Read Online The Cowboy's Twins by Deb Kastner - Free Book Online Page A

on him and Jax swallowed hard, struck by the sparkle gleaming in her hazel eyes. They were a beautiful, swirling mixture of green and gold that he found quite captivating.
    â€œOh, that.” She waved him away with a sweep of her hand. “I hereby absolve you of all your obligations inherent in offering yourself up for auction. Go live your life. Enjoy your babies. Be free.”
    She wasn’t making this easy.
    Go live his life? What life?
    Until Faith and the twins had suddenly entered his life two days ago, he hadn’t even realized that he hadn’t been living—just going through the motions. He couldn’t do that anymore.
    He didn’t want to.
    He owed her, and not just because she had bought him at that silly auction.
    Besides, she needed him, whether she was willing to admit it or not. And probably far more than she realized, if the state of her property was anything to go by.
    â€œWhat are you doing?” he asked, ignoring the absolution of his commitment.
    â€œMoving hay bales around. The guy who delivered them this morning dumped them right in the middle of my driveway and took off without a word. I’ve been hauling them one by one to the side of the barn. Hay bales are heavier than they look, by the way.”
    Jax chuckled. Toting hay bales wasn’t much of a challenge for him. He could tote them two at a time and not even break a sweat, but then he was twice her size and had been doing it all of his life.
    And why was she worrying about hay, anyway? Horses were a long time off, weren’t they? First things first. Her house was falling down around her, and she was out here performing unnecessary manual labor?
    â€œYou could have called me.”
    She shook her head. “No. I can do this myself.”
    He lifted a brow. She was nothing if not stubborn. But he couldn’t fault her for that. It took a tough person to handle life on a ranch. He wasn’t convinced she was that person, but she certainly showed gumption.
    â€œCan you give me a hand with the tarp?” She pressed one side of an olivegreen tarp into his hands, and he helped her unfold it. Together they parachuted it over the top of the stack of hay.
    â€œWhat are you pegging it down with?” he asked, scanning the ground for tent pegs and a mallet.
    â€œPegs?” Her brows lowered, crinkling over her nose. “Right. To keep the tarp from blowing away. I should have thought of that. I—” She stalled, dropping her gaze. “I don’t know what I’ll be using.”
    Of course she didn’t. Now why wasn’t Jax surprised? If ever he’d known someone completely unprepared for the challenges facing her, it was Faith Dugan. Initiative and good intentions could take a person only so far.
    â€œI found the old tarp in a corner of the barn,” she explained. “Maybe there are some pegs there, as well.”
    â€œHold on a sec. I’ll go look.” Jax jogged into the barn, figuring he’d have a better chance of finding something that would work for the tarp, especially if they had to improvise.
    He couldn’t find any tent pegs, but he did locate some large nails that were long enough and thick enough to do the task. He grabbed a handful of them, along with a rusty old hammer that was hanging on the tool wall.
    When he returned to Faith, she was standing with her back against the wall of hay, a distant gleam in her gaze. She looked tired, and for the first time he noticed the dark circles under her eyes.
    She brightened when she saw what Jax was carrying.
    â€œI know I must seem woefully ill-equipped to you,” she admitted as Jax went to work nailing down the tarp. “It’s a slow process, but I’ve been making a list of everything I’ll be needing to keep the ranch running. I’ll add pegs to the list, and maybe even an extra tarp or two.”
    That must be some list.
    Jax fought against the smile that crept up the right