Boone smiled and shook his head. “I’m firing everyone. Between him and Vondell, I’ll never get any time alone with you.”
“Vondell’s moving into town.”
“Yeah, but you know she’ll be in the thick of it, once you take over The Dinner Bell.”
Jim chuckled. “It’s a long way from a fancy restaurant in New York, Maddie.”
“You two just wait. I’ll have people driving from Fort Worth and Dallas to eat at my place.” Saying the words my place sent a surge of pride through Maddie’s heart.
“I believe you will,” Boone responded, his gaze locking on hers, delivering a deeper layer of messages.
“You’ll put my name on a booth, right?” Jim asked.
Boone’s eyes went dark and hot. Anticipation tap-danced over Maddie’s nerves. For a moment, she couldn’t think what Jim had asked, lost in the world only she and Boone inhabited.
“Never mind,” Jim muttered.
“Jim,” Maddie roused herself to answer without looking away from Boone, “It’s a deal, if—”
“If what?”
“If you’ll get all of those people out of Boone’s house.”
Boone shook his head. “Maddie’s house.”
Once that would have been enough, a place of her own.
Not anymore.
“Our house.” Maddie smiled.
“Our house,” Boone whispered, as he lowered his head to hers. “And my woman.”
Maddie’s giggle turned to a sigh as Boone kissed her.
Jim walked away, whistling.
~THE END~
TEXAS LONELY
Texas Heroes: The Gallaghers of Morning Star
Book Two
Jean Brashear
Mitch Gallagher is a loner, down to the bone. Banished at sixteen from everything and everyone he held dear, he’s an intensely private man whose rusty, unused heart long ago gave up on love. Fragile Perrie Matheson is on the run to protect her beloved son. Too ill to travel further with a winter storm on the way, she has no choice but to gamble her child’s safety on a man who wants only to be left alone. But during days spent together in the mountain cabin, Mitch and Perrie each find surprises in store…and all the reasons they should stay apart battle with the yearnings of hearts too long denied love.
Chapter One
Wind River Range, Wyoming
A broken cry drifted on the wind, slicing into the silence that was his trusted companion.
Inside the cabin, Mitch Gallagher’s hands stilled on the tent he was mending. He frowned and turned his head slightly, listening.
Nothing.
No—wait. There it was again, choppy but getting stronger. No animal he’d ever heard sounded like that. It almost sounded like a child, but camping season was over, and no children lived within miles of this very isolated cabin.
He dropped the tent and touched the scabbard at his waist. The knife he’d always carried had been replaced by the one Cy had left him. He missed the old man still.
Just then he heard footsteps, too light to be adult. Broken sobs hit a counterpoint, then a thin, high wail.
He had the door open in seconds.
“My mommy’s hurt! Help her!”
For one single instant, a sharp pain sliced through his heart. The boy looked so much like—
No. Of course it wasn’t Boone. His brother wasn’t a child anymore, hadn’t been in years.
But his hands clenched briefly on the doorknob. He charged down the porch steps. “What happened? Where’s your mother? Are you alone?”
The boy’s eyes went wide, and he backed away, his lower lip trembling. Mitch realized he must seem huge to someone so small, so he dropped to one knee on the ground in front of the boy and gentled his voice. “Are you all right?”
The boy’s cheeks were scratched, his shirt torn at the shoulder. Still frozen in place, his face white and bloodless, the boy breathed in harsh, sharp gasps.
Mitch clasped the child’s shoulders. A shudder ran through the boy, then his teeth began to chatter.
“Son, are you hurt? Tell me where your mother is, so I can help her.”
No response, just the raspy sobs of a child approaching hysteria.
Mitch felt the child’s limbs and ran his hands over the boy’s hair, finding nothing but scratches and bruises beginning to form. But the boy continued to stare at him as though he was some sort of monster.
“Hey, it’s all right—” Mitch pulled the boy close, intending to comfort him.
The motion galvanized the child into action. “No! Don’t hurt me!”
Mitch’s hands dropped away instantly. “All right. Calm down. Take a deep breath. Tell me where your mother is.”
The little body visibly trembled. The boy’s eyes filled with tears again. “I—I don’t know.”