Beauty and the Cowboy Read online

  The girl crossed her arms in front of her and looked up at the ceiling. She opened her mouth as if she were about to speak, but then she clamped her lips shut, emitting a little sigh.

  “Mattalyn, I’m not going to judge you. Just tell me what’s on your mind.”

  “Orange is Cody Granger’s favorite color. I thought if I wear it in the pageant, he’ll notice me. My best friend, Gina, knows him. He made the JV football team this year, and he’s sooo cute.”

  Mattie’s face flushed bright pink, a color that looked a heck of a lot better on her than all that orange.

  “I really want him to like me. That’s why I’m entering this pageant. I just want him to notice me, and then maybe he’ll ask me to be his girlfriend.”

  Ahh. There it was. Now all this orange made sense. “Honey, a guy isn’t going to like you simply because you wear his favorite color. He has to like you for you. Don’t change yourself to be something you think he wants. It’ll never work out if you do. You’ll get the wrong guy.”

  It suddenly dawned on Charlotte that she had spent the better part of six years living the way Tom had wanted to live. She’d put up with the long-distance relationship and kowtowed to him to make him happy. In the process, she’d lost sight of herself.

  That’s why it would’ve never worked. After being apart for so much of their relationship, they hadn’t really known each other. When it had come down to the crucial moment—the moment of truth, when they had been doing their best to get engaged, the natural next step—something inside of Charlotte had known it wouldn’t work. That’s why she hadn’t been able to accept that marquise ring, a ring that was beautiful but so contrary to everything she wanted. It hadn’t made any sense.

  Obviously, Tom had been one step ahead of her.

  Something shifted inside Charlotte. Life would be different, but she was going to be okay.

  It took a little more convincing, but after Charlotte had Mattie try on Gina’s orange dress and then compare it to her own favorite dress paired with her cowboy boots—both just so happened to be blue—the girl seemed to come around. She finally admitted to Charlotte that she simply felt better in the dress that was true to her own style.

  “If you wear this dress with these boots and make an effort to say hello to Cody and just be your sweet self, he’s bound to notice you.”

  She almost added, If he doesn’t like you for you, then he doesn’t deserve you. The right guy will come along.

  But she didn’t say it. Instead, she looked at the time on the alarm clock on Mattie’s nightstand. It was getting close to five. She’d already been there an hour. She wanted to be gone before Jesse got home so she wouldn’t look like she was hanging around to see him.

  Less pressure that way, on both of them.

  “I need to go now, but I want you to go through your closet again and pick out the things you like.”

  Mattie walked with Charlotte to the front door.

  “Okay, but the only problem is I don’t have anything to wear for the formal-wear part of the pageant.”

  Charlotte tucked a blond curl behind the girl’s ear. “Don’t worry. I think I know where I can find you a gown to borrow.”

  Mattie’s eyes lit up, and she threw her arms around Charlotte. “Thank you so much!”

  “I’m happy to do it. I’ll see you next Sunday. Same time?”

  “Yes. But I don’t think I can wait that long.”

  “Work on all the things we talked about, put on the clothes we selected and pretend like you’re on stage so you can get comfortable. If you do that, the week will go fast.”

  Mattie nodded. Charlotte put her hand on the doorknob to let herself out, and at the same time, someone on the other side of the door pushed it open.

  Charlotte’s stomach did a strange dip when she came face-to-face with Jesse.

  Chapter 5

  “Hi,” Jesse said, adjusting the two grocery bags in his arms. He knew he was blocking her way out, but he’d gotten here just in time. He didn’t intend to let her leave. “How was your weekend?”

  “Peachy.” Despite the sarcasm, she was smiling. “How was yours?”

  “Same.”

  “Great,” she said. “Mattie and I made some good progress on her wardrobe. I was just leaving.”

  Jesse shook his head. “I’m fixing dinner.”

  “No, you’re not. You’re standing here blocking my exit.”

  “Stay for dinner, Charlie,” Mattie said. Her cell phone rang. “It’s Gina. I have to take this, but please stay. Please?”

  The girl left the room with her phone pressed to her ear.

  “She said please.” Jesse smiled. “I got dinner for the three of us. I figured since you and Mattie had been working so hard, it was the least I could do. Besides, I want you to stay.”

  “Scrambled eggs?” Her bold stare assessed him unapologetically. “I hear they’re your specialty.”

  He suddenly had the urge to stoke this growing fire.

  “Glad to hear you remember something from Friday night.” He couldn’t help himself, and he loved it when she blushed.

  “I remember all the important things.”

  Her gaze fell to his mouth. She bit her bottom lip before looking into his eyes again.

  “Such as?”

  “That I didn’t even get to try your specialty.”

  He arched a brow. “My scrambled eggs?”

  She smiled. “Yeah. Something like that.”

  “We will definitely scramble some eggs very soon.” He watched her in wonder, taking a great deal of pleasure watching the color spike in her cheeks. “Tonight, we’re having steak and baked potatoes.”

  *

  Just like that, the ice was broken.

  Actually, the ice was more than broken. Things seemed to be heating up between them. It wasn’t so much what he said during dinner, it was the way that he looked at her that was different—a good kind of different.

  For a bit, Charlotte worried that Mattie might notice it, too. But the girl seemed oblivious. Especially when she started in with the questions.

  “Jesse said I wasn’t allowed to ask you questions about Tom when you were helping me with the pageant, but we’re not working on the pageant anymore.”

  “Mattalyn.” Jesse’s tone was stern.

  Mattie had been good about staying on task when they were picking out her competition wardrobe. Of course, part of the focus had been on her crush, but now Mattie seemed ready to go at Charlotte with both barrels.

  “I just want her to know I care,” Mattie said to Jesse. “And I do care, Charlie. I want you to know you can talk to me if you need someone.”

  Charlotte smiled. “Thank you, Mattalyn, I appreciate that, but really, I’m fine.”

  The girl watched her as if she were trying to assess whether Charlotte was telling the truth. “You’re fine? Really? I mean, you and Tom were together a long time. Aren’t you devastated?”

  “Matt,” Jesse warned. “I said knock it off.”

  Charlotte waved away Jesse’s protests, though she couldn’t deny that it felt good to see him act so protective of her. “I don’t mind answering her question.”

  Was it wrong that this explanation was as much for Jesse as it was for Mattie?

  “I’m not devastated. In fact, I’m a little relieved. I’ve had a chance to think it over the last day and a half, and I’ve realized there were so many signs over the past three years that things were wrong. I’m not really shocked. The two of us couldn’t even agree on an engagement ring.”

  “Do you have any regrets?” This time, the question came from Jesse.

  “Only that I didn’t face the truth sooner.” Charlotte turned back to Mattie. “It’s kind of like what I was telling you earlier. You should never compromise who you are or what you want for a guy.”

  Mattie’s eyes got round and large. She shook her head at Charlotte, and Charlotte suddenly realized Mattie didn’t want to talk about this in front of her brother.


  “Why were you talking about that?” Jesse asked. “Matt, I thought you said you didn’t grill her with questions earlier.”

  “She was fine,” Charlotte said. “We were talking about something entirely different.”

  Jesse’s brow shot up. “Really? Such as?”

  “Nothing,” Mattie said. She took out her phone and focused her attention on it.

  “Put it away, Matt,” Jessie said. “You know the rule about phones at the dinner table.”

  “Well, you know the rule about calling me Matt, and you’re not observing that. So don’t get on my case. Plus, I want to show Charlie something.”

  The girl got up and showed her cell phone to Charlotte. Suddenly, Charlotte realized she was looking at Tom’s Facebook page, at a profile picture of him and his…wife.

  “Oh my God, look at her. Charlie, you are so much prettier than she is. Tom is cray-cray if he dumped you for her. He must’ve fallen off a bull and landed on his head.”

  Jesse muttered something under his breath. “Mattalyn, that’s enough. Put the damn phone away and clear the dishes. Don’t make me tell you again.”

  Only, Charlotte didn’t give the phone back to Mattie. It was the first time she’d seen Tom’s wife’s picture. Charlotte had avoided social media yesterday because she had been too busy watching the movies Jane had brought her, and she hadn’t wanted to take a chance on seeing something like this.

  The new Mrs. Tom Tucker—Rebecca, Tom had called her—was a redhead with a wide, toothy smile. If Charlotte were completely honest, she couldn’t say the woman was ugly. She really didn’t want to think that much about her. Still, putting a face with a name made it all so real.

  She’d taken his last name. Rebecca Tucker. Tom and Rebecca Tucker.

  Hmmm.

  Well, good for them. If Tom loved her—if this was the real deal, true love thing—she wished them nothing but the best.

  Handing the phone back to Mattie, Charlotte couldn’t deny it stung a little.

  But only a little bit. Like a surface wound. Certainly not as much as it should have.

  Hmmm.

  That realization in itself was liberating.

  “You know what?” Mattie asked.

  “What?” Charlotte asked.

  “You and Jesse should go out. You’d make a really good couple.”

  Before either of them could react, Mattie’s phone rang.

  “It’s Gina,” she said. “I’m gonna take it in the other room. I have to talk to her now because she’s going out to dinner with her dad and she won’t be able to talk later. I promise I’ll clear the table as soon as we’re off the phone. She said she has something important to tell me.”

  Mattie shot Charlotte an excited look. It must’ve had something to do with Cody. Of course it did.

  Mattie was already out of the room before Jesse could answer.

  The silence washed over them for a moment before he spoke. “I’m sorry about that. I really am. Now do you see what I mean when I say she’s a handful?”

  “It’s fine. Really. She didn’t mean any harm.”

  “Maybe not, but she needs to learn what’s appropriate and what’s not. Will she learn that in this pageant?”

  “She’s a teenager, Jesse.” Charlotte stood and started gathering the dishes. “The actions and the attitude, they all come with the territory. But she really is a good kid. I know it must not be easy, but you’re doing a great job with her.”

  Charlotte reached out to grab the spoon from Jesse’s place setting. He put his hand on top of hers. “That’s Mattie’s job. How is she ever going to learn unless we let her do it?”

  Charlotte stood there for a minute without moving her hand. Jesse didn’t move his, either, except to rub the base of his thumb along the side of her index finger. Even the innocent feel of his hand on her hand—of his skin on her skin—made her insides go soft and gooey.

  “I need to go,” Charlotte finally said.

  Jesse rose from his chair. “I’ll walk you out.”

  When they got to her car, she paused before opening the door. “Thanks for dinner tonight.”

  “Let’s do this again. Soon.”

  “I’d love that.”

  “Me, too.”

  Then the next thing she knew, Jesse was kissing her, and it was like heaven.

  *

  Charlotte gasped a little when their lips first met. It was more of a shudder than a sound. Jesse wasn’t surprised. He’d always seemed to feel Charlie. But it was a good shudder, because she didn’t pull away from him.

  All day yesterday, he’d told himself that moving this fast was a bad idea, but her mouth was soft and inviting, and she was kissing him back.

  The one little taste of her he’d gotten on Friday night hadn’t been enough. It had tortured and tempted him more than it had satisfied. It had eaten away at him until he’d had no choice but to kiss her again. As they stood there with their arms around each other, the feel of her urged him to lean in closer. She responded by opening her mouth and inviting him in. She tasted so good—like warm honey and sunshine. It made him reel with sheer want.

  So did the need to fix everything that was broken inside her. That was the one lucid thought he had as she melted into him.

  She made a noise deep in her throat, and desire coursed through him. For a few seconds that seemed to be suspended in time, he thought he believed he could be perfectly content right here for the rest of his life, sheltering her from anything else that could hurt her.

  Then, just as naturally as they’d come together, they slowly released each other, standing forehead to forehead while the magic lingered.

  “That was nice,” she whispered.

  “It was,” he said. “When can I see you again?”

  *

  Charlotte and Jesse were inseparable the next week. Who knew that after all these years of being friends, Charlotte would find sanctuary in Jesse’s arms?

  Of course, with the fair opening next week, all the preliminary meetings for Miss Marietta Fair and Mattie either at home or at the pageant meetings with her, Charlotte and Jesse were both overworked and constantly chaperoned. Since this thing between them was so new and the breakup with Tom was so recent, they decided to keep things on the down-low for now…until they were sure what was going on.

  Even so, by the time Friday rolled around, Charlotte was itching for some time alone with Jesse. That’s why she’d scheduled her final walkthrough before the pageant kickoff for the end of the day.

  Jane and Sam were going away for the weekend. So Jane had dashed out as soon as the walkthrough was over. Mattie had left work early to go to Big Fork with Gina and her father.

  For this rare moment, in the empty fairgrounds office, it seemed like they were the only two people in the world.

  As Jesse walked Charlotte out to her car, he said, “Jane seems efficient. Once we got the extra dressing-room space and lighting issues worked out, things started moving along fast.”

  Charlotte stopped at her car, keys in hand. “She’s great. She’s taught me how to use my time wisely.”

  “So how about you use your time wisely tonight? Let me take you out to dinner.”

  “Sounds enticing.”

  He braced his left arm on the roof her car. He was so tall and tempting. She just wanted to put her arms around him right there and do what they did best.

  “Where would you like to go?”

  “I like scrambled eggs and steak. Your scrambled eggs and steak.”

  “Why don’t we see what we can cook up then?”

  “You said Mattie is away, so how about my place?”

  “I think that sounds like the best thing I’ve heard all week.”

  He leaned in and planted a kiss that affected her all the way down to the core of her being. Places inside her she’d been trying to ignore since last Friday night sparked again, and this time they ignited into a blaze that couldn’t be extinguished.

  He kissed her so t
horoughly that she forgot that she should object to the public display of affection out in the open where anyone could see them… Because suddenly she didn’t really care who knew. All the reasons why they shouldn’t be together were kind of fuzzy right now. Her fears were transported outside of herself, until all that was left was the longing for this man who made her feel so safe.

  His tongue sent shivers of desire rippling through her, and her body demanded more. She wanted to discover the real him, the man who needed and wanted her. The man she couldn’t get enough of. She wanted to bridge the distance and reach the essence of Jesse that was hidden behind that gruff barrier he’d erected to protect himself.

  As if reading her mind, his arms tightened around her, encircling her with an intimacy she realized she’d longed for her entire life.

  Or maybe it was Jesse that she’d been waiting for all her life? This man who, in the past, had shied away from getting emotionally involved. But now he was letting her in, and that was the only thing in the world she wanted.

  Jesse groaned softly, and Charlotte tried to remember the last time a man had overwhelmed her senses the way he did. A man who made her crave his touch, hunger for his kiss. A man who made her want nothing less than to be naked with him in bed for long hours, until they knew each other so well the memories were etched on each other’s souls. All she needed was Jesse, and she needed him now.

  It made her vulnerable and exposed her heart to a world of potential hurt, but she didn’t care. Look where playing it safe and going with the flow had gotten her.

  It was time to take control of her life.

  “How about if we order in tonight?” she suggested.

  “No eggs?”

  “You know what happens when you make me eggs.”

  “I think ordering in could be very promising.”

  *

  Jesse leaned in and kissed her again. Somewhere in the haze between longing and lust, he found what was left of his shredded senses. He gazed into Charlotte’s eyes, trying to make sure he was reading her right.

  He closed his eyes, tried to catch his breath for a moment, tried to gather himself. Damn, they needed to get out of there now.