Read Online Her Texas Ranger Hero by Rebecca Winters - Free Book Online

are you in the mood for?”
    â€œAnything.”
    He smiled. “Then let’s go to The Grove and sit on the deck.”
    â€œI love that place. All those huge trees.”
    â€œThe Italian food isn’t bad, either.”
    Before long they reached the restaurant and were shown to a table. Once the waitress took their orders, Ally handed him the binder. He thanked her for it, but didn’t open it.
    â€œWhen I get home tonight, I’ll spend hours digesting this. But right now I want to ask you a question.” She looked so beautiful in her filmy, short-sleeved blouse and white skirt. He hadn’t been able to miss the fact that every guy who walked past their table openly checked her out.
    â€œWhat’s that?”
    â€œIs there an important man in your life? Am I treading on any toes?”
    Her eyes seemed to turn a deeper blue. “No.”
    â€œNot even someone back in China?”
    â€œI dated several American men while I was there. There was one I was pretty serious about. His name was Jack Reynolds. He was a judge advocate in the Marines Corps, working in international and operational law. I came close to marrying him.”
    â€œWhy didn’t you?”
    â€œIt would have meant living all over the world. I’m afraid I’m a Texas girl at heart, despite spending so many years overseas. When you asked me why I didn’t stay in China with my friends, the truth is, I was homesick for the ranch.”
    â€œDid you have opportunities to ride over there?”
    â€œYea, but it wasn’t the same. Hunan Province has great beauty, but it doesn’t have hot spots of bluebonnets you can’t wait to run through. We always came home in April so we wouldn’t miss them in bloom.”
    â€œI take it you’re happy to be home,” Luckey murmured. The dreamy expression on her face said it all, and a vision filled his mind. He could see her riding through purple-blue fields with the wind blowing her lustrous black hair back from her face.
    â€œOh, yes. I’m never leaving again, except to go on vacation.”
    While her pronouncement trickled through Luckey’s awareness like mist, exciting him, the waitress brought their dinner.
    â€œI’m a Texas man myself.”
    Ally flashed him a smile that blew him away. “I would never have guessed. Since we’re exchanging information, are you involved with someone who wouldn’t like it that you’re having dinner with me tonight? Even if it is because of the case you’re investigating?”
    He put down his fork. “For me it stopped being about this case the moment you opened your office door and we ran into each other. Does that answer your question?”
    â€œNot all of them,” she said unexpectedly. Her smile had faded. “If you told me you’d never been in love, I wouldn’t believe you.”
    â€œI fell hard for a woman in college and married her. We were both twenty-two. But when I was taken on as a Ranger, our problems began. I thought she understood what it meant, but I was naive. Within two years we divorced, and she went back to Houston, where she lives now with her new husband and two kids. He sells insurance, a nine-to-five man.”
    â€œNot every woman could handle what you do for a living. I was surprised my mother could handle the life she shared with my father.”
    Luckey was extremely interested in the answer to his next question. “What do you think was the key?”
    â€œWhen I asked her, she said, ‘Ally? I fell in love with a cowboy and that never changed, because no job can ever take the cowboy out of a real man.’”
    â€œYour mother sounds a lot like mine.”
    Ally cocked her head. “In what way?”
    â€œBoth my parents came from ranching families who’ve done it for generations. Dad was a rancher before he became a police officer and eventually the sheriff of Travis County. Mom got her