The Rancher and the Event Planner - By Cheryl Gorman Page 0,12
atmosphere in the barn or the way the light fell across his handsome face. Or was it his smell of soap, shaving lotion and hay that had scrambled her brain? His tanned face had paled slightly when she’d admitted her secret crush. She wanted to take the words back but she couldn’t.
He hadn’t uttered a word since they left the barn and she needed to smooth things over and get them back on solid, friendly ground again. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”
He gave her a quick glance and said, “You didn’t. Just surprised me that’s all.”
“I think I surprised myself. I hadn’t planned on ever admitting that to you.”
He cut his blue gaze to her and tipped a corner of his mouth upward. Every time he looked at her she got this fluttery feeling in the center of her chest.
“I hadn’t planned to tell you about keeping my Eagle Scout badge either. That makes us even.” He arched a brow. “Unless you have another secret you’d like to tell me?” His voice ended on a quiet, husky note.
Only that he was blazing hot, set her nerve endings on fire, made her pulse tap dance and her knees weak. God help her, she had to remember the reason she was here in the first place. “No more secrets.”
***
When they reached the ranch house, Linc was lounging on the front porch holding a copy of The Secret Garden with Molly beside him. “Rafe you should take JC over to The Roundup,” he said. “It’s a great little Honky Tonk, JC.” His brother’s gaze shot to Rafe. “I’ll stay here with Molly. What do you say?”
Molly looked at him with sleepy green eyes. “Can I go too? Please,” she said on a yawn.
Every muscle in Rafe’s body tensed like a bull stuffed into a chute with a bucking strap squeezing his gonads. “You need to get to bed and Jennifer and I have—”
“Great, it’s settled then. You two better hurry along.”
***
A few minutes later, Rafe pulled into the parking lot of The Roundup, his truck jouncing over the dirt lot scarred with ruts and pot holes, now filled with water from the afternoon shower. Thank goodness the shower hadn’t lasted long, otherwise a slimy bog of mud would be surrounding the large wooden building boasting a neon cowgirl on a horse with a rope around the neck of a single flashing steer.
A few stars were winking out in the transparent dark blue sky when they climbed from the truck. She inhaled deeply and the hot sage scented air filled her head, bringing with it Rafe’s scent of hay, horse and man, a deadly combination for any woman. A country song urging JC to shuffle her feet and swing her hips to the get-up-and-dance beat, pumped through the walls of the bar as they stepped inside.
A huge mahogany bar ran the length of the back wall with a dance floor filling a sizable space to the right. Couples crowded around two pool tables tucked into a back corner and light fixtures fashioned after old, tin lanterns hung from the ceiling, and cast golden light about the place. A variety of men and women sat around the bar and even a few young women with toddlers on their hip, swayed in their husbands’ arms on the dance floor.
“Hey, Rafe.”
JC turned to see a woman with gray hair still scattered with a little light brown woven into a long braid lying over her right shoulder. A pretty blonde stood beside the woman holding a tray of empty beer bottles.
Rafe gave the woman a kiss on the cheek. “Jennifer, this is Payton Parnell, she owns the place,” he said with a gesture.
Ms. Parnell grinned and lines splayed around her bottle green eyes. “Welcome to Salvation. So you’re the lady who’s going to help Rafe pretty things up.”
“That’s right.”
“I’m sure you and Rafe will do a great job.”
Ms. Parnell introduced the blonde as her daughter, Maddie. The young woman with her blonde hair twisted up and fastened with a clip at the back of her head, turned sparkling blue eyes on JC. “You must be Jennifer Barrett—sorry JC.”
“The town hasn’t changed. Everybody and their dog still knows everything that goes on around here.”
Maddie chuckled. “News sparks faster around here than summer lightening.”
“Nice to meet you, Maddie.”
She cocked her head slightly to the side. “Got a table for you two by the dance floor. What can I get you this evening?”
Maddie took their drink orders and disappeared