Cowboy's Pride (Welcome to Covendale Book 1) by Morgan Blaze Read Free Book Online

exhale. “I really appreciate it.”
    “You’re welcome.”
    After they exchanged awkward goodnights, Sydney climbed in the truck and waited until he moved his. She headed out of the parking lot and forced herself not to look back. The last thing she needed right now was to remember just how sexy Cam Thatcher was, and how badly she’d wanted him.
    She was practically a married woman. And that was just the way she wanted it.
    * * * *
    Cam parked next to Ellis’s car and waited until the glow of headlights was completely gone. Damn it, this was why he didn’t want to see that woman around anymore. What she did to him, the way she made him feel…it should’ve been illegal.
    And he couldn’t have her. Not then, and definitely not now.
    He gave himself a few more minutes to calm down, and then got out of the truck and headed around the back. Leaving his bike here was really going to sting. But hell, what was one more hurt on top of all the rest? The only thing he could do now was keep the ranch. He’d do whatever it took to make sure that happened.
    While he adjusted the ramp and walked the Harley down, he told himself he wasn’t going to think about Sydney Davis. And he especially wasn’t going to remember the conversation with Ellis he’d overheard, the one where she’d said she was absolutely not his friend. That really shouldn’t have been a surprise—so he’d been shocked when it felt like a slap to the face.
    It was her tone more than her words. Like Ellis had asked her if she enjoyed drinking mud or rolling around in cow shit naked. Was he really that offensive to the so-called good people of Covendale?
    Well, if he was, he couldn’t afford to care. None of them had given a damn about him for the past six years, and he was more than willing to return the favor.
    He propped the bike alongside Ellis’s car and got back into his truck, intending to drive straight home and drink himself to sleep in the loft. But he ended up sitting there for a few minutes as he made one last attempt to figure a way to get the money that didn’t involve selling the Harley.
    That was when he saw someone familiar stop under the glow of the light pole in the next row over. His jaw clenched at the sight of Tommy Lowell, staggering drunk and hanging all over a girl who was definitely not his fiancé. She was blonde, buxom, and younger than Sydney—and clearly into Tommy sticking his tongue down her throat.
    “You son of a bitch,” Cam growled under his breath as he watched Tommy and not-Sydney climb into the car parked next to the light together. He considered going over there and confronting the bastard. But right now, there was no way he’d be able to keep his fists under control.
    Last time, Tommy hadn’t reported it out of humiliation. Cam had taken them on three to one and come out ahead. If he tried it again, he was sure to find himself jailed for assault.
    So he’d just tell Sydney. She wouldn’t believe him, but he didn’t really have anything to lose there. She couldn’t hate him any more than she already did. At least this way, his conscience would be clear.
    Then maybe Tommy would come after him—and he could justify beating the hell out of the two-timing son of a bitch who didn’t deserve a woman like Sydney.
    He waited until Tommy and his piece of tail cleared out of the parking lot, and then started the truck and headed home. There was some whiskey that needed his attention.
     
     

Chapter 7
     
    The next morning, Sydney got an early start. It was Friday and she had a few errands to run, but she wanted to get the truck out to Kenny’s first. Cam obviously knew engines, so she believed him when he said it could quit on her any time. She didn’t want to be without a vehicle all weekend.
    She also wanted to finish everything that reminded her of Cam, so she wouldn’t have to keep thinking about him. Because she couldn’t seem to stop.
    After a quick call to make sure Kenny could do it, she headed out to