Page 45 of Overdue for a Cowboy

He nodded. “I had Elizabeth bring them over last night and help me arrange them. So, if they’re in a weird order, you can blame her.”

“But how? Why?”

“It was important to you,” Dodge said. “I knew you didn’t want to let those kids down.”

“I can’t believe you did this.” She stepped forward and threw her arm around his neck. It was the best she could do for a hug. “Thank you. This means so much to me.”

She stepped back to a smattering of applause and whoops and was surprised to see Chevy, Ford, Elizabeth, and Duke standing on the sidewalk next to the library.

“We couldn’t help it,” Elizabeth said, as they all took turns giving her a hug. “When Dodge told us what he was doing, we had to come with him to see your reaction.”

“He told us, too,” Natalie said from behind her. “It just about killed me this morning to see your face when I told you that you couldn’t borrow my car.”

Maisie gawked at the volunteer. “You knew he was doing this?”

She shrugged. “Not exactlythis. But he assured us he’d be here on time, and with a bunch of books, to take you up the mountain.”

“I don’t know what to say.” Maisie was still in shock as she looked back at Dodge.

“You don’t have to say anything,” he told her. “Don’t make too big a deal out of it. I just sprayed on some paint and screwed some bookshelves to the wall.”

He’d donesomuch more than that. He was going to make a bunch of kids very happy today.

He glanced down at the watch on his wrist. “We’d better get going. If we leave now, we can still have time to grab you one of those fancy coffees you like on the way out of town.”

She couldn’t help the huge smile that broke across her face. “Just let me grab my purse and the snacks for the kids.”

She ran back into the library, slung her crossbody bag over her neck, and collected the bag she’d put together of juice boxes and snacks for the kids and the tote she’d already filled with books and the special requests the kids have given her the last time she’d been there. She’d created a notebook system to keep track of the books the kids and their parents checked out since she wouldn’t have wi-fi for her laptop, and she stuffed it into the bag too.

Everyone else had left by the time she made it back outside, the bag hanging from her arm as she one-handedly balanced the tote on her hip. Dodge had closed up the trailer and was waiting for her beside the truck. He hurried forward to take the tote and bag of snacks and loaded them into the backseat of the truck. “Dang, I thought you just had a purse. I would have come in andhelped you if I’d known you were going to try to carry out half the library.”

“No Moose?” she asked, ignoring his sarcasm as she climbed into the cab.

“Gramps just took him,” he said, automatically leaning over her to help get the seatbelt fastened around her sling like he’d done the other night when they’d gone out to the ranch.

She sucked in a breath as he reached across her, inhaling the masculine scent of him—a woodsy cologne combined with notes of leather and the cinnamon gum he must be chewing. She was already weak in the knees from him showing up with the temporary bookmobile, but the scent of him surrounding her was causing her to positively swoon.

“I wasn’t sure where all we were headed and figured it would be easier to leave him behind this time,” Dodge told her.

This time?

Was he planning to come with her for the next several weeks too? Gosh, she hoped so. Not just because she wanted to spend time with him, but because she wasn’t sure she could ask him to borrow or manage driving his truck and trailer, especially not with only one hand.

He drove slowly through town, then pulled the truck over in front of the quaint coffee shop she’d told him over the weekend that she loved.

Thankfully, there was no line when they walked in, but there was also no one behind the counter.

“Be out in a sec,” a female voice called from the back, then appeared a few seconds later with a giant stack of plastic cupsin her hands. The tall stack covered her face and wobbled as she walked toward the counter.

“Whoa,” Dodge said, leaping forward to grab the cups before they toppled forward. “I got ya.” He set the cups on the counter then his eyes widened as he took in the pretty dark-haired woman who had been holding them.

She was average height and wore ankle-cuffed jeans, white sneakers, and a pink polo top with the coffee shop’s name and logo embroidered over the breast pocket. A navy-blue apron was tied around her generous hips, and she had most of her long hair pulled up into a messy bun on top of her head. The bun appeared to be secured with several bamboo coffee stir sticks, and several locks of hair had come free and lay loose around her neck.

If Maisie had tried that with her hair, the whole thing would fall—her thick hair needed at least two pencils to keep it in place, but this woman’s hair had that fresh Instagram-worthy look of one of those gorgeous women who looked sexy and put together no matter what they did.

She looked vaguely familiar but Maisie couldn’t place her and hated the niggle of jealousy she felt as Dodge stared at her.

“Hey Leni,” he slowly drawled. “Since when did you get back in town?”

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