Coming Home to You by Fay Robinson Read Free Book Online Page A

constantly reminded himself not too get too attached to any of these children, but he’d fallen hard for all eight of them.
    “Hey, Mr. Bret,” Melissa called out. She pointed at Morgan, hanging precariously off the saddle, even though the horse wasn’t moving. “Maybe you should tie her on. Or at least put her on old Slowpoke.”
    “Or Patch,” volunteered LaKeisha, setting off a round of giggling among the other children.
    Bret looked over at Patch, the Shetland pony he’d bought for the smallest children at the ranch. The tiny animal barely came to his waist. If he sat on it, he could probably touch the ground flat-footed.
    “What about it, Morgan? Am I gonna have to stick you on Patch?”
    “I refuse to ride anything shorter than I am,” she said, her voice indignant.
    “Ride? You’re not riding. You’ve been on that horse forty-five minutes and you haven’t gone three feet without dropping the reins and grabbing the saddle horn. You have to be in control of an animal to ride.”
    “If you could shorten the stirrups a bit more, I think I could do it.”
    He sighed loudly and shook his head, then walked over and began shortening the stirrups for the fifthtime. He helped her right herself in the saddle. “Your dang legs are too short,” he grumbled.
    “They are not. I have great legs.” She stuck one out. It was bare between her white shorts and tennis shoes. Tan and sleek, it was also very nicely curved.
    He looked away swiftly, unintentionally making a noise deep in his throat he prayed she couldn’t interpret. Turning his attention back to the stirrup, he took out his knife and began twisting another hole in the leather strap with the point of the blade.
    “You shouldn’t have lied to me,” he muttered.
    “Hayes, if you’d asked me at that moment if I knew how to wrestle an alligator, I would have said yes.”
    He snorted. “Pity the poor alligator.”
    She took off the cap he’d given her to keep the sun off her face and used it to slap him playfully on the head. “Be nice,” she warned, putting the cap back on, “or I might have to wrestle you .”
    Bret went deathly still at the thought of that, her on top of him, pinning him to the ground, doing more than wrestling. Hell!
    Shaking off the image before his body embarrassed him in front of the kids, he hurriedly completed the hole and adjusted both stirrups.
    “Okay, this time if she trots and you don’t want her to, pull back on the reins—but gently. Make her obey you. And don’t yell like that again. You nearly busted my eardrum.”
    The onlookers tittered.
    “Sorry,” she said, exchanging a funny, Well, excuse me face with the children.
    He walked out to the center of the corral. “Allright, this is your last chance. Ride her this far so I’ll know you won’t kill yourself when we go out to the pasture.”
    Whispering loudly, the children took bets on whether she’d make it.
    “I say she drops the reins,” Tom predicted.
    “Nah, she’ll fall off,” Adam said.
    “Betcha she drops the reins and falls off,” Keith said.
    The toddler, Henry, who thought she was purposely putting on a show, clapped his hands excitedly in anticipation of the next trick. “Faw,” he begged.
    Morgan rolled her eyes. “Don’t you little maggots have homework or something?”
    “It’s summer vacation,” Melissa said. “School won’t start till next week.”
    “Chores?” Morgan asked.
    “We did them when we got out of church,” LaKeisha told her.
    “If I give you money, will you go away?”
    They giggled. “No, ma’am,” answered Shondra. “We wanna stay here and watch you fall off.”
    “Faw,” Henry squealed, clapping his hands more rapidly.
    Bret interrupted by calling out, “Come on, Morgan, we don’t have all day to watch you make a fool of yourself.”
    “Don’t rush me!”
    “I should’ve known you couldn’t do it,” he said with a smirk. “You’re all bluff and no guts.”
    “I might have to make you eat