by Tina Leonard
Abby leaned forward and spoke past Savannah to Travis. “That girl’s got spunk.”
Travis smiled wide, every inch the proud uncle. If he’d been good-looking before, that smile made him devastatingly handsome. Either a miracle of genetics had happened in the past few years, or Savannah had just been blind to anything but her twin goals of good grades and top rodeo times back when she and Travis had crossed paths every day. He hadn’t been ugly, but she’d had no inkling that he would one day steal her breath.
They all clapped when Hailey got her blue ribbon.
“Well, I owe a little cowgirl a congratulations kiss,” Travis said as Savannah stepped back from the fence.
Damn if her gaze didn’t go right to his lips, and her mind to wondering what they would feel like against her own.
Travis met her gaze just as she jerked hers away from his lips.
“Good luck with your run,” he said.
“Thanks.”
“What, I don’t get a ‘good luck’?” Abby teased.
Travis broke eye contact with Savannah. “Good luck to you, too, but I gotta admit I’ll be pulling for my hometown girl.”
A flutter of giddiness zipped through Savannah at the knowledge that not only would Travis be watching her ride, but he’d also be cheering for her. It took a remarkable amount of effort for her to not smile like an idiot, especially when Travis shifted his gaze back to her. Yeah, she needed a good, swift kick or maybe a jolt from a cattle prod.
“It was good to see you again,” he said.
“You, too. Tell Rita I said hello, and tell Hailey she’s a mighty good rider.”
He nodded but then seemed to hesitate for an extra long moment, almost as if he didn’t want to leave, before nodding and walking away.
“Whooee, that is one fine specimen right there,” Abby said.
Savannah took a moment to bite down on an uncharacteristic comeback that would have sent up red flags for Abby. Heck, the entire grandstand full of people would see those bright flags waving.
Thing was, as she watched Travis walk away, she realized Abby wasn’t wrong. He was indeed a fine, fine hunk of man.
“Is he seeing anyone?”
Savannah shrugged, not trusting herself to not tell her friend to back off. She had no right to claim Travis Shepard, not when she’d told Abby she was too dang busy to date. At least not until she’d built the store into the destination she wanted it to be. She’d proven in the past that success required single-minded focus.
What about Lizzie? She was successful, the acting head of the family’s large energy company, and still had time for falling in love and starting a family.
Yeah, and she had a lot more employees at her beck and call. And she wasn’t building Baron Energies from the ground up.
When Abby started giggling, Savannah finally tore her gaze away from Travis’s retreating form. “What?”
“Hope he likes drool,” Abby said as she made a circular motion with her finger toward Savannah’s mouth. “Because you’ve got a bloodhound slobber situation going on.”
“I do not.”
“Really? Let’s ask the crowd.” Abby made as if she was going to call out a question to the people sitting in the grandstands.
Savannah spun on her heel, gave her friend a playful slug in the arm, and headed toward Bluebell. And she’d never admit in a million lifetimes how difficult it was to not glance over her shoulder and scan the crowd for Travis. Abby didn’t need any more ammunition. And Savannah didn’t need to have images in her head of Travis rewarding her for posting a good time with a congratulations kiss of her own.
Copyright © 2014 by Harlequin Books S.A.
ISBN-13: 9781460335246
THE REBEL COWBOY’S QUADRUPLETS
Copyright © 2014 by Tina Leonard
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