Crazy For the Cowboy by Vicki Lewis Thompson Read Free Book Online Page A

whacked.”
    â€œThen watch the movie, instead,” Vince said. “He doesn’t die in the movie.”
    â€œMaybe I’ll do that. And next time—” Mac paused while Ike delivered Vince’s sandwich. Then he picked up where he left off. “Next time, Travis, don’t give me books where somebody dies at the end. I hate that.”
    Travis smiled. “I didn’t know you were such a wuss.”
    â€œI’m not! I can read any scary thing you throw at me, as long as the main guy is alive at the end. He can be bloodied up some, but he has to be alive.” Mac gave Travis a belligerent stare.
    â€œOkay, Mr. I-require-a-happy-ending, I’ll keep that in mind. But my point was that Anastasia could be telling the truth. It sometimes happens, you know?”
    â€œIt’s not the truth.” Vince picked up half of his sandwich. “She just wants to scare us out of rounding him up. I’m sure Georgie’s told her about our plan and she’s trying to do her part to discourage us.” He took a bite of what turned out to be delicious chicken salad.
    Mac hunkered down and lowered his voice. “Listen, Travis and I were talking earlier, and we both think we should forget about doing it.”
    Vince quickly chewed and swallowed. “No, we should not.” He should never have left those two alone while he went to the general store. They could lose focus so easily. “We have a plan and we need to stick to the plan.”
    â€œYeah, but Travis and I got to thinking. Suppose we rope him. Then what? I can’t believe you want to try and lead him all the way back to town. Nobody around here wants to deal with him.”
    Vince decided against revealing his fantasy of parading the Ghost down Main Street because Mac was right. That wasn’t the best idea in the world. “We take a picture to prove we roped him,” he said.
    â€œTake a picture with what?” Travis asked. “We don’t have camera phones.”
    â€œWe’ll buy a disposable at the general store.” Vince was making it up as he went along. In actuality he hadn’t thought much about what would happen after they’d captured the Ghost. He’d never been much for long-range thinking. He was more of a spur-of-the-moment kind of guy.
    â€œThat’s a lot of effort to go through for a damned picture,” Mac said. “Especially when it’s obvious Georgie and her sister are dead-set against us doing it.”
    â€œThat’s the very reason we should do it.” Vince wasn’t about to see his concept unravel just because Mac and Travis were losing their enthusiasm for it. “We can’t let Georgie Bickford push us around.”
    Mac looked him in the eye. “Travis and I can. But then, we’re not the ones with an ax to grind when it comes to Georgie.”
    â€œI don’t have an ax to grind.”
    â€œShe’s the one who got away,” Travis said. “You never forget the one who got away.”
    â€œThat’s bullshit. Georgie’s nothing to me. I just don’t like the idea of her dictating what I can and can’t do.” He bit off a good-sized chunk of his sandwich. While he chewed and swallowed, he caught Mac and Travis exchanging a look. “I suppose you think I have a thing for her.”
    Mac pushed away his empty plate. “Consider the evidence. You’re the one who wanted to get together here in Bickford. Why?”
    â€œBecause it’s where we used to hang out. It had nothing to do with Georgie. As I mentioned earlier, she could have gotten married or moved away.”
    â€œAnd the only way for you to check on that was to come here in person. But you needed your posse with you.” Travis picked up his last potato chip. “Case closed.” He popped the chip in his mouth.
    â€œThat isn’t how it was.” But telltale warmth crept up Vince’s neck. He concentrated