Heart of Texas Series Volume 1: Lonesome CowboyTexas Two-StepCaroline's Child
Page 37
She had a roast in the oven and was peeling potatoes when Cal walked into the kitchen. “Hey, Ellie, how’s it going?” he asked.
“Great,” she said, dropping a freshly peeled potato into a kettle of water.
“You don’t have to do this, you know. But let me tell you I appreciate every morsel.”
Ellie grinned up at him. She was discovering that she liked Cal. Actually she always had, but he could be a difficult man to understand because he often seemed so remote, and sometimes even gruff. She’d been spending more time with him lately, and they’d developed a comfortable rapport. Ellie had even talked him into attending the Fourth of July celebration with her and Glen. To all appearances, he’d enjoyed himself, although he hadn’t asked anyone to dance at the evening festivities. It was a well-known fact that he didn’t trust women, although he was obviously pleased for her and Glen.
“You’re welcome to join Glen and me for dinner any time after we’re married,” she told him. They’d already decided it would be most beneficial, considering her business, for Glen to move into town after the wedding and commute to the ranch every day. Soon they’d be setting up an appointment with a Realtor and looking at houses. Glen hoped to have the deal closed by August so that once they were married, they could move right in. Ellie hoped that was possible, too.
As soon as Glen reappeared, his hair wet and glistening from the shower, Cal quickly left the room. Glen’s arms circled her from behind and he kissed her neck. “Damn, but I love you.”
Now that he was comfortable with the words, he said them often; he seemed to delight in sharing his feelings.
“I love you, too.” The words had no sooner left her lips when she turned in his arms to face him. “I’m worried about Cal.”
“Cal? What’s wrong with my brother?”
“Nothing love wouldn’t cure.”
Glen frowned and took Ellie by the shoulders. “You’ve got that look in your eye. I’ve seen it in my mother’s and Dovie Boyd’s.”
“What look?”
Glen kissed the tip of her nose. “I don’t know what it’s called, but it’s what comes over a woman when she thinks she knows what’s best for a man.”
“I’m not trying to be a...a matchmaker, Glen!”
“But you think Cal needs a woman.”
“He needs to fall in love.”
“He did once,” Glen reminded her.
“Next time it needs to be with a woman who’ll love him just as much in return. Who’ll appreciate him for who he is without trying to change him.”
“And where do you intend to find such a woman?” Glen asked, his gaze holding hers.
“I don’t know, but she’s out there and just waiting for someone like Cal.”
Glen eased Ellie back into his embrace and kissed her with a thoroughness that left no question about his own love for her. “You’re a terrible romantic, Ellie Frasier-soon-to-be-Patterson.”
“I’m a woman in love and I want my almost-brother-in-law to find happiness, too.”
“He’ll have to look for his own partner if he wants to do a Texas two-step.”
Glen drew her closer still.
She smiled up at him. “Well,” she said, “that’s the thing about the two-step. There’s no changing partners if you do it right.” She raised her mouth to his in a teasing kiss.
“You can bet on that.” And he kissed her back.
#1 New York Times Bestselling Author
DEBBIE MACOMBER
Her grandfather wants her to come home, and Molly thinks she just might. His ranch will be a good place for her sons to grow up, a place to escape bigcity influences. Then she learns—from a stranger named Sam—that her grandfather is ill. Possibly dying. Molly packs up the kids without a second thought and makes the long drive to Sweetgrass, Montana.
She immediately has questions about Sam Dakota. Why is he working on her grandfather’s ranch? Why doesn’t the sheriff trust him? Just who is he? But despite everything, Molly can’t deny her attraction to Sam—until her ailing grandfather tries to push them into marriage.
Some borders aren’t so easy to cross….
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Debbie Macomber is a number one New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author. Her books include 1225 Christmas Tree Lane, 1105 Yakima Street, A Turn in the Road, Hannah’s List and Debbie Macomber’s Christmas Cookbook, as well as Twenty Wishes, Summer on Blossom Street and Call Me Mrs. Miracle. She has become a leading voice in women’s fiction worldwide and her work has appeared on every major bestseller list, including those of the New York Times, USA TODAY, Publishers Weekly and Entertainment Weekly. She is a multiple award winner, and won the 2005 Quill Award for Best Romance. There are more than 100 million copies of her books in print. Two of her MIRA Christmas titles have been made into Hallmark Channel Original Movies, and the Hallmark Channel has recently launched a series based on her bestselling Cedar Cove series. For more information on Debbie and her books, visit her website, www.DebbieMacomber.com
ISBN: 978-1-4603-1443-2
Texas Two-Step
Copyright © 1998 by Debbie Macomber
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Caroline’s Child
New York Times Bestselling Author
Debbie Macomber
Who’s the father of Caroline’s child? Everyone in Promise wants to know, but no one’s ever asked-or ever will. Maggie’s five now, and Caroline Daniels has kept her silence all these years. It doesn’t change how the people in this community feel about Caroline. They’re protective of her and Maggie; they care. Especially rancher Grady Weston, who’s beginning to realize he more than cares.
Look for more heartwarming titles from New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber, available now from Harlequin MIRA!
Other titles by Debbie Macomber now available wherever Harlequin ebooks are sold:
Blossom Street Books
> The Shop on Blossom Street
A Good Yarn
Susannah’s Garden
Back on Blossom Street
Twenty Wishes
Summer on Blossom Street
Hannah’s List
The Knitting Diaries: “The Twenty-First Wish”
A Turn in the Road
Cedar Cove Books
16 Lighthouse Road
204 Rosewood Lane
311 Pelican Court
44 Cranberry Point
50 Harbor Street
6 Rainier Drive
74 Seaside Avenue
8 Sandpiper Way
92 Pacific Boulevard
1022 Evergreen Place
A Cedar Cove Christmas (5-B Poppy Lane and Christmas in Cedar Cove)
1105 Yakima Street
1225 Christmas Tree Lane
Dakota Series
Dakota Born
Dakota Home
Always Dakota
The Manning Family
The Manning Sisters
The Manning Brides
The Manning Grooms
Christmas Books
A Gift to Last
On a Snowy Night
Home for the Holidays
Glad Tidings
Christmas Wishes
Small Town Christmas
When Christmas Comes (now retitled Trading Christmas)
There’s Something About Christmas
Christmas Letters
Where Angels Go
The Perfect Christmas
Angels at Christmas (Those Christmas Angels and Where Angels Go)
Call Me Mrs. Miracle
Heart of Texas Series
VOLUME 1 (Lonesome Cowboy and Texas Two-Step)
VOLUME 2 (Caroline’s Child and Dr. Texas)
VOLUME 3 (Nell’s Cowboy and Lone Star Baby)
Promise, Texas
Return to Promise
Midnight Sons
VOLUME 1 (Brides for Brothers and The Marriage Risk)
VOLUME 2 (Daddy’s Little Helper and Because of the Baby)
VOLUME 3 (Falling for Him, Ending in Marriage and Midnight Sons and Daughters)
This Matter of Marriage
Montana
Thursdays at Eight
Between Friends
Changing Habits
Married in Seattle (First Comes Marriage and Wanted: Perfect Partner)
Right Next Door (Father’s Day and The Courtship of Carol Sommars)
The Man You’ll Marry (The First Man You Meet and The Man You’ll Marry)
Orchard Valley Grooms (Valerie and Stephanie)
Orchard Valley Brides (Norah and Lone Star Lovin’ )
The Sooner the Better
An Engagement in Seattle (Groom Wanted and Bride Wanted)
Debbie Macomber’s Cedar Cove Cookbook
Debbie Macomber’s Christmas Cookbook
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
1
CLUTCHING THE MAIL IN ONE HAND, Grady Weston paced the narrow corridor inside the post office. He glanced distractedly at the row of mailboxes, gathering his courage before he approached Caroline Daniels, the postmistress.
His tongue felt as if it’d wrapped itself around his front teeth, and he was beginning to doubt he’d be able to utter a single sensible word. It shouldn’t be so damned difficult to let a woman know he found her attractive!
“Grady?” Caroline’s voice reached out to him.
He spun around, not seeing her. Great. Not only was he dreaming about her, now he was hearing her voice.
“Open your box,” she instructed.
He fumbled for the key and twisted open the small rectangular door, then peered in. Sure enough, Caroline was there. Not all of her, just her brown eyes, her pert little nose and lovely mouth.
If he’d possessed his brother’s gift for flattery, Grady would have said something clever. Made some flowery remark. Unfortunately all he managed was a gruff unfriendly sounding “Hello.”
“Hi.”
Caroline had beautiful eyes, dark and rich like freshly brewed coffee, which was about as poetic as Grady got. Large and limpid, they reminded him of a calf’s, but he figured that might not be something a woman wanted to hear, even if he considered it a compliment. This was the problem, Grady decided. He didn’t know how to talk to a woman. In fact, it’d been more than six years since he’d gone out on an actual date.
“Can I help you with anything?” she asked.
He wanted to invite her to lunch, and although that seemed a simple enough request, he couldn’t make himself ask her. Probably because their relationship so far hadn’t been too promising. Calling it a “relationship” wasn’t really accurate, since they’d barely exchanged a civil word and had never so much as held hands. Mostly they snapped at each other, disagreed and argued—if they were speaking at all. True, they’d danced once; it’d been nice, but only when he could stop worrying about stepping on her toes.
Who was he kidding? Holding Caroline in his arms had been more than nice, it had been wonderful. In the month since, he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about that one dance. Every night when he climbed into bed and closed his eyes, Caroline was there to greet him. He could still feel her softness against him, could almost smell the faint scent of her cologne. The dance had been ladies’ choice, and that was enough to let him believe—hope—she might actually hold some regard for him, too. Despite their disagreements, he’d been the one she’d chosen to ask.
“You had lunch yet?” Grady asked, his voice brusque. He didn’t mean to sound angry or unfriendly. The timbre of his voice and his abrupt way of speaking had caused him plenty of problems with Maggie, Caroline’s five-year-old daughter. He’d been trying to get in the kid’s good graces for months now, with only limited success. But he’d tried. He hoped Caroline and Maggie gave him credit for that.
Caroline’s mouth broke into a wide grin. “Lunch? Not yet, and I’m starved.”
Grady’s spirits lifted considerably. “Well, then, I was thinking, seeing as I haven’t eaten myself…” The words stumbled all over themselves in his eagerness to get them out. “You want to join me?”
“Sure, but let me get this straight. Is this an invitation, as in a date?”
“No.” His response was instinctive, given without thought. He’d been denying his feelings for her so long that his answer had come automatically. He feared, too, that she might misread his intentions. He was attracted to Caroline and he wanted to know her better, but beyond that—he wasn’t sure. Hell, what he knew about love and marriage wouldn’t fill a one-inch column of the Promise Gazette.
Some of the happiness faded from her smile. “Understood. Give me a few minutes and I’ll meet you out front.” She moved out of his range of vision.
Grady closed the box, but left his hand on the key. How could anyone with the skills to run a thriving cattle ranch in the Texas hill country be such a fool when it came to women?
He rapped on the post-office box hard enough to hurt his knuckles. “Caroline!” Then he realized he had to open the box. He did that, then stared through it and shouted for her a second time. “Caroline!”
Her face appeared, eyes snapping with impatience. “What’s the rush?” she demanded. “I said it’d take me a few minutes.”
The edges of the postbox cut into his forehead and chin and knocked his Stetson askew. “This is a date, all right?”
She stared back at him from the other side, and either she was overwhelmed by his offer to buy her lunch or surprised into speechlessness.
“All right?” he repeated. “This is a date.”
She continued to look at him. “I shouldn’t have asked,” she finally said.
&n
bsp; “I’m glad you did.” And he was. He could think of no better way to set things straight. He hadn’t invited her to lunch because he needed someone to pass the time with; if that was what he’d wanted, he could have asked his sister, Savannah, or her husband or Cal Patterson—or any number of people. No, he’d asked Caroline because he wanted to be with her. For once he longed to talk to her without interference or advice from his matchmaking sister. It didn’t help to have Maggie there hiding her face in her mother’s lap every time he walked into the room, either. This afternoon it’d be just the two of them. Caroline and him.
Grady respectfully removed his hat when she joined him in the lobby.
“This is a pleasant surprise,” Caroline said.
“I was in town, anyway.” He didn’t mention that he’d rearranged his entire day for this opportunity. It was hard enough admitting that to himself, let alone Caroline.
“Where would you like to eat?” he asked. The town had three good restaurants: the café in the bowling alley; the Chili Pepper, a Texas barbecue place; and a Mexican restaurant run by the Chavez family.
“How about Mexican Lindo?” Caroline suggested.
It was the one he would have chosen himself. “Great.”
Since the restaurant was on Fourth Avenue, only two blocks from the post office, they walked there, chatting as they went. Or rather, Caroline chatted and he responded with grunts and murmurs.
Grady had long ago realized he lacked the ability to make small talk. Unlike his younger brother, Richard, who could charm his way into—or out of—anything. Grady tried not to feel inadequate, but he was distinctly relieved when they got to the restaurant.
In a few minutes they were seated at a table, served water and a bowl of tortilla chips along with a dish of extra-hot salsa. He reached for a chip, scooped up as much salsa as it would hold and popped it in his mouth. He ate another and then another before he noticed that Caroline hadn’t touched a single chip.
He raised his eyes to hers and stopped chewing, his mouth full.