Her Heart's Desire (Sunflower Series Book 1) by Linda Joyce Read Free Book Online

She asked him out. I just happened to be
there.”
    “My littl e sister asked a man for a date? I can only imagine my mother turning in her grave.”
    “In case you haven’t noticed, your little
sister is a fine-looking woman. I’d say hot , but it’s you
I’m talking to.”
    Lucas gave the waitress his attention when
she appeared beside their table. “Ready to order?”
    Craig leaned back and graced the woman with a
warm smile. “Of course, but first, what did you say your name
is?”
    “I didn’t. I thought you’d remember me.”
    Craig looked the woman up and down. His
quizzical expression confirmed his faulty memory, but Lucas wasn’t
about to help his friend out of the jam.
    “Your senior year of high school. Tractor
pull. Kansas City. You almost took my tonsils out. No anesthesia
required. Then you never called me again.” The waitress’s voice
dripped with sarcasm.
    As though mental gears had kicked into place,
Craig beamed. “Crystal! Best night I ever had at a tractor pull. I
left for college after that. Sorry. I figured you were nectar to
bees and had guys all lined up. Just killing time with sorry me.
You’re as cute as you were then. Maybe we’ll go out sometime.”
    The waitress blushed and lowered her chin.
“So what’s it going to be tonight?”
    Lucas caught the waitress’s double entendre.
He cut Craig off before he could reply.
    “Two Pale Ales. Full slab of beef ribs and
the sides on the menu that go with it.” Lucas clipped off the
order. The waitress scribbled fast, and then grabbed the menus
before sauntering away.
    Chuckling, Craig shook his head. “Next time
we eat first, talk later. Hunger makes you mean.”
    “Well, I’m here to eat cow. Doesn’t get any
meaner than that.”
    Bethany delivered their beers. “Saw Lia
today,” she said setting the mugs on coasters on the table.
    “Amelia? In here?” Craig asked with
surprise.
    “What’s wrong with here ?” Bethany
challenged. Her fists went to her hips.
    “Nothing. Does she come in often?”
    “No,” she answered slowly. “Never alone.
Ironic that you’d both be here on the same day. Don’t see you
around much anymore. Guess you’ve crossed over to the dark
side...big city guy now.”
    “Aww, Bethany,” Craig drawled. “You can take
the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of
the boy.”
    Bethany laughed, massaging Craig’s shoulder.
“You got that right,” she said before walking away.
    Lucas shook his head. “Where do you come up
with this stuff? If you spent more time here, they’d have an
auction and raffle you off to the highest bidder. Your kind of
charm makes even a whorehouse Madame blush.
    “Know about them, do you?”
    “No, but remember, I did spend more than a
few years in the Army. I saw life though a different lens, enough
to know I like it here the best.”
    “So, my sister is picking up men? I can’t
imagine.”
    “Drink your beer,” Lucas said, purposefully
changing the subject. The idea of Amelia in the bar rattled his
brain, too. She had been a wild child until high school, but the
tomboy-type, running a four-wheeler all over the farm. Boys were
the least of her interests, unless she could get them to sit for
her while she painted. Her mother, the transplanted southern belle,
tightened the stays and corseted Amelia’s life once high school
came around. Mrs. Britton taught deportment in etiquette classes
after school and made Amelia sit in the front row.
    “Do you remember the time your sister painted
a mural on the side of the hay barn, the one that backs to the west
cornfield? After the crop was harvested, only then did anyone
notice the mural of a bayou, complete with cypress trees, a heron,
and a gator.”
    “I’d forgotten about it. A reporter came all
the way from Wichita to interview her about her masterpiece and snap some photos. Amelia was twelve. Painted from memory after
a visit to our Louisiana grandparents. Dad finally painted over it
when