“Made it up just now. Necessity is the mother of invention and all that.”
“Worked like a charm.”
“Hey, you two.” Jake motioned to them. “Grab a seat.”
The booth was nearly full. “Lucy, you can take that spot.” Matt gestured to the last bit of real estate in the booth. Then he asked to borrow a chair from an adjoining table, flipped it around and straddled it.
Jake glanced at Matt. “Kind of curious why you were zombie dancing out there, bro.”
Matt flashed him a grin. “When you’re older, I’ll explain it to you.”
“Don’t trouble yourself. I didn’t say I was stumped, just curious. I have some theories. For one thing—” His attention shifted to the front door. “Brotherhood alert, Henri just arrived. And she brought the Babes.”
Chapter Eighteen
Lucy had interacted with the Babes on Buckskins many times. Six years ago they’d attended a casual barbeque at the ranch. They’d been scattered throughout the crowd, chatting, most of them sitting at picnic tables.
Tonight, though, they made a grand entrance, six regal women striding through the door of the Choosy Moose. By accident or design, every one of them was tall, made even taller by their boots. Lucy leaned toward Matt. “Is there a height requirement?”
He smiled. “No, ma’am. It just turned out that way.” He stood. “Be back in a minute.” He started toward the women, who were moving through the room like celebrities on the red carpet, greeting other patrons on their way to a table set for six.
Jake politely asked if she’d slip out of the booth so he could join Matt. Then Nick, CJ and Rafe excused themselves, leaving Lucy with Millie and Kate.
What followed resembled a boisterous family reunion, complete with hugs and laughter as the guys and the women came together near the empty table.
Lucy smiled. “They sure look happy to see each other.”
“Oh, they are,” Millie said. “Whenever the Babes show up in force, the Brotherhood treats them royally. Those women are the loving parents they missed out on as kids.”
“I got a hint of that just from my summer visits. Like they were devoted aunties to the guys.”
“That’s about right,” Millie said. “The routine at the Moose is usually the same—get the Babes seated, fetch them some drinks and snacks. They ask the band to play a few well-loved tunes. Someone alerts Ben Malone that his favorite ladies are in the house so he can greet them personally.”
“I’d like to go over and say hi, myself. But it’s been six years. I might switch some names around.”
“Peggy’s the brunette and Pam is the one with dark curly hair.”
“Right. Miss Peggy and Miss Pam.”
“And the redhead’s Anastasia,” Kate said.
“Now that you say her name, I do remember her. And who’s the white-haired lady? I’m thinking it’s Emma or Esther, or—”
“Edna, eighty-five years young.”
“It’s all coming back to me, now. Is she the barrel racer?”
“She is, and she literally runs rings around the other five.”
“I’d love to watch her run the barrels, but I guess winter’s not the right time.”
“Anytime is good for Edna. She has an indoor arena.”
“No kidding? That’s a major expense.”
“Edna’s earned prize money for nearly seventy years and the inside scoop is she’s a brilliant investor. “
“Good for her.” Lucy stood. “Since the guys are peeling off, like you predicted, I’ll grab my chance.” She headed over to the table.
Edna was the first to notice her approach. “Hey, it’s Lucy! I remember you. Always had a sketchpad.”
“It’s great to see you again, Miss… Edna.”
“You can call me Ed. I decided on New Year’s Eve to go with that. Sounds kicky. Gender neutral.”
“Then Ed it is.”
“That gives me an idea.” Anastasia tucked her hair behind her ears to show off beaded earrings. “Lucy, you can be the first one to use my new name. I’m Red.” She glanced over at Edna. “We’ll be Red and Ed.”
“As Josette would say, au contraire. We’ll be Ed and Red.” Edna arched an eyebrow. “Age has its privileges, y’know.”
Henri laughed. “Yeah, like you need privileges. You’re outdoing us all.”
Edna smiled. “I know.”
“Hi, Lucy,” the brunette said. “I remember you used to call me Miss Peggy and you always wore a different sock on each foot.”
“She still does,” Henri said.
“I can testify to that.” Josette winked at her.
“Glad to hear it.” Peggy nodded. “And I’m delighted you’re here so I can thank you. I started wearing unmatched socks after seeing you do it. Some of my clients think I’m crazy, but I don’t care. It’s so freeing.”
Pam made a face. “It sure wouldn’t be for me. That sock thing would tie me in knots. I’d spend fifteen minutes every morning debating which colors to mismatch.”
“You’re not supposed to worry it to death,” Peggy said. “Just grab and go. If they clash, so what?”
“That’s in your world. In my world, if they clash, I’m a mess all day. And my paint crew wouldn’t have let it go, either. They’re all big fussy-pants about bad color combos. Worse even than me.”
Lucy spied Matt leaving the bar with three mugs of hard cider. “Real quick Ed, I heard you run the barrels and you have an indoor arena. Is it just you, or—”
“Ed’s the pro,” Henri said. “We just mess around with it.”
“Isn’t that the truth.” Ed rolled her eyes. “You’ve never seen such shenanigans. They give the phrase horsing around a whole new meaning.”
“Any chance you’ll be using the arena this week? I’d love to watch.”
“We might, at that.” Ed glanced around the table. “Depending on everyone’s schedule. We can let you know.”
“Please do. I’d like to come with my sketchpad.”
“Drinks incoming.” Matt arrived with Jake right behind him.
“Matt, you’re such a good boy.” Ed beamed at him as she accepted a mug of hard cider. “I’ll bet you’ve been taking good care of Lucy since she arrived.”
“I’ve done my best.” Matt flashed a smile at Lucy before delivering mugs to Peggy and Pam while Jake set down drinks in front of Henri, Josette and Anastasia, aka Red.
“Complimentary onion rings and cheese sticks,” CJ said as he and Nick delivered baskets of each to the table.
“Oh, Ben shouldn’t be doing that,” Henri said. “We can certainly pay for—”
“My house, my rules.” A tall, sixty-something man with a luxurious head of white hair approached the table. “If I want to treat my best gals, that’s my prerogative.” His gaze swept the table before coming to rest on Henri. “Anything more you need?”
“This is more than enough, Ben.” She gave him a smile. “Thank you.”
“You’re so welcome.” He turned and started to walk away. Then he paused next to Matt, said something in a low tone, gave Matt’s shoulder a squeeze, and left.
Ed swiveled in Matt’s direction. “He’s comping us again, isn’t he?”
“Yes, ma’am. Because it’s Valentine’s weekend.”
Henri groaned. “I should have guessed he would.”
“It’s a better excuse than Rubber Ducky Day was last month,” Pam said.
“He shouldn’t be looking for excuses to treat us.” Henri sighed. “He’s in business to make money. I’ll talk with him about it.”
“But not tonight, cheri,” Josette said.
“No, not tonight.”
“Tonight, we dance!” Ed pushed back her chair. “They’re playing Nine to Five. Come on, Red.”
“I’m on it.”
Chairs scraped as the women left the table.
Ed glanced back at Matt. “Get Lucy out on the floor, son. This is a great song.” Then she hurried toward the dance floor.
> He held out his hand. “You game? It’s a fast one, so you shouldn’t have to resort to guided imagery.”
She surveyed the dance floor. In addition to Ed and Red’s dancing duo, Henri had paired up with Josette and Peggy was two-stepping with Pam. Jake had taken Millie out on the floor and CJ had asked Kate. Nick and Rafe had found partners, too. The mood was joyous and she wanted in on that. “I’m game.”
Chapter Nineteen
His buddies were conspiring against him. Nick and CJ likely thought they were doing him a favor when they claimed exhaustion at the end of the evening and insisted on being dropped off at the bunkhouse rather than riding with him over to Lucy’s cabin.
They laid it on thick all the way back to the ranch, to the point that Lucy started laughing once they were out of the truck. “They think we want to be alone, don’t they?”
“Yes, they do.” He put the truck in gear.
“It was a great evening.”
“Definitely.” He pulled away from the bunkhouse. Her scent teased him with every breath he took. Get her home fast and then take off, Ramsey.
“The band was amazing.”
“Ben’s good about getting top-notch musicians.”
“I think he has a crush on Henri.”
“He does, but it’s doomed.” Maybe talking about Henri and Ben would distract him, get his heart rate back to normal.
“That’s kind of sad. What’s his story?”
“His wife died around the time I came to work at the Buckskin. The two couples had been friends for years, so Henri and Charley did what they could to help Ben weather the shock of being alone.”
“Of course they would.”
“Naturally, but my theory is that’s when Ben started falling for Henri. Then Charley died. Ben was there for Henri, of course, and she’s grateful, but she’s not ready to tie this into a bow and say it was all meant to be.” He parked in front of Lucy’s cabin and left the motor running.
“I don’t know what that means anymore. I thought Kurt and I were meant to be because we worked together for two years, got along well and had a dream of creating our own advertising agency.”
Clearly she wanted to talk. He shut off the motor. “Did you love him?”
“That’s a hard question.”
“It shouldn’t be.”
“He cheated on me with my best friend on the day of the wedding. If I ever loved him, that killed it.”
“Fair enough, but before that—”
“I thought I loved him.”
He shouldn’t be happy about that answer, but damn it, he was. Near as he could tell, she’d talked herself into being in love with that idiot because it worked into her plans. Whereas with him… ah, that way lay madness.
“I’ve been thinking about our situation.”
“Oh?” His chest grew tight.
“I don’t think we’re going to make it through the week.”
Breathe, dude, breathe. “Meaning what?”
“We should have sex.”
His entire body jerked. Slowly he turned to her and dragged in air. “How the hell did you come up with that conclusion? That’s like the worst-case scenario. We can’t chance it.”
“We don’t have a choice. We both want to and we have way too many days and nights to get through. Sooner or later one of us is going to crack and it could be at a very inconvenient time.”
His heart hammered. “Inconvenient?”
“Specifically, when we can’t take it anymore and we just go for it, even if we don’t have birth control.”
His cock throbbed. “I wouldn’t let that happen.”
“Are you absolutely sure?”
“Yes. You’re too important to me.”
Her breath caught.
Yeah, he’d just given her a big clue about how deep this went, at least on his side. Oh, well. “So you see, we don’t have to worry about getting carried away and taking risks.”
“I guess not.” Her voice was very soft. “The thing is, I have condoms.”
“What?”
“You may not know this, but in addition to shampoo, lotion, and soap, my cabin is stocked with condoms. They’re Valentine themed.”
“No kidding.”
“I was surprised, too, but when I opened a bedside table drawer, there they were.”
“What size?” Maybe they wouldn’t—
“There’s an assortment.”
An assortment. Heaven help him. He took a shaky breath. “Are you inviting me to spend the night with you?”
“Yes.”
“Even knowing that would probably make everything worse?”
“Matt, I can only speak for myself, but I can’t imagine this getting any worse. We’re both powder kegs about to blow. We need to let off steam. At least that’s my take on it. Chime in anytime.”
“It makes some kind of crazy sense.” He gripped the wheel. “But there’s so much potential for both of us to get hurt. I’m willing to accept the risk, but I’d cut off my right arm before I’d make you suffer.”
“I’m already suffering.”
“Oh. Good point. But I don’t see how having sex will help with that.”
She laughed. “Seriously? Have you had any sex recently?”
“Well, I—”
“Sure you have. And I’m willing to bet it relieved whatever tension you were feeling at the time.”
“Yes, it did. But she and I were just having fun. She left town a few weeks later. I was never in love with her.” Whoops. He might as well have taken out a billboard ad.
She went quiet. Then she cleared her throat. “I’d cut off my right arm before I’d make you suffer, too. Let’s ditch the idea.”
He didn’t want to ditch the idea. She’d planted it, and he couldn’t let it go, no matter how hard the consequences might kick him later. “I’m already suffering.” He gave her a quick glance.
She was looking right at him, her eyes luminous in the light coming from her porch. “We can fix that.”
His breathing went all to hell. This was happening. “I want it to be perfect.”
She smiled. “It will be.”
“Stay here. Let me come around and get you.”
“Okay.”
He fumbled with the seat belt. He never fumbled with the seat belt. Eventually he made it out of the truck, slipped on an icy patch and almost went down. Gulping for air, he opened her door and held out his hand.
She grabbed hold, her grasp firm and warm.
The magic connection did the trick. His breathing slowed and the trembling stopped. He helped her down with a steady grip and closed the door.
Six years ago, she’d opened her heart to him and he’d kept his tightly closed. Tonight she’d laid her heart at his feet a second time. He wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.
Chapter Twenty
The click of the door lock resonated with thrilling finality. At last. Lucy set her wallet and keys on the small table by the front window. The curtains closed out the world, leaving her alone with the man who’d been the hero of her dreams for eleven years.
Holding his gaze, she slipped out of her jacket and hung it over the straight-backed chair pulled up to the table. Matt used the other chair for his and laid his hat next to her wallet and keys.
“Can I get you anything?” Her voice squeaked a tiny bit. “The mini-fridge has—”
“No thanks.” He took a step closer. “I’ve played this scene so many times in my head.” He smiled. “It never included refreshments.”
“You’ve imagined making love to me?”
“More times than I can count.”
Her breath quickened. “I’ve imagined it, too.” She moved toward him, her hands at her sides. “How did you picture it going?”
His eyes sparkled. “Faster than this.”
That made her laugh. “Want to speed things up?”
“No.” He cradled her face gently and combed his fingers through her hair. “We spent eleven years getting he
re. Rushing through it seems wrong.”
“It does.” She rested her palms on his chest and absorbed the warmth. Then she lifted her head and reveled in the heat simmering in his eyes. “But just so you know, I may look calm, but underneath I’m getting ready to party.”
“Then let’s get this party started.” Leaning down, he captured her mouth with unhurried confidence.
The mastery telegraphed by that kiss curled her toes and sent her pulse into overdrive. The last time he’d engaged in this activity, he’d been fighting to maintain control. The fight was over. She was about to get everything Matt Ramsey had to give.
He took his time deepening the kiss. Wrapping his arm around her waist, he gradually eliminated the space between them until he’d tucked into every valley and hollow, sealing them together.
His mouth lifted. “God, you feel good.” Then he returned, building tension with the thrust of his tongue and the press of his aroused body.
With a soft moan, she shifted her hips, seeking to intensify the connection she longed for.
He got the message. Sliding his hands into the back pockets of her jeans, he lifted her off the floor and nestled her against his package.
Yes. She wrapped her legs around his hips and her arms around his neck as he carried her to the bed.
He lowered her to the edge of the mattress and sank to his knees. Pulling back, he dragged in air. “I want you so much.”
“I want you, too.” She reached for the buttons of her shirt.
He caught her hands in his. “Let me.”
“Okay, but hurry.”
“Uh-uh.” He unfasted the first button. Leaning toward her, he pressed his mouth against her hot skin as he worked the second button loose. He nibbled and licked his way down until he uncovered her black lace bra, one she’d bought while he was in Logan’s.
Quickly unbuttoning the rest of her shirt, he spread it open and sucked in a breath. “Tell me you thought of me when you bought this. Lie if you have to.”
“Who else would I be thinking of? Even if I never expected you to see it.”
His gaze lifted to hers. “You’re such a gift, Lucy.”
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