Read Online Here Comes Trouble by Becky McGraw - Free Book Online Page A

when he
stepped under the porch light. Dylan pulled the handle on the door
and it swung open, then he kept her in his arms as he slid his long
legs to the ground. He pushed the truck door shut with his butt,
then slid her down his body to the ground.
    Joel gritted his teeth as Dylan Thomas led
Terri to the front porch with his arm draped over her shoulders. He
had just been heading out to the bunkhouse to see what the holdup
was. Penny was fussing about being delayed putting dinner on the
table. Those guys knew they needed to be on time. Most had been
here since Monday, so they knew the routine.
    From the wood Dylan was sporting when they
stepped into the light on the porch, it looked like the delay had
been with Terri and him out in the bunkhouse getting to know one
another. She'd been sitting in the cowboy's lap on the ride over in
the truck, so they must've gotten to know each other pretty well
already. Putting her out there in the bunkhouse with a bunch of
randy cowboys, to keep her away from him was not a good idea, he
now realized. It was like putting an apple pie on the windowsill
with crows perched in the trees.
    "Terri, I need to talk to you before supper,"
Joel told her and opened the door wider. Dylan dropped his arm to
his side and Joel stepped between them. "Tell Penny to set a plate
for Terri, she'll be there in a minute," he instructed Dylan, then
led her through the huge house to the back, where his office was
located. Joel clenched his hands at his sides trying to control the
emotion making his gut boil.
    What the fuck was wrong with him? Jealousy was
an ugly thing, and he didn't want to label what he was feeling as
that. That was an emotion he'd never been afflicted by before.
Instead, he tried to convince himself what had him upset was the
problems that fraternization between his employees would cause,
because they all lived at the ranch.
    But Rocky his female ranch hand flirted with
the other cowboys, and that didn't bother him. She lived out in the
bunkhouse with them and again, it didn't matter. Seeing Terri
cozying up to Dylan just now upset him. Just like seeing her
dancing with her friend at the bar in Henrietta had upset
him.
    Maybe the fact that they'd slept together
before was the problem, as he'd feared it would be when he hired
her. Because of their intimate connection, he was having flashbacks
of being cheated on during his marriage. Terri Cassidy was a
flavor, nothing more and he needed to remember that. But he was not
going to let her start a riot between the cowboys on his ranch. And
he was not going to be subjected to seeing it on a daily basis. He
didn't need that distraction.
    Joel was about to nip any ideas she had of
starting something with one of his cowboys in the bud. Terri was
here to work, not seduce men...including him. Even if it was
unintentional, the woman put off signals that any man within
fifteen feet of her couldn't miss. A lot like his ex-wife had
done.
    Joel opened his office door, and flipped on
the light then walked behind his desk and sat down. Taking a deep
breath, he waited as she took a seat in the chair in front of his
desk.
    "Shut the door," he told her
calmly.
    She gave him a look then got up and did as he
asked, before sitting back down.
    "We have a problem," he told her. Although it
was really his problem, since Terri was the cause of it, it was now theirs .
    "Oh, yeah? What's that?" she asked and her
eyes narrowed. He noticed her hand tremble on the handle of the
chair.
    "You can't be carrying on with the cowboys on
this ranch," he told her bluntly.
    "Carrying on?" she asked and her face
flushed.
    "Yeah, hooking up with them, you know what I
mean. It will cause friction, and I can't have that," he told
her.
    She cleared her throat then sat forward in the
chair. "Hooking up?" she repeated in a high-pitched voice tinged
with anger.
    "You gonna make me spell it out for you?" he
said knowing she knew exactly what he meant.
    "I think I get the gist of what you're