Billion Dollar Cowboy Read Online Free Page B

but she’d agreed not to even talk to her.
    Knowing that Andy was right didn’t make it a bit easier. After all, Janet was her sister and Andy was just a distant cousin. True, without him, she might not have a sister. But she’d always taken care of Janet. Could she really, really practice tough love, as Andy called it, this late in the game?
    She leaned back and stared at the ceiling, her thoughts going back to the broken bits of conversation she’d overheard and the snow cone incident. She had moved past that and was thinking about a new computer firewall program when she dozed off, awaking a while later to chill bumps on her bare arms and a kink in her neck. She quickly sat up and pulled the rubber plug, letting the cold water drain as she got out and wrapped a towel around her body. She dried off on the towel and draped it over the side of the tub. She had just finished pulling her favorite tattered old flannel robe over a faded nightshirt when someone knocked on the door.
    No one had ever come to visit before. It wasn’t fair to get her first visitor when her clothing was strewn from door to bathroom and a wet towel was crumpled on the floor. Lord, she hoped it wasn’t Colton.
    “Hey, Laura, you in there?” Andy yelled.
    She slung open the door. “Come in.”
    Andy’s grin brightened the room. He’d always been a teddy bear—slightly overweight, wearing his jeans below his belly, and addicted to T-shirts from country music concerts. His curly hair never looked like it had been cut, and his round face always looked slightly scruffy but his blue eyes were as honest as an angel’s. She’d always known that Andy would do anything for her. That’s why she called him when she had no other place to turn.
    “Naw,” he said. “I just come to invite you to church with me tomorrow morning. Sorry, I didn’t think about it last week. Ambrose is just a little bitty place, but we got a pretty nice congregation. It’ll get you out and into the community.”
    “I met the preacher this evening when I was out jogging. I sat down on the church steps to catch my breath. He asked me to come to church tomorrow but I skirted the issue. That’s my day to do laundry and catch up on my housework. It takes a lot of work to keep a place this size clean,” she said.
    He leaned against the doorjamb. “I remember when I first came to the ranch and lived here. Man, it took me all of fifteen minutes every Sunday morning. You can do your laundry tomorrow afternoon after church. The utility room is available in the afternoon as well as the morning.”
    “We work on Sunday afternoon,” she said.
    “Not this week. We’re going to church and you are going to do laundry and then maybe catch up on some rest. Pick you up at ten thirty. Church starts at eleven. Oh, and Maudie says to ask you to eat with the family from now on,” Andy said.
    The skin on the back of Laura’s neck prickled, kind of like when Janet looked at her with a deer-in-the-headlights stare that said she was in trouble again. She tried to think of an excuse not to go to church but nothing, not one thing, came to mind. Yet, that little voice in the back of her mind kept screaming that Andy had something hiding behind that teddy bear facade. She told herself that she was seeing demons in the shadows because of what she’d heard that evening. Hell, nothing could happen at church. All those righteous people, the preacher, and even God would be there.
    “I’ll be ready,” she said and immediately wished she could cram the words back into her mouth. But truth was, she owed Andy big-time and if he wanted her to go to church, then she’d go.
    “That’s great. Preacher Roger delivers a good sermon and you’ll love the singing. See you in the morning, then.”
    She stood in the open door and watched him all the way across the yard and into the back door of the house. Was he going to try to fix her up with a preacher? Well, he could just wake up and smell the coffee.