Page 23 of Keeping Happily Ever After

“Date.”

“What?” Steph shook her head. “It’s not a—”

“Date? Damn, is this a blind date?”

Startled by the deep voice behind her, Steph spun around on her heel to look into the eyes of the sexiest cowboy she’d ever seen. Hell, the sexiest cowboy or not that she’d seen in a very long time.

His dark eyes flashed with humor as he took his hat off and ran a hand through his thick hair. “I would have dressed a little more, well…a bit more date appropriate.”

Steph thought he looked just fine to her. His well-worn jeans hugged thick, strong leg muscles. He wore a thick wool coat, but she could imagine the hard chest and equally strong arms that were hiding under it. Muscles defined from working outside in the elements.Damn.

“Steph?”

She blinked hard out of the trance she’d been in and looked to Hope, who wasn’t even trying to hide the grin on her face.

“Meet Travis. Travis, meet Steph.”

Regaining control of herself, Steph extended a hand to the man. “Travis. It’s nice to meet you. And no, it’s not a date.”

His cocky grin didn’t falter as his large hand wrapped around hers, completely unaware of the fire he’d ignited deep inside her, and winked. “Well, that’s a shame.”

Isn’t it ever.

The heat lingered on her skin when he removed his hand from hers. Steph followed it back to his front pocket, where he casually slid it.

It took her a moment to catch herself and realize she was staring at the man. When Hope giggled behind her, she shook her head and pasted a confident smile on her face. “Maybe we should go somewhere and talk,” she said. And then, realizing the way it sounded, Steph quickly added, “About my project, I mean.”

“Of course.” His smile was slow. He took a breath and exhaled slowly, his eyes never leaving hers.

Steph needed to look away before she said something stupid. Again.

“Okay, great.” She focused on her notebook and the stack of papers she had. “Why don’t we go to…”Where were they going to go?Her plan had been to meet the man at Ever After. She never intended to go anywhere with him. And now that she knew how dangerously sexy he was…being alone with him was probably a bad idea.

No.It was a very bad idea. Because if what Logan and Levi told her about Travis was true, he was a hell of a good contractor and he was exactly what she needed to whip her camp into shape while she was busy on set. She couldn’t afford to mess that up by getting involved with him.

No matter how badly she might want to all of a sudden.

Steph turned around, her mind made up, and pressed her lips together. “On second thought, I think we could probably just have our little meeting in the living room.”

ChapterEight

Bella tooka few extra minutes in the mirror, getting ready. She was nervous, but excited too. Jeremy was going to meet her mom over dinner. And although she was a grown woman, who made her own decisions, she still couldn’t help but hope that the meeting would go well. Not that she had any reason to believe it wouldn’t, but still…Bella hadn’t introduced a man to her parents since…well, since she was a senior in high school and that was only because he’d picked her up to take her to prom.

This was different.

Really different.

She cared about Jeremy. And her mother’s support meant a lot to her. Especially because Bella knew it wasn’t going to be easy balancing a new relationship with her soon-to-be very busy schedule. She hadn’t even really had a chance to discuss it with Jeremy because he’d been so busy with work and with the drama going on with his sister.

But it wasn’t Bella’s style to worry about things until there was something to worry about. Besides, after dinner, they’d be able to have that heartfelt talk and sort it all out. Because she only had a few days before she was going to have to leave again. As for her mother, Lisa was heading back home the next day. So if there was going to be a meet-the-parents moment, it was now or never.

Steph’s voice echoed in her memory. “It’s hard. No distractions.”

Bella refused to think that Steph was right about this. Maybe she’d just been dating the wrong type of men? She wasn’t Stephanie, and Jeremy was different. And he cared about her. She knew he did. He wanted her to be successful. Jeremy knew how much her career meant to her, and he also knew what that meant. No, it didn’t matter what Steph said about relationships. Jeremy was different.Sheand Jeremy were different. They’d make it work. She believed that.

She had to.

“I’m so excited to meet him,” her mom said as Bella joined her in the kitchen, where Lisa was reheating the dishes they picked up from Birchwood earlier in the day. They’d decided to host Jeremy at their Airbnb instead of going out. But once they made that decision, mother and daughter both realized neither of them actually wanted to cook anything.

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