Page 62 of Fix Me Up, Cowboy
I roll my eyes. “Fine.” I open the door and enter the foyer.
Sure, I could have just let him contact Austin or one of the deputies. But that would be even more awkward for Kate.
“So are you planning to wake her up?” I ask. “Or are we just shooting the breeze over coffee?” I don’t bother to keep the sarcasm out of my tone.
“Wake me for what?” Kate says, coming down the stairs, voice still rough with sleep. She’s gripping the railing, her limp more pronounced than normal.
Shit, is that because of the sex last night?
“My leg is always stiff first thing in the morning,” she says, seeing my expression. “It will be better once I’ve finished my morning yoga practice.” That explains her outfit: the clean pair of black leggings and a light-pink tank top that hugs the curves I’m intimately familiar with.
Her gaze then falls on her cousin, and she grins. “Troy, what on earth are you doing here?”
He waits for her to reach the bottom of the stairs and scoops her up in a big hug. She laughs and hugs him back.
Once he’s finished hugging her, he lowers her to her feet. “You’re looking good, cuz. The mountain air agrees with you.”
She beams at him. “Thank you. Now are you going to tell me why you’re here?”
“Sure, right after you explain the cowboy.” He gestures in my general direction.
“Troy, this is my friend Noah. Noah, Troy.”
We nod at each other, testosterone boiling under the surface.
“So, are you going to tell me why you’re here,” she asks, “or is it a state secret?”
“You haven’t exactly answered my question.”
“Sure I have. I told you Noah is my friend.”
“Who was sneaking out of your house before six a.m.”
Her eyebrows pop up on her forehead. “Are you interrogating me about my sex life?”
The scowl on his face when he first arrived is nothing compared to what he levels at me now. “Are you telling me you had a one-night stand with a cowboy?”
“Let me see if I’ve got this straight,” she replies. “Is it that I had a one-night stand that’s the problem or that I had sex with a cowboy?”
“Or all of the above,” I add.
Kate laughs. Troy scowls some more.
“Look,” Kate says to her cousin, “you know more than anyone how lonely I’ve been ever since the accident. Noah is the first guy who hasn’t made me feel like a leper.”
“That’s because he wanted to get into your pants,” he growls out.
“Have you thought that maybe I was the one who wanted to get intohispants? Happy now? And just so you know, that last one was a rhetorical question.”
My guess, based on his expression? That’s a no. He’s not happy.
“So a deal is a deal,” she says. “Why are you here?”
“I figured you could use some help with packing up. That, and I had an idea, but I wanted to check out the house first.”
“What idea?”
Troy turns to me even though I’m not the one who just asked the question. “Don’t you need to be somewhere?”
