Page 42 of Risking it for the Cowboy

“Ain’t taken anyone for a ride since I met this Flower Girl.” He cleared gruffness from his throat and returned his attention to Daisy.

Charlie’s skin tingled at what he was saying.

“Sure would hate for that there chocolate to melt in this heat. Why don’t you and your momma eat ’em on the way home so they don’t go to waste.”

Daisy grinned and dashed to her back seat and grabbed a box with the chick in, and got Artex out, who flopped to the ground and trotted happily up to him. Reared up on his hind legs to pin his paws to Thaddeus’s belly.

“Hey, big fella,” he said softly with a boyish edge as he ruffled his ears.

Charlie smiled.

“C’mon, Artex!” Daisy chirped, and he lumbered with Daisy to the truck.

Together, they climbed inside with a creak of the passenger door.

These band gigs never paid well, Charlie remembered from Jason. But Jason had never given Daisy a treat with his gig money, either.

“This isn’t necessary—”

“You got a better idea?” he murmured back, an inch of irritation finally seeping through the cracks of his exterior. “Can’t you just let me do something nice for you?”

She exhaled, looking down and picking at her fingernails at her waist. “Guys don’t do nice things for me unless they want something.”

A finger touched her jaw. Lifted her eyes to his, his searching hers. He brushed his thumb across her lips.

He leaned into her ear, hat brim skimming her bun. “Get that girl home so she can get to bed.” His breath warmed her lobe, ratcheting up her pulse at the familiarity of his scent.

He pulled back and she shivered, because her heart was still thumping at the thought that he hadn’t ghosted her and how sweetly he’d taken to her daughter.

“I’ll be over first thing.”

She chewed her lip.

He plucked it free, like he had that morning, as if he was allowed to. “What, Flower Girl?”

“The cost.”

“Nothin’ much. Don’t worry about it,” he replied, still so close.

“That’s not okay with me.” She shook her head. “You can’t just do nice things for me … for free. What do you want?”

He leaned into her ear. Cupped her cheek with that same reverence she’d see in the photo she’d kept. His lips touched her lobe.

His breath was warm and his smell, so comforting, so full of reminders of a romantic who’d cracked an inch that night with a woman he thought he had a chance with. “Maybe I just want a do-over,” he breathed.

He toyed with her hair; fingered the tresses like a jeweler handling gold, then pressed a soft kiss to her lobe. “I wanted you up on that stage with me tonight. Already knew when I pulled her up I wasn’t ready to move on. No one else is gonna do after you. You got a gift, baby. You shared it with me, and it’s all I can think about.”

Her throat squeezed. Her eyes stung. She shook her head. A kid and a career later, wasn’t it too late for her now? Jason never wanted you on stage. Didn’t want you upstaging him. Didn’t want other guys’ eyes on you. But Thaddeus seemed proud of her.

But what about when Jason was released? If she joined his band for a show or two, what hell would Jason give her? Because he would be released. Somehow, he always got out, always got away with his increasingly threatening antics. Would he stalk and harass her? Confront Thaddeus and chase him away? Did she dare try, only for him to realize dating her was too much trouble? Open Daisy’s heart up to someone who might fill the shoes of a father figure someday, only for him to leave?

“Thanks for making a bad night a little better.” She smiled. “My ex, uh, he makes me afraid sometimes. Tonight, he really scared us.”

His lips on her lobe burned, brushing against her flesh so softly as he breathed, and she turned her lips toward his—

“Momma, you coming?” Daisy chimed out the window.

They startled apart.