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Kat excitedly rubbed her hands together, then picked up her note. Unlike Gemma, she tore through the envelope. Closing her eyes, she flipped it over a few times, like she was playing heads or tails. “This side. Get Buckled,” she read. “Walk up to the next man who walks through the door and remove his belt … with your teeth.” Kat picked up the urn and gave it a big kiss. “Bring it on, Zoe!”
All three ladies looked at the door expectantly, and Gemma and Milly laughed when their sexy neighborhood law enforcer entered the bar. He was a mountain of a man, strapped to the teeth, and looking fine in his government-issued uniform.
“No way.” Kat shook her head. “Anyone but him.”
Nolan Carmichael not only enforced the law on federal forest land, he was also Kat’s disgruntled neighbor. The two of them had a war going ever since Kat adopted a miniature horse who not only neighed at the top of every hour like a rooster, but he tended to faint when startled. He also thought Nolan’s driveway was his own personal pooping grounds.
“That’s not how this is played,” Gemma pointed out primly. “‘Bring it on’ I believe were your exact words.”
“Fine.” Kat stood, threw her shoulders back and, chin up, hollered across the bar. “Hey, Ranger Tight-ass, it’s your lucky night.”
Nolan looked over the heads of the crowd, easy to do since he was six foot a-million. But it wasn’t Nolan who caught Milly’s eye. It was the sexy man following close behind.
Lucas.
He was dressed professionally in a buttoned-up blue shirt, rolled at the sleeves, showing off a powerful set of forearms that were lickable. Then there were his slacks, dark and pressed to perfection. Dress shoes. His hair was windblown and his lips …
Milly let her gaze linger for a moment, just taking in the breadth of him. But when she reached his face, he was staring right at her. He winked.
Milly spun around in her seat, her cheeks aflame. Oh my god, he caught her checking him out! She could almost hear his chuckle over the crush of the crowd. She buried her face in her hands. “That did not just happen.”
Thankfully, her embarrassment was cut short when Nolan approached the table. Only he wasn’t alone. He’d brought Lucas along. His gaze swept languidly down her body and back, a look of male appreciation flaming in his gaze. She sat up a bit straighter and arched her back slightly to put her girls on display like, Take that, you flirt.
He laughed.
“Did you finally shoot your horse?” Nolan asked, and Kat’s eyes narrowed.
“Tiny Dancer is going to shit on your front porch for that,” Kat said.
“He already shit on my porch. Then nibbled all my tomatoes. He’s a menace.”
“Oooh, big bad lawman,” Kat feigned a scared look. “Are you going to arrest him?”
“I should arrest you.”
“Will you bring out the cuffs?” Kat said.
Milly was so busy watching the fireworks, she didn’t notice that Lucas had moved behind her until she felt his breath on her neck. “No pink tonight?”
She turned her head to look him in the eye when she remembered that she had on pink undies.
“I see,” he said, all knowing.
“That’s just a lucky guess.”
“No luck about it. Sheer talent.” With their faces this close she could see the little specks of gold in his warm green eyes. The ocean, she decided. His eyes reminded her of a tropical ocean, with the waves breaking at sunset.
“You look beautiful,” he said softly, and it was like the noise of the bar faded away until all she could hear was her breathing—and his.
“Thank you.” She nervously smoothed her hands down her dress and when her fingers hit skin, she remembered just how short her sister’s dress was. “And you look dashing.” God, did she just say that? Dashing? Who uses that word? A book nerd who spends her time with her face between the pages, that’s who. “I mean charming.” Was charming any better? “I mean, good. You look good.” She groaned, but to her surprise he didn’t even blink, the beginnings of a genuine smile tipped the corners of his mouth.
“I liked dashing better. You seem like the kind of woman who deserves dashing in her world.”
Lucas wasn’t just dashing, he was charming, and he was charming her right into a serious crush. She wondered if he could tell by her big, goofy grin. He winked again and, lord help her, she was going to have to practice her poker face since she was going to be spending more time around him as the event got closer.
“Are you offering to be my dashing for the night?” she asked.
“Does that mean you’re accepting applications?” His smile was half-cocked and fully loaded with swagger. Her heart jump-started like it had connected with the end of a live wire.
