Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Jess Bryant Read Free Book Online Page A

knew she’d need all her strength for that one.
    Letting herself out the back door she headed
across the walkway that led to the bunkhouse. The smaller white
house matched the main house and sat fifty yards outside the
backyard. When she was a little girl several of the younger ranch
hands had lived in the house and she had memories of them showing
her how to play a harmonica or whittle wood with a knife. Most of
the hands these days lived in town and commuted the few miles out
to the ranch but they still used it for meals.
    Her father had always seemed more at home in
the bunkhouse than he did the main house. Maybe it was his blood,
being around the rough and rowdy hands, the hard-working men who he
shared so much in common with. Working the land, loving the land,
it was in his nature.
    Raising a little girl had never been in his
nature. He’d done the best he could. She knew that and she loved
him for it. But it didn’t mean she wasn’t hurt when she thought of
the dance recitals and games he’d missed over the years because the
ranch came first.
    The bunkhouse door was open and the noise
coming from inside spoke of a rowdy conversation about the Aggies
chance at beating the Longhorns in the fall. Male laughter, ribbing
and cursing greeted her ears. She smiled unconsciously. In a way,
those were the sounds of her childhood.
    The racket came to an abrupt end as she
stepped through the door and she immediately regretted dressing for
the dinner before her drive. Her dress and heels were out of place
here. She knew the stares didn’t come from the group of men
gathered at the long table so much out of appreciation as
curiosity.
    A few of the men she recognized immediately.
Bobby Pickens had worked the ranch since before she was born and
his sons, Billy and Rusty sat nearby. They were a few years older
than her but they’d grown up together so they smiled and stood to
greet her. She waved but shook her head that they should stay
sitting and finish their meal. Manners were for the main house,
this was the bunk and it was completely unnecessary.
    She found her father’s face at the head of
the table as usual but he hadn’t seen her yet. As always he was
dressed in a ragged denim shirt, worn blue jeans and dirt caked
boots. His cowboy hat was on the table and his shoulders were
slumped over his plate, his head down as he ate his meal of brisket
and beans.
    Her stomach knotted instinctively. It was
always the same. She was an adult. She was twenty-eight years old
and she had a successful job and life but whenever she was in her
father’s presence she suddenly felt like that same unsure little
girl she used to be. She swallowed the lump in her throat.
    “Hey Daddy.”
    “There you are. We’s waiting on you. Where
you been sweet girl?” He looked up and she met the dark eyes that
looked nothing like her own for the first time.
    A slim smile worked at his sun-tanned cheeks
as he pushed himself to his feet and her breath caught in her
chest. Her father was still young. She’d been born when he was in
his mid-twenties, younger than she was now even. He was only in his
fifties but unlike the last time she’d seen him when he’d seemed
spry for his age he looked a decade older now.
    His cheeks were sunken, almost gaunt. His
brown hair had peppered with gray early in life but now it was so
short it was hard to tell the color. He’d always been a tall, thin
man. He’d never packed on the weight or the beer gut some of the
other men she knew had but his jeans seemed oddly loose and his big
buckle overshadowed him. For the first time in her life she looked
at him and didn’t see a giant, she just saw a man and that
terrified her.
    She wanted to ask what was wrong. What had
happened since she’d been home last? Was he sick? But she knew he
wouldn’t appreciate any of those questions in front of his hands
and so she steeled her defenses, sucked it up and put on her best
gracious daughter face instead.
    “I had some car