A Bride for a Blue-Ribbon Cowboy

“Thanks. I take pride in my job, especially when I have something to work with. You’re a pretty woman. Now all you need is a dab of lipstick. Why don’t you get it out of your purse.”

“I…don’t wear makeup,” Cindy said.

“Well, I suppose you don’t really need it. But we’ve got some new products on display that a lot of our clients have been raving about.” She hollered to the front of the shop. “Wanda Mae, will you bring me a tube of Pretty in Pink?”

By the time the women had finished with her, Cindy held a sack full of beauty supplies and a detailed list of instructions for their use. And even though she still felt like a guppy in a mason jar, her self-esteem had sure gotten a shot in the arm.

But that was nothing compared to the jolt she received when Blake strode into the Cut N Curl at five o’clock.

As Blake’s eyes lit on Cindy, he froze in his tracks.

Talk about beauty makeovers. She’d gone from Calamity Jane to a redheaded Cinderella in a few short hours.

“What do you think?” she asked, nibbling on her bottom lip.

Heck, he didn’t know what to think.

Her hair hung loose to her shoulders in a sexy array of curls that seemed to dance whenever she moved her head. He wasn’t sure what they’d done to her eyebrows, but they sure made a guy focus on those expressive green eyes.

And the pink lipstick she wore made her lips look…well, they looked just plain kissable.

“Is it too much?” she asked.

No. It was just right. But he couldn’t seem to open his mouth to tell her.

“For Pete’s sake, Blake, you’re making me so darn nervous I could bust.”

“You look fine. Nice.” He had to force the words out, as well as make himself breathe.

He’d expected a makeover to help her look somewhat attractive. But he hadn’t expected her to bubble over with…whatever it was that was bursting from the seams of that little blue skirt and white silky blouse.

“Don’t let him kid you,” Wanda Mae said. “I saw the way he nearly tripped over his jaw when he took one look at you. My gosh, girl, you’re as pretty as a fashion model.”

“Do you think Robby will be surprised?” Cindy asked him.

Flabbergasted would be more like it.

Suddenly, a flood of responsibility washed over Blake. He couldn’t just let Cindy out on the streets looking like that. Not without some way of protecting her from a pack of males on the prowl. It would be like throwing a calf to the coyotes. “You’re not going out in public like that.”

“What do you mean?”

“At least, not without me. Not yet. You’re not ready for Robby, or any other guy, for that matter.”

She slapped her hands on her hips, and the familiar sass erupted in her eyes. “I’ve taken a lot of guff over the years from some of the kids I’ve gone to school with, but I’m not about to let you tease me, too.”

“Tease you?” God knows he’d done his share of ribbing her in the past about one thing or another, but he wasn’t teasing about her looks. Or the appeal she was bound to have on the unsuspecting single males in Blossom. And some of the married ones, too, he suspected.

She slid him a pout that actually made her look all the more sexy. “I don’t need you to rub in the fact that I haven’t had any real dates.”

“You’ve never had a date?” Wanda Mae laughed. “Well, that’s about to change. Maybe I’d better go into the back room and find a stick that you can use to chase off the men whenever you come into town.”

The flashy orange-haired woman was right.

Blake took Cindy by the hand. “Listen, honey. I told you I’d coach you. And that’s what I intend to do. You look great. And there isn’t a man alive who wouldn’t agree with me. But men are a strange breed, and I just want to make sure you can hold your own.”

“Listen here, Blake Gray Feather. I have no problem holding my own with men. Never had, never will.”

“I’m not talking about riding and roping, Cindy.”

“Knock it off. I quit competing with boys in high school.”

He rolled his eyes and blew out a ragged sigh. “Some guys aren’t honest. And they have ulterior motives.”

“I might be inexperienced, but I read books and magazines. And I watch TV. So you don’t have to worry about me.”

She talked a good story, but he had his doubts. Some men would take advantage of her innocence. And that was something Blake couldn’t allow to happen.

“I’m only going to be in town for another couple weeks, then you’ll be on your own. And I want to leave knowing you won’t let some fast-talking, womanizing cowboy sweep you off your feet.” His gaze dropped down to her toes, which had been newly polished.

Oh, for Pete’s sake. She even had beautiful feet.

Blake blew out a ragged sigh.

What in the world had he created?

And worse, what had he gotten himself into?

Chapter Three

As they carried their packages to the pickup, Blake didn’t say much to Cindy. He figured she was still trying to get used to the change in her appearance.

And so was he.

He’d known she would benefit from a makeover. But he hadn’t been prepared for the actual difference a new outfit and hairstyle would make.

How had he ever missed seeing her potential?

“Thank you for the new clothes and all the beauty treatments,” she said. “I really should have paid for it myself.”

“I wanted to do it. Besides, it was a way for me to repay you and your grandfather for putting up with me when I was a mouthy teen.”

“You weren’t so bad,” she said.

“Not even that first day when I teased you about the color of your hair?”

The day Blake had arrived on the ranch, he’d tugged on one of her braids and called her Carrot Top. She’d merely glared at him until he looked away. Then she’d lowered her head and rushed him like a billy goat with its tail on fire.

“When I picked myself up off the floor, you slapped your hands on your hips, glared down and said, ‘Carrot tops are green, city boy.’”