Page 36 of The Cowboy's Second Chance Bride

He looked over his shoulder at my friends, who were loading up the ATV they were going to use to follow us. His gaze swung back to mine and held it. “I got your message on the mirror last night. Is this going to be a thing?”

“What do you mean by ‘a thing’?”

“Something that happens a lot.”

I shrugged one shoulder. “Maybe. Depends. If the spirit moves me.”

“And the spirit moved you to give me a list of why we will never be friends?” His gaze bounced to my lips, then quickly back up again.

“Well, of course. When you told your mom we weren’t friends, I thought maybe you needed to have some whys in your back pocket in case she asked. This way, we’ll be on the same page if she asks me too. And it wasn’t a list.”

“There were three reasons. That’s a list.” He held up three fingers.

I gave a dismissive wave. “That’s the start of a list. Five is more like a real list.”

“We aren’t friends because I’m too tall?” He arched a brow and… yep, there it was, a tiny little twitch of the lips.

“Yes. Look at my posture right now. I have to crane my neck to look up at you, and it’s eventually going to become an issue where I might need physical therapy and weekly massages.” I paused and held up a finger. “No. My bad. Can’t use weekly massages as a negative because that would actually be a perk.”

I poked his rock-hard chest, mostly because I still couldn’t believe he was so solid, and this had become a fun habit. I thought about that solid chest of his too much. I was so very curious to see it in real life, not just picture it in my mind’s eye. I was a fool.

He leaned in, and I caught a whiff of him. He smelled fresh, like soap. But not one of those dull bars that people just grabbed at random. No, this scent reminded me of the tall trees and the mountains around me and the blue sky above me. He smelled like the outdoors. Cedar and…

I couldn’t put my finger on it. I drew in another breath, savoring it. My knees got weak. Like, I actually swooned.

Dear God, I swooned. What the actual hell is wrong with me? All from whiffing this guy. I rested more on the fence and tried to get a hold of myself.

“You aren’t so short, you know,” he said.

I blinked at him prettily as I scrambled for words. “That’s just because you see me as larger than life.”

“And we aren’t friends because I think dolled-up coffee is the equivalent of a milkshake?”

I reached up to tighten my ponytail. “Breve, latte—those are not milkshakes. They are coffee art, and aficionados everywhere are appalled by your insult.”

He rolled his eyes. “They’ll survive. You think your friend is a good enough photographer to pull this off; make us look like something we aren’t?” It almost sounded like he was fishing.

“Yeah, totally. Cori knows what she’s doing. Have faith.” I patted him on the arm.

“Let’s get this done, then.” He pushed up to climb over the fence, and I had to back up and move to the side to get out of his way. In two moves, he was over it and dropping down beside me. “Want me to get your horse for you, or you got it?”

Though the brim of his Stetson cast a shadow across his eyes, it did nothing to tamp down the steely look in them.

“I got it.” I shook away the heady feeling that was swirling around me. “Actually, Rod got him.”

Eye contact was bad, bad, bad. When he looked at me, my stomach got all zingy, like a swarm of bees were in there bumping against each other. Being near him made my body vibrate. And remembering our past made my heart sting. And then there was the swooning, for crying out loud.

“But we should make a short video about this. Tell the people what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. You know, for the app,” I said.

He agreed and just stood there, so I whipped out my phone and made a quick video about our first date, explaining that because we knew each other, going off together in an isolated place wasn’t scary. Trust had been established. Cal listed reasons why this wouldn’t be a good idea for the first twenty dates. His point about not really knowing someone after just a handful of dates, even when you felt like you knew them, hit home. And then we were done with that part.

“Ma’am." He tipped his hat, then strode out to the larger of the two horses.

I called out, “What about the third reason? Do you want to discuss that?” I smirked.

“Nope,” he said over his shoulder. “Not much I can do about that, can I?”

CAL

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