Taming a Texas Devil - Katie Lane Page 0,34
“Now come on and sit down, Devlin. I was just getting ready to pluck everyone’s eyebrows. It’s not something Mary Kay expects their consultants to do at parties. But since y’all are my close friends and I’m so good at it, I’ll be happy to make your eyebrows look exactly like mine.”
Dixie stared at Luanne’s sparse over-plucked eyebrows and almost choked on the sip of lemonade she’d just taken. She quickly recovered and jumped to her feet. “On second thought, as your deputy, it’s my duty to look for missing people . . . and missing dogs. Boomer, did you say?”
Before Devlin could answer, the rest of the women rose to their feet and volunteered to help look for poor Boomer. Obviously, no matter how big her heart was, no one wanted eyebrows like Luanne’s.
Everyone took an area to search. Devlin would look around her house. Evie around hers. And Penny and Sadie would go back to the Gardener Ranch and search. The townswomen would head back to town and get the word out there. Dixie chose to drive around between the two ranches.
She’d heard gossip that Lucas and Chester had willed each Double Diamond boy a piece of their land. Logan and Holden had built houses on theirs. Cru intended to ranch his along with the Gardener Ranch. Val was thinking about starting a kids’ summer camp. As she drove over the bumpy dirt roads, Dixie couldn’t help wondering what Lincoln would do with his. She couldn’t see him ever quitting his job and becoming a rancher. He was a lawman through and through. A sexy, drool-worthy lawman who she couldn’t stop thinking about.
She had a plethora of Texas Ranger fantasies ranging from lusty make-out sessions to extremely naughty sex scenes that included handcuffs and some role playing. And every single fantasy had one thing in common: Lincoln losing control and becoming all hot and wild. All hot and wild for her.
Except that wasn’t going to happen. She knew he desired her. She saw it in his eyes and felt it in the tense tightening of his muscles when she touched him. But she also knew he was never going to give in to that desire. He was too much of a rule follower. He would never step over that line.
Oh, but she wanted him to. She wanted him to in a bad way.
She drove for a good hour before she spotted something on the side of the road. As she drew closer, she could make out the long floppy ears and pointed nose of a hound dog. She slowed even more so as not to scare the dog and pulled over a few yards away. She got out and crouched down, using the same voice she used with Queenie when she wanted the cat to come to her. It worked about as well.
“Hey, Boomer. How are you, cute boy?”
The dog stopped chewing on the bone he had in his mouth and stared at her.
“What do you have there? It looks like a pretty big soup bone. I’m not going to take it. I just want to get you home to your mama.” She rose and opened the back door of the SUV. “Come on, Boomer! Come on, boy!”
The dog hesitated for a second before he rose to his gangly legs and took off across a meadow of bluebonnets toward a copse of trees. Dixie jumped back in her SUV and went after him. Fortunately, there was a small road that led to the trees. She parked, grabbed the cat treats she kept in the console for Queenie—something she should’ve thought of sooner—and got out.
Not wanting to spook the dog again, she moved slowly and quietly through the thick mesquite and oak, glancing in both directions for any sign of the dog. When she reached a clearing, she was surprised to find a beautiful spring glittering in the late afternoon sun. A huge oak stood next to the spring with a rope dangling off one of its limbs. It was a hot day for early March and the thought of a dip in the cool water was tempting.
But first, she had a dog to find. She pulled out the bag of treats and was about to call Boomer’s name when a splash had her glancing at the spring. A dark-haired head popped above the water, followed quickly by tanned muscular shoulders that had her breath hitching and her heart quickening. She knew who it was immediately. No man in