Page 57 of Head Over Spurs

Lucky was a chatty guy, another clue that he and Riley were well matched.

“Yeah,” he huffed. “I would like to have her all to myself too.”

With everything seeming in order here, Riley gave up on seeing Jules and started out to his truck. He could use a shower and a real bed, his back stiffer than he cared to admit after a few days up at camp.

As he reached his old Ford, he found a pair of boots swinging off the tailgate. But they weren’t gracing familiar slender legs that he hoped to see.

“Coop,” he greeted, approaching the tailgate.

The boots stopped swinging, and a mullet clad head popped up from the bed. He really needed to either cut his hair or grow it out. The thing looked awful. Any time Riley brought it up though, Cooper pointed out that he managed topullplenty of women with this mullet.

“Hey,” his friend replied. “Want to hit Wrangler’s? Since we missed my birthday party there.”

“Yeah, it’ll be on me,” he offered.

With a satisfied smile, Cooper jumped down and headed in the direction of his cottage. “Where are you going?” Riley asked, expecting him to have moved around to the passenger side door.

“Meet you in an hour,” Cooper called over his shoulder. “Gotta get cleaned up for the ladies.”

Riley chuckled. The rate at which he managed to find attractive girls from out of town never ceased to amaze him. And heseemed to do it from a Wrangler’s Tavern barstool each time, as if they simply came and found him. As far as he was concerned, Cooper could have every out of towner—except one.

“Hey,” Riley called after him. “I’ll pick you up, don’t need you driving home after all those birthday shots you’ll manage to swindle.”

“No, don’t worry, I called Maddie from your tailgate.” Then with that smart ass grin of his, Cooper added, “Her andJulesare my ride tonight.”

Maybe he didn’t need to give up on seeing her after all.

Jules

She recapped the mascara and stepped back to look at her outfit in the mirror. It had taken her way too long to decide if she should wear the dress that first caught Riley’s attention or not. It would be fitting. And tonight, she wanted to look irresistible for him—but her black denim skirt would be more successful at achieving that, she decided.

Across the room, her phone rang, and she hurried to reach it. Based on the time, she assumed it was Maddie informing her that she was on her way over. Hurriedly, she swiped it open before noticing what name was flashing across the screen.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Jules Graham? My name is Michelle, I am the liaison between site coordinators and contractors at Rustic and Ranch Magazine. I’m calling because there has been a slight change in plans.”

So, not Maddie calling.

“Slight change,how?” She dropped down onto her bed, desperate to settle the sudden spike in her heart rate.

“Long story short, we are having to push up the feature withthe estancia in Argentina. I spoke with the team down there; they are on board with the new plan. We just need our photographer.”

Pushed up? Her chest knotted. She wasn’t ready to leave, and besides her confusing jumble of emotions, the team needed her here.

“When?”

Michelle let out a hum before responding. As if she was reading something to confirm the date. “Well, the change is that it’ll now be the cover story. And it’ll be the cover of our September issue. To get it out in time for that? We would need you there in about a week’s time.”

Jules’s stomach plummeted. She felt as if she was free falling in the worst way.

A week.

What did that mean with the things developing between her and Riley?

What about Lucky?

What about the summer she was supposed to get at a place where she finally felt as if she belonged?

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