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“You won’t tell her I’m a cheapskate?”

“No. And you’re not. You’re a smart shopper.”

“Yeah, well I’ve got to get back to work.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder.

“Thanks again,” Nash said.

“Yeah, thanks,” Dolly echoed and watched him go.

“You want a necklace?” Nash asked her.

Dolly held up her hand. “I’d rather have a flashy ring.”

“Well if you want me to put a ring on it, you’re going to have to do me a favor.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m not letting you out of your photo op with Donnan. In fact, we’re going to go over to the petting zoo right now and interact with the fans.”

“Aw shit,” Nash said. But he followed her over to the Rocky Ridge area. And for the rest of the night things were back to normal between them. But Dolly quickly realized that normal wasn’t what she wanted with Nash anymore.

*

After the rodeoclosed down, Dolly took some reels of Nash tucking Donnan in with a UPRC blanket.

“Do you want to come back to my motel room and spend the night?” he asked.

“Tempting,” she said. “But I’ve got to be in the Dallas office early tomorrow morning. Loretta and I are going to drive there tonight.”

Nash nodded. “I’m going to head over to Laredo in the morning and set up for the weekend’s rodeo as much as I can.Mostly, I’ll just establish a base and then scout out the local restaurants and bars.”

“Loretta and I will be down on Thursday. Can I stay in your motel room then?”

“You bet.”

“Are you sure you’re still going to want me?” she asked and then could have cursed herself.

“I’m sure,” he said, surprising her by not bringing up her lies and secrets.

She kissed him good night, like it would be the last time she kissed him—because it might. This week, she was going to find a way to tell him everything. He deserved to know. They deserved a chance to make this relationship start off on an open and honest note.

Tingles.

Sparks.

And she really wanted to spend the night with him. She broke away reluctantly. “I’ll see you next week, cowboy.”

“I’ll text you if anything comes up. You do the same.”

“I’ll text you anyway,” she said. “Keep up with the social media likes and comment on every response.”

“Jesus Christ,” he grumbled and walked away.

Dolly was glad Loretta was still out. It gave her some time to gather her thoughts about what she could do to make sure Blevins got kicked out of the UPRC, and what she was going to do if she had to leave this job either because the UPRC went bankrupt or she was forced out because of the morality clause.

Contingency plans and backup plans. That was what would keep her sane right now. And maybe she’d find a clue as to who had sent her the cheerleader uniform as she monitored how the rodeo stars interacted online.

Sitting down at the small desk that doubled as a dining room table, she opened up her laptop and checked all the cowboys’social media posts. Feeling like a cyber stalker, she dug deep into their profiles and their likes and shares. But after an hour, the only thing she could connect with any of them was that they really liked beer and the bull riders were all boasting about the Mexican fighting bulls coming in. Normally, she’d be thrilled that they were actively involved in marketing. But they’d never done this before, and she wasn’t sure where they were getting the photographs of the bulls.

Luckily, LeAnn could help her out with that.