Summer Love_ A Steamy Small Town Romance Anthology - Piper Rayne Page 0,157

she fell in love with a singing cowboy who lived in Montana, well, she was content to move there, too. Colt glanced around the wide-open plains from the back of the bay horse he was riding and had to admit it was pretty spectacular country.

He pulled out his phone. Ty caught the motion and smothered a grin. “She didn’t call yet? Service is spotty out here.”

Colt grunted and put it back in his pocket. “No signal. And no, she hasn’t called that I know of.”

Ty settled back in the saddle. “She might be embarrassed. She was pretty drunk.”

Colt scoffed. “I’ve seen half the town in that bar whenever I’ve been here. She has nothing to be ashamed of.”

Ty shrugged. “Yeah, it’s different for Sierra. She’s pretty private and reserved. She probably just wants to forget last night happened. Do you want to see her again?”

Colt thought about it. He liked her. She was funny, easy to be with, and he found her hella sexy. He doubted that was solely due to the alcohol content in her blood. He wondered if that was the real Sierra. Some people were different when they drank and maybe she wasn’t that person. He kind of wanted to find out. However, he had no business starting something when he wasn’t going to be hanging around. She was anchored in Granite Junction while he was a wanderer and his roots, the few he had, were in Nashville.

He shook his head. “No, it’s probably for the best that I don’t talk to her. I’m not staying. I just want to be sure she’s okay.”

Ty shrugged. “You can always do a drive-by. Check on her. Or we could ask Nathan to do it. It’s kind of his job as sheriff.”

Colt grunted, annoyed by the idea of someone else checking on her. He spurred the horse to a canter and headed down the hill to the creek, mostly to avoid the conversation, Ty following with a laugh. This was why Colt had never needed or wanted a brother. A sister was bad enough.

When he got back to the ranch, and his phone had signal again, he had a voicemail.

Thank you for being a gentleman last night. I hope I didn’t ruin your boots.

He grinned. Yeah, those boots were toast. Leather and vomit didn’t mix. At least he knew she was okay.

Chapter Four

Colt tried to put Sierra out of his mind. It was the right thing to do. He should head back to Nashville to work out the details for his next recording session. For now, he was stuck riding herd with Ty and his brothers or playing his guitar, trying without success to come up with some songs for the new record.

Currently, he was sitting on the porch of his cabin at Redemption Ranch, a heating pad against his back on the porch swing and his guitar on his lap. The cool spring breeze wafted over him, bringing the scent of wildflowers that he had no hope of naming to tickle his senses. It was quiet in the late afternoon, with only the sound of birds and the wind. He could almost understand why his sister fell in love with Montana.

“Is the muse speaking to you? Or is the pain overpowering it?” Piper spoke quietly from the side of the porch.

Dundee, her cattle dog mix, bounded up the steps, dropped a disgusting tennis ball at his feet, and gazed expectantly at him, tail wagging furiously. Colt leaned down, wincing as the motion pulled at the tender muscles in his back, grabbed the ball and tossed it away from the cabin for the dog to race after.

“The heating pad is helping. I thought your brother-in-law trained horses. Was that one of his tricks? Buck off the newbie?”

He was still pissed that the horse he’d been riding decided that he wasn’t happy with the direction Colt wanted to go and had done a little song and dance, leaving Colt in the dust while the other guys laughed their asses off. Not only did his legs hurt from the unaccustomed activity of riding, but his back was torqued and he hated taking painkillers of any sort, except the liquid kind.

Piper chuckled softly, took the ball from Dundee, and threw it for him again. She came up on the porch and sat in the opposite chair. “You could always try a massage. We have a great spa in town. We’re working on setting up a satellite spa here for summer guests.”

He snorted. “I