Page 34 of Ride a Cowboy

Sex with Hank, and bacon.

Sort of made her want to pray for immortality.

Because there was no way Heaven could top this.

Chapter 6

Hank and Macie swayed in the front porch swing, enjoying the beautiful evening and the soft breeze blowing. Less than a week had passed since Hank had confessed his feelings to her. Since that first date, the two of them had been inseparable. Macie had stopped offering to work double shifts at the restaurant. And if it weren’t for Porter and his ranch hands picking up the slack, Hank might have lost the ranch.

He had been the poster child for responsible since his father’s death, but any semblance of him being an adult had fallen to the wayside in the last seven days. He was worse than an alcoholic, so drunk on the love he felt for Macie, it consumed his every waking minute. And more than a fair share of his dreams each night.

The worst part was he couldn’t shake himself out of the bliss enough to give a damn. He hadn’t been this happy in years—Jesus, maybe ever—and he was going to enjoy it.

“You realize it’s our anniversary. One month to the day since you dragged me and my hairy legs out of the restaurant and fed me spaghetti.”

“Damn. Wish you’d mentioned that earlier. I would have taken you and your hairy legs out to dinner to celebrate.”

Macie snuggled closer to him, wrapping her arm around his waist and resting her head on his shoulder. “I think you should know that this is officially my longest relationship ever.”

Every time Macie talked about her complete lack of long-term relationships, Hank was floored. At thirty-one, he figured a woman as beautiful and fun as her should have had at least a dozen former boyfriends. Hell, he couldn’t believe she wasn’t married with a couple kids already. Maris might be a small town, but it wasn’t that damn small and there was no shortage of available men.

“Still find that hard to believe.”

She lifted her head and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, taking his amazement as a compliment, the way she always did. But that never answered his burning curiosity about why she’d never dated seriously.

“You gonna tell me why this is the longest relationship?”

Macie grinned and gave him that look that told him she was going to make a joke of it all. He shook his head, his expression stern. He really wanted to know the real reason.

“It’s a serious question, Mace. Answer it.”

“Or…” she baited. “What? You’ll spank me?”

He rolled his eyes. The woman liked that too much, which meant spankings would never be something he could use as a punishment. “Or I’ll put you in bed and sleep on the couch.”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“Try me.” He was a man of his word. Macie knew that.

Her expression lost some of its playfulness. “I don’t know why.”

That answer felt relatively sincere, but Macie did way too much thinking for him to believe she hadn’t come up with a theory or seventeen over the years. “Try to piece it out. You’re gorgeous, loving, generous and a hoot. I find it hard to believe there wasn’t a single man in your past who didn’t see those things. Surely there was some first love. Who did you lose your virginity to?”

Macie made a disgusted face. “Oh God. The lost-virginity thing sure as hell wasn’t first love. It was sort of a tipsy-at-a-party kind of thing.”

“Your first time was a one-night stand?”

“Oh no. We were seventeen, which meant while the first time happened because of lowered inhibitions, we were inexperienced enough to think that might transfer over to a relationship. Believe me, the sex was a lot better after three beers.”

As he tried to process that, Macie filled the silence, trying to help him understand. “So basically, my first time was a two-night stand. Nice guy, but no fireworks. He’s the mayor these days.”

“You lost your virginity to Philip Sanders?”

She grimaced. “Yeah. He’s a total stick-in-the-mud now. Back then, he was,” she paused, then grinned, “mildly interesting. It was his party. His parents were out of town and it was his one big act of rebellion. He got caught, of course, and after that, he was dull as dirt.”

“Are there any guys who got beyond the second date?”

Macie nodded. “Oh yeah. Sure. Two of them. I went out with Toby Peterson for a couple of weeks when I was twenty-five.”

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