Authors: Amanda Boone,Amber Duval
COWBOY ROMANCE: Justin (Western Contemporary Alpha Male Bride Romance) (The Steele Brothers Book 1)
© Copyright 2016 by Amanda Boone - All rights reserved.
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Paranormal & Shifter Romance Collection
A Second Chance for the Mercenary Shifter
Wanted by my Biker Stepbrother
Protected and Taken by the Alpha MC Leader
Protected and Loved by the NAVY SEAL:
Billionaire Seduction: Obsession
Billionaire Seduction: Temptation
Billionaire Seduction: Possession
The Steele Brothers: Justin
1.
“If I get the cheese sticks, will you pay for half?” Bradley Currell asked me while the waiter stood beside our little two-person table.
I looked up at him and took a deep breath. It wasn’t the fact that he wanted me to pay for half of an appetizer, which
he
was going to eat, that had me so fed up. Well, it wasn’t the whole fact, anyway. It sure wasn’t
helping
anything. I’d been set up again, by my mother, with a man who couldn’t be further from what I was interested in. Not that I especially knew what I was interested in.
“Sara? The cheese sticks?” His cheeks were turning pink and he was fidgeting.
Time to put the poor guy out of his misery. “Sure, Bradley. Half of the cheese sticks.”
In my mind I stood up and apologized for having to leave so soon. I would have to get down to the shelter that dream me owned to make sure the thunder that was rumbling outside didn’t scare the dogs. Bradley would never call me again.
The woman in my mind was so much cooler than the real me. Instead of dismissing myself from another abysmal date, I sat with my back straight and smiled politely as Bradley slurped his water just like the imaginary dogs in my shelter would’ve.
I’d never understood why I had to be so polite when the men who surrounded me were never as well-mannered. My mother was a Southern belle from Charleston, though, and she’d forced me into etiquette classes as soon as I could hold my own head up. As repayment for obediently going to her stupid classes until I was eighteen? She set me up with guys like Bradley Currell, who wanted to split the cost of his dinner with me.
I bit my tongue and folded my hands in my lap. “So, Bradley, what brought you to Martinsville? Mom told me you just moved here a few weeks ago.”
He leaned back in his chair and slurped some more water before answering. “I got a job in the offices at the state prison. It pays really well.”
It couldn’t pay
too
well if he couldn’t afford to pay for his own appetizer.
“Do you like it?”
He nodded. “I like it enough. There aren’t a lot of pretty girls there, though. I was so excited when I ran into your mom at the post office. We just started talking and then she showed me your picture. You look just like a girl I dated in high school, Mary Carter.”
I was going to kill my mother. I sat up straighter and ran my hand down the skirt of my white cocktail dress. It was silk. I’d worn a
silk
dress to dinner at Shoney’s.
“Oh? That’s interesting. My mom spoke really highly of you. She said you were such a gentleman and helped her get her package to her car.”
His cheeks grew hot again. “She must’ve been thinking of someone else. All of my Sports Illustrated posters finally came in. I had my hands full with my own stuff.”
I clenched my teeth together so hard it hurt and nodded. It was just like my mother to lie so I’d feel obliged to go on the stupid date. “Sometimes she gets a little confused. So, you collect posters?”
“No. I just love the women in little bikinis. It’s the Swimsuit Edition.” He made a hand motion that I assumed was supposed to reflect him holding a boob. “
Those
are some real lookers.”
I refrained from looking down at my chest. I wasn’t huge, but I also wasn’t small. I had plenty to fill someone’s hands. If someone’s hands were ever interested in holding them. They hadn’t been so far.
Bradley went on to talk about the women of the newest issue while I covertly looked around the restaurant. I was hoping for a discreet exit, or maybe a giant steak knife that I could throw at my mother. Not that I ever would. She was definitely the boss in our relationship. I wouldn’t even work up the nerve to complain about Bradley.
Instead of help I found the amused face of some cowboy watching me. His white cowboy hat was pulled low so I couldn’t see much of his eyes, but I could feel them on me. Even from across the room, it seemed he could tell how horrible the date was going.
I slid my eyes back to Bradley, who was still going on and on about swimsuit models. I closed my eyes for a beat, and when I opened them the waiter was putting Bradley’s cheese sticks down for him.
“What would you like for dinner?”
Oh, god.
We still had to order entrees. I was going to lose my sanity. I looked over at Bradley, praying that he’d found me dull and lifeless. Maybe he’d call the whole thing off.
Instead, he just smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ll order for you.”
I listened while he ordered himself a steak with a loaded baked potato and banana pudding for dessert and then ordered me a small salad with the dressing on the side. No dessert. No dessert and I was going to have to stay an extra fifteen to thirty minutes while he finished his.
“Are you sure you’re okay with just a salad, ma’am?” At least the waiter wasn’t going to assume that was all I wanted.
Before I could speak, Bradley leaned forward and nodded. “Your mom told me that you’re trying to lose fifteen pounds. I know how hard that can be. Just the salad.”
I was going to murder him, right after I murdered my mother. I was
not
trying to lose any weight. My mother was the only one of us who didn’t like how I looked.
I flashed them both a dazzling smile while digging my nails into my palms beneath the table. “That’s fine.”
As soon as the waiter made his exit with an apologetic look in my direction, I pushed back my chair. “I’ll be right back. Excuse me.”
He nodded and then dug into his fried, cheesy goodness with abandon. Jerk.
I made my way to the bathroom but veered left to go out the back door instead. I figured I’d give myself a few minutes to relax and then I’d go back in. I needed a bottle of whiskey and a cigarette. Only I didn’t drink whiskey or smoke. It felt like a good time to start, though.
I leaned against the brick building, next to a dumpster, and blew out a big breath. I wanted to scream and shout, but I knew that wouldn’t get me anywhere. I counted to twenty and then blew out another shaky breath.
I’d had worse blind dates. My mom set me up practically once a month. I was hoping the supply of men in Martinsville would eventually run out, but so far, mom kept producing. She was so desperate to get me settled down because all of her friends’ daughters had been married off already.
“You get lost?”
I spun around and gasped. “Jeez! You scared me!”
The cowboy from inside the restaurant pushed his hat up on his head so I could fully see his face and grinned. “I didn’t mean to.”
My heartbeat tripled, and it had nothing to do with him scaring me. He made my idiot date look like something you’d find feeding at the bottom of the ocean. “You didn’t. I mean, you did, but it’s not a big deal.”
His grin widened, and two dimples peeked out from his bearded face. “Are you running away?”
I looked longingly down the alleyway. Oh, how I wished I was. “No. I just needed some fresh air. You?”
He shoved his hands into the front of his worn jeans, stretching the material tight across the front of his body. “Thought about it a few times.”
I averted my eyes from his crotch and crossed my arms over my chest. “I’d better get back in there.”
He stepped forward, officially into my bubble. “We could run away together.”
I stared up into his handsome face and then laughed. It surprised the both of us. I covered my mouth and then moved around him to go back inside. “I’m sorry. That was rude of me. Thank you, but no, thank you.”
I let myself back into the restaurant and then went to my table. Bradly had already gotten his plate of food and had dug in. I glanced back at the door, longingly. I wanted to be back outside. Maybe not with the cowboy, but outside nonetheless.
“I was afraid you’d fallen in. Don’t you girls usually throw up
after
the dinner?”
I bent down and grabbed my purse. “I’m so sorry, Bradley. I feel terrible, but I just got a call from my dog sitter. She’s come down with…the measles…and has to leave. I’ve got to get home and make sure my dog is okay.”
Another dream of mine, owning a dog that could possibly be trained to ram its head into someone’s crotch on command. I’d crossed my fingers as I said the lie and hoped lightning didn’t strike.
He nodded. “Sure, sure. Um, let me just add up your part of the check, plus the cheese sticks, and then you can go.”
Never mind the fact that he’d driven me there. I chewed on my tongue to keep from yelling at the idiotic man and reached into my purse. “Here’s twenty. That should cover it.”
Bradley looked at my untouched salad and water. “Yeah…but what about the tip?”
I took out another twenty and placed it on the table. “It was nice to meet you, Bradley. Have a nice night.”
I pushed in my chair and then rushed out of the place, vowing to never enter a Shoney’s again, as long as I lived. Anything to avoid flashbacks of Bradley.
Once I was on the sidewalk, I looked around and decided to walk. Martinsville wasn’t that big, and I lived over my parents’ garage in a suburb in the middle of town. It wasn’t ideal in my heels, but it was better than hearing anything else Bradley had to say.
I set off at a quick pace, eager to get home and start forgetting the awful night. Maybe not all of it, though, I thought. The cowboy
had
been nice to look at.