Belonging to Bandera by Tina Leonard Read Free Book Online Page A

Hawk’s right after Mason did.
    Holly reached back into her purse, pulled out a ponytail holder and put her hair up. Bandera’s throat dried out again as he looked at the curve of her underarm and the softness of her skin as it peeked from under her tank top.
    Just a hint of breast showed delicately from the armhole.
    He sighed and turned around. “You’re getting me way off my schedule.”
    She smiled as they entered the grounds. People lingered, pushing strollers or eating hot dogs. He parked the truck, trying not to think about the fact that Mason was getting far ahead of him, or the fact that his brother had no reason to turn around and head home when he had a sexy brunette clinging to him.
    “Look,” Holly said, clutching Bandera’s arm. “That balloon is for hire.”
    “Yeah.” He nodded without enthusiasm. “Anybody who’d go up in that thing is mad. Crazy. Completely off their rocker.”
    She let go of his arm and walked in the direction of the balloon, throwing a teasing glance over her shoulder. “I’m crazy.”
    “I know,” he said, striding to keep up with her, “but not that crazy.”
    “I think you’re crazy, too. Any man who breaks into someone’s house and eats their chocolate chip cookies has a crazy streak.”
    “I was protecting her dwelling,” he protested, trying to grab Holly’s hand. “It was the least I could do since she’s taking care of my brother.”
    Holly avoided him and ran to the balloon. He stopped mulishly in his tracks. If she wanted to do something risky, that was up to her. He was not her keeper. He was not her anything.
    He watched her pay. He watched her put a leg over the edge of the basket as a man with a long ponytail helped her in. Bandera watched her look toward the sky with anticipation…and he realized he couldn’t stay rooted to the ground forever. “Wait!”
    Grabbing his wallet from his pocket, he ran to the balloon. “I’m with her,” he said breathlessly.
    “I know,” the ponytailed man said with a grin. “She already paid for you.”
    “You minx,” Bandera said to Holly, surprised.
    She laughed.
    The balloon’s owner grinned. “She said you wouldn’t be able to resist a challenge.”
    He wasn’t. He climbed into the basket. “This is not what I thought I’d be doing today.”
    She smiled. “Me, either.”
    That was true. “I suppose you deserve a balloon ride after what you’ve been through.”
    “Everything about me is rising now,” she told Bandera. “My spirits, my happiness—”
    “And this balloon.” He glanced worriedly over the edge. “We’re actually going up. ”
    “Yes,” she said. “Did you think we would remain on the ground?”
    “I don’t know.” They floated past the balloon owner’s head, then ten feet higher. “Are we tethered to something? Because I’m not sure how to work one of these amusement rides.”
    “The owner is covered for disaster.” Holly laughed at him. “You won’t get hurt, I promise.”
    “I better not get hurt,” Bandera said. “We have a healthy superstition about that in my family.”
    “Oh? You don’t strike me as the superstitious type.”
    How little she knew. “Just being around you is attracting all kinds of karma into my atmosphere,”he said. “My inner tuning fork is vibrating with danger.”
    “You do have a problem.” She glanced over the edge, smiling. “Look! Everyone down there looks so small!”
    “I’m not looking,” he stated. “When do we get reeled back in? This has been fun, but not so much I couldn’t stand to get my boots back on earth.”
    “Well,” Holly said, her voice sounding a bit worried, “I think you’ll have to settle for your boots lifting heavenward for a while.” She pulled a rope in over the edge, settling it in the bottom of the basket, then she stood at the rail, waving. “By the looks of their faces down there, this rope was not supposed to come loose.”
    Small trails of dread slithered through Bandera’s stomach.