Rock (BBW Secret Baby Bear Shifter Romance) (Secret Baby Bears Book 2) by Becca Fanning Read Free Book Online

she was friendly in spite of it.

    Brianna smiled kindly. “What do ya think? Could you stand living here without feeling like a sardine?”

    “Can I see the bedroom?” Dakota asked, much more guarded than Brianna. She didn’t want to be discourteous, but she hadn’t come to West Texas so she could make friends. She’d chosen it because the South was loud and rowdy, a place she could get lost in.

    “Sure. It’s just in here.”  

    Brianna opened a barn door at the back of the apartment, next to the kitchen. It revealed a modest room with a double bed pushed under a tiny window. With little light allowed into the room, the walls were haunted by shadows. In the corner, sitting in the shadows, was a dresser.

    “It’s exactly what I’m looking for,” Dakota said. “I’m interested. Is there an application I need to fill out?”

    Brianna laughed, her amusement filled with compassion. “No need, chickling. I’m renting it out myself. No agencies. I don’t really need the money, just the company. I travel a lot, and this town ain’t exactly the safest. I’m looking for a built-in house sitter.”

    “So you own the apartment?”

    “It was handed down to me, but yeah. My name is on the deed.”

    That was good. There would be no paperwork to sign, nothing she needed to falsify to protect herself.  

    Dakota returned to the living room and pulled an envelope from her bag. “I can give you cash up front,” she offered, hoping Brianna would accept. The place was perfect. There was nowhere better she could hide, not unless she was willing to risk bed bugs and drunken neighbors.

    Contemplative, Brianna studied her. “That’s an awful big purse you carry around,” she said, meaning the duffle bag.

    “It’s my belongings.”

    “Your only belongings?”

    Dakota looked away, unwilling to share the details of her past. Maybe the apartment wasn’t such a good idea after all. “All that I have on me.”

    “Gotcha. I was going to show the room to a few others over the week then choose from there, but I like what I see. You have your secrets, no doubt about that, but we all have things we keep hidden. As long as you’re not planning to bring no trouble, the room is yours.”

    “No trouble,” she said, uncertain if it was a promise she could keep.

    Brianna took the envelope. “You didn’t steal this, did you?” she asked with clemency.

    “It’s my savings.” That, at least, was the truth.

    “Are you handing me all you have? Cuz I don’t want you wandering around with empty pockets.”

    “No. There’s more.”

    “Good.” Brianna tucked the envelope into the back of her jeans without counting the money inside. “Then hurry on up and change. We have a rodeo to get to, and you can’t go wearing a sweatshirt. You’ll wither away like a tulip without water.”

    “A what?” Dakota asked, taken aback.

    “A rodeo. Call it your roommate initiation. I’m a bull rider. The best in my class. I can’t live with somebody who’s never seen a bull buck. You wouldn’t understand anything I have to say.”

    Dakota glanced at her room. All she wanted to do was sleep. “I think I’ll have to pass, but thank you.”

    “You can thank me after all the fun you’ve had. You look like you’re in need of some fun, chickling. Go on now. Shower and get dressed. I’m about to change your life.”

    ***

    I came to the South because it was loud and rowdy , Dakota mused as they entered the rodeo. Careful what you wish for.

    When she thought of rodeos, beefed-up rednecks sporting cowboy hats and rugged smiles came to mind, mavericks who were rambunctious and fowl-mouthed, sons and daughters of the Wild West. She was right. In the stadium where the rodeo events took place, hundreds of country folk cheered on a rider in a pen, their shouts as deafening as a thunderstorm.

    Beside her, wearing a white hat embroidered with a green that matched her eyes, Brianna whistled. “I love it when the party