Cowboy Crazy Read Online Free Page A

a small town was an episode of The Andy Griffith Show . It had probably never occurred to him how tough it was to make a living in Mayberry. She could rock his reality if she told him what it was really like growing up in a place like Two Shot, but Eric’s image of her—and his respect for her—would be in tatters if he knew she’d grown up in a trailer.
    Dot poked her head into the room. “Mr. Carrigan,” she whispered.
    Lane and Eric both started to rise, and Dot gave Lane an apologetic smile. “I meant Mr. Carrigan. He has a meeting. But it’s good to see you, Lane.”
    He grinned, seeming totally unaware that Dot had just defined the difference between the two brothers. Eric was Mr. Carrigan, taking charge and giving orders. Lane was just Lane. Dorothy’s tone was warmer when she talked to Lane, but Sarah knew the oil business was a cold, hard world where warmth didn’t hold much sway. Eric was the one who commanded respect.
    Eric cocked his wrist and winced at the time on his watch. “I’ve got to go, Lane. If you’d give me a little advance warning, we can have a longer talk. Maybe lunch?”
    Lane made a noncommittal grunt.
    “Meanwhile, Sarah can answer your questions.”
    As he left the room, Sarah tried not to look as panicked as she felt. Lane might not command the respect of the Carrigan workforce, but his physical presence was intimidating and she didn’t want to be alone with him.
    Besides, the whole Two Shot situation was complicated. Normally companies like Carrigan just threw money at small towns, and folks were so grateful to get funding for schools and street repairs that they didn’t question the project itself or who was involved with it.
    But Lane was going to make it an issue, and that could be a serious problem for her. She’d led Eric to believe she’d leapt fully formed from the ivied bastions of Vassar and Harvard, but if he talked to anyone in Two Shot he’d get a very different picture of her past. Hiding her history had been an innocent lie of omission at first, but since then he’d made so many references to her inborn style and high-class roots she’d ended up with an origin myth worthy of Wolverine.
    As her boss left the room, she squared her shoulders and faced Lane. She felt like a tiny bird fluffing up its feathers to intimidate a cat.
    “So you’re familiar with Two Shot?” Lane’s voice rumbled deep in his chest, and his slow drawl made even the most innocuous phrases sound sexy.
    “I’ve—been there. And I do feel the town would benefit from the prosperity this kind of project would bring.”
    He pushed back his chair and stood. Sarah immediately shot to her feet so she wouldn’t have to look up at him, but even standing toe-to-toe her eyes were about level with his shirt pocket. She took a step back so she could look him in the eye.
    “Yeah, well, I disagree,” he said. “And anyway, I’m not discussing family issues with a stranger.”
    She thought of her hometown, with its pitted streets and crumbling buildings. “I’m sorry, but this is about much more than family.”
    “How would you know? Trust me, it is about family. And you’re not a part of that.”
    His dismissive tone jabbed a man-sized hole in her self-control. She felt the real Sarah coming out to kick butt and was powerless to stop her.
    “There are real people in Two Shot, Mr. Carrigan. People who need jobs.”
    “Money isn’t everything.”
    “It is when you’re hungry. When you’re losing your home. When things go wrong and…”
    She stopped herself. This was getting way too personal. He’d tilted his head to one side and was looking at her intently, and this time he seemed to be probing her mind instead of her clothes. She needed to get the conversation back on track before she gave something away.
    “Extracting oil from the land isn’t always pretty, but the company does its best to keep it clean, and if we do it on Carrigan land people will trust us to do it right.” She