Billion Dollar Cowboy Read Online Free Page A

to the trash can. He followed her and together they walked back to his truck. He opened the door for her and she hiked a hip up onto the seat. He reached across her to fasten the seat belt like a gentleman and looked up right into her mesmerizing blue eyes.
    He cleared his throat and stepped back quickly. He had doubts about her and he’d be damned if he played into her scam by kissing her.
    They were back on the ranch in less than an hour. She bailed out of the truck before he had time to open the door and hurried toward the carriage house, throwing a word of thanks over her shoulder for the snow cone.
    ***
    The sound of her boot heels on the wooden steps leading up to her tiny apartment made the same sound that they did when she climbed the steps to her apartment in Amarillo. Janet lived there now and hopefully she’d keep the rent paid and the place clean.
    Laura had learned to like the rut she’d fallen into the past week. It would work really well until she was ready to leave. No commitments, except to hold up her end of the bargain with Andy. No friendships, except with Andy, and she’d been his friend since they were kids.
    She went into the office at eight every morning, ate a sandwich while she worked at noon, and then took an hour break at supper before going back to finish up for the day. Andy said that once they got caught up, she’d have Saturdays and Sundays off each week, but they’d worked all day on Saturday and Sunday afternoon when he got home from church the first weekend. The one redeeming thing about working so many hours was that she could pay off her note to Andy faster with all the overtime.
    She flipped a switch just inside the door and wished she had never agreed to go to supper that evening. Less than four hours had already turned her life around.
    First there was supper with the family, then meeting the preacher, and going for a snow cone. And she still didn’t know what Andy was talking about when he and the rest of the family were discussing her and Colton. She really believed the snow cone trip had been a spur-of-the-moment thing. She was very good at reading people and he couldn’t have had an underlying motive or she would have seen it.
    A single lamp illuminated the small efficiency apartment. A bank of cabinets covered the south wall of the apartment. A small sink, apartment-sized stove, and under-the-counter dorm-sized refrigerator made it into a kitchen. The queen-sized bed took up a chunk of the remaining area. A rocker/recliner faced a television at the foot of the bed, and a doorway right beside it led into a bathroom.
    That is where Laura headed, leaving clothing and running shoes in her wake. She turned on the water in an old cast-iron claw-foot tub and crawled into it as it filled. She leaned on the sloped back and shut her eyes. Had she missed a nuance in Colton’s actions? He’d changed slightly when she ordered the rainbow snow cone, but that’s what she always got. He’d ordered the same one, so what was the big deal? Then he’d had a strange expression when she wanted to go to the school playground, but again, that was her favorite place to go.
    It always reminded her of summertime in Amarillo. When Aunt Dotty finished at the feed store and the grocery store, she would let Janet and Laura have a snow cone—if they’d been good that week. And she’d take them to the school playground to swing while they ate it. That was the highlight of their Saturday afternoons when they were kids.
    She worked her toes around the faucet handle and turned off the water without sitting up. Andy said the old tub was still in the apartment because they’d have to take a wall out to remove it. She was glad no one had wanted it gone because it had become her refuge—the place where she escaped to each evening while she tried to convince herself that keeping her promise to Andy was the right thing to do when she wanted to call Janet so badly. Just hearing her voice would be enough,