Read Online Heart of Gold by Lacy Williams - Free Book Online

doesn’t look good for Opal’s reputation. Yours either, really, and if we’re going to be partners…”
    It was a far cry from the reprimand Charlie had expected to hear that he laughed. He’d thought Frank would be more concerned about the danger his daughter had been placed in. “What?”
    “You were out alone all night with my daughter,” Frank said gravely. “We both know you were just trying to keep her safe, but the way people will talk… it won’t look good.”
    “Papa, Charlie was a perfect gentleman, I assure you.”
    Opal’s eyes met Charlie’s briefly and he remembered those kisses they’d shared. Well, he’d been close to a perfect gentleman.
    “Be that as it may, the fact remains you’re going to have to get married.”
    While Charlie found himself liking the idea, Opal’s tense frown told it all. She wasn’t in favor of marrying him.
    “Papa, you can’t force us to marry.” She sounded so reasonable, so matter-of-fact. “Let’s talk some more about the children.”
    Seemed she’d moved right on as if her father hadn’t spoken, totally disregarding his words. Charlie’s stomach clutched. Should’ve known she wouldn’t want a cowhand like him.
    Frank squinted at Charlie. “This isn’t exactly how I pictured things when I asked you to find a way to keep Opal on the Circle B, but…”
    Charlie didn’t hear the rest of Frank’s words as Opal turned searching eyes on him. Of a sudden, all the air seemed to have left the room. The entire house. Charlie couldn’t catch his breath.
    “Charlie?” she asked tentatively. “Is that true?”
    He couldn’t tell if she was about to cry or if it was some other emotion clouding her eyes. His breath stuck in his chest painfully but he couldn’t deny it. He’d agreed to help Frank find a way to keep Opal here.
    She rose, looking regal and calm and much too good for him as she turned for the door. “Apparently, I have some thinking to do. Gentlemen, please excuse me.”
    And she swept out of the room.

     
    Opal couldn’t help staring in dismay at the scene in front of her.
    “Why, you little traitor…” she murmured.
    Movement from behind her stirred the barn air, and Opal breathed in the scents of her childhood: hay, horses, sunshine.
    And the scent of her future: leather and man. Charlie.
    “Opal?” his voice came out softer, more tentative than she’d ever heard it before.
    She didn’t turn to face him. Not yet. She was still trying to come to terms with a God who would answer her prayers, asked and unasked, to give her all her dreams.
    “My cat…” She crossed her arms over the stall railing and leaned her chin on top of them.
    Charlie moved beside her, almost shoulder-to-shoulder and chuckled low as he caught sight of the little turncoat.
    Opal’s beautiful, once-white Persian cat was curled up in the hay with the largest, mangiest yellow tom Opal had ever seen. He was even missing part of one ear. Opal’s cat opened one green eye lazily and then closed it again, deciding her mistress wasn’t worth missing sleep over.
    “Looks like she found a place of her own. Shouldn’t have tried to keep her locked in your room…”
    Opal glanced at him sideways. “Are you trying to make some kind of analogy to our own situation?”
    He sighed. “Opal, it’s complicated.”
    She turned to face him, crossed her arms over her middle. “It can’t be that complicated. Did you or did you not agree to find a way to keep me on the Circle B for my father?”
    He winced, fingers tapping nervously on the brim of the Stetson he held in front of him like a shield. “Well, I…”
    “Yes or no?”
    He shrugged helplessly, not meeting her eyes. “What else could I have done? Frank is my boss.”
    “So you were looking for ways to make me want to stay.”
    “Yes, but I’d never compromise you in any way. You know as well as I do that I wouldn’t want to trap anyone into marriage.”
    So she did, remembering his words last night about