Page 19 of Ride Me Cowboy

“Thanks.” She smiles up at me. A smile that’s awkward—nervous and tinged with something like fear, or anxiety—that makes me want to drag her against me and kiss her until she doesn’t feel anything but pleasure.

I take a step backwards, resolutely shoving my hands in my pocket. “Chardonnay okay?”

She nods, eyes still on me. “I love Chardonnay.”

“Great.” I stand there like a goof for a few more seconds before I realize everyone’s looking at me, and quickly hightail it back to my seat, handing out menus without meeting Beau’s eyes, which I know will be full of amusement. Damn that brother of mine and how well he gets me.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, when everyone else is talking to Beth about Goodnight’s most famous cowboy Dale Carnaby, Beau leans closer and lifts his beer to his lips, hovering it over them to hide his mouth.

“Well, well, well, if my big bro ain’t gone and gotten himself a fat ol’ crush.”

I glare at him. “Just because you can’t keep it in your pants doesn’t mean the rest of us are like you.”

“Oh, I know you’re not like me,” he says, still grinning in that infuriating way of his. “But then, I reckon she’s not like anyone you’ve ever met, either.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Beautiful, sophisticated yet vulnerable. She’s got that whole damsel in distress thing going on, but she’s smart and interesting to boot.”

I straighten, the description of Beth pretty damned accurate. It’s the ‘vulnerable’ descriptor that really floors me though, because Beau is right. No matter how much I try to fight it, I’m too much like our old man. Show me a person going through a tough time, and I want to save them. Show me a woman like Beth, who’s obviously running from something, and I want to make it all better.

Or, in Beth’s case, to kiss it all better.

“She works for us, Beau,” I snap, more sharply than I mean to. “And she’s not interested.”

“You already asked her out?”

“I asked her here, didn’t I?”

Beau snorts. “Well, now, I know it’s been a gosh darn while since you took a lady on a date, but if you think that includes me, Caleb and Mack, that’s really not gonna get a girl out of her boots—and into yours.”

I nudge my knee against his , but a bit too hard, because his other leg hits the corner of the table, and our drinks shake. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Beth flinch. Skittish like a colt, I think, again.

“So, this is where you come to unwind?” she asks, eyes flicking to me now, on a slight puff of breath, including me in the conversation, so I can’t very well dig back into things with Beau.

“Most weeks,” Austin agrees.

“Most nights,” Caleb adds.

“You make us sound like a bunch of drunks,” Beau complains, but with a wink at Beth.

She holds her hands up, palms out, and smiles. “No judgement. I’m just curious. You know,” she glances around. “This is just different to what I’m used to.”

“How’re you liking ranch life?” Caleb asks.

“I mean, I haven’t really been out on the ranch, but I love my view of it.”

“Your view of it,” Beau splutters. “From the window, you mean?”

Beth nods. “It’s strikingly beautiful. The wildness of those mountains, the forest, it almost breaks your heart.” Her voice is so wistful that I feel it deep inmyheart. Her love for this landscape is unexpectedly warming.

Careful, cowboy, she’s got a home she loves, and it’s halfway across the country.

“Well, that’s no good. You can’t just be on a ranch and not see it for yourself. Why don’t you come out with us tomorrow?”

Mack snorts before she can stop herself, earning a reproving glance from Caleb and me. She offers a quick grimace in my direction, by way of an apology.

“You think I won’t like it?” Beth asks Mack, having missed nothing.