The Construction of Cheer - Liz Isaacson Page 0,38

again. “What is it?”

“It’s about us going to dinner,” he said. “Is that ever going to happen? I know we’ve both been busy. The ranch is sort of a mess right now, and we work hard all day. You go home to Aurora in the afternoons, which you totally should. I’m not saying you shouldn’t. Then, when you come back, I’m gone.”

He exhaled, not quite sure why he’d given such a long soliloquy. He should’ve just stopped after Is that ever going to happen?

“But I’m frustrated,” he admitted. “I think you’re incredible, and beautiful, and I want to get to know you while I’m not wearing a mask to protect myself from mold, and literally the ugliest pair of kneepads ever created.”

There. He’d said it all. Now, if she’d just say yes, Bishop could get back to living a normal life. Well, as normal of a life as he’d ever had while dating a pretty blonde woman.

“How about when you get here,” she said slowly. “We get my assistant on the phone and make a plan?”

A smile burst onto Bishop’s face. “I’ll be there in ten.”

The call ended, and Bishop couldn’t stop smiling, despite the news of a hole in the wall creeping back into his mind. It didn’t matter. He and Montana were tearing these cabins all the way back to their studs and floorboards. If they had to put in a new one, so be it.

The rest of the drive seemed to take forever, but he finally pulled in next to Montana’s gray pickup. He’d barely gotten out of the truck when she came rushing out onto the porch. “Come see this, Bishop.”

He just wanted to see her, but her wide-eyed excitement had his heart pounding triple time. The sight of her made his pulse double every single time, and he drank in her tank top of choice today.

This one was purple, which played nicely with her hair and eyes, and had a very grumpy cat on the front of it. She wore the funkiest shirts he’d ever seen, and that was one of the things he’d really like to ask her about while they sat across from one another at a nice restaurant, all thoughts of Shiloh Ridge somewhere else.

He took the steps two at a time and followed her into the cabin. They’d started in the kitchen, so he didn’t have to step from floor stud to floor stud to get to her. She turned just as he arrived at the bank of cabinets they’d pried off the floor yesterday but hadn’t removed from the cabin yet.

A small, black safe sat there. “This was in that hole,” Montana said, her voice animated in a way he’d never heard before. He simply stared at the safe, which was probably two feet wide and two feet tall. She pointed to the top of it. “There was this piece of tape here, and it had these numbers on it. Looked like a combination, so I figured, why not? I put them in, and it opened.”

He met her eye, and she carried pure joy and wonder in her expression. He found her made of light and beauty, and he wanted to see what she’d found inside that safe more than almost anything.

Almost.

This is another distraction, a voice in his head said.

He put his palm against the door of the safe and turned his hip into it. “I want to see what’s in this. I do.” He met her eyes again and swallowed. “But I really want to go out with you, and I’m not going to let another distraction prevent that from happening.”

Surprise entered her eyes, quickly followed by a bit of shyness.

“Just tell me I’m not the only one whose heartbeat goes crazy when I see you.”

She dropped her gaze to her hands, and Bishop wanted to make her look at him. He reached out and took both of her hands in his. “That came out wrong. Of course your own pulse doesn’t go crazy when you see yourself. But me. When you see me, do you react at all? I mean, I don’t need a huge compliment or anything, but I just….” He sighed. “I’m making a big mess of things.”

He so wasn’t the calm, cool, flirty cowboy he usually was with women. Ace would be downright horrified by everything he’d just admitted to, and Cactus would wish he’d gotten it all on video.

She looked up at him then, her eyes the crystal clear blue of a pure