Elly: Cowgirl Bride by Trish Milburn Read Free Book Online Page B

his back half-toasty, and watched the Cody clan bent over a Scrabble board on the kitchen table. He’d wondered what it was like to be part of such a big family, to have siblings.
    As they’d finished a game, Anne Cody, Elly’s mom, had noticed him and invited him to join them. He still remembered the sting as Dex and Dusty had complained that he would just beat them and how Elly had swatted Dusty on the shoulder hard enough to make him complain about that, too. Part of Will had been thankful while another had been embarrassed a girl had taken up for him like he was helpless.
    “Okay, new game. Let’s play teams. Will’s with me,” Elly had said and smiled a knowing smile at him.
    That was all it took for him to fall irrevocably in love with her. Sitting beside her, spelling out one high-scoring word after another, had been like ten Christmases rolled into one.
    Will stepped away from the memory and back into the present by heading toward the kitchen. Not much had changed, and the coffeemaker, though a newer model, sat in the same spot. He took off his jacket and started making coffee.
    That task finished, he wandered around the main room. Picking out the photos Elly had taken was easy now. Strange how viewing only a few of her shots at the gallery had given him a sense of how she looked at the world. She found beauty in simplicity, in nature, in family. Animals, people, flowers, waterways all came alive through her lens.
    He made his way around the room and back to the kitchen. He glanced out the window toward the barns, watched as the hands went about their work with the horses and unloading feed, as another horse trailer backed up to the corrals. If he hadn’t been allergic to animals, would he have ended up working here like his father? Would he have caved to that path and not gone to college? Or would the sting of Elly’s rejection when he’d finally gotten up the nerve to ask her out still have sent him fleeing from Markton and the Cottonwood Ranch as fast as he could?
    Ranch life had its appeal, but he was happy with the life he’d chosen. He liked helping people. And he liked the stronger person he’d become by leaving—even if that strength was shaken every time he was near Elly. He really should go. Before he made a step to do so, Elly came in the back door, the gust of air that accompanied her causing the rich aroma of freshly brewed coffee to fill the room.
    “You didn’t actually have to make the coffee,” she said as she removed her jacket and hung it on a hook by the door.
    “I don’t mind.”
    When she moved closer and reached up into the cabinet for two mugs, he inhaled her scent—a mixture of horse, earth and something flowery. So very Elly. He quelled the urge to smooth the loose hair at her temples.
    Desire pumped through him with such power that he had to step away from her or risk really embarrassing himself.
    She handed him a steaming mug and headed for the table. When she slid into the nearest chair, he took the one adjacent to her. He kept his hands wrapped around the mug to keep them from wandering where they wanted to go.
    “So, tell me about what’s been going on with you since you left Markton,” she said.
    He chuckled. “I think you heard it all at dinner the other night.”
    “I got the proud mama and auntie version. I want to hear yours. Like how was college as a sixteen-year old?”
    He shrugged. “Okay.” Lonely, but he wasn’t going to say that and look like a big loser.
    “How did you decide on law?”
    “Will you think less of me if I say it was because I had a crush on a girl in pre-law?”
    She placed her hand above her heart. “You have wrecked all my illusions of your noble aspirations.”
    “Nice drama,” he said. “Too bad Markton doesn’t have a theater.”
    She laughed and took a sip of her coffee. “So, did you follow the girl to law school?”
    “No. She dropped out of the program, but by then I’d taken enough courses that I found I actually