Read Online Once and for All by Jeannie Watt - Free Book Online Page A

spine.
    “I’m a player,” she replied. Joe Barton’s daughter didn’t play sissy ball. She’d been the season MVP three years in a row during high school.
    Tyler passed the ball to Sam and the game was on.
    The guys were each a good five inches taller than her five foot seven, but she was fast and agile. Ball handling had been her forte, and the moves came back automatically.
    Tyler and Sam won by one point, but neither Beau nor Jodie were disappointed with their efforts. Beau held out his hand for a high five and Jodie jumped to smack his palm.
    “Where’d you learn to play?” he asked, smiling at her in a way that made her very aware of him, of her, of the possibilities they could explore.
    “High school. I played varsity for three years.” Joe had been disappointed it hadn’t been four. When she’d made the JV—junior varsity—team as a freshman, she’d been proud, since the competition was fierce, but immediately realized that her father had expected more. She’d worked like crazy that year and over the summer to make varsity, and had been rewarded with a proud father. And when she’d won MVP…terrifically proud father.
    “We’re going out for burgers tonight,” Beau said. “Want to come?”
    Jodie couldn’t help but feel honored to be invited, since she was certain these boys had heard a lot of bad things about her family.
    “Oh, I, uh…really can’t. I bought groceries for Margarite and need to get them home. She’s baking for a bake sale.” Jodie was surprised at how disappointed the boys looked.
    “Well, maybe another time,” Beau said with a charming smile that came close to swaying her. He was so different than he’d been the night he’d accompanied Sam to the ranch. Whatever problem they’d been having had apparently blown over…which made her wonder what kind of problem an uncle and nephew could have that was so serious. They’d acted much more like father and son.
    “How’s the bull?” Sam asked after the boys had started toward the house. The jeans he wore accentuated his long legs a whole lot more than the canvas coveralls he’d had on every time he’d visited the ranch.
    “Lucas put him back in the pasture today.”
    “Excellent.” Sam bounced the ball a couple times. “How’d you become such a good basketball player?”
    “Same way anyone does. I spent a lot of hours on the court.”
    “I never took you for an athlete.”
    “Why?”
    “I don’t know. You just seem so…girlie.”
    “Girlie.” She echoed the word flatly, not at all flattered by the assessment. Feminine maybe, but girlie?
    Sam shifted his weight, but his eyes stayed locked on hers when he said, “I mean that in a good way.”
    “Do you?” she asked, noting that though his gaze was direct, the color had risen in his cheeks. Was Sam Hyatt shy? She found the thought intriguing and was debating how she could test her hypothesis when the door to the house opened and his nephews came out wearing gray hooded sweatshirts, one emblazoned with University of Nevada Reno Wolf Pack across the chest and the other with UNLV Running Rebels. All the bases covered.
    “Can I drive your car sometime?” Tyler asked.
    “No.” Sam spoke firmly. Jodie was glad, because it saved her from having to do so.
    “Well,” she said, “have fun. I’ll see you guys later.” She picked her way over the half-frozen grass to the path at the side of the clinic.
    Jodie drove home thinking about Sam and his boys, but mainly about Sam. Handsome man. Good ball handler. Possibly shy. The snap of attraction she felt when they were together was…energizing. And so was the game. She smiled with satisfaction as she turned onto the Zephyr Ranch road. All in all, not a bad trip to town.
    Her dad would have a fit if he knew she was entertaining carnal thoughts about Sam. Oh, well. She smiled again.
    “I thought you’d be back sooner,” Margarite commented as she helped Jodie carry the bags in from the garage.
    “I got waylaid