Beautiful Bandit (Lone Star Legends) by Lough Loree

Author:Lough, Loree [Lough, Loree]
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, Christian fiction, Christian, Ranchers, Fiction, Ranchers - Texas, Western, Historical, Texas, Love stories
ISBN: 9781603742252
Publisher: Whitaker House
Published: 2010-08-01T04:00:00+00:00

24

Esther seemed perfectly content to chatter with the children gathered around her knees, so, after pulling up a small side table to hold her teacup, Kate headed for the spot where she’d last seen Josh. But he wasn’t near the walkway, on the porch, or in the kitchen. Had she misunderstood him when he’d said that he’d wait for her?

She had no business falling for the cowboy, a fact that loomed larger with every passing hour. At first, Kate had told herself that any woman would feel the same way if she’d been rescued from certain doom and then protected by a handsome hero. But it hadn’t taken long to figure out that saying something over and over couldn’t turn it into truth.

Kate sat down on the top porch step and scanned the lawn. It should have been easy to find Josh among the partygoers, since he towered over just about everyone, but she didn’t see him near the bandstand or the food tables, and he wasn’t with his parents or his cousins or his grandmother, either. With her elbows propped on her knees, Kate rested her chin in an upturned palm and frowned. “Mindless little ninny,” she muttered. “You’re foolish and crazy, to boot, and you’d better get ahold of yourself, and do it quick, or—”

“Well, there’s an effective way to make sure someone’s listening.”

Every gloomy thought vanished at the sound of his rich, baritone voice. “I don’t always talk to myself, you know,” she said, looking up at Josh and hoping the words hadn’t sounded as defensive to him as they had to her own ears. Kate patted the space beside her.

He accepted her invitation and lowered himself down to the step. “I see. So, you talk to yourself only when there’s no one else around to hear you?”

How was it that he could change her mood from melancholy to merry with nothing but his amazing smile? Kate tried to recall exactly what he’d said earlier, about how spending so much time with her on the trail had made being without her seem odd. The simple memory of it made her heart beat a tad faster.

She looked past him to where Esther sat in the shade, surrounded by a dozen children. “She’s quite the entertainer, that grandmother of yours.” Better to change the subject, Kate thought, than risk exposing herself for the brainless twit she’d become, thanks to her feelings for him.

Josh followed her gaze. “Few things tickle her more than having a bunch of young’uns around her feet.”

Oh, how she wanted to trace the contours of that perfect profile!

It’s precisely thoughts like that you need to watch out for! she berated herself. And then, just to be safe, Kate sat on her hands. “She’s a natural-born storyteller. Just look at them, hanging on every word she says!”

When he turned and looked into her eyes—deeply—Kate fought the urge to close hers. Because if what they said about the eyes being a window to the soul was true, she

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