Cowboy After Dark

“Eighty-five, tops.”

“That’s such a comfort.”

Liam walked around Navarre’s hindquarters and clapped Cade on the shoulder. “If you get Grady to help you buy some art, and if you burn a few batches of lasagna, you might walk down the aisle sooner than that.”

“Appreciate the advice, bro. Now let’s get you situated for an excellent first date.” He headed back into the barn. “I suggest taking a blanket along.”

“I’ll go with that suggestion.” Lying with Hope and gazing up at a million stars sure sounded like an excellent first date to him.

Cade located a blanket in the tack room and handed it over. “You packing condoms?”

That startled a laugh out of him. “No. For crying out loud, Gallagher. I’m just getting to know the lady.” He didn’t admit that he’d thought of it and discarded the idea as being too crass this early.

“Apparently you haven’t noticed the way she looks at you.”

“And you have?”

“Sure. After you told me that you’d had your eye on her for weeks, I decided to spend the dinner hour watching her watching you.”

“And how does she watch me?”

“Like she’s buying whatever you’re selling, bro.”

His body tightened at the thought. “Nice to hear. Thanks for the info.”

“Sure you don’t want to take a couple of raincoats?”

“I’m sure. Then it’ll look as if I assumed we might have sex, and that sends the wrong message.”

“Your call, but don’t blame me if you end up with an itch you can’t scratch.”

5 (#ulink_5f381ac4-421a-59dd-8d49-a7e3e792ba33)

“I CAN’T SEE very well.” As Hope bobbed along on Isabeau, she peered into the woods on either side of the narrow US Forest Service road. The extremely dark and scary woods. Any one of those shadows could be a bear, maybe even a grizzly. They’d have cubs this time of year, right? That made them more dangerous.

After several glasses of wine this afternoon, she’d convinced herself that an evening horseback ride with a handsome cowboy was a great plan. Now she longed for the cozy and very safe ranch house. Uh-oh. Something rustled in the bushes.

Liam kept moving forward, but he turned in his saddle to glance back at her. “Can you see the light on my saddle?”

“Shh. I hear something.” She went very still and tried to separate the various sounds—the clip-clop of the horses’ hooves, the creak of the saddles, the wind sighing through the top branches of the pines. The rustling had stopped.

No, there it was again. Just a little rustle, though. No branches breaking or stones knocked aside. Probably something fairly small like a skunk or a raccoon. In the distance, an owl hooted.

She focused on the indistinct shape of Liam up ahead on his horse, Navarre. “Sorry. What were you saying?”

“I was just going to say that if you can see my light, that’s all you need. Really more than you need. Isabeau will follow Navarre, and they both have this route down cold. We could loop the reins around the saddle horns and let them take us out and back.”

“What would they do if they saw or smelled a bear?”

“They’d let us know, but I—”

“How?” She pictured Isabeau turning her head and saying, Bear at three o’clock. Check it out.

“They’d get fairly agitated. Horses are prey animals, so they won’t like it if a bear shows up.”

“Or a cougar?”

“That, too.”

“So they’re like an early warning signal.”

“They are, but I don’t expect to see any predators tonight. If someone had spotted a bear or a cougar around here in the past few weeks, pictures would be on the internet. Nobody said a word at dinner, and they would have since they knew we were going out riding.”

Some of the tension eased from her body. “Good to know.”

“Sorry if you were worried. I should have said something earlier.”

“And I should have remembered that you’re an experienced wilderness guide. You wouldn’t bring me out here if you thought there was a chance I’d be eaten by a bear.”

“Good Lord. Were you really picturing that?”

“We established earlier today that I have a vivid imagination.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, I suppose we did.”

“And it’s very dark out here. You can’t see what might be going on in the woods. Anything could be lurking there, ready to spring. The trees are pretty close.”

He turned a fraction more toward her. “Do you want to go back?”

Now was her chance to spend the rest of the evening chatting on the front porch with Herb and Rosie plus whoever else was still hanging around after dinner. All she had to do was say the word.

“Listen, we don’t have to do this if it makes you nervous.”

But then she wouldn’t have a chance to be alone with Liam, and that opportunity might not come along again anytime soon. “I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make me a little nervous.”

“Then let’s turn around.” He wheeled Navarre in her direction.

“No, wait.”

“I don’t want to scare you to death.” He rode toward her. “After I go past, just neck-rein Isabeau, and she’ll turn and follow.”

“I don’t want to go back.”

He stopped Navarre right next to her. On the narrow road, their stirrups were inches apart. Light from both lanterns illuminated his face, and he looked worried. “If you’ll be embarrassed about showing up so soon after we left, we can cook up a plausible story.”

“That’s not the problem. I don’t want to miss this chance to spend time with you.”

“Then we’ll make up a story that requires us to drive somewhere.”