Page 53 of Destined for the Cowboy

Another thought hit him then. That had been seven years ago. So technically, he’d known her for that long. And now it was seven weeks since the day they’d collided in the barn at the Baylor ranch, which he now sort of thought of as when this—whatever it was—had started. That seemed significant somehow.

He got ready as best he could. Choosing what to wear wasn’t difficult—he only had so much that wasn’t worn or singed. So he went with the black jeans and the gray shirt with the pearl snaps that the clerk at Yippee Ki Yay had told him went withhis hat. He’d made reservations for later at Valencia’s, the best Tex-Mex restaurant in town, and had been lucky enough to have Elena Highwater answer the phone. The woman was kind, understanding, and above all tactful. She seemed to guess it was a special occasion, and suggested a table in the alcove, set somewhat away from the usual Saturday night crowd.

When he arrived at Tris’s place it took him a moment or two to work up the nerve to even get out of the truck. Long enough that she opened the front door and stepped out before he even got completely up the three steps to the porch. And he almost fell right back down them when he saw her. That black dress she had on was simple, nothing fancy, but it flowed over her in a way that made him need to quash parts of him as they surged to full interest, as they did every time he even thought of her.

He yanked his hat off, belatedly. “You look…amazing.” He barely got it out, and he had to clamp his jaw shut before he said something unforgivably stupid.

She smiled, widely. “As do you. I do love that shirt. And don’t think I missed the polite hat removal.”

He started to breathe normally—well, as much as he ever did around her—again. He was surprised when she suggested they walk. His first gut reaction was that she didn’t want to ride in his truck—and he thought, not for the first time, that maybe he needed a second, non-work vehicle—but when they started out into the early evening air and she looked up at the sky and drew in a deep breath, he knew that wasn’t it. She just liked looking at the sky.

And she loved looking at the night sky. From your deck.

Steady again, he walked alongside her, adjusting his stride to stay even with her.

“We should stop by Yippee Ki Yay on the way to the restaurant,” she said. “I heard one of Rylan’s belts with your buckle is already in the window.”

He blinked. “It is? I only dropped the first two off yesterday.”

She looked up at his face and gave him a smile that nearly knocked the breath out of him. “And he loved them, just as I knew he would. Couldn’t wait to get them out there.”

She spoke with such confidence, such certainty. His work had been the one thing in his life he had few doubts about, but he did have them. While Tris apparently did not. And she valued his work, as mundane as most people thought it was.

The book signing was interesting, because the author obviously knew his stuff, and the question-and-answer session after the brief talk was fascinating in itself. Tris had no hesitation in asking questions, and when she did it became almost a conversation between the two of them. It took Logan a bit to realize the twinge he was feeling was a bit of possessiveness. And he gave into it a little when the session ended, walking by to shake the author’s hand mainly because he was about Tris’s height, meaning a half-foot shorter than him.

They did pause at the window display of the western wear shop. He couldn’t quite describe how it felt to see his work there, attached to Rylan Rafferty’s brilliance.

“I didn’t think anything could add more to Ry’s brilliant work, but you did it.” Her words were like a blow to his chest, driving the air out of him. “Maybe you should try some of your own someday.”

He would have laughed at the idea, if he’d had the breath to do it.

He gave a sharp shake of his head, finally sucked in some air, and they moved on. He liked the fact that she didn’t try to fill every moment with talk but seemed content to just walk along in silence. It reminded him of how she’d been so content to just sit on his deck and watch the sky, not needing constant conversation there, either.

Dinner was one of the best he’d ever had. Not only because the food was delicious, as it always was at Valencia’s. He was surprised, as he had been from the beginning, at how easy she was to talk to. Not just about the history they both loved, but…anything, it seemed. And when his brain made one of those jumps he’d always been told was weird, like from the explosion of bluebonnets in the spring to the endless sweep of the Milky Way across the sky, she went right along with him, until they ended up in an esoteric sort of discussion he’d never really had with anyone before.

They finished the meal of flavorful, sizzling fajitas far too soon for him; he could have sat there with her for hours. And when they started the four-block walk back to her place, he found himself walking slowly, pausing here and there to look at something that didn’t really interest him, just to draw this out.

He didn’t want to let her go.

He didn’t think he ever would.

When they reached her place, he didn’t even look at his truck. Didn’t want to acknowledge it was there, and that he’d be in it shortly, driving home. Alone. After some fumbling, awkward goodbye that would likely be the best he could do. Leaving her here, to—

“Will you come in?”

Her soft, quiet question caught him completely off guard. He stared at her in the glow of her porch light. Realized she’d already opened the door.

“I…I’m not sure that would be a good idea.”

“Why?” That same soft, tempting voice.

“Because,” he grated out, “if I come in, I’m not going to want to leave.”

“Time enough to talk about that in the morning.”

She didn’t give him time to even react to the shock of her words before she stretched up and kissed him.

He felt like he’d fallen headfirst into his forge at the highest heat. It seared through him, arrowing to every part of him from where her lips were pressed against his. It blew apart his defenses, and he let all his caution fly away with them. He took over the kiss, barely aware they were inside now until he realized he’d pushed the door shut behind them.

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