Page 8 of Boston (Coral Canyon: Cowboys #12)

CHAPTER

SIX

C ora felt like she was fighting a losing battle against time. It was definitely winning today, and she couldn’t do anything about it.

She’d spent hours and hours in meetings before. Something about today’s really irritated her.

Perhaps if you didn’t have a lunch date with the gorgeous Boston Simpson, she told herself. Your leg wouldn’t be bouncing and you wouldn’t be tapping the tabletop with your fingernails.

“All right, that’s it,” her momma finally said, and Cora practically jumped to her feet.

She’d taken plenty of notes she’d probably never look at again, but it didn’t matter. The act of writing it down solidified it in her mind.

“Cora, dear,” her momma said. “I’d love to go over your schedule.”

Just when she thought she’d be able to get away.

“What schedule?” she asked, barely able to keep the bite out of her voice.

Jeremy laughed as he left the room with Anne, their head chef, Ernie, their chief maintenance and grounds officer, and Patrick, who oversaw all of their events.

She had time scheduled with each of them this week as well, but none of them made her stomach boil and had her anticipation rioting the way her lunch date with Boston did.

It’s not a date, she told herself sternly as she navigated back over to her momma. It’s a business meeting.

“Leon says he can meet with you anytime and go over the accounting,” her momma said, a warm smile on her face.

“Yes,” Cora said. “I had an email out to him.” She looked at her phone. “I didn’t see his reply.”

“I tracked him down at the coffee bar this morning,” Momma said. “Leon isn’t great with email.”

Cora looked up and blinked. Whoever heard of running a huge business with over one hundred employees without the expectation that they would check their email? Such a thing felt so foreign to Cora. She would have never been able to get away with that in Miami.

“You should stop by his office,” Momma said. “And set something up.”

“Okay,” Cora said.

“I know you’re meeting with Jeremy tomorrow.” Momma flipped a page in her paper calendar.

“Yes,” Cora confirmed. “I wanted to go over things with Patrick and Anne first.” She tucked her phone away and gazed into her mother’s eyes. “Oh, and I’m meeting with Boston later today too.”

Momma nodded, her expression giving nothing away. Cora thought she’d been pretty obvious yesterday, and she’d texted Boston within an hour of returning to Silver Sage, but Momma didn’t seem like she’d noticed.

Kat hadn’t been on the excursion on Wicker Road, and Cora would have to tell Jeremy outright for him to realize that she’d been attracted to Boston. With a jolt, she wondered if she’d have to do the same for Boston.

Men couldn’t always read the signs, and Cora hadn’t started a new relationship in years. For all she knew, the rules of the dating game were totally different than they’d been before, and the fact that she wasn’t in Miami also changed things.

Who knew how dating even worked in Wyoming?

Not Cora.

“What are you and Boston going to talk about?” Momma asked.

Cora pulled out a chair and sank into it. “I want him to give me the lay of the land,” she said. “Not an overview, like what I’m going to get from Jeremy, but what it really takes to run specific excursions—the personnel, the timelines, the equipment, that kind of thing.”

“I’m sure Jeremy could help with that too,” Momma said.

“I’m sure,” Cora agreed. “But he doesn’t do any of that work right now—Boston does.”

“Perhaps you should meet with Cotton too. He does a lot more than Boston.” Momma finished writing something and looked at Cora, eyebrows raised.

Cora nodded and took a moment to type Cotton’s name into her phone. She knew exactly who Cotton was, and she could definitely ask him plenty of questions. She also figured she could get the same information from Boston.

“He was one of your father’s favorites.” Momma smiled then, but the edges almost went down instead of up.

Cora’s own memories of her father snuck up on her seemingly every other second, especially now that she was back in Coral Canyon, back at the lodge.

“I’ll add him to my list,” she said. “I’m meeting with Leslie on Thursday.”

“Oh, she’ll be great,” Momma said. “I wouldn’t know half of what happens at the resort without Les.”

Cora managed to smile, and she actually hoped she could catch an hour beside the pool at the resort after her meeting with Leslie. She’d scheduled it in the afternoon on purpose. “I’m excited to get really hands-on with the spa here.”

Momma grinned now too, the happiness reaching into her eyes. “You love your massages.”

“Everyone loves massages, Momma. You’re the only one who doesn’t.” She laughed lightly and got to her feet. She leaned down and hugged her mother and said, “I have to go into town to set up my mail, check on a car, and Anne told me about a mac and cheese restaurant I’m excited about.”

Momma patted her shoulder, and her joy remained as Cora pulled back. “Only you would be excited about mac and cheese.”

Cora couldn’t argue about that, and she kept her smile on her face as she left the conference room in the back offices of the lodge. She needed to get rid of her notebook, grab her purse, and change her shoes.

Fine, the last one wasn’t technically necessary before she went to grab Boston, but Cora couldn’t go on a date wearing sneakers. She loved strappy sandals, custom boots with heels, and anything with a little bling.

So while she’d wear her dark blue shorts and striped pink-and-white sleeveless shirt, she absolutely needed the right pair of shoes to go with them.

She entered her office and tossed her notebook on the corner of the desk.

Something lemony filled the air, and she noticed her trash can had been emptied too.

She ditched her shoes, pulled on a pair of pearly pink sandals that had a strap around her ankle and a low, two-inch heel, and opened her bottom drawer to get her purse.

For good measure, she put a piece of cool mint gum in her mouth, tested her weight on the heels, and headed out. Her nerves shouted at her as she walked down the hall to the larger area where several desks took up the space.

Boston worked there, she’d learned, and as she neared the corner, she slowed. For some reason, she wanted to see him before he saw her, and she pressed one palm against the wall and did something she hadn’t done in years.

She prayed.

“Dear Lord,” she whispered. “Guide my feet and open my heart.” She wasn’t sure why she’d said the last part. She’d returned to Coral Canyon because she couldn’t ignore the pleadings of her heart.

She found Boston sitting at a desk and facing the windows to her right.

He wore a big, black cowboy hat that made Cora’s heartbeat skip and dance around her body.

A matching black shirt stretched across his shoulders, and he spun in his chair away from her as he smiled.

He spoke on the phone, and Cora didn’t think there was any man sexier in the world.

An office cowboy?

Mm, yes. She liked what she saw.

She took a deep breath and stepped out into the room. Her heels didn’t click on this industrial carpet, but the way every eye came to her, it seemed like they did. Cora put a smile on her face, her eyes zipping around to the others in the room.

She nodded at a blonde woman, then one with a shiny auburn tint to her dark brown hair.

“…for sure,” Boston said as Cora approached his desk. “C’mon out this weekend, and I’ll show you the orchards. I think they’d be great.” He turned toward her, though she hadn’t made a noise. “I….”

His eyes dripped down to her cute shoes and rebounded to her face. “I have to go,” he said, and he hung up.

“Was that a client?” Cora asked, her voice set to High Flirt.

Boston’s face turned ruddy as he got to his feet. “Sort of.”

“Sort of?”

He opened the top drawer and pulled out his keys and wallet. “Ready?”

“I want to know what ‘sort of’ means.”

Boston looked at her out of the corner of his eye as he edged out from behind his desk. “Good thing it takes forty-five minutes to drive to town.” His mouth barely moved, and Cora got the impression he didn’t want to talk in front of everyone.

“Have fun,” the blonde woman said.

“Thanks, Julie.” He paused at her desk. “Have you met Cora?” He glanced over to her. “Cora, this is my other half here in the office. Julie Barnes.”

Julie rose and shook Cora’s hand. “It’s great to meet you.”

“You too.” Cora put a smile on her face, though she strongly disliked Boston saying Julie was his “other half.”

The woman’s phone chimed, and she swiped it up off her desk in less time than it took to breathe. “Yes, Calder got back to me in time.” She looked up, her blue eyes sparkling like pure sapphires. “Will you really bring us dinner?”

Boston chuckled and nodded. “I said I would.”

“He wants the sharp cheddar bake, with chicken.” She put her phone down. “You remember what I want?”

“Creamy Romano and parmesan,” he said. “With penne, not butterflies—which I hate. Why can’t you just order what’s on the menu?”

“They don’t mind swapping out the pasta.” Julie sank back into her chair. “So don’t be a baby about it.” She tossed a look to Cora and placed her fingers back on her keyboard.

“Call me a baby again, and see if I bring you and your husband dinner.”

Julie grinned at him, and Boston gestured to his desk. “I left the notes for the Pitt reunion on my desk, and I’m handling Adam and Joey this weekend.”

“Sounds good,” Julie said.

With that, Boston turned his gaze from his desk toward the door, and Cora moved in front of him. She hadn’t felt this buzzing energy walking into any of her other meetings, and she had no idea what to do with her feelings.

Calm down , she told herself as she pushed out into the June sunshine. A breath filled her lungs, and a sense of peace and rightness moved through her the moment she laid eyes on the jagged mountains to the west and that stretch of gorgeous blue sky above them.

“I do love these mountains,” she said.