The Hard-to-Get Cowboy

When she didn’t answer right away, he wondered if he’d been wrong about her remembering him. Laila Cates probably had a hundred men ringing her every morning and calling her “Sunshine.”

“Jackson?” she finally asked, and he could’ve sworn that there was a sparkle in her voice.

But, just as his heart was turning another one of those odd flips, her tone cooled again.

“What can I do for you?”

He laughed. Yup—hadn’t he pegged Laila for a challenge right off the bat? “I believe we’ve got a date to plan.”

“Oh?”

“Did you think I forgot?”

“I imagined it wasn’t high on your list of priorities. It sounds as if you’ve been busy with other matters around town.”

“Ah.” He propped one booted foot on the bench, touching his jaw. “So you heard about last night.”

“I told you—news travels fast around here.”

Shooting another look down the street, to the stately bank, he pictured Laila at her desk, all polish and prettiness in a business suit. His heart gave a tug.

All he wanted was to see her again.

“Did you ever stop to think,” he said, “that if I were to be kept busier, I wouldn’t get into so much trouble?”

“Sure. And I can suggest a few things for you to do around Thunder Canyon. You can hike, ride ATVs in the mountains, shop at the resort…”

“I didn’t mean to imply that I’d like to do any of those things alone.”

He thought he heard her shuffling some papers, and his gut tightened at the image of her being businesslike. He had a thing for serious women, because it was a lot of fun to make them less serious.

“Which one of those would you prefer doing?” he asked.

“With you?” She paused just long enough to set him up. “None of the above.”

“You’re sore at me because I didn’t call sooner.”

“No, I’m not.”

“You don’t have to say it. A woman like you is probably used to guys falling all over themselves to set up dates and I neglected to follow protocol.”

She huffed out an exasperated sigh, and he grinned.

“Know what sounds good to me?” he asked before he pushed her too far. “A picnic. A good old-fashioned afternoon at the lake. I’ll get it all together and pick you up at your place tomorrow at noon.”

“But—”

“It’s a Saturday, Laila. The best date day of the week.”

“I was going to say that there’s a chance of rain in the forecast.”

He glanced up at the wide, fairly clear Montana sky. He wasn’t sure that, besides Texas, he would ever get such a fill of gorgeousness anywhere else.

“I’m willing to take a chance on it,” he said. “How about you?”

Of course, he wasn’t talking about the weather, exactly, and she seemed to know it, as several seconds meandered by.

For a moment, Jackson actually thought she was going to turn him down, and the mere possibility shot him straight through with a disappointment he’d never felt before.

But that’s why he’d chosen Laila Cates—because she wasn’t easy. And because…

Hell, because she did something to his libido.

She finally came back on the line. “Okay. Noon.”

Excellent. “See you then, Miss Laila.”

As Jackson hung up, he smiled. He’d told his brother, Jason, that he was going to be on his best behavior from now on.

But that didn’t necessarily include being a good boy with the woman who’d said yes to spending tomorrow with him… .

Silver Stallion Lake sat in a secluded spot in the mountains. Surrounded by pine trees, it was in October limbo—between the time when winter would bring out the ice skaters and when summer filled the water with swimmers.