Read Online Just a Cowboy and His Baby (Spikes & Spurs) by Carolyn Brown - Free Book Online Page A

more points than she did and how disappointed she had been. She had taken a shower and changed for the rodeo dance. Someone had put a beer in her hands and she’d finished it quickly, then there had been dancing and another beer and that’s where everything came to a screeching halt.
    There’s no way two beers put me on my butt. I can hold my own against three older brothers and I can outdrink my sister Colleen. How did I get home and into bed? Did I die and is this eternity? If I did, it has to be hell. But I can’t be dead. My head hurts too bad for me to be dead.
    She wiggled her toes to find them still restricted in boots. She ran a hand down her side. She was still fully dressed. She opened both eyes even though the light hurt. Nothing. She was not at home in her trailer, so where was she? She didn’t recognize a single thing. A soft whimper on the pillow beside her caused her to turn her head just in time for a doggy tongue to lick her face from chin to eyelid.
    Where did Sugar fit into the picture? Nothing made a bit of sense. She shut her eyes again against the harsh bright light coming through the window and tried to think. Doggy breath. The aroma of bacon and coffee. Someone humming an old George Strait tune “Famous Last Words.”
    Holy Mother of God! She was in Trace’s trailer. He was happy and cooking breakfast and she was in his bed. What in the hell had she done?
    And he’s humming about the famous last words of a fool? What did I say? Am I the fool?
    She forced her eyes open one more time and looked down the length of the bed. He was putting plates on the table. He was every bit as sexy in those knit pajama bottoms as he was in tight-fitting jeans and chaps.
    Shut up thinking like that! Try to think about what happened after that second beer.
    He turned around and waved. “Good morning. I thought the smell of food might wake you up. I tried everything else but nothing worked.”
    What all did “everything else” cover anyway?
    Gemma eased to a sitting position and checked one more time. Yep, she was fully dressed, complete with her boots still on her feet.
    Trace carried a cup of coffee to the bed and put two aspirin in her hand. “Something for the headache and to wake you. We’ve got more than four hundred miles to go before the end of the day.”
    She popped the pills in her mouth and washed them down with stout coffee. “What happened?” she whispered hoarsely.
    “Two beers.” He chuckled.
    “Impossible.”
    He sat down on the edge of the bed. “I think someone drugged your beer. You left it sitting on a hay bale while you were dancing and when you finished it off, you passed out while we were dancing.”
    She handed him the coffee and held her head with both hands. “Well, that was stupid. I know better.”
    But you were watching me dance and your eyes made me all hot. Did I tell you that before I passed out?
    “God, it even hurts to think. Who did it?”
    “The last person I saw you dancing with was Chopper, but he wouldn’t drug you. I wouldn’t put it past Coby. He’s pretty wild and he’s had his eye on you.”
    “I can’t remember anything after dancing to a fast song in a group of cowgirls. If that sumbitch doped me, he’s in big trouble,” she said.
    Trace sat down on the edge of the bed. “You remember that much?”
    “I remember dancing and waking up right here. What did I say or, worse yet, do?”
    Trace chuckled. “You slept. I’d like to hold it over your head that you said something terrible or did something sexy, but you didn’t. You just slept like you were drugged. You finished that dance in the group and downed your beer. I asked you to dance with me and you barely made it past the end of the song before you were out. I would have put you to bed in your trailer, but it I didn’t know what might happen if I did, so I brought you here.”
    She mumbled, “Thank you.”
    He handed her the coffee and she sipped it. It did help erase the bitter, nasty taste