“Do you want to do it?”
I blink and freeze with my hand on her face.
“Well, do you?” she asks when I don’t answer her the first time.
“It?”
“The rodeo.”
“Oh.”
She grins. “Did you think I was asking if you wanted to do me?”
“Of course not,” I lie, balling up the wipe and stepping away. I don’t look at her because I know she’d be able to read the truth on my face. And also, because I’ve got the world’s most stubborn boner.
“I was asking if you wanted to do it because I wondered if you got roped into helping but didn’t really want to.”
“No, it’s fine.” As soon as I overheard Miss Ethel telling someone she was going to ask Stormy to work on the rodeo, I threw my hat in.
“Well, we’ve run into our first problem. I accidentally left the notes Miss Ethel gave me at the rodeo office. I’ll need to get those before we can start our planning session.”
She sits on the floor to put on a pair of sneakers. Her legs are long and shapely. They look good. They’d look even better wrapped around my waist.
My gut tightens.
She stands and dusts off the back of her shorts. “I’ll return soon. There are drinks in the refrigerator.”
I catch her arm as she starts past me and bring her to a stop. “The outdoor lights are off at the lot.”
“So? There are lights on in the mobile trailer office and I have a light on my phone if needed.”
“That office is at the far end of the lot. It’s not safe.”
She laughs. “Kannen, this is Lucky River, not Clover County.”
“No, but the rodeo grounds are closer to that county line than not.”
“In the far-fetched probability that something happens, I’m perfectly capable of handling it.”
“So am I.” I’m not about to back down. Sure, the odds of her running into a problem are slim because this is Lucky River. But because that side of town is right by Clover County, it’s never zero. I pull my truck keys from my pocket. “Let’s go together.”
Stormy puts her hands on her hips, then sighs and shrugs. “Fine.” She climbs into the passenger side of my truck.
I lower the windows to let the breeze in.
“Do you always get what you want?” she asks as she fastens the seatbelt.
I glance at her as I put the truck in gear. “Not yet.”
Chapter 3
Stormy
Not yet? I don’t know what to think about that, but I do think Kannen is scary. Not that he physically intimidates me in the least. What’s scary is how strong my attraction toward him is.
Because although I long for happiness, long to be held in strong arms when I’m feeling beat up by life, I know better. As my father left the family home the first of many times to cheat, I’d asked him why and he said it was because I wasn’t lovable. I did my best to discard the sting from those words. But then my ex said the same thing.
Which is why I decided to keep my heart to myself. It won’t do me any good to love someone else.
