Cowboy After Dark

“Wait a minute.” Rosie Padgett, Damon’s foster mom, moved to the front of the crowd. “Those boys look mighty familiar.”

“Yeah,” Lexi said. “They look a lot like the Magee brothers.”

“Good Lord, it’s Liam and Grady!” Rosie started down the hill.

Phil gasped. “Grady?” She trotted after Rosie. “Are you saying I called the cops on Grady?”

“Isn’t Grady Magee that sculptor you love so much?” Edie hurried down the drive after them.

“Yes!” Phil tossed over her shoulder. “And a wedding guest, besides! This is so embarrassing.”

“But why would they just show up like this?” Hope observed the scene with growing dismay. She’d heard of Grady Magee. Everyone who lived in Cody had. She’d known he’d be at the wedding with his brother Liam. That probably meant one of Grady’s sculptures was under that tarp and not a bunch of stolen goods. If they were trying to bring the tarp-covered object up the drive, it might even be a wedding present for Damon and Phil. Damn it.

“Don’t feel bad.” Lexi gave her a quick hug.

“Too late.”

“Hey, they could have been robbers.”

“But they weren’t. And one of them is famous.” Her vivid imagination had gotten her into trouble a lot as a kid, but she hadn’t embarrassed herself like this in a long time.

“You didn’t know that, and you were bravely defending the castle. That’s admirable.” Lexi smiled. “Let’s go find out what they’re up to.”

“Okay.” Heading down to meet the Magee brothers was the last thing she wanted to do, but refusing wasn’t an option. She needed to apologize for interfering. She’d never met Grady, but she’d seen his picture in the paper. She picked him out as the one with collar-length brown hair.

He and his brother didn’t resemble each other. The closer she came to the group at the bottom of the drive, the more familiar Liam seemed. She remembered that jet-black hair and those blue eyes from somewhere. She also recognized his warm smile.

Then she placed him. He’d stopped in a few times after dropping off his rafting clients at the hotel in Cody where she worked at the concierge desk. From his subtle flirting, she’d thought he’d ask her out eventually. Even though he was temptation on a stick, she’d been rehearsing her refusal. She had no intention of getting involved with a guy. Not now, anyway, and maybe not ever again.

She probably wouldn’t need to refuse him after giving him a heart attack by standing in front of his moving truck and then bringing the law down on him. She’d be lucky if he didn’t chew her out. But what in hell had he been doing delivering a sculpture when presumably no one was home?

Unless it was supposed to be a surprise, doofus. She sighed. That would explain everything, wouldn’t it? But spoiling the surprise wasn’t all on her, not with the party guests in the cabin this afternoon.

By the time she and Lexi had joined the gathering, the cruiser had driven away. Phil was having an animated conversation with Grady, and Liam stood there smiling with one arm around Rosie’s shoulders as everyone gave him advice about getting his truck and the loaded flatbed up the hill. Except if Hope hadn’t stood in his way, he’d have accomplished it by now.

Liam’s gaze fell on them, and he brightened. “Hey, Lex!” He moved toward Lexi, but he sent a quick smile Hope’s way as if to acknowledge that he recognized her, too. “Grady, Lexi’s here!”

As both guys converged on Lexi, Phil hurried over and put her arm around Hope. “It’s fine. They’re not upset.”

“I feel like an idiot.”

“I know, but please don’t worry about it. They’re good guys. Let me introduce you. Liam, Grady? This is my friend Hope Caldwell. We’ve known each other since ninth grade.”

“Nice to meet you, Hope.” Grady smiled as he touched the brim of his hat in a typical cowboy greeting. “I have to admit you scared the daylights out of us.”

“I know, and I’m deeply sorry. I thought—never mind what I thought.”

“Oh, we’re well aware of what you thought.” Liam’s amused voice matched the laughter in his blue eyes. “The cops made that clear. Hello, Hope. Good to see you again.”

“I sincerely doubt that.”

“No, I mean it.” His gaze held hers.

Phil blinked. “You know each other?”

“Not really.” Hope scrambled to get her bearings. The warmth in Liam’s expression when he’d looked at her spoke volumes. Instead of being upset with her, he saw this coincidental meeting as a bonus. “Liam has rafting clients who stay at the hotel where I work. We’ve seen each other a few times because of that.”

“Hope’s part of the concierge staff,” Liam said. “She’s been kind enough to recommend our rafting company to hotel guests.”

“That’s because everybody raves about the experience.”

His blue eyes lit up with pleasure. “Glad to hear it! Just say the word and I’ll take you on a complimentary rafting trip. Then you can know firsthand what you’re recommending.”

Unless she was mistaken, he’d just asked her out. Sure, it was kind of business-related, but she was getting a vibe from him that was all pleasure. Even more problematic, her body was responding to that vibe. “I, um...haven’t thought about it. Maybe sometime.” She cleared her throat and glanced pointedly at the flatbed with its mysterious cargo. “Do you still want to get that up the hill?”

“Yes, ma’am.” He winked at her.

Her stomach fluttered and her pulse rate shot up. She’d have to be careful or this tall cowboy would slip right past her defenses.

“I’ve figured out it’s a surprise wedding gift for Damon and me,” Phil said. “And I can’t wait to see it. Oh, my god, a Grady Magee piece on my property! Can you believe it?”

“It’s the least I could do,” Grady said. “After all the encouragement Damon gave me right when I needed it.”

“Should I call him?” Phil held up her phone. “I know you wanted to surprise us, but now I think he should be here when you take the tarp off and set it up.”

“Guess so.”

Hope felt sorry for the guy. He obviously was disappointed that his grand scheme hadn’t come off as planned. She glanced up at Liam. “Too bad it didn’t work out the way you both hoped.”

He shrugged one broad shoulder. “We tried.”

“If I hadn’t stood in your way, you’d at least have the trailer up there by now.”

“Wouldn’t have mattered. Even if we’d made it up, we’d never have been able to set up the sculpture without someone in the cabin hearing us. The flatbed makes a hellacious noise when you tilt it.”

“But you were trying to accomplish something cool, and I had Phil call the police.”

His dark eyebrows lifted. “So that was your idea?”

“Yeah, I told her to call the cops before I ran out to the driveway. When I saw the loaded trailer, I thought you’d already taken things from other houses and hidden them under the tarp. I’d convinced myself you were out to rob us blind.”

“Some imagination you have.”

“So I’ve been told.”

He rubbed his chin as he gazed at her. “Gutsy, too.”

“Not really.”