Clara and the Cowboy by Erica Vetsch

Author:Erica Vetsch
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2014-05-12T17:39:48+00:00

Ten

The Colonel’s birthday dinner went off without a hitch. Until dessert.

Alec couldn’t help but notice the way Clara’s eyes glowed in the light of the candles on the cake she carried in from the kitchen. The bell sleeves of her yellow dress fell back revealing her slender wrists.

He snatched his napkin from his lap and stood—a fraction of a second after Steadman Devers.

The light from the fancy table candles ran in silky lines along Clara’s hair, and when she bent to set the cake on the table, a light floral scent accompanied the movement. “Happy birthday, Father.” She smiled, her cheeks pink.

The Colonel beamed with pleasure. “Thank you, my dear. And thank all of you for coming.” He looked around the table at his guests, his attention and smile lingering longest on his daughter and Devers. “I don’t know if I can get all the candles blown out in one go, but I’ll try.”

Clara served the Colonel first then gave a big piece to Devers.

“Thank you, Miss Clara. I do wish Sparks could’ve joined us tonight. He sends his regrets. I know he has a particular fondness for sweets. He will be sorry to have missed this delightful treat prepared by your own fair hands.”

Alec resisted rolling his eyes. Devers might as well set his comments to music he was so poetic. And Clara didn’t seem to mind, not with the way she kept looking at him from under her lashes like Devers was the most fascinating man this side of Chicago.

Alec’s fingers brushed Clara’s as she handed him his slice of cake. Like a lightning bolt, heat shot up his arm.

She looked so beautiful tonight. The perfect hostess. He could imagine her in the finest drawing rooms of Boston, sipping tea, discussing whatever it is that women talk about.

He shifted in his seat, drawing his boots under his chair and staring at his fists. Beat up, nicked, tanned—nothing like Devers’s white, smooth hands.

The Eastern dandy took a small bite then wiped his lips with his napkin. “Alec, I meant to tell you, Sparks and I did manage to acquire those two horses from Seb Lewis. His place is in a bit of disarray, though it may be unkind of me to say so. He’s not exactly thriving back there on his little patch, is he? I felt compelled not to haggle over the price of the horses too much.”

Trace caught Alec’s eye. Last night they’d argued—a rare thing with Trace—about telling the Colonel the Cross B was headed the same direction as Lewis’s Double Box if they didn’t find those stray cows soon.

Hot prickles skittered across Alec’s chest. He knew he should’ve told the Colonel the minute he suspected something amiss, but he’d hoped to be proven wrong or to be able to fix the problem before the Colonel had to find out. But he’d failed.

As if reading Alec’s mind, the Colonel sat back in his chair and toyed with his fork. “Alec, you haven’t gotten around to showing me the figures from our roundup.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.