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“So, Lucy Alatore, what brings you back to the Rocky M?”

“A girl can’t long for the scent of cattle poop in the morning?”

“Not girls like you.”

She felt his eyes on her feathered earrings, the bangles on her arms, her leggings and high-heeled boots. Around here she was exotic. Freaky almost. Not that it bothered her.

“That is true, Jeremiah. That is true.”

“How long are you staying?”

She shrugged. “Mia and Jack just got back. They’re building a house. We’re not in any rush.” No rush at all to get back to the mess she’d made.

“We?”

“Mom and I. She moved to Los Angeles with me when I went.”

“Your sister says your jewelry business is doing great. You’re the toast of SoCal.” Jeremiah smiled at her.

My sister has no idea what she’s talking about, she thought, but what she said was, “She’s proud,” and left it at that.

“I bought a girlfriend one of your necklaces,” he said, and she nearly spat out a sip of beer.

“Really?”

“Those pretty little horseshoe ones? I liked `em.”

Those pretty little horseshoe necklaces had been her Waterloo. Her Achilles heel. The snake hidden in tall grass. “Well, I should have gotten you to endorse me.”

“You didn’t need me. Those necklaces were all over Hollywood.”

There was no way she was going to ruin this moonlight by talking about those necklaces. She looked at him sideways and changed the subject. “I have a hard time imagining you in Hollywood.”

“That’s where the pretty girls are.” He waggled his eyebrows but then stared at his boots in the grass. “I was only there for a while. The relationship didn’t last much past that necklace I gave her.”

“You didn’t like it?”

“No, I really liked your necklace—”

She laughed. “Los Angeles.”

“Good God, no.” He shuddered. “Not my scene at all.”

“The city must have loved you, though.” With that hair and those eyes, the way he moved, part cowboy, part cat, all man. Casting agents must have fallen over themselves to get to him. To say nothing of the women.

“What about you?” he asked.

“That city does not love me.” If there was one thing she could be sure of, it was that Los Angeles barely knew she’d been there, which was such a bitter disappointment when she’d gone intending to light the streets on fire. And she’d been close. So damn close.

She spun the bottle between her hands. Her chest ached as if there was someone standing on her ribcage. But maybe that was just what failure felt like.

“Hey.” His shoulder nudged hers, his heat a wave through her body, waking her up. “This is the closest I’ve been to a date in months, so please don’t cry. If you do, I’ll probably start and I’ve sworn off crying on dates.”

Charmed despite her crap mood, she smiled at him. “Does that get you laid?” she asked. “Crying on dates?”

“No, actually. It’s very effective birth control.”

He was watching her, a strange smile on his face, as if he’d turned around and found a treasure sitting on this porch next to him, and for a long moment she got lost in the blue of his eyes.

I’m going to kiss him, she thought, delighted by the idea. Drunk on the notion. Before leaving his house, she was going to taste this man.

She was a serial monogamist—hadn’t had a one-night stand in fifteen years. For her it was one long-term relationship after the other. She didn’t just date, she contemplated marriage over the dessert course. But she did like to kiss.

Her life hadn’t been very easy the last few months. Stress and worry and regret and fear had worn her down to the bone and she’d grown so used to the sensation that sitting here, contemplating kissing a gorgeous cowboy in the moonlight, seemed like the sweetest relief.

He lifted a finger and brushed back a long strand of dark hair that had fallen over her eye.

Her skin sizzled at his touch and the rest of her body cried out in jealousy.

“You remind me of Hollywood,” he murmured.

“What do you mean?” she whispered, so lost in his eyes she wasn’t sure if she was being insulted and she didn’t care.

“Beautiful and sad, all at the same time.”

She cleared her throat and looked away. It was one thing to kiss a handsome cowboy in the moonlight; it was another thing to have him see her so clearly.

“So how did you end up with a drunk cowboy on your couch?” She rolled the bottle between her hands, liking the click of the glass against her rings. The sound was loud, chasing away her thoughts of kissing handsome cowboys.

“Reese? He showed up yesterday. He won big down in Fort Worth and was looking for some help spending the purse.”

“And the guy in charge of three young boys was the logical choice.”

His smile was thin and drawn. “He didn’t know. Nobody really knows. I just faded away after my accident.”

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