Read Online The Cowboy Who Broke the Mold by Cathleen Galitz - Free Book Online

for it. And even though it might seem funny to you, it hurt my feelings.” She paused and looked directly at each one of them. “I’d like to ask you all a big favor.”
    This was a new turn of events. Every eye was on the lovely new schoolteacher.
    “Since I’m new around here, I’m going to need your help to learn all about your beautiful state. I’d like very much for us each to learn from each other. I promise you that I won’t ever pull such mean tricks on you. I won’t allow anyone to be made fun of, say, for not reading as well as someone else, or maybe giving the wrong answer to a question. You don’t have to be afraid of not knowing something here. I think school should be a safe and a fun place for you to come each day.”
    The children looked suspiciously at one another. Seemingly this sharing of the teaching task was a strange and exciting concept to them.
    Cowboy broke the uncomfortable silence by raising two fingers in the air.
    “Yes?”
    Blushing furiously at the new teacher’s ignorance, he explained, “I have to go to the bathroom.”
    “Oh,” Carrie responded with a smile. “Then you have my permission to leave the room.”
    As he made his way around to the back of the build- ing to get to the bathroom that had been added onto the old structure when indoor plumbing had become avail- able, Cowboy stooped to open his pocket to let a water snake slither away in the long grass.
    Despite the fact that it was a heck of a lot easier to simply let the kids catch the bus home, Judson delib- erately arrived early that first day of school to pick up his children and check on the progress the new school- teacher was making. He had no intention of any ill will between them affecting the way Ms. Raben treated his children.
    “What the hell?” he muttered, rubbing his eyes in disbelief.
    Decked out in their best back-to-school clothes, the entire group was sprawled out beneath a stand of as- pens. In their midst was their teacher, looking cool as a southern breeze in a pink seersucker suit, her matching heels tucked neatly beneath her long, folded legs. Cheryl Sue used to wear expensive, out-of-place outfits just like that. Judson remembered how that pretty pack- aging had disguised the shallow, insecure girl inside. The one who preferred holding on to her daddy’s money over the twins she had borne her half-breed husband.
    Accepting a bunch of dandelions from a pupil, Carrie flashed the child a smile so genuine that even from a distance Judson could feel its warmth. Assuring himself that it was nothing more than sheer indignation that caused his heart to lurch so unnaturally against hischest, he wondered how school could have changed so drastically from the way he remembered it.
    Parking his pickup at the edge of the playground, he proceeded to amble over to the assembled group.
    “A little early for school to be out, isn’t it?” he drawled.
    “Daddy!” squealed Brandy, leaping up in delight, her artwork crumpled and forgotten in the grass. Ado- ration was clearly reflected in the girl’s lovely features.
    Looking up at Judson from ground level, Carrie had a positively erotic view of his tight jeans. Over the weekend she had begun to doubt whether this man was truly as mouthwateringly sexy as she had remembered him or if her imagination had merely run away with her. The immediate fluttering of her senses reassured Carrie that it was not her imagination.
    Taking a deep breath she forced herself to address him coolly as “Mr. Horn.” Still smarting from their last encounter, Carrie wished she could afford the lux- ury of ignoring him altogether. But since he was a pa- tron of the district, not to mention the chairman of the duly elected school board, that would be impossible.
    “I’m afraid you’re mistaken. School is not yet out, and that means you’re interrupting my class,” she added pointedly.
    “We’re helping Miss Raben learn all about Wyo- ming,” Cowboy volunteered.