Page 17 of The Cowboy's Forbidden Bride

She had said things like that before, but it seemed a lot more pointed today. Cat immediately wondered if somehow, her mother had cottoned on to the fact that Cat spent most of her nights out in the woods. She would have imagined that Jenny would be more direct, but it was hard to say. After all, it wasn’t as if Cat had brought a whole lot of boyfriends around before.

Not that she would call Wilder herboyfriend. Not that Wilder was heranything.

Except, maybe, her own, personal heart attack. But it turned out she was a big fan of that kind of cardiac arrest, and all the ways he had to take her to that brink and then bring her back again.

And Cat was just as happy that the front door of the store opened then, so her mother’s all-seeing eye turned elsewhere, and most importantly, away from the goose bumps that prickled down Cat’s arms.

Later, after her mother had left the store to walk up the hill and work on some of the bookkeeping, Cat found herself daydreaming. This was how she’d spent approximately ninety-eight percent of her time before the last couple of weeks. But these days, it was different. She spent a lot less time looking up distant cities to try to imagine herself there and a lot more time counting the hours until she could see Wilder again.

Because every time she did see him, she thought she was that much closer to convincing him that they really should have actual sex.

I’m sorry that what we’re already doing isn’t living up to expectations,he liked to drawl in response.

Then he’d show her something new that left her sobbing out his name into his shoulder, which she knew perfectly well was his way of changing the subject.

It was effective.

But she knew that there was more. That if he was this good at all the other things, there was no doubt that he was going to be mind-blowing at the main event.

She just really, really, really wanted that main event. With him.

Especially now that she had experimented with his great many recipes, it had to be him. How could she possibly downgrade to someone else? She couldn’t imagine it.

So instead, Cat sat on the stool behind the counter, imagining the thing she spent a whole lot of time picturing these days. What it would be like to take all of Wilder deep into her body, and be able to cross her legs over his back and look him in the face while he did it—

She had to stop. This was not a private place.

Something that was driven home to her when Tennessee came in through the little passage that connected the General Store to the diner and she had to immediately worry about… whatever her face was doing. Her oldest brother’s eyes were ridiculously blue, just like hers and just like Dallas’s, and she found that she did not really love being on the wrong side of that glare.

He scowled at her as he got closer. “What’s the matter with you?”

“It’s so nice to see you too this fine day,” she said cheerfully. “Summer is waning, fall beckons, and yet your bad moods are as predictable as the turning of the seasons.”

Her brother grunted. “I don’t know what that means. Sounds like you’ve been reading too much again.”

Cat made a noise of mock horror. “We wouldn’t wantthat. No one likes it when the women get those terribleideasin their silly heads.”

Tennessee ignored that, moving behind the counter and brushing past her so he could do something involving the register and some cash. “Did you get lunch yet? I just closed down the grill, but I can fire it up again if you want.”

Because even grumpy and annoyed with her, he took care of her. It was why she loved him even when he drove her up the wall, which was pretty much every day.

“I’m good,” she said. “I think I might walk down and get a slice of pizza, though. Want something?”

Tennessee had taken against the newcomers who’d swept into town some five years back, made over an old barn that had sat on the main street of town forever, and turned it into a pizza, ice cream, and music place. Not because there was any reason to take against the Bennett sisters, other than the fact they came from somewhere else, but because newcomers with big ideas in the summers were usually gone before another summer rolled around and Tennessee wasn’t the only local who couldn’t take any of them seriously. He was the one who kept the betting book in the General Store for everyone to vote on how quickly said newcomers would leave.

But the Bennetts had stayed put.

In the summer, the outdoor patio stayed open good and late, and in winter it was cozy and always open for locals to come warm themselves up. In some ways it functioned like a community living room. The Bennetts had already integrated themselves into the community here and even Tennessee had finally softened his stance. Probably because there was never any chance that he’d lose any customers to the new restaurant in town, any more than he did to the various new food truck options that people were all excited about. It was the diner that did the fueling up of all the ranch hands and cowboys and anyone else who needed to be up early with a meal in their belly to get to work. It was the diner that gave folks solid country food for solid country lives, and around here, that was not only appreciated but supported.

Mountain Mama was more of an experience. Even Tennessee had unbent enough to eat there, a time or two, but he always took a moment. Like he was deciding whether or not to be mad about it all over again. Today he just shook his head. “I can stick around for a while if you want to take your time at lunch,” he told her. “But you’re closing tonight, right?”

“That’s what it says on the schedule you made up this Sunday, the way you make up a schedule every Sunday,” Cat said, and smiled when he glared at her. “What? You not only send it to all of us, it’s posted right there.”

She pointed past him to the staff bulletin board, and decided, today, not to point out how funny she thought it was that they called it thestaffbulletin board when the staff was just family. Just the same four of them it had always been.

“I hear you’re becoming a fixture at the Copper Mine,” Tennessee said then, without pausing in the counting of the bills before him. “For all I know you had big plans to head over there early and tie one on while it’s still light out.”

“I don’t think I’ve evertied one ona day in my life,” Cat replied. Because that was still true. Wilder had stopped her from the tying-on and general carousing she’d planned to do.

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