Taming a Texas Devil - Katie Lane Page 0,75

loved. He’d wanted Sam to love him too. He realized that now. After his father passed, he’d been starved for male attention. Unfortunately, his mama had chosen the wrong replacement. “I don’t think Sam could love,” he said.

Maisy sank down on the moldy hay bale sitting in the corner and pulled off her beat-up cowboy hat. “It’s weird that I should feel so sad about him being dead when I didn’t even know him. Especially when he sounds like such a jerk. It makes you wonder why our mamas fell for him.”

He walked over and sat down next to her. “I’ve asked myself that same question.”

“My mama said he was good-lookin’ as sin. But maybe she just said that because I look like him.” She glanced at Lincoln. “Is that why you hate me?”

“I don’t hate you.”

“Yeah, you do.”

He conceded. “Okay, I might’ve hated you a little.”

“And you don’t now?”

“You’re growing on me.”

“Sorta like a toenail fungus you can’t get rid of?”

“Exactly.”

She laughed, but then quickly sobered. “He was mean to you, wasn’t he? That’s why you hate him.”

Sam had been mean and abusive to Lincoln, but that wasn’t why Lincoln hated him the most. And now he realized that Sam wasn’t who he’d hated at all.

“Yes, Sam was abusive. And I hated him for it. But I hated him more for what he did to my mama—or what I thought he did to my mama. I tried to blame your father for my mother’s suicide. But Sam had been gone for years when Mama killed herself. Which left only one person to blame. Me. And nobody wants to blame themselves. It’s easier to blame someone else.”

Maisy stared at him. “I didn’t know your mama took her own . . . I’m sorry.”

“I am too.”

“How old were you?”

“Thirteen. Just a punk kid who gave my mother all kinds of grief.”

“All kids give their parents grief one time or another.” She rested a hand on his shoulder. “You know it wasn’t your fault, right?”

He nodded. “In my head I do. But in my heart, I still see myself as a bad boy who pushed his mother to suicide. I guess that’s why I’ve worked so damn hard at being this perfect lawman. I’ve been trying to make amends.”

“You’re far from perfect, cowboy.”

She said it teasingly, but she was right. He wasn’t perfect. And as Lucas had pointed out, neither was anyone else. Everyone had their imperfections. That didn’t stop people from loving and being loved. He had been so busy trying to reach the point where he was worthy of love that he’d missed out on enjoying the love he had. And he had a lot of love. Love from Chester and Lucas and all the Double Diamond boys. And love from Dixie. She loved him. He knew it. He had seen it in her eyes and felt it in her arms. If he let her go, he was the stupidest man on the face of the earth.

He got up. “I need to go, but let’s do this again sometime.”

“You want to meet here in the sheriff’s garage?”

“How about the soda fountain? I’ll treat you to a Coke float for being such an asshole to you.”

“And a burger and fries. You were a major asshole.”

He laughed. “Fine. I’ll even buy you a piece of pie with a big scoop of ice cream on top.”

She got up and sent him her gap-tooth smile. “Deal. And maybe we can even go hunting or riding sometime. I mean we are kinda like siblings.” Her cheeks flamed as she waved a hand. “Never mind. Stupid thought.”

His cellphone pinged with an incoming text, but he ignored it. “It’s not that stupid. We could’ve been half siblings. Dixie Leigh certainly thinks we look enough alike.”

“Look alike?” Maisy drew back. “We don’t look anything alike, cowboy. I am good-lookin’ as sin and you’re butt ugly as hell.”

“Butt ugly?” He hooked an arm around her neck and gave her a good dose of noogies on the head. “Take it back, brat.”

“Never.” She frogged him in the side and gained her release.

He would’ve kept up the chase if his cellphone hadn’t pinged again, reminding him of his text. He pulled it out of his pocket. Dixie’s name made his heart start thumping overtime. She’d texted him. Which meant that she couldn’t still be mad at him.

“What has you grinning like a Cheshire cat?” Maisy asked. “Let me guess, it’s from Dixie Leigh. I knew something was going on between you

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