“Okay,” Charley said. Her left hand rested lightly on his belt, and her right hand touched the holstered gun. She moved her right hand a little higher on his waist.
“You’ve never ridden on the back of a motorcycle either. Have you?” he asked.
“No. How did you know that?”
“You’ll see,” Sully said and nudged Storm into a trot behind Cash. When Charley slipped to one side of the horse’s rump and then the other, she quickly wrapped her arms around Sully’s tapered waist. Over his shoulder, he said, “That’s how I knew.”
“Do you have a motorcycle too?”
“A Harley. If you can dismount Storm without falling flat on your fanny, I’d be happy to take you for a spin.”
Taking in Sully’s broad back as well as the splendid countryside, Charley kept her arms around him as they trotted toward the main road. Cash was already on the other side of the highway. Traveling west in the direction of Pikes Peak, Charley soon saw Cash dismount at the combination hotel and restaurant, well-known across Colorado and beyond. Under a two-story portico, a lovely pregnant redhead and strawberry-blond little girl emerged from the building to greet him. The German shepherd with them barked a greeting at Cash who scratched his head. Then Cash scooped up the child, gave her a toss in the air, and kissed her cheek. Wrapping an arm around the woman, he tugged her to him and kissed his wife’s lips.
Charley found herself smiling at the happy family of three who were about to become a family of four. She wondered what it would feel like if Sullivan Custis were to swoop her into his arms like that and kiss her. Where had that thought come from? From being wrapped around him as he sat between her spread legs atop the horse? Maybe. Sully reined in the big bay nearCaptain behind a split rail fence on the left side of Coopers’ Lodge.
“In case I want to go for a Harley spin,” Charley unexpectedly flirted with Sully and quickly added, “not saying I do, but to keep from falling flat on my fanny, how should I dismount?”
Holding out his hand, Sully said, “How you mounted in reverse.”
“Okay,” she said and took his hand. He let her slide her foot into the stirrup and swinging her right leg over the horse’s hindquarters, she landed on her right foot and pulled her left foot out of the stirrup. With a grin, she said, “You owe me a motorcycle ride.”
As Sully dismounted, Charley backed up to give him room just as a vehicle roared by on the main road. Surprised at the noise, she twisted sideways so fast she went stumbling backward. But Sully grabbed her arm and kept her upright.
Frowning past her to the road, he asked, “Wasn’t that the guy we just dealt with at Triple C-South?”
Charley had glimpsed the silver Mercedes. “Yes, sorry. He must have been waiting, hoping you and Cash would leave me behind and alone.”
“I pegged him as stupid.” Sully shrugged with an easy smile. “I owe you a Harley spin.”
“Barely,” Charley said. “I almost fell down a second time today.
“Yeah, but you dismounted well, for a city girl.”
“Thanks to a…country boy.”
Sully’s grin was both so cocky and at the same time so charming, Charley felt her cheeks grow hot with a blush. A blush? That was a first. She turned her head away from the sexy, oh yes, so very sexy man as Cash, with his family and the German shepherd, approached.
“Charley, this is Tracy Cooper, my adoring wife you’ve heard about,” Cash said.
“Hello Tracy,” Charley said.
“Hi Charley, hi Sully,” Tracy, the beautiful redhead, replied.
“Hi Tracy,” Sully replied.
Then, smiling at the child in his arms, Cash said, “This sweet girl is our three-year-old Carly, named after Uncle Clarence Carl Cooper.”
“Tracy and Carly, it’s such a pleasure to meet you,” Charley said and wiggled her fingers at Carly who smiled.
With a nod at the dog, Tracy said, “This is Dude. He started out as my dog, but if he could talk, he’d tell you he belongs to Cash.”
“I think Dude’s favorite person is Carly,” Cash said with a chuckle.
“Nice to meet you, Dude,” Charley said and then smiled at Tracy. “Tracy, I’ve heard wonderful things about you from Cash.”
“Oh, I can imagine,” Tracy said with a tinkling giggle. “He usually starts off with how I almost ran him over the day we met.”
“Yes.” Charley laughed. “He said you’d tell me all about it.”
