One Texas Night by Thomas Jodi

Author:Thomas, Jodi [Thomas, Jodi]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Zebra
Published: 2013-04-01T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Laurel watched for Rowdy until the rodeo started, but she never saw him. She wished she’d had time to explain why she’d told him not to sell the ranch. But how could she tell him that her father was planning to cheat him.

She also felt bad about running off with the banker. She’d panicked and decided the hotel lobby had not been the place or time to cause trouble. There would be enough fireworks Monday morning when her father and Filmore figured out that she was gone. Since they both thought she had little money, they would spend a day, maybe two looking around town for her. Finally, someone was bound to check at the station. Her father would probably send men to bring her back, but she’d be a train ride ahead of them, maybe more. Once she stepped off in a big city, they’d never find her. She could let Rowdy know where to send the rest of her money.

With Rowdy staying in town for a while, no one would suspect him of having anything to do with her disappearance. She knew he’d never tell anyone that he passed half the profit from the sale of the cattle to her.

She wasn’t brave enough to stand up to her father face-to-face. She never had been. The only way she could break free was to disappear completely.

The need to give Rowdy a good luck kiss weighed against the possibility of someone seeing them together. The kiss had always brought him luck, but if her father heard about it, he might look for her tonight or suspect Rowdy had something to do with her leaving. To keep him and their partnership safe, she had to be very careful. If that meant not seeing him until after the rodeo, then she could wait.

Her thoughts turned to what would happen when they were alone. It would be easy to tell her father she was riding home with her sisters, then tell her sisters she was going home early on horseback. Neither would check with the other. She would slip into the back of the hotel and Bonnie Lynn would, hopefully, have a room ready. She’d order supper and wait.

Laurel smiled. Women like her didn’t have lovers, but tonight, for one night, she would. For one night she’d be desired even if he couldn’t love her.

As the sun faded on the last night of the rodeo, Laurel couldn’t sit still in the wagon. She had to pace. In a few minutes the rodeo would be over. She knew win or lose her life had changed. She’d never marry Filmore. If Rowdy lost tonight, she’d still be leaving her father’s house, even if it took a little more planning.

For the first time she knew her own mind and would not live as a child any longer.

Something else had changed. She’d fallen hard for Rowdy. Not infatuation or a warm kind of cuddly loving feeling, but hard, fast, forever kind of love. For once in her life she’d found something—someone she couldn’t resist.

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