keep something of Lincoln’s father’s in their lives.
Bear said nothing, forcing Sammy to look at him. He commanded every room he stepped into, and she wondered what it was like to hold that much power in the palm of one’s hand.
“Look,” he finally said. “I’m a real idiot, and I’ve gone about this all wrong.” He held up his phone. “I’ve got a whole script, and I can’t say it.” He sighed like his ranch had been infested with tens of thousands of grasshoppers, as it had been in the past.
“I like you,” he said, sort of yelling the words at her. “I like, you know, like you, and I wondered if maybe you’d go to dinner with me, so we can get to know each other on a personal level, not just a ranch level.”
Sammy’s brain threatened to shut down again, but she steadfastly refused to let it. “I’d have to get a babysitter,” she said.
“And…you don’t want to?” He looked absolutely miserable, but he was still standing there. Still looking at her, even as a flush colored his neck and stained his cheeks. Oh, that wasn’t fair. Seeing him in a vulnerable state only made him more attractive than he already was.
“I can ask around,” she said.
“We’ll take Lincoln,” Simone called from the porch, and Sammy spun that way. She didn’t know they’d had an audience.
“We’ve got older nieces and nephews,” Micah added. “He’ll love it out here.”
They both beamed like this was the solution to world peace or something equally as great. Sammy looked at Bear; Bear looked back at Sammy.
Together, they burst out laughing, and he took another step closer to her. “Just one dinner,” he murmured so Simone and Micah couldn’t overhear. “If it doesn’t go well, at least it’ll be free.”
“Why wouldn’t it go well?” she asked.
“Well, I mean, I’ve already thrown your tools all around and stomped out of the room like a grizzly. So dinner can’t be as bad as that, right?” He grinned, one side of his mouth pulling up higher than the other. So adorable, and she never thought she’d use that word to describe a man like Bear Glover.
Of course, she’d never seen him smile much around the ranch either.
“All right,” she said. “I’ll go to dinner with you.”
“Yeehaw!” Micah yelled from the porch, and Sammy’s face heated with embarrassment too.
She looked at Bear, who had glared Micah into silence. “And I’m expecting to hear about this script at dinner. Tonight?” She looked back to the porch. “Does tonight work for you guys?”
“Tonight is fine,” Simone said, completely unashamed to be standing there, intruding on this private conversation. Or what Sammy wished was a private conversation.
“I’ll pick you up at seven,” Bear said. “Does that work? We can bring Lincoln out here together, and then go grab something to eat.”
“Sounds like a date,” Sammy said. She finally opened the door and got in her truck, glad when Bear waved to the porch and did the same. He backed out first, and she expected him to trundle on down the lane. He didn’t but waited for her to leave.
She did, watching in her rearview mirror as he pulled back into Micah and Simone’s driveway and got back out of his truck. She finally had to look away as the road curved toward the highway, but she acknowledged the jittery feeling in her stomach as she came to a stop and looked both ways.
She wasn’t sure if it was because of what Micah, Simone, and Bear might be saying about her, or because she’d finally accepted a date and would be leaving Lincoln with someone besides his teacher.
“Or because the best-looking man in the state asked you out,” Sammy said as she turned onto the highway and pressed on the gas pedal to get the truck going. It shuddered in protest, its acceleration not very good.
“And you said yes.” A smile curved Sammy’s mouth, and she enjoyed the excitement until she pulled up to the mechanic shop on the south side of town. Then she realized she’d need to pick out something to wear and put on makeup without her sister’s help.
Chapter Three
Bear circled the block where Sammy lived, still about fifteen minutes early. He’d said he’d pick her up at seven, but he hadn’t been able to sit around the homestead for another minute. He figured he’d drive really slow on the way from the ranch to the town of Three Rivers.
He had, but it hadn’t been slow enough.
“Go get