Love Me Tender by Susan Fox Read Free Book Online Page B

father first . “It’s not fair to your grandparents to invite someone without them knowing.”
    â€œNo, honest, it’s okay,” she said earnestly. “They cook loads, and they always tell us we can bring our friends. You’re our new friend, so you should come.”
    â€œMaybe Cassidy has other plans,” Dave said. His tone was neutral and his expression guarded. Did he want her to say she had other plans?
    â€œBut she’s only been here a few days,” his daughter protested. “How can she have other plans already?” She turned her big brown eyes on Cassidy. “You don’t, do you?”
    Feeling like she was at a tennis match, gazing between Dave on her right and Robin on her left, she turned back to Dave with a “tell me what to do” look.
    The tension around his eyes and mouth softened. “It would be nice if you came.”

Chapter Five
    Saturday evening, Dave stood beside his father at the giant barbecue on the back patio of the home he’d grown up in, inhaling the tangy scent of grilling sweet-and-spicy ribs.
    He was glad his parents hadn’t moved when their kids flew the nest. This sprawling rancher-style house on two acres of benchland north of town held so many happy memories of growing up with his sister and two brothers. It was still the family’s heart, with regular Saturday night dinners, out-of-town relatives coming for visits, and monthly sleepovers for the next generation. Robin and her cousins—the Cousins cousins, as they called themselves—loved those sleepovers, which featured home-baked treats from Dave’s mother and gold rush ghost stories spun by Pops. No one could tell a ghost story as well as his old man.
    Nor, he thought as he watched his father deftly turn the thick country-style ribs, did anyone’s hand match his when it came to the barbecue.
    Pops gestured toward three women sitting in lawn chairs. “Seems like a nice girl.”
    Cassidy, tonight dressed in beige capris and a smoky blue tee, with a lightweight purple hoodie tied around her shoulders, sat with his mom and younger sister, Lizzie.
    â€œYeah.” Some strange momentum was under way and he was doing nothing to stop it. When Robin had issued the dinner invitation, Cassidy had consulted him in a wordless glance. If he’d given a tiny head shake, then explained later that it was family time, he was sure her feelings wouldn’t have been hurt. But he hadn’t. He enjoyed her company.
    And what was the big deal? He had women friends: Karen MacLean, Sally Ryland, Brooke Brannon. Cassidy could be another friend.
    The afternoon ride had been fun, with Robin deciding that Cassidy needed to see the view from atop Whisky Mountain, but he felt bad for not realizing the expedition would be too long for someone who hadn’t ridden much. When they’d dismounted at Westward Ho! Cassidy’s leg had given her trouble. She’d been a good sport, saying ruefully that riding used new muscles.
    Hobbling back to the Wild Rose, she had leaned on him for support. She’d fit neatly against him, his arm around her shoulders, hers around his waist. He’d been aware of her. The unfamiliarity of her slender, curvy body and the light flowery scent that overpowered the smell of horse that clung to both of them.
    Sunday nights at the Wild Rose, he danced with lots of women, holding them in his arms, feeling the sway of their hips as they followed his lead, smelling each one’s distinctive feminine scent. It was pleasant, but kind of impersonal. Supporting Cassidy’s slight weight had felt personal. Arousing. In a way that was more than just a hormonal physical response. She wasn’t just a pretty woman with a killer body seen passing on the street. He liked Cassidy; she provided valuable assistance at the Wild Rose; she was terrific with his daughter. But then he could say the same about Madisun. There was just something . .