Marshall and Kelli’s story is ALMOST Here! Ready for a sneak peek? Here you go–a snippet from Chapter 7 as the ice is starting to melt.
I sat down, put my hat on the chair beside me, and smiled, sort of. Maybe it was more of a thin greeting than a genuine smile because my stomach was twisted like snarled tumbleweed. She always did that to me.
Kelli wasn’t smiling back. My face fell to its usual shape, and I folded my hands on the table. “Did you order something?”
She gave a single nod. “A taco salad. You?”
I lifted a shoulder. “The usual.” When she didn’t look like she understood, I clarified, “Steak.”
“I should have guessed. Is that all you ever eat?”
“I ate chicken once.”
She shook her head, rolling her eyes. “Better watch out, or the waitress is going to give your dinner to Austen over there.”
I looked back at the table I’d just left. Dusty was energetically sketching out something on a napkin, and Austen was leaning over it, nodding and pointing to Dusty’s figures. “I think she can tell us apart.”
“Shouldn’t be too hard. He smiles.”
“I smile.”
“No, you don’t. Here, proof.” She held up her phone and swiped to the camera, turning it to face me so I could see a picture of my glowering mug.
“Very funny. Only an idiot smiles all the time.”
She put her phone away. “Ah, that’s right. You said I’m the idiot.”
“No, I—”
“No, no, that’s what you said. You said I was an idiot if I didn’t take your money, wasn’t that it?”
“That’s not how I meant it.”
She crossed her arms. “What did you mean, then? Because it sure sounded to me like you said—”
“Fair enough. Okay, maybe I said that, but I just meant you’d be a fool to turn down the opportunity.”
“So, I’m a fool and an idiot. Got it.”
I groaned. “Why do you always have to twist what I say? Can’t we just talk like normal people?”
Kelli tilted her head. “That depends, cowboy. Are you going to grow some manners?”
“What kind of manners are you looking for? The kind that try to warn someone who’s doing their darndest to get themselves hurt? Or did you just want me to say nice things I don’t mean?”
“Is there an option C? The kind where you say what you mean in a nice way and then leave people to make their own decisions?”
I drummed my fingers on the table, staring down at those soulful, dark eyes that snapped with fire. Heaven have mercy, but if she softened just a little… I’d take her out to my truck, and we’d have the kind of talk that messed up her lipstick and ruined my shirt collar.
“How about we start over?”
Those perfectly curved eyebrows lifted, and she shrugged.
“Fine. What do you want to talk about? The weather? Politics? Food?”
I started to answer, but the waitress came up behind me with both plates. I hadn’t decided how long I would sit there, but that sealed it. I’d stay until we were done eating, and then I’d take my hat and go.
She dug into her taco salad, and I carved off a bit of my steak. There had to be something we could talk about without fighting… something, something…
I swallowed my first bite, and inspiration struck. “The Coffee Wagon seems to be doing well for you.”
She gazed up at me through those thick lashes, and I was glad I hadn’t taken another bite yet. I’d choke on it.
“Pretty well. I’m planning to hire two more people, so I don’t have to cover so many shifts.”
“That must be satisfying.”
Her lips tightened as she chewed, and she nodded. Good, this was going well. She hadn’t even cussed at me yet.
“So, what will you do with the extra time?” I asked.
She swallowed. “I thought I’d become a coffee tycoon and buy up every coffee shop this side of the Divide.”
That was ambitious, even if it was an obvious exaggeration. How serious was she? “You’re planning to expand?”
“Nah, just kidding,” she said, waving her hand. “I’m keeping it simple. Sell some coffee and donuts in the morning, and then spend the afternoons riding my horse.” She slipped her fork in her mouth and gave me a look that was somewhere between “Bite me,” and “Come over here.”
I gulped, and my knife shook. “Uh… yeah… about the horse…”
Manners, she said. Whatever that was supposed to mean. Maybe I’d play her game for a bit. After all, I’d tried everything else with her over the years and always gotten shot down. “So… how’s it going? Do you like her?”
“She’s an angel doll. A very fast angel.” Her expression clouded, but then she gave me that dangerous smile again. “I just adore her.”
“Well, that’s… that’s good.” I sliced off a bit of my steak and chewed it carefully. “Where do you ride her, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Oh, around. Lots of places,” she said, but she was looking off to the corner of the room when she said it.
“Liar. You don’t have anywhere to go.”
Her eyes snapped back to me. “You know, not everyone has the luxury of all these facilities in their backyard. Some of us have to drive all over the country looking for something dry and available and… and hopefully, not creepy.”
I didn’t miss the shudder she gave, and right then, I could have wrung Cody’s neck. If Daniel Benton had said something slimy to her, so help me, I’d snap him like a twig. There was only one option at this point, and she wasn’t going to like it.
“You don’t have to drive all over the country.” I looked down, concentrating on my steak.
She didn’t answer right away. When I risked looking back up, her eyes were black, glittering slits, and she was puckering her lips. “Don’t you do it, cowboy.”
“Do what?” I asked innocently.
She pointed at my chest. “Don’t you dare me. You know it’s not fair.”
“Dare you to what? All I said was that you don’t have to go around hunting for arenas to ride in. You could just wait for spring.”
“That’s not what you meant, Marshall Walker. You’re trying to manipulate me into asking to come to your place, but I’d rather get frostbite than ride with you.”
I took a deliberate bite of my steak. “Ouch,” I said, with my mouth full.
“And I’ll tell you another thing. I’m not looking for help from over-bearing cowboys, so you can just take all your know-it-all and stuff it somewhere useful, like the fertilizer wagon.”
I was trying so hard not to crack a smile, but darn it, she was adorable when she was telling me off. “You’re making an awful lot of assumptions.”
“I have an awful lot of history to work from.”
I washed down the last of my steak with my drink, then set the glass on the table and met her eyes dead level. I don’t think I smirked, but I might have. “And what does this history tell you I’m up to?”
Her chin dimpled like it always did when she was trying to bite her tongue. It never worked, because she always sassed me afterward, but the fact that she kept trying made me smile.
“You’re trying to rub my nose in it, that’s what. You’re just waiting to say ‘I told you so,’ and I have news for you. I’m not interested in this little ego game anymore.”
“Good.” I leaned back and rested my arm over the chair beside me. “Neither am I.”
She blinked and looked at me sideways. “I’m… I’m not sure what to say to that.”
“Say you’ll come over tomorrow.”
“Not unless you tell me why.”
I shrugged. “Okay, sure. Maybe I don’t want you hauling off to some crap arena with bad footing and laming your horse. Folks’ll start talking like it’s the horse’s fault, poor breeding or whatever, and that’s bad for business.”
She shook her head and snorted, then sipped some of her water. “You’re a lousy liar.”
“Never trust a good one.”
“Alright, fine.” She set her glass down. “One time. I still have the trailer, so I can be there at two. Will that work?”
“I don’t know. Were you expecting me to show up, or did you plan to just ride alone?”
“Doesn’t Cody use the arena all day?”
“Not on a Sunday in the winter, sweetheart.”
Her teeth flashed savagely, and she poked her finger at me again. “I’ve told you before, don’t call me that!”
I held my hands up in surrender, chuckling a little. “Fine, whatever. How about this? I don’t call you ‘sweetheart,’ and you don’t call me ‘cowboy.’ Maybe we won’t come out all covered in claw marks after spending an hour together.”
“So that means I’ll have to put up with you when I come?”
I grinned. Might as well issue that dare she said would be so unfair. I needed all the help I could get. “Unless you’re not up for that.”
“Oh, no.” She laced her fingers and set her chin on them, giving me a sweet-as-honey smile. “How am I going to make you eat your words if you aren’t there to watch?”
I winked—that always annoyed her—and collected my hat. “Till tomorrow… darlin’.”
She threw her napkin at me.
Best date ever.
