Read Online Last of the Red-Hot Cowboys by Tina Leonard - Free Book Online Page B

Hattie in a confiding tone. “She wears her heart in her eyes like that when she talks, and you just kind of melt listening to her.”
    Ava shook her head. “Ladies, matchmaking will get you nowhere, I promise.”
    â€œI wouldn’t mind Saint Markham being sweet on me,” Cameron said. “But I’m pretty sure he didn’t notice I was alive.”
    Hattie and Judy shared a glance, laughing.
    â€œYou don’t have to worry about any of the Outlaws. They know
every
woman’s alive,” Hattie said. “Anyway, Judy, I think I agree with Ava on this one. Trace is so stubborn you have to get at him another way. Let him work with the girls the way he wants to. At least they’ll be riding, getting their horses worked out. You don’t want to have anything to do with the Horsemen; you know you were just using them to get onTrace’s last nerve.”
    â€œI think she succeeded,” Cameron said. “I have a date tomorrow night with a Horseman.”
    The surprised women turned to Cameron.
    â€œWell, we were training there,” Cameron said, “and he’s cute—”
    â€œWho’s cute?” Ava demanded. The Horsemen were good-looking enough, if you liked them rough around the edges.
    Trace was rough around the edges, yet somehow sexy.
    And arrogant—a definite drawback.
    â€œJake Masters,” Cameron said.
    Judy gasped. “Not Jake the snake!”
    â€œOh, honey, no,” Hattie said. “You don’t want to do that.”
    â€œIt’d be like going over to the dark side,” Judy said, her doe eyes wide. “I feel like a proud mama to you girls. You can’t go out with Horsemen!”
    Steel slid into the booth next to Judy. “What are you ladies plotting about now?”
    Judy gave him an aggrieved look. “ ‘Plotting’? Why is it that women plot, but men strategize?”
    The sheriff laughed. “Whatever you do, darling, you do it beautifully.”
    Judy shook her head at her beau. “Tell Cameron why she doesn’t want to go out with Jake the snake.”
    The sheriff seemed pained. “Jake used to date Ivy Peters, for one thing.”
    â€œWhat’s so bad about that?” Ava wondered.
    Steel looked up at the ceiling, and Judy glared at him. “You don’t want anything to do with getting Ivy riled,” Judy said. “The reason Ivy dated Jake the snake is because Ivy is truly Poison Ivy. They deserve each other.”
    The sheriff was still trying to look innocent, and Judy was having none of it. “I don’t allow my man to go near Ivy’s place. If Steel has to go out there, he has to take an Outlaw with him. Either Trace, Saint, or Declan, I do not care which—even if Declan is Fallon’s twin brother, I can trust Declan to guard Steel. Just someone strong to keep Ivy’s arms from wrapping around my man. Bad things go on at Ivy’s place.”
    â€œAw, Judy,” Steel said.
    â€œWhat’s wrong with it?” Harper asked.
    â€œIt’s not a classy joint,” Hattie said. “Ivy Peters’ Honky-tonk and Dive Bar. You can imagine that they attract a different clientele than the Rolling Thunder.” She shrugged. “Ivy’s on the outskirts of town, where she belongs, in my opinion.”
    â€œBut in spite of that,” the sheriff said, knowing he was taking a chance, “they pay their taxes and they do charity work. They’re not all bad.”
    Judy’s glare could have frozen summer rain into icicles.
    â€œJake seems so nice,” Cameron said.
    â€œIt can’t hurt for one night, can it?” Ava asked. Cameron looked so dismayed that everyone was raining on her date that she felt sorry for her. Cameron shot her a grateful glance.
    â€œYou don’t know them,” Judy said, “so if you go, you take Ava.”
    â€œMe?” Ava said, wishing she’d kept her mouth shut