Page 52 of Overdue for a Cowboy

“Sorry,” he said, holding up a hand. “Gramps said you were out here, so I brought her over from the barn because I thought you’d want to see her.”

“Of course I do,” Maisie said, hugging the neck of the llama. “I just wasn’t prepared for her to touch my butt.”

“The way you were bent over like that, she wasn’t the only one who wanted to touch it,” Dodge muttered, not quite under his breath.

“I heard that,” Maisie said, laughing but secretly a little happy with the comment.

The shop was divided into three sections. One area had long workbenches and tall drawers and cabinets where they kept all the tools and did smaller projects and then a larger area on the other side where they worked on the trucks and tractors, and what looked like an old half-rebuilt motorcycle. The camper had been pulled into that area.

In between was a third space that appeared to be a mini man-cave. An old sofa and two mismatched recliners formed a semi-circle and upturned five-gallon buckets served as foot stools. A foosball table stood behind the sofa, and next to it was a round table holding a tray of poker chips and chairs around it that looked like it was set up for some type of regular poker game.

Moose had come in with Dodge and Phyllis and had run around the shop, smelling all the things, and jumping on the sofa then trotting over to get cuddles from Maisie before settling down next to the llama, who stood by the door keeping an eye on the rest of the ranch.

Maisie liked the shop. It smelled like sawdust, oil, and leather and had every kind of tool she could possibly need or imagine. Plus, there was an old refrigerator set up in the corner that was stocked with beer, pop, and bottled water, and she’d noticed that a twelve-pack of her favorite, Diet Coke, had been added over the weekend.

She’d borrowed Gertie’s car and been out to the ranch to check on Phyllis and work on the bookmobile for the past three nights. Dodge had been gone for one of the nights, but the other two, they had spent together working on the little camper.

They had come up with a plan to try to fix it, but Dodge hadn’t been too confident that they could get all the work done on time. She had several evening programs that she had to attend at the library, but she committed to come out to help every evening that she could.

The other two nights they’d been together, Dodge had already been in the barn with country music playing when she got there, and he just handed her a tool, told her where to start, and they’d worked for hours in companionable silence.

She wasn’t sure he’d even be here tonight, but she’d wanted to get the scratches sanded out of the sides. She knew where the sander was and how to use it, so she waved to Duke when she’d pulled in then come into the workshop and gotten started.

“You’re doing a great job on those scratches,” Dodge told her, stepping in behind her to examine her work. The scent of him wafted around her, and she wanted to lean back into his arms and rest against his chest. “You’re not overdoing it with your wrist, are you?”

She’d been to the doctor the day before, and he’d told her she didn’t have to wear the sling anymore, but still needed to keep the splint on her wrist for another week.

“No, I’m being a good girl.” She’d turned to him when she’d said it, and her face heated when she caught a grin tugging at the corners of his lips. She hadn’t meant it to sound flirty but liked the fact that it had made him think that way.

“I checked in at the hardware store this afternoon about the paint we ordered in the colors you wanted,” he told her. “But they haven’t come in yet.”

She sighed. “Hopefully they all get here on time. If not, I’m sure it will be fine if it’s white, but it would just be so cute if it was covered in blue clouds, and we were able to decorate it using the templates I got to create spring flowers all along the bottom of it.”

As they’d inventoried the damage the first night, she’d shared her fantasy vision for everything she wanted to do with the bookmobile, from new cushions in the seating area to adding cellular capabilities and different sized shelving for oversized books and standard trade publications. She loved the idea of using the bookmobile year-round and wanted to eventually add heating and cooling elements and fix up the little kitchen area enough so the sink worked to be able to wash her hands and prepare snacks. She had so many ideas for what she eventually wanted to do and hoped that winning the grant money wouldallow her to be able to add more of her dream features, andmore books, of course.

Although now that she saw all the damage and how long it was taking to fix even the simplest stuff, like sanding out the scratches on the exterior, she had to wonder if her hopes of being able to still enter the bookmobile in the competition were in vain.

Dodge appeared to be studying one of the scratches as he off-handedly asked, “Speaking of flowers, did you get any more today?”

His question caught her off-guard. Was he jealous?

“No. And I didn’t expect any. Most of the bruising has faded from my face, and I’m down to just this splint,” she said, holding up her arm as if to show off the knuckle-to-elbow splint. “So hopefully everyone has just forgotten about the accident all together. Frankly, it’s a little embarrassing that I put my car and the bookmobile in a ditch.”

“But now we know that it happened because you were trying to avoid hitting Phyllis.” He brushed a hand over the llama’s back.

“True” She smiled at the llama and gave her a pet as well, the edge of her fingers brushing past Dodge’s, making her heart rate speed up. “So, it was worth it, but now, I really just want everyone to forget about it and not make a fuss over me.”

Dodge shrugged. “Still, it was pretty nice of that guy to send you flowers.” They both knew who he was talking about. “I guess I was just wondering if you wish I would’ve sent you some too?”

Maisie huffed out a laugh. “Are you kidding me? Not even a little bit. A few tulips pale in comparison to what youactuallydidfor me. Not just saving my books and staying at my house and taking care of me for an entire weekend but buying me chicken soup, and Gatorade…and let’s not forget…creating an entire freaking temporary bookmobile. No one has ever done anything like that for me before. The people who sent me flowers were sweet and thoughtful, but I can’t think of any other gift I could ever receive, that would even come close in comparison to all of what you did.”

He narrowed his eyes as he went back to studying the scratch. “Don’t make me into some kind of hero, Maisie. Anyone would have done all that same stuff.”

She took his chin in her hand and forced him to look at her. “No, they wouldn’t have. But you did. And it meant everything to me.”

He reached up to softly touch her cheek then his gaze dropped to her mouth. “You sure do make it hard to stick to mydiet.”

Butterflies shot through her belly, and her heart pounded hard against her chest as she prayed he was talking about what shethoughthe was talking about.

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