Marry Me for Real, Cowboy - Valerie Comer Page 0,1
A pudgy middle-aged man stood beside the hostess desk, eyebrows raised.
Adam hesitated. Erickson and the host didn’t seem to know each other. He shook his head. “Not at all. My fiancée and I met here for a peaceful celebratory dinner.” Adam jutted his chin toward Scotty. “He was just leaving.”
The host hesitated, his gaze ricocheting between them.
Adam turned his back on Scotty and threaded his fingers with Riley’s. “If you’ve got a booth away from the window, that would be perfect. Right, honey?”
“Sure would!” Riley glanced back at Scotty but stayed with Adam as he followed the man to a booth at the other end.
He slid in across from her. Wow, he’d lucked out this evening after all. She was cute as a filly and sassy besides. Too bad kissing was his limit these days.
“Your server will be right with you.” The man set two menus at the end of the table. “Can I get you something to drink in the meanwhile?”
Was that a flash of wariness in Riley’s eyes?
“Ginger ale and a black coffee, please.” Part of that whole new leaf thing. Besides, he needed his wits about him. “How about you, honey?”
“Ice water.” She stared at him as though calculating. “With lemon.”
The host nodded and stepped away.
Adam flipped open the embossed menu, but the aroma of liver and onions still called his name. None of the other entrees looked more appealing. “What’re you having? Order whatever you like.”
“Why?” Her elbows plunked on the table. “Why are you buying me dinner and being so nice to me?”
He leaned against the padded seatback and set his hat beside him.. “Why not?”
“I don’t even know your name. Or why Scotty seems to know you.”
“The name’s Adam Cavanagh.”
She didn’t blink.
Apparently she didn’t follow the rodeo circuit. So, she wasn’t quite perfect, after all. “My stepdad owns Rockstead Ranch northeast of town. And I may have missed your name, too. Riley...?”
“Riley Dunning.” She licked her lips in a nervous gesture. “Born in Missoula and raised all over the west.”
“Riley Cavanagh has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?” He might have asked blandly, but his mind was skittering. Had a third option shown up, after all? There might be more than one way to shake up things at Rockstead.
“You’re some kind of crazy.”
Adam belted out a laugh. “You’re the one who asked a complete stranger to kiss her.”
One minute Riley was trying to ditch Scotty’s slimy attention and the next she sat across from a hot cowboy in a Golden Girls themed diner with carte blanche to order what she wanted.
She’d see if he meant it. Who knew when she’d eat again?
When the server returned, Adam indicated she should order first.
Riley pointed to the menu’s Friday-night special. “Steak, medium rare, and crab legs. I’ll take the baked potato with extra sour cream, and may I have the Caesar instead of the house salad?” She looked up at the server, avoiding eye contact with Adam.
Here’s your chance to back down, buster.
He leaned across the table and tapped the appetizer section on the facing page. “Sure you don’t want a starter to kick off that feast?”
If he was going to be that way about it... Riley met his gaze and locked on. “Go ahead and order for both of us.”
Adam nodded and looked at the server. “We’ll have the nacho platter first, please. I’ll take liver and onion rings for my entree. Mashed potatoes and double up the gravy. The house salad is fine for me.”
“Right away, sir.” The server gathered the menus and bowed away.
The cowboy narrowed his gaze at her for so long Riley squirmed. “You said I could order anything.”
“I did. Meant it, too.”
Whew. “Then what’s the problem?”
Adam reached over the table and caught Riley’s hands. “Tell me how you know Scotty.” His hands were strong and rough and tanned, with a thin scar running from his wrist to his thumb.
She resisted the urge to trace it. “He seemed to think I owed him something because I hitchhiked a ride from him.”
“What’s a nice girl like you doing hitchhiking?’
Riley raised her chin. “Who said I was a nice girl?”
A glimmer of humor shone in his eyes. “The other kind would have considered giving Erickson what he wanted.”
“He can’t keep his hands to himself.”
Adam tipped his head back and chuckled.
What was so hilariously funny? She glared at him before becoming aware of his fingers squeezing hers. Oh. She pulled away, and he let her, though he laughed even harder.
He was so exasperating.