One Night With a Sweet-Talking Man by Ana Leigh

Author:Ana Leigh [Leigh, Ana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781416565871
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2008-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Caroline found Garrett sitting on a fence railing watching Colt trim the bark off a log.

“There you are. I’ve been looking for you,” she said.

“Mama, did you know Uncle Colt knows Kit Carson? He’s been telling me ’bout the time Apache Indians surrounded their town, and him and Kit Carson faced off with them.”

“That must have been exciting.”

Colt grinned. “Things still aren’t as settled in New Mexico as they are here in California.”

“I understand you’re a sheriff, Colt.”

“Just a deputy now. I turned the job over to Jeff Braden, Cassie’s brother. Sometimes I give him a hand on weekends when there’s a big crowd in town. Cassie and I have our hands full running the ranch, especially since we’ve had children. Cassie can handle a horse better than most men, but I don’t want her riding yet. She just had Sam a couple of months ago.”

“That’s too bad, cowboy, because I’m not stopping,” Cassie said from the doorway.

He chuckled. “Riding or having babies, Cass?”

“Neither one, Colt Fraser. Caroline, come on inside where we can talk.”

Caroline joined her in the kitchen where Cassie was rolling out a pie crust.

“You feel like peeling apples?” she asked. “I’m making pies for the barbecue tomorrow.”

Grateful for having something useful to do, Caroline said, “I’d love to. I’m used to being the one doing the waiting on not being waited on.”

“Then sit yourself down at the table. You’ve just been hired.” Cassie put a bowl of apples down on the table and rooted through a kitchen drawer.

“This is Rory’s kitchen, so I’m having a little trouble finding things. Aha, here’s one!” She handed Caroline a paring knife.

“Where is Rory?”

“She’s lying down. Her back’s been bothering her. The poor dear had a rough time with her first pregnancy, and she’d barely gotten back on her feet when she got pregnant again. Danny’s only eleven months old, and now this one’s past due.”

Cassie lowered her voice to a whisper. “She told me Garth wanted to abstain until she was healthy and back on her feet, but Rory said she wanted childbearing out of the way so she could enjoy her children while she was still young.”

“I’ve totally forgotten what it was like to bear a child. I was sixteen when Garrett was born,” Caroline said.

“So that would make you twenty-four now.”

Caroline nodded. “How long have you been married, Cassie?”

“Three years. Colt and I were married in ’66; Jeb was born the following year.”

“Did you say Jeb or Jed?”

“Jeb,” Cassie said. “One Jed in the family is enough. Our son’s named after Colt’s hero, General J.E.B. Stuart, his commanding officer during the late war until the general was killed.”

Cassie waved the rolling pin in the air as if it were a saber. “‘The greatest cavalry leader in the whole damn war—Reb or Yankee alike.’ To quote Captain Colt Fraser, that is.”

Smiling, Cassie lowered her arm. “Maybe General Stuart was as great as he said, but I wouldn’t know. Living out here in the West, the war didn’t really affect my life that much.

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