The Cowboy Takes a Bride by Lori Wilde Read Free Book Online Page B

she wouldn’t have to sleep in her car.
    A place to call her own. In Jubilee, Texas. Cowboy country. The last place she ever wanted to wind up.
    It was just temporary. Until she could sell the ranch, move back to Chicago, and start her own wedding planning business with a nice nest egg.
    Retracing her steps, she walked to the car, wrestled her two suitcases—holding everything she owned in the world—from the backseat, and dragged them up the precarious front steps. Joe was nowhere in sight.
    Good. She didn’t need him running over here trying to help. Coming inside. Looming over her. She could take care of herself. No cowboy chivalry needed.
    You sure accepted his offer of a ride into town quickly enough.
    Yeah, well, that was different. She didn’t have much choice in that. Jubilee was fifteen miles away and she didn’t know anyone else in town.
    She lugged the suitcases inside and dumped them in the middle of the living room floor. Later. She’d unpack later. For now, she needed sleep and lots of it.
    Her cell phone rang. She hunted for her purse, found it on the sofa, and answered her phone on the third ring. The caller ID flashed Cassie’s number. “Hi, Mom.”
    “Sweetheart, just calling to see if you made it to Jubilee. I worried about you taking that long drive alone.”
    “I’m here. I made it.”
    “Are you okay?”
    “Sure, why wouldn’t I be?” She didn’t want to complain and worry her mother.
    “I worry it hasn’t quite sunk in yet that your father is gone.”
    “Mom, it’s not like he was a presence in my life.” Mariah ran a hand along the bar separating the small kitchen from the living room area, and her fingers came away dusty.
    “You two never reconciled. You didn’t get to say good-bye. You need closure.”
    “It’s too late for that.”
    “Maybe not.”
    “How can I get closure, Mom? Dutch is dead.”
    “He had his faults but he wasn’t a bad man, Mariah.”
    “I never thought he was.”
    “I wish your father and I could have loved each other the way we should have,” Cassie said wistfully. “But we just weren’t meant to be, and if Dutch hadn’t left us, I would never have met Ignacio. Other than having you, Iggy is the best thing that ever happened to me.”
    In the background came the sound of pans rattling.
    “Iggy’s making lunch, Mariah. He treats me like a queen. I still can’t get over it. I wish . . .” She trailed off.
    “What?”
    “I wish you could find this kind of happiness.”
    “I’m happy,” she said defensively.
    “So, the ranch your father left you,” Cassie said, wisely changing the subject. “Is it—”
    “A hovel, just like you said it would be.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    “Hey, it’s someplace to live.” Mariah looked around the cramped space. Was that light coming through the ceiling over the sink?
    “You know you could come to Argentina. We’d love to have you.”
    “You’ve got your life, Mom, and I’m trying to figure mine out. I’m fine. This’ll do for now.” She frowned, stepped to the kitchen, squinted up. Yep. Sunlight. Drifting down through a hole in the roof. Lovely. Well, as long as it didn’t rain, she was good to go. And if it did rain, at least the hole was over the sink.
    She glanced out the window and saw Joe leading a horse into the back of his trailer. The stallion was handsome, fit and toned. She could see why Joe had such confidence in the animal. There was something about him. Something special.
    And then in a flash she found herself evaluating the horse through Dutch’s eyes. The stallion was just the right build for cutting. How she knew it, she couldn’t say. Probably something that had soaked into her brain from when she was a kid. Something she hadn’t even known she’d forgotten.
    Joe looked up.
    And caught her watching him.
    Mariah jerked her gaze away, went back to studying the sunlight bleeding through the ceiling.
    “Honey, are you still there?”
    “I’m here.”
    “You went quiet