Read Online The Cowboy's Mail Order Bride by Carolyn Brown - Free Book Online Page B

said.
    “You could easily be here in time to go too. Her brother doesn’t have a date yet, and he’s been sweet on you for years.”
    “No, thank you. Give Melinda a hug for me. Did I tell you we’re all playing dominoes tonight?”
    “You will let that sweet old lady win one hand, won’t you?” Taylor asked.
    “Maybe, but I won’t let Greg win anything. It’ll be fun to beat him. He says I have to have fifty dollars just to buy into the game, but the way Clarice scolded him, I reckon he was bullshittin’ me. I may own his farm when the night is done.”
    “Why are you bein’ mean to the cowboy? You said he was nice.”
    “He rattles me,” Emily admitted.
    “Well, shit!” Taylor swore.
    “Don’t worry about it.”
    “I’ll worry even more than before. You haven’t told me that a man rattled you in years, not since you were in college. That’s enough to worry me. Use your business sense and not your heart. That gets you in trouble all the time. And do not put your acreage up for stakes,” Taylor said.
    “I wouldn’t dream of it. Talk to you later.” Emily laid the phone in her lap. She turned the tractor around when she reached the barbed wire fence. In a few weeks, the grass would be knee high and the cattle would be grazing in the very pasture where she plowed. It was a never-ending job, but come fall when they had the big cattle sale, they’d see the profit from all the hard work. The spring calves would be fat and would bring in maximum dollar.
    “But I won’t be here to see that. I probably won’t even be here to see this pasture turn green. A few weeks and Clarice will get tired of talking about Marvin and I’ll have outlived my usefulness. And by then I’ll have the closure I want and I’ll be back at Shine Canyon putting my ranch back together.”
    She put an old Conway Twitty CD in the player. Gramps loved Conway, especially when he sang with Loretta Lynn. He’d sit in his recliner and keep time to the music by tapping his thumb on the chair arm. She smiled at the sweet memory.
    When he wasn’t listening to music, he wanted to watch old John Wayne Western movies or reruns of anything that had to do with cowboys, modern day or the old guys, on television.
    Those last few weeks he couldn’t keep his eyes open to watch television, but he asked for music every day and the look on his face said that it took him back to another time in his life when he was a younger man. Emily wondered if his mind had been on Clarice Barton when he listened to the country songs.

Chapter 4
    Dotty put six names in a bowl and shook it around. “First two names are partners for the night. We’re only going to run one table, so there’ll be a player and an advisor. Y’all know the stakes, so we don’t have to go over those. Now first name is Madge and I’m the second one. So we will be partners.”
    Dotty giggled. “Now who is next? I got the paper in my hand. It’s Greg. Will he partner up with Rose or Clarice or maybe Emily?”
    “Come on, Dotty,” Greg said.
    “Don’t be impatient,” she said. “Greg will be with…” She unfolded the paper and said, “Rose.”
    Emily looked at Clarice. “Guess we’ll have to show them who is boss.”
    “In your dreams. Me and Rose can whip you all with an eye patch over one eye, can’t we, Rose?” Greg grinned.
    “And by candlelight.” Rose nodded.
    “Don’t let Rose with her sweet angel face fool you,” Clarice whispered to Emily. “She’s mean as a hungry coyote when it comes to dominoes.”
    “Now you don’t go telling Emily stories like that. I’m just an old lady who likes to play dominoes. It’s not like I count cards.” Rose had thin, wavy white hair, a round face, and a thick waist. She wore a red double-knit pantsuit that had been out of style for forty years, but somehow it looked great on her. Maybe she was an older woman who set the style rather than followed it, and by the end of summer, everyone would be trying to find