Page 52 of Risking it for the Cowboy

“But he has to pick up vitamins in town for the cows on his farm, sweet girl.”

“But I like him,” Daisy whispered back. “I don’t want him to leave.”

No sweet girl, you want a daddy, and that’s not fair to Thaddeus, either, to pin your hopes on him. Even if he sure had looked like he wanted to fit.

“I like him too.” Charlie returned to the kitchen, thinking, took the bacon off the heat, and cracked an egg onto it, slicing up an orange, putting together a plate, killing the power.

Thaddeus had looked tired, she’d recalled. Why? If the hose had been an easy fix, like he’d sworn, it wasn’t like it would have taken him all night to do it.

Charlie returned to the living room, curious now. She eased his keys onto the table beside him as his chest rose and fell peacefully. She fetched a knitted throw from the back of the couch.

A do-over … was it a mistake to welcome another man into the house? Especially one with such a reputation? Would she be able to handle the fan pics posted online? Would she be able to handle the tits flashed at shows? Will you be able to handle the suspicions that will inevitably creep in and poison your trust?

The real question burned like acid down her throat. Her heart jumped at the thought of something with him, but her blasted brain kept saying, pump the brakes, men can’t be trusted. The rush of attraction arcing between them like live wires by no means indicated a happily ever after.

She set aside the book and moved his phone, then eased off his glasses, a smile ghosting her lips at how scholarly they’d made him look, not at all like the mechanic-stained heartthrob, then draped the throw over him, feeling his warmth radiating off of him as she tucked it around his shoulders. Smelled faint hints of yesterday’s aftershave—teak and mint cutting through the mechanic oil. Sharp and alluring, just like his sense of humor and megawatt smile, and for a moment, she just took him in. Appreciated the feel of a man in the house who’d taken such good care of her and Daisy without asking for anything in return.

Reaching down, she caressed the angle of his jaw, the crest of his cheek, and relished how he gently stirred, nuzzling his face into her touch and pressing his lips unconsciously to her skin as if he’d intended to kiss it. Desperately wanted to know where they stood. Yet desperately didn’t want to jump into this, two feet, only for this man to break her heart.

She walked away, glanced back—they always look back when they like you—resting her hand on the doorframe, and listened to soft breaths escaping him, pretending for one secret second that this was normal, that Daisy’s blue eyes had come from him—

Stop it.

Chapter Sixteen

And yet, as she and Daisy strode out the door, her Rover was shiny? So … clean! No back-country dust from field sites dulling the paint. He’d washed it?

Not only that, but as she hopped in the cab, an iridescent sticker in the upper windshield corner flashed in the sunlight. A new oil change from Rex Auto Works with today’s date? He’d changed her oil today? It was barely eight-thirty a.m. Was Thaddeus a certified mechanic and business owner? A far cry from the tinkering under a hood he’d downplayed to her that first night.

And as she drove down the road toward Nacogdoches, her engine purred like a kitten, happy and soft. Had he flushed the system? Her washer fluid was replaced. Her wiper blades were brand new, squeegeeing streak free, heavy-duty. And a fresh inspection sticker sat in the lower left of her windshield? She’d been riding that out to the final days to renew it.

He’d completed her state inspection.

Which meant he’d found her registration and insurance in her glove box, which meant … She flipped each blinker on. They blinked! The front right blinker had burned out a month ago and even though she’d learned how to replace them from a YouTube video, it was a cumbersome task that she’d been putting off, but a requirement for the state inspection.

Thickness swelled in Charlie’s throat as she pulled into Nacogdoches, Daisy chattering on about T. Rex asleep in their house and how Pumpkin needed a friend named Pie.

He’d lied to her. He hadn’t even gone to bed yet.

No wonder he was passed out.

It was the nicest lie a man had ever told her.

Maybe I just want a do-over.

Daisy dashed to the Boy Scouts selling candy and—oh God, Seth Dixon, in his crisp uniform and arm in a sling after the horrible accident he’d experienced the other night. Daisy seemed smitten with Tyler Dixon’s older-by-almost-four-years son.

Thaddeus would probably be gone by the time they got home. And yet still, she found herself mulling over Daisy’s suggestion. Found herself buying: peppers, onions, tomatoes, lettuce, fresh ground meat, tortillas … all the fixings one needed to make the man’s favorite meal.

*

Hot damn … the smell. So good. Chili powder, paprika, garlic, cumin, pepper, pan-seared meat … T.R. stirred, so rested. Relaxed.

He’d felt that gentle touch. The soft caress on his face. Even if his eyes had been too damn heavy to open as he sank hard over the precipice of sleep, he’d felt Charlie touch him, as if to want him. Hold me like you wanna keep me, baby.

His pocket buzzed. A text.

He blinked open his eyes. The house was still, except for clinking around in the kitchen, the sizzling sound of a frying pan, making his stomach growl like a wolf, and the droning of some sort of college lecture, the volume soft.