Page 11 of My Rancher Valentine

“Guess you two are engaged.” He wiggled his eyebrows and walked forward. Leonard still didn’t look convinced but followed his business partner.

“Watch it.” Kat hissed at me.

“Just making it look real, baby.” I put my arm back around her to let her go before me. “It’s not my fault you got jealous,” I teased. I hoped I could get her to admit it.

She scoffed. “You wish.”

“You have no idea.”

I followed behind, not even attempting to hide the fact I was staring at her ass the whole way to the table.

Chapter 5

Kat

Ididn’t get to eat at Oceanwave Bistro often thanks to it being way out of my budget. So, I had fully intended to order the lobster with every side dish just to irritate Beau, but my stomach was doing far too many flips for me to enjoy it if I did.

What was going on with me? There was no way a few small touches from him should have me this rattled, but they did. I wasn’t sure what was getting on my nerves more. The unsubtle chick that showed us to our table or my body for acting as if we didn’t know this was all for show.

Throughout dinner, Beau kept his hands touching me in some way or another. Either he had his arm around the back of my chair and his hand rubbing my shoulder, or he dropped it down to the top of my thigh. If I was honest, there had been a few times over the years I wondered what it would be like to go on an actual date with Beau, and I had to admit the man was good. Fake or not, you would never know it by the way he kept paying attention to me. This was supposed to be a business dinner, and yet I never felt like he wasn’t keenly aware of my presence.

“Tell us a little more about yourself, Kathleen.” Randall looked over at me once our dinner plates were cleared and dessert had been ordered.

“Call me Kat,” I told him. Only my mother called me Kathleen.

“Kat,” He corrected.

“I’m a reporter for the Haven Chronicle.” I shrugged, wishing there was more to me than just my job.

“She’s being modest.” Beau jumped in. “She is one of the top reporters in the state.” He rubbed my thigh as if that was supposed to calm me down.

“You’re a little biased.” I smiled over at him.

“Correct, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.” There was a little shine to his brown eyes that I wasn’t sure didn’t come from the reflection of the streetlights outside.

“She is also a world-class singer, and my girl can ride a horse with some of the best in the rodeo.” He winked at me. “When we were in high school, she had a solo for just about every concert the choir put on.”

“Really?” Randall smiled over at me.

“That was quite a while ago.” I couldn’t believe Beau remembered that.

He shook his head. “Again, she’s being modest. She could have easily majored in music if she didn’t love books so much and hadn’t had her hands full double majoring in English and journalism.”

My eyes almost jumped out of my head. How the hell did he know I double-majored?

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