Denim & Diamonds Read Online Free Page A

fingernails, then held up a hand to stop him. “I don’t want to put you to any trouble. I’ll get them.”
    The man's bushy eyebrows pushed together and he said, “I’m sorry about your daddy. He was a good man. Took Beau here in and treated ‘im just like a son. Little Katie Anderson, too.”
    Beth turned away, popped the trunk on her BMW and muttered, “So I hear.”
    After they transferred her bags to the bed of the truck, they hopped in and Beau fired up the engine. As they pulled out of the lot, Cletus waved his greasy rag and hollered, "Tell Katie howdy for me!"
    Beau nodded and waved, then they headed for the ranch. As they drove, Beau pointed out various things. Nearly every house they passed had some connection to the Diamond J Ranch, and it became apparent that John Jameson had been a popular figure in this little town.
    She couldn’t help but wonder if that was what had drawn him to this area – the whole big fish in a small pond theory. The man she knew loved power, and loved wielding it. But these stories indicated a

different type of person. Perhaps her mother hadn’t been honest with her.     Wouldn’t be the first time someone had misled her.
    After they returned to the ranch and her luggage had been stowed in the guest room, Beau excused himself and headed for the barn. She watched him through the window in the kitchen door, his gait easy and confident. Before she met him, when he was just a name on a legal document, she hated him. But now that she'd met him, she was intrigued.
    She dug through her briefcase for the document that had occupied her thoughts for the past two weeks. Once she had it in her hands, she wanted to read it again. And she knew exactly where she wanted to be when she read it. She headed down the hall for her father’s library, which she had noticed that morning.
    She stood in the doorway for a moment, took a deep breath and walked to the big oak desk that dominated the room. She eased into the leather chair, placed the document in front of her and closed her eyes for a moment. The faint scent of leather and fine cigars and old books evoked distant memories of her father. She had never realized before that she associated those smells with him. She swiped at her eyes before a tear could fall.

CHAPTER FIVE
     
    T he old-style globe next to Beth's father's desk made her want to dream of destinations unknown. She ran her fingers over the surface, feeling the bump of the mountains and the smoothness of the vast oceans. A raised seam at the equator caught her attention. She flipped the globe open, and found a half empty bottle of Chivas and two glasses. Now, this was the father that she knew.
    She could imagine him and Beau, standing here, each with a glass of amber liquid. Her father’s eyes would be lit with pride and Beau’s eyes . . .
    But she couldn’t allow herself to think about his eyes. She could get lost in them, drown in their depths. That was a distraction she could not afford.
    Shelves laden with books lined the walls. Elegant, old, leather-bound volumes lent charm to the room, likely chosen for their monetary value instead of their literary content, because the only thing she could remember her father reading was the Wall Street Journal. The two large windows allowed in a lot of light, which contrasted nicely with the dark wood that lined the room. Each window had a simple pedestal in front of it, topped with a Remington bronze.
    With a deep sigh, she turned her attention back to the document in front of her. With it, her father had taken his last stab at controlling her life. She glanced at the date. Only a few days after her mother’s funeral. Tears welled in her eyes as she realized she was an orphan at twenty-six. She had thought she would never feel more alone than when her brother, Ian, was killed in Afghanistan. He had been her cohort in crime growing up, covered for her when she was a teenager and supported her dream of going to law school. They