Vicki Thompson - Should've Been A Cowboy & Cowboy Up - Should've Been a Cowboy / Cowboy Up

Sarah was the kind of woman who seemed ageless even though she’d let her hair go white. She wore it in a sleek bob, and her high cheekbones and flawless skin made her look years younger than she was. Her mother had been a runway model, and Sarah took after her.

Alex had heard that Mary Lou had been a blonde bombshell twenty years ago, but now she enjoyed her own excellent cooking and didn’t seem to care about a few extra pounds or the state of her unruly gray hair.

Sarah glanced at Alex as he came into the kitchen. “What do you think?” She waved an impossibly tiny shirt in a red bandanna print. “Since Gabe and Morgan won’t tell me if they’re having a boy or a girl, I’m going with unisex clothes, which is probably better because they can be handed down.”

“Cute.” Alex hoped that was the appropriate response, because he’d never given much thought to baby clothes. Crystal had been fanatic about birth control during their years together, and he’d had no burning desire to be a father, especially after the marriage began to sour. Baby clothes were foreign objects to him. “Mind if I grab a beer?”

“Help yourself.” She held up a one-piece deal that was supposed to look as if the baby wore jeans and a Western shirt, although it was printed on stretch terry. “Is this adorable or what?”

“Sure is!” Alex crossed to the refrigerator and opened it. Maybe once he’d wrapped his hand around a cold beer, he’d be able to find a gentle way to introduce some gloom and doom into this happy little baby scene.

Sarah was understandably excited about the impending arrival of her first grandchild. Alex had been the DJ for Morgan and Gabe’s wedding reception last August, and Morgan had stated clearly then that she didn’t plan to rush into motherhood. Yet within a couple of months she’d turned up preggers and was apparently thrilled about it.

Thoughts of Morgan’s wedding always reminded Alex of Morgan’s younger sister Tyler, who had agreed to spend a memorable few hours in the hayloft with him following the reception. Alex couldn’t smell fresh hay without remembering the feel of Tyler’s soft, willing body and her muted cries of pleasure. They’d taken care not to make too much noise so they wouldn’t draw any unwanted attention.

She’d left the next day, returning to her job as activities director for a luxury cruise line headquartered in L.A. She’d confessed that constant traveling didn’t leave much room for relationships. Just as well, he’d told her. He was still recovering from his divorce.

True enough, but watching Tyler leave hadn’t been easy. That night in the hayloft had been perfect, at least from his viewpoint. He’d tried to talk himself out of that assessment but hadn’t quite succeeded.

He’d resisted the urge to ask Morgan about Tyler in the months that followed. He was pretty sure nobody knew that he and Tyler had spent the night together in the hayloft. The Chance family had been too preoccupied to notice, and Alex somehow doubted Tyler had confided in Morgan.

If she had, he would have seen it in Morgan’s eyes or felt it in her treatment of him. So maybe the night had meant nothing more to Tyler than a champagne-flavored roll in the hay. Somehow he doubted it, though.

He’d sensed that she’d been as deeply affected as he’d been. Then again, she’d been his first since the divorce, so maybe his perception hadn’t been accurate. In the following months he’d dated a couple of women from the Jackson Hole area, but they hadn’t inspired the gut-level response he’d had to Tyler.

As Mary Lou and Sarah continued to coo over the baby clothes, Alex reached for the longneck. He’d curled his fingers around it when Morgan called out a greeting from the kitchen doorway. He hoped the baby clothes weren’t supposed to be a surprise.

“Look who’s here!” Morgan sounded breathless. “My world-traveling sister just flew over from L.A. to surprise me!”

Alex straightened up so fast he banged his head on the door of the refrigerator. Praying nobody had noticed, he held his bottle of beer in a death grip and slowly closed the refrigerator door. His heart hammered as he turned to face the woman who’d played a prominent role in his dreams for nearly ten months.

His memory hadn’t done her justice. She was even sexier than he’d remembered, with her ebony hair curling around her face and down the back of her turquoise dress. Dark eyes that reflected her mother’s Italian heritage met his. She seemed as shocked to see him as he was to see her.

Although she looked nothing like Crystal, who was blonde with Scandinavian ancestry, Alex couldn’t help noticing surface similarities to his ex-wife. Obviously Tyler spent time and money on her hair, nails and clothes.

She wore a dress that revealed a little cleavage and high-heeled sandals that showed off her pedicure. And she smelled amazing, like a bouquet of peach-colored roses. Although he’d fully embraced the country life, he’d been a Chicago boy first, and all that careful grooming still had the power to turn him on.

But it was more than that. One glance into those eyes and he knew that what they’d shared in the hayloft had been more than just sex. Whether they were prepared to deal with it or not, they were emotionally involved. Still.

“Hey, Tyler.” He managed what he hoped was a nonchalant smile. “How’re you doing?”

Tyler had been doing just fine until she’d walked into the Last Chance’s kitchen and found Alex leaning into the refrigerator, his tempting buns encased in well-worn jeans. She hadn’t expected him to be at the ranch, and she certainly hadn’t expected him to have transformed himself into a cowboy. Judging from his denim shirt, snug jeans and scuffed boots, that’s exactly what he’d done.

Ten months ago he’d been a hottie who’d tempted her into one night of wild sex. She’d tried to convince herself it had been about superficial pleasure, but there was nothing superficial about the feelings flooding through her now. She’d had casual affairs. This didn’t qualify.

And God, did he look good. Apparently Wyoming agreed with him. The cute city boy had been replaced with a ruggedly handsome man. The dark blond hair he’d worn short and preppy now touched his collar. His face was leaner, his gray eyes more piercing, his body more ripped than she remembered. In ten months he’d gone from hottie to hero.

And what they’d shared had definitely been more than just sex. This man had made wonderful love to her, and she wanted him to do it again. Her skin warmed and her heartbeat quickened at the memory of his caress, his kiss, his gentle words. The time they’d been apart shrank until she felt as if she’d lain naked with him only hours ago.

On that cool August morning she’d forced herself to leave without a backward glance, although she’d mentally glanced back more than she cared to admit. Now she had even more reason to avoid a relationship, but she wondered how on God’s green earth she’d be able to resist him.

“Tyler, you remember Alex.” Morgan seemed to think her sister’s silence meant she needed prompting. “He was the DJ at our wedding reception.”

“Right.” Tyler smiled at him. “I thought you looked familiar.”

He cleared his throat. “There was a lot going on that night.”

Especially in the hayloft. “It was a memorable evening.” Tyler forced her gaze away from his before someone figured out just how well she remembered the guy who’d played the music, the guy who had a really talented mouth, clever hands and a way of stealing a girl’s heart when she wasn’t looking.

“I adored my wedding.” Morgan seemed oblivious to the undercurrents swirling between Tyler and Alex.

“The ceremony on horseback was certainly unique.” Tyler focused all her attention on her hormonal and understandably self-centered sister, who looked as if she’d stuffed a basketball down the front of her green paisley dress. Morgan had a month to go before she delivered, which meant this would be a large baby, because she looked ready to give birth at any moment.