Millie Criswell, Mary McBride, Liz Ireland by A Western Family Christmas Christmas Eve; Season of Bounty; Cowboy Scrooge

Author:A Western Family Christmas Christmas Eve; Season of Bounty; Cowboy Scrooge
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

That it wasn’t all right with Matty didn’t come as a total surprise to Will. Lottie Crane hadn’t left her victim with much more than a few ounces of dignity and a shred or two of pride this morning, but the little redhead summoned up every one of those to lift a big glass jar of horehound candy and throw it halfway across the mercantile, just missing him by inches.

“Get out!” she screamed, following up the horehound jar with containers of lemon drops and peppermint sticks.

It was when she hurled her metal cash box at him that Will truly appreciated her distress. Standing in a sea of candy and coins and broken glass, he finally forced himself to wipe the grin from his face. It wasn’t an easy task, considering his elation.

There was no Charlie Favor! Matty wasn’t married after all. She was free! Dear God, Will had almost leaped over the counter and kissed Lottie Crane’s red, ferocious face this morning when the woman had bellowed the astonishing news. Will couldn’t help but think that if Lottie had come into the mercantile just half an hour later, he would already have left town, never to learn that no one stood between him and the woman he so desired.

Well, except for Matty herself.

“Get out,” she screamed again, looking around for something else to hurl in his direction. “I mean it, Will.”

He didn’t think she was crazy. Will would have bet his life on that. He’d seen demented people, mostly in the war, and Matty just didn’t fit in that same sad and misunderstood category. The crazy people he had encountered were either wildly agitated for no apparent reason, or they were motionless and mute as stones.

Matty was agitated, no doubt about that, but she seemed to have her reasons. So, if she wasn’t crazy, what exactly was she, he wondered, other than beautiful and all of a sudden decidedly and deliciously unattached?

On the other hand, it struck Will as quite possible, even highly probable, that he might be the crazy one for deciding to linger here in Ellsworth rather than move on in search of his wife stealing brother. His longtime pursuit of revenge, it seemed, had taken a sudden back seat to the pursuit of other, less bloodthirsty, but equally strong emotions.

He wanted her. Here. Now. He wanted her more than he’d ever wanted a woman before. He wanted to turn the lock on the mercantile’s front door, sling Matty over his shoulder, carry her up the stairs to the bleak little attic, and then make love to her the way he’d dreamed of time and again. Sane. Crazy. It didn’t matter now that he knew she was free. Whether he was worthy of her wasn’t something he even wanted to consider at the moment while his body was nearly shaking with need. In an effort to control himself, he bent to begin extracting nickels and dimes from the broken glass and candies on the floor.

“Don’t touch my money,” Matty said fiercely.

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.