Chapter 41
CHAPTER 41
OLIVIA
A s Charlie’s taillights disappeared, my heart thrummed in my chest, beating so fast. A smile formed on my lips that I couldn’t wipe away. This boy—no, this man —had me feeling all the feels.
All of them. All over again.
I even released a choked little squeal into my throat and I’d never made a noise like that before. That was how excited I was about him.
Tonight had been hands-down the best freaking night of my life. Best date ever.
I hadn’t come here looking for a new relationship. In fact, I’d been pretty against the idea of pursuing romance again for a long, long time, but that was just it. With Charlie, I hadn’t pursued it. I hadn’t wanted it.
I finally understood what people meant when they said it just happened . Previously, I’d thought it was complete bull crap, but as soon as I’d met him, things had just started happening with us. It’d been unavoidable. Inevitable.
Where it was going to end, I didn’t know. That connection of ours only kept growing, but I didn’t want to allow myself to get invested in the possibility of a future. For now, I was intent on just enjoying what we had.
I spun to head back inside so I could go daydream some more about him before I went to bed, but a shout from right down the block startled the heck out of me. “Excuse me?!”
I nearly leaped out of my skin. I twisted to face the direction it had come from. It took a minute to find the source of the noise, but then I saw Lacey and London had their heads peeked out of Lacey’s kitchen window.
My sister didn’t seem to give a darn that we were in a residential neighborhood or that there were neighbors who could probably hear her. “Get over here and tell us everything, you goon!”
Bringing my finger to my lips to show her to keep it down, I smiled and ran inside to grab my slippers. Then I headed over to do what they’d asked. Cool night air brushed against my skin as I walked down the quiet street, the darkness only punctuated by pools of orange from the streetlights above.
Mercifully, no lights had been thrown on in the houses around us, no neighbors sticking their heads out to yell or scowl at us for disrupting the peace of the evening. I wrapped my arms around myself as a light breeze swept through the trees, making the leaves rustle in a way that made me feel alive.
Back in New York, that had been a sound I’d rarely heard. I’d spent my days in the office, climbed into my car that had been parked in the garage attached to our building, driven straight home, parked in another garage, and then went up to my apartment. Zero time spent outside most days.
Sometimes though, when I’d felt all those walls pressing in on me, I’d escaped to the park, spending hours just walking around and listening to the exact sound I was hearing now. I’d loved it then, too.
Here in Houston though, I didn’t have to go looking for it. It was just part of life. I should’ve visited more parks back in New York. Should’ve …
I rubbed a hand over the messy bun on my head, squeezing the hair in a fist and exhaling. It didn’t matter what I should’ve done. I was here now, and that was what mattered.
Lacey’s home was only about half a block down from mine, so it took me no more than a minute to get there.
“The date went well, then?” Lacey asked. She and London waited for me on her front porch. Her eyes were twinkling with laughter and excitement as she planted her hands on her hips. “With a kiss like that to end it off with, it definitely couldn’t have been a bad night.”
She fanned her face. They led me to her kitchen and London pushed a glass of wine into my hands. I grinned, feeling a little bit like a Cheshire cat even as I narrowed my eyes at them. “Were you two spying on me from here?”
“No,” London said too quickly. “We were just having a girls’ night and we heard his truck earlier. The plan was to call you over then to find out how it had gone, but that was only until we saw him go inside with you.”
“Nothing happened.” I took a sip of my wine. Something definitely would’ve happened if it was up to me, but sadly, he ran before I could try to change his mind.
Lacey snorted, her eyebrows shooting up. “ Nothing ? He was in there for a long time before we saw your porch light come on.”
I widened my eyes at her. “So you were spying on me. You little rascals.”
My sister sighed, but she didn’t look even a little bit sorry when she finally admitted it. “Okay, so what if we were? We love you and you’re clearly super into him. All we wanted was to be there for you to rave to after.”
“No more spying, but setting that aside for the moment, you guys are the best.” I let out a soft little squeal, not choking the sound in my throat this time. My heart started racing again, my cheeks heating at just the thought of what I’d felt being with him tonight. Eventually, the best way I could think of to describe it was to simply make a bold, sweeping declaration. “The cowboy has me wrapped up in his lasso, ladies. I’m smitten.”
They exchanged a look, cringing at the cowboy reference but laughing. London waved me into a stool at her kitchen island and Lacey sat down next to me. My sister braced her palms on the marble top and peered at me curiously from across it.
“Well, I’m glad you’ve finally realized it.” She smirked at me. “We’ve known for a while now, but I suppose late is better than never. The real question, however, is whether he knows you’re smitten?”
“He doesn’t know.” I took another sip of wine and swallowed before quickly taking another, the mere thought of telling him how I felt making the butterflies in my stomach feel a bit more like red ants. “It’s way too early to start talking like that. I don’t want to freak him out or scare him off, but it was seriously the most amazing date I’ve ever been on.”
Lacey sighed wistfully, nearly going cross-eyed herself even though it hadn’t been her date. “When am I going to meet a cowboy who’s going to take me on the most amazing date I’ve ever been on? Where did he take you? I need to know, so I have an idea of where the bar is. It sounds like Charlie set it damn high.”
“You’ve got Dallas,” I reminded her. “You two seemed to hit it off that night when we were at Honky Tonks.”
She waved me off. “Never mind that. Tell us about the date already. Obviously, it didn’t end the same way your first date did.”
I frowned, feeling the divot forming between my eyebrows. “Tonight was our first date.”
London shook her head. “No way. The rodeo was your first date.”
“That was work ,” I reminded them both. As much as I’d wanted that night to have been a date, it hadn’t really been one. “We had a good time together that night until the incident, but it was still work. We both had to be there. Tonight was different. He asked me out and I accepted. Ergo, this was our first date. This was the first time we did something together when we wanted to spend time with each other.”
My sister canted her head at me. “I’m not sure I agree, but I don’t really care about the semantics. That kiss looked hot as fuck from here. I want to know how you went from hating him last week to sucking his face off like that.”
“If you thought that kiss was hot, you should’ve seen the one at Waterfall Park.” I briefly contemplated admonishing them for spying, especially on such an intimate moment, but ultimately, I was really glad to be able to get to gush right now. “That one nearly made me forget that we were in public. The things I would have done to him if he hadn’t reminded me…”
All three of us giggled, even if my cheeks flushed again as well. Lacey pouted as her giggles subsided. “I’ve been dying to go to Waterfall Park. I was hoping we could all go together.”
“We can,” I told her without hesitating at all. “It’s amazing. I’ll go back there any day, and twice on Sunday.”
They laughed again, and I filled them in on the steakhouse, the singing, the poker, and everything in between. Lacey practically swooned when I told her he’d immediately put on the country song I’d named as my favorite.
“I want a guy like that,” she lamented, plopping her elbows on her knees and resting her chin on the heels of her hands between her open palms. “Do you think there’s a Cowboys-R-Us somewhere that’ll let me order one?”
I arched an eyebrow at her. “Sure, it’s called Anderson Ranch and they’ve got plenty. Like Dallas, who you’ve already gotten cozy with.”
London sniffed before taking a delicate sip of her wine. “Count me out on the cowboy front. Liam has put me off all of them.”
“Liam isn’t really a cowboy though, is he?” Lacey asked. “I mean, sure, he’s from Texas, but being from a state does not a cowboy make. Hey, that almost rhymed.”
We stayed up late, talking, laughing, drinking more wine, and dreaming out loud. Eventually, we all fell asleep at Lacey’s and cooked breakfast together in the morning.
The next few days, I worked my booty off to wrap up everything I needed for the conference, but Charlie was never far from my mind. I couldn’t wait to spend more time with him, showing him around the city and having him at the summit itself, learning more about the firm I poured my heart and soul into.
Despite how excited I was about it, time flew by. We had so much to do that I was exhausted by the time I made it home every night and I fell straight asleep, only to jump in again bright and early the following morning.
Before I even knew it, it was the night before we had to leave. I’d packed and gone over my speech, making sure I was ready to roll for the car to arrive early the next morning. As I was getting ready for bed, I heard my phone buzzing and I picked it up to see a text from Charlie.
Cowboy: Check your front porch.
My heart started fluttering and racing and I raced to the door. When I opened it, I was bummed to see he wasn’t there, but then my gaze snagged on a huge bouquet of flowers with a little card sticking out of them.
I bent over to scoop the flowers into my arms, plucking the card out of the gorgeous pink, orange, and purple arrangement. See you in the morning, Cowgirl. Let’s see what your city is all about. Charlie.
Smiling as wide as I ever had, I brought the flowers inside and immediately got them into a vase. As I carefully handled their fragrant blooms and solid stems, I felt my heart pitter-pattering in my chest.
I couldn’t wait to see him.