Page 15 of Ride a Cowboy

“What’s going on?” she asked, leaning closer. “Some sort of telepathy. Are you speaking to each other in Morse code by blinking your eyes or something? Is this what they teach the boys when they separate them from the girls in middle school gym class? Because all I got out of that was a lecture on what happens when you get your period.”

Dad stood, slapping Hank on the back, as he looked at Macie. “About time you started dating someone with a bit of substance.”

“Hey,” Bruce Millhouse called out from three stools away. “I took Macie out back in October.”

“We had a date last summer,” Frank Tucker added.

“Like I said,” Dad announced to the other men, the two who had spoken and the three others Macie counted in the room who’d taken her out on dates, “a man of substance.”

“That hurts, TJ,” Bruce said, though he didn’t appear very put out.

Dad chuckled as he walked back to his usual table, clearly analyzing everything that had just happened with his cronies.

Macie looked at Hank. “At exactly what point did I lose control of things?”

He gave her a full-fledged smile. “The second I walked in. What time you get off?”

She glanced at her watch. “Forty-five minutes.”

He nodded. “I’ll wait.”

Macie considered playing coy and asking him what he was waiting for, just for shits and giggles, but he’d just laid a hell of a lot of stuff on the line.

They needed to talk.

And fuck. They really needed to fuck.

“Okay.”

He seemed surprised by her easy acquiescence. “No questions? No comments or complaints?”

She shook her head. “Nope.”

For a moment, she thought he actually appeared disappointed.

“You want me to ask you a bunch of questions?”

He shrugged. “Might make the time pass quicker.”

She laughed. “Drink your damn beer.”

The time passed faster than Macie would have expected, given how badly she wanted to get out of the place. However, between pouring drinks, dealing with Amanda and Brandi’s curiosity about this sudden relationship, and the sexual innuendoes Hank kept lobbing her way, she didn’t have two seconds to worry about the time.

Hank, on the other hand, must have been counting the seconds. The moment the clock struck quitting time, he was up and waiting for her at the end of the counter. She handed the reins over to her sister, said goodbye to her friends and her dad, and held Hank’s hand as they walked out together.

Now, like last night, he led her straight toward his vehicle.

“Another date?” she teased.

“You gonna start going on about how you need to shave your legs again?”

She shook her head. “No. I’m a quick study. Took care of everything I needed to this morning.”

“Good girl.”

Hank pulled her closer once they were standing next to his truck and gave her a hard, hot kiss that told her she wasn’t the only one suffering and ready to ring the bell on round two.

“I want you to spend the night at my place again,” he said as he released her.

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