Read Online Lone Star Cinderella by Debra Clopton - Free Book Online Page B

me what I’m supposed to do and that little ole Melody will just do it! Well, look, buster, I can at least hike through the woods without someone telling me—” Melody halted in her tracks. What was she doing? What had she just said? Her hand clamped over her mouth, and she lifted mortified eyes to Seth.
    His expression was concerned. “You want to explain some of that?”
    She shook her head. What she wanted was for the earth to open and swallow her up.
    â€œAt the risk of being one of those who tells you what to do…I think it might be a good idea.”

Chapter Seven
    â€œW hy don’t you come in?” Seth said when he pulled to a stop in front of his house.
    â€œI think I’ll go home. But thank you,” Melody said, reaching for the journal and the map. He’d been quiet the entire drive from the ravine—and so had she. But it didn’t take much to see that something was bothering him. Something was on his mind. She just wasn’t sure if it was treasure hunting or if he was thinking about her outburst. How had her emotions twisted like that? It was such an accusatory statement…somehow in her frustration at him over telling her she couldn’t hunt for treasure she’d brought her personal life into the mix.
    â€œCan I ask you a personal question?” he asked, his voice gentle, as if worried she’d have another temper tantrum.
    She wanted to crawl under a rock. She did not want to answer a personal question. Oh, how she wished he wouldn’t ask, but how could she say that? “I guess,” she said instead.
    â€œDo you have a boyfriend?”
    â€œA boyfriend?” Her heart lunged into her throat. Where had that come from?
    â€œYeah, or someone who takes you out on occasion?”
    The wind was rushing in her ears, only the wind wasn’t blowing. Had she been right earlier? She’d thought her aloneness in the dating horizon was pretty obvious. It was mortifying.
    â€œNo,” she said. “No boyfriend. Wh-why?”
    â€œIf someone is bothering you, I’d like to help.”
    The words had her stopping in her tracks. “What?” The word came out in a squeak. This wasn’t about him wanting to ask her out—could she have been any more silly for that thought to cross her mind?
    â€œLook, I’ve tried to stay out of your business, but the phone calls yesterday and then your statement out there—I can’t stand by and let someone harass you. That’s just not the way I’m wired.”
    She was trembling and probably as red as the rose blooming in the flowerbed beside her. “No, I—I don’t need anything.” Need to hide, oh, yes—for years and years. Need to not shake and keep her eyes down because she couldn’t chance him looking into them and guessing what she’d been thinking. She reached for the journal. “I have to go.”
    He laid his hand over hers as her fingers curled around the journal. “Talking might help.”
    She shook her head and tugged at the journal, her eyes riveted to the strength in his hand. Her mind wondering what it would be like to feel that touch in a caress—stop. Foolish, foolish woman.
    She shook her head. She needed to go before she did something humiliating.
    His hand slid from hers and curled firmly around thejournal. He slid it from her grasp. “I think I’ll keep this.”
    â€œWhat?” Now she looked at him.
    â€œI want to read the journal tonight and decide what I want to do.”
    â€œWhat you’re going to do? We’re going to look for the treasure. We have to.”
    â€œMelody, I don’t know if we are.”
    â€œBut—” She was starting to sound like a broken record.
    â€œI’m going to think about this.”
    Melody had felt frustrated and controlled and foolish all of her life—why should she have thought now would be any different? But this was his