One Texas Cowboy Too Many (Burnt Boot, Texas #3)(9)

The next time the door opened, several couples made their way to the bar stools. A woman hopped up on the one right next to Leah and asked, “You from around here?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Burgers any good?”

“Best in Texas,” Leah answered.

“Then give us a dozen of your biggest, best baskets,” the woman told Jill. “We heard this was a good place to get some supper, dance awhile, and have a few beers.”

“Where y’all from?”

“Up around Terral, Oklahoma. We’re out ridin’ our motorcycles for the weekend. We rode down to the Fort Worth Stockyards this morning and we’re on our way home. Thought we’d stop by here and have some fun and then go on home when it gets a little cooler.”

“Have fun?” Leah asked.

“Hell, yeah, but not as much fun as we’ll have here. We love to dance,” the woman said. “Hey, bartender, we’ll have six pitchers of beer.”

“Who’s your designated driver?” Leah laughed.

“Honey, we don’t need one. Ain’t a one amongst us that can’t hold their liquor. You here to flirt with the bartender?” the woman asked Leah.

Leah blushed. “No, ma’am.”

“You crazy. I don’t see a weddin’ ring, and he’s one hot-lookin’ cowboy.”

Rhett pulled up pitchers of beer and strained his ears to hear the conversation. It had been years since he’d seen a woman blush. He liked it—a lot.

The woman cackled. “Darlin’, I’m over sixty, and once you hit that magical age, you can say anything you want and get into anyone’s business, and everyone chalks it up to bein’ old. You have a good time tonight. Tell that sexy cook to holler out ‘Williams’ when our burgers are done.”

*

Leah took her burger basket and Coke back to the Brennan table and sat down beside Honey, making sure her chair was in a position that allowed her to catch glimpses of both Tanner and Rhett.

Honey pilfered a French fry and popped it in her mouth. “You’d best stop flirting with Rhett. Granny says he’s trouble. He’s a sexy hunk, darlin’ Cousin, but I wouldn’t go against Granny for a night in a five-star hotel with Adam Levine.”

“Why does Granny think he’s trouble?” Leah asked.

“It’s the motorcycle and the ponytail,” Kinsey answered while Honey stole another fry.

“So? He’s a rancher,” Leah said.

“She’s made her decision, Leah. Neither Kinsey nor I would take her on in a real battle, and you’re not as tough as either one of us,” Honey said.

“He’s Sawyer’s cousin and she didn’t have a bit of problem with either of y’all tryin’ to run him to ground,” Leah argued.

“That had a purpose. If we took Sawyer out of the picture, then Jill might have hooked up with Quaid, and we would have inherited Fiddle Creek and all those wonderful water rights with her.”

“Then maybe I’ll go after Tanner Gallagher,” Leah whispered.

“Good God almighty damn.” Honey’s eyes came close to popping out of her head and rolling across the dance floor like marbles. “She’ll put your sorry ass in a convent. What’s gotten into you, anyway? You’ve always been the good child.”

“It’s this hot Texas sun that’s fryin’ the good sense right out of her head, Honey. She needs a vacation to New York City to shop. It’s a good thing we’ve got one planned here pretty soon,” Kinsey said.

Honey sighed. “In some ways, I’m glad we’re going to New York City. In other ways, I’m going to miss lying out there on all that pretty white sand at the beach.”

Kinsey sipped at her beer. “Our sweet cousin needs to spend time in retail therapy, not frying more brain cells. Y’all can thank me later for choosing a spot for our annual girl’s week away from Burnt Boot that has air-conditioned shopping on the agenda every single day.”

“Maybe enough of my brain cells got fried that the good girl is about to go bad,” Leah said.

“You can be as badass as you want, Cousin, but it had best not be with a Gallagher or with Rhett or with Granny. Rhett’s not the settlin’ type. Granny said so and she’s never wrong.”

“Granny hasn’t even met him,” Leah argued.

“Like Honey said, you don’t argue with Granny,” Kinsey said.

Leah pushed her burger toward Honey. “Help me eat this. I’m not as hungry as I thought I was. And why isn’t Rhett the settlin’ type?”

“If you hadn’t had your head stuck in the classroom all these years, you’d know what to look for, trust me. That man is a player. He’ll sweet-talk you into bed, and then you’ll never hear from him again. It’s a game with a cowboy like him.” Honey picked up the burger and took a bite.

“What if I don’t want to settle down? What if I only want a romp in the sheets with him or maybe with him and Tanner both? Not at the same time, but maybe a few times with Rhett and then a few times with Tanner, to see which one I like best?” Leah asked.

“How much Jack did you drink before you left home?” Honey gasped.

Leah motioned toward her lips. “You’ve got lettuce between your two front teeth.”