Page 37 of Charming the Cowboy
He nodded. She really didn’t want to lecture him, she wanted him to feel safe. But she also wanted him to actually be safe.
He sat next to her in the sand, and she took her phone out of her pocket. “I have Lara in my phone, if she’s still up near where the parents are, she can tell them to meet us here.”
“Good idea,” Cooper said.
She typed in a quick text and received a reply a moment later.
“She says the parents are on their way to the beach. So, let’s go to one of the bonfires so we’re easy to find.”
Cooper bent down and scooped up the little boy, and she actually thought that her heart might explode. She turned away, trying to get a grip on herself. And they walked toward the bonfire closest to the walking path. It didn’t take long for Aiden’s mom to come running onto the sand. “Aiden!”
Cooper set the little boy down, and he ran full tilt to his mother. Grabbing her around the leg. His dad was a few paces behind, and he picked his son up, holding him fiercely. “Aiden, you can’t run off like that.”
She took it as her cue to slip away, and Cooper followed, both of them moving down the beach. There was a bonfire with empty chairs around it, and near there, was a station that had cider.
“You want a drink?” Cooper asked.
“Oh, sure,” she said.
She sat in a chair by the fire, and Cooper returned a moment later with two paper cups steaming with spiced cider.
He sat down next to her, and she looked at his strong profile, illuminated by the flames. She couldn’t help herself. She started laughing.
“What?”
She couldn’t breathe. She was laughing too hard. “What’s funny?” he asked. “It’s just… This is… What a strange evening.”
“Well. Yeah,” he said, looking down at his cup.
“We caused this, you realize that.”
He tilted his head to look at her. “What?”
“You were going to kiss me.”
“No,” he said, turning away, looking out at the ocean, which she knew full well he couldn’t even see right now. It was crashing, over there in the darkness, but it was definitely not visible.
“You don’t have to lie.”
“I’m not lying.”
“You were going to kiss me,” she said, her cheeks getting hot. She would be damned if he took that away from her.”
“Well, it wasn’t a good idea.”
“Oh, I knew it. I knew it,” she said, pointing at him. “You think I’m cute.”
“You’re a menace, Eliana, and every time we’re near each other, you are even more of a menace, and you cause menacing things to occur. You fall out of wagons –“
“I didn’t fall out of the wagon.”
“Because I caught you. Horses escape, whole petting zoos escape.”
“It only happens when you’re thinking about kissing me,” she said. “Because I’m cursed. Oh God, you did think about kissing me years ago.”
He opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, but nothing came out.
“Do you have a crush on me, Cooper?”
