Page 32 of Charming the Cowboy
“Well, maybe I can help figure out a way to make them a little bit more seagull-proof. So that even if he snaps at them now and again, he doesn’t go doing anything quite that extreme.”
“You think you could?”
“We probably need about twice as many hooks. Or maybe… I have an idea. I can try to fix this if you want. I think all I need is a little bit of clear plastic to strip in front of the lights, and then he won’t be able to pull them off or get tangled in them.”
She looked up at him then, like he was some kind of savior. Even if it was just a bird savior, and he couldn’t deny that it felt good.
“Yeah. Of course.”
“Thank you,” she said.
“Yeah. Of course.”
And this is where Hank was just plain wrong. Because doing things for Eliana because it was the right thing to do, that felt good. It meant something, too. And one thing he was never going to do, was take advantage of her in any way.
He would never, ever make her feel used.
That was it.
Chapter Six
It was finally the day of the first hayride, and she was reasonably certain that she had picked a decent ghost story.
She opened up her phone and sent a ghost emoji to Cooper.
She’d had his number forever, but generally speaking, she didn’t use it. She had used it more in the last week than in every previous week she’d ever known him combined.
He sent back: ?
I’m going to send you my ghost story. Okay?
It’s about a little ghost who is looking for his ghost family. And he wanders through the town of Wild Rose Point, and meets a lot of other ghosts along the way, from different eras of the town. In the end, he finds them in the cemetery, where it isn’t scary at all. And they’re all together. A little ghost family.
That seems like a nice story.
Well, that was the goal.
He sent her a thumbs up, and she was hoping for something a little bit more effusive, but she supposed that, given who he was and everything, this was probably a pretty good outcome. It wasn’t like he was going to extol the virtues of her little ghost story. She supposed.
She tried not to perseverate on the fact that she was going to see him tonight, the rest of the day, but she basically did. And when she drew her tarot card for the day, it was The Emperor.
Because of course it was. Because, of course, she couldn’t escape the symbolism of that man, no matter how hard she tried. He was her whole world right now. Even the sky seemed to be the very particular color of blue of his eyes, and given this was the Oregon coast in October, it should be a lot more gray.
But it was like it had painted itself to match him, to make sure that he was always on her mind. To make sure that she couldn’t forget him, even for a moment. Like a persistent knowledge of what she wanted.
When the sun finally set, the streetlights went on, and the main street was roped off for the wagon rides. There were also group tours, both historical in nature and historical with a ghostly twist, happening there was caramel corn and cider, and a merry atmosphere.
But she was waiting for Cooper to get there. When he did arrive, he took the horses out of the trailer and hitched them up to the wagon. She was fascinated watching him do that. He was so skilled, and everything. Whether it was freeing seagulls from Halloween lights, or keeping her from falling out of the wagon, or handling the horses, he was just… Everything.
And he was dressed like a cowboy. Not that he wasn’t always dressed like a cowboy, but he was a little bit more dressed like a cowboy than normal. He had on blue Wrangler jeans, a big belt buckle, a button-up plaid shirt tucked in, and a hat on his head.
It did something to her. She couldn’t say that she’d really thought she had cowboy fantasies, but right at the moment, she was having a serious cowboy fantasy.
That was all on him.
“Okay,” she said, trying to distract herself. “Let’s take the wagon around the front, and we can wait for our riders. Thechamber sent me over a list of people who bought tickets for tonight. We have room for a few more walk-ups, too.”
“Great,” he said. He looked at her, with blue eyes that had haunted her this whole week. “Do you need help getting up in the wagon?”
