You Had Me at Cowboy

by Jennie Marts

  Mason’s back was still turned. She studied the definition of his broad shoulders and, despite her admonition of a moment before, might have given a moment of appreciation to the way he filled out his suit pants. She could only imagine how he’d look in jeans.

  And she was imagining it.

  Stop it. Focus on the story. Change the subject.

  Time to get her mind on something besides how good this man looked in a suit. “So what was all that business with your mom? Why did you tell her we go way back instead of admitting we just met tonight?”

  * * *

  “I was trying to make it easier on both of us,” Mason said, leaning a hip against the bathroom counter. “I’m sure the tongues of Creedence are already wagging about the two of us busting through the door of the lodge, soaking wet and laughing like hyenas. I just didn’t want to give them any more ammunition. I figured it would be less scandalous if folks thought we were old friends.”

  He hadn’t really given it all that much thought. The comment had just popped out. His subconscious must have tossed it out in a moment of self-preservation.

  “Scandalous?” she mused. “I don’t know that getting caught in a rainstorm would qualify as all that.”

  “Then you don’t know how small towns work. We might know that it was a piggyback ride in the rain, but by the time it rolls through this town, that account will have turned into a completely different story.”

  “Gotcha. I appreciate you protecting my reputation.” She picked up the items that lay scattered across the counter and loaded them back into her bag.

  “Wow, that’s some purse,” he said. “It looks like you’ve got everything but the kitchen sink in there.”

  “Thanks. I like to be prepared for any situation. And this bag is one of my favorite things. I bought it as a gift to myself when I got my first real job. It was ridiculously expensive, but I love it, and it’s been with me through all sorts of adventures. I’ve had it for over five years now. It’s the longest relationship I’ve held.”

  The corners of his lips tugged up in a grin as he arched an eyebrow. “Oh yeah? Why’s that? Do you have a problem with commitment?”

  “No, I just have a tendency to make bad judgment calls, and I have a pretty good thing going with screwing-up-your-life decisions as well.” She clamped a hand over her mouth. “That was probably a little too much information. Let’s just forget I said that and go back to talking about what a great bag this is.”

  He chuckled. This woman cracked him up. “I’m sorry it got wet.”

  The bag was spotted and damp from the rain. “It’ll be fine. It’s seen worse. Besides, it’s leather, and cows get wet all the time, right?”

  “Right.”

  She ran her hands along the fine leather of the bag and fingered the row of teal leather daisies that were stitched around the top. A silver daisy charm that looked like an expensive key chain hung from the side of one strap. “I love daisies. They were my mom’s favorite flower, so when I saw this bag, I knew I had to have it. I know it’s silly, but sometimes it makes me feel like my mom is with me, helping me carry whatever load of stuff I’m hauling around.”

  “That’s not silly at all.” He pointed to the side of the bag where it looked like one daisy had started to come loose and was clinging to the leather by only a few threads. “But it looks like it might need a repair.”

  “It’s on my never-ending list of things to do.” She tossed the last item into the bag, then picked up his wet shirt. Folding it as neatly as she could, she set it on the counter next to him and smoothed down the front pocket.

  “You don’t have to do that,” he said, setting his hand on top of hers. He felt her body go still, but he didn’t move his hand. He didn’t move at all for several seconds, then lightly stroked his thumb across the top of her knuckles.

  He heard her quick intake of breath and raised his eyes to her mouth. The woman had a great mouth—full, pink lips that looked just ripe for kissing.

  She didn’t look at him, didn’t take her eyes off their hands, and he felt the slightest tremble of her fingers.

  But he couldn’t stop staring at her lips.

  She sucked her bottom lip under the edge of her top teeth.

  Oh dang. He was going to have to kiss her now. There was no stopping it.

  No stopping whatever this crazy thing was that was happening between him and this woman he’d just met. Although it didn’t feel like they’d just met. It felt like he’d known her forever.

  Her hair was still wet and curling on the ends. A stray strand fell across the corner of her eye, and he raised his other hand and brushed it behind her ear.

  She closed her eyes and tilted her cheek just the slightest into his hand.

  He leaned closer, anticipation swirling in his gut, aching to touch, to taste, to feel her lips against his.

  The bathroom door swung open, and Ida May Phillips, his Sunday school teacher from fourth grade, walked in. She stopped in her tracks, letting out a gasp as she pressed her hand to her heart.

  “Why, Mason James… You about scared the devil right out of me. What in the world are you doing in the ladies’ restroom?”

  Seriously? Was he ever going to get to kiss this girl?

  He dropped his hand and pushed away from the counter, knowing he probably looked guilty as hell. Thank goodness Ida May couldn’t actually read his mind.

  If she could, she’d know she wasn’t the only one with the devil in her—the thoughts he’d just been having about Tessa Kane were downright sinful. “Sorry, Miss Ida. I was helping out a friend, but we were just leaving. Take care now.” He took Tess’s hand and saw her grab her bag and his shirt before he pulled her out of the bathroom and toward the front doors of the reception hall.

  He smiled as he heard her laughing behind him. Her sandals made loud, slapping noises with each step, but that didn’t slow her down. And she didn’t let go of his hand.

  The rain had stopped, and several of the guests had already left the party. He looked out over the remaining cars. “Which one is yours?”

  She offered him a sheepish look as she pointed toward the back of the parking lot. “Do you have to ask?”

  He shrugged as they headed toward the light-blue sedan surrounded by pickups and newer-model cars. “Hey, if it gets you where you want to go, that’s all that matters.”

  “That’s what I think. It’s not real pretty, but I couldn’t beat the price. My grandmother gave it to me as a gift when my car was totaled in an accident last year. It’s cheap to insure and does okay on gas, so I can’t complain.”

  “I get it. I’ve got an old truck like that. An ’89 Chevy…belonged to my dad. I’ve been driving it since I was old enough to reach the pedals. We run that beast all over the farm, back and forth to town, and have hauled tons of stuff in it, and the thing just keeps going. I’m afraid we’ll have to bury it in the back pasture if it ever dies, we’re all so sentimentally attached to it.”

  “I’m not that emotionally attached to this car. I’m more like budget-attached. I can’t afford a better one right now, so there’s no point in letting it get to me. I’m just thankful that Mimi—that’s my grandmother—was ready to get something new and let me have this one.”

  “Like I said, the good news about this car is that it should be a piece of cake to get unlocked. The slim jim should work great.” He pulled the tool from his pocket.

  “My hero. Again,” she said, leaning against the side of the car. “I’m running out of fingers to count the number of times you’ve saved my bacon today. Including covering for me when we made our grand entrance to the party after our rainy walk. Thanks for not making me talk.”

  “No problem.” He slid the slim jim along the window and down inside the door, shifting it around as he tried to find the lock mechanism. “So what was going on back there anyway? When we
came in, I mean. Your face went so pale, you looked like you might pass out.”

  “I felt like I might pass out.” She shook her head, her chest tightening again. “I could never do what you did.”

  “What? Carry a beautiful woman on your back through the rain?”

  She nudged his arm. She liked the way he teased her out of her own head. “No. Well, I could probably never do that either. But I meant that thing where you just started chatting to an entire room full of people. Everyone was staring at us, we looked like drowned rats, and you just busted out a speech like you were entertaining friends in your living room.”

  “What are you talking about? I’ve known most of those people my whole life.”

  “You’ve known those celebrities and supermodels and famous athletes all your life?”

  “Well, no. I guess not them. But I didn’t really even say anything. It wasn’t any big deal.”

  “It would be to me. I’m deathly afraid of public speaking. We had to take a speech class in college, and I never would have gotten my degree if the professor hadn’t felt so sorry for me and given me just enough points to pass her class.” There was more to the story than a disastrous college course, but she wasn’t going to share that with him.

  “Really?”

  “Really. I mean, I’m not like a social pariah. I can converse with a small group of people, but when the spotlight is on me, I am terrified. Like, so scared that I can’t move. Can’t breathe. I just stand stock-still, like I’m frozen.”

  “Oh no. That must be something to see.”

  “Oh, it is. Sweat beads on my forehead, and I’m freezing and overheating at the same time. My hands shake like a nervous Chihuahua, and sometimes I even stutter and ramble nonsensical words and phrases. It’s super attractive.”

  He chuckled. “I’ll bet.” He raised the slim jim, and the door lock popped up. “Got it.”

  She let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you so much. I can’t believe this day.” She was going to fill five pages in her journal later just with the events of the last several hours.

  He held open the door and gave her a charming smile. “I don’t know. I think it’s been a pretty great day.”

  Her cheeks tinged a soft pink, and she ducked her head.

  He liked that he could make her blush.

  “I’ve got a bag of extra stuff in the back seat. I’ll get my shoes and take Quinn’s sandals back to her.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I can return them.”

  “No, I’ve got it. I’d like to thank her myself. Besides, I can’t let you do something else for me. You’ve already done so much. Thanks for everything.” She held the damp, crumpled shirt out to him, her earlier efforts at folding it ruined when they made their escape from the bathroom. “It looked so nice, and now I’ve practically destroyed it.”

  “You haven’t destroyed it at all. It just got wet. I’ve never seen it look better than when it was on you.” He let out a soft laugh and offered her a sideways grin. “Especially when it was wet.”

  His grin widened as he watched her cheeks flame again, and a smile pulled at the sides of her lips.

  “I just wish I could do something to help you,” she said.

  The sound of a baby crying had him turning his head. A harried-looking couple with a toddler and the crying baby had exited the lodge and were heading toward a minivan.

  The father waved at Mason. “See ya, Mace. Great party. Next time, let’s hope we’re celebrating your wedding.”

  “Yeah, come on, Mason. Hurry up and get hitched. We want our kids to at least be in school together,” the woman called.

  “Old classmates of mine,” he told her before returning the couple’s wave. “Yep, right behind you guys.” The muscles of his jaw tightened, and his eye constricted in a tic. “Thanks for comin’ out. See you at the wedding.”

  He kept a smile pasted to his face as he watched them load the minivan and pull out of the parking lot, then he slammed her car door closed and flung the slim jim on the ground.

  Enough is enough. Why couldn’t these people just leave him alone?

  He glared at Tess, his neck hot and his blood boiling under his skin. “You want to know what would help me? What would really help me?” he asked, his voice a little too loud. “It would really help me if the people of this town would mind their own damn business and quit looking at me with these pity-filled looks in their eyes as they pat my shoulder and tell me not to worry, that some great girl is out there waiting for me. That there are plenty of fish in the sea and that it’s okay that I’m not married yet, when what they really mean is that it’s not okay.”

  He shook his head, letting out a huff of frustration as he cut his eyes to the ground.

  She didn’t say anything for a minute, and he was afraid to look up.

  He liked this girl. He didn’t have the time or the inclination for a woman in his life right now. But he liked her. And he hated feeling embarrassed and humiliated in front of her. She had to think he was an idiot.

  “I get it,” she said, her voice not sounding disdainful at all. “The same thing happens to me.”

  “Yeah? So how do you handle it?”

  She shrugged. “Very maturely. I simply choose to avoid going out altogether.”

  He chuckled. “Smart.” He raised his head and studied her. Then an idea came to him, a wild thought that surprised even him. “You know, I was happy to help today, and I don’t expect anything in return, but maybe there is something you could do for me.”

  Chapter 6

  Tessa raised an eyebrow. “You’ve got an odd gleam in your eye. It’s making me nervous. What kind of ‘something’ did you have in mind?” Was he thinking of asking her to repay him with some kind of kinky sex act? The idea thrilled and disturbed her.

  Mason chuckled. “It’s nothing too crazy. Well, I don’t know. Maybe it is. I was just thinking—since your date didn’t show up and all, and since I’m also currently without a date—that maybe, you know, if you want to, you could be my date for the wedding and the activities this weekend.”

  Oh.

  Wait. Was he asking her because he really wanted her to be his date or because he suddenly realized she would be an easy way to keep people off his back about not being married?

  Did it matter? This was her chance to spend time with Rock’s family, to get the inside scoop. So why did she feel as if she’d just knocked down all the bottles in a carnival booth, expecting to win the big teddy bear, and had been given the cheap substitute prize of a plastic whistle instead?

  “Sure, I guess. If it will help you.”

  His tightened shoulders relaxed. “It would help. And no one would really know that this was our first date. Especially if you show up for all the prewedding activities. This town runs on gossip. If they have something to gossip about, like if we’re a new couple or already involved, they might leave me alone, at least until after the wedding activities die down.”

  She wanted to ask what would happen after this weekend, but he was making it pretty clear that he was just looking for a stand-in date. And it’s not like it would matter. He wasn’t going to be interested in her after this weekend anyway—not that he was interested now. But after the article came out, he would know what she’d really been doing at the wedding party.

  By the time that happened, she’d be gone anyway. She’d have the cash in hand and be one step closer to saving her grandmother’s house. But first she had to get the story.

  She leaned against the side of the car. “This sounds like a terrible, awful, yet kind of brilliant idea.”

  He chuckled.

  “But I do know what it’s like to be single at a wedding and have every busybody in attendance come up and not so gently remind me that I’m still single with well-meaning but ridiculously insulting words of advice.”

  “Tell me about
it.”

  “So, I think you’re right. The best way to nip that in the bud is to have a date. And not just a date, but a date with a whisper of a relationship.”

  His lips curved into a flirty smile. “You know, Ms. Kane, I believe you’re onto something. So, let’s give them something to whisper about.”

  She lifted her shoulders and offered him an impish grin. “I’m game if you are.”

  * * *

  A battalion of butterflies swirled through Mason’s stomach.

  What the hell’s that about?

  She hadn’t agreed to anything beyond being his date for the weekend, but it felt as if they were slinging innuendo around like happy hogs in a pool of mud. The way the corners of her lips pulled up when she’d said whisper had his mouth going dry and his pulse beating against his throat.

  What was it about this woman? She hadn’t even said that she liked him, so maybe she just liked free barbecue. He didn’t think that was it. Although she obviously liked barbecue—the way she’d sucked the meat off those ribs earlier had his mind going to dark places—she didn’t strike him as a party girl.

  She seemed…nice. And maybe that’s all this was. Her truly feeling indebted to him for helping her out on a day when everything had gone wrong and she’d been stood up. Maybe she was just doing something nice to help him in return. And it wasn’t like he was proposing that they actually have a relationship. It was just a whisper, a hint, enough of a murmur to get a little gossip going. Nothing to get his stomach tied in knots over.

  So why were his hands suddenly sweaty?

  He wiped his palms on his pants and tried to seem casual. Pull yourself together, man.

  He pushed his hat up and raised his eyebrows in a playful tease. “So, what should we do to get this ‘whisper’ going?”

  She laughed and swatted at his arm. “Not that. I’m not doing you that big of a favor.”

  “Can’t blame a guy for trying.”

  “Yeah, you said that before.” She tapped her chin and wrinkled her nose as she thought about it. “I think we’ve probably already started people talking with that dramatic entrance into the lodge a little bit ago.”