Page 27 of A Cameo for a Cowgirl

“Wait.” Poppy scrambled away. “I’m not happy. I’d actually be a lot happier if I could find out exactly why you are trying to keep us away from him.”

“Fine.” Her sister was stubborn, and already this encounter had stolen far too much time and emotional energy. “You do you. I don’t care, but I do care that this is Hannah’s special day and right now none of us are talking to her, and I’m not okay with that. So, goodbye,” she said to Harrison. Then she turned and waded across to the other side of the creek where the rest of the women waited. The women whose wide eyes and smiles said they were enjoying the show.

“Spill. Now.” Bree Vaughan pointed to Cassie. “All the details. Go.”

She sighed. The wife of Calgary’s hockey captain was super sweet, but saw romance wherever she went. And this was definitely not what she’d planned for today. “There are no details. He’s working nearby and came by accidentally.” She hoped.

“Working?” Hannah, ever the reporter, asked. “He doesn’t look like a cowboy.”

“He’s an actor,” she mumbled.

“On As The Heart Draws?” Bree asked.

She couldn’t very well lie now, could she? “Yes.”

Bree’s purply-gray eyes widened. “He’s not the new love interest, is he? Oh my gosh. Does that mean Tanner is dead?”

Why, oh why had she ever told her friends that As The Heart Draws was filming here? “You know I can’t reveal that.”

“That sounds like a yes to me.” Bree turned to Hannah. “Does that sound like a yes to you?”

“It does indeed.”

“Guys, please don’t ask,” Cassie begged. “He’s here and that’s all I’ve got to say about that.”

“Is that all?” Hannah prodded, with a teasing smile.

“That is all.”

“I suspect that’s not all.” Hannah grinned. “But I’m having too much fun watching you pretend there isn’t, that I don’t care if it’s an accident that he’s here. I’m glad that our Cassie is not made of stone.”

“Amen.” Bree lifted her plastic glass of virgin margarita, one of the little Poppy touches that had elevated the creek swim into something more resembling a tropical getaway. That, and various other things, like the blow-up pink flamingo.

“I’m not made of stone,” Cassie grumbled. “It’s just he’s annoying.”

“Aw, don’t be hard on the man,” Bree protested. “It was an accident he arrived here, you said.”

“No, I mean he’s been really annoying for a while now. And I’ve got enough going on that I don’t need to have more drama in my life.”

“Drama.” Bree winked at Cassie. “I see what you did there.”

Cassie pasted a smile on her face and stood. “Anybody need a drink?”

She refilled glasses, then picked up a pink air mattress and dragged it further upstream to the bend in the creek where the tiny rapids bubbled and played. She needed to get away, to relax again, to not have this moment that she’d been enjoying spoiled by the man who apparently thought himself entitled to crash any event anywhere simply because he had a nice smile. Probably a bleached smile, she thought grumpily. But at least he hadn’t chipped a tooth in his tumble. The ranch sure couldn’t afford an actor’s dental bills.

“Hey, Cassie, wait up.”

She paused as Hannah dragged the flamingo behind her. “I thought you wanted to sun bathe.”

“I did, and I have. And now I’m ready for another swim, if that’s okay.”

“Of course it’s okay. You’re the bride-to-be, so whatever you say goes.”

“Hey.”

Hannah’s voice stayed Cassie’s feet.

“I’m sorry for teasing you.”

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