Page 43 of The Cowboy's Surprise Return

“Really?”

“No.”

“Then what?” She hoped this was his afternoon plan for her.

“It’s in town. A good deed.”

Now she was really intrigued. “Does that mean we need to rush?”

“Not at all.” He lowered his lips to hers once again and slid his fingers under the hem of her shirt, gently stroking the skin above her waistband.

“Just don’t make us late for supper,” she said breathlessly. “I bought tickets.”

Cole’s fingers stopped moving and he frowned. “Supper?”

“The Valentine’s Day meal. It just seemed like… I don’t know. Karen asked.” She bit her bottom lip, panicking, knowing it seemed presumptuous to buy the add-on dinner tickets for what now looked like a romantic date. She’d been in full help-out mode when Karen had asked if she wanted two, and she’d said yes without consulting Cole first.

Cole shifted and sat up.

“Where are you going?” she asked, alarmed that she may have already broken a rule, and that Cole would call things off before she had a chance to get over her feelings for him.

“What are our boundaries?”

“I don’t have any.” She gripped his shirt and pulled him back down on the blanket.

His look of surprise had her laughing.

He kissed her slowly, then said, “You totally have boundaries, sweetheart.”

“Sweetheart?”

“You don’t like it?”

She did. But it was dangerous ground, judging how it made her feel. She didn’t remember him calling any of his old girlfriends “sweetheart.” Was that something he did for his fake girlfriends, or did it mean she was special?

“It’s fine. Just unexpected.”

“This entire day has been.”

“Amen to that.” And then she kissed her fake boyfriend as if he was real.

6

Cole adjusted his watch and paced outside Jackie’s bedroom door, inexplicably nervous about their dinner with the other auction winners at the community barn.

She’d promised she needed just one more minute.

That was five minutes ago.

When he’d arrived ten minutes ago, she’d still been wearing her dusty jeans and dirt-smudged long-sleeved shirt from their day of chores. She’d even had a small twig still stuck in her sandy-yellow hair, from working on Mrs. Fisher’s yard.

While he’d gaped at her, she’d handed him her dog’s leash. He’d taken Goose for a meander through the nearby park behind the gas station. Now they were back and she still wasn’t ready.

Even though Cole had told Karen and Laura he needed his auction winner to help with ranch chores, he’d actually been planning a surprise for Mrs. Fisher. With her husband in a wheelchair, and her working long shifts at the diner, her yard had suffered over the past several years. Myles and Brant had been helping out as they could, but there had still been a lot to do, from weeding the flowerbeds to trimming back the lawn overgrowing the walkway, as well as reshaping the hedge.

Jackie had been game, even charming William Fisher, who’d come to the door, into agreeing that they could work in his yard as a surprise for his wife.

But what had Jackie been doing in the forty-five minutes since they’d parted ways at the Fisher’s? Was she experiencing cold feet? She’d been flirting with him all afternoon, claiming there were no boundaries between them.

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