His Texas Wildflower by Stella Bagwell Read Free Book Online

Mexico longer than necessary? The hope that while she was here he’d get the chance to know her, spend time with her, maybe even get physically close to her?
    Dream on, Jake. Rebecca might have leaned that sexy little body against you once, but there won’t be a next time. If you do see her again, there won’t be any tears in her eyes and she’ll see you for just what you are—a cowboy who can offer her little more than a lusty roll in the hay.
    Picking up a steak knife, he sliced ruthlessly into the meat on his plate.
    â€œMaybe I’ll do just that, Mom.”

Chapter Three
    A t the same time, some twenty miles south in Ruidoso, Rebecca sat in a luxurious hotel suite. From her seat on the long moss-green couch, she could look out the plate-glass wall at the picturesque view of Sierra Blanca. Next to her right arm, a telephone sat on a polished end table and all she had to do was lift the receiver from the cradle and press a button to have a full course meal delivered to her room.
    But at the moment she wasn’t seeing the beauty of the tallest peak in the southern part of the state, or concerning herself over ordering dinner. She was thinking about Jake Rollins. Something she’d been doing ever since she’d driven away and left the man standing in front of her aunt’s house.
    So why don’t you stay on and make use of the property?
    With a bit of loving care this place could be a nicelittle home. But I guess a fancy lady like you would never settle for anything this simple.
    Today Rebecca had planned to get a list of things done. First of all, to ask around town and find a Realtor she could trust. Secondly, to contact the nearest animal shelter to find homes for the pets Gertrude had left behind. But Rebecca hadn’t attempted to do either of those things. She’d walked a short distance around town, ate lunch, returned to the hotel and for the past two hours sat wondering why Jake Rollins’s words continued to haunt her.
    It wasn’t like the man had anything to do with her life, she mentally argued. Up until yesterday, she’d never met him. Yet the things he’d said to her, the way he’d looked at her, had done something to her thinking.
    With a heavy sigh, she rose to her feet and walked across the room to where a gilt-edged mirror hung over a small accent table. The image showed a young woman dressed casually but fashionably in a pair of summer white jeans and a sleeveless cashmere top. Her blond hair was twisted into a sexy pleat and her face touched with just enough color to look pretty but not overdone.
    Her friends would tell her that she looked perfect, but that had come to mean very little to Rebecca. On the inside she felt far from perfect. And she didn’t understand why.
    Even before she’d learned about Gertrude and traveled here to New Mexico, she’d been feeling empty, as though spinning wheels were quickly carrying her to nowhere. Then yesterday, when she’d stood beside her aunt’s grave with hardly a soul there to tell the woman goodbye, a heavy sense of reality had stung her. She wasn’t sure why thoughts of missed opportunities andconnections were upsetting her, but she couldn’t get rid of them.
    Across the room, her cell phone rang. The sound cut into her dark thoughts and with a heavy sigh, she walked over to collect the small instrument from where she’d left it on a low end table.
    Her mother’s name and number were illuminated on the front and she braced herself with a deep breath before she flipped the phone open and lifted it to her ear. Gwyn had been ringing the phone all day, but Rebecca had ignored her calls. She wasn’t ready to talk to the woman, but years of being a devoted daughter couldn’t be wiped away in a matter of days. And Gwyn deserved to know that she’d arrived in New Mexico safely.
    â€œHello, Mother.”
    Gwyn let out a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank God you