A Way With Women. Jule McBride

      Prologue

      “MACON MCCANN’S STILL advertising for a bride? Some things simply shouldn’t be allowed,” Harper Moody said under her breath. Shrugging out of a navy postal uniform blazer, she rolled up the sleeves of a standard-issue white blouse, raked her shoulder-length ash hair into a ponytail and secured it with a string tie the U.S. government had meant for use around her neck. Ponytail in place, she sipped the scalding coffee she’d bought at Go-Mart and glanced over as her sole customer, Lois Potts from Potts Feed and Seed, paced between padded Jiffy bags and dusty express envelopes, trying to decide between the John Wayne commemorative stamps or the City Flag series.

      Lois was the last person Harper wanted to deal with, of course, since she and Lois had a history. Fortunately, the other woman was occupied, so Harper stared down again, first at a box of pink stationary she’d gotten when she bought the coffee, then at Texas Men magazine. “I really can’t believe they let Macon advertise for a bride,” she mumbled. “The fine print assures they screen these guys.”

      Her fog-blue eyes drifted down the full-body photo of the man who’d fathered her teenage son. One hundred percent pure rich rancher stud, announced the caption. “Macon would come up with a line like that,” she whispered, rolling her eyes and feeling distressed by her physical response to him.

      Well, what female wouldn’t react?

      Muscles tested the shoulder seams of a denim shirt Macon wore unsnapped, exposing tangled chest hairs the color of sunlit wheat. His broad chest slimmed to narrow hips and slightly bowed legs whose long strides were usually headed in the opposite direction from Harper. Boot-cut jeans flared over his polished boots, and Macon was clutching a Stetson against his chest, smiling ruefully as if to say every female answering the ad had already broken his heart.

      “Angel’s hair on the very devil,” she pronounced with annoyance. The honey-colored waves framing Macon’s broad, inviting face called to her fingertips to test their silky texture.

      Well, she assured herself, placing her steaming coffee cup on the postal scale, Macon just looked like any other dumb cowboy—except for his eyes. As sharp as spurs, they were aware and intense, their color the aged amber of the house ale he’d been enjoying every Saturday night at Big Grisly’s Grill since he’d come back to town.

      The wayward drift of her eyes ventured below a turquoise-studded belt, landing on jeans as soft as kid gloves. Just like a good love story, the fit was loose enough to leave room for imagination, but revealing enough to assure a woman of a happy ending. Glancing away, Harper realized she could recall plenty about Macon that no camera could capture. “Yeah, me—and every other female in Pine Hills,” she huffed. Nevertheless, Macon’s hands—the same lean-fingered bronzed hands that clutched the Stetson over his heart—had left their imprints on Harper, and once a woman knew certain things about a man, there was no turning back. She knew plenty, too. Including that Macon had fathered a son he didn’t know about. My son, Cordy.

      Harper steadied herself by taking another careful sip of scalding coffee. Years ago, she’d done