Texas Prisoner<br/>
Rating:

Author: Jan Abney
Publisher: Janet Abney
Published: 2011-03-10
ISBN(s) 978-1460959345
Language(s): English
Pages: 362 pages
Category: Fiction
Audience: Adult
Genre(s): Romance, Contemporary, Romance Read Excerpt >

"Take good care'a my Amy now, ya hear, Dusty?" The man's hands were cuffed behind him. A sheriff's deputy had his hand on the head of the six foot three inch man. His gray streaked, dark brown hair peeked through the uniform officer's tawny fingers. "Don't let her outta yer sight." The man's drawl was definitely Texan. "She's just like her mama. She'll buck like a bronco, given half'a chance." The sheriff's car left after he spoke the last words.

Dusty turned toward the white bricked, two-story house. He had a lazy stride, which Amy usually enjoyed watching. She stood on the wide front porch, leaning on one of the large columns to the right of the stairs, her ebony hair moving slightly in the warm July breeze. Her soft brown eyes moved from the man coming up the steps, to the white car speeding out the dirt drive. Tears she'd been holding back were running down her pale cheeks.

"It's okay, Amy. I'm gonna take care'a ya." Dusty's drawl was worse than her father's. He was a Texan cowboy, clear through.

Amy ran from the arms that were only there to comfort her. Up the staircase she turned to the left, unconsciously counting the two doors before her own. She slammed her door and flopped on the bed, crying into the handmade quilt.

It had already been eight months since she'd come to West Texas and she still didn't like the desert land. Back home, her thoughts went down the well-traveled path in her mind, there were mountains and trees, and definite seasons. Maple trees, how they quickly put on new leaves in early spring, shading her while she sat beneath them on warm days, the grass as tall as the ducks waddling to the pond. She enjoyed watching the deer grazing close to the house during the cold winter months.

A tap at the door brought Amy back to Texas. She wiped her face before pulling the door open. A smile came to her lips when she saw the five-year-old girl, hair as white as cotton, eyes blue as the lakes of West Virginia, asking her to come down to dinner. Kelly was Dusty's niece, it could be seen in the child's face. The same teasing smile and twinkling eyes looked up at her. The girl's mother had the Sunday evening meal ready. Most everyone working on the ranch and their family would be on the back porch of Dusty's home.

Amy promised to be quick about washing up. She wasn't hungry, but didn't want to be alone any longer. There would be a couple of girls close to her age she could talk to. Still wearing her lilac dress, Amy slowly decended the stairs, thinking of the deputy's tone as he read the paper he said was a warrant for Lorenzo Trent's arrest. The thoughts put a frown on her delicate features.

"Now what could ya be thinkin' ta make a face such as that?" Dusty stood directly in front of her.

Stopping one step before bumping into him, Amy blushed. "I-I was j-just w-wondering why d-Daddy hadn't ar-argued with the d-deputy, or done something." The color on her cheeks deepened at her stammering. She watched his blue eyes as they moved appreciatively over her slim figure.

"Yer purty as a sunrise after a night'a rain." His eyes held hers captive and she found her hand taken into his weather- and hard work-toughed one. He took the step up beside her, putting his arm around her waist. She tried to step down, away from him, but found his arm was too strong.

"Let go." Tears rolled down her cheeks. Both his hands went to her face, the callused fingers gently wiping her tears away. The tenderness of his touch sent unwanted tingling through her.

"Amy, honey," he whispered, "I only wanna be yer friend. Yer goin' through a awful time. Please don't be mad at me."

"I'm sorry, Dusty." Her tears kept falling. "I just feel so rejected. First my mother..." Her voice faltered, a lump had formed in her throat and wouldn't let any more words come out. The words she'd heard her mother and new step-father speaking stung as they went through her mind again.

Texas Prisoner   by   Jan Abney   |   See Bio >

Amy is not ready to jump into the cruel world. Her mother, remarried, is traveling to Europe with her new husband, and Amy isn't invited.

Sent to her father, who she hasn't seen in ten yeras, she finds West Texas hot and dry, and she wants to go back to West Virginia.

Amy, along with her father, a ranch hand, move to a cattle ranch in another area. Dusty, the owner of the ranch, has fallen for her, but Amy cannot force her heart to love him.

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