Promise Me Texas (A Whispering Mountain Novel) by Thomas Jodi

Author:Thomas, Jodi [Thomas, Jodi]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2013-11-04T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 18

IT WAS ALMOST MIDNIGHT WHEN ANDREW RETURNED home. Beth looked furious when he walked in the door whistling, as if he hadn’t frightened her to death.

“About time you got back,” she said, obviously trying to keep her voice calm.

He looked up, shoving his windblown hair out of his eyes so he could study her. “You worried about me?”

“Of course I was worried. I didn’t want you to go off and get yourself killed; then I’d have to look for a new make-believe husband.” She whirled, turning her back to him. “I sound like a harpy and I don’t mean to. Of course, you are free to go wherever you like. You told me when we got here that you like to walk and think at night. I should have listened.”

He moved toward her. “You were worried about me. I only went over to the train yard to have a little talk with the boys who bothered Madie. I don’t think they’ll be coming back.”

“You talked to them?” She turned back, more surprised than angry now.

He smiled again. “I didn’t have a gun to shoot their toes off. So I had to talk.”

Beth paced back and forth across the hallway. “Those were rough guys, Andrew. They could have hurt you. Real life isn’t like stories in books. People get killed. You could have been hurt. They could have tossed you on the tracks to be run over. You could have—”

“I wasn’t.” He stopped her, then reached for her with his gloved hand. “How about a kiss?”

She jerked away. “No. I can’t talk to you right now. Good night, Andrew.”

She was gone before he could say another word. Andrew stood in the middle of the hallway, wondering what he’d done to make her so angry. Another reason never to get involved with women, he thought. They made no sense.

He walked to the kitchen, slowly pulling the glove off his bleeding hand. As he’d expected when he’d cornered the two boys who hurt Madie, they insisted on fighting him, bragging that they’d beat him so badly not even his pretty, noisy little wife would recognize him.

He’d left them both in the dirt without ever taking a solid blow to his body. One of the blessings of traveling from school to school every few years was that he’d learned to fight. Correction, not just fight, but box. The first thing the bullies always wanted to do was beat up the new kid. Between school in his early years and the streets later, he’d collected quite an education.

The first few years after he’d lost Hannah he’d even fought for money several times, then drank all his winnings away. Bar fighting was different than boxing, but he’d learned that, with practice, he was a natural. If he could size up the kind of fighter he was up against, he could use the man’s size, or speed, or cockiness against him.

Only tonight he hadn’t simply fought with reason, he’d been angry. He’d wanted to make sure the boys never bothered Madie again.

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.