Page 110 of Last Chance Cowboy
“I leave pastries out for him every morning. I’ve been doing it ever since I opened up the bakery. He thought I was doing it because I felt like I had to pay him.”
“Oh. So he didn’t know that you had a crush on him.”
“Not really.”
“Is it spectacular?” Marlowe asked, lifting the wine glass to her lips.
“I don’t have anything to compare it to.” Marlowe smiled. “Okay. But you were a virgin who decided to jump into a sex-only relationship, so I’m assuming it’s amazing.”
“Yes.”
That also felt wrong, not because it wasn’t amazing, it was. It felt wrong because it was more than that. It felt wrong because she had gotten to know him first. In a reallydeep, profound way. And he had shown her parts of herself that she hadn’t seen before.
Reducing it to sex-only felt so dismissive, just like saying he was broken. It oversimplified everything, but there was no way to get into the complexity of all of it.
It would make her feel too exposed. She had no practice sharing parts of herself with another person. Not things that were this deep. It had been easy enough for her to be with Marlowe through everything that she’d gone through. But actually exposing her own stuff just felt… That wasn’t her function.
She was there for other people. The only person that she had ever really burdened with her stuff was Zane.
“You know, this actually cheers me up,” Marlowe said. “Because I wanted to believe that you were getting what you wanted out of this. You said that you wanted to be brave, and expand and have new experiences, and he seems like a lot. But he’s hot.”
“He’s very hot,” Cara said, taking a sip of wine.
There was a ripple in the restaurant, and even though Cara and Marlowe were sitting at the back of the room, she could feel the energy shift. Could feel everybody watching someone.
Both she and Marlowe craned their necks, just in time to see Walker striding through the dining room, looking glorious in a pair of black slacks and a well-tailored shirt, his blonde hair pushed back off of his forehead, the cuff of his shirt rolled up to his elbows. And the expression on his face was furious.
People were watching him because Walker Grayson was a beautiful man, and when he was in the room, there was really nothing else a person would want to look at. The view out the windows of the large green lawn at the back of the hotel, and the glorious mountains, was a stunning sight. But it wasn’t Walker.
Marlowe stood up. “Hey. Is there a hotel emergency?”
“No. It’s not a hotel emergency. Not yet. It might end up being a crime scene.”
“Why?”
“Oh, because I might kill Addison Carey.”
“Why is that?”
“Because. We are changing the menu for the sixth time, and nothing that we do seems to be good enough. So I have to re-imagine where we’re going to put everything in the back, we have to figure out a new seating arrangement for the barn, and I have to ask Laney again to make adjustments to dinner.”
“The wedding is in like… two weeks.”
“I’m aware. Thank you. But this is the most expensive event that we’ve had here so far, and the Careys are Mustang River royalty, so as much as I want to drown her in the river, I can’t.”
“I thought I heard you out here.” Cara looked and saw Laney leaning against the doorway.
“I have another menu change from bridezilla.”
“Oh, good grief.”
“Yeah. You’re telling me.”
“It’s fine. I haven’t bought anything yet, but this time next week she’s going to have to stop.”
“It’s not fine. She’s taking advantage of the fact that we are new and we need the reviews. I have never dealt with anyone or anything that made me this angry.” As if on cue, his phone buzzed in his pocket. He picked it up and looked at the screen. “One moment.” He answered the phone. “Addison, our meeting just ended.” He paused, closed his eyes, and pinched the bridge of his aquiline nose. “Well, yes. Of course, we can do that. I haven’t even submitted the new changes to Laney yet, so I’ll just… Yes. Of course. Uh huh. Yes, please send it to me in text, though there is no need. I will remember, in spite of the fact that it is the sixth menu. Yes. You take care. Bye.” He hung the phone up. The barely leashed violence reverberating around his body only made him all the more appealing. “Never mind. Whatever I was going to tell you is moot.” He rattled off a selection of food that Cara never would’ve remembered, even though she had a decent memory for ingredients, and Laney scribbled down some notes. “The hard deadline is next Wednesday.”
“I will tell her that. But I don’t know that it will make her stop.”
