Page 22 of My Billionaire Cowboy Protector

He stared into her eyes when the kiss ended, as though he was seeing into her soul.

“I would love to take you to dinner tomorrow night, like a real date.”

“I can’t tomorrow night. I already have plans. But I’m free the next night.”

“Sounds good,” he said. “Is there another man I should be worried about?”

She laughed and said, “No, nothing like that. I volunteer at the domestic violence shelter and hang out with the kids. We play games, draw pictures, or just hang out and watch movies. It’s just my way of giving back to the community.”

“You are an angel,” he said.

“I don’t know about that,” Taylor said.

He walked her back to the cabin, brushing a kiss across her lips before he headed home.

Taylor’s heart raced and she tried to capture her breath. She watched him walk away and wondered if she might be falling in love.

Chapter 9: Lane

“Can I talk to you for a minute?” Willow asked, leaning against the doorway of his office.

“Sure, what’s up?” Lane asked.

Willow shut the office door.

Uh-oh. What did I do now?Lane asked himself.

“I wanted to talk to you about Taylor.”

“Sure, what’s up?” he asked.

“I really like her. She is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. She is genuine. I think that she and I are going to be good friends.”

“I’m glad. You can always use good friends,” Lane asked, wondering where this was going.

“You know her husband was killed a little over a year ago. It was very sudden because he was killed by a drunk driver who was texting. They were talking about starting a family,” Willow said. “I would never, in a million years, ever say that she is delicate, but I know that it was hard for her to deal with his death. Then, she lost the ranch on top of that.”

“I’m aware,” Lane said. “What’s your point?”

“I think that she is starting to fall for you. If you are just playing around, you need to stop, or you will end up breakingher heart. Then, I’ll be obligated to kick your butt. I’ll get our brothers involved in the butt-kicking, too.”

Lane smiled. “I’m starting to have feelings for her too. I don’t know where our relationship will go, but I do know that I really like her and I enjoy spending time with her.”

“Fair enough,” Willow said.

Deciding to change the subject, Lane said, “You are lucky that Mom leaves you alone. She never lectures you about finding a man and settling down like a proper young lady should.”

Willow grinned. “She thinks that I’m still delicate. Mom is positive that if she starts pushing me to find a man I’ll start thinking about George and fall apart all over again. Besides, she has a whole row of boys to go after first. I’m last in line.”

Lane shook his head and said, “Lucky duck.”

“There has to be some perks of being the only girl in a family of nine kids.”

“You were the best-protected girl in the entire state. We also taught you to fight.”

“True enough.”

“Going back to Taylor, I promised that I would give her the money for the ranch and Diablo if she would play this charade with me. Could you go ahead and make the necessary arrangements. I’ll hate to lose her as a ranch hand because she’s a heck of a lot better than all of the other candidates that I interviewed, but a promise is a promise.”

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