Page 30 of Cowboy Stole My Heart
Chapter 9
MIAwas starting to get nervous. She knew it wasn’t supposed to be a date, but from the text she’d just received from Kat, she was starting to realize just how much of a setup this was. Kat had messaged claiming she had an urgent surgery to attend to, and Mia called bullshit. She was probably sitting at home with her feet up, sipping a wine and laughing at her genius plan to set her best friend up with her cute cousin. She re-read Kat’s last message for the tenth time, cursing her all over again.
Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. Oh wait, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do. Have fun gorgeous xx
She looked at herself again in her full-length mirror, crippling self-doubts starting to crack her otherwise confident façade. She had a pile of rejected clothes on the bed, from cute dresses to sparkly miniskirts, but in the end she’d decided to wear her go-to outfit, what she felt herself in and what she was most confident in. She had on her skinny ankle-length jeans, heels and a cute top. It had the back cut out, which made it sexy, but she still felt like her. She sighed and put on some lip gloss. She was used to havingher long, straight hair in a braid when she was working the horses or in a ponytail to keep it out of the way, but she’d decided to use her rollers and make it curl a little, so she had bouncy hair to give her an extra injection of confidence.
Mia heard a knock at the door and a new wave of nerves hit, her stomach flipping at the prospect of the blind date she was about to embark on. Why had she said yes? Why was she even doing this, why…?
“Mia?”
She was reaching for her bag but she froze, ears pricked. Was thatSam?
“Mia, you here?”
She tucked her bag under her arm and walked out of her room, pulling the door behind her so no one could see into the tornado of clothes in her wake.
“Sam?” she called back, surprised. “Just a sec.”
He was standing at the door to her living room. He’d obviously knocked then walked straight around to her open doors, the same way he’d come in the other day.
“Is something wrong? What happened with Tex?” she asked, hurrying across the hardwood floors, her heels click-clacking.
“I…” he started to speak then looked her up and down. She stopped, feeling the heat rising at the way he was looking at her. “Damn, you look gorgeous.”
She brushed off his compliment, shaking her head. “I’m just wearing jeans, nothing special. What’s happened?”
He gave her a look, a look that travelled up and down her body, the warmth in his gaze making her wildly uncomfortable yet excited at the same time. Hell, everything about him was… she swallowed, her mouth dry as cotton candy. Sam was positively smoldering just standingthere in his low-slung jeans and boots, dusty and sweaty and sexy as hell.Thiswas the guy she wished she was about to spend the next few hours alone with.
“Ah, nothing’s wrong. That’s not why I’m here,” he said, leaning in the doorway, hand reaching to his hair. She watched as he brushed his fingers through it, her own fingers itching to reach out and knead through his thick hair.
She waited, wondering what he was about to say. Had he just come over to see her or…
A knock sounded out, around the other side of the house.
“You expecting someone?” he asked.
She nodded. “Yes. I’m, well, I’m going out for the evening. That’s why you’re seeing me all dressed up instead of in riding clothes for once.”
Sam opened his mouth to say something at the same time as a loud, deep voice called out.
“Anyone home?”
Mia looked on in horror as Sam’s face turned from open and friendly to coldly hostile.
“Mia?” a handsome man asked, appearing from the side of the house, the same way Sam had just walked.
“You must be Trent,” she said, smiling and extending her hand. She walked past Sam and smiled when Trent kissed her cheek. He held out a bunch of flowers, long-stemmed white roses wrapped in a crisp white paper and with a huge ribbon around them.
“For you.”
“Thank you,” she said, blushing as he let out a whistle.
“Kat never told me how beautiful you were.”
“Don’t be silly,” she said, shaking her head. “But thank you for the roses.”
She turned to take them to the kitchen counter and sawSam watching her, his eyes narrowed, jaw clenched so hard she could visibly see the strain.
