One Texas Cowboy Too Many (Burnt Boot, Texas #3)(31)

“Seems like I don’t have much control over that.” She smiled back at him.

Music came through the open screen door, and she swayed to it as she tipped her beer up. When she set it down, Rhett wrapped his arms around her waist and drew her close to him. Suddenly, they were doing a country waltz around the kitchen to a George Strait song.

Leah looked up and didn’t even have time to moisten her lips before Rhett’s eyes shut and his mouth was on hers. It had the sweetness of ice cream, the fire of a double shot of Jack Daniel’s, and the steam of a hot Texas summer night all rolled into one.

When he ended it, she remembered what she needed to tell him. “Hey, I’m leaving tomorrow.”

“How long will you be gone?”

“A week. We’ll be back the day before the Sadie Hawkins Festival,” she said.

He toyed with a strand of her hair. “I’ll miss you, Leah. We can talk and text, right?”

“Of course we can. We’re going to New York City, not the moon. This year, Kinsey got to choose the place and make the plans. I got to do it last year, and we spent a week on the beach in Florida,” she said.

He took her hand in his and led her back to the table where they’d set their beers. “You’re probably going to find some rich entrepreneur and forget all about this old dirt-poor cowboy you left behind in Texas.”

“No I won’t,” she protested, then blinked up at him several times. “And if I did, we’d always have Ringgold.”

“You, Leah Brennan, are wicked. You come off as a shy schoolteacher, but underneath that homespun is someone else.”

“I don’t let my alter ego come out and play very often. Matter of fact, I only discovered this past week that she lives inside of me,” Leah said.

“So I’m the first one to meet her?” Rhett moved close enough to push her blond hair over her shoulder and plant a kiss on her neck.

“I do believe you are. She’s so new that she hasn’t been named yet, but I’m thinking about calling her Eve.”

“Sounds like a fine name to me. Does she carry apples in her purse?” he drawled softly, moving from her neck to her earlobe.

Leah shivered. “You might be the only one who’ll ever meet her, Rhett. She doesn’t play by the rules and her apples grow all yearlong on a special tree.”

“Oh, really? I think I like Miz Eve.”

“She likes you too. She says that you’re charming.”

“I’d rather be sexy, but I’ll take charming if that’s what she likes.”

“I’d probably give you half-and-half,” she whispered when his lips kissed her eyelids shut.

“I don’t take cream in my coffee.”

“Half sexy, half charming, half wild.”

“That’s a lot of halves for one old dirt rancher.”

Leah looped both arms around his neck. “I do believe the rancher is strong enough to handle an extra helping of half-and-half. But, Rhett, please be patient with me and Eve. She and I are getting to know each other, and I have a feeling that we will definitely argue at times.”

“Oh, honey, I intend to be very nice to both of you, and I am a very patient man,” he whispered.

*

It was nearing midnight when he walked her to her truck and penned her against the door with an arm on each side. “Don’t forget me up there in that big old city,” he said in a low voice.

“As if that could happen.” She smiled.

His lips lowered to hers, and she rolled up onto her toes to meet him. One kiss led to another until Leah had to break away or else clear out a spot in the bed of her truck to satisfy the cravings in her body.

“Good night, Rhett. Thanks for the most wonderful evening I’ve ever spent,” she said.

“Of all time?” he asked.

She nodded. “Of all time.”

He kissed her again, passionately, lingering, making her wish she weren’t leaving Burnt Boot for even a minute.

“You will think about me once in a while, won’t you?” he asked.

“Every day, probably several times a day,” she answered.

“Will you call me before and after you get on the plane?”

Another nod. “Why?”

“I want to know that you and Eve are safe. I’ve just now found you both. I don’t want to lose you.” He planted a soft, sweet kiss on her forehead and opened the truck door for her.

She started the engine and watched the taillights of his cycle get smaller and smaller as cold air filled the truck. It helped cool her body, but it did very little for her insides that were close to melting. She put it in reverse and had her foot on the gas pedal when a truck pulled in right behind her blocking her way. She stomped the brake and wondered if Honey or Kinsey had been sent to spy on her.

“Well, shit fire!” she swore when she realized it was Tanner Gallagher getting out of the vehicle.

He tapped on the window, and she hit the button to roll it down. “What are you doing out this late, Tanner?”

He leaned his elbows on the window and propped his chin on his fists. “I might ask you the same thing. Everyone knows Mavis gave you strict orders about that motorcycle cowboy.”

“I’m a grown woman. I told you before, I can make up my own mind about who I see or don’t.”