Owen chuckled. “Do I make you nervous?”
She snorted, pretending he hadn’t just hit the nail on the head like an expert carpenter. Unfortunately, she didn’t seem to fool him, since he continued to laugh at her as she pushed past him toward the restaurant.
They weren’t seated at their table more than two minutes when Verona Charles walked through the front door. The older woman’s eyes brightened when she spotted them. Linnea might not be from Blue Falls, but she’d been there enough to know about Verona and her matchmaking ways. And the way she was eyeing Linnea and Owen and changing course toward them, there was no doubt what was going through her mind.
“Incoming,” Linnea said.
“Huh?”
She nodded toward Verona, causing Owen to glance over his shoulder.
“Oh, hell. I know that look.”
“Linnea, hon, how are you doing?” Verona was as chipper as a little bird heralding a spring morning.
“Fine. How are you?”
“Great. Glad to see you’re out enjoying yourself.” She patted Owen on the shoulder. “And with such handsome company.”
Linnea only smiled noncommittally and tried not to burst out laughing when she caught Owen’s eye roll.
Not one to give up so easily, Verona shifted her focus to Owen. “I’m also happy to see you’re making sure Linnea has a good visit to Blue Falls. Maybe you can convince her to stay.”
Something flashed across Owen’s face that looked a little too much like panic. It shouldn’t bother her if what was between them was nothing more than sex, but it did bother her. She couldn’t help but wonder if that meant she should think about staying in Blue Falls or if she should race back to Dallas at the first opportunity.
Only when the waitress came to the table to take their order did Verona cease her obvious matchmaking and head to the front counter to pick up a to-go order.
When Owen suggested they get a pizza that had every kind of meat the restaurant had, Linnea swore she could feel her arteries clogging just thinking about it. “How about we go half and half?” And then she ordered her half with mushrooms and pineapple.
“Weirdo,” he said as soon as the waitress walked away. “Fruit doesn’t go on pizza.”
“Whatever, King of Cholesterol.”
When Verona picked up her pizza, she shot them a wide smile and cheery wave as she headed toward the front door.
“I see Verona hasn’t changed,” Linnea said. “I should bring her to Dallas to drum up business for the shop.” Or she might prove useful if Linnea indulged her crazy whim to start a new bridal shop in downtown Blue Falls.
“I swear that woman either has a network of spies or some sort of sophisticated alert system that lets her know whenever two single people get anywhere near each other within the city limits.”
Silence settled between them, making Linnea realize that they really didn’t have a lot in common. But was that a bad thing? Weren’t opposites supposed to attract? That’s all it was, pure physical attraction. But that wasn’t something she could really indulge in the middle of a pizzeria.
“So, how’s the horse training going?”
“Pretty good. If I can make a sale soon, that would really help. Hard to make a name for yourself when you don’t have a track record.”
“How are you getting the word out?”
“I mentioned what I was doing to Liam Parrish, India’s husband. Wyatt works for him.”
“That makes sense with Liam owning the rodeo company that puts on the rodeos here.”
Owen nodded. “He does them other places around Texas, too. So maybe he’ll hear of somebody looking for a good horse for competition.”
“You should go to rodeos yourself and talk to the riders. No one can talk up your work as much as you can.”
“Could be a lot of travel that turns up nothing.”
She leaned her forearms on the table. “Or it could be what sets you apart from other trainers. Successful businesses usually have to invest before they can start making a profit.”
“Easier said than done. I don’t have a lot of extra cash lying around.”
“I know what you mean. When I signed the papers for my loan to start the shop, I was shaking so hard I could barely write. But I believed in what I wanted to build enough to take that leap of faith.”
“And you think I should take a leap like that?”
“Doesn’t matter what I think. The question is whether you believe enough to do so.”
Their pizza arrived then, and they dived into it as if they’d been without food for a week. When Linnea no longer felt as though her stomach was going to consume itself, she wiped her mouth on her napkin and looked at Owen.
He noticed her watching him. “What?”
She steepled her fingers. “Another thing you could do is develop a website and print some business cards.”
“Sounds like more money I haven’t made yet.”
“Not really. You can do both remarkably cheap. I could even design them for you, since I did the ones for the shop.”
He lowered the piece of pizza he’d just picked up. “You’d do that?”
She smiled. “Sure. It’s not like I’m offering to carry you on my back across North America.”
But there was something about the look on his face that told her it was a big deal to him. Had no one really ever expressed a belief in him? That made her incredibly sad. A wave of determination to make sure his dream became reality welled up inside her. She might not know anything about horses, but she was reasonably intelligent about how to build a business.
She pointed toward the pizza. “Eat up, horse boy. We’ve got a website to build.”
* * *
OWEN WATCHED AS Linnea moved images around the screen of her laptop, each step bringing him closer to actually having a real business.
She pointed toward the screen. “See what I did there? You can use that to change out information about what horses you have for sale, their traits, backgrounds, et cetera.”
“You might as well be typing in Russian.”
She looked up at him where he stood leaning over the back of the chair at the kitchen table. All thoughts of the website or training horses flew out of his mind as he stared into her beautiful eyes, as his gaze drifted to those soft lips of hers. He wanted nothing more than to capture her mouth with his, but with his dad and Garrett sitting in the next room watching TV, it wasn’t a good idea. If he and Lin showed any sort of hint about what they’d been sharing, everyone would get the wrong idea.
Linnea must have seen his thoughts in his expression, because she suddenly slipped out of the chair then pointed to it.
“Come on. It’s not that hard.” She pushed him into the chair.
Garrett sauntered into the kitchen. “You know you could train a chimp easier, right?”
Owen gifted him with a rude gesture, but Lin placed her hand on Owen’s shoulder and said, “Your brother is smarter than you give him credit for.”
Had she just said what he thought she had? When he saw the curious look on Garrett’s face, Owen laughed to steer his brother’s thoughts away from where Owen feared they were headed.
“And Lin is overly optimistic.”
After Garrett deposited his ice-cream bowl in the sink and returned to the living room, Linnea pulled a chair up next to Owen’s and sat down.
“Remember what I said earlier. You have to believe in yourself before others will believe in you. So no more negative self-talk.”
He gave her a salute, and she responded by playfully punching him in the arm before pointing toward the computer screen again.
Either she was right and he was smarter than he thought, or she was just a good teacher, because by the time midnight rolled around he was actually able to follow what she was telling him. When she nodded at the computer and told him to enter the information about the horses he was training, he only had to ask her one question. It might not be a big deal to most people, but when he finis
hed the update and she nodded her approval, he felt as if he’d successfully climbed Mount Everest.
Linnea bumped his shoulder with hers. “See, I told you that you could do it.”
He turned toward her and cupped her face with his hand. “Thanks to you.” Unable to be near her and not kiss her any longer, he lowered his lips to hers.
At first, she responded as though she wanted the kiss as much as he did, but then she pulled away and looked beyond him.
“Garrett or your dad might come in.”
“They’re both fast asleep.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because I can hear my dad snoring, and Garrett is as predictable as the sunrise.” He pulled her close.
She stiffened for a moment, then tilted her face up to his. “I understand why you’re so in demand by the local female population.”
“That right?”
She smiled, and damn if it didn’t make his insides feel funny. An alarm bell started clanging in the back of his mind, but his body was having none of that warning. Instead, he wrapped his arms fully around Linnea and kissed her as he had up at the lookout. She felt so good pressed against him, and his head spun as if he were intoxicated. What was it about her that made him want her every waking moment? He’d never felt that way, not even with Katy... No, he wasn’t going to think about that disaster when he had a warm and willing woman in his arms. Something about that thought sent such a jolt through him that he stepped away abruptly, causing Linnea to stumble. He automatically reached out to steady her.
“What’s wrong?”
He shook his head. “You’re right. We shouldn’t do this here.”
She gave him a sexy smile. “The barn?”
That damn bell got louder and he took another step back. “We better cool it for now.”
Her smile faded before his eyes, and part of him wanted to wrap her in his arms again. But another part was telling him that something was changing and he needed to put distance between them.
“I’ve got to get up early in the morning,” he said. “Thanks for the help with the website.” Then before his raging erection started thinking for him, he headed out of the kitchen and stalked straight to his bedroom.
Once inside the room that had been his since he was a little boy, he had the strangest urge to lock the door. But it wasn’t because he thought Linnea was going to sneak in and have her way with him, because honestly he wouldn’t fight that. And that was the crux of the problem. She made him lose his mind so much that he would make love to her when there was every possibility that his dad and Garrett might hear them.
He ran his hand over his face and shucked off his clothes. When he stretched out on his bed, he listened as the floorboards creaked under Linnea’s feet as she made her way to the guest room. He thought back over the moment that had sent him backing away from her. It was the thought about having a warm and willing woman in his arms. How many times had he had exactly that and it had been enough? But he’d realized with Linnea, it was more than that. And it freaked him out. Experience had shown him that when you cared too much for someone, fate was waiting right around the corner to take her away from you. Linnea had already been through enough. She didn’t need to be collateral damage from his caring too much for her.
Chapter Eleven
Since Chloe had taken Friday off from work, she stopped by to pick up Linnea late that afternoon. After they finished meeting with Elissa’s cousin, Chloe said they’d drive over to Austin for dinner and to catch the new Ryan Gosling movie.
When they arrived at the bakery, Keri’s sister-in-law, Josephina, was the one manning the counter. Unable to resist the sweet smells filling the building, Linnea bought a lemon cookie to munch on while she and Chloe waited on Elissa and Cami. While Chloe placed her order, Linnea sank onto a chair and stared out the window. The longer she stayed in Blue Falls, the more she felt it enveloping her like an old friend. The faces she passed on the street here seemed to be happy, and she suspected that hers reflected that same happiness.
It was a miracle, really, that she could feel that way after the wreck her life had been when she arrived. But Owen, of all people, had changed all that. Her heart expanded at the memories of how he held her as they kissed, how when they made love he seemed every bit as pleased by her satisfaction as his own, the mingled look of surprise and thankfulness he’d given her when she’d helped him set up his website.
But had her morphing feelings shown themselves? Was that why Owen had kept his distance the past couple of days? He’d spent long hours out on the far reaches of the ranch, only working with the horses he was training when his dad or Garrett was around. Another day he’d spent away from the ranch entirely, off to check on another horse somewhere south of San Antonio. Part of her had wanted him to ask her to come along, but he hadn’t. So she’d sat at the ranch doodling sketches of how she would set up a shop in the store space in Blue Falls if she was crazy enough to make that leap and running figures to see if it was even remotely in her financial ballpark.
Chloe snapped her fingers near Linnea’s face, drawing her attention.
“Huh?”
Chloe laughed. “You could have been in outer space you were so far away.”
“Sorry. Mind was just wandering.”
“Anywhere in particular? You’ve seemed distracted a lot lately.”
Linnea shrugged, knowing she needed to stop being so transparent. “Just thinking about what I want the next step in my life to be, I guess.”
She realized that at least a part of her liked the idea of taking another step with Owen and not having to hide it. But that hadn’t been their deal. It was sex, friendship, nothing more. But that rang hollow somehow, and she wondered if she’d been a fool to think she could be the kind of person who got that intimate with a man without feeling something more than animal desire.
“Are you sure that’s all it is?”
Linnea forced a smile she hoped looked genuine. “Yeah. What else would it be?”
Before Chloe had the chance to guess, Elissa and another young woman who favored her walked through the front door. After introductions were made, they spent the next half hour looking through wedding magazines. The familiar buzz of excitement that Linnea feared Michael had damaged beyond repair returned as she talked with Cami about dress styles, designers and accessories.
When Cami seemed to have settled on a general idea of what she wanted, she thanked Linnea for her help.
“I know this isn’t really about dresses, but I was wondering if I could ask another favor,” Cami said.
“Sure. I’m happy to help any way I can.”
“It’s about the reception. I’m thinking about having it on the Lady Fleur, the paddle-wheel boat out on the lake. Do you have time to come take a look at it with me and tell me what you think?”
Linnea was a little surprised by the request, but what else did she have to do? Owen had been on top of the barn roof with his brother patching a leak when she left the ranch. “Okay.”
As she and Chloe followed Elissa and Cami to the dock where the Lady Fleur was tied up, Linnea couldn’t help but think about all the preparations she’d made for her own wedding reception. Something about her time in Blue Falls made that swanky affair feel as if it belonged in the wedding plans of an entirely different person. A cruise around Blue Falls Lake sounded so much better.
She followed Cami and Elissa on board, glancing out across the stunning beauty of the lake. If she lived here, she’d be near this water all the time. She could totally see herself going for daily walks around the path that circled the lake. She shifted her gaze toward the door in front of her, noticing Cami and Elissa had already disappeared inside. Promising herself a walk around the lake before she left for home, she stepped inside.
“Surprise!”
Linnea jumped and yelped at the same time. It took a moment for her to realize the faces looking back at her were all ones she knew and they all looked really pleased by her reacti
on.
“Happy birthday!” Chloe’s words were followed by cheers from the small crowd.
With her hand against her chest as if that would slow her pounding heart, she spun toward Elissa and Cami. “This was all a trick to get me here?”
Elissa smiled. “Yes, and it worked beautifully, if I do say so myself.”
Linnea turned to Cami. “Are you even getting married?”
Cami shrugged. “Maybe someday. Have to finish college first.”
Chloe came over and bumped shoulders with Cami. “She is Elissa’s cousin, but she’s studying theater at UT. I’d say she’s got a pretty good future as an actress, don’t you think?”
Linnea scanned the gathering again and noticed the balloon bouquets in the corners and the party hats on the tables. “I can’t believe you did all this for me.”
Chloe waved away the idea that it was any big deal. “Hon, we’ll use any excuse for a party.”
Linnea laughed. “You all certainly are sneaky. I had no idea, especially since my birthday isn’t for a couple of days.” And the fact that she hadn’t given it much thought. After all, she’d believed she’d be spending it as a married woman in a tropical paradise.
But her gaze lit on Owen standing with his brother, Wyatt, Liam Parrish and a few other guys, and she thought this was way better than white-sand beaches with the king of liars. Maybe thoughts about her planned wedding reception had felt as if they were for another person because they had been. As crazy as it sounded, she felt as if the days she’d spent here in Blue Falls had changed her. Or perhaps it had just shown her who she really was, down deep.
Her friends showed her to the table where she was to sit. Instead of a party hat, there was a gold paper crown that they insisted she had to wear during the entire party.
She laughed. “Did you raid a kids’ party supply store?”
Elissa plopped her party hat on her head. “They were on sale. Don’t say we don’t go all out for a friend.”
When the boat pulled away from the dock and a lady she didn’t recognize started bringing out dishes of barbecue, potato salad and slaw, it hit Linnea how much this little party must be costing her friends.
Her Cowboy Groom (Blue Falls, Texas Book 5) Page 13