Chapter 12
TWELVE
Aspen
I’m at the soft opening of Seven Sins Saloon, perched on one of the barstools while I watch Dakota working her magic as she manages her staff and serves customers.
I’m also soft-launching my single life tonight.
Or so I told myself when I got all dressed up, put on my favorite pair of heels, and came down here sans one teenage daughter who’s at a sleepover.
I’m not ready for a relationship or anything serious, but if I’m going to stop the recurring dreams I keep having about a certain cowboy, I need someone new to imagine in his place.
But so far, I’ve been striking out left and right.
Every guy who’s smiled at me from across the bar, and one who suggested he could take me around the dance floor once earlier in the night, has disappeared without another word.
I haven’t even been offered a single free drink, and my attempts to flirt with the door guy were rebuffed immediately.
I stare down at my phone as I take another long sip of the Ranch Water Dakota made for me and pull up the dating app I was looking at earlier.
I’d made an account to swipe through some profiles, but I hadn’t taken the full plunge into making a real one for myself yet.
I wanted to try the old-fashioned way, but maybe I’m just too old for that.
Too much of a mom to even get hit on at the bar.
“You want another?” Dakota points to my glass when she sees it getting low.
“Yes, please.” I smile at her. “Also, you’re the bar expert. Am I too old to be here? Is it what I’m wearing? Do I just need to find a dating app for moms?”
“Well, for starters, you’re freaking gorgeous.
If it’s what you’re wearing, it’s only that you look expensive, and some of these cowboys are probably smart enough to know they can’t afford you.
The other half are probably terrified of your brothers.
But MILFs are definitely a thing. Usually, it makes the boys come running, honestly.
But I don’t know if I’d date the ones who do.
I’ve seen some of my friends end up with the frustration that follows.
They’re usually looking for someone to iron their laundry and cook their meals, and I don’t think that’s what you’re looking for. ”
“Definitely not. I just want…” I trail off as my eyes search the room.
Trying to find a guy who seems like he could be what I’m looking for, and they land on a heavily tattooed man kicked back in a booth with motorcycle boots and a leather jacket.
He’s in the midst of talking to Bo Briggs, Hazel’s older brother.
Whatever the discussion is, it’s animated, and he slams his hand on the table as he erupts into laughter. “Some fun.”
Dakota’s eyes follow mine, and her brow arches when she sees where my tastes have landed.
“Please tell me it’s Ledger we’re talking about and not Bo.” And like he can hear us talking about him, Bo cranes his neck in our direction and flashes a bright smile.
“Definitely not Bo. I don’t need to be hooking up with my brother’s friends. I want someone I don’t ever have to see again.”
“Then you don’t want Ledger either. He’s sergeant at arms for a local MC, and Levi’s hired them to help keep trouble out.”
I sigh. Small town problems. Everyone knows everyone, and there’s no such thing as a true stranger.
“The app or bust then, I guess.” I give my future sister-in-law a forlorn look before I press the button and start swiping through photos while she pours me another Ranch Water.
I’m sipping on it and slowly filling out my profile when I feel a presence at my side, and the scent of leather, pine, and cigars fills my senses.
I glance to my right before I allow myself to look up and see black cowboy boots and jeans that are perfectly fitted to the man wearing them.
Like he arrived out of the blue to fix all my problems. I lift my lashes to see Carson Beckett, quite possibly the only man who could even hope to garner as much attention as my brothers or Bishop in this town.
“Aspen Stockton, as I live and breathe. I thought that was you, but I said nah. Couldn’t be. She’s too busy out East.”
“Carson.” I smile brightly at him. “Surprised you’re in town yourself. Don’t you have a rodeo to run?”
“It’s my weekend off, so I thought I’d pop in and say hi to the family and catch a drink while I’m here. I ran into Grant while I was out, and he invited me. This place is gorgeous.”
“Thanks to Dakota.” I lift my drink in a toast to the woman herself, and she grins at me before she takes off down the bar, her eyebrows lifting in silent approval as she makes a quick assessment of my current prospect.
“So you in town to celebrate the opening?”
“No. I moved back a few months ago. Wanted to be closer to family,” I answer.
He doesn’t try to hide the search he makes for my ring before he looks back up at me.
“Single again?”
“Looks that way.”
“Well, his loss is Purgatory’s gain. You living in town?”
“Staying at the ranch house while I look for a place to call my own. You know how the market is around here. I might just build something new.”
“That’s what I’d do if I came back. I love my parents’ old house, but it’s a little too small for my liking.”
“Is that where you’re staying?”
“No. I got a room here. Figured I’d indulge a little. Play some poker. Have a few drinks and some cigars while I take a rest from the road.”
“I imagine you get to stay in a lot of nice places.”
“You’d be surprised then. Mostly a lot of fifth wheelers and motels. Whatever the town’s got available, and sometimes it ain’t much.”
“Sounds like my line of work.”
He laughs, loudly at first, but his brows knit together when he realizes I’m not kidding. “You’re serious? Well damn. I just have a hard time imagining Aspen Stockton in a motel.”
“I do a lot of field work in the summers. University tries to give the students hands-on experience, and I take on some CRM or research work when my schedule allows. Lots of long days and small towns. It beats a tent when there’s a shower and a bed that’s up off the ground.”
“Fair enough.” He nods but doesn’t press to ask me more.
I can assume he’s not interested in what I do for a living and is more interested in what I can do in a night. His eyes drift over me again in interest, and I can tell I’ll have to make up my mind quickly if this is how I want to break into this new single chapter of my life.
I don’t know that I have any actual interest in Carson or what he does for a living either.
I already married an athlete. One that left me alone more nights than not.
Been there. Done that. Have several T-shirts.
And a run-of-the-mill rodeo cowboy would be trouble enough.
Carson Beckett’s rodeo royalty. Even being seen talking to him will send the rumor mill into overdrive.
Millie might even get palpitations from running around trying to spread the news.
The thought of that seals the deal. I want a simple one-night stand for my first go at this. Not a lot of small-town drama and whispering neighbors everywhere I go. But it can’t hurt to practice flirting with him.
“You gonna stare at me all night or ask me to dance?”
“Working on finding the courage.” He gives me a boyishly charming smile that I have a feeling makes light work of a lot of skirts on the road.
I grin back, but before I can say a word, I feel a hand on the small of my back, and Dakota slings a glass of whiskey across the counter to the interloper before I know what’s happening.
He reaches between Carson and me to grab it and tosses it back before slamming the empty glass on the counter and turning his attention to the rodeo owner.
“You won’t mind if I take her for a spin while you figure out where you misplaced it then.”
“Bishop,” I hiss, glaring at his profile as he leans over me.
“Yeah, honey. You ready? I just asked them to play our song.” Bishop takes my hand and pulls me to my feet.
I’m too stunned to argue, allowing myself to be escorted out onto the dance floor and spun in a tight circle until he pulls me close.
I’m blaming nostalgia for the fact that I keep dancing as Tim McGraw’s “Something Like That” kicks up over the speakers.
“I wasn’t aware we had a song.” I manage to get a word in as he swings me around. The steps start to come back to me slowly, but Bishop was always a good dancer, and he takes the lead as he spins me around the floor.
“We won a dance competition that one summer to this song. What were we? Seventeen or so? I’m pretty sure that makes it our song.” Bishop smirks while I do my best to remember the steps. It’s been a long time since I’ve danced like this, and I was hoping to ease my way back in on a slow song.
“You won it. I was just a prop. And don’t you dare try that lift you did,” I warn him as he dips me.
The lift had me in the air with my legs split before he swung me around his neck and let me drop and flip to the floor.
Which, in retrospect, makes me wonder how my brothers didn’t figure out we were secretly hooking up.
“We won it. I wasn’t getting that far without you.
And I’ll spare you the lift for now. Let you get warmed back up first.” He grins at me.
The next turn around the floor takes us close to the edge, and I see Carson sitting on the stool next to my abandoned one, watching us as we make our way through the crowd of dancing couples tonight.
He takes a long draw off a tallboy, and I see him sizing up Bishop.
“I think you made an enemy.” I look at Bishop to find him watching me.
“Out of Beckett? He’s hated me for two decades. There’s nothing new there.”