Dearest Cowboys Box Set

by Mia Brown

  “Yep, my sister had a field day with me,” she said. “She’s been begging to take me shopping for a long time. I cannot wait to get back into my normal clothes and to be back in my normal environment again. But I have to admit that she did a good job. The dress is oddly comfortable. I’m sorry I took so long. I’m a little bit hungover and the shower felt too good.”

  I laughed. “A little? I’m a lot hungover. Uh, I’m going to take a shower myself. And then I think we need coffee. Strong coffee.”

  “Good idea.”

  I was glad that we were talking normally to each other, but I noticed that she kept averting her eyes away from me. Then again, I was standing in just a towel, so no wonder she didn’t want to look my way. I wasn’t exactly making this situation much better. Once in the shower, I let the water wash over me. I hadn’t had that much to drink in a long time, and I was going to suffer for it today. The water felt good and seemed to revitalize me a little. I took a long time too, and when I walked out, I smiled when I saw that Cassidy had two cups of coffee made for us.

  “Wow, thank you. That’s good service. Was I that long?”

  She laughed. “Nah, the room came equipped with coffee. Didn’t you see it?” she said and pointed to the little tea and coffee-making facilities in the corner.

  I shook my head and resisted the urge to tell her that I had too many other things to look at to worry about coffee last night. Even this morning I had woken up to the view of her naked body in front of me. I hadn’t taken in the room at all, which I now saw to be a very big and homely-looking room.

  “I didn’t see it,” I said. “Wow, it’s cool that they did this. It’s like being in a hotel.” I reached for the coffee and took a sip. “Ah, this is just what I need right now. A good shower, a strong cup of coffee, and a very early night will make me feel better. My poor head.”

  “Yeah, I don’t usually drink so much. I can’t believe you stole that bottle of wine,” she said.

  I laughed. “I can’t believe you didn’t steal one. True, I let the team down,” she said.

  We sat in silence for a while, both of us sitting on opposite sides of the bed drinking our coffee. Usually, the silence between us was comfortable, but I could cut the tension with a knife this time.

  “Uh, do you want to talk about what happened?” I finally asked. I wasn’t sure if it was the right approach, but I figured we would have to speak about it eventually.

  She sighed. “This is awkward. I…I never expected that to happen,” she said.

  “You and me both.”

  “I’m sorry for the whole marriage thing. That wasn’t right of me. I never meant for it to go as far as it did.”

  I chuckled. “Well, for what it’s worth, it did make the night a lot more interesting. I mean, I’ll go as far as saying that I actually had a good time.”

  She smiled, but again, she wasn’t really looking at me. She was smiling into her coffee cup. “Yeah, it was fun. Uh, so…uh…”

  “Look, let’s not make this weird. You and I have always been friends, and I would hate for all that to change. I’ve always felt so comfortable around you and I don’t want us to start avoiding each other.”

  She nodded. “Yeah, uh, I feel the same. We’re buddies.”

  “Exactly. And we were both very drunk last night, and we were clearly trying to prove a point to Lara. We just had a little bit of fun. We both probably needed to let off some steam, and we happened to be around each other when we needed it most. I had a good time.”

  “I had a good time, too.”

  “Good, then that’s how we can leave it. We were drunk, it was fun, but that’s all it has to be. We don’t need to turn this into some big, emotional deal. It is probably best if we just went back to being friends. I really like you as a friend and nothing is going to change that.”

  “Uh, yeah, me too. Well, okay then. Friends again,” she said. She looked up at me and extended her hand out. We shook hands on it, and then continued to drink our coffee in somewhat awkward silence again. I guessed it was going to take some time for us to feel completely normal again.

  “Friends again,” I murmured.

  “So, what do you want to do?”

  “About what?” she asked.

  “Look, it’s completely up to you, of course. I’m your guest, and you should do whatever it is you feel comfortable with. But I’m not sure how much I want to hang around here. It was fun last night, but I have a pounding headache, and the thought of socializing doesn’t sound too pleasing to me.”

  “You want to bail?” she asked.

  “Only if you want to.”

  “I want to.”

  I breathed out a sigh of relief. I had been hoping that she would agree with me. “Oh, good. Anyway, everyone thinks that we just got married, so I don’t think they would be totally opposed to us wanting to leave early. I have a feeling they would completely understand.”

  “Absolutely,” Cassidy said. “Anyway, the most important thing was that I was here for the wedding. The rest doesn’t really matter anyway. I’ll text Rick a message so that we don’t even have to see them face-to-face, and we can get the flock out of here.”

  “Perfect. Are you ready for a very long drive home?” I said.

  “Only if we can do multiple coffee and toilet breaks.”

  “Deal.”

  We laughed and quickly started to pack up. The sooner we got out of there, the better. I kept making jokes, simply because I didn’t know what else to do, and the two of us headed off.

  “Phew, we managed to get out of there in one piece,” I said to her. “Let’s get going.”

  “Goodbye, weirdly awkward wedding,” Cassidy said, and waved at the ranch.

  “Now, there are many things we should probably forget about,” I said to lighten the mood. “But the most important one is definitely my dance moves.”

  She laughed and I laughed, but it was impossible not to notice the awkwardness between us. We both clearly still felt weird around each other, and I wasn’t sure how long it was going to take for that to go back to normal. Also, even though I told her that I didn’t think of her in ‘that’ way, it was hard not to see her naked body every time I looked at her. Even though she was now wearing clothes, it was hard to forget her beautiful and luscious curves. Who knew that little Cassidy was so sexy? I gulped and tried to push the thought out of my head. I put the radio on even though the sound of the music was hurting my throbbing head. I was going to do my best to hide my arousal, and prayed that the trip home went fast.

  “Uh, if you want to get some shut-eye I don’t mind,” I said to her.

  “You sure? I don’t want to be rude.”

  “No, go for it. I’m too hungover to talk anyway.”

  I was grateful when I saw her rest her head against the door and close her eyes. Just a few hours to go and all of this would be over.

  Eleven

  Cassidy

  I paced the house, waiting for my sister to arrive. I’d called her the day before asking her to come over, but she’d been busy and could only make it today. I didn’t want to talk to her about everything over the phone. I still had no idea whether or not I was going to tell her about the fake marriage thing. I had planned on telling her yesterday, but the more time went by, the more ridiculous the whole thing seemed to me. What had I been thinking? Anyway, the wedding was over and there was no need to think about the lie. The only thing I did have to worry about was the fact that I had slept with Houston. What had I been thinking?

  I hadn’t slept a wink on the way home from the wedding, but I had pretended to. I’d closed my eyes and made it seem like I was sleeping, but the truth was that I just didn’t want to interact with him. Every now and I again I would open my eyes slightly and look at him, and I’d noticed a frown on his face. I figured he obviously wished that he had never slept with me.

  The flirty Houston from the night before was now nowhere to be seen, and I couldn’t believe what an idiot I had been. I
felt deeply embarrassed and ashamed by the whole thing. The worst part was that I kept remembering the fact that I had woken up to him staring at me. And I’d been completely naked! How long had he been looking at me? Most importantly, what had been going through his mind?

  I heard my sister’s car pull into the driveway, and I rushed to open the door for her.

  “Oh, thank goodness you’re here,” I said as I pulled her inside.

  “What on earth is going on?” she said. Then she looked me up and down and smiled. “Hey, you’re wearing the new overalls! Nice.”

  “Yeah, they’re not as bad as I thought they were going to be,” I admitted. “They felt strange at first, but now they feel pretty good.”

  “Ah, so now you admit…your sister was right.”

  I groaned. “Yeah, yeah. You were right.”

  “Why do you look so frazzled? And what is so important that you couldn’t tell me on the phone? Wait…let me make coffee first,” she said and held up a box. “I baked cookies.”

  “You did? How come you got to be so domesticated and I didn’t?”

  She shrugged. “You like being outside. I like being inside. We’re a yin and yang, a perfect set.”

  With coffee poured, I grabbed a cookie and grinned. My sister was pretty much good at everything she did, which was both annoying and impressive at the same time. If I didn’t like her so much, I’d probably be jealous of her.

  “These are delicious,” I said.

  “Glad you like them. So, what’s going on? Did something happen at the wedding? I’ve been dying to talk to you. I can’t believe I had to miss the wedding. Did something happen with Lara?”

  “Well…she’s definitely the same Lara that we know and hate,” I said. “She hasn’t changed one bit. She wasn’t very nice to me at all.”

  “Did you expect her to be?”

  “No, I guess not. Anyway, the wedding was okay. I ended up having a lot of fun with Houston.”

  “Good, I’m glad you brought him with you. It’s good that you had some moral support. So, the two of you got along well, then?”

  I blushed. “Uh, yeah…we did.”

  She narrowed her eyes at me. “Why are you blushing? Oh my God, did something happen between you and Houston?”

  I nodded. “Sort of.”

  “You kissed! You kissed!” she said. She was so excited that she spilled coffee on herself and didn’t even seem to care.

  “Yeah, we did. But that’s not all.”

  Nicole stared at me in surprise. “Are you going to tell me that you slept with Houston?”

  I nodded.

  “YOU HAD SEX WITH HOUSTON?” she screamed. “And you’re only telling me this now?”

  “Uh, yeah,” I said, and I decided that I was definitely not going to tell her about the fake marriage too. If this was the way she was reacting already, she was going to have a heart attack when she discovered what we had done. I was just glad that I was telling her this in the comfort of my own home. I had considered meeting her for breakfast, but I was glad now that I didn’t. Everyone in the café would’ve known that I had slept with Houston otherwise.

  She beamed. “This is wonderful.”

  “It is? That’s not the reaction I thought you would have at the news.”

  “What reaction did you expect from me?” she asked.

  “A mixture of surprise and disgust,” I decided on.

  She laughed. “Oh, I’m very surprised, but I’m not disgusted. I’m delighted.”

  “Why would you be delighted? You’re my sister. You shouldn’t be encouraging me to sleep around.”

  She giggled. “So, how was it?”

  I sighed. “Are we really having this conversation?”

  “Oh yes, we are. Anyway, you’re the one that slept with him, not me. You’re also the one who clearly needs someone to talk to. So, it’s time to spill the beans. Tell me everything. Details, Cass, I want details. Don’t hold back.”

  “I cannot believe you’re so excited about this.”

  “Oh, you know I’ve been trying to get you to meet a guy for a long time now. You need a man, and I like Houston. Enough about that; tell me how it was first.”

  “Well,” I said. The moment I thought about the two of us together, it was hard not to smile. I had been trying to avoid thinking about it, but the thought of him and I in bed together kept creeping up on me when I least expected it. “It was…amazing.”

  She squealed. “I knew it would be. He’s one handsome guy. I believe I had some part to play in all of this. He probably took one look at you in that dress and wanted to jump your bones.”

  I groaned. “He did tell me numerous times how nice the dress was. He is definitely handsome, and the sex was pretty much incredible. By far the best sex I’ve ever had in my life. And yes, I know that I haven’t slept around much, but even I know that it doesn’t get better than that.”

  “Wow, that’s some high praise. He would get a big head if he heard you talk this way. What guy doesn’t want to hear that he was the best sex you ever had?”

  “Although, we were completely wasted, too,” I said with a heavy sigh. “Like really, really drunk. It doesn’t stop me from remembering all of it, though. I was very aware of what I was doing. The alcohol just gave me more confidence to do it. In fact, the moment we slept together I felt almost sober again. It was all so wonderful. But…it was also all so wrong. All so very wrong. I cannot believe I went and did something like this. It was great on the night we did it, but now, I definitely regret it.”

  “Why would you regret it? It sounds to me like you had an amazing time. What’s wrong with that? You deserve to have a good night with a handsome guy. Anyway, I think Houston is a good fit for you. He’s handsome and he has a good personality. He’s just the sort of guy I would want for you. And I’m your sister, so I’m very fussy about who I want you to end up with. I think the two of you make a great couple.”

  “A couple?” I shook my head. “No, we’re definitely not a couple, and doing this has probably ruined a perfectly good friendship.”

  “Why has it ruined it? I’m confused.”

  “Nicole, it was a one-night stand,” I said in frustration. “We both woke up together and agreed that there was nothing more to the whole thing. We agreed it was a one-time affair and that we would try and not let it get in the way of our friendship. But that’s easier said than done. It’s been a few days and I haven’t seen him at all. It’s going to be awkward when I do. I just know it.”

  “Hmm, okay, so here’s a question then…do you want it to be a one-night stand? Or do you want it to be something more? Be honest with me here. And be honest with yourself.”

  I sighed. As much as I hated to admit it, I actually wasn’t sure what I thought. “I don’t know. I’m confused. I never set out to sleep with him. It sort of just happened. Now I don’t know what to think anymore. One thing is for sure; I definitely can’t get the whole thing out of my mind. It’s driving me crazy.”

  “Well, maybe that’s saying something to you, then. Perhaps the two of you should consider getting together. Maybe this was just the start of something special. This doesn’t have to be such a bad thing.”

  “No,” I said. “You don’t understand. I know for a fact that Houston doesn’t see us as anything more. Trust me, he told me, and I saw it in his eyes. Anyway, I’m not going to make a fool out of myself. I’m not going to come across as this clingy stalker girl. We had our fun, and I should probably just let it go.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure,” I said.

  “Well then, as much as I hate that, you would know better than me. If you want to leave it, then leave it. Just try and avoid him for a while to let this whole thing dissipate.”

  “That’s the problem; I have to see him.”

  “Why?”

  “Turns out that in our haste to leave the place, Houston ended up getting some of his things muddled with mine. When I unpacked my suitcase, I saw th
at I had some of his things.”

  “And you haven’t told him yet?”

  I shook my head. “No, I’ve been avoiding it. But I’m going to have to drop it off soon. It would be weird not to give it back to him.”

  “Just go and get it over with,” Nicole suggested.

  I laughed. “You make it sound so easy.”

  “Okay, here’s the thing. You need to see if there’s anything going on between the two of you. Who knows, maybe you’ve built this thing up in your head, and when you see him again, you’ll realize that there’s nothing there. You said it yourself; you guys were drunk. And the next day you were both just embarrassed. If there’s something going on between you, you’ll know right away. If there’s nothing, then you can go back to just being friends. Either way, at least you’ll know.”

  I sighed. “You see, Nic, this is why I don’t do the whole romance thing. It’s just awkward. Why does everyone else make it seem so easy?”

  She chuckled. “Oh, it’s never easy. Don’t worry; you’ll be fine. Now, tell me again about sleeping with him…”

  I laughed. “You’re impossible. I might kick you out if you’re not careful.”

  “You wouldn’t dare. If I go, the cookies go with me. So, your choice. Either you tell me about your sexy night with Houston, or you get left without cookies.”

  I reached for a cookie, took a bite, and grinned at her.

  “You’re lucky these are so good.”

  Twelve

  Houston

  It had been a confusing few days. I’d spent most of the time at home, trying to keep busy, but I couldn’t deny that I had thought about Cassidy far too many times. She hadn’t called or come by to see me, so I knew that she didn’t think about me the same way. Also, I wasn’t even sure what I thought about her. I had a feeling I was just very confused. It would’ve been different if she had been a stranger, but the fact that she was my friend made it all the worse.