My Christmas Cowboy by Shelley Galloway

Author:Shelley Galloway
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Had she ever really trusted anyone? As Jolene chopped up vegetables for a stir-fry, she tried to remember.

Maybe she’d trusted her mother. Well, she’d trusted her love. But she hadn’t trusted her ability to do the best for them. Her mother had been worn down too much by life and the disappointments that came with it to take the hard path. For Carrie Arnold, anything easy had been the only choice that made sense.

On one level, Jolene understood that completely.

But now that she was a mom herself, Jolene just wasn’t sure if simply loving your child was enough. Sometimes the hard road was the one to take, even if it caused pain.

“Jo, you doing okay over there?” Trent asked from the other side of the kitchen.

Her knife paused on the wooden chopping board. “I’m fine. Why?”

“No reason,” he said as he finished expertly slicing the steak into perfect bite-size strips. “Except that you look like you’re about to beat up on that poor red pepper something awful.”

“I guess I have,” she said in surprise. Just to get his gander, she quipped, “I must have been thinking about you.”

He grunted. “Ouch.”

Jolene smiled back. This was how he’d been all evening, gently joking, carefully keeping her spirits high and her nerves at bay.

Completely opposite of the way he’d been when he’d reminded her of the past. And there had been nothing teasing at all when they’d kissed. Then, he’d been a hundred percent all male and in command. Her knees would have gone weak, and she would have swooned…if she’d ever been that kind of girl.

“I’m surprised a bachelor like you knows how to cook. I would have thought you’d be making due with cold cuts.”

“I started eating healthy years ago. You can’t hold on to the back of a bull with just frozen pizzas and sandwiches in your stomach.”

Imagining his life on the road, placing his will against a riled up bull in the ring, never failed to make her heart contract. “I suppose you can’t,” she acknowledged. “It’s funny, but when you were on the circuit, I looked for your name all the time. But now that you’ve been back, it’s easy for me to forget that you’re ‘Trent Riddell, World Champion Bull Rider.’”

He laughed. “Don’t you know you’re supposed to whisper those words in reverence?” Holding up his arm, he said, “Don’t forget, I took a lot of knocks to get that title.”

Instantly, she sobered. “I hate that thought.”

“I’m just kidding around. You know I’m fine.”

“Now you are. I’ve heard stories, Trent. You’ve been badly hurt. Especially this last time.”

“I’m healing.” He shook his arm slightly and frowned. “Well, I almost am. Now that the cast is off and I’ve started rehab, I’ll be better than ever.” He picked up a chunk of lettuce and started carefully tearing off the leaves one-handed. “I’ve been on my own a long time now. Cooking’s a good thing. And as far as being a champion and all, well, that only gets you as far as a couple of fan clubs.

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.