The Forgotten Cowboy

He slid his hand under her heavy hair around to the nape of her neck. “I want to know all your secrets.”

Now she was getting embarrassed. She could feel her face flushing. This was all so…not like her. She didn’t kiss strange men in public places.

“All I could think about, all night long, was kissing you,” he tried again. “I know it’s probably too much, too fast, but—”

She took his face between her hands, stood on her toes and kissed him again. She didn’t want to talk yet. She didn’t want mere words to pull her back into the real world.

He groaned low in his throat, wrapped his arms around her, as if sheltering her from prying eyes, and deepened the kiss for a few precious seconds before abruptly ending it.

He was breathing hard. Seemingly with some effort, he set her away from him. “Damn, darlin’, that’s some potent kiss you got there.”

“Likewise.” Willow wasn’t a hundred percent in control of herself, even now when she wasn’t wrapped in his arms.

“If we weren’t here in the middle of the VFW hall—”

Willow covered her face. “Don’t say it.” Though it was true and she knew it. If they were in private, he wouldn’t stop at a kiss. And she wouldn’t want him to.

Her brain injury must have been more extensive than she thought. She was completely insane, certifiably!

“Sorry.” He brushed a strand of hair from her cheek, tucked it behind her ear. “I didn’t mean to overwhelm you. It’s just that I’ve pictured this moment for such a long time—”

“You have?”

“I think about you a lot. Probably too much to be good for me.”

Willow would have loved to be able to tell him she’d thought about him, too, that she’d noticed him, that she’d hoped he would ask her out or that she might be brave enough to ask him out.

But she hadn’t thought about any guy in that way for a long time. Not since her sophomore year at University of Texas, when she’d finally been out from under her parents’ control for the first time ever—and away from curious, small-town eyes. She’d gone a little bit wild, dating a whole slew of guys in some misguided effort to wipe memories of Cal Chandler out of her mind.

She’d been intrigued with some of them, and she’d tried her best to transform mild interest into wild attraction. But she’d never wanted any of them enough to sleep with them. Cal was the only one she’d ever loved enough to risk sex with, and look what a disaster that had turned into.

Then her class work had become more demanding, and she’d given up on guys altogether—with some relief. She was glad to not have to worry about sex anymore.

“This isn’t how I wanted to start things with us, Willow.”

She raised her eyebrows. “How did you want to start?”

“With a date. A nice, normal date. Could we do that? Could we start over?”

There were a zillion reasons for her to say no, starting with the fact she didn’t know who he was. She had to get ready for her move to Dallas. She had to unscramble her brains.

But there was one, overriding reason to say yes. That kiss. She’d never experienced anything like it. Not even Cal’s kisses, much as she’d loved him, had made her want to rip off her clothes and offer herself like some pagan sacrifice. What if this was the sort of chemistry that happened only once in a lifetime? Could she just walk away from that?

“I’m moving to Dallas in five weeks,” she said. “You do understand that, right?”

“Willow. You don’t always have to think about what happens five weeks from now. Or even one week from now. How about just thinking through tomorrow? Going out to dinner with me. Just a simple date.”

Well, when he put it that way… “Okay,” she heard herself saying.

“I’ll pick you up at your grandmother’s at seven. We’ll go to the Party Barge.”

“Sounds fun.” Willow suppressed the giddy laughter that threatened. The Party Barge. It was a big barge that cruised Town Lake on weekends. Patrons dressed up, ate prime rib and danced to live big-band music. When she’d been in high school, she and Cal had talked about going there for her twenty-first birthday, when she could legally order a cocktail. It had seemed an impossibly sophisticated and expensive evening out for a couple of dreamy kids.

Well, her twenty-first birthday had come and gone a long time ago, and she’d never been to the Party Barge.

Suddenly, Willow realized she was standing behind the ivy curtain all alone. Her mystery man had vanished while she’d been momentarily lost in her adolescent fantasy. That’s what she got for thinking about Cal when she’d had a flesh-and-blood man within reach.

She checked to be sure her clothes were in order—that she’d ripped them off only in her imagination—then slipped out of the sheltered alcove. No one seemed to be paying her any mind, thank heavens. She made a beeline for the bathroom, where she straightened her hair and wiped off her smeared lipstick. Her face was still flushed, her eyes a little brighter than usual, but probably no one would notice that.

Suddenly, her fatigue caught up with her again. She’d definitely overdone it today. This was her first real outing since coming home from the hospital. The surge of adrenaline brought on by the dance and kiss had dwindled, leaving her feeling a bit washed-out.

She would find Nana and go home, where she could sit quietly and think about her date tomorrow. She was pretty sure that was all she would be able to think about.

Nana was sitting at their table, fanning herself with a paper fan she kept folded in her purse. She looked up when Willow approached.

“Oh, there you are. I wondered where you’d got to. Are you about ready to go?”

“I was just going to ask you the same thing.” Willow picked up her purse and tucked her cheat sheet index cards inside. She would throw them away when she got home. Once everyone changed clothes, they would be useless and she would have to start over.

“Oh, dear, you’re feeling all right, aren’t you?” Nana asked, concern wrinkling her brow. “You look a little flushed.”

Leave it to Nana, with her eagle eyes, to notice. “I’m fine. It’s a little warm in here. Um, Nana, did you happen to notice who I was dancing with a little while ago?”

Nana’s eyes sparkled mischievously. “No. Who was it?”

Willow groaned. “I was hoping you’d tell me. Are you sure you didn’t see? We were dancing to Patsy Cline.”

“A slow song, huh?” Nana was clearly amused.

“This isn’t funny. I told him I’d go out with him, and then I…” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “I kissed him. And I don’t know who he is.”

Nana shrugged helplessly. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I was doing a bit of dancing myself and I guess I just lost track of you. So you’re going on a date with him? When? Where’s he taking you?”

“Tomorrow, the Party Barge. Oh, Nana, what if he’s someone totally inappropriate? Someone I’d never in a million years go out with? What if he’s married or dating one of my friends?”

“Then he would try to see you on the sly. He wouldn’t take you out on a date and certainly not to such a public place.”

Nana had a point.

“You’re worrying for nothing.” Nana patted Willow’s arm as they headed for the exit. The bride and groom had already left for their honeymoon. Willow supposed there were people she should say goodnight to, but she would have to summon up names again and she really didn’t have the energy. So she just waved at anyone who made eye contact.

Soon they were safely in Nana’s car, a twenty-year-old Ford Taurus she kept in immaculate condition.

“Cottonwood is full of nice young men,” Nana said as she pulled out of the parking lot. “Maybe your mystery man was that nice sheriff’s deputy, Luke Rheems. He’s handsome and eligible and I noticed him watching you.”

“Or he might have been Orville, the garbage man.”

“I think you would have noticed if he was missing several teeth. Anyway, he was young, wasn’t he?”