Teaching the Cowboy by Holley Trent Read Free Book Online Page A

was ever that great. Hell, Liss is more efficient than she was and Liss can barely read a calendar. Glad she didn’t inherit that DNA from her.” He added that last bit in a mumble.
    Ronnie hid her cringe by turning back to the screen. Yeesh .
    “Can I ask you something, Ronnie?”
    She didn’t like the tone of his voice. It wasn’t nasty, not at all, but there was a note of curiosity in it that warned her he was going to ask something she didn’t necessarily want to answer. She nodded anyway, but kept her back turned.
    “Is Phil your boyfriend? I mean, is he going to be visiting often?”
    She clamped her hand over her mouth and nose and stifled the snort before it could squeak out and reverberate through the room. Definitely not what she expected him to ask.
    “Well? I think it’s a reasonable question.”
    Reasonable? By what standards?
    “No.” She wiped the tears seeping from her eyes on the back of her arm. When she turned to face him, she was still giggling.
    He didn’t look amused.
    “Look, our mothers are best friends. They’re from the same tribe and we grew up in the same town from the time I was ten. He’s been my roommate since I moved off-campus nine years ago.”
    “Ah. So, no hanky-panky?”
    “No. Why?”
    His boot heels clacked against the wood floor as he made long strides to the door. “No reason.” He paused with his hand on the door handle and worried his bottom lip between his teeth for a moment before he continued. “We should have dinner. Or lunch. I mean, just the two of us. After you’ve had a chance to go over Peter’s stuff. We could talk about your plan, see what ideas you have. Maybe tomorrow? I can get Anna to cook whatever you want.”
    Just the two of them? How would that go? More arguing? Another staring match? More of him licking his lips and her feeling like a wanton hussy for enjoying the show?
    Suddenly, the small house felt very hot and she brushed the back of her hand against her damp forehead. “Um. I’m going to be out and about most of tomorrow, taking Phil to the airport then running some errands.” She added in a mumble after that, “And the Ericksons have asked me to have dinner with their family tomorrow.”
    He stiffened before forcing a long exhale through clamped lips. He sounded like a stuttering motorboat. “And the next night too, I bet.”
    She shrugged. Yep, Becka thought ahead.
    “Lunch on Saturday, then?”
    She snapped her fingers. “That I can do. I’ll pencil it in.”
    “Ink it in.”
    She frowned at the command.
    He pulled open the door without acknowledging her distress. “I’ll send Landon by tomorrow morning so he can go with you on your errands. Make sure you get back okay.”
    “That’s not necessary. Let the boy sleep in. No need for all of us to be miserable.” Her voice was light. His expression wasn’t.
    “He’ll be here at four. There’s only one flight out to Denver, so I imagine Phil needs to be there at dawn.” John stepped across the threshold onto the stoop and closed the door before she could rebut.
    She got up and jogged the short distance to the door and snatched it open, thinking she’d yell out to him. Too late. He was already in his truck and turning a circle back toward the ranch road.
    “Damn it.” She inched the page of phone numbers out of her shorts’ pocket and stabbed his number into her phone’s touch screen.
    Didn’t matter. No signal again.

Chapter Four
    “L andon, I’m really sorry your dad prodded you into this.” Ronnie pressed the accelerator pedal harder and barreled her small car south toward Cheyenne. “I told him it wasn’t necessary. I could have made it back to Storafalt without supervision. I’m a grown-up.” She watched Landon shrug via the rearview mirror.
    “It’s all right. What’s one less hour of sleep to a cowboy?”
    Phil mumbled something under his breath and sank lower in his seat.
    “What’s with the sunglasses, Phil? Sun’s not even up,” she teased,