The Trouble with Texas Cowboys (Burnt Boot, Texas #2)(77)

She slipped her hand into his. “Are we good, Sawyer?”

“Yes, Jill, we definitely are.”





Chapter 24


Verdie turned around in the church pew and winked at Sawyer. “I didn’t think Gladys would miss another Sunday or let y’all stay home, either,” she said.

Gladys smiled. “That would set the rumor wheel on fire.”

“Why?” Jill asked.

“They’d say that y’all were laid up in bed together,” Gladys whispered so the children sitting beside Verdie couldn’t hear.

Jill’s face burned, but she took several deep breaths and hoped to hell that her aunt didn’t notice.

“You. Are. Blushing,” Sawyer whispered softly in her ear. “Would you go to dinner with me after church?”

“As in a date?”

He nodded. “As in a normal, plain old date.”

“Are we telling Finn and Callie that we have a date and can’t take them up on another invitation to their place?” she asked.

“We will if they ask. Is that a yes?”

“It is a definite yes,” she said.

The preacher took the podium, and the whole congregation settled in for a sermon. Jill could almost hear the old men behind her getting comfortable for their Sunday morning nap.

“Good morning. It is less than two weeks until Valentine’s Day, a day of love and romance. I’ve been asked”—the preacher shuffled his notes—“to announce that there will be a Valentine’s party right here at the church on Friday, the thirteenth.”

A few people chuckled.

The preacher held up a palm. “I know it’s considered an unlucky day, but we’re going to put that wives’ tale to the side for our party and think of it as a wonderful day of romance. There will be a dinner, and Kinsey Brennan has said that she and Quaid are having a speed-dating evening for the young single folks, so get ready for lots of fun.”

He went on to announce that the nursing-home visitation had been postponed that week due to a conflict of schedule and that there would be a baby shower on Wednesday. Jill hadn’t heard the names of the prospective new parents before, but they weren’t Gallaghers or Brennans, so they were most likely sitting in the middle section of pews.

“I’ll expect everyone to respect the church and be civil to each other during our Valentine’s party,” he said seriously.

The tension level rose from a solid five all the way to a ten in seconds. The Brennans shot dirty looks across the heads of those folks in the middle section, looks which no doubt meant to tell the folks on the other side that, by golly, they would be civil only if they wanted to and not because the preacher told them to.

“And now I’d like to introduce you to Ruth and her mother-in-law, beginning with the Book of Ruth in the Old Testament,” the preacher said.

Evidently, he was going to preach on love that morning, which was a wonderful topic for the first of February in any other church at any other time. But he’d already lost his crowd when he made that statement about being nice. Still, he plowed on, raising his voice to wake up the dozing folks at the right time, lowering it to get the attention of those who were drifting away to think of something else.

Jill blocked all of it out of her mind and let herself get giddy thinking about a real date with Sawyer. It was crazy, but she couldn’t help it. They’d been through so much together, including some damn fine hot sex, but this was a date. It wasn’t friends with benefits; it was the real thing.

She glanced over at the Brennan side and locked gazes with Quaid. There were no daggers, but he was not smiling. His jaw was set firmly, and the look in his pretty eyes said that he still had a lot of fight in him. A cold chill chased down her spine. Surely the two families wouldn’t do anything to take Sawyer out of the picture.

Sawyer’s hand covered hers in the narrow space between them and squeezed gently. Could he read her mind? Was he assuring her that he could take care of whatever the Brennans threw at them?

She tried to listen to the sermon, but starting in the middle didn’t work so well, so she looked at the Gallagher side of the church. Be damned if Betsy wasn’t eyeballing Sawyer like she had something pornographic in mind. Before Jill could blink, Betsy caught her eye and smiled. She made a pistol with her thumb and forefinger, aimed it at Jill, and snapped it as if she’d pulled the trigger. Then her eyes shifted to Sawyer, and she blew him a kiss off the tips of her fingers.

Holy freakin’ shit! The Gallaghers are going to shoot me, and the Brennans are going to do away with Sawyer.

Gladys poked her on the arm. “What’s goin’ on?”

Jill shrugged. “Just my overactive imagination, I’m sure.”

She kept her eyes straight ahead until the preacher finally asked them to stand for the benediction that Quaid Brennan would deliver. Sawyer did not drop her hand when they were on their feet but held it firmly for the whole congregation to see.

Immediately Finn and Callie turned toward them, and Callie asked, “Hey, y’all want to try again for dinner at Salt Draw with us today? And while I’m thinking about it, you want to go to the antique show in Gainesville next Sunday?”

Sawyer held up her hand. “We have a date, so we’ll have to take another rain check.”

“And, yes, for next Sunday,” Jill told Callie.