Texas Heroes_ Volume 1(11)

All of a sudden Boone looked about fifteen years old. His blue eyes sparkled, and Maddie wondered where this Boone had been hiding. “Did you?” Hope flared in his smile.

“Of course I did. Think you can stay awake long enough to eat some?”

Then Maddie finally looked, really looked at Boone, seeing that though his golden hair still glistened with moisture from the shower and his angular face was clean shaven, exhaustion lined his face and settled heavy on his frame.

“It’s close to two days now since you left to come here, right? A body can’t live on catnaps taken on airplanes. Bet you’ve been outside working, too, haven’t you?”

“I’ll make it fine.” His tone said he didn’t need mothering. “I used to have to stay awake longer than this when the seas were stormy.” But then the smile flashed once again. “But I do believe I’d sleep a lot better after a slice of your chocolate cake.”

Glowing with pleasure, Vondell turned away to get him a piece.

And Maddie tried not to wonder how it would feel to have him smile like that at her.





Chapter Three





What was that?

Maddie stirred, disoriented, wondering why there were cattle in her apartment. Tempted to go right back to sleep, she suddenly remembered.

She wasn’t in New York.

Good grief. She was actually here, in Texas.

Stretching, she yawned, then rolled out of bed. Motion outside the window caught her eye, and she moved toward it.

Through the open window, she smelled the sweetest scent imaginable and looked around to see what it might be.

Honeysuckle in abundance covered the white picket fence that delineated a yard around the house. Just past it, she saw the source of the noises she’d heard: cattle being loaded into a trailer by two men intent upon their work. The man with his back to her was a stranger.

Facing her was the man she’d fallen asleep thinking about last night.

Boone. But a different Boone. A relaxed one, at ease with who he was and what he was doing, not a trace of the growling stranger. Maddie couldn’t help staring. He might not be Prince Charming, but he was one very attractive man. She’d felt the power of those muscles moving beneath the worn fabric of his chambray shirt. Broad shoulders…lean hips…long legs filling jeans so old the seams were white.

He could make a woman forget that cowboys weren’t her style.

Maddie shivered. Then lectured herself, trying to forget the sensation of his strength when he’d come to her rescue, the unaccustomed sense of safety she’d had in his arms.

The man can’t stand you, Maddie. He’d made it clear that he would count the days until she was gone. She didn’t know how they’d tiptoe around each other for thirty days, but no more than she’d seen of him so far, it might work just fine. He had headed upstairs last night the minute he’d finished eating. Given the state of his exhaustion, she had no idea how he was even standing now, much less already up and working.

Anyway, she was here to think, to figure out whether to accept the job offers she had or to try to come up with the money for her own place. She had places to go, people to meet. She didn’t need the distraction.

But that didn’t mean she couldn’t admire the view. When Boone smiled at something the other man said, she went still, leaning on the windowsill and letting her eyes fill with the sight of a man who would make any woman’s heart skip a beat or two.

Lost in dreamland, she didn’t react fast enough when those blue eyes looked up and locked on hers. Boone’s face tightened into a frown, and she regretted the loss of that easy grin. But he didn’t stop looking, and for a moment that spun out forever, Maddie couldn’t seem to move.

Then she realized that her short silk nightgown left little to the imagination. She took a quick step backward and grabbed for her robe the second she was out of sight.

Coffee. She needed to get her brain clicking before she thought again about the power of Boone Gallagher’s smile.



“Aaayyiii, Boone. She’s the one Sam left the house to?” Sonny Chavez clucked his tongue. “Muy bonita.”

“You’re married. And she won’t be here long. She’s going to sell the house to me as soon as she’s satisfied Sam’s requirement.”

“Got under your skin, eh?”

“She’s a looker, all right. But not my type.”

“I haven’t seen you look at a woman like that since—”

Boone’s jaw tightened. “I’m not looking now.”

“You’ll play hell finding one like that around here. Where’d she come from?”

“The city.” Boone spat out the words.