by Katie Lane
The tourists who stayed at the hotel loved the history of the boardinghouse as much as they loved sitting on the wide wraparound porch with tall glasses of mint juleps. As Evie climbed the steps, she smiled at the older couple sitting in the white rocking chairs.
“It looks like y’all are having a good afternoon. Nothing like sitting in the shade on a hot Texas day with one of Reba’s special mint juleps.” She glanced over at the man sitting on the other side of the porch. His cowboy boots were propped on the railing and his black cowboy hat rested at an angle over his face. But it was easy to tell by his fisted hands that he was awake and no doubt ticked she’d disrupted his sleep.
“Pardon me,” she said. “My mama always said I could call hogs to supper all the way from Oklahoma with my loud voice.” The polite thing would’ve been for the cowboy to at least acknowledge her apology with a nod. Instead, his hands fisted even tighter. Obviously, he wasn’t from around there. She turned away from him and smiled at the couple. “Y’all enjoy your stay in Simple.” She opened the screen door and then purposely let it slam shut behind her, hoping it really ticked off the rude cowboy.
Once inside the boardinghouse, she forgot about the man and looked around for Reba. She should’ve known she’d find her in the kitchen. Reba loved to cook. Which was a good thing since she had to do plenty of it.
“Good Lord, there must be enough chicken potpies to feed the entire state of Texas,” she said as she entered the kitchen.
Reba whirled from the stove and a bright smile lit her face. “Evie!” She hurried over and pulled her in for a tight hug. Reba had always been the best hugger, her body as soft as her heart.
“Well, aren’t you a sight for sore eyes.” Reba pulled back and her brow wrinkled with concern. “Okay, what’s wrong? I know that troubled look. Is it Clint?”
“It’s not Clint this time. This time, I’m more worried about Penny. I guess you heard about her hooking up with Cru Cassidy.”
“I sure did. She’s been staying here in the garden room.”
“With or without Cru?”
“You know my Aunt Gertie wouldn’t let any unmarried couples stay here on her watch.” Reba paused. “But that doesn’t mean that a slick cowboy couldn’t slip through the garden doors if he had a hankerin’.”
Evie gritted her teeth. “And I’m sure Cru has done plenty of slippin’. Are they here now?” If they were, Cru Cassidy was about to get a piece of her mind. And Penny too for being so gullible. Unfortunately, Reba shook her head.
“They left together early this morning. I guess he found a used house trailer that he wants to buy until they can build a house.”
“My sister is not going to move into a house trailer!”
Reba tipped her head. “Lots of good folks live in house trailers, Evie.”
“I have nothing against trailers. What I meant is that Penny’s not living anywhere with Cru Cassidy.”
Reba’s studied her for a moment before she glanced back at the simmering gravy on the stove. “Let me get this chicken filling into the rest of the pie shells and then we can get out of this hot kitchen and have us a good talk.”
Evie grabbed an apron and helped her by adding the crust to the top of each pie and crimping the edges. In just a short time, they had the potpies in the commercial-sized oven and were sitting in a canopied swing in Reba’s beautiful back garden with big glasses of sweet tea.
“Now do you want to explain why you’re so unhappy about Penny falling in love?” Reba asked.
“I want Penny to find someone to love. But true love doesn’t happen when you only know a person for a few months. That’s called lust. And you can’t build a good relationship on lust.”
“According to what Penny says, they’ve known each other since they were thirteen and fifteen. Cru was one of the troubled boys who stayed at the Double Diamond Ranch that one summer.”
“I know exactly who Cru Cassidy is. And trouble is exactly the word for all the boys Chester and Lucas took in.”
“Which is why I’m upset as heck my mother sent me to fat camp and I missed out on all those delicious-sounding delinquent boys.”
“Believe me, you didn’t miss anything.”
Reba took the lemon slice off the rim of her glass and squeezed it into her tea. “I don’t know about that if Cru is any example of the boys who spent the summer there. Besides being faint-worthy in the looks department, he’s charming, funny, and a true gentlemen. He saw me starting up the lawn mower the other day and insisted on mowing the entire acre. He looks at Penny like she not only hung the moon but also all the stars. He even won over Aunt Gertie and you know how tough she is to win over.”
Evie set her glass on the table next to her. “That’s exactly why the Double Diamond boys are so dangerous. They come off as perfectly harmless. Like they’re these misunderstood boys who didn’t have a fair shake in life. But every single one of those boys deserved to be at a boy’s ranch for the summer. Everyone is a wolf in sheep’s clothing just waiting to pounce. And I’m not going to let my little sister become a wolf’s supper.”
Reba smiled. “I wouldn’t mind being a wolf’s supper. I’ve always liked my men a little hairy and hungry.” She stood. “Speaking of supper, I need to check the potpies and get the salad made.”
“I’ll help you.” Evie started to get up, but Reba waved her off.
“It won’t take me any time. You sit right here and enjoy the garden.”
It was a beautiful garden—if not a little chaotic. There were flowers and plants of every variety growing with no rhyme or reason. Amid the profusion of color and greenery were gray stone benches, bubbling fountains, statues of garden fairies . . . and a little golden rabbit that looked almost life like. When it twitched its little black nose, Evie realized that it was alive. The rabbit stared at her with its big brown eyes for just a second before it disappeared behind a rose bush.
The big pink roses reminded Evie of her mother’s rose garden. Helen Marie Gardener had married into the right name. Her green thumb had been legendary and won her more than a few blue ribbons at the county fair. No flower could die when showered with her mother’s love and attention. She’d showered the same love and attention on her two daughters and they had grown and thrived—until their beloved gardening mother had died.
Then it was like the sun had left the garden and the water had all dried up. Like her mother’s roses, Evie had wanted to shrivel up and die too. But she couldn’t. Not when she had a little sister to care for. So she’d pushed down her grief and become Penny’s surrogate mother.
And she wasn’t done with her job yet.
She pulled her cellphone out of her purse and glanced at the time. It was close to five o’clock. Surely Penny would be back by now. Evie got up and headed along the path that led to the garden room. She weaved her way through the overgrown flowers, pushing lilac bushes and drooping sunflowers out of the way as she went. Stepping around a rosemary bush that had to be five feet wide, she stopped in her tracks.
A man lay in the hammock strung between two flowering mimosa trees. The same man from the front porch. His booted feet were crossed at the ankles, his hands rested on his stomach, and his black cowboy hat covered his face. After she slammed the screen door, he must’ve decided the garden would be a quieter place for a nap.
She didn’t usually pay much attention to men’s bodies. She was too busy working and raising a son to let a few well-placed muscles turn her head. But this man didn’t just have a few well-placed muscles. Every muscle seemed to be exactly where it should be.
Broad shoulders and knotted biceps filled out the shoulders and sleeves of his black t-shirt like it had been painted on. His hands rested on a flat stomach that made Evie wish she’d gotten the salad instead of the chicken nuggets when she and Clint had stopped for lunch and his long, lean legs made her wish she’d brought her iced tea with her. Her mouth felt suddenly dry. It got even drier when her gaze settled on the bulge beneath the worn fly of hi
s jeans.
Yes, the man definitely had nice muscles.
The sound of a throat being cleared had her eyes flashing up. With a cringe of embarrassment, she realized that, even though his hat was tipped low over his face, she could still see his eyes beneath the brim’s shadow. And if she could see his eyes, he could see her. As she struggled to come up with some plausible excuse for ogling him, he removed the cowboy hat.
The sight of his face had her exhaling in a startled whoosh. The dark brown eyes were as piercing and unrelenting as they’d been fifteen years earlier. The cheekbones as high and chiseled. The lips as stern and unsmiling. When he spoke, his sexy Texas drawl cut right through her.
“Checkin’ out my sheep’s clothin’, Evelyn . . . or the wolf beneath?”
Also by Katie Lane
Browse all Katie's novels at www.katielanebooks.com
Brides of Bliss Texas Series:
Spring Texas Bride
Summer Texas Bride
Autumn Texas Bride
Christmas Texas Bride
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Tender Heart Texas Series:
Falling for Tender Heart
Falling Head Over Boots
Falling for a Texas Hellion
Falling for a Cowboy’s Smile
Falling for a Christmas Cowboy
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Deep in the Heart of Texas Series:
Going Cowboy Crazy
Make Mine a Bad Boy
Catch Me a Cowboy
Trouble in Texas
Flirting with Texas
A Match Made in Texas
The Last Cowboy in Texas
My Big Fat Texas Wedding
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Overnight Billionaires Series:
A Billionaire Between the Sheets
A Billionaire After Dark
Waking up with a Billionaire
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Hunk for the Holidays Series:
Hunk for the Holidays
Ring in the Holidays
Unwrapped
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Anthologies:
Small Town Christmas (Jill Shalvis, Hope Ramsay, Katie Lane)
All I Want for Christmas is a Cowboy (Jennifer Ryan, Emma Cane, Katie Lane)
About the Author
Katie Lane is a USA Today Bestselling author of the Deep in the Heart of Texas, Hunk for the Holidays, Overnight Billionaires, Tender Heart Texas, The Brides of Bliss Texas, and Bad Boy Ranch series. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with her cute cairn terrier Roo and her even cuter husband Jimmy.
For more on her writing life or just to chat, check out Katie here:
Facebook www.facebook.com/katielaneauthor
Instagram www.instagram.com/katielanebooks
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And for information on upcoming releases and great giveaways, be sure to sign up for her mailing list at www.katielanebooks.com!