Read Online Cowboy's Kiss by Victoria Pade - Free Book Online Page B

shown her how seemed to make Meggie respond with a new self-confidence.
    â€œSee?” Beth said from beside her. “Nothing to worry about. Kids and animals—Jackson is great with them.”
    He caught sight of Ally and his sister just then, took a sweat-stained Stetson from the doghouse’s roof to put on his head, patted Meggie on the back, and crossed to them. As he did, his expression changed completely—sobering first, then turning fierce.
    â€œIt’s about time,” he growled.
    Beth let out a laugh, turned and left as Jackson reached Ally to stand accusingly before her, his legs apart, his hands on his hips, his head slightly forward on his neck as if he were a drill sergeant berating a miscreant private.
    â€œHow long does it take to make a few sandwiches?”
    Ally just stared at him for a moment, amazed by the transformation between what she’d witnessed of him with Meggie and what faced her now. Jekyll and Hyde, alive and living in Wyoming.
    Still, she was grateful that Meggie was seeing the Dr. Jekyll side.
    But she didn’t answer his question. Instead she set the saddlebags on the ground at his booted feet and stepped around him to go to Meggie to kiss her goodbye. Then she came back.
    â€œWhat are you waiting for?” she asked as brusquely as he had.
    His cornflower blue eyes narrowed at her as if the look alone could put her in her place. Then he blew out a derisive snort of a breath and headed for the barn. “Saddle up,” he ordered.
    Saddle up? Did he mean find a horse and mount it or did she actually need to put a saddle on one?
    She had to jog to catch up with him, because after having given the command he hadn’t waited for her to fall into step, and his long legs carried him away fast, even with the heavy leather bags slung over one broad shoulder as if they were no more than a towel he’d used to dry himself after a shower.
    As she followed, Ally wondered whether to tell him that all the horses she’d ridden had come already saddled or to try bluffing her way through the task if he’d meant she needed to do it herself.
    How difficult could it be? A bunch of straps and buckles. Like a pair of shoes. Just match up the right strap with the right buckle and that was that.
    Wasn’t it?
    Maybe.
    Or maybe not.
    But the one thing she was sure of was that if she told Jackson she’d only ridden the presaddled kind and didn’t know how to go about doing it from scratch, he’d bite her head off. So she decided to go with the how-hard-could-it-be theory.
    Still, she was not at all disappointed to find “saddle up” had been an order to get on an already saddled horse.
    She breathed a sigh of relief as they headed for two that were tied to the paddock fence waiting for them.
    â€œThe men are already out rounding up the herd,” he informed her as if she’d asked, swinging easily up onto the taller of the animals after he’d attached the saddlebags.
    So much for gallantry or helping a lady mount.
    Ally was left standing beside a gray mare, her eyes barely level with the curve of the saddle seat.
    Somehow the camp horses had seemed shorter than these ranch horses. Plus there had always been a stable boy to offer a boot up. Or a tennis shoe up as it were, because Ally didn’t own any cowboy boots.
    But here she was on her own.
    â€œWhoa, girl,” she murmured, though the animal was only standing docilely in place, staring at the white rail in front of it.
    Hoping the horse was as calm as it looked, Ally pulled her knee nearly to her chin to get her foot into the stirrup.
    She missed.
    It was higher than she’d thought.
    She took a step backward and tried again.
    â€œOh, for crying out loud,” Jackson barked when she missed a second time. “Move ‘er beside the fence and climb on from there if you have to,” he ordered disgustedly.
    Wishing she’d thought of that herself, Ally took his