Page 35 of Lost and Found Cowboy
“Hey Lorna, you two seem like you’re having a good time over here. But I’m not sure I’ve met your friend,” Lucianna said, glancing at Mack.
“You mean myboyfriend?” Lorna asked and tried not to wince at how stupidly cringy that had sounded. “This is Mack Lassiter.”
“Oh sure, you’re Ford’s brother. I mean, I know you’re Dodge and Chevy’s brother, too. But Ford and I were in the same class in high school. We were lab partners for Chemistry our senior year, and he used to bribe me with Snickers to take all the notes.” She pointed a well-manicured fingernail at Mack. “I think I did meet you sometime last year.”
Mack nodded. “I was here last fall. That’s when I met Lorna. Then I had to go back to Texas to help out on the ranch where I used to work.” He offered what felt like a meaningful look at Lorna. “But I’m here for good now.”
She waved her pen between them. “And now you two are dating?”
“Well, it started last fall. I think I fell for her the first day we met, back when I was here the first time,” he explained. “I mean look at her, she’s gorgeous. Totally out of my league. My family helped hers at the Beans and Brews festival, but the chili wasn’t the only thing there that I thought was hot. Then after I left, we had kind of a long-distance thing, and I won her over. And now that I’m back, we’re all in. Totally a couple.”
He winced at Lorna as if he realized that he’d given way too much backstory.
Real smooth, Lassiter. Totally natural.
“Oh-kay. Thank you for that detailed explanation,” Luciana said, then grinned at Lorna. “He’s cute, but a little nerdy, huh?”
Lorna laughed. “Yes, to both.”
The waitress laughed with her then tapped her pen to her notepad. “So, what’ll you have, Sugar Muffin?”
Chapter Fifteen
Their date had started out rocky, but Lorna felt like things smoothed out after their food arrived and they had something else to concentrate on. Although, getting the baby back ribs might not have been the best choice since she ended up with a mortifyingly ridiculous amount of barbeque sauce on her face.
But instead of being grossed out or humiliated like Lyle would have acted, Mack just laughed it off and slid one of his ribs across his cheek to match hers.
They talked all through the mealandwhile they walked along Main Street eating ice cream and holding hands, as Maisie had instructed. She learned about the ranch where he’d been working, and he seemed genuinely interested in funny stories about Max as a toddler, what a hard time she was having getting Izzy to eat fruit, and the marketing ideas she had for the coffee shop.
For as much as they’d been talking nonstop for the past two hours, Mack was surprisingly quiet now as he walked her to her front door.
“I really had fun tonight,” she said, suddenly feeling like this date—and the awkwardness of deciding to kiss him goodnight or invite him in—was all too real.
“Me too.” He stuffed his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. She wasn’t sure if that was to show he wasn’t going to try a move on her or to keep himself from touching her.
She wasn’t sure if she was happy with either option.
That kiss the night before—and the one in the alley—had shaken her to her core. The passion and intensity they’d generated—in that first kiss alone—had heat flooding through her body and in places that hadn’t felt heat like that in a long time.
She couldn’t remembereverbeing kissed like that before.
And just looking at him now and wondering—hoping—if he might kiss her again, had her chest and face flushing like a furnace had been turned on inside her.
There were a million reasons why she should tell him ‘thank you and goodnight’ and send him back to his truck, the greatest being that her crazy,and dangerous, ex was back in town, and she had no idea what he was going to do when he heard people talking about her and Mack holding hands on Main Street. But also, because she was a single mom and a business owner who didn’t have time in her life for a relationship.
Or the strength of heart to fall in love and then trust that another man wouldn’t leave her again.
And those were just in the top five. There were other reasons to not invite this man inside, like not letting her kids get attached to someone else who might leave.
But there was one wild and reckless and completely unreasonable reason to open the door that seemed to outweigh all the smart, sensible ones.
She wanted this man.
With every fiber in her being.
She didn’t do reckless. Her first choice was usually comfortable shoes, and she made practical ‘mom decisions’ like using coupons at the grocery store and encouraging Max to eat broccoli and take swimming lessons.
But tonight was not about being a mom. It was about being a woman. A woman with needs and desires.
