Big Chance Cowboy by Teri Anne Stanley

Author:Teri Anne Stanley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2019-07-07T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

“Elizabeth? Are you almost ready?” Mom knocked and called through the bedroom door. “Can I come in?”

“Yep. I’m fine,” she said, letting her mother in. “I was getting dressed.”

Her mother raised her penciled-on brows and asked, “Is that what you’re wearing?”

“Yes?” She looked at herself in the full-length mirror on the back of her bedroom door. Even though she could barely breathe, she kind of liked the way the bright-red dress made her waist look tiny, in a retro pinup girl sort of way. Her boobs looked pretty good, too. Of course, her primary objective for the evening was to pin down Joe Chance and get him to help her with the Mill Creek Park project, not to impress anyone with her womanly self. She turned and looked at her reflection from another angle. Although, maybe…

Mom didn’t speak, which had Lizzie rethinking her resolution to appreciate her own curves. Adam liked her body, right? If His Extreme Hotness thought she was sexy, who was she to disagree?

But then Mom walked to the jewelry box on Lizzie’s dresser, started digging, and said, “You know, I do like that dress. It’s patriotic.”

“Good. Thanks.” Lizzie nodded, deciding she’d be brave and wear it to the dance, which was the culmination of the Independence Day celebration, though she’d have preferred to cap off the long day with a glass of wine and an hour sitting on the swing in the dark of her parents’ yard. She’d been up since six this morning, helping with a parade, a picnic, old-time games like a three-legged race and a watermelon seed-spitting contest, and then helped the local social services group make balloon animals for the little ones. Thank goodness she’d been able to refill her water bottle about seventy times, because she’d definitely needed it.

But she’d been playing phone tag with Joe Chance. She needed to get the town council behind her before any of the local businesses would pledge funding. She also had to find out who the property belonged to and convince them to sell it.

“Is Dad coming?” she asked her mother.

“Here. These’ll work,” Mom said, holding up a string of big, fake pearls and the dangly earrings that went with it. Then she said, “No, your dad’s a little tired, so he’s going to stay home tonight.”

A fist of fear clutched Lizzie’s gut, and she said, “Is he okay? Should we call the doctor?”

“No,” Mom said. “I think he had too much pie at the picnic. And he’s too old to play cornhole in the sun like that.”

“Mom, you guys aren’t even sixty.”

Mom smiled. “Thank you. But still, it was hot today, and I think he just got a little dehydrated. He’s going to stay home and drink ice water and watch baseball. He’ll be fine.”

Ah. The Astros were playing tonight. And a little minor heat stress gave Dad a good excuse to skip the dance and watch baseball.

However, the reminder that her dad wasn’t getting any younger gave Lizzie renewed motivation to make this park happen.

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