Read Cowboy from the Future for Free Online Page B

off my hands.  Left to your own devices,
you’re considering just walking off into the snow!”  He made that sound like a bad plan.  “Someone like you must have a team of hired idiots standing by to
save you from yourself.”
    “Someone
like me?  Meaning what?”
    “Meaning
you’re lost in every possible way.  Do you not understand what it’s like out
there?”
    Honestly? 
No.  What Addy knew about snow she’d learned while skiing in Vail.  And by
“skiing,” she meant “sitting by the fireplace and drinking warm cider.”  The
weather outside the hotel window looked pretty intense.
    She
chewed her lower lip.  Maybe, Cade had a point.  She wanted to get home ASAP,
but maybe she wasn’t thinking this idea through.  That happened to her a
lot.  Addy tended to act before she considered all the consequences.
    According
to her father, it was the scatterbrain thing, again.
    Cade
must have seen the doubt in her expression.  “Four gods.”  He sank down on the edge
of the mattress and ran a hand through his dark hair.  “You are utterly helpless, aren’t you?  Have you ever had to do anything even halfway
practical?”
    Addy
resented that.  It sounded too much like all the times she’d been written her
off as a superficial airhead, because she was a curvy girl from the country
club.  So she liked pretty clothes, and got impatient with boring details, and sometimes
forgot to pay her bills.  She wasn’t helpless .
    “Hey,
I’m doing the best I can.”  She shot back, swiping at her eyes.  “At least, I’m
not screaming in a padded cell someplace.  Try showing up in my world
and see how well yo u do.”  Five minutes in front a computer screen and
he’d be crying like a baby.
    “I
understand very little of what you say and I still know it’s all gibberish. 
However, my brothers dislike the idea of abandoning you to your fate and I
won’t disappoint them by letting you die.  So, you can’t go off into the snow
tomorrow.”  He leaned closer to her.  “To be clear, though, if you do anything to endanger my family, I will make you sorry.  Alright?”
    Addy
wasn’t particularly terrified.  “Alright?”  Staring into his extraordinary
eyes, she didn’t believe for one second that he’d hurt her.  Cade was one of
the good guys.  And the man clearly loved his little brothers.  She’d always
wished she had siblings.  Seeing the Westins together downstairs had made her
envious of their bond.  If one of them was stranded in the future,
someone at home would be looking for them.
    “So,
now we must come up with a plan.”  He continued.  “A workable, practical, not stupid plan.”
    Addy
perked up at the implication that Cade was going to help her figure this out. 
Asshole or not, he seemed semi-smart and he knew this place way better than she
did.  “Like what?”
    “If
no one is coming on their own, we must summon them.”
    “It’s
a pretty far distance.”  She hedged.  If she told him she was from the past,
she had a feeling Cade would toss her out on her ass for being a crazy person. 
Better to let him think it was just miles separating her from home.
    “I
don’t care how far it is.  Somebody must be willing to travel here to
collect you.  Look at you!”  He swept a hand up and down her plus-sized body. 
“You are clearly loved.  Who will give everything to get you back?”
    Addy
racked her brain for a moment.  She had friends, but did she know anyone who
would give everything to get her back?  Not really.  Regardless of what
he thought, she wasn’t loved.  Not by anyone.  Jesus, she really was going
to cry.  She needed to tell Cade something, though.  “Well, there’s Brian.”
    “Brian?”
    “My
boss.  I’m the best consultant he has,” (No, she wasn’t.), “so he’ll be really
hunting for me.”  Not that he’d ever, ever find her, but he’d probably
look for a couple of days before hiring someone else.
    Cade
nodded in relief.