It Started with a Cowboy Read online

  Colt jerked upright and backed away from the recliner. “Sorry.”

  She yanked her hands back, wrapping them securely around her body. “It’s fine. I’m sorry.” She let out her breath, trying to go for an easy laugh, but fearing she sounded on the brink of hysteria. “I didn’t mean to yell. That chair is just filthy. And probably has spiders in it. I just didn’t want you to get dirty.”

  He took another few steps away as he cringed at the chair. “I hate spiders.” He turned to her and his face changed, his earlier flirty grin returning. “But I don’t mind getting a little dirty.”

  Her eyes widened, and she let out a bubble of laughter. A real laugh. “You’re terrible.” She followed him inside, trying to calm the panic in her chest. He was terrible, in the sense that he was terribly good-looking, terribly charming, and could tear her heart into tiny terrible shreds.

  But at least they were out of the garage.

  She trailed after him to the front door, trying to control her breathing while struggling to think of something clever to say. “You’ve been amazing tonight.” You are amazing. “I couldn’t have done all this without you. Thank you so much.” So, maybe not clever, but nice, at least. She could always do nice. Which was probably why he wanted to be her friend. Guys always liked to be friends with the “nice” girl.

  But he just flirted with me. Didn’t he?

  Maybe that wasn’t actual flirting. Maybe that was the way he acted around all women. She didn’t have enough experience with men flirting with her to know. Except for Hugh. But he didn’t really do subtle flirting. He wouldn’t know subtle if it whacked him in the side of his huge, egotistical head.

  “You don’t need to thank me. It was nothing, really.” Colt shrugged into his coat and pulled up the zipper.

  Chloe headed toward the closet. “Let me get your scarf.”

  “Keep it,” he said, flashing her a panty-melting grin. “At least until you get yours back. It looks good on you.”

  You’d look good on me. On me with my legs wrapped around your waist.

  She swallowed and hoped another blush wasn’t coloring her cheeks. Geez, her mind was in the gutter tonight. One minute she was sure he just wanted to be friends; the next she had him naked and thumping her headboard.

  “I had a lot of fun tonight.”

  A chuckle escaped her. “I’ll bet. I don’t know if ‘fun’ would be the way I’d describe it. ‘Chaotic’ and ‘crazy’ come to mind. But we all appreciated everything you did.” Why did she have to say we? She appreciated everything he’d done—more than she could say. But somehow telling him how much his gestures meant to her seemed too intimate, too much like she was suggesting he’d done something special just for her, instead of helping out some kids and their teacher.

  Colt reached for the doorknob, then turned back and held out his hand. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

  Chloe wasn’t sure what to do. Was he offering to shake her hand?

  He brought his other arm forward, and she realized he was going in for a hug just as she reached out with her hand to shake his. They meshed in a super-awkward one-armed hug with their hands smashed between them.

  “Thanks again,” she mumbled into his chest, ready now for him to just leave and for this humiliation to end.

  “Yep. I’ll pick you up at seven.” Cold air whooshed in as he opened the door. Then he was gone.

  She turned around and sagged against the door, wrapping her arms around her middle as she relived every embarrassing mishap she’d made over the last several hours.

  * * *

  Colt drove away from Chloe’s house, shaking his head as he did the same thing. That last clumsy attempt at a hug goodbye had been the final act of humiliation for him. What had he been thinking? Thank goodness he hadn’t tried to kiss her good night.

  He hadn’t known what to do when he saw her reaching out to shake his hand. It had been too late to switch it up at that point, so he’d just gone for the weird hug.

  She had to think he was a total idiot. He was an idiot—an idiot for getting involved with this woman. Although spending one night with her and making her a batch of cupcakes hardly qualified as getting involved. Right?

  So why couldn’t he stop thinking about the honeysuckle scent of her hair or the way her lips had parted when he’d leaned in to her? And, Lord have mercy, when she’d sucked his finger into her mouth, he’d been afraid he was going to have a coronary. Her mouth was warm, yet her eyes held an innocent, almost astonished look, as if she couldn’t believe she’d just done that.

  Chloe’s move had teased the hell out of him, but he somehow felt like she hadn’t done that intentionally, and she’d been just as surprised by the reaction it created—in both of them.

  He spent the rest of the drive home alternately reminding himself why he didn’t need to start anything with Chloe Bishop and imagining what would have happened if he’d had the guts to actually lean down and kiss her.

  Squinting through the light flurry of snow, he made the turn onto the dirt road that led to his cabin. His dad had built the cabin for him and his mom, Vivienne, when they’d bought the ranch. They’d been newlyweds and had dreams of eventually building a big house to raise their family in.

  They’d finished the house and all moved in right after Colt was born, and the cabin had helped pay the new mortgage as a small rental usually occupied by one of the ranch hands.

  The last renters had moved out several years ago and Colt had taken over the cabin, spending his free time remodeling the interior. It had needed a complete overhaul to update and modernize it. He’d hired a little help, but most of the stuff he could do himself, with the help of one or both of his brothers. He’d helped Mason remodel one of the bunkhouses on the main part of the ranch, and his brother had pitched in on several of the projects Cole had done in the cabin.

  It had taken him over a year, but now the cabin was completely renovated and made a comfortable home for him. The main area was a combined living room and kitchen with a long butcher-block-topped island in the center. A stone fireplace rose up the side of the far wall, and the opposite wall held a row of tall windows surrounding French doors that opened onto a large deck. The view out the back was of the mountains and one of the small ponds on their property.

  The layout was all on one level, and Cole had added a master suite and a huge bathroom onto the back of the cabin.

  Everything was done in cedar or stone, and the furniture was big and overstuffed and comfortable enough for a guy over six feet tall. His mom had done a little of the decorating and kept everything within the log-cabin motif. He swore every time she saw something with a cabin theme, she bought it and found a place to put it up or stick it in the cabin. He didn’t mind. She had great taste, and he sure as heck didn’t have time to decorate, so he appreciated her efforts.

  He liked having his own place, yet still being on the family property and only a few minutes from the main ranch. Over the years, they’d cut a dirt road through the fields, giving him an “as the crow flies” back way to the ranch. He could be there in three minutes in his pickup, seven on foot.

  His golden retriever, Watson, met him at the door when he came in from the garage. The dog stretched his body, and Colt was pretty sure he’d been passed out on the sofa only moments before. He’d texted his brother earlier, and Mason had promised to stop in and toss some food in the dog’s bowl.

  Watson sniffed Colt’s legs and jacket as he pulled off his boots. He rubbed the dog’s head. “Hey, boy. You smell that cat on my boots? Her name was Agatha, and she thought I was handsome.”

  Watson was unimpressed.

  * * *

  The next morning, Colt pulled up in front of Chloe’s house at five to seven. He didn’t want her worrying that he would be late. She struck him as the punctual type.

  He’d borrowed his mom’s SUV, figuring
the third seat in the back might come in handy if he needed to haul the neighbor kids to school as well. Since he was coming into town, he’d offered to bring his nephew, and Max had regaled him with interesting dinosaur and insect facts during their drive.

  “Stay in your seat, Max,” Colt told his nephew. “I’m just going to get your teacher, and I’ll be right back.”

  “Okay.”

  Colt hurried up the walk, not because he was worried about leaving Max in the car—he knew his nephew would stay there; he was a good kid, a rule follower—but because he was eager to see the cute schoolteacher.

  Over the course of a long, mostly sleepless night, he’d convinced himself he was being stupid about this woman—that Chloe wasn’t anything special, and he’d just gotten caught up in the high of helping someone out. He did like to help people, but not just for altruistic reasons. Somewhere, deep down—in that place where he knew things but didn’t like to say them out loud—he knew he often agreed to help others in an attempt to break the curse. He wanted to do his penance for screwing up his life and finally break free of the belief that good things might come to those who wait, but they didn’t come to Colt James. Well, they came; they just didn’t last.

  He’d had good things offered to him, but they’d all been taken away just as he reached to grab them. He could look, but he couldn’t touch. He could dream, but he couldn’t take hold of the reality.

  Geez, why was he getting all maudlin? He needed a good night’s rest and to put this silly notion that Chloe Bishop was anything special out of his head.

  He’d barely rung the bell when the door swung open, and the object of his late-night musings stood there, already wearing her jacket and his blue scarf around her neck. “Hey, Colt. Thanks for picking me up this morning.”

  She offered him a warm smile, and his stomach did a hard flip. He swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry, then his lips curved into an answering grin. He couldn’t have stopped them if he tried. He had been completely wrong about this girl.

  Chloe was something special. All she’d done was smile, and it felt like the sun had just come out after several cloudy days.

  “And thanks for being on time. You could probably guess from my crazy behavior yesterday that I hate to be late. And by crazy, I mean that thing where I ran my car into you. And now I’m rambling. Shutting up now.” She pressed her lips together, then grabbed her purse, a bulging tote bag, and a clear cupcake carrier, and pulled the door shut behind her. “You ready?”

  “Uh…yeah, sure.” Colt realized he’d been standing there like a dope, not saying anything, just staring at her as if he couldn’t decipher whether she were real or not. He reached for the bag and the cupcakes. “Let me carry those for you.”

  She hesitated, probably battling her sense of independence and the need to not put anyone out that he’d discovered the day before, then handed him the cupcakes and the bag. He grunted at the heavy weight of it.

  “Geez, what have you got in this thing? Rocks?”

  “Books. And homework papers. And something for you.” She ducked her head and offered him a shy grin.

  “For me? What do you have for me?”

  Before she could answer, the screen door on the neighboring house slammed open, and the three younger Johnson kids came clamoring out and ran toward them.

  “Can we get a ride to school with you?” Maddie asked, her breath coming in hard gasps from sprinting across the lawn.

  “Yeah, sure,” Colt answered, opening the front door for Chloe and the back door for the kids. “That’s why I brought the SUV. Climb in.”

  They all climbed in, saying hello to Max as they buckled their seat belts and got settled.

  “Nice car,” Chloe told Colt, running her hand along the leather seat.

  He squashed the mental image of her hand making the same motion as she ran her fingers along his bare chest. “Uh, thanks. It’s not mine. It’s my mom’s. Rock bought it for her a couple years ago. I figured I’d bring it in case the other kids needed a ride today too.”

  “That was really nice of you to think of the kids as well, and to bring all of us to school,” Chloe said.

  He wished she would stop saying how nice he was. If she only knew the wicked and downright sinful thoughts he was having as he imagined what would have happened if she would have answered the door wearing his blue scarf…and nothing else. She wouldn’t think he was so nice then.

  “No problem. I was bringing Max in anyway.” He pulled away from the curb and headed toward the school.

  “Colt’s my uncle now, aren’t you, Colt?” Max said.

  “Yep, I sure am, buddy.”

  “And he’s teaching me to skate, and we’re starting a hockey team.”

  “Is that right?” Chloe asked. “Just the two of you?”

  “No.” Max giggled. “A whole bunch of kids. Our first practice is tomorrow after school.”

  “I want to play,” Maddie piped up from beside him in the seat. She was squished in between Max and Charlie, while Jake sat in the third row.

  “You can’t,” Max told her. “Girls can’t play hockey.”

  “Of course they can,” Chloe said. “They have entire women’s hockey leagues. In fact, the U.S. women’s team took gold in the last Olympics.”

  Max eyed her skeptically. “Is that true, Colt?”

  “Yep.”

  “But girls can’t play on our team.”

  “Why not?” Maddie asked, her small brow creased.

  Chloe crossed her arms over her chest. “Yeah, Colt. Why not?”

  “Hey now, how did I get in trouble? I didn’t say it. He did.” Colt jerked a thumb at his nephew. “Thanks a lot, kid.”

  “So girls can play on the team?” Chloe pressed.

  “Honestly, I have no idea. I haven’t had any girls want to be on the team, so it hasn’t even come up. But I’m totally good with it. The more the merrier.”

  “Yay,” Maddie cheered and held up her hand to Max for a high five. “I’m going to be on your hockey team.”

  He looked at her hand and tilted his chin as if he were thinking it over, then shrugged and smiled as he smacked her hand. “I guess I’m totally good with it too.”

  “Before everyone gets too excited, you better let me check with the league to make sure they don’t have any special rules about coed teams. I’ll call them later this morning and let you know what I find out when I pick you up after school.” Colt turned into the school driveway and parked by the sidewalk.

  “Thanks for the ride, Colt,” Charlie said as he opened the car door. The other kids piled out with more murmured thanks and headed toward the school.

  Chloe turned in her seat. “Really, thanks so much for giving us all a ride.”

  “I was happy to do it.”

  “Before I forget…” She reached into her tote bag and pulled out a small plastic container. “I told you I had something for you.”

  “I remember. It’s all I’ve thought about the whole way here.” He grinned. “Well, that and how I’m going to add Maddie to our hockey roster.”

  Chloe smiled and held the container out to him. “It’s nothing, really. I just wanted to give you a couple of the cupcakes. You left last night before they were frosted.”

  An impish grin covered his face as he opened the container. The scent of chocolate filled the interior of the car. “I know. And that’s the best part. We could have had fun with that frosting.”

  Her cheeks went pink, and her face paled.

  Idiot. Why did he say that? “I just meant because doing the frosting is the fun part.” He cleared his throat, searching for something else to say, something that didn’t come out sounding flirty and dirty like that stupid frosting comment. “Are you sure you have enough to give away? I thought these were for a bake sale.”

  She swallowed and pushed her shoulde
rs back, as if the change in topic helped her regain some of her composure. “They were. But I’ll donate a dollar for the two I took. They’re worth the buck.” Grabbing her bags and the cupcake carrier, she slid out of the car.

  “You want me to help you carry that in?”

  “No, I’ve got it.” She leaned her head in and offered him a shy smile. “And just for the record, I thought the cake batter was the best part.” She slammed the car door, turned on her heel, and headed toward the school before he had a chance to respond.

  He picked up a cupcake and watched her walk away, the curvy sway of her hips making him hunger for more than chocolate frosting.

  * * *

  The frosting comment stuck in Chloe’s head all day. Had he really been flirting with her, or was the comment an innocent misinterpretation? Just the thought of what she could do with Colt’s muscular body and a tub of chocolate frosting had her flustered and making silly mistakes throughout the day.

  Which seemed about par for the course, since she hadn’t been able to get him out of her head the night before either. She’d been so distracted with thoughts of him and the cake-batter moment that she’d absently squeezed toothpaste onto her finger and rubbed it onto her cheeks instead of her normal night moisturizing cream.

  And today she’d been so busy daydreaming, she’d almost walked into the men’s bathroom, and she’d left her room keys in the teachers’ lounge after lunch. She needed to get it together, needed to put Colt James out of her mind.

  Yeah right. That was like telling someone who’d just started a diet not to think about food.

  Chloe somehow made it through the day and had convinced herself the cowboy wasn’t all that cute as she, Madison, and Max stood on the sidewalk in front of the school waiting for Colt to pick them up. Charlie and Jake were having a snowball fight on the lawn behind them but stopped as the SUV turned into the lot.

  “How was your day?” Colt asked, flashing her a panty-melting smile as she opened the car door and slid into the leather seat next to him.