Read Silver River Romeo (Western Cowboy Romance) (Rancher Romance Series #1) for Free Online Page A

problem.
     
                  He wanted to know what was going on. Was she buying stock? Had she hired any hands? How was she going to get that hay cut and baled? Hell, did she even know that she needed to do it? Maybe she just thought it was tall grass.
     
                  Cole also couldn’t stop wondering if Marshall was thinking about her, too. He hadn’t mentioned her, but that didn’t mean anything. Marshall didn’t talk much about his women. At least, the women Cole assumed he had. There had been plenty of girls for his brother in the past, but now he seemed set on finding a certain kind of woman. An experienced woman to help him run the ranch. A woman steady enough to live on the limited income a ranch provided.
     
                  Cole shook the thought out of his head. That wouldn’t be Emma. She had a ranch of her own. Unless Marshall was planning to ask her to sell her ranch and move in with him. Cole chewed his lip. Maybe she’d give him a discount. He snorted in annoyance at his own train of thought. This was pointless. There was no sense in continuing to let her prey on his mind. She probably had everything under control.
     
                  He walked back to the house for supper, squinting into the huge, red ball of fire that was the setting sun. That was probably why he didn’t see her. Emma squealed when Cole walked right into her on the gravel path leading up to his house.
     
                  “Oh, God,” he muttered as he caught her arms, easily holding her upright. “I’m sorry. The sun was right in my eyes and I just didn’t see you standing there.”
     
                  “I thought that was what the hat was for,” Emma snapped, trying not to sound rattled, even though he was holding it close against a very rough denim shirt and the very warm, firm chest underneath that shirt. “To keep the sun out of your eyes.”
     
                  “It does. Mostly,” he said defensively when she narrowed her eyes at him. “What are you doing out here anyway?”
     
    “I’m here to see Marshall,” she informed him as she pulled away.
     
    “Oh.” Cole answered trying not to sound disappointed. “ Well, I guess he’s in the house.”
    “That was where I was headed before you tried to knock me down,”
    Emma said tartly.
     
                  “I wasn’t trying to knock you down,” Cole snapped back as he followed her up to the house, reaching over and flicking the small lock on the gate open for her before she could reach it. “See? I’m a nice guy, Emma, I swear it.”
     
                  Her gaze flickered over him briefly, but she didn’t say anything else. Instead, she just walked ahead of him up the path. Cole sighed and followed her.
     
                  At least today she was dressed like a rancher. Or at least like a tourist in rancher country. Her clothes were clearly new. Her dark jeans were crisp and fresh, without so much as a hint of wear and tear. He looked down at his own nearly ragged jeans. They were as faded as hers were dark and he had a worn spot that was about to give out on his left leg.
     
    Her tight jeans were tucked into a pair of brown cowgirl boots that were flat out too pretty to be wearing for what she should be doing. They had pretty pink roses embroidered up the sides and they’d been freshly shined up. Just to continue the comparison, he looked at his own boots. The dark brown leather was scuffed and gouged in places, worn smooth in others. There was also a paw print on the right boot from where he’d been playing with the cattle dog earlier. Her shirt was white, for God’s sake! There was red piping across the shoulders that drew his eyes to her perky, perfect breasts and he had to force his mind away from that and onto the fact that her pretty shirt was going to be sweat stained and filthy if she wore it to do any real work