Page 25 of The Cowboy's Downfall
And to think this was round one. There was so much more for them to explore. That she was willing to repeat the event shone on her face. His lone regret was not getting her completely undressed, because her breasts had played a prominent role in his dreams and his palms itched to touch them, but given a few minutes of rest, he could soon rectify that.
He touched the hem of her sweater, prepared to put thought into action, when the slim gold band on her wrist caught his attention. He grabbed her hand so he could take a closer look at her watch. They’d been here longer than he’d thought. The clinic would be over in another ten minutes.
“Is that the right time?”
She glanced at her watch too. Her beautiful eyes widened. “Oh no.”
They grabbed their clothes and got dressed in a hurry. But not fast enough. Outside the conference room, somewhere in the hangar, a door opened and closed, and they heard voices, then footsteps. The footsteps receded.
Shauna looked at him, alarmed.
“There’s a washroom across the hall,” Nix said, thinking fast. “You head for that. I’ll keep on going. Wait a few minutes. If anyone sees you leave, just tell them you needed to use the ladies’ room.”
She nodded, then started to open the door. Nix caught it and held it closed. She was so pretty, and this had not ended on the high note he would have liked.
He kissed her. Not as thoroughly as he wanted to, but enough to show that things weren’t finished between them.
“I’ll be at the churchyard at seven,” he said, then held the door open for her.
She darted through the door and into the ladies’ washroom. Nix, for his part, strolled out of the corridor and through the hangar, prepared to say he’d shown one of the parents where the facilities were, but he bumped into no one. Once outside, he jogged across the way and re-entered the second hangar through the emergency exit door he’d propped open earlier.
She hadn’t answered him when he said he’d be at the churchyard. He wondered if she’d show.
Maybe.
Maybe not.
Chapter Eight
Nix
Saturday game nightin the bunkhouse was well underway.
Empty pizza boxes were stacked precariously in a corner and the keg of beer from the Grand Master Brewery and Taphouse—generously donated by the taproom’s owner Hannah, the wife of one of the Endeavour Ranch owners—was flowing freely. Some of the men were playing cards. Two had their laptops hooked up to monitors and were gaming online alongside a few boys from the group home who’d dropped in.
Nix had his nose in a book. He wasn’t reading but thinking. The other two men with the night off had already left, but he couldn’t come up with a plausible excuse for going out because he rarely strayed far from the ranch. Saying he was going to check on a cow or a broken fence might work, because he had no life outside of the ranch, but it wouldn’t give him much time. And this time, he didn’t want to rush things with Shauna.
One of the guys began ribbing the younger boys about the cute little blonde from the bull riding clinic. “You should have signed up. I hear she’s hot.”
“Too snatched for me,” one kid said, his eyes glued to the screen. “Besides, Remi’s got clout.”
Nix had no idea what he’d just said.
The cowboy persisted. “Her sister’s hot, too. Isn’t she, Nix?”
Nix kept his eyes on his book. He wasn’t the only one in the room with no life outside of the ranch if this was the best topic of conversation they could come up with. “That’s the boss’s family y’all are talking about. Leave me out of it.”
He’d hoped to shut them down, but no such luck.
“The big sis is too stuck up for my taste,” another man said. “Sure, she’s good-looking. But you’d freeze your doo-hickey off if you dipped it in that.”
Nix’s doo-hickey couldn’t disagree more. He snapped the book shut. “Again. Boss’s family.” He set the book down. “Think I’ll take a drive.”
“Never mind him,” he heard Handy say. “He’s sour on women because his ex-wife keeps calling and asking for money.”
“My dumb-as-a-post brother married a woman who likes to spend money,” someone else said. His name was Dez. “He can’t afford her, but he’s stuck because they have kids, and she wears the pants in the family. Good for you for getting out, Nix. You keep giving her money though, and she’ll keep coming back like a stray dog you fed. Hang tough.”
“Does your wife wear your pants for you too, Nix?” Handy asked.
