Page 27 of All Night with the Cowboy
Lauren looked unsure, almost awkward as she clutched the champagne flute and dropped into the lounger by the pool.
“What? Don’t tell me that’s what she actually used to say to you about me?”
“You really want to know what she used to call us?” Lauren asked, looking guilty. “Hannah just told me, I swear I never knew until now.”
“Hit me with it.”
“Beauty and the beast,” Lauren said, hand over her mouth like she couldn’t believe she’d told him. “I just about died.”
“Geez, what a cruel mother, calling her own daughter a beast.”
Lauren’s eyes widened. “Tanner! I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the beast in the story.”
Tanner laughed so hard his sides hurt, pain rippling between his ribs as tears streamed down his cheeks. Lauren was laughing hard too, wiping at her cheeks and splashing her champagne over her pretty top.
“I guess I would have felt the same if my daughter had come home with a motorcycle-riding seventeen-year-old.”
“Yeah, I know, but still,” Lauren said.
“Still what?”
Her cheeks flushed pink, but she didn’t elaborate. Instead she changed the subject. “You know, I could get used to having a butler. This is definitely the life.”
Tanner didn’t push her, but he did walk back inside and dial their butler. When he came back out and took up residence on the lounger beside her, Lauren gave him a quizzical look.
“What were you just doing?”
“Telling our butler to bring the bottle this time, and arranging for dinner to be brought up for us. I thought we’d stay in tonight.”
“Because you want to keep me prisoner in this exquisite house?”
“Maybe,” he replied. “Or maybe my body hurts like a goddamn freight train just ploughed headfirst into me, and I can’t face the idea of walking to the restaurant.”
Her look was one of sympathy, but in all honesty he wasn’t sure which part of his response had been truthful. Maybe he did want to keep her all to himself. It was strange how being away from his normal life had made him more accepting of being around his former flame.
“Tanner,” Lauren said as she stretched out, leg flexing as she pointed her toes. He noticed that her skin was already looking more golden than when they’d first arrived. “What was your reaction when Mia suggested we work together?”
He finished his drink and set it down on the low table between their loungers. “Trust me, you don’t want to know.”
“I do.” He watched as she took a way more delicate sip, not the big gulp that he’d just done to finish his champagne. “Because I can tell you for sure that it took a bit of convincing to get me to say yes, and I wasn’t the one who’d…”
“Had their heart broken?” he asked, chuckling. “I looked her in the eye and said ‘LaurengoddamnLewis.’ Or something like that. Anyway, I flat out said no, and she told me to check my bullshit because I needed to work with the best, and the best was you.”
She was quiet a long moment, and when their butler arrived and called out, bringing them their champagne and telling them that their food would be coming soon, Tanner thanked him and poured more Veuve Clicquot into their glasses.
“So we still have a bit of catching up to do,” he said, settling back down. He tried to position himself so that it didn’t hurt, but no matter how he moved, some part of him ached.
“We need to strap you up before I have too many drinks,” Lauren said.
“Once we finish the bottle,” he teased. “Then your elbows poking into my muscles won’t feel so torturous!”
“Like I use my elbows,” she muttered, but he could see her smiling behind her glass.
“Seriously though, what’s been happening? Have you been married? Divorced? Any kids?”
She gave him a withering look. “I wouldn’t be chilling on an island with you right now if I’d had kids in the past ten years. As for the other two questions? No and no. You?”
“Nope. I’ve been keeping my options open, you know, practicing while I try to find the right girl.” Only he’d had the right girl and she’d managed to get away. Did he tell her that no one had ever been able to live up to the memory he had of her?
