Read Online Far from Xanadu by Julie Anne Peters - Free Book Online Page A

his shin. My Mr. Mistee ran dry so I sighted a rim shot to the trash can.
Whoosh.
Two points.
    “Really. Where do you guys party? What do you do here? It’s so boring I just want to strip naked and go running through the cornfields.”
    Jamie’s eyes bulged. “Could I sell tickets to that?”
    I clicked a tongue at him. That was a joke. I’d buy up all the tickets, though. “Wheat,” I said.
    “What?” Xanadu blinked at me.
    “Nothing,” I mumbled. It’s wheat, not corn.
    She opened her purse and fished around for something. A poison dart for Jamie, I hoped. He opened his mouth to humiliate me again, but got distracted by a black Ford pickup veering into the parking cove and grinding to a halt on the gravel. “Great. Talk about guys who blow,” Jamie said under his breath. He sighed heavily and stood.
    “Who is it?” Xanadu pulled out her shades and reclasped her purse.
    Both truck doors slammed in unison. Xanadu’s jaw dropped. “Oh my God.” She clenched my arm. “Who is
that
?”
    I shielded my eyes against the blinding sun. You couldn’t mistake those two silhouettes. “Which one?” I said.
    “The one with the hat.”
    They both had Stetsons. “Beau and Bailey McCall,” I told her. Maybe she meant Bailey, since Beau was carrying his hat. “Beau is Jamie’s wet dream.”
    Xanadu’s head spun in Jamie’s direction, but he’d already skittered back inside. Beau raked a hand through his mop of curly brown hair and eased his Stet back onto his head. Xanadu watched as they neared us. She pressed a palm to her heart. “My God,” she breathed. “They’re divine. Bailey’s the taller one?”
    I hadn’t noticed before, but I guess he was a couple of inches taller than Beau. They were both over six feet. “Yeah.”
    As they passed our table, they acknowledged me — us — with identical hitches of their chins. Like Bailey, like Beau. It was sort of a running joke. Jamie ran with it.
    “Hey,” I said in greeting. Xanadu seemed dumbstruck, frozen in the lips-parted position. She slid her shades down the bridge of her nose and peered over the rim, sexily.
    At the takeout window they both ordered burgers and Cokes. “Would you like fries with that?” Jamie asked Beau. “They’re on the house.”
    Jamie, I admonished silently. Nothing was on the house here. He had to pay for everything he ate, which pretty much meant he volunteered his time. Why was he always doing that for Beau? Giving it away? He came off so desperate.
    Xanadu scooted out the end of the bench and moved around the table to sit opposite me. Why? To get a better view? “I didn’t see them at school,” she said in a lowered voice across the tabletop. “And believe me, I checked out everyone.”
    I thought back. “They’ve been gone a couple of days. Helping with calving.” At least, Bailey had. Like Bailey, like Beau, I assumed.
    “Where?” Xanadu asked.
    “Where what?”
    She let out a little huff. “Where do they live?”
    “Oh. Out by you,” I answered. “Near your aunt and uncle. You just continue on the county road a couple of miles until you see the big windmill. You’ll smell it first. Their feedlot.”
    “No shit?”
    I laughed. Was that a joke?
    Xanadu’s lips twitched up at the ends. “I might have to take up cattle rustling.”
    Slaughtering, I almost corrected her.
    We watched as they pumped mustard and ketchup and spooned relish onto their burgers. Xanadu stared so hard at Bailey’s back it made him turn around. “Oh my God, he’s looking at me.” She hid her face behind her purse. “I didn’t even put on makeup today.”
    You don’t need it, I wanted to say. You’re beautiful the way you are. Besides, he can’t see your eyes.
    She asked, “Does he have a girlfriend?”
    “Who?”
    She cocked her head at me like, Hel-loo?
    “Bailey? How should I know?” It came out harsher than I meant.
    “I thought everyone knew everything in Coalton.”
    When they cared, I thought.
    “Is he still