Read Short-Straw Bride for Free Online Page B

away from him, her eyes held his, filled to the brim with . . . trust? That made no sense. Maybe the woman was crazy.
    â€œYou told me it was all an act on the day you helped me. Do you remember? After you freed me from that trap and splinted my leg, you made me promise not to tell anyone about how you were helping me. Said it would be safer for your brothers if everyone continued to believe you a mean-hearted, trigger-happy fiend. I kept that promise. And now I’m back to return the kindness you extended to me twelve years ago.”
    She reached for her skirts again, and heaven help him, all he did was lower his rifle barrel so he could watch her better. He remembered that girl and those abominable traps. How brave she’d been. How trusting. But this couldn’t be her, could it? Surely time hadn’t passed so quickly. She’d been just a child. This woman couldn’t be the same person.
    Travis fought his reaction to her and regained his stance. “This is some kind of trick—some way for you to worm into my good graces so your fiancé can step in and steal my land.”
    Her eyes narrowed. “This is no trick, and that man will never be my fiancé.” She tugged on her skirts again. “I can prove who I am, Travis, if you’ll just give me the chance.” She lowered her gaze to somewhere near the ground. “Look at my leg.”
    He might be a recluse, but even he knew what she asked wasn’t proper. But apparently Neill was too young to have any qualms.
    â€œAh, that little scar ain’t nothin’. Jim’s is better.”
    A quiet growl rumbled out of Jim, but Crockett actually laughed. Travis turned a glare on the man to his left. Crockett swallowed his mirth.
    Fed up with this girl’s shenanigans, Travis finally glanced down at her ankle, at the small amount of skin exposed above the top of her shoe and below her hem. Sure enough, a thin scar marred the pale flesh there.
    In a flash, he was seventeen again, tending her wound, and carrying the little girl in his arms all the way to her home. He’d thought of her often—wondering what became of her. Travis examined her face again. Her hair was a little darker now, but a few golden streaks remained, evidence of the tow-headed girl he’d met so long ago. Her vivid blue eyes cut through him just as they had back then, when they’d been full of tears. The curves she sported now were definitely new, but the determination and bravery he remembered clung to her bearing like a grass burr to a pant leg.
    That scrawny little kid had grown into a right handsome woman.
    Travis lowered his weapon. “Good to see you again, Meredith.”

4
    H e did remember. Even her name. Meredith couldn’t hold back the grin that begged for release.
    â€œSo, brother . . . how come you never told us about your little friend, here?” The teasing drawl from the man at Travis’s left drew Meredith’s attention. He deliberately looked from her to Travis and back again. Then he winked. She couldn’t believe it. Biting her lip to keep her embarrassment in check as well as to keep from smiling too wide, she dropped her gaze to the ground.
    â€œShut up, Crockett,” Travis grumbled as he stalked forward to take her arm. “It was a long time ago.” His grip was gentle but exerted enough force to propel her toward the clearing. “She wandered off the road and stepped into one of those traps we used to have set up. I freed her, splinted up her leg, and took her home. End of story.”
    As they rounded the last stand of trees, the house came into view off to the right. The snug cabin with its trail of smoke curling up from the stone chimney beckoned Meredith with an earnest welcome completely at odds with the rifle-wielding foursome who had met her on the path.
    â€œWait a minute.” Crockett jogged around them and planted himself in front of her.
    Travis tried