Page 19 of The Cowboy’s Forever Promise

“Seeing Carson again was just so unexpected, but I’ll be fine, please don’t worry about me.”

“I’ll always worry about you, you know that. I’m just so happy you’re here, and I can’t wait to see you again tomorrow.”

“About that …”

“No, don’t even think of not coming. You’ve seen Carson, everyone knows about you two by now. Besides, if we’re going to Bozeman on Monday, you’ll have to take the measurements of the closet space and kitchen cabinets tomorrow. Or would you prefer it if we postpone the Bozeman trip to later in the week?”

“No,” Abby said quickly. She had to leave here as soon as possible. “Tomorrow is fine.”

“Okay, great. Phone me if you need to talk, okay?”

They talked for another few moments before they ended the call.

As she was putting down her phone, it pinged with a text message. She didn’t even look at the number, assuming it was from June.

“I probably need a very cold shower, what about you? Carson.”

Heat spread throughout her whole body. And just like that, images from last night in the shower flashed before her.

Quickly she sent him an emoji before she threw the phone on the bed and rushed to the bathroom.

A cold shower sounded like the perfect solution to cool down the fever raging through her at the moment.

She’d secretly hoped to avoid Sunday lunch with the Westons, but June was right. Everyone knew by now what had happened. Hopefully there were other subjects the Westons liked to talk about besides how she and Carson had met in Spokane.

Chapter Six

Carson skipped breakfast on Sunday morning. The whole family would only want to talk about one thing and that was what happened in Spokane between him and Abby. He wasn’t ready to face any of them this morning, especially Willow and Cooper. He’d have to endure their teasing during lunch later today at Arlene’s anyway.

Right now, he was still too … shaken, freaked out, unsettled, he wasn’t even sure what to call the emotion whirling inside of him.

Last night he’d wanted to kiss her to show her what was between them wasn’t something that would just disappear, but he hadn’t expected a mere kiss to scramble his mind to such an extent he’d stopped thinking where they were and what he was doing. If it hadn’t been for the car that had driven past them, he wasn’t sure whether he would’ve stopped.

In answer to his text, she’d sent him an emoji with eyes rolling, but he’d had his hands on her, he knew she was as unsettled and upset as he was. What was the right word? Not really upset, no, but maybe slightly disconcerted about what was happening between them. If he wasn’t mistaken, she’d also needed a cold shower last night.

He was checking on the calves, his camera around his neck, when Dylan found him.

Wordlessly, his brother handed him a sandwich. “Isabella sends this.”

“Thank you, but I had coffee.” He accepted it anyway because it looked tasty.

“The cousins, they mean well, you know that don’t you?”

Taking a bite from the sandwich, Carson nodded. “I do, but seriously, I don’t want anyone reading my mind this morning.”

“Lustful thoughts?” Dylan chuckled.

Carson barked out a laugh. “Man, you have no idea.”

“So are you going to see her again?”

“I’ve asked her to see if she could do something to the state of my house.”

Dylan’s eyebrows shot up. “You’ve what?”

“You’ve heard me.”

“I just can’t believe it.” Dylan frowned. “If you are even considering tidying up your house, you seriously have it bad for this woman.”