Page 35 of Lucky Cowboy

He tasted good, too. Just the faintest hint of mint, and she closed her eyes to imprint this memory on her brain forever. His taste. His smell. His touch. How it felt to tear off his cowboy hat and push her fingers through the short hair along his scalp. It’d grown at least an inch since the last time she’d seen him. Maybe more.

“Your hair’s longer,” she mentioned after their kiss naturally came to a breaking point. Not that she stepped away. Oh, no. If anything, she pulled him in closer as she rested her forehead against his.

He didn’t seem to mind.

“Need to get a trim.”

“No,” she protested. “I like it. This way I can drag my fingers through it.”

“True,” he said, his eyes rolling back in his head as she purposely did it again, her nails creating gentle furrows in their wake. “You coming here is the best thing that’s happened to me in a long while, you know.”

She smiled at him, pleased as punch when his mouth copied hers like a reflection. Over these past months, she’d gotten to know the sheriff despite all the separation. The talking and texting late into the night. The Zoom calls. And those letters. Maybe she shouldn’t feel like she knew him based on the amount of hours they’d shared together, but she did. She knew him, anyway.

Maybe even better than if their relationship had followed a more traditional path.

He cupped her cheeks in his palms, and the sheer tenderness sparkling in his periwinkle eyes made her heart melt. They stared at each other in that alcove, and it was like transcending all the years of her life. Like they’d somehow traveled outside of time and space to be here with one another. And she knew why. For the first time ever, she knew exactly why.

Because they belonged to each other.

The sensation flowing through her was such a far cry from anything she’d ever experienced with anyone else. Certainly with Biggs. Her ex had pushed a romance onto her for the sake of taking over her stake in the rodeo business. He’d never loved her. Never even claimed to.

After years, he’d never once said the words. Nor had she ever stated them to him.

She felt grateful for that now. Not only because they would’ve been a lie but because it would’ve tainted the concept of love. Love was what she felt right now. And she felt it for Mark. Only for Mark.

This was what falling in love with someone felt like.

“Mark…” she began, ready to espouse the sentiment. It just felt right.

“I love you, Val.”

Her mouth gaped open. “I was just about to say that to you!” She wanted to be indignant at him stealing her thunder, but how could she react poorly when his love for her was so palpable in his voice, his stance, hiseverything?

Long story short, she couldn’t. Not one bit.

Not even when he chuckled. Probably because while amusement shone from his lit-up features, he wasn’t laughingather. He was laughing in delight. In pure joy and exaltation.

“Were you now?”

“Yes.” She shoved at him playfully, knocking him up against the wall again. “Not that it’ll have the same effect anymore, but I love you, too.”

It didn’t have the same effect, either. If anything, it had a larger effect. Mark seized her by the waist, lifted her off her feet, and kissed her even more dramatically than she had him. Then, he proceeded to spin her around until she became lightheaded, which as a trick rider with a high tolerance for such maneuvers was saying something.

She might’ve hollered at him to quit if she hadn’t enjoyed it so much.

This was something she hadn’t realized about missing him, likely because they’d been through so much turmoil together. But being with Mark Talbot when horrible or crazy things weren’t transpiring wasfun.

As he set her on her feet, Val peered at him. Now that they’d conquered the big L-word hurdle, she felt more confident in them than ever. “So, I seem to recall someone mentioning that they planned to take me on a tour of the great Montanan town known as Rocky Ridge. Was that you?”

He smirked at her, arms crossing over his chest. Even without his uniform, he naturally maintained that quiet air of authority. “It better have been.”

“It was.” She full-on winked at him. “So, you gonna show me? Or was that all talk?”

He pinched her elbow, and she wiggled away, secretly marveling that being like this with him felt so normal. As if they’d hung out like this a million times. As if being friendly, flirty, and sassy with him was an everyday occurrence.

“That was a promise.” He arrowed out a crooked arm for her to hold on to. “Lets go meet the town founder.”

Val remembered. The statue at the center of the town square. Which meant…

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