Page 32 of Risking it for the Cowboy

Charlie’s attention trained beyond the twenty-one and over ropes, onto the plywood dais nestled against an old silo not more than fifty feet away. There he was. The man on the radio and on her mind. Thaddeus McClintock, stood plying his wares in carnival lights, his guitar slung across his muscled back while he cupped the microphone to his lips like he was making love to it.

“That laugh on her lips, secret in her eyes.

Flower Girl stole my heart and I don’t know why.

Daisy on her skin, gold in her hair,

I could drown a happy man in that green-eyed stare…”

Her brow crinkled at the lyrics. Flower Girl…

“Hey, Momma, we just heard him on the radio!” Daisy crowed over the noise. “Did you know he was at Mr. Dixon’s ranch with Auntie Heart too? I think they’re friends!”

Thaddeus and Heart’s boyfriend were friends? Or was Tyler Dixon the Harvard cousin?

Stetson propped on his head, blond hair splayed out in disarray, leather bands cuffing his wrists, eyes closed as he pushed his voice, brow furrowed, his tight, worn Wranglers hugging his rear as his beat-up boot tapped the rhythm and he lost himself in the music.

“I’m either stupid or a fool, to dream of one,

who don’t want me after she was done.”

Something like anger, no … confusion, nipped. Was he singing about her? Had he had the audacity to wrong-number her, then use their night to write his next hit? Acting like some wounded puppy?

“That laugh on her lips, secret in her eye,

Flower Girl stole my heart and I don’t know why…”

A roar of cheers as the song ended.

Then those blue eyes that forever lived beneath her eyelids opened, roved across his gathering crammed into the tight space as his divot popped in his cheek and he waggled his eyes at the ladies and then … he reached down to a woman. Blond. Cute body. And pulled her on stage as she collapsed against him, draping her arms about his body and laughing, fawning over him.

Charlie’s throat knotted.

She swallowed, but the illness wouldn’t dissipate. Just like the videos she’d seen. Just like Jason humiliating her with every other girl he cheated with for all to see, while she sat hidden at home with a baby he didn’t even want. What lies would McClintock tell this woman tomorrow morning? Would he use the same flirty puns about back roads and recording studios on her, too? Have a proposition for her?

“You’re gonna sing the ending with me, okay?” He held the mic to her lips while she giggled uncontrollably instead.

Charlie’s grip on Artex’s leash slackened as she rolled her eyes unabashedly, as her pulse roared in her ears to be anywhere but here.

“Momma! They have chicks here! If I knock over three bottles I get to pick one! Oh, can I…” Daisy yanked on her arm, and oh God, they were going to end up with a chicken after Charlie had been deflecting Daisy’s begging for years and…

Charlie held her breath as the woman fawned all over Thaddeus and he chuckled that panty-dropping sound down at her. She’d been such a fool, getting up on that stage! Singing, of all the stupid things, and letting him woo her and tie her heart in a knot, thinking she’d been special.

Pain lanced through her, watching this—

“Momma?”

Daisy was tugging on her hand.

“Are you okay? You’re not still thinking … a, about … him, are you?”

Him. Jason.

Oh God, her little girl had no idea what was wrong with her. Daisy needed her right now, and here she was, twisted up over a guy she’d barely met.

“I’m fine, Daisy May.” She forced a smile, turning away from the betrayal on stage, and walked to the ticket line.

Daisy smiled again, squeezing her hand. “I’m going to ride the tilty-thing first, and then I’m gonna do the bottle knock thing and win a chick next, and…”