Colt
It was just another Friday night.
That was what I told myself when I walked into the bar and found Sally and Landry there along with Sutton and Arabella. Which wasn’t unusual. Dinner with my brothers and their wives had started as an occasional thing and become a standing one.
What was unusual was the fact that my entire family was there. Even my parents. All sitting around my booth like they were getting ready to watch a play. Everyone seemed to be in the middle of conversations that stopped being quite so animated the moment I walked through the door.
I scanned the room. Old habit. Everybody in their right places. Nothing wrong.
“Evening,” Charlie said from behind the bar, easy as always, and went back to whatever she was doing.
I settled into my booth. Grant brought me a beer without being asked, which Grant never did, and sat back down with an expression that said he was waiting for something.
The evening went normally. Mostly. Charlie brought food and we ate.
I talked to my father about the next cut site we would be opening up next week.
My mother asked about the cabin, which she always asked about, which meant she was asking about Charlie without asking about Charlie because she’d decided that was my business and she was respecting it, mostly.
Arabella was talking to Sally about something that had them both laughing, and twice I caught them looking over at Charlie and then back at each other.
Charlie moved through the room the way she always did.
Efficient. Easy. Completely at home. Every time I looked at her working the room, something inside me settled.
Another piece of darkness gave into the light.
The way she handled the regulars. The sound of her sharp mouth when someone got too clever.
The way she looked back at my booth sometimes when she thought I wasn’t watching — like she was just checking that I was still there. I was always still there.
At some point in the evening, she disappeared into the back.
She came out carrying a cupcake.
One cupcake, on a small plate and placed it down in front of me with the matter-of-fact delivery of someone who brought men cupcakes every day of the week.
I looked at it. “It’s not my birthday.”
“I know.”
“Then what’s this for?”
“Just take a bite,” she said, standing there. I’d already felt something off about the evening and the tiny frown line between her brows only heightened that feeling.
I looked at the cupcake. It was a good-looking cupcake. White cake with an inch of frosting on top. “Don’t you want it?” I asked Charlie.
“No, it’s just for you.”
I shrugged my shoulder, pulled down the wrapped and took a bite.
Everyone gasped when I set it back down on the plate.
“What?”
“It’s blue inside,” Sutton said from across the table.
“Yeah, so?”
“She gave you a blue cupcake.”
“Sutton—”
“A blue one specifically.” He leaned forward. “You can be so dense sometimes, big brother. Someone want to tell him?”
The table had gone quiet. More than the table. The entire bar was still. I looked around. My mother looked like she was going to cry. Landry was holding Sally’s hand and Arabella was snuggled close to Sutton.
Ridge had a frown on his face. Grant was smirking and Dane was quiet.
“Charlie does,” Ridge said.
The room went completely silent. Ridge rarely spoke and not in front of a crowd.
I looked at Charlie.
Something in her expression was doing the thing it sometimes did — that soft version of her steadiness, the thing underneath all the sharpness and wit that she didn’t usually let people see.
“Charlie,” I said.
She sighed. “I knew this wouldn’t work on him.”
“What wouldn’t work on me?” My frown deepened. What the hell was I missing?
“It’s a blue cupcake, Colt. What reason would I have to give you a blue cupcake on a random Friday night?”
I looked around again, feeling completely out of my element. The women had tears in their eyes and the men had big grins on their faces—except for Ridge. But even his features were softer.
Then it dawned on me.
“You’re fucking pregnant.” I jumped out of the booth, almost knocking Sutton out of his chair as I reached for Charlie.
The room erupted. Catcalls, whistles.
It all faded as I looked into Charlie’s eyes.
“A baby?”
“Yeah, your own little lumberjack.”
I bent my head and thought only some men ever got this lucky losing a bet.
WANT MORE FUN ON THE MOUNTAIN?
Lumbersnack size fun… and heat… and totally over the top love stories!
Sexy Lumbersnacks Season 2 is here!
It brings back the McAlister brothers which you “fell” in love with in our story
Falling for the Lumberjack in last year collab Sexy Lumbersnacks Season 1
Plus, Sutton’s story is out in Wanting the Lumberjack
And don’t worry the other brother’s stories are on their way!
TRYING TO FIND THAT COWBOY HEAT AS WELL?
We’re part of the Wild Vista Ranch Collab
Falling for the Cowboy is just waiting for you
My best friend bought me a week at a dude ranch for my birthday.
A dude ranch. In Rosewood, Texas. For my birthday.
I said I wanted a spa day. She said I needed dirt under my brand-new boots, stars over my head and to stop wasting my heart on men who didn't know what to do with a real woman.
She wasn't wrong.
Here's the thing — I'm a curvy girl, which means I have never in my life considered getting on a horse. I'm allergic to smoke, so campfires are out. And really, who does bugs? I am a concrete-and-coffee kind of girl and the closest I've come to nature is a rooftop bar with a view of the park.
And then I met him.
He's tall, stupidly handsome, and he's got a smirk that should require a permit in at least forty states.
I didn't come to Wild Vista Ranch to fall for anyone.
And certainly not for a cowboy.