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She folds her arms and looks at me. “I’m not saying anything.”
But I’m no dummy.
* * *
“What are you doing here?” I ask Langston as he approaches me at my parents’ stable. Valentine has finished with the trainer, who’s just packed up and left. “Coming to spy on the competition?” I tease. “Afraid you can’t win on your own merits?”
“No. I was just looking for Ronnie.” Langston is wearing a cowboy hat, plaid shirt, jeans, and cowboy boots. He looks like he’s come straight from the pages of a western romance novel. I try not to think about the muscles under that shirt, either.
“Oh, in the mood to jump in the lake like a bunch of monkeys?” I think about that question for a minute and then say, “Actually, monkeys would be smarter than that. They know to avoid freezing cold water.”
Langston’s mouth quirks up. “You seemed to be enjoying it once you got in there.”
“That was your imagination,” I shoot back. “I hated every minute of it.”
He laughs, one of my favorite sounds. Langston has a great laugh. It’s full and rich and makes you want to laugh with him.
“So I might need a favor from you,” I say. “Well, there’s no might about it. I do need a favor from you.”
He looks at me from under the brim of his cowboy hat. “Uh, oh. Should I be scared right now?”
“I can’t really answer that for you,” I say truthfully. “Don’t take this the wrong way, okay?”
Langston crosses his arms and leans against the stable wall. “Fine. Now tell me what you want me to do.”
“I need you to take me out on a date.”
“Wow, you just said that with a straight face.”
“That’s…because I was serious.”
“Ohhh. And why do you need me to take you out?”
I wipe back a strand of hair that escaped my bun. “Because I need to get my parents off my back. They’re driving me nuts. My mom is threatening to match me up with a guy in India. Some dude I’ve never met.”
“So I’m supposed to swoop in like the knight in shining armor?”
I wrinkle my nose. “Never say that again. You know I don’t need saving.”
“Oh, I think you do. You’re the one asking for favors,” Langston points out.
I groan. “Fine. I need your help. But this is me saving myself. Asking for a favor from a friend.”
“A friend, huh?” Langston grins at me, both dimples popping. “That’s quite the upgrade.”
I give him a weird look. “What do you mean by upgrade?”
“Well, I wasn’t even friend-zoned before this. I was in the doghouse,” he explains, pulling out his phone and swiping at the screen.
“I think you’re mixing up your metaphors,” I say. “And pay attention. This is important.”
He looks up from his phone. “I’m listening. I just had a weird text come in.”
“Do you need to take care of something?” I ask.
He slips his phone into his pocket. “It can wait.” He looks back up at me. “You were saying?”
“You think you’re in the doghouse with me?”