Page 75 of Breaking the Cowboy's Rules

The Bash was heating up. People were arriving in trucks, and even though there was a crew manning a huge grill for steak and potatoes and also several catering trucks including one called the Melt, which served grilled cheese sandwiches—tempting, although Nico was trying to resist—people still brought a lot of food. Salads. Desserts. Langston suggested the salads could go on the kitchen counters and the desserts on the farmhouse table.

The band was tuning up. Ben Ballantyne and Bowen were going to light the bonfires soon, now that the sun had set, plunging Plum Hill in a deep, moodily beautiful purple. Strings of lights outlined the barn and the outbuilding. Bodhi, Beck, and Bowen had driven large poles into the ground at various points around the central area and lights draped overhead, warm and beautiful like a more immediate starlit sky.

“It looks surreal,” Nico murmured.

“Are you kidding—all that work that we put in? It looks beautiful but very, very back- and arm-aching real.” Langston joined her at the cabin door.

The night was unseasonably warm, but Langston had still lit a fire in the cabin’s river-stone fireplace. Nico had been worried about the fireplace, but Bodhi had climbed up on the roof, checked the chimney, and with what had looked like a strange broom with a handle extension, he’d cleaned out the chimney. It had made a mess she and Bodhi had cleaned up, and he’d grinned at her with his grimy face as they’d rinsed off in a bucket of water, which had evolved into a bit of a water fight.

“Bet you hadn’t planned on getting so dirty when you kicked off your improv game with all the rules and top-ten list,” he’d teased.

“No, I’d had visions of white lace with your Rodeo Bride Game,” she’d flipped back at him. She’d expected him to laugh. Instead, he’d paused, wiping off his face, and had looked at her in a way that made her heart catch and then start hammering.

“What? Spit it out.” Instead she’d stared at him probably like a deer in headlights, and he had remained stubbornly silent.

Would anyone she’d gone to school with or worked with recognize her now? She didn’t care. She’d gone so far away from that woman.

But would Bodhi see it that way?

I’ll tell him tonight, Nico vowed.I’ll tell him who I was and what happened, and then I’ll tell him who I want to be and what I want.

Hopefully, he would see beyond her past and the things she had done for family. And he would let her in. Tell what disease he might have. Or not have. Her heart clenched painfully with dread and hope.

Nico returned to the small kitchen where Lang finished off two floral bouquets that would decorate the two food buffet areas. Nico tied bows on the vases.

“We make a good team,” Langston said.

Langston had been quiet tonight. But then, so had she.

“Nervous?” Nico asked.

“I love Bowen,” Langston blurted, nearly tipping a vase.

Nico caught the vase and put it to rights again.

“I always loved him. First it was a teen crush. He was so self-possessed. So quiet. I could impose any of my rambling crazy teen fantasies on what was going on inside his broody head. And he was magic on a horse. Skilled at everything. When I grew up and went to college, I tried to forget him. I convinced myself that he was more a projection of my fantasies and wish fulfillment, not really as I imagined him, but, Nico, he’s so much more. He’s everything,” Lang finished on a whisper.

“Does he feel the same?”

“I don’t know. How can he?”

“How can he not?”

“I can’t be rejected again,” Langston declared. She shivered, and her voice cracked. “I can’t. I don’t know if I can go through with this. What if…”

“We both have things to say to the Ballantyne men tonight,” Nico said, trying not to sound ominous. She hugged Lang, who really did seem to be shivering with anxiety. Nico had spent too many years in a shark tank to let nerves grip her. This was a party. They had roles to play.

Then Ashni walked in the door, looking vibrant and radiantly happy. Nico hadn’t had a chance to really meet her yet and chat.

“Hi.” She smiled. “I’m Nico, and this is Langston. It’s nice to finally meet properly.”

“What did Beck promise you?” Lang blurted, wringing her hands.

Ashni’s sparkle visibly dimmed as confusion clouded her features. “Marriage,” Ashni said, looking at Lang like she was crazy.

“You don’t have to give us the party line,” Lang pushed. “We’re all in on it. You’ve been with Beck forever, so it figures he clued you in. That was one of the rules. Bowen did a favor for me with my ex. What did Bodhi do for you, Nico, besides the obvious?”

Nico laughed, trying to counter the rising tension. Maybe she should mention the orgasms? Did women talk casually about things like that? She never had but working side by side with Lang a few times this week and getting caught up in the spirit of the game and the fantasy she’d been weaving, she had imagined the three of them becoming friends. Sisters. Who knew, maybe the Rodeo Bride Game could become real for all of them.

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