When Love Comes by Leigh Greenwood Read Free Book Online Page B

doing that for weeks and had yet to change anything. She’d probably have to do Gary’s work tomorrow. She didn’t know where he disappeared to, but half of the time nobody could find him. She wished her mother would stop pretending Gary could do no wrong. The family needed a man to depend on, but Gary was never going to measure up to his father as long as his ambition in life didn’t rise above serving drinks in a saloon.
    She knew it wasn’t the drinks that drew him. It was feeling he was part of the rugged male community that made up the ranchers and cowhands around Cactus Bend. Gary wanted to feel grown up, like a man, but he didn’t understand that standing around telling coarse jokes, drinking too much, and making lewd comments to the waitresses was neither mature nor manly.
    Amanda didn’t want to think about Gary tonight. Instead she tried to imagine what the future would be like once she didn’t have to work in the saloon any longer. Surrendering to these thoughts, she gradually fell asleep.
    By the time Broc got back to the saloon, the crowd had thinned, but the noise was as loud as ever. “I’ve returned the buggy,” Broc said when he finally attracted Gary’s attention.
    “Stay away from my sister.”
    Broc had started to leave, but he turned back at Gary’s words.
    “What have I done to make you think I’m interested in her?”
    “You offered to see her home.”
    “Would you have preferred one of these men to do it?” The crowd was down to a hard-drinking, hard-living group Broc wouldn’t have turned his back on.
    “Yeah, I would,” Gary responded.
    “Until you get a better handle on reading character, I hope your sister stays home.”
    Broc turned to leave but was stopped by Corby.
    “I don’t want you hanging around Amanda.”
    Broc wasn’t used to being treated so rudely, and it was beginning to annoy him. “As long as Amanda doesn’t mind, I don’t see that it’s any of your business.” Broc had obviously hit a sensitive nerve, because Corby drew himself up to his full height, which was still several inches below Broc’s.
    “Amanda is going to be my wife. Everything that happens to her is my business.”
    “Then you ought to pay more attention to that ranch. She works there all day, cooking for the family as well as the hands, then has to work in your saloon until late at night.”
    “Amanda enjoys working here because the men love her.”
    “That’s possible, but if she were my prospective wife, she wouldn’t have to be in the saddle in the morning chasing down a dangerous bull, defending her cowhands from ruthless neighbors in the afternoon, and being lusted after by a bunch of drunks at night.”
    Corby’s expression turned to anger. “If you’re thinking about trying to get Amanda to fall in love with you—”
    Broc lost patience and grabbed Corby by the front of his shirt. “Look at my face. Do you think any woman as beautiful as Amanda is going to give me a second thought?” Broc released him. “That bullet ruined my face, not my brain.” Hearing his words so clearly made him realize the noise of the saloon had fallen away. Broc turned to see everybody’s attention focused on him and Corby. “If I’d been in your place,” he added, “I’d have closed the saloon for the night rather than let Amanda go home alone. She deserves better, and you and every man in this place know it.”
    Disgusted, Broc walked out of the saloon, leaving a shocked silence behind him.
    A few hundred yards from the Liscomb ranch house Broc slowed his horse to a walk, but he was only putting off the inevitable. If he didn’t do this, someone else would. “You’re acting like a coward,” he told himself. “You’ve got a job to do, so get it done.”
    Unlike most Texas ranch houses, this one was two stories with a wide front porch shaded by a quartet of elms that must have been planted long before the war. The exterior of weathered wood was complemented by the brown trim