Page 7 of Slow Hands Cowboy

He was a doctor, after all, and had one of the most successful private practices in town.

It was sort of a one-stop shop, where people could see a doctor, get vitamin injections, get some other more homeopathic supplements, and even get Botox injections. It had been so successful that he was actually opening up another location in Bend, though he would continue to work at the one here. And in his free time he liked to cook. A doctor who liked to cook. Really, she had won the lottery, and she knew it.

He had a jock build, a doctor mind, and a chef’s hands. What more could she want?

She ignored the strange hollow echo in her chest where there was no answer, but very little excitement either.

It was just nerves.

She told herself that as she finished unwrapping the present.

They had lovely hors d’oeuvres, and cake, and soon it was time for the bridal party to do their trail ride. They would be taking a ride up one of the mountains, and having a sunset dinner served for them there, which was going to photograph beautifully.

Addison was excited about that.

She said goodbye to the extra guests, and then she and her bridesmaids went back into the hotel, the cool air-conditioning a relief. She lifted her heavy hair up off her neck and let the cold kiss her there.

Then she made a meeting time for her friends and went up to the bridal suite that she was staying in. It was a preview for next week, because she would be spending her wedding night here as well.

The room was beautiful.

It had a spectacular view of the mountains, a massive bed with plush blankets, a squishy sheepskin rug on the floor, and a fireplace in the corner.

It also had a massive, deep tub, and she was looking forward to soaking in that tonight.

After a long horse ride, it would be a relief.

The thought of it did something to quiet the strange jumble of nerves that she felt running in the background, and had felt for the last couple of months. She didn’t know what to call them, didn’t know what they were, and essentially, decided to ignore them, because maybe it was just normal. Maybe it was just wedding jitters and also the intensity of the campaign, combined with the pressure of such a public event.

She believed in what she was doing. That didn’t mean she actually always enjoyed having everybody look at her.

She knew that was kind of contradictory. Everything she did was about getting eyes on her. Or at least, on her posts. On her work, the boutique, the town, and then, the wedding, and yet, she found that when she actually succeeded at those things she found them to be more draining than she would’ve imagined. Maybe that was what she was dealing with now.

That and the intense pressure of knowing that she needed this to be perfect. That she needed everything to go off without a hitch.

She had chosen the cutest pair of denim shorts, cowgirl boots with flowers up the sides, and a button-up shirt that tied above her high-waisted shorts and showed just a little bit of her midsection for the horse ride. She also had a buff-colored cowgirl hat that paired nicely with her boots.

It was a little costume-y, she could admit that, but it was going to look amazing.

She got dressed, and met Anna, Denisha, and Lydia in the lobby. They were similarly dressed, cowgirl up, even, and when she took a selfie outside the hotel, she knew that was going to be the caption.

They were picked up from the hotel in a luxury van, driven by a ranch hand called Pike, who was handsome and chatty, and told riotous stories as he drove them over to where the trail ride would originate.

There were horses, tacked up and ready to go, waiting for them by the trail, and Nolan Carter was the leader of the trail ride. Nolan had always been a handsome menace, but then, they all had been. Nolan wasn’t really part of the Grayson family, but he had always been lumped in with them. They lived in the same apartment complex, and he and Cody, and Walker along with them, had been inseparable all through school.

And they had reputations.

Reputations for being the kind of guys that you got with if you wanted to have a good time, not a long time. The kind of guys you went for if you wanted to get dirty with a bad boy.

Addison had never wanted to get dirty with a bad boy. That was the sort of thing that her mother would have liked, she supposed. Finding the most unsuitable man and breaking marriage vows over physical chemistry.

That could never be Addison.

Granted, her mom had stayed married to Thomas, but to hear her dad tell it, it hadn’t been her first infidelity. She had been attracted to a rough element, men from the wrong side of the tracks, because she had been raised in privilege, and hadn’t appreciated all the protection that it afforded her, at least, that had been her maternal grandparents’ take on it.

Even they had sided with her dad.

Everybody had.