Full Rigged (Lost Creek Rodeo #4) - Rebecca Connolly Page 0,48

and the numbers would be skewed.

She wasn’t sure what she’d feel when she saw Ford again. Would she be excited to see a familiar face? Or embarrassed from the mess of the last time they were together? Would her stomach flip at his crooked smile? Or would she see just her new friend and on-call hug buddy?

Before she could worry herself into a knot, the truck pulled to a stop behind a line of three other trucks, and she heard the laughter of little kids.

She looked out at the field, bewildered by it. “Who’s got kids?”

“Caleb does,” Julia told her with a quick grin as she dropped the tailgate for them all. “Two or three, I can’t remember. They must be staying up for the meteor shower.”

Now this definitely wasn’t a date.

Which was good.

She didn’t want to go on a date with Ford.

She stumbled a little as she moved toward the tailgate to get down, her face flaming. Of course, she didn’t want to go on a date with Ford! She didn’t want to go on a date with anybody! She was so against dating right now that it wasn’t even funny, and the idea of finding romance ever again . . .

Brynn frowned at herself as she hopped down. She was supposed to feel panic at that, maybe even a full surge worth. But she hadn’t.

She wasn’t panicked, and she definitely wasn’t surging.

Weird.

“Hey, dinner!” Ryan called out when he caught sight of his sister. “What do we get?”

Kellie snorted as she got out of her truck. “If I know you guys, you ate already, and this is second dinner.”

“So what if it is?” Westin demanded from the blanket he sat on, several others scattered out around him. “We’ve worked up an appetite today!”

“I’m sure you did,” Kellie replied without any concern. She hefted a laundry basket of wrapped food. “Tinfoil dinners, boys. Kellie style.”

Confused expressions looked back at her, except from Ryan.

He was grinning like an eight-year-old. “Seriously, Kells? Don’t tease me.”

“Not teasing,” she quipped, sending one of the dinners out to him like a frisbee. “Travels well, tosses nicely. What else do you need?”

“Not a dang thing!” he called back, sitting on his blanket and digging in.

Brynn watched as Kellie deftly tossed the other dinners out, even sending some over to Caleb and his wife, and the heavenly aroma of barbecue and meat filled the air.

Even though she wasn’t hungry, Brynn’s stomach rumbled from the smell.

She distracted herself by looking around for Ford as the other ladies moved toward open blankets. A hulking dog with a wagging tail caught her attention, and she sent up a silent prayer of thanks. Sherlock was better than a neon sign at the moment, and he was very interested in Ford’s tinfoil dinner. Brynn moved in that direction, slipping her hands into the pockets of her hoodie and smiling without much effort.

“Hey,” she said when she reached them.

Sherlock was instantly next to her, no doubt hoping she had a dinner to share with him. She rubbed his head before looking over at Ford, who hadn’t moved.

“Hey yourself,” Ford replied after a swallow.

Brynn gestured at the blanket. “Anybody sitting here?”

Ford looked at it, then smiled up at her. “Sherlock was, so . . .”

She snorted a laugh and looked at the dog. “Care to share, bud?”

Sherlock groaned, licking his face quickly.

“That means yes,” Ford assured her, scooting over a bit. “Have a seat.”

Brynn did so, leaning back and looking up at the few stars now winking above them as the daylight faded. “Are the stars amazing out here?”

“Yeah,” he said without hesitation. “I mean, I’m from Montana, and I’ve never seen stars like what we get on the ranch up there, but it’s pretty impressive here.”

“Montana?” She brought her gaze down and focused on him. “That’s pretty far from Texas.”

He nodded, his smile soft and crooked. “Yeah, but I was just there, so it’s fresh in my mind. Summer in Montana is gorgeous.”

“Truth,” Lars echoed from a few blankets away. “My favorite was always Christmas in Montana, though.”

“Oh, yeah.” Ford lay back on the blanket, peering up at the sky. “The most amazing sight is driving out at night. The sky is black because there are no cities close enough to lighten it.” He spread his hands out, gesturing across the expanse above them. “Stars are everywhere, and then you see a ranch house in the distance. There’s nothing else around, and everything is so clear. So clear, you can see the lights