Bicker, bitch, battle. For a moment Laredo thought his whole big fantasy of being a hero might go flushing downstream, until Katy Goodnight rounded the corner, bearing a basket with a cherry-printed cloth napkin inside. Instantly his whole day brightened. “Hi, Katy,” he said with a big grin he couldn’t control.
“Hi, Laredo,” she said with a smile, before turning to his brothers. “And another Laredo,” she said to Tex. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have forgotten your name since I met you only a month ago, but I do remember your face,” she said to Ranger.
“Well, that’s all that’s important,” he said gallantly. “If a pretty gal just remembers my face—”
“Howdy, fellas,” said another female voice.
They all turned as Hannah Hotchkiss came into view, carrying a basket decorated with blueberry sprigs. “This is Hannah,” Laredo began, then ceased his introduction when he realized Ranger had nearly swallowed his teeth as she smiled up into his face. “Ranger,” Laredo said sternly, “this is Katy’s best friend.”
“We brought you a snack,” Hannah said. “We didn’t know you had company, Laredo. But we have plenty.”
Ranger took the basket from her and peeked inside. “Mmm. Cookies and strawberries. My favorite.” He pulled Hannah with him until they were off by themselves.
Laredo rolled his eyes at Tex. “Did you have to bring him?”
“Oh, well. He can amuse himself now.” Tex smiled at Katy. “How’ve you been, anyway?”
“Just busy. What brings you to Lonely Hearts Station?”
“We came to give Laredo some tip—”
“They just stopped by to say hello,” Laredo said.
“It’s nice of you to check on your twin. Is it true that twins are really close?” Katy asked.
“No,” Laredo said.
Tex laughed. “We’re fraternal in mind-set, you might say. I’m the settled one, Laredo is the wild one. If one of us was ever in a fistfight at school, the teachers didn’t bother to check which one of us it was. They just automatically called Mason and said, ‘Come get Laredo.”’
“It wasn’t quite like that,” Laredo said, getting more annoyed with his twin by the second. “I wasn’t a hooligan.”
“I grow roses,” Tex said.
“Oh, I love roses,” Katy replied.
The dreamy tone in her voice as she stared into his twin’s eyes was almost more than Laredo could stomach. Her reaction was the same as every other woman’s when Tex mentioned those stupid roses. Clearly, the roses were a conversational prop Tex employed just to get a woman’s attention—he probably grew the stupid things just to get on women’s good sides. “Okay, enough with the flowery stuff. Can we get on with the lesson?”
“Lesson?” Katy repeated.
“Yeah, I’m teaching Tex everything I know about bulls.”
“I thought you didn’t know anything,” Katy said, her voice innocent.
Tex snickered, and Laredo made a mental note to punch him later. “I know a few things,” he said, trying to hang on to his bravado. Something about Katy just got him so mixed up and confused! He wanted to brag in front of her, wanted to strut his stuff just a little, but somehow he kept goofing it up.
“What Laredo means,” Hannah said, as she and Ranger moved back to the circle, “is that he knows more about Bloodthirsty Black. He’s filling Tex in on the history.”
“That’s right.” Laredo straightened with a grateful glance at Hannah. “History’s important.”
“Yeah, we all remember your report card,” Ranger said.
Silence descended. “Excuse me,” Tex said. “I’m going to go find a gents’.”
He left, and the conversational void stretched. Laredo frowned at Ranger, who sighed.
“Now, just what is it about this bull we need to know?” Ranger said, clearly deciding to leave off the sibling rivalry and let Laredo get his neck broken if he was determined to do so.
“He pulls to the left,” a voice said. “And then, just when you lean, he jerks to the right with a mean midair kick. Every time.”
All four of them whirled to look at the woman who’d spoken. Laredo felt his jaw go slack, and heard Ranger’s jaw hit the pavement with a resounding thunk.
This woman was simply stunning. As fresh and cute as Katy was, as punky-funky cute as Hannah was, this woman would set records for head-snapping stares.
Beside him, he could feel Katy stiffen.
“Hell-oo, there,” Ranger said. “Thanks for the tip.” He tipped his hat to her, and grinned.
The woman smiled back, one hand on her hip, the other casually resting against Bloodthirsty Black’s stall. “You’re welcome.”
Laredo glanced at Katy for an intro. Hannah didn’t seem too happy about the woman’s presence, either, especially since she and Ranger had just spent a cozy five-minute chat together.
The woman ignored the female frostiness and extended a delicate hand to Ranger. “Staying in town long?” she asked softly, her voice full of hints.
“He’s leaving in a couple of hours, actually,” Laredo replied.
“And you?” she asked smoothly, looking back to Laredo.
He probably shouldn’t tell what he was up to, Laredo thought. Katy probably wanted him to be the surprise weapon. “Uh, a guy can’t hang around beautiful women in a quaint town forever, I guess.”
“That’s too bad. We’re real nice to strangers here in Lonely Hearts Station.” The woman smiled, and imperceptibly tightened her posture so that her breasts thrust forward in an invitation even the greenest male could understand.
Laredo thought he could see Ranger’s eyes spinning around in their sockets. Wow! He didn’t think he’d ever seen his hard-edged brother so…softened up.
“This is Cissy Kisserton,” Katy said reluctantly. “Cissy, meet Ranger and Laredo Jefferson.”
“Real cowboys?” Cissy asked.
“Born and bred, ma’am,” Ranger said. Hannah rolled her eyes, which Laredo thought was appropriate.
“Well, I don’t want to keep you,” Cissy said. “Just wanted to be friendly to the visitors in town. You send them over our way for a cup of cocoa, Katy. We’ll make sure they’re well taken care of.”
“It’s a bit chilly in here, after all, isn’t it?” Ranger said. “I’ll take you up on that cup of cocoa right now, Miss Cissy,” he said, following after the beautiful woman like a lovestruck puppy.
The two of them disappeared around the corner, but not before Laredo saw Ranger slip his arm around her. Laughter floated over the stalls to them. Laredo groaned to himself. Ranger was the most steadfast of the brothers! Certainly he had his share of wild hairs—he’d been bluffing about going to do some military service for nearly a year now…of course, he’d never leave Malfunction Junction Ranch, but he’d sure been trying to put action where his big mouth was. He’d actually started hanging around the police station, trying to act civilized.
But nothing like a beautiful woman to make a man’s mouth run away from him. Laredo looked at Katy, who appeared dumbfounded; Hannah seemed disappointed