Home on the Ranch by Milburn Trish

Author:Milburn, Trish [Milburn, Trish]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2015-03-09T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

When they stepped outside, instead of heading toward their vehicles, Austin led Ella down the sidewalk in the opposite direction.

“What’s your favorite flavor of dessert?” he asked.

She pointed behind them. “You realize we just left the restaurant, right? And the bakery is in the opposite direction.”

He just looked over at her, expectation and quite possibly a bit of mischief in his eyes.

“Strawberry. Why?”

“Just so happens there is a pie and cake auction at the music hall tonight.”

“To benefit the high school rodeo team. I’ve seen the posters.”

“I figured maybe dessert and music might make up for talking business all through dinner.”

“I told you I didn’t mind. My head’s already buzzing with ideas based on what you said.”

He didn’t look convinced he hadn’t been the biggest dud of a date ever, and she had the wicked notion of showing him later just how much he wasn’t a dud. Her cheeks flushed, but thankfully she could blame that on the heat as they crossed the parking lot to the music hall.

As they walked in, the Teagues of Texas—brothers Simon, Nathan and Ryan Teague—were just launching into a Willie Nelson tune on stage, always popular with the local crowd.

Austin still held her hand as he maneuvered them from the corner entrance through the crowd toward the front wall. Some of the tables had been pushed against the length of the wall and were laden with cakes and pies of every imaginable kind.

“I think I felt three cavities form just looking at this,” she said.

Austin laughed. “Come on, let’s see which ones are strawberry.”

“We don’t need an entire cake or pie.”

“Sure we do.”

As they examined the offerings, Ella soaked up the feel of his hand wrapped around her smaller one. She couldn’t remember the last time a guy had held her hand. To her, it felt more important than kissing. She had to remind herself not to read too much into it. They were just going to have a few days of fun, then they’d go back to their respective lives and likely other people.

“This looks good.” Austin pointed to a five-layer cake covered in cream cheese frosting and an abundance of strawberries. “Says it has strawberries between every layer, too.” He indicated the written description on the tented card beside it.

Her mouth watered, but then she spotted something else a little farther down the line. She urged Austin in that direction. She read the card as she tried not to melt from Austin’s nearness behind her.

“Just as I thought,” she said. “Keri made these. They are to die for. She puts some sort of secret ingredient in them that makes them—” She almost said “orgasmic,” but even thinking that was dangerous right now, like it might become a self-fulfilling prophecy. “Delicious.”

“Hey, you two.” The voice that sent single people who wanted to stay single fleeing.

Ella turned, casually taking a step away from Austin. She did not want to give the other woman the wrong idea. She and Austin were temporary at best.

“Hey, Verona.

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