Page 97 of Cowboy SEAL Homecoming

“The…llama…magnet.”

“Oh yeah. Felicity has this whole collection of adorable llama stuff for sale at the store ever since Dan Sharpe started his llama ranch. People are gaga over it. I bought some llama socks.”

“Llama…magnet. Gaga. Llama…ranch and socks. No. I don’t want you to explain to me. I want to pretend I never heard those sentences.” He shook his head in horror, adorably perplexed. “I’m going to go give him a call.”

Becca tried not to look disappointed at the fact that this little stop by had been business related and nothing else. There would be times when they would have to discuss business-only things with each other, and there would be no touching or smiling or flirting during those times.

But Alex didn’t turn away.

Her mouth curved. “Was there something else?”

“No. I’m going to go get that number.” But the corners of his mouth twitched, and instead of walking toward the house, he took a step toward her. So she did the same thing, pulling Pal along with her as she took a step toward him.

“You’ve got a good horse there.”

“He’s been very good to me. Reliable. Calm. Patient. Sweet.”

“Please tell me you aren’t comparing me to a horse.”

“Me? Compare someone to an animal? That’s just downright silly.”

“Ha.”

Another step for him, and then another step for her. By this point they were both grinning and incrementally getting closer to each other.

“You know, I didn’t come over here to make out with you,” Alex said, failing to look serious.

“Well, that’s a darn shame,” she replied, not even trying for serious.

“And we have things to do. Work. Very important work,” he continued.

“It is very important work.”

But now they were standing nearly toe to toe and grinning like idiots. She couldn’t think of anything she wouldn’t overlook for moments like this. To have someone look at her like that and want to spend time with her. Not a mother or a stepfather, just a person. Just a guy. A guy who genuinely liked her. Goofy, fidgety, odd, little her. He didn’t even make her feel goofy or odd. He made her feel smart and beautiful. Like every confident thought she’d ever had about herself was right.

Pal nickered and stamped, clearly irritated about the pause in their movement toward the stable.

“You know,” Alex began, his voice a shade rough. “If you go inside to make lunch a little early, and I go inside to make the phone call to the plumber…it’s possible we might end up in the same room. Preferably naked.”

She burst out laughing even as she blushed a little. She loved that he would say something like that to her, but thinking about him naked…about sneaking inside to…

Well, yeah, she was a little warm.

“You have a very dirty mind. This inexperienced young woman finds it perplexing.”

“Then I guess I’ll just have to corrupt you a bit more than I have.”

“I was really hoping you’d say that.”

His mouth was a precious centimeter from her mouth, and she was ready to grab on to the thrill of going inside and making out while everyone else was working. It was awful. Terrible. Irresponsible and wrong. Possibly the most exciting thing she’d ever heard.

A loud, long honk interrupted the forward trajectory of both their mouths. Alex’s brow furrowed and Becca looked over past the stables to the part of the lane that she could see.

Her mom’s car was parked there. Which was odd considering that the end of the drive itself was a few more yards up.

“I’m guessing she didn’t like what she saw,” Alex offered.

Becca sighed, all the excitement of the moment flowing out of her like she was a popped balloon. “Oh, I can almost guarantee it.”

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