One Texas Cowboy Too Many (Burnt Boot, Texas #3)(56)

“Of course not. Do you know how fattening those things are? I won’t eat but one, and there’s a dozen in this bag,” Mavis declared.





Chapter 18


Main Street in Burnt Boot stopped a few hundred yards from the turnoff to the bar, and from there, it was nothing but a rutted path that went on down to the Red River. Two blocks before the big yellow dead-end sign, the street had been roped off for the carnival. Leah sat in the back of her truck in the bar parking lot and listened to the noise of the carnies setting up the rides and the stands. The Ferris wheel had always fascinated her, but with her fear of heights, she’d never been brave enough to ride one before. Not even with her father protecting her from falling, or with Honey and Kinsey promising they would sit right beside her.

People were starting to leave the bar, so she slipped back inside the truck cab and slid down in the seat. Tanner and Betsy walked right past her, and she caught remnants of something about the race and Sunday dinner, but she couldn’t make out the rest with all the other noise. The parking lot cleared out pretty quickly, and she straightened up in the seat. Evidently, Rhett had ridden to the bar with Sawyer and Jill because only one truck remained in the parking lot.

Leah felt more and more like the stalker she’d accused Tanner of being as she waited for Rhett. But then she’d rationalized on her way to her vehicle that evening, he couldn’t very well show up at River Bend, could he?

She leaned back against the headrest and shut her eyes. She must have dozed, because a touch on her arm startled her, and she sat up with a jerk. When she focused, she was looking at Rhett, not a foot from her face.

“What a wonderful surprise,” he said. “Are you here to give me a ride home?”

“I thought we could talk about our plan for tomorrow,” she said.

“Hey, Leah, are you going to see to it this tired old bartender cowboy gets home tonight?” Jill yelled.

“Do my best. Does he have a curfew?” Leah asked.

“Chore time in the morning,” Sawyer answered.

“I think we can manage that,” she said.

“See you tomorrow morning at the festival?” Sawyer asked.

“I’m helping serve breakfast. Come on out and have pancakes with us,” she answered.

“Jill and I were plannin’ on it,” Sawyer said.

“See you there.” Jill waved out the window.

Sawyer’s black truck faded into the darkness, leaving Rhett and Leah alone in an empty parking lot. He opened the truck door and leaned in and kissed her with so much raw passion that it took her breath away. She tasted smoky bar, beer, and a hint of hamburger as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

He pulled away. “You smell like heaven, and I’m all sweaty.”

She hopped out of the truck and handed him the keys. “You drive and we’ll talk about our plan for tomorrow. You got anything in mind?”

“I do and I was hoping you’d show up tonight so I could walk you through it rather than discussing it over the phone.” He circled her waist with his arm and walked with her around the back side of the truck. “We can park at the store and do a practice run.”

He settled her into the seat and quickly made his way back to the driver’s side. “I figure we’ll go hide out in the hay barn on Fiddle Creek until about ten minutes before time for checkin’ in at the station, and then you can drag me back in handcuffs.”

“I get to spend two whole hours with you in a hay barn. I wonder if we’ll get bored,” she teased.

“I’ll do my best to see to it that you’re entertained.” He parked in front of the store building and leaned across the console. Their lips met in a fiery kiss that left them both panting.

“We have to talk,” she said.

“Oh no. I hate those words,” he said.

“It’s not a breakup talk.”

“Then is it about the race or about Tanner Gallagher? If it’s about the race, then I think I’ve got a pretty good plan already. But if it’s about Tanner Gallagher trying to get you to go out with him, I know all about that, so there’s nothing to talk about it.”

“How do you know?” she asked.

“Polly told me. I was the third in a game of canasta one of the evenings while you were gone, when they didn’t need my help at the bar. She said that Naomi had decided to destroy Mavis through you and she’s using Tanner to do it. This is Burnt Boot, town of a feud so old that y’all should have a Feud Festival instead of a Sadie Hawkins Festival, and it is also the town where the gossip is hot—and one lady I know is even hotter.”

“Okay, then let’s talk about the race.” She smiled.

“All the guys I’ve talked to say that it starts at the store and we get a ten-or fifteen-minute head start to run and hide. That about right?” he asked.

“That’s the rules,” she answered.

He kissed her and she completely forgot about everything and everyone but Rhett. She was somewhere between earth and heaven, floating on a lovely cloud where nothing—feuds, Sadie Hawkin’s festivals, or anything else—even mattered.

The kiss ended, but he kept an arm around her. “The preacher will fire the shot for the guys to take off.”

“That’s right,” she said.