The Cowboy's Summer Love by Unknown Read Free Book Online Page B

snack. He knew right then Trey had found a keeper.
    “So, Cady, Trent said you and Trey are going to join us for the whitewater rafting trip. Are you excited?” Travis asked, slicing tomatoes.
    “Excited as in scared, frightened, and hoping I don’t die?” Cady asked with a teasing smile. “Then yes.”
    Travis laughed. “I meant excited as in looking forward to it and planning to have fun.”
    “Oh, then not so much,” Cady said, rolling bread dough into sticks.
    “You know we won’t let anything happen to you, so why the worry?” Travis stopped his slicing and looked at her.
    “I know. Those rapids just look huge and dangerous, though.”
    “The part of the river we’ll be on, they even let kids raft down. I personally promise we’ll get you safely to the end,” Travis said, holding up one hand to make a solemn vow.
    “Okay, I’m holding you to it,” Cady grinned as she started whipping a bowl full of heavy cream. “I know Trent and Lindsay are going and Ben and Brice. Did you talk Tess into going?”
    Travis felt a little heat climb up his neck at the mention of Tess.
    “Brice and I tried. She seems reluctant to go.”
    “I can’t imagine why,” Cady said, shooting Travis a sassy grin. “Especially when it means she’d be squashed between you and her two brothers the entire trip.”
    “We wouldn’t squash her,” Travis said, suddenly very intent on chopping olives for the salad.
    Cady finished whipping the cream, then leaned across the counter, putting a hand on his arm. “I think you have a thing for Tess, don’t you?”
    Travis didn’t say anything for a moment, just studied his sister-in-law’s face, looking into her kind hazel eyes.
    “Maybe,” Travis finally agreed. “But please keep that to yourself. Tess has always looked at me like one more brother and I don’t think that is ever going to change. No matter how much I want it to.”
    “Don’t be so sure about that,” Cady said with a laugh. “You Thompson men are all so thick!”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?” Travis asked, not quite sure what Cady was telling him.
    “Ask your brother,” she said, returning to dinner preparations.
    “Which one?”
    “Either. They both suffer from the same malady.”
    Travis and Cady kept up a friendly banter until dinner was ready. He rang the triangle letting everyone know it was time for dinner while Cady finished setting the table.
    The ranch hands came in along with Trent, Trey and Cass, who was jabbering about getting to go for a ride with Trey to check on the cows. They were just sitting down to eat when a knock sounded at the back door and Brice and Tess stuck their heads in the kitchen.
    “Hey, come on in,” Trey called to them as they walked in the room. “Want to join us for dinner?”
    “No, we didn’t mean to intrude,” Tess said, looking uncomfortable. “We just wanted to see how Travis was doing?”
    “Great,” Travis said, standing up to greet them both. Trent got up and gathered two more plates while Cady poured two more glasses of iced tea.  “You’re here so you might as well join us for dinner.”
    “You won’t get any argument from me,” Brice said, washing up at the sink and sliding into a seat next to Cass.
    Tess washed her hands then took the seat Travis held out for her next to his own chair. She nodded her head in thanks as she sat down.
    Trent asked the blessing on the meal. Between bites of the delicious food, they discussed the weather, the end of school picnic and when the next cutting of hay would be ready to put down.
    “Where’s Lindsay?” Trey asked, noticing for the first time that the pretty blond-headed school teacher was absent from the table. She usually ate dinner with them, especially since Trent proposed a few weeks ago.
    “She had a lot of stuff to get ready for the picnic tomorrow and wanted to finish it tonight. I told her I’d bring her a plate later,” Trent said.
    Trey nodded and turned the conversation to the