Yuletide Cowboy by Debra Clopton Read Free Book Online Page B

acting strange. He knew they cared for him and maybe they were right. “I might be there,” he offered.
    Chance thought about Norma Sue’s words all the way back to the stagecoach house. As he drove down the gravel road to the house that had been in the Turner family for almost two hundred years, he felt a small semblance of peace. His home was basically on the road, but when he needed time out this was where he came—always had been. All the memories he had from his years spent visiting and living at the ranch were the good times. Yes, he’d come home for much-needed solitude and time to think. But as he pulled up in front of the stagecoach house and got out of the truck he knew at six o’clock he’d be getting back in the truck and heading back to town.
    This was a fundraiser…and the least he could do was go up there and buy a steak to help raise moneyfor the women’s shelter. There was no denying the good the shelter did. It was evident in Lynn and her boys. He’d spend some time alone tomorrow, but he knew he wouldn’t feel good about himself if he didn’t go up there and make a contribution to the shelter. Many benefits had been held to help Randy’s family after his death. He’d only made it to one of them and he’d been asked to speak. He’d almost not made it through that… No, helping out the shelter here at home was the least he could do.
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    The women must really like whatever was up for bids. They were everywhere.
    Chance walked through the door of the community center, which was just down the sidewalk past Pete’s Feed and Seed. He’d had to park all the way at the opposite end past Sam’s Diner just to find a parking space.
    There were lots of couples sitting around and mingling in groups, but it was immediately obvious that the room was overrun by single women. He should have known that any gathering the town was organizing would bring even more women to Mule Hollow to meet single cowboys. His cousins had expanded their cattle operation, as had several other large ranches in the area, increasing the cowboy population even more. All in all, Mule Hollow had grown in the last year, and by the crowd it was apparent.
    Glancing around, Chance had thought maybe he’d see a bunch of beauty-treatment baskets or jewelry or stuff that ladies liked, lining a table somewhere to be auctioned off. But he didn’t see anything like that.
    â€œChance, over here,” Wyatt called, waving him overto join the family. He wove his way through the tables, greeting people as he went.
    â€œBoy, you weren’t kidding when you said the women were going to bid. What’s up for bids?” he asked, taking a seat beside Wyatt. There were two women at the table in front of him giving him the once-over… He felt like he was the one on the auction block.
    Wyatt’s wife, Amanda, gaped at him like he was crazy. “You don’t know?”
    â€œKnow what?” He glanced around the table. Seth, Cole and Wyatt had on poker faces that would have made their great, great, great, great, great Grandpa Oakley proud. Oakley wasn’t the most respectable Turner in the clan and immediately Chance was on alert. Melody, Amanda and Susan’s expressions of disbelief sent an un easy feeling coursing through his veins. “What have I missed?”
    Amanda pushed her short dark hair behind her ear. “I can’t believe no one told you?” She gave Wyatt a cute scowl. “Or that you didn’t see the flyers on the fronts of the stores announcing that this is a dinner and bachelor auction.”
    Chance choked. “A what? What flyers? You said a bachelor auction? ” He cut his gaze to Wyatt, then Cole and Seth, and he was pretty certain his scowl wasn’t cute. He hadn’t been in town all that much, but now that he thought about it he had seen a flash of yellow on the windows. Suddenly he remembered seeing Sam