Page 18 of Loving Her Cowboy Best Friend

“Yes, she did.” He stood up and bit off a petal. “They’re great, Gina. Really.”

Becks hadn’t gone anywhere, but Gina could hardly see her when she looked at Blake. Or rather, when he looked at her. She cleared her throat, and that got Gina to blink and look at her long-ago friend. “So, my wedding? Could you maybe do the desserts?”

Gina had no idea how she’d fit that in. “When is it?”

“The end of March,” she said. “We have plenty of time.”

“She works here,” Blake said.

“Yes, and you promised me the ranch would take care of everything,” Becks said, rounding on her cousin. “The facility, the food.”

“You’re the one who hired an outside cake expert,” he said, throwing the last two words at her. “Starla will have an amazing feast.”

“And now, Gina can provide an amazing cake and dessert display,” Becks said, her voice taking on the tone of the high and mighty. “She works here now, right? So the lodge can handle the wedding.”

Blake looked like he’d swallowed a frosting-covered frog instead of a cookie, and he looked at Gina with pleading in his eyes.

“If the lodge is doing everything else for her wedding…” Gina shrugged and reached for a cookie too. She tasted her food as she made it, of course, but she never dined or experienced it until after everyone else. “Then I’d get paid to do the wedding.”

Becks squealed and grabbed onto her, causing her to drop the precious daisy.

“No!” Blake yelled, immediately crouching to retrieve it. Becks and Gina stood side-by-side and watched him scoop it right off the floor. “Two-second rule.” He held it out to Gina, who really didn’t need to eat a cookie that had been on the floor.

She started to giggle and couldn’t stop. “There’s a bunch more, Blake,” she said between her laughter. She’d get one that hadn’t been on the floor, even if the frosting side hadn’t touched the tile.

“It’s still perfect,” he said, licking his thumb. “Except where I put my finger in the frosting.”

“Then you eat it,” Gina said.

“I will,” he fired back. He looked at Becks. “She’s earning more than twenty bucks an hour to do the cake and desserts at your wedding. Catering fee for her too.”

Becks lifted her chin. “Not a problem.” She turned toward Gina and added, “When you’re done here, come see me in mydungeonousoffice.” She tossed a look at Blake that was really looking past him and turned to leave.

“You can change your own light bulb,” he called after her, but Becks didn’t look back or break stride.

Gina couldn’t stop smiling as she faced Blake. “Wow, Becks Stewart and Luke Miller.” They’d dated in high school too, and she couldn’t help wondering if her and Blake’s story would end the same as Becks and Luke’s.

In marriage.

She swallowed, because friends didn’t get married. Did they?

He shrugged and took a bite of his fourth cookie. “They seem to love each other.” He took a step past her and paused. “Do you need help carrying these back?”

“Are these for eating?” another man asked, and Gina turned to see him leading a pack of ravenous cowboys.

Blake stepped in front of her. “No, fellas. Not for eating.”

They started to complain, and Gina picked up one of the trays and hurried it into the kitchen. “Starla, the cowboys caught the scent of the sugar.”

“Over my dead body!” Starla shoved the last of yet another pinwheel into her mouth and charged toward Gina. They laughed together as they swiped the last two trays off the table while Blake held back his men by shouting and threatening to fire anyone who so much as inhaled the scent of that frosting.

* * *

“Here she is,”Becks said, exploding to a standing position from behind her desk. Gina paused in the doorway, unsure of what she’d just walked into. She’d walked past this office once already, but no one needed to know that. Baby John had given her a single cocked eyebrow as he poured himself a cup of coffee from the pot along the counter on the wall that butted up against the kitchen wall. A couple of tables filled the small space, clearly a staff eating and break area, though no one sat there a moment ago.

A man rose from the single chair in front of Becks’s desk, and Gina recognized him too. She started to laugh again, and she threw herself at the tall, sandy-haired cowboy. Luke Miller laughed too, caught her around the waist, and squeezed her tight.

“Look at you,” he said, setting her back on her feet and releasing her. “Working at Longhorn Ranch.”

---