Page 106 of Risking it for the Cowboy

And with the restraining order reinstated, and no sign from Jason’s attorney that they intended to appeal it to the top, dare she breathe a sigh of relief? Dare she feel as if she and Daisy were finally safe? Besides, she’d seen Thad ward off Jason without batting an eye. There was no safer place than in her T. Rex’s arms.

“Is he still coming? Did he call, Momma?” Daisy bit her lip, fingers pressed to the glass as she peered down the road in her tulle skirt embroidered with butterflies and brown cowboy boots just like T. Rex’s.

Charlie checked her phone. “I’m sure he’ll be here, soon.” She tamped down the niggle that wouldn’t dissipate.

Checked the time again. It was almost five thirty and the dance began at six. He said he’d be here at five thirty. Daisy sitting by the window waiting—

A rumbling sound echoed down the back road as if to remind her of that fact.

“Is it him?” Daisy pressed her cheek against the glass to see who was coming, as Artex bounced up beside her, tail wagging.

Please let it be him.

And sure enough, a mint-green classic truck slowed and pulled into the driveway, two minutes early. Freshly washed. Relief lifted off Charlie’s shoulders.

“It’s him. It’s him!”

Daisy jumped, dress and tendrils bouncing. His door creaked open. A polished, black boot stepped out. And Thaddeus Rex McClintock, like a cowgirl’s fantasy in the setting sun, pushed shut the door and straightened his turquoise and silver bollo tie over his fitted black dress shirt, black pressed jeans, and tailored sport coat that only accentuated his physique and powerful shoulders.

Hot damn. Trouble. And she was falling for him.

Sunrays glinted off his styled straw-blond hair, tousled like he fixed it for shows as he sank a black Stetson down over it. His face was clean-shaven. And as he buttoned his coat like an Armani model, flashing a wristwatch peeking out from his sleeve, her heart stuttered at this man who kept coming around, who confronted angry exes and refused to be paid for fixing her car. Who calculated complicated equations and didn’t drink spirits and bought her animal-crazed girl a horse and built chicken mansions.

Thad reached back into his cab for something, then shut the door, a little white box in his hand and a … plant in the other?

But as he got closer, the swirly design on the box told her it was a florist’s box. Oh, beautiful man. He’d bought her little girl a corsage.

He walked up the path, waving at Daisy in the window and flashing that divot at Charlie. Daisy blazed out of the living room in a blur of lavender to the front door, just as the porch steps creaked and a knock thumped.

Daisy opened the door and pushed out the screen.

“You came,” she whispered bounced on her toes, her smile uncontainable.

He chuckled and bent down on one knee, the scent of his cologne—teak and mint—fresh and strong on the air. “’Course I came, girlie. I promised my wing girl I’d take her dancin’.” He winked up at Charlie who bit her lip.

Then he opened up the little box.

A corsage of little daisies, similar to the ones Charlie was growing, and sprigs of baby’s breath.

“What’s it for?” Daisy asked, peering in the box excitedly.

“A little birdie told me she named her favorite person in the world after her favorite flower.” Her heart squeezed as T.R. looked up at her again.

He wanted her reaction. Wanted her to know he remembered.

“Now everyone in Nacogdoches will knows my wing girl has a date.”

Charlie blinked harder. Cleared her throat as he stretched the elastic over Daisy’s wrist, barely remembering to capture the moment with a picture.

Leaning over it, she fingered the sweetheart design. “Oh, Daisy May, it’s so pretty.”

“I got a confession to make, darlin’,” Thad said to Daisy. “I ain’t ever been to a school dance.”

He’d never been to a school dance? Surely he’d had a string of girls to choose from … except he’d dropped out of school. She hadn’t thought about what life might have been like as a teen alone on the streets but … yeah. No homecomings. No senior prom. He’d missed out on it all.

And yet, he grinned at Daisy, as if that past didn’t matter anymore when she could suddenly see, it did. It had shaped him into a man so empathetic, if not a touch bashful in the way he averted his eyes.

“Really?” Daisy’s eyes widened.