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“He said what?” Tami shrieked.
Kelsey winced and pulled her flimsy motel pillow over her head. “Could you try to be a little more quiet with your indignation, Tami? Please?”
Dani sank sadly down onto Tami’s bed, clutching her cup of watery motel coffee. “He said ‘no thank-you.’ It might have been the politest rejection I’ve ever received.”
“But how the hell could he even consider turning down a fine-ass girl like you, D?” Tami continued. “Are you sure you asked right? You didn’t phrase it weird and confuse him?”
“No,” Dani insisted. “I mean, I didn’t put it in, like, super specific science terms—‘Sir, would you like to accompany me back to my empty motel room and have intercourse with me?’—but I’m pretty sure I made myself pretty damn clear. And he seemed to know exactly what he was turning down.”
With a groan, Kelsey finally threw the pillow off her head and climbed out of bed. “Fine. If you guys refuse to let this go, I’ma need some coffee.”
“Careful, it’s pretty terrible,” Dani warned her. She’d made the pot herself when she’d come barging into her friends’ room and was perfectly aware of how watery and weak the coffee was. The packets of powdered creamer didn’t help matters, either.
“But I don’t understand how he could turn you down, Dani,” Tami pressed on. “He was obviously into you.”
“He was,” Kelsey agreed, adding a packet of Splenda to her steaming cup of coffee. “I mean, I got pretty drunk, but even my tipsy ass could tell that he was smitten with you, girl.”
“I felt the same thing!” Dani agreed, finally allowing herself to believe that the attraction that she’d felt last night was mutual. “I mean, he held my hand when he walked me to my door!”
Kelsey spit out her mouthful of coffee. “Oh my god!”
Dani and Tami glanced at one another, confused.
“Um, I didn’t know hand-holding was that scandalous, Kels,” Dani said. Sure, it had been surprisingly chivalrous of Weston to hold her hand and escort her to her door, but it certainly didn’t warrant a spit take.
“I’m not talking about that,” Kelsey said, still spitting coffee back into her cup. “I spit because this, this so-called ‘coffee’ is horrible. I mean, is this even actual coffee?”
“I told you,” Dani said, rolling her eyes.
“I should have believed you,” Kelsey moaned, flopping back onto her bed. “Now I have no coffee and I still have to listen to you two yap about Dani’s love-life. Everything is terrible.”
That’s how Dani found herself wandering down Main Street in search of coffee at nine o’clock on a Saturday morning.
She’d just come out of Native Grounds, a local coffee shop, carrying a to-go tray full of large coffees—one for each friend, assuming that Alexis was planning on coming back to the motel anytime soon—when she practically ran right into the broad chest of Weston Stroh.
“Oh shit,” Dani muttered, clutching at her tray and desperately trying to keep the coffees from spilling over. She was in need of caffeine and if she didn’t get some in her system soon, she was going to break down crying.
With one swoop, Weston snatched the tray out of her hands and offered her his other arm for balance.
“Well,” Dani said, holding on tightly to Weston’s firm bicep until her balance steadied. “You’re nothing if not chivalrous.”
Weston looked down at her, puzzled. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand.”
Dani shook her head. “Ignore me, I’m just cranky and under-caffeinated,” she explained. “Just give me a few sips of coffee and I’ll be good as new.”
She reached for the tray, but Weston merely handed her the large steaming cup with her name printed on the side. “Mind if I help you get these back to your motel? The Dusty Spur ain’t too far from here.”
Dani sighed. “That’s sweet of you, Weston, but I’m fine carrying my own coffee and—”
“I’m sorry about last night,” Weston said abruptly.
“Excuse me?” Dani knew exactly what he was talking about, but couldn’t believe he was bringing it up. Most guys she knew avoided awkward conversations like the plague.
“Last night,” Weston repeated. “I was a bit short at the end there and, um, I don’t think I managed to express myself correctly.”
“Weston,” Dani said, “It’s okay. I invited you in and you declined. It’s fine, it’s totally your prerogative. You’re not into me, that’s—”
“I am, though,” Weston said.
“What?”
“‘Into you’, Danica,” he repeated. “I am very much ‘into you.’”
“Oh,” Dani paused. This is not at all what she was expecting. “In that case, um, you are more than welcome to escort me—and my coffees—back to the Dusty Spur.”
As they strolled down the street, Weston explained.
“I don’t actually get out much, Dani,” he said. “And when I do step out with a lady, I like to give it a coupla dates before we, uh, are intimate—”
“Oh my god,” Dani was mortified. “You must think I’m such a slut—”
“No!” Weston turned to her, aghast. “Absolutely not. I’m a little old-fashioned and—”
“—and I’m from Chicago,” Dani finished. “Things move a little faster in the city, I guess.”
“I guess,” Weston nodded. “Plus it’s Cowboy Days and I’ve got a busy weekend at the rodeo so, I figured—”
“You should probably save your strength?” Dani grinned up at him, that bright white grin that was her trademark.
“You think you’d tire me out, city girl?” Weston shot back, smirking slyly.
He reached his free hand toward Dani and she took it, grateful for the warm steadiness of her hand in his once again. They strolled amiably down the street toward the Dusty Spur, occasionally stopped by strangers congratulating Weston and wishing him well at the rest of the rodeo events.
“I’ve been meaning to ask,” Weston said, watching his latest batch of fans move away down the street, waving goodbye to him. “What brings a city girl from Chicago out to the wilds of Sagebrush, Wyoming? It can’t have been for Cowboy Days, right?”
“Actually,” Dani began, filling him in on the history of Sister’s Weekend and the motivation behind Alexis’ choice of vacation spot.
“Your friend’s a buckle bunny, huh?” he laughed.
Dani’s eyebrows shot up. “Buckle bunny?” she teased.
“Sorry for the name calling,” Weston joked back. “But I gotta call ‘em like I see ‘em, and your friend is definitely, one-hundred percent a buckle bunny.”
“She is not,” Dani insisted, then paused. “What exactly is a buckle bunny?”
“It’s a none-too-flattering term for ladies who chase rodeo riders,” he explained. “We get buckles as trophies, right? So, the bigger the buckle, the more the ladies want the fella. Make sense?”
It made perfect sense to Dani. They had the same thing back in Chicago, except it was girls chasing championship basketball trophies or Superbowl rings. “I guess it doesn’t matter the sport, huh? Women will still chase after whoever the biggest star is, won’t they.”
“Don’t get a lot of rodeo riders in Chicago?”
“Don’t get a lot of horses in Chicago, in general,” Dani informed him.
“Yeah,” Weston said thoughtfully. “You have been riding, though, haven’t you?”
Dani paused. “I wouldn’t say I’ve been horseback riding.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean,” she continued. “That I’ve gotten up on a horse, then it promptly threw me off.”
Weston was all sympathy, but Dani waved him off.
“It was not a big deal,” she said. “I mean, it was at Girl Scout camp when I was a kid, and it wasn’t like I was injured or anything. Just scared me bad enough to keep me away from horses ever since.”
They’d reached the Dusty Spur Inn, but Weston hesitated for a moment at Dani’s door.
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to invite you in again,” Dani told him, trying to smooth over any awkwardness between them with a feeble attempt at humor.
“That’s not it,” Weston explained, his brow furrowed. “It’s just... I was wondering if, um, you might want to go riding with me?”
Dani didn’t know what she expected, but it certainly wasn’t that. “Oh,” she replied. “Sure. I mean, you’d have to teach me everything, but...yeah. Yeah, I’d totally go horseback riding with you sometime.”
Weston grinned. “How about now?”
Dani dashed inside the motel room, practically threw Tami and Kelsey’s coffees at them, and materialized next to Weston only moments later, holding her own to-go cup and handing the other to him.
“Let’s go!” she announced brightly, her fear of horses momentarily eclipsed by her desire to be alone with Weston.
Weston squinted at his coffee cup. “This says ‘Alexis.’”
“Yeah, well,” Dani shrugged. “She’s not here, so...congratulations. It’s yours now.”
“Thanks?” Weston said, tentatively sipping the steaming to-go cup.
Dani beamed up at him. “So? Let’s go, cowboy.”