Page 7 of Claiming Her Cowboy Kiss

“What does that mean?” Todd and Kyle asked at the same time, and Laura just laughed. Maddy had gone out on some double-dates with the woman and Todd, but she liked her twice as much in this moment.

“It means that y’all are a little bit much sometimes.” She grinned at Laura, who nodded. As the door opened behind her, a blast of noise hit her even with her hearing aids turned down, and Maddy hurried down the steps and out of the way.

Kyle caught up to her easily. He said something, but without him in front of her so she could see his mouth, she only heard garbles. She reached to turn up her hearing aid. “Sorry. What?”

“I’m a little much sometimes?” he asked as they approached her sedan.

“Not you specifically,” she teased. “Your family is huge, though, Kyle. And loud. And you have a ton of people here all the time.”

He threw a look to the lodge, and Maddy did too. “It’s awesome,” she said, feeding off the vibe still flowing from the main lodge of the Texas Longhorn Ranch. “It’s like a completely different world for me here. I love it.”

Kyle looked at her again. “You do?”

She giggled and unlocked her car. “Yes. Now, come on. I have a lot to do to be ready to introduce you to my level of crazy tomorrow.”

ChapterFour

Kyle hurried to butter his toast the following morning. Todd sat at the kitchen table, his phone in front of him while he ate his second bowl of cereal. His brother hadn’t showered yet, but he had been out on the ranch already. So he wore only his jeans, as his shirt had been covered in mud and he’d taken it off on the back porch and left it there.

“I’m headed out,” Kyle said, which caused Todd to look up.

“Where you goin’?” He scanned Kyle from head to toe. “This isn’t church attire.”

“I’m going to Dripping Springs with Maddy.” He gave his brother a quick flash of a smile and stuck a corner of toast in his mouth so he wouldn’t admit how nervous he was to be in the car with her for an hour.

Twohours, as he had to get home too.

He also hadn’t told Todd that he was meeting her family that day, and the concert had gone so late that Kyle hadn’t told him anything at all about Maddy and her return to the ranch. Todd wanted to know, Kyle could tell by the look in his eyes.

“You’ll tell me everything later,” Todd said, and he went back to his cereal.

Yeah, Kyle thought as he grunted out loud. He was aware that he’d overdressed for a drive to another small Texas town to pick up a dog. He’d put on khaki pants instead of jeans, and he’d dug through his closet for something he’d wear on stage instead of something he wore around the lodge. He’d managed to find a black and white plaid shirt that had been stitched with silver thread, and he had actually worn this shirt on stage once.

After a cherry slushie incident on the tour bus, he’d needed new clothes in Savannah. The band manager for That Little Texas Band had rushed out to find him something, and she’d returned with this shirt. He’d worn it for that single concert only, played his set of six songs, and brought it home with him when he’d returned to the family ranch.

His stomach knotted as he pulled open the door and went out onto the porch to find Maddy’s red car waiting in the driveway. She hadn’t gotten out yet, and he hadn’t received a text, so perhaps she’d literally just pulled in. He dashed down the steps, taking another bite of toast, and hurried to the passenger side of the car.

He got in and gave her a grin. She returned it, and Kyle sure hoped that meant he wasn’t walking on eggshells today. “Mornin’,” he said.

“Can I have a bite of that?” She nodded to the toast, and Kyle gave her the entire piece he hadn’t bitten from yet.

“You can have all of that,” he said.

“Really?” She took a bite, and Kyle simply watched her pink lips close around the browned bread. He’d kissed her before—lots of times—and he wanted to again. He had no idea what his chances of that were today, but as he finished his piece of toast, he hoped high.

Everything in him sloshed around like a roller coaster, from his emotions to his anxiety to his hopes. He had to tell her about his conversations with Jolene at Black Hill Records. He wanted her opinion on things.

At the same time, if she thought he might not be a permanent fixture here on the ranch this summer, would she even want him to meet her parents? Keep going out with him? The chances of kissing her could go way down based on what he said, how he said it, and how she perceived the information.

So he said nothing while she backed out of the driveway and finished her toast. That got them halfway to the dirt lane that led to the highway, and then Maddy slid him a look out of the corner of her eye.

He knew that look, and he turned to the passenger window, cutting off his peripheral view of her studying him. “I think I owe you a story this morning,” he said.

When he turned toward her, he caught her smile as it reflected this morning’s rays of summer sunshine. “That you do, Mister.” She drove with both hands on the wheel, the two of them parked almost at the top of the wheel.

Kyle wanted to hold her hand, but he swallowed and kept his hands in his lap. “I’ve been talking to a music producer at Black Hill Records.”

“You’ve said that,” she reminded him. “Julie? Joany?”

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