Dear Readers,
In answer to many requests, yes, there will be future books in this series! Thank you all for your response to the LONG, TALL TEXANS, and for your kindness to me over the years.
Your friend,
Calhoun Long, Tall Texans Diana Palmer
To Mary Wheeler at Micro Prothanks a million!
Contents
Dear Readers
Title Page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Copyright
Chapter One
Well, it took craftiness to deal with Calhoun Ballenger. He and Justin, his older brother, had taken Abby in when shed been just fifteen. They would have been her stepbrothers, except that an untimely car accident had killed their father and Abbys mother just two days before the couple were to have gotten married. There hadnt been any other family, so Calhoun had proposed that he and Justin assume responsibility for the heartbroken teenager, Abigail Clark. And they did. It was legal, of course; technically Abby was Calhouns ward. The problem was that she couldnt make Calhoun realize that she was a woman.
Abby sighed. That was a problem, all right. And to make it even worse, hed gone crazy on the subject of protecting her from the world. For the past four months it had been a major ordeal just to go out on a date. The way he stood watch over her was getting almost comical. Justin rarely smiled, but Calhouns antics brought him close to it.
Calhouns attitude didnt amuse Abby, though. She was desperately in love with Calhoun, but the big blond man still looked upon her as a child. And despite her frequent attempts to show Calhoun that she was a woman, she couldnt seem to get through his armor.
She shifted restlessly. She had no idea of how to attract a man like Calhoun in the first place. He wasnt as much of a rounder
now as he had been in his youth, but she knew that he was frequently seen in nightclubs in San Antonio with one sophisticated beauty or another. And here was Abby, dying of love for him. She wasnt sophisticated or beautiful. She was a rather plain country girl, not the sort to immediately draw mens eyes, even though her figure was better than average.
After brooding over the problem, she had come up with a solution. If she could manage to get sophisticated, he might notice her. Going to a strip show wasnt exactly the best first step, but in Jacobsville it was a good start. Just being seen here would show Calhoun that she wasnt the little prude he thought she was. When he found out about itand eventually he would hear shed attended the show.
Abby smoothed the waistline of her pretty gray plaid skirt. She was wearing a pale yellow blouse with it, and her long, wavy brown hair was in a neat chignon. Her hair, when it was loose, was one of her best assets. It was thick and silky. And her eyes werent bad. They were big, quiet grayish-blue eyes, and she was blessed with a peaches-and-cream complexion and a perfect bow of a mouth. But without careful makeup she was hopelessly plain. Her breasts were bigger than she wanted them to be, her legs longer than she would have liked. She had friends who were small and dainty, and they made her feel like a beanpole. She glanced down at herself miserably. If only she were petite and exquisitely beautiful.
At least she did look older and more sophisticated than usual in her burgundy velour jacket, and her blue-gray eyes sparkled as she thought about what she was doing. Well, it wasnt so bad for a woman to go to a male dance revue, was it? She had to get educated somehow, and God knew Calhoun wasnt about to let her date any men who knew the score. He saw to it that her only escorts were boys her own age, and he screened every one and made casual remarks about how often he cleaned his guns and what he thought about fooling around before marriage. It wasnt really surprising to Abby that few of her dates came back.
She shivered a little in the cold night air. It was February, and cold even in south Texas. As she huddled in her jacket, she smiled at another young woman shivering in the long line outside the Grand Theater. It was the only theater in Jacobsville, and there had been some opposition to having this kind of entertainment come to town. But in the end there had been surprisingly few complaints, and there was a long line of women waiting to see if these men lived up to the publicity.
Wouldnt Calhoun just die when he found out what shed done? She grinned. His blonde-streaked brown hair would stand on end, and his dark eyes would glare at her furiously. Justin would do what he always didhed go out and dig postholes while Calhoun wound down. The two brothers looked a lot alike, except that Justins hair was almost black. They both had dark eyes, and they were both tall, muscular men. Calhoun was by far the handsomer of the two. Justin had a craggy face and a reticent personality, and although he was courteous to women, he never dated anybody. Almost everybody knew whyShelby Jacobs had thrown him over years ago, refusing to marry him.