“Guess you probably got a good taste of city life in Los Angeles.”
She waited while a car passed them. Galen recognized Frank behind the wheel with a few of the saloon dancers in his passenger seats.
“Two years was a pretty short taste, in the span of the rest of my life spent here,” she said.
He studied her profile. The gentle point of her chin. The fine line of her narrow nose that was just a shade too long, making it all the more interesting. And the pale pink lips that he’d pretended to kiss thirty-damn-six times now. “Would you go back to California if you had the chance?”
She gave him a rueful look. “Maybe I’ll go on a vacation there someday.”
He didn’t know why her answer sat so wrong, but it did. “If you hate it here, why don’t you go? There is such a thing as hiring ranch hands, you know.”
Her eyebrows rose. “I never said I hated it here.” Her hands spread again. “I’m a Texas girl. Horseback Hollow is my home. I love my folks. Maybe if Mark hadn’t died, I would have ended up somewhere else. But he did. My parents needed me more than I needed to follow some pipe dream that would probably have never gotten me any further than—” she thought for a moment “—than teaching high school drama classes.” She started across the parking lot again. “Being away at college wasn’t all that perfect, either. Don’t expect it ever is for anyone.”
“Texas A&M was pretty perfect in my eyes.”
She grinned. “What a good Texas son you are. Bet you have Aggie pennants pinned on your bedroom walls.”
He snorted. “Basement.”
She laughed outright, and just like her smile, it seemed to show in her entire body.
He much preferred her in smiles and laughter over that solemn, vaguely fatalistic acceptance of her life’s path.
In silence, they crossed the rest of the parking lot to his truck. He started to open the passenger door for her, but she beat him to it, climbing up handily inside.
So he rounded the front of the vehicle and got behind the wheel.
“This is nice.” She was running her hand over her leather seat.
“It does the job.” He started the ignition and worked his way through the parking lot. Even though their show was done for the day, the rest of the attractions would still be going strong until the park closed for the day. Which meant there were a passel of employees still at work and the lot was more full than not.
“My mother tried talking Daddy into buying a new truck instead of going on their trip.” She crossed one leg over the other, and the toe of her tennis shoe bounced in time to the George Strait tune coming from the radio. “I’m glad he stuck to his guns even if it means driving that old Ford for a few more years.”
He didn’t have to work hard at recalling she was contributing to the cost of her folks’ trip. It was one of the reasons he’d caved when it came to playing Rusty. That, and not being a cause of Aurora’s disappointment. “If you need any help at your place while they’re gone, just let me know.”
She gave him an arch look. “And why would I let you help me, when you wouldn’t let me help you?” Her eyebrows rose a little higher. “Don’t confuse me with Lila, Galen Fortune Jones. I’m not sitting around waiting to get rescued. I may not be as strong physically as you are, but I can work just as hard.”
“Whoa there, Nelly.” He waved his hand in surrender. “I’m not saying you can’t. It’s just a—” he thought for a moment “—a neighborly offer. One I’d make to anyone.”
She pressed her lips together and nodded once. “That’s better,” she muttered.
He bit back a smile that even he knew wouldn’t be well received and turned the truck toward the Two Moon. “You guys get together a lot at the Moon?”
“The cast and crew, you mean? Maybe once a week, if that.” Her toe tapped a few times. “Haven’t seen Serena there, if that’s what you’re wondering.”
“Wh— Oh. Serena. I wasn’t.” He ran his tongue against the edge of his molars and wondered why she was wondering.
“Wasn’t she the first girl you kissed?”
He couldn’t stop the bark of laughter. “Well, yeah. But I was nine. At the time, I think I was more curious about whether or not our braces would get stuck together.”
She muffled her laughter with her hand. “You were not.”
He tried thinking back, and nodded. “Nope. No, yeah. I think I was. Your brother was the one who was more interested in copping a feel from a girl, even if she didn’t have anything yet to feel.”
“Sounds like Mark.” She tugged her ponytail over her shoulder and started working it into a loose braid. “Ever since I could remember, excess was his thing.”
And excess had been the end of him.
Galen caught her hand in his and squeezed. “What about your first kiss?” A few seconds too late, he remembered to let go of her hand again. “And don’t tell me it was with one of my brothers. I’m already privy to more of their romantic lives than I like.”
She folded her hands in her lap and seemed to be studying them. But at least she was smiling again, as he’d hoped. “No. It wasn’t.” She waited a beat. “Quinn Drummond, actually. He was only a year ahead of me.”
“That’s almost as bad as one of my brothers.”
She smiled a little. “We were in junior high. Under the bleachers after a school dance.”
“Please don’t feel the need to share any more gory details. I see Quinn all the time.”
“’Specially now he’s married to your cousin, Lady Amelia?”
“She doesn’t much like getting called Lady Amelia anymore’n you like getting called Rory.” Which was the name that her brother had always called her, just because he’d known it always got her goat. It was enough to make Galen feel guilty for the way he used to tease his own little sisters. For that matter, the way he sometimes still did.
When he reached the Two Moon Saloon, the small parking lot was already crowded, so he parked in a dirt lot nearby. Inside the bar, it wasn’t any better. But the Cowboy Country crowd had still managed to scope out a few long tables, and Galen followed Aurora through the crush of bodies.
He pulled off his hat and leaned over her. “I remember a time not too long ago when this place didn’t have this much business in a month of Sundays combined.”
“Right?” She looked up at him, and stumbled a bit.
He quickly moved the chair she’d bumped into out of their path and tried not to notice the way her hair smelled like flowers even at the end of a long day. A pointless exercise, since he noticed, anyway. “Crowded in here.” Their heads were so close, he could have kissed her.
And maybe she realized it, because she gave a weak smile and stepped back, adding a good foot to the two inches separating their mouths.
He wanted to kick himself.
She was Mark’s kid sister. She probably figured Galen was no better than Frank.
He jerked his chin toward the bar. “I’m going to get an order in, kiddo. You go on ahead.”
Aurora swallowed the protest that rose too quickly to her lips. She still felt shaky from finding herself that close to Galen.
Which was silly, since she ought to be used to it by now after nine whole days of playing Lila to his Rusty. Instead of becoming accustomed to him sweeping her against him four times a day, though, it was turning into a slow sort of torture.
Foreplay with no chance of making it to “play.” Not when she was just the kid sister of an old friend he used to have.
“Extra hot,” she called after him a little too loudly, but thankfully, her words merely blended into the overall noise of the bar.
He heard, though, and gave a wave of his black cowboy hat as he shuffled back through the herd. Sighing a little, she continued onward and managed to secure two bar stools at one of the high-tops where Cabot Oakley, who played Sal the Sheriff, was sitting with his girlfriend, Sue.
“Crazy busy in here, isn’t it?” Sue leaned toward her and raised her voice j
ust to be heard. She was a comfortably plump woman in comparison to Cabot’s extreme thinness, and worked as a teacher’s aide at the elementary school. Until Caitlyn Moore had realized that the success of Cowboy Country relied on inclusiveness where Horseback Hollow residents were concerned, Sal’s part had been played by a slick performer from Florida whose main interest was his next role. Preferably a bigger one.
He’d been even more self-involved than Frank, and Aurora hadn’t been sorry to see him go. As far as she was concerned, Cabot did a much better job in the role of Sal. He wasn’t aiming to gain anything personal but to give a good show and earn enough income to buy a ring so he could finally propose to Sue.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen it this crowded,” Aurora agreed. “Maybe it’s proof that Cowboy Country is doing what they promised to do. Bringing more revenue in general into Horseback Hollow.”
Sue was nodding. “Cabot’s been telling me how hard a time they’re having filling Joey’s spot in the show. Says he figures they’ve already tapped out all the locals. Good thing you were able to talk Galen into helping out.” She grinned and patted Cabot’s arm. “Cab can’t carry a tune in a bucket and he darn sure can’t wear a saloon girl outfit. He’d be back to pumping gas part-time at his cousin’s filling station in Vicker’s Corners if it weren’t for the wedding show.”
Aurora smiled ruefully. “I don’t think I, personally, had anything to do with Galen’s decision. Maybe he wishes he’d played in more high school drama productions than football games.”
Sue propped her chin on her hand and smiled reminiscently. “He was fun to watch wearing those tight football pants, wasn’t he? Talk about a fine hiney. Him and your brother both, Aurora. Heartthrob material.”
“Sue, honey,” Cabot complained. “I’m right here.”
“I know, sweetie.” She patted his arm again. “Wouldn’t want you anywhere else, but a girl still has her memories. Don’t we, Aurora?”
Aurora smiled. “I’m not touching that one with a ten-foot pole,” she assured. Galen might not wear football gear anymore, but as far as she was concerned, he looked even better nowadays in his typical blue jeans.
Sue chuckled and sat up again when Galen arrived bearing a pitcher of beer and several mugs. “Hero rides to the rescue yet again,” she said brightly, reaching out to help untangle the mug handles from his long fingers.
He smiled crookedly. “Sue. Cab.” His gaze fell on Cab’s hand, circling Sue’s shoulder. “Didn’t realize you two were an item.”
“Then you must be living under a rock,” Sue accused good-naturedly. She looked at Cabot. “How long we been together now?”
“Three years.”
The two were giving each other besotted smiles, and Aurora looked away, her gaze colliding with Galen’s.
“Wings shouldn’t take too long,” he said, tucking the bar stool under him. The table was so small and the space around them so crowded that his thigh—warm even through his denim jeans—rested alongside Aurora’s.
No amount of shifting was going to create space where there was none, but Aurora tried anyway as she pulled some folded cash out of her front pocket and handed it to him.
He didn’t take it. “What’s that for?”
“The hot wings. My share of the beer.” She dropped the folded bills on the table in front of him and started filling the mugs.
“Keep your money.” He nudged it back toward her.
She stopped the progress with her fingers. “Everybody splits, Galen.” And she definitely didn’t want him thinking she was thinking they were on a date, when they most definitely were not. “Frankly, we all should be buying your beer tonight. Right, Cabot?”
The skinny man nodded and lifted his soda, which was all Aurora had ever seen him drink. “Amen to that. To Galen!”
Frank, several chairs away at the next table, heard that, and picked up his squat glass. “To Galen!”
“Oh, Christ,” Galen muttered, looking pained. “Shoot me now.”
She held up her mug, too. “To Galen,” she said firmly. “Without whom Wild West Wedding would have been put in mothballs this past week.” She bumped her shoulder against his. “Smile, neighbor, and let us be grateful.”
He gave her a sidelong look she couldn’t read, and exhaled. Then he lifted his mug in salute, too. “To Wild West Wedding!”
All around them, glasses clanked together and people cheered.
Aurora did, too.
But mostly she was thinking about the feel of his thigh against hers underneath the table, and wishing he wouldn’t just see her as “kiddo.”
Chapter Five
“You want me to walk you up?” Galen was peering at Aurora’s house situated up the hill from where he’d pulled into the gravel drive. “It’s pretty dark.”
“I’m not ten,” she protested grumpily.
“Yeah, I know. Ten-year-olds don’t drink as much beer as you.”
“I had three,” she said, carefully distinct. And they’d been at the Two Moon nearly three hours.
“I know,” Galen said in a soothing, indulgent tone that only added to her general sense of irritation. “And you were tipsy after just one.” He handed her the foil container with the hot wings she hadn’t been able to finish.
“Fortunately, I knew I didn’t have to drive.” She stared at him in the faintly blue light coming from his truck dashboard. “I’m not planning on following in my brother’s footsteps.”
He patted her shoulder. “I know.”
All night, he’d sat next to her, his body heat searing down her whole left side.
And now he was reaching a long arm across her, pushing open the door for her.
“I’m not a kid, either.”
He drew back more slowly and pulled off his cowboy hat, pushing it up onto the dash. “Trust me, Aurora. I know that, too.”
The air had finally cooled off and now it was almost chilly. But she couldn’t blame the shivers skipping up and down her spine on the temperature. Those were owed strictly to him.
Her mouth felt dry and she swallowed, unable to look away from him, still leaning half across her, so close. “Galen—”
Suddenly, the porch light up at the house went on and her mother was hanging out of the front door. “That you, Aurora, baby?” Her voice was loud enough to carry two counties over. “Getting kind of late, isn’t it?”
Aurora wanted to sink through the floorboard of Galen’s truck. “Not really,” she muttered.
“It’s midnight,” Galen murmured, sitting back fully in his own seat. “Time for Cinderella to get inside.”
“Only because she has to get up in the morning to drive her parents to the airport,” she said. “Not because she believes in fairy tales anymore.” She unclipped her seat belt. “Thanks for the ride.”
“Guess you won’t need anyone picking you up tomorrow to get to Cowboy Country. You’ll have the ranch truck?”
“Right.” She pushed the door open a little wider with the toe of her tennis shoe, but some devil made her lean across the console and press a quick kiss to his lean cheek.
He reared back as if he were stung, though. “What’s that for?”
Trying not to gulp like some inexperienced ninny, she lifted the foil container between them. “Keep your shirt on,” she said tartly. “Giving me your share of wings, of course.” Then before she could make a bigger fool out of herself than she already had, she scrambled out of the truck and slammed the door.
“Hold the door, Mama,” she called out, heading blindly up the familiar dark hill dotted with sweet gum trees to the bright light shining from the porch.
When she reached it, her mother tucked her arm around her. “Have fun, baby?”
Aurora looked over her shoulder, watching Galen’s taillights as he drove back down the sloping gravel driveway. “Not as much fun as you and Daddy will be having starting tomorrow.”
Pru McElroy’s eyes were as excited as Aurora could ever remember seeing. “I still hav
en’t finished packing,” she said. “Your daddy’s been snoring asleep for the past two hours, and I still can’t decide what all I need to take!”
Aurora gave her a quick hug. “Well, let’s go figure it out, then,” she said. “So we can both get some sleep, too!”
Her mother squeezed her back. Then laughed again, and clutching Aurora’s hand, pulled her into the house.
It was only later, after the two suitcases were fastened tight and waiting by the back door to be loaded into the truck in the morning, that Aurora stood staring out the dark window in her bedroom.
Sleep was the furthest thing from her mind. Because she couldn’t stop thinking about what might have happened in Galen’s truck if her mother hadn’t chosen that particular moment to open the front door and yell down at her.
* * *
“Oh, my stars and body!”
Aurora flinched a little at the expression she hadn’t heard in years and warily looked over the hot dog she was just lifting toward her mouth.
“Is that you, Aurora McElroy?”
She lost her appetite for the hot dog altogether and carefully set it in the paper basket sitting on the round umbrella-covered table in front of her.
“It is!” The woman who’d been speaking was waving madly as she pushed a giant baby stroller across Cowboy Country’s Main Street toward Aurora. Her black hair was a glossy sheen under the brilliant sunlight, and even before she reached Aurora’s side and pulled off the überstylish sunglasses she wore, Aurora knew the eyes behind would be equally dark and shining.
She swung her legs around the bench and stood. “Roselyn,” she greeted before her old college roommate yanked her close for the same quick kiss-kiss-hug-hug embrace she’d favored even a decade earlier. “This is a surprise.”
“Isn’t it?” Roselyn tucked her glasses on the top of her head, her eyes widening for emphasis. “Here I bring little Toni and Tiffani to the park for a speck of entertainment with some furry creatures, and look who I find? Never in a million years would I have expected to see you here. What are you even doing in Texas?”
“I come from here,” Aurora said drily. “I guess you don’t remember. And I could say the same about seeing you here.” Anthony had hailed from Red Rock, Texas. A town that was nowhere near as small as Horseback Hollow, but still one that didn’t have the cachet that he desired. It was their common Texas background that had drawn them together at the beginning.
Fortune's June Bride (Mills & Boon Cherish) (The Fortunes of Texas: Cowboy Country, Book 6) Page 6