Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 59422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
I glanced over at Riley’s seat to apologize again.
Fuck! She left.
Dammit. Did she leave without saying goodbye?
“Excuse me, fellas.” I heard the sound of her sweet voice although I couldn’t spot her through all the people. A cocktail tray floated through the throng, piled high with dirty glasses.
Riley pushed behind the bar and flashed me a smile before she started loading glasses onto the dishwashing tray.
Well, damn. That took a mountain of both consideration and confidence. What a sweetheart.
“Hey, Cody! Cody!”
I stopped what I was doing, ignoring all the patrons calling out my name and waving dollar bills my way to walk up behind her. Fitting my arm around her waist from behind, I buried my face in her neck to inhale her scent. “It is damn sweet of you to pitch in, sugar.” I kissed her skin. “I’ll be sure to show you my thanks later.”
She twisted, flashing me that dimpled smile. “If you think I’m going to sit on my butt while you’re scrambling back here, you’re nuts. We’re a couple, right?”
My heart stopped. Reversed. Sped back up. “Say it again.”
Her smile grew. Holding her between my arms, I lifted the now-heavy tray into the dishwasher and started it.
“We’re a couple.” She turned in my arms.
Wow. Was it true? Had I won her heart? Her allegiance? Was she really ready for me to forever mark her as mine?
Nah, I was probably getting ahead of myself.
“Cody!”
Riley went up on her tiptoes and planted a kiss on my lips. “You’d better get to it. I’ll round up some more glasses for you. And you’re definitely showing your thanks later.”
She winked.
I pulled her against my body, filling one hand with her ass as the other cradled the back of her head. “God, I love you.”
Riley went still. “What?”
“Cody! Stop robbing the cradle and make us some drinks!”
For a second, I sort of froze, too. Did I go too fast? Assume too much? But fuck it–I didn’t have time to waste. My female needed to know how I felt about her.
Riley searched my face.
“I love you, Riley Abbott. It’s not just that my wolf wants you. It’s because nature doesn’t make mistakes. You’re the perfect female for me.”
“McIntire! Quit screwing the staff, you damn man whore!”
I checked Riley’s face to see if any of their taunts bothered her, but her expression was soft, her big doe eyes wide.
“I love you, too, Cody McIntire.”
I grinned at her like the damn fool I was.
She gave me another quick peck on the lips. “Now get back to the drinks. I’ll be here all night.”
25
RILEY
I loved watching Cody work. Well, other than seeing all the women flirting with him. He flirted back, but I knew it was just his way–a role he played to make people feel welcome in his saloon.
I couldn’t fault the women because he was just that manly and gorgeous, but I wanted to claw all their eyes out with the newfound feelings of possessiveness.
Tonight it didn’t bother me so much. Especially not after he said he loved me. I worked for an hour, bussing tables and washing glasses until the crowd thinned. The big group of out-of-towners left and things got back to a normal Cooper Valley cadence.
The band scheduled to play came in and started setting up during the lull between the happy hour and late night dance crowd, but country music still blasted from the speakers in the meantime.
I slumped onto my stool at the bar where Cody poured me a club soda with lime, making it look like a cocktail with the thin cocktail straw and everything, but was very alcohol free in case someone from the sheriff’s department came back to card some more. Meaning Dad, but I figured he’d move onto some other petty idea if he was still being a cranky ass.
It was during this lull that Boyd Wolf and his wife came in. I didn’t know them personally, but Boyd had been a famous rodeo star before he quit the circuit and fairly infamous for Cooper Valley. He’d quit and settled down with Dr. Ames, the local OB-GYN. That was all I knew about them. Was. Past tense. This week, however, I now knew Boyd Wolf’s secret.
I studied him, looking for any evidence of his being a wolf. There was his physique. They all had that in common—Cody, Tyler, Boyd, and his brother, Rob Wolf. Big, good-looking guys with perfect, cut muscles. Growing up in this town, I just assumed half the men in the county looked so buff because they were cowboys. Their bodies had been shaped and hewn through hard work and manual labor. Now, I knew it was probably because some of them were also blessed with wolf genes.
Cody waved at him and held up a finger, as he was talking with a customer at the end of the bar.