And no one had failed to note that Boone’s ranking had gone up steadily since May.
Buying the portable massage equipment had been Boone’s idea.
“Can’t think of a cowboy who’s going to say no to a beautiful woman laying hands on him.” Boone had laughed, then paused. “They’ll have clothes on, right?”
“Did you last night?” she’d teased, remembering the massage she’d treated him to as part of her “graduation requirements skills demonstration.”
“Damn.” Boone had shaken his head in mock disapproval. “Think I’ll need to put a leash on you.”
Piper dragged her attention back to the present. She had work to do and dreaming about Boone wasn’t going to get it done. She rinsed off in the small shower in their trailer and changed into yoga capris and a tank so she could get her booth set up. She spotted Boone in the center of a group of men on the other side of the temporary field parking lot. They were deep in conversation, and one man with dark hair was pointing toward the arena.
Piper started toward them. Like always, Boone seemed to have a radar around her and he looked up. A frown chased across his face before his features settled into more neutral territory. His eyes shuttered and Piper’s heart stuttered.
He’d never looked at her like that. Ever. He held up his hands, all fingers spread, and then jerked his head toward the trailer.
He’d help her set up her traveling masseuse equipment in ten. Got it. Piper tried to push down the warning that shivered down her spine, and smiled back. Her sunny smile that she used when she didn’t always feel like smiling but she didn’t want anyone to know. When she needed to feel brave and wanted.
Boone walked off with purpose. His strong, long legs ate up the ground as he headed off toward the outbuildings where the stock would be held. Several of the men followed him. She could also see the top of the grandstand peeking through a break in the buildings. Not too many cowboys had arrived yet. Boone had already leveled his small trailer and detached his truck and settled his horse, Sundance, in a stall.
Piper raised the awning and rolled out a western motif carpet and added the two fold-out chairs and a small table. She warmed up the Keurig machine, knowing Boone would soon want coffee, and she could make herself a quick chai.
The sun gleamed overhead in a brilliant blue sky. Piper looked longingly toward the end of the field and a stand of trees. It looked so pretty and inviting. From the map she thought the downtown was in that direction, and she thought she could just catch a glimpse of the top of a domed building. Piper was tempted to go exploring, but she knew she should get her tent set up—not always expect Boone to help her. Even though he still loped around the front of his truck to open her door every time.
Piper worried her top lip between her teeth. Maybe Boone felt she was taking him for granted. She needed to be independent. Not a burden. He should be able to go off with his friends, not feel like he had to entertain her. Guys hated that, didn’t they? Her father had never wanted her around. And Piper had never had a boyfriend before Boone.
Tent. Then the massage table and chair. And the sign that she’d designed. She wasn’t going to just play the girlfriend following Boone around weekend after weekend. Or worse, she felt herself flush, a buckle bunny.
She unlocked and then popped off the lid of the truck’s bed and slid it off the back.
“Hey.” A huge man accompanied by a young boy and a large white dog strode up to the truck. “Let me help you with that.”
“Oh, I’m fine,” Piper said, a little intimidated by the sheer size and energy of the man.
“I’m helping my sister-in-law, Sky, near the entrance in a few, but I got time to get…is this a tent?…set up. Where do you want it?”
“Thank you, but really I don’t want to trouble you.”
“No trouble.” He easily lifted the truck bed lid over his head, slid it under the trailer and with one hand lifted out the massage table. He rested it against a tire and then grabbed the chair.
Sheesh. Her equipment was mobile, but not toy size or weightless.
“Okay, then, Superman.”
“No, Colt Ewing Wilder.”
Piper scrunched her eyes shut. She’d said that aloud.
“Piper Wiley,” she said, smiling at the little boy. So much easier than facing down her embarrassment with his father.
The boy looked to be eight or nine. He grinned at her and shook her hand.
“I’m Parker Wilder. We’re like name twins,” he said. “With names this close.” He held his palms together nearly touching. “We could be family.”
Piper felt like her chest was pierced with an icicle. A family. The thing she’d never really felt she had.
“That’s my dad. Tall, huh? My mom’s tall too. She’s studying to be a vet. This is our dog, Dude. I named him. Why are you bringing a table and a chair to the rodeo? The grandstand is rebuilt so there’s lots of seats. There was a fire. A big one.” He made an explosion sound.
Piper laughed. She couldn’t help it.
“I’m a masseuse,” she said.
“A what?” Parker stared. “Never seen that event.”
“It’s a profession.” She bit back a smile.
“So do you want the tent to be in the back where the cowboys limber up?” Colt asked. “Or is it for the public?”
“I’ve…um…been…working with the cowboys before and after they ride when they feel they need it.”
Colt nodded and headed off like he knew where he was going, which was good because she had no idea. “Parker, carry the tent poles,” he called out.
Parker scrambled into the truck and started grabbing the blue vinyl fabric that was rolled around the tent poles. Holding it, Parker jumped down to the ground.
“Can you grab the hammer and ropes?” Parker asked as he ran after his dad.
Piper swallowed her burst of independence, picked up the hammer, supporting cables and her sign. Before she followed the father and son, she pulled out a cooler that had some sparkling waters and juices as well as a container of oatmeal and dried fruit cookies she’d made last night. If the people of Marietta were going to be hospitable, who was she to hold back? She’d been looking for a small town to settle in. She shouldn’t waste this opportunity to learn more about this one. She liked the beauty of Montana. And four seasons would be interesting.
Not that Boone had asked her to stay once the tour was over. But he hadn’t talked about her leaving either.
Piper squared her shoulders and tried to ignore the instinctive protest at the thought of parting ways with Boone. He’d promised the summer. Not forever. Their affair was supposed to be fun, an impulse, a chance to see the Big Sky Country and a few of the surrounding ones, and why not? She was young and free and while she’d seen so much of the world, she’d seen none of the American west. She’d known nothing of cowboys or rodeos.
Or love.
But Piper had faced the truth long before she and Boone had watched Fourth of July fireworks sprawled on the grass of a small-town park. She was deeply in love with Boone Telford. She couldn’t imagine a day spent without him.
And his distraction and coolness today were making her think she might have to start.
By the time she’d found Colt and Parker, her tent poles had been pounded into the ground by a mallet that was looped through Colt’s pants. Parker had rolled out the thick vinyl material of the tent, and she and Colt spread it out and looped the material through the support poles and tied it off.
“Pretty slick.” Colt felt the fabric. He carried in her table and chair. “That had to set you back some.”
It had set Boone back. Piper felt herself flush. Boone had wanted her protected from the elements, especially the sun.
“I have a carpet I put in here so I’ll set the table and chair up tomorrow,” she said feeling a little shy. She pulled out a container of cookies and offered them to Colt and Parker. Colt took one. Parker took two with an impish grin, holding one in each fist.
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“We can carry the carpet in,” Parker said. “I’m getting muscles like my dad.” He flexed.
She avoided looking at Colt and his massive chest and arms. He could probably carry the rug she’d bought in Turkey with one curled finger.
“Let’s do it, P. You figure out how to unfold the chair and then we’ll meet Aunt Sky.”
“Really, I can…” Piper trailed off as the little boy began to eye the clasps and hinges on the chair with interest. It had taken Piper twenty minutes to set up the chair the first time and none of those minutes had involved success. Boone had figured it out in two minutes. It took Parker five. So much for her blaze of independent spirit.
Five minutes later her traveling masseuse business was good to go without her breaking a sweat and Colt and Parker had each grabbed another cookie and ducked out of her tent.
“Welcome to Marietta,” Colt said.
*
Boone wound quickly around the outbuildings. He’d been gone longer than he’d anticipated. Piper hadn’t texted. She rarely did. She gave him a lot of independence. Always smiling, letting him go off with the other cowboys to drink after a win or a loss if he wanted. Over the past four months, he hadn’t wanted. But saying no to a hometown crowd was not as easy. And dodging his dad’s invitation to dinner had been like a damn UN meeting.
“Let’s hit Grey’s,” his dad had urged. “Everyone’s going to be there. The town’s been thirsting for the rodeo. You can help me write my speech for tomorrow. Hate public speeches, but they still keep dragging me out of mothballs and kicking me up the steps to one stage or another. This year I’m in the damn parade. A float. Not even a horse.”
Boone had looked at his father. Mothballs his ass. His dad’s hair was still jet black—barely any threads of silver, and it remained thick and shiny. He was still crazy fit—long days at the ranch will do that, and from what Boone had experienced all his life, his dad loved his wife, kids, ranch, animals and always gave back to the community.
“I’ll go,” Boone had promised rashly. “But I got a couple of things to do first. I’ll be there in thirty.”
He’d be late to meet his dad, his friends. He was already late to help Piper. This was stupid. Impossible. But he knew the minute he told her he was Marietta born and bred, she’d wonder why he hadn’t said anything. And then she’d ask about his family. And why he’d never gone home for a visit in four months—something his family had not overlooked, and were alternately curious, irritated and hurt about.
And of course they’d love Piper. She and Riley would hit it off. And his mom would give him that smile. And his dad would slap his back. Start pushing more of his plans for the ranch expansion with the Wilders and bull breeding. And a rodeo school.
He’d walk his dad’s path.
Not his own.
Not that he knew what it was.
Yet.
He did know he didn’t want to spend his life only as Taryn Telford’s son and Witt and Rohan’s younger brother. His country-rock singing sister’s big brother. He needed his own string of accomplishments before he became someone’s husband and father. A man he’d be proud of.
“Hey, baby,” he called out as he came up to his truck. Piper was stretched out, shins and feet on the brown, cream, black and green swirled carpet and then she arched back around so that her hands gripped her feet and her forearms and elbows also rested on the carpet. Her thick ponytail curled on the soles of her feet. She wore yoga capris and a racer-back tank. And no bra.
Boone could barely swallow. What the hell had he needed to do that was more important than being with Piper? From the yoga cards she leafed through each day hoping to draw him into more poses than the basics, he thought this pose was called kapotasana.
He adjusted himself and tried to drag his mind out of the gutter, but dang this girl made it hard to elevate his thoughts above his buckle most days.
“Sorry I’m late.”
She uncurled from the pose and rolled onto her stomach, feet over her head and touching the ground.
Jesus, was she trying to kill him?
“You could join me, cowboy.” Piper smiled at him, her eyes soft.
His stomach flipped, but he tried to keep his voice light. The moment she’d looked at him, four months ago, the attraction had been a punch to the gut. He’d felt almost desperate to be with her. He’d felt nothing like that before. Time should have dimmed the pull. Instead it just cranked it higher.
He was going to blow this. Hurt her. Or ruin his future and make them both unhappy.
“If I joined you, I don’t think it would be to pretzel.”
“That so?” She slowly lowered her legs and then piked, her rounded ass near his groin. Then she spread her legs so they were on either side of his and kicked into a handstand. Damn. She made him stupid-hot like a teenager when she pulled stunts like this. And she knew it. Upside down, she looked at him and smiled. Then she spread her legs into the splits.
A dare.
“You are a wicked tease,” he whispered, aching for her. He wanted to pull himself out of his jeans and stroke himself while he watched her, but damn, she had to do this out in the open. He closed his eyes. “But my momma raised me right. Work first. Let’s get your booth set up.”
And then what? He’d bring her to Grey’s? Hang with his dad and a bunch of cowboys—many of them friends—and pretend this thing with Piper was casual like it should be? Or leave her alone? Both options sucked.
“Already set up.”
She smirked and drew her legs together and came down out of the handstand with total control. She had defined abs, and the toned muscles on her back were cut enough that they played peekaboo no matter what she was doing when she wore her usual racer back or halter tanks and dresses. Boone would never have guessed what a turn-on cut muscles on a woman would be. Piper’s dancer body, honed by years of practice, had morphed him into an anatomy whore.
“What? How? When? Baby you don’t need to carry all those things. I said I’d be back. I know I’m late, but…”
She turned toward him with that liquid walk and kissed his mouth into silence.
He kissed her back. He’d already felt hot, ready to crawl out of his skin, but now he caught fire. He cupped the back of her head. Tugged out her elastic. Let her silky, fragrant red-gold hair fall all around him. She kissed like she did everything: full-on, warm, sensual, total focus. She made him feel like a god, like he was her whole world.
“When I ordered the table and chair they were advertised as mobile. That means ready to move.”
“I like to help you,” he confessed like the biggest whipped-ass boyfriend ever. He closed his eyes, leaned his forehead against hers as if that would somehow hide what he felt and what she did to him.
“I know. But a mountain of a man with his clumsy but cute white dog with a tail that wagged like a flag the entire time and his cuter son set everything up before I could do much more than offer them cookies. Oh, and he had a massive hammer looped into his jeans. Like Thor. I like this town.”
“Sounds like Colt Wilder and Parker. And he’s very married.”
Piper rolled her eyes. “Wasn’t looking to jump him.”
The way she emphasized ‘him’ shattered the last of his control.
“Let’s take this inside.” Boone pulled her flush to his body, his hand already at the small of her back reeling her in tightly so she could feel what she did to him—far safer than talking about anything that was rolling around his brain like ball bearings.
“One-track mind, cowboy.” She smiled and pressed a kiss to his jaw. “I was thinking it would be fun to walk around the town. I was reading more and wanted to see it. The pictures make it look like a movie set.” Piper’s voice rang with enthusiasm, and Boone felt his quick burst of desire shrivel.
Damn. He’d promised his dad he’d catch a drink with him and talk about the stock he was bringing. He’d promised Piper he would show her around the town.
“Seriously, Boo
ne. I know you said you’d been here before, but Marietta sounds awesome. Practically perfect. Maybe even the cutest place we’ve been together.” She slid her fingers through his. “There’s a dessert company, a coffee shop. Even locally made chocolates at a shop named after the mountain.” She swung her slim, bare arm wide to point to Copper Mountain. “And you know how you’re always teasing me that you’ll buy me one of those snap-button, blinged-out western-style shirts? There’s a store called Western Wear. I thought I’d buy one, wear one of your buckles and cheer you on from the stands. In the green and gray boots you bought me to ‘match my eyes.’” She air quoted him.
God, she was perfect.
But her timing sucked. No. It was his timing. And he had to wrap his head around this—whatever it was—and let her go. He’d been tired of hookups. Lonely, and aching for something he couldn’t define. Seeing Piper gliding on the water had been a lightning strike. Spontaneous.
Instead he’d had to go and ruin it by…by…damn he couldn’t even go there, couldn’t even think those words. He’d just turned twenty-five. Piper was gorgeous, sweet, smart and fun. A great travel companion. He had to leave it at that.
Stick to his plan.
“Sounds good,” he hedged and smoothed his hands through her gorgeous red-gold hair because he couldn’t help himself. “But I…” Damn, he couldn’t even look her in the eye. “I was going to head over to Grey’s. Talk to some folks. There’s a special ceremony after the parade tomorrow—a dedication because of the fire last year. They’re having a complication with the temporary staging area and wanted some help.”
That was true, but he still felt guilty because there was more.
“Boone.” She slid her arms up so that her hands were at his nape. She played with his hair, and he couldn’t help the sigh of pleasure. His eyes drifted shut. Piper always soothed him—when she wasn’t jacking him up. “You are always the first to step in and help people. I love that so much about you.”
His eyes snapped open. “It’s not that big of a deal.”
“It is.” Her smile was luminous. “People know they can rely on you, even people who just meet you. You fix things—it’s your superpower.”
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