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“But you told your mama about me.”
“And Rissa.”
“And Travis.”
“Lee knows too.”
“So no hullaballoo,” she said, stumbling over the word. She laughed and added, “I don’t know anyone who talks like that.”
“Whatever,” Will said, his arm tight around her. “Everyone in Texas talks like that.”
They laughed together as they went up the steps, and Gretchen paused right in front of her perfect mint door with the very January wreath. She put both hands on Will’s chest and leaned into him. “Thank you for tonight, Will. I had a lot of fun.”
“Me too.” He smiled at her, and his eyes dropped to her mouth. Oh, yes, he was going to kiss her. Excitement built in Gretchen’s stomach, and her eyes drifted closed.
The wisp of his breath touched her cheek, and then a horn filled the air. A truck came roaring into her driveway, startling her and Will apart, the horn blaring as the lights illuminated them and the house.
“What in the world?” Will asked.
Gretchen started toward the steps, because she knew who owned this truck. “It’s my neighbor,” she said. “Something’s wrong.” She flew down the steps in her long skirt, already calling, “LaMar? Is Rachel all right?”
An older gentleman got out of the truck on the driver’s side, and he said, “She’s fine. We’re fine.”
Gretchen’s heart wouldn’t stop sprinting. Neither would her feet, and she ran past Will’s truck to LaMar. “What’s going on then?”
He reached back into the truck and pulled out a box. “Elvis got hurt at our place. We’ve been takin’ real good care of him, and I’ve been watchin’ for you to get home. I didn’t want you to go in and be worried he wasn’t there.”
He handed her the box with Elvis cowering in it. He wore a wrap around his front right paw, and Gretchen couldn’t believe this was what had interrupted her first kiss with Will. Her brother’s bothersome cat.
She looked up at LaMar, feeling so out of sorts. “Thank you,” she managed to say.
He beamed at her, tipped his hat, and got back in his truck. She took Elvis up to the porch, where Will had waited for her. “My neighbor,” she said. “His wife has some health problems, so I thought it might be her.” She held up the box. “It was Elvis instead. He gets out and into things he shouldn’t.”
She sighed as she opened the door and put Elvis inside. He yowled at her like that wasn’t the treatment he expected, but Gretchen’s exhaustion wove through her now too.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, stepping into Will’s arms again. The moment was broken though, and she couldn’t call it back now. “I’m keeping him for my brother as he goes through this hard thing in his life. His wife left, and he’s got the three kids all alone. I guess Elvis was too much for him.”
“Hmm, I can see why.”
Gretchen smiled up at the cowboy. “I’ll see you Sunday?”
“I can’t wait,” he said, his lips right at her ear. He touched them to her neck and stepped back. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
“Mm.” She walked to the edge of the porch and watched him descend the steps and then stride toward his truck. She couldn’t believe she’d caught his attention, and while he had a gruff exterior, she knew more about the man underneath all of that now.
And she sure did like him.
“Meow,” Elvis said pathetically, and Gretchen sighed as she turned back toward her house. She went inside and closed the door, then bent to pick up the tabby cat.
“You silly thing,” she scolded him. “You interrupted my kiss with Will.” How embarrassing was that? Her injured cat took precedence over kissing the handsome cowboy. Max was going to have some cat-tax to pay, that was for sure.
Humiliation dove through her when she remembered how she’d run from Will—and all for a cat who probably wasn’t injured that badly?
So embarrassing.
She took Elvis down the hall to her bedroom, where he limped to the empty side of the bed.
“You’re going to have to help me brainstorm a new plan to get him to kiss me on Sunday,” she said pointedly, glaring at the feline. “So start thinking.”
