Read Online The Cowboy and the Princess by Lori Wilde - Free Book Online Page B

take it back.”
    “If you do not regret it, why would you want to take it back?”
    He scrunched up his face. “Why do you ask so many questions?”
    “There’s so much to learn!”
    “Learn?”
    She pressed a hand to her mouth. Tightrope walking. She had to be careful. She felt a strange urge to tell him all her secrets. That was a fatal impulse. “I can share one secret.”
    “What’s that?”
    “I’m only in Texas for a few weeks and then I must depart.”
    “Back to where you came from?”
    “Back to where I came from,” she echoed.
    “So this is a sabbatical of sorts.”
    “Exactly.”
    “The hitchhiking, piercings, tattoos are all your attempt to cram the most living into the least amount of time.” Outside the rain went from splattered to patter. A sliver of moon swam in a sea of black clouds.
    “You understand.”
    “What precisely are you taking a sabbatical from?”
    “Other people’s rules,” she replied honestly.
    “I’ve never been a fan of other people’s rules myself.”
    “I have observed that.”
    “You’ve already got me figured out.”
    “Yes, I have dove-holed you.”
    “Dove-holed?” Brady hooted. Making fun.
    “Is that not right?” She worried her collar with her fingers.
    “What? Oh, you mean pigeonholed.”
    “Yes, that is it. Wrong bird.”
    Brady’s warm, rich laugh rolled right over her. “You’re something else, you know that?”
    “What else?”
    “It’s an expression. Meaning you’re different. Special.”
    Yes, she knew that. Being different and special was what she was running away from. “What is it like?” she asked.
    “What?” He turned on his blinker, changed lanes to pass a slow-moving truck transporting ice cream. A picture of a cow was plastered on the side of the truck along with a slogan proclaiming: “Simple Pleasures.” The cow wore a red bell around her neck and was smiling like a human.
    “This place called Jubilee.”
    He shrugged. “It’s a horse town.”
    “Does that mean that it is a very small town?”
    “You’re thinking of a one-horse town.”
    “So may idioms. What is the difference?”
    “Jubilee literally is the cutting horse capital of the world.”
    “What is a cutting horse?”
    “Usually it’s a quarter horse, but it can be other breeds. Once upon a time cutting horses were used to work livestock on a ranch. Now, mostly it’s a sport.”
    “A sport?”
    “Like rodeo events. Bull riding or steer wrestling.”
    “Cutting horses are not in the rodeo?”
    “No, they have a venue all their own.”
    “I see.”
    “It’s clear why you came here to learn.”
    “I can assure you that my education is quite comprehensive,” she said, mildly offended. “I speak six languages.”
    “No kidding?”
    “ Je parle français .”
    “French.”
    “ Ich spreche Deutsches .”
    “German?”
    She had to speak German. It was the national language of Dubinstein. “Excellent guess. Eu falo o português. ”
    “Portuguese.”
    “ Parlo Italiano .”
    “Simple and to the point, those Italians.”
    “ Hablo español .”
    “Poco.”
    “Oh, you speak Spanish as well?” That surprised and delighted her.
    “Buttercup, you’re in Texas. We all speak a little Spanish. Almost half my customer base speaks Spanish.”
    “May I see it sometime?”
    “What’s that? My customer base.”
    “These horses being cut.”
    “No, no, the horses aren’t cut. They’re the ones doing the cutting.”
    “What do they cut?”
    “Cattle from the herd.”
    Annie had no idea what he was talking about, but it sounded fascinating. In Monesta they didn’t have cattle. Not enough land. They raised sheep and goats instead.
    “But you should really see a rodeo before you go back home.”
    She knew what rodeos were. She had seen them on television. “Will you take me to a rodeo?”
    “We’ll have to see about that. I don’t make promises I can’t keep.”
    That was a good thing. He was a man of his word.
    “So tell me more about