Page 29 of A Cowboy Of Her Own

Roark snorted. “Happy trail. Who thought of that anyway?”

“Some smart woman, I’m sure. Well, it is a happy trail. Look what it leads to,” she said dropping her gaze to his crotch. “Then there’s that delicious V that leads to the prize between the thighs.”

He burst out laughing, the sound filling the woods. “Christ, you’re bad.”

Priscilla laughed low in her throat. “Oh, cowboy, you have no idea but you’re going to find out.”

“Hell,” he muttered with raised eyebrows.

Pleased with her teasing, Priscilla walked out of the woods and over to the fire pit where she dropped the logs then turned to watch Roarkwalking toward her. She couldn’t stop her eyes from skimming down that long tall frame.

“How tall are you?”

“Six foot five. All of the Callahan men are that tall.”

“What does your family do?”

He dropped the logs then tossed some onto the fire and moved them around with a stick. “Have you heard of Callahan Whiskey?”

“You’rethatCallahan?”

“Yes. My father and his brothers started the distillery when they were in their early twenties, and it just took off. When each of us turned twenty-one, we were given shares in the company.”

“Let me get my notepad. Do you mind if I put that in the article?”

“No, go right ahead. Common knowledge, sweetheart.”

“I’ll be right back.” She ran to the tent, crawled in, got her pad, then crawled out again and ran back to sit on the log. The air was definitely getting colder as the sky darkened. “Okay, so why do you ride bulls if you have money from the family company?”

Roark shrugged. “I like making my own money.”

“Your parents don’t mind?”

“No. None of our parents mind, as long as we’re doing what we want. Reid used to grow feed on his farm in Butte but he sold it to move back here to be with Lucy, and Devin and Jaxon have their guest ranch. We all built our own homes with our own money. The money from Callahan Whiskey sits in the bank. It’s there if we ever need to fall back on it. If we fail at what we’re doing, that is…but none of us has. The distillery is just outside of Spring City, sits on two thousand acres, and employs four hundred people.”

“Wow. Unreal. Most people know this, you say?”

“Yep. I’ve been in bull riding for a long time and once I retire from it, I’ll have the bulls I’m raising for income.”

“But it sounds like you don’t want your family’s money.”

“It’s not that I don’t want it, I just don’t need it. If a time comes when I do, then it’ll be there.”

“Makes sense. Does the guest ranch do well?”

“Oh yeah. It’s full every year. A lot of returning guests. Dev and Jax have a dance every Saturday night to say goodbye to the guests leaving on Sunday. It’s a minimum week’s stay and they have to check out on Sundays. Maybe we could go Saturday night, if you want.”

Priscilla put the pad on her lap and stared at him. Did he just ask her on a date? He looked away from the fire to look at her, and she smiled. “I’d love to go. What do I wear? Is it fancy? Do I need to buy a dress? What about shoes? I didn’t bring any dresses or heels with me––” She stopped when he started laughing. “What?”

“Dear God, woman. It’s a guest ranch and the dance takes place in a barn. You don’t need to worry about what you wear. It’s not fancy, and you can buy a dress if you want but you can wear jeans and those damn sandals you have with you.” He shook his head. “You women worry too much about what you should wear.”

“Well, I don’t want to look out of place.”

“You don’t have to worry about that, darlin’. We’ll go and you can meet Devin and Jaxon.”

“Is Devin married?”

“No, he’s never married and I doubt Jaxon ever will again.”

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