“I found him!” Emma came charging around the corner of the barn with a scared-looking Mattie in tow. “Now let’s get this wedding underway.”
Sawyer remembered every second of the ceremony from the moment Maisy walked toward him in the beautiful white gown that showed off her perfect petite body to the moment the pastor pronounced them man and wife and Maisy threw her arms around Sawyer’s neck and kissed him like she never wanted to stop.
The reception was just as memorable. As Sawyer whirled his bride around the dance floor, he was glad Dixie had talked them into a wedding to remember. As if reading his mind, Maisy smiled up at him.
“It was beautiful, wasn’t it?”
“As beautiful as you.”
She smoothed a strand of hair off his forehead. “You’re pretty beautiful yourself. From the moment I first laid eyes on you, I was dumbstruck. Of course, it might’ve had to do with the way you sit a saddle.”
“You like the way I sit a saddle, do you?”
“Uh-huh.” Her fingers ran along the open collar of his shirt. “I’ve had more than a few fantasies about that.”
“Really? Exactly what were those fantasies, Mrs. Dawson?”
She leaned in closer and her breath fell against his ear as she sang in her off-key voice. “Save a horse, ride a cowgirl.”
The townsfolk of Simple didn’t have a clue what the bride had said to make the groom release a loud “Yee-haw!”
But like any good Texans, they didn’t need a reason to join in. A chorus of “yeehaws” followed as two old cowboys looked on with smiles on their weathered faces and tears in their aged eyes.
“Our boys did it,” Lucas said. “They found their happiness.”
“They sure did,” Chester said. “And right here where we can watch their families grow until the day the Lord calls us home.” He spit a stream of tobacco to the ground. “Of course, that will be sooner for you than me, you old coot.”
“Like hell, you old fart.”
They looked at each other and grinned before they lifted their faces to the big star-filled Texas sky.
“Yee-haw!”
THE END
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Turn the page for a Sneak Peek of Katie Lane’s next Texas Bad Boy . . .
Special Sneak Peek
Finally Emma and Boone get their story!
Taming a Texas Tease
is out March 2021!
“Take me to the moon, Boone,” Emma yelled into the dark night.
Boone laughed and pushed her higher. “Only if I can come too, Emma Lou.”
She giggled at his familiar response—one he had given her since they’d been in kindergarten—and leaned back in the swing as sheer happiness consumed her. She didn’t want to be anywhere else on earth but right here in the middle of Simple Park . . . with Boone. He pushed her higher and higher until she felt like she could reach out and touch the moon.
“What will you do when you get there?” he asked as she swung back, so close she could feel his breath on her neck.
She didn’t even have to think before she answered. “I’ll open the first moon bookstore so no space traveler will ever have to go without a good book. What will you do first?”
“I’ll take a big bite out of the moon to see if it tastes like cheese pizza.”
She laughed. “You’re always thinking about food, Boone Murphy.”
There was a long a pause before he spoke. “Not always.”
She was about to ask him what else he thought about when the park sprinklers came on. The wind caught the high spray and swept it over to the playground. She released a shriek as the cold mist hit her bare legs.
Boone laughed. “Afraid of a little water, Em?”
“It’s cold.”
“And it’s hot.” He stopped swinging her. “Too hot.”
She glanced over her shoulder and saw him kicking off his flip-flops. “What are you doing?” She slowed the swing down with her feet. In the darkness, she saw his flash of teeth. Boone had the most contagious smile.
“I’m cooling off.” He pulled off his shirt, and her breath got stuck like a big wad of bubble gum in her chest. Since turning fifteen, Boone’s body seemed to be sprouting muscles daily. The more muscles he got, the more breathless she seemed to get whenever he took off his shirt.
Now, he didn’t just take off his shirt. He slipped off his shorts too. She hadn’t seen Boone in his underwear since they’d been in preschool. The saggy Spiderman underwear he’d worn then didn’t have the same affect on her as the navy blue boxer briefs did now.
Emma looked away and brought the swing to a complete stop. “Don’t you dare strip naked, Boone Murphy.”
“Why not? We used to run through the sprinklers nek-ked all the time.”
“When we were kids. We are not running through the sprinklers—nek-ked or otherwise—now.”
“You might not be, but I am.” Boone jogged toward the grassy area being watered by the rotating sprinklers. Luckily, he’d left his underwear on. Although the sight of his butt still made her feel a little woozy. He disappeared in the spray of water and hooted like he had when they’d run through the sprinklers in their front yards as kids. A few seconds later, he reappeared, looking like a happy drenched puppy. A muscular and hot drenched puppy.
“Come on, Em.” His grin was teasing and devilish. “I dare you.”
Dares from Boone had always been Emma’s kryptonite.
Since she wore a sports bra, she didn’t hesitate to strip off her t-shirt. She toed off her sneakers, but left her shorts on as she raced toward the sprinklers and Boone. She shrieked as the first spray hit her and ran faster to avoid the next one. Boone was right behind her, laughing and hooting. They ran all over the park until Emma got too close to a sprinkler head and got knocked to her fanny by the force of the spray. Boone ran over to help her to her feet. They were both thoroughly drenched and laughing hard . . . until they took note of each other’s bodies in the wet clothing.
Then they stopped laughing.
In the cool mist of the sprinklers on that hot September night, the friendship they had guarded so carefully over the years shifted. Like two magnets flipped to the right sides, they were drawn together and the physical attraction they had been trying to ignore could be ignored no more.
Boone lowered his head and Emma lifted hers. Right before their lips touched, he whispered.
“Em.”
Just one breathy syllable and she knew. She knew that things between them were about to change forever—that two best friends were about to become something more.
Much more.
What she didn’t know then was that more wasn’t always better.
(Taming a Texas Tease Excerpt by Katie Lane)
Also by Katie Lane
Be sure to check out all of Katie Lane’s novels!
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Bad Boy Ranch Series:
Taming a Texas Bad Boy
Taming a Texas Rebel