Counterfeit Cowboy by Gail MacMillan Read Free Book Online Page A

so warm and friendly?
    “He’s working in the arena down at the barn. And he’s not my partner yet. He only legally becomes half-owner of Ebony M when he turns twenty-one.”
    “Okay, but if you’re afraid of being alone with me, feel free to get him up here.” Blue eyes teased her.
    “I’m a vet trained in large animal care.” The words snapped out. “If I can handle a Clydesdale stallion, I think I can handle one…”
    “Counterfeit cowboy?” A corner of his mouth quirked upward. “Look, you may as well know how I really feel about this deal Annie conjured up. I’m not exactly over the moon about leaving my band for an entire summer. If there was any other way, trust me, I wouldn’t be here.”
    Blue eyes met green and held…for a moment. When words came again, they were Shelby’s.
    “Oh, for heaven’s sake! Come around to the back door. We can talk in the kitchen.”
    “Thanks. I’ll get the contract.” He pulled open the passenger door of the ramshackle truck and took out a briefcase. “Just in case,” he said as he followed her along the wraparound verandah to the back of the house.
    Her lips tightened into a grimace. She stifled an urge to place a well-aimed kick at his exceptional butt as he passed her and reached to hold the screen door open.
    “Hey, this is great!” He followed her inside and looked around the cozy country kitchen with its gingham curtains and pine furniture.
    “Take a seat.” Although his enthusiasm for her home played on her determination not to let him maneuver her, she forced herself to ignore it and indicated a chair at the table. “But don’t get comfortable.”
    “Okay. Right to business.” With his free hand he pulled out a chair for her, that resolve-melting grin in place.
    Holding the door open, offering her a seat. If he thinks this phony gentleman act is going to further his case, he’s away off base.
    He took a seat across from her and opened the briefcase. “Annie said she offered you fifty thousand for six weeks of board and lessons.” He took out a sheaf of papers stapled together and slid them across the table to her. “In this contract, you’ll see she’s sweetened the deal to sixty. Personally…” He leaned back in the chair and looked over at her. “I think she’d go sixty-five, if you hold out.”
    “She? Isn’t this your money?”
    “Legally.” He shrugged. “I sign the checks, but Annie does the math.” He jerked his head in the direction of the coffeemaker on the counter. “Mind if I pour myself a cup while you do some speed reading?”
    “It’s been there for a while.” She was reading as he stood.
    “No problem. It can’t be any worse than a lot of the stuff I’ve been drinking the past three years.”
    ****
    It was a good deal, Shelby had to admit as she finished reading and looked across the table at Jordan Brooks finishing his coffee. No troublesome minor stipulations or legalese to give her interpretation problems. Just sixty thousand dollars for six weeks’ work, provided she kept his identity a secret and succeeded in teaching him to ride so he’d look like an old cowhand.
    “Well?” He placed his cup on the table and looked over at her.
    “It appears to be a decent offer.”
    “So?”
    “So you’ve got a deal, Mr. Brooks.” She stood and held out her hand.
    “Great.” He got up and took it in his. Something warm and electric charged up through her body from the point of contact. She jerked free.
    “Need a pen?” He shuffled in the briefcase and came up with one.
    “Thanks. I do, however, have one condition.” She wiggled the Bic between her fingers. “This is to be strictly a business arrangement. Absolutely no personal involvement, back stories, or anything of that ilk.”
    “If that’s what you want, agreed.”
    “Good.” She scrawled her name at the bottom of the contract, then swung it around and shoved it over to him. “Now you, Mr. Brooks.”
    A grin pulled up one corner of his mouth.