Read Online The Trouble With Cowboys by Melissa Cutler - Free Book Online Page B

through him, thinking about what Amy and her family had gone through. She deserved so much better than the hand she’d been dealt.
    “I see the wheels turning in your head, Kellan,” Chris said. “What gives?”
    “I’m working hard to keep myself from driving to her house with my checkbook and taking charge.”
    Vaughn scoffed. “If you tried, I’d probably get called out to arrest you.”
    “That’s why I’m still here.”
    “Well, I think it’s a good thing you’re having dinner with Amy,” Lisa said. Rowen stirred with a dissatisfied whimper and she scooped him from Chris’s shoulder. “Maybe a night out is what the lady needs to take her mind off her worries.”
    “I doubt that,” Chris grumbled.
    Kellan stood and walked to the glass door of his deck, looking at the rolling acres of desert chaparral dotted with cattle. A kick of dust on the nearest slope told him someone had driven the dirt road leading to his property. The doorbell chimed.
    Vaughn pushed up and strolled toward the door like he owned the place. “Expecting someone?” He peered through the peephole.
    “Nope.”
    Vaughn drew a sharp breath and slunk to the far end of the room, swabbing a hand over his face. “You answer, Kellan. It’s your house.”
    Kellan eyed his friend suspiciously and opened the door to Rachel Sorentino. Despite the chilly weather, she wore a short-sleeved T-shirt and her hair was damp, like she’d come straight over after taking a shower. She shared Amy’s doe-shaped brown eyes and freckled, pert nose, but though both women were easy on the eyes, the two sisters gave off completely different vibes. Rachel acted and looked every inch the no-nonsense, born-and-raised cowgirl she was, from her athletic build and darkly tanned skin to her work boots and blunt fingernails.
    “Rachel, what a surprise. Come on in.” He held the door wide open for her to pass.
    “Sorry to stop by unannounced like this, but I need a word with you—” She spied Vaughn and ground to a halt. “Sheriff Cooper.”
    “Miss Sorentino,” Vaughn said softly, folding his arms over his chest.
    Kellan looked to Chris, a brow raised in question, baffled by Vaughn and Rachel’s formality. Chris responded with a shrug of confusion.
    With what seemed like tremendous effort, Rachel pulled her gaze from Vaughn and turned to Kellan. “Is there someplace private we can talk?”
    “How about the porch?”
    “Works for me.”
    “You want a beer?”
    “Sure. Thanks.”
    Glancing sideways at Vaughn, who still looked shell-shocked by Rachel’s sudden appearance, Kellan snagged a beer from the fridge and ushered her out the door. She’d never been to his ranch before, as far as he could recall, and he couldn’t imagine a single reason for her to visit unannounced on a Sunday afternoon.
    Bottle in hand, she walked the porch like she was checking to ensure every window was closed. Kellan’s curiosity mounting, he kept quiet, giving her time to check the windows and collect her thoughts.
    Sitting on his porch, watching Rachel’s agitated pacing, he realized she was the only member of the Sorentino family who wasn’t a Catcher Creek gossip staple. In all the years he’d lived there, he’d never once heard tell of Rachel whooping it up at bars or rodeos, or even church socials. They ran into each other every now and then, at feed stores or livestock auctions, and she was pleasant enough, but aloof. Typical solitary rancher so common in the sprawling, untamed wilderness of Eastern New Mexico.
    When Kellan rolled into Catcher Creek fourteen years ago, a scruffy, dirt poor twenty-year-old with a chip on his shoulder the size of a meteor, he’d steered clear of women for a while, particularly the young, jail-baiting set like the Sorentino sisters had been at the time. But still, he’d borne witness to plenty of the youngest sister, Jenna’s, raucous partying. That is, until she got pregnant at nineteen and settled down on the family farm. Four