We’re not gonna have time for supper, the rodeo and the dance all three.”
    “We don’t have to go to Stephenville. I’ve got some cold chicken. Or I could bake a frozen pizza. We could eat, then go back to bed and watch a movie.” She left the bathroom. “I’ll be right back,” she called over her shoulder.
    She returned a minute later with a blue robe she had bought him to wear at her house. Wearing a robe made him feel silly, but he had already resigned himself to it back when she had gone to the trouble of buying it for him. After all, he couldn’t walk around her house butt-naked. He shrugged into it. “You don’t want to go to the rodeo?